off we receive. One is cremation and the other is burial in a coffin. But have you ever wondered why coffins have locks on them? Is it, perhaps, due to age-old superstitions and fears that the dead might actually awaken and try to rise from the grave? After all, locking a corpse inside a coffin that is six feet or so underground makes no sense at all. Or, does it? It just might, if there is a fear that the very same corpse may try and force its way to the surface.
Traditions of showing respect to the dead, by doing something beyond simply dumping their bodies for wild animals to feed upon, date back thousands of years. In ancient Egypt, for example, the elite, the rich, and the powerful were carefully wrapped in cloth and placed in a sarcophagus. In Europe, even when civilization was in its infancy, there was an understanding that death was something to honor. Lacking the skills of the Egyptians, the tribes of Europe—and particularly so the Celts—wrapped the average dead person in a sheet of cloth and buried them in the ground. Revered warriors, warlords and kings were placed in coffin-like creations comprised of carefully positioned rocks and stones. In the United States, the coffin industry very much—and very understandably—came to the fore at the height of the American Civil War of 1861 to 1865, in which no less than 600,000 people lost their lives during the carnage of battle.
Have you ever wondered why coffins are firmly sealed? There is, after all, a logical explanation that does not have to do with a fear of zombies.
As for the matter of why, exactly, today’s coffins are firmly sealed on the outside, while the idea that it is done to prevent the zombified dead from digging their way out is an engaging and thought-provoking one, that is not actually the case. In centuries past, such practices were done to prevent grave robbing—which was rife in the United Kingdom, and particularly so in the 1800s. Take, for example, the so-called London Burkers. They were a team of London-based body-snatchers that stole dozens of fresh corpses from graves throughout the nation’s capital during the nineteenth century.
A further, and equally understandable reason for keeping the lid on a coffin is to ensure that if, in a worst-case scenario, the coffin is dropped on its way to burial, the corpse does not tumble out in front of shocked, grieving mourners. And, finally, contrary to popular belief, the coffin is not actually locked. It is simply sealed with what is termed a gasket. Securely fastening the gasket helps prevent water from entering the coffin after it has been placed in the ground. The coffin, therefore, is all about respect for the dead, rather than being based upon age-old fears that the dead might rise from the grave and devour the living. Of course, in the event that a real-life zombie pandemic does one day occur, many will surely sigh with relief that they chose to have their loved ones placed inside a sealed coffin!
Cold War
If, one day, the zombie virus becomes not just an issue of fiction but one of stark, terrifying fact, the possibility cannot be denied that it may fall into the hands of terrorists, ones that may wish to see it used to target specific nations and wipe them out in apocalyptic style. It might sound outrageous, but official files that have surfaced under the terms of the U.S. government’s Freedom of Information Act show that, back in the 1940s, there were significant fears on the part of officialdom that a hostile nation—or a rogue body of terrorists—might infect the American cattle herd with a deadly virus, one which could quickly spread to the human population and utterly decimate it.
Prepared by the Committee on Biological Warfare at the request of the U.S. government’s elite Research and Development Board, the fifty-page file in question dates from March 1947 through the latter part of 1948 and makes for disturbing and grim reading.
In a Top Secret paper from March 28, 1947, it was stated that: “A memorandum from the Secretaries of War and Navy dated February 21, 1947, Subject: International Aspects of Biological Warfare, regarding biological warfare in relation to United Nations negotiations for regulation of armaments was referred by the Board to Committee ‘X’ for consideration and recommendations.”
Seven months later, the Research and Development Board prepared an in-depth report (also classified at Top Secret level) that outlined its worries concerning biowar. The Board stated: “Preparations for biological warfare can be hidden under a variety of guises. The agents of biological warfare are being studied in every country of the world because they are also the agents of diseases of man, domestic animals, and crop plants. The techniques used in developing biological warfare agents are essentially similar to the techniques used in routine bacteriological studies and in the production of vaccines, toxoids, and other beneficial materials.”
In its report, the Board continued: “… the Committee feels that although it may be possible to control atomic research and insure that it be devoted to peaceful purposes, it is impracticable to control research on biological agents because of the close similarity between such research and legitimate investigations of a medical, agricultural, or veterinary nature.”
What of the possibility that biological warfare could have been utilized as a weapon of mass destruction and the cause of extreme devastation, via the spreading of a deadly virus? In March 1947, the Board had its doubts that biological warfare could be considered a tool of destruction on par with atomic weapons; however, seven months later that view had changed radically.
With respect to this matter, in October 1947, the Board recorded that: “On the basis of present knowledge the Committee feels that biological weapons cannot be compared in their effect with such so-called weapons of mass destruction as, for example, the atomic bomb. It is doubtless true that if a self-sustaining epidemic of a fatal disease could be established in a human population, indiscriminate destruction of life on a great scale might result. However, as has been pointed out earlier in this discussion, the Committee knows of no epidemic agent that could presently be used with confidence in its significant epidemic-producing property.
“The spread of epidemics depends upon a number of complex inter-related factors, many of which are poorly understood or perhaps even unknown. Furthermore, it is believed that the chances of discovering an unusually virulent epidemic-producing biological agent is highly improbable and cannot be anticipated at any time in the predictable future.”
So much for the Committee’s beliefs with respect to biological warfare and the human race.
The Colonized
In a world in which all things of a zombie nature are becoming ever more dominating, the biggest challenge facing filmmakers, Hollywood studios, script-writers, and authors is not so much just to come up with ideas, but to create and weave story-lines that are actually fresh, rather than yawn-inspiring. Certainly, one only has to take a mere glimpse at the large amount of both literary and on-screen productions of the undead variety to realize that tedious repetition, overwhelming sterility, and far less than inspiring scripts are, today, the definitive name of the game. We have seen it all, and we have heard it all, time and time again. Fortunately, however, that is not always the case. Take for example, Chris Ryall and Drew Moss’ graphic-novel series The Colonized.
For Ryall and Moss, your average zombie apocalypse-style scenario is simply not nearly good enough—and although that may not be such a positive thing for the characters who are fighting for their very lives, for the readers it
