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Zombie computers are computers controlled by hackers who use them for nefarious purposes, such as sending out spam.  Zombie banks are insolvent banks that are propped up by the government.

The term zombie didn’t even come into existence until around 1871.  The Haitian Creole word was used to describe individuals in the West Indies who had died and come back to life.  In most cases, these cadavers were resurrected by practitioners of voodoo.

One of the first books about zombies was Magic Island by W. B. Seabrook concerning Haitian zombies, but zombies didn’t really catch on until horror movies popularized them in the 1930s.

One of the earliest and most popular zombie movies was Victor Halperin’s creepy White Zombie, starring Bela Lugosi in 1932.  Lugosi is an evil genius who uses zombies to do his bidding.

At this point in the evolution of these monsters, zombies are Haitian-type creatures that have been resurrected by a voodoo-practicing malefactor, or by an evil madman, who orders them around like they are slaves.

It is interesting to note that these zombies evolved during the Great Depression and also during Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Nazi Germany.

The zombies in White Zombie shuffle around with their eyes staring blankly out of their heads as they act like minions to the whims of their evil master played by Bela Lugosi.  The zombies’ servile obedience to Lugosi can be interpreted as mirroring the Germans’ blind obedience to their fuehrer Adolf Hitler.

The next incarnation of the Hollywood zombie came in 1968 with the release of George Romero’s low-budget classic Night of the Living Dead.  Like the zombies in White Zombie, Romero’s zombies shamble around mindlessly.  However, these newer zombies are different in several important respects.  First, they don’t take orders from an evil genius, and second, they have developed an overpowering appetite for living human flesh.  In fact, the only reason they exist is to eat.

The next generation of zombies manifests itself in 2007′s 28 Weeks Later.  Like their predecessors in Night of the Living Dead, these zombies are flesh-eating ghouls, but there is a striking difference.  Whereas the older zombies shambled around like drunks, these new zombies are fleet-footed like humans.  The new generation of zombies isn’t resurrected from the dead.  These zombies are infected by plague, which may explain why they can move as fast as their fellow living humans.

Modern zombies reflect the collapse of contemporary civilization and its inability to cope with its failing and disintegrating economic systems.  These zombies aren’t controlled by a Hitler-type evil genius.  They aren’t controlled by any human being.  Mindless, they are controlled only by their insatiable craving for living human flesh.  Zombies now represent mankind run amok.

It is no wonder then that zombies, who most accurately symbolize the times we are living in, have become the ne plus ultra of bete noires for modern times, superseding other monsters like vampires, Frankenstein monsters, and Godzilla.

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PRELUDE

CIA black ops agent Greg Coogan couldn’t believe his eyes.  If anyone outside of the Agency tumbled to this, the blowback would inflict incalculable damage on the CIA’s resurgent reputation.  After all, it was the CIA, along with the SEALs, that had been instrumental in the tracking and execution of the notorious Osama bin Laden.  But now this.

In his midthirties Coogan wasn’t a novice, but, experienced or not, he didn’t know what to do.  He had to tell someone, but who could he trust in the Agency?  Agency employees were sure to close ranks on this one.  Nobody in the Agency would want this particular intel to leak beyond Langley’s walls.

Though at this moment, Coogan wasn’t in Langley and neither were his coworkers.  They were all hunkered down in the bombproof, airtight Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center in Virginia.

Sitting at his desk in his cubicle, Coogan was watching a video on his laptop concerning the Erasmus medical center in Rotterdam, Holland.  The video had been sent to him as an attachment to an e-mail.  He had been treated at the Erasmus hospital for a bullet he had taken that had just missed his femoral artery in his thigh while he was stationed in Europe a few years back, which might explain why the e-mail was addressed to him.

The medical center was a bleak-looking complex with towering cranes parked in its many areas that were under construction.  A few pedestrians were strolling on a cement concourse outside of a white skyscraper that had large white block letters perched on top of it saying Erasmus MC.

Within moments, a nightmare began as a knot of medical staff workers in white scrubs were disgorged from the high-rise.  The staff personnel staggered drunkenly toward the unsuspecting pedestrians and descended on them and, incredibly, commenced tearing them apart limb from limb.

Coogan turned his face away from the laptop’s screen in horror.  He had to tell someone of his discovery.  But who?  The Agency was riddled with bureaucrats who would do anything to cover their asses.

If the intel Coogan had got his hands on leaked to the public, it could lead to a major overhaul of the Agency and, Coogan knew, heads would assuredly roll.

Coogan could think of only one person he could trust—a fellow worker in the National Clandestine Service, otherwise known as the black ops arm of the CIA.  The fellow worker was Chad Halverson, who was about the same age as Coogan.

They were both members of SOG (Special Operations Group), which was responsible for paramilitary operations in the NCS.  Officially, Coogan and Halverson were known as paramilitary operations officers, who neither wore uniforms nor carried government ID.  Unofficially, and off the books, they were in actuality CIA hit men.

Coogan had been trying to contact Halverson by phone for hours—with no success.  Coogan, in fact, had no inkling where Halverson was.  For some reason, Halverson wasn’t answering his phone.

Coogan reached for his encrypted Agency satellite phone and urgently punched out Halverson’s phone number one more time.

No answer.

Coogan threw down his phone and cursed.

It was vital that he get in touch with Halverson.

Available for preorder at Amazon.

Zombