Zombie Run. Geekiness and athletics are like oil and water.

Oh the Zombie Apocalypse! The meme seems to have spread everywhere in Pop-culture these days. As someone who writes zombie stories I suppose that I should be delighted by the sudden upsurge in my favored genre. And in fact I am. Tickled!

There are movies and tv shows and novels aplenty as everyone seems to jump in with both feet. Enough to feel drowned out in the clamor. Zombies in nerd/geek culture have been huge for decades, many of us look forward to the coming zombie apocalypse, to the point that I named my first novel Rapture, reflecting my view that my people look forward to the undead uprising with the same rabid fervor that Evangelical Christians reserve for their expected return of Buddy Christ.

Have you ever discussed what you would do in the advent of the Zombie Apocalypse? This seems to be a rather popular pastime. In fact, such a conversation was the catalyst for starting my stories. Such discussions seem to be growing popular, often starting with the simple question of :what are you planning to do for the zombie apocalypse? (I have a second blog that deals with the apocalypse and necessary skills that will be needed to survive)

My answer? Simple! As I question the quality and quantity of my luck, I plan to eat as many brains as possible until one of the crummy survivors finally puts me down. I don't put my chances at surviving to be very high – in fact I expect to be among the first to come down with the plague. Yeah, I am taking a slightly pessimistic view of my chances at surviving this a highly unlikely catastrophic event.

And now the infection is spreading exponentially, one infected survivor at a time.

Folks have been competing for world records on Zombie walks - a special event where people dress as zombies and parade through the streets of a given city. The city where I currently reside had one in the last few years and I believe that they even took the title.

In the last two years Walking Dead has become a hit television show. Though I've never seen it.

Then there is this Cracked article about why you 'secretly' hope for the Zombie Apocalypse. I am of course calling Bull Shit! I make no secret about any of those reasons. In fact they all seem rather bang on and obvious to me.

The united states military has gone so far as to run practice drills around a zombie outbreak. Really they were focusing on a response against a biological weapons based attack but just mentioning zombies these days really gets people's attention.

The whole world has gotten into the spirit of the mass-extinction of humanity! Now the mainstream society, starting with the athletic type folks are getting down with the sickness. Our society now combined zombies with exercise in the zombie run!  Which makes a bit of sense, as the first rule is always Cardio.

A zombie run? What is this? I imagine you ask, in a hilarious squeaky voice. Two of our friends were entered in the race. Which is why we went. Now I'm passing what I've learned onto you.

Well, here in the Big Grapple they set up a 5k(3 mile) loop in the downtown area. The runners wore white ribbons tucked into their shorts. The zombies were out on the course, waiting, which is what zombies do. The fucking undead don't have any ambition. And when the survivors approached they were mobbed by the zombies, who would go for the ribbons.

Also, there were the runners. So many pretty girls, and like the previously mentioned zombie walk, many of the contestants were dressed up. In the few minutes I was there, I saw at least 2 Batmen, and one Captain America - along with a giant pile of dirty dirty hippies. Shit, it was like a Comic con for Athletes! Mind you, this is a weekend on which Halloween is often celebrated for party purposes. So that could have influenced the showing.

I'm told that there were props and set-pieces to make the experience seem more realistic.

I don't know. I didn't run. My shins are borked(have I mentioned that here or was that my other blog?) and I'm not in near good enough condition to run so much as a mile, much less the full 3. Besides that, it was cold and windy. So we booked it for a coffee shop down-town. I rather wish that the weather had been nicer.

When we returned we found that neither of our friends had survived the gauntlet, but they had managed to complete the course. So huzzah for them.

As for myself I think that I shall stick with my previous plan, flawed though it may be, and try to make a bazillion bucks off my zombie novels and then in turn invest in land and an impressively fortified(and provisioned) homestead.

Fuck you Brain.

