Zombies by Joseph McCullough Read Free Book Online

threat no longer hid in the shadows, but instead, it waited peacefully in graveyards and morgues. Its potential now hangs in the air all around us, waiting for a chemical spark to bring the dead back to their feet.
    IRRADIATED ZOMBIES
    While various forms of radiation can play a hand in the creation of an atomic zombie, most of these undead are themselves inert. However, because zombies are immune to all but the most powerful forms of radiation, it is possible for them to become irradiated. Irradiated zombies, or “rad zombies” for short, are walking dead that have been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation and now carry that radiation inside their lifeless shell. Depending on the level of irradiation, these zombies can burn or blister flesh with their touch or even with their breath. Even low-level rad zombies are incredibly dangerous, as prolonged exposure in their vicinity can lead to radiation sickness, cancer, and death.
    The first reports of rad zombies came from Russia during the Gulag Uprisings. Sensing crisis, the Soviet military attempted to employ targeted nuclear weapons to stop the threat. Although these weapons effectively fried zombies within a limited “lethal zone,” the fallout irradiated most of the rest. Since the military didn’t realize this at the time, huge numbers of soldiers were exposed and died needless, painful deaths due to radiation poisoning. Since then, most countries have removed nuclear weapons from their anti-zombie arsenal. These days, rad zombies are most commonly found in the vicinity of nuclear power plants or nuclear waste dumps.
    Becoming irradiated appears to have little or no effect on the zombie. It becomes neither stronger nor weaker. Theoretically, any type of zombie is capable of becoming irradiated, though to date there have been no reports of revenant or necromantic rad zombies.
    Due to the ongoing possibility of rad zombies, most government-sponsored zombie-hunter teams now carry Geiger counters as standard equipment.
    Looking back, it is now apparent that atomic zombie outbreaks began as early as 1946. These proved to be small, isolated incidents. Most were written off as the work of rogue necromancers and quickly forgotten. Then, in the 1950s, rumors began to leak through the Iron Curtain of massive uprisings in the eastern gulags of the Soviet Union. The underground press was filled with sensationalist tales of prisoners going wild, tearing their guards apart with their teeth and hands, and even turning to cannibalism. The Soviet Union called it Western propaganda; the Free World hoped it marked the beginnings of a revolution. Only a few knew the truth. In 1958, the Soviet military surrounded and closed off the city of Magadan as part of a special “military maneuver.” Only in the last year or two have a few accounts of the Magadan disaster made it to the Western world.

    Meanwhile in America, a series of small outbreaks in California and Illinois alerted the scientific community to the fact that some new threat had arisen. With only sketchy reports and a few samples, a small group of universities worked together to found a new branch of science, Animate Necrology. While animate necrology would later encompass the study of necromancy and other varieties of the undead, it formed for the initial purpose of studying this new type of zombification. Many theories flew around in those early days. Some said it was a virus; others claimed that chemicals or radiation were eating away at the brains of the living, bringing on the appearance of death. The debate continued among this small community of scientists in America and abroad until 1968.
    In 1968, an American satellite in low orbit hit a small piece of space dust and exploded over rural Pennsylvania. Over the next few days, the local press reported a spate of mass murders. The situation quickly spun out of control and the state government called in the National Guard to stabilize the situation.