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Introduction

STILL ZOMBIE AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

I get a kick out of zombies. I’ve been writing about them for years.

Oh, sure, they like to hurt people. And kill people. And ultimately, eat people.

But hey, we’ve all got to eat. We all consume other life-forms every day, plant or vegetable, whether we like it or not—and whether they like it or not. I have yet to meet the person who can live off of minerals, water, and/or air.

I enjoy writing about zombies because they are truly the baddest of the bad. They don’t follow the rules. Vampires and werewolves obey very strict regulations. Vampires only come out at night and werewolves only do their dirty work during the full moon. Vampires can be repelled with garlic, crosses and holy water and werewolves can be sent scurrying with wolfbane.

On the other undead hand, zombies shamble about the countryside whenever they please. The only thing that will discourage them is a shotgun blast to the brain or, of course, decapitation.

Zombies and werewolves are created when a person is bitten by one of those toothy terrors. But zombies—! They can rise from the dead for lots of reasons. Any horror movie enthusiastic can tell you that.

Sure, a zombie’s bite can turn its victim into one of the living dead. But that’s not all. Corpses can be turned into hungry zombies through voodoo, nuclear power, viruses, parasites, ancient Egyptian curses (if you count mummies as zombies), toxic chemicals, the Black Mass, hypnosis, or even sonic radiation waves (whatever those are), like in the movie, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, also known as Don’t Open the Window and The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue.

Zombies are delightfully flexible and versatile. And their insatiable hunger for the flesh of the living has given me a lot of food for thought.

In this volume, you will find a bumper crop of zombie stories—seventeen in all. Among them, you will find three stories about zombies created by Internet witches and four set on the isle of Zovemba, also known as Zombie Island, ruled by the very beautiful and very dead Necrilda Voltaire.

I’ve also added sixteen stories about other types of humanoid horrors for your amusement. So sit back, relax, and let all my hideous, undead darlings shamble into your brain and maybe, into your heart.

After all … zombies need love, too.

Zombies