Aliens is my all time favorite movie. Still. Even after twenty years further cinematic adventures that lead to encounters with hundreds(maybe thousands) more films. My best friends and I used to 'play' Aliens. My weapon of choice was the nine-barrel mini-gun from Predator. I was specific about the number of barrels that the weapon had as I imagined myself fighting off the swarms of warrior bugs.

I still have nightmares about the Aliens movies.

You haven't seen Aliens? Watch it. First watch Alien and then the sequel. You might even enjoy Alien 3. Skip Resurrection and the Aliens Vrs Predator drek that Hollywood shat out. Do try the AvP computer games, especially AvP 2 for Mac and PC. Alien is one of the Top Horror movies. Aliens one of the finest Action Horror movies. Each was made by a master director with a talented cast of actors portraying believable characters.

In short, they are fine cinema.

Further - The stories are set in a universe not unlike our own. There is no Utopian society. Mega-corporations are extremely powerful and influential in both political and every day life. People are greedy and selfish, they are noble and brave, or cowardly. Just like they are now. It is implied that there is no global government, the world is broken up into alliances and nation states. These work with the Mega-corporations as humanity spreads out into the stars. Actually, no government, beyond the corporate government, is ever seen. The characters work with the corporation. Even the Marines seem to be an arm of the Company.

Space travel is slow. Humanity generally seems to believe that it is largely alone in the galaxy, as no other species are mentioned directly in the movies. At least nothing intelligent.

We do have a Colonial military force and military starships, so there must be some hostile force out there. Their weapons are a primitive high tech. No lasers or phasers, they use slug throwers and explosives and fire as their tools of death. They pack body armor and knives, feed on cornbread substitute, wear video cameras and ride around in armored vehicles of questionable value. The Marines, are bad hombres and masters of foul language.

I so wanted to be a Colonial Marine as a kid.

Now to the Aliens. Imagine an eight foot tall carnivorous insect with a black exoskeleton razor sharp claws and teeth. It can run down humans and tear them in half, climb walls and ceilings. The best part? They have sulfuric acid for blood. Slaying one just might kill you in return. They work as hive force and are utterly fearless, but are at the same time very intelligent and are able to change tactics to suit the needs of the battle. They can see in the dark, so there is no place to hide.

Frightened yet?

One last thing, the most terrifying of all: They use other animals to breed. The Aliens are insects, with one queen that lays eggs and the rest are drones. The life cycle is such: Queen lays egg → Egg hatches into parasites called facehuggers → the facehuggers scuttle about and find a host, attach, implant the egg and then falls off and dies → the egg hatches and the chest burster erupts into the world → the chest burster grows at amazing speed.

The aliens don't care what host they use. Human or animal. How they managed to get into space is unknown, they just have. The Corporation is interested in the species. But I won't give anymore spoilers away. Watch the movies.

So, I've had a reoccurring nightmare over the years. The cast and setting are always different, sure, it's like a rebooted film franchise that uses the same general story – I'm in a place that has been infested by Aliens. Either facehuggers, for the really bad dreams, or drones in the less intense ones. Usually it is at night and often in a strange building. One bad one involved a mansion that was infested with facehuggers. They were crawling everywhere.

This time, I was outside an enormous stone building(1/4 mile wide and long, 10 stories tall) at night. Captain Janeway from Voyager and I think my friend Ryan – both in full Colonial Marine gear. What did I have? An empty rifle. I swear, all of the firearms I laid my hands on (about 20 of them) were empty. Didn't have any full magazines, but I had a knife. Thank you brain for that, you gave me a knife to fight against aliens that bleed acid.

And that's the gist of it. There was a lot of running through dark corridors in the basement – which was a lot like a factory with metal grated floors, large machinery and tons of fog/mist/steam.

What does this say about me? I'm optimistic and pessimistic in the same breath. In the dreams I refuse to give up and keep running and fighting where I have to, even when it is hopeless. And I know that it is hopeless. But I push forward regardless of my chances. Because it beats stopping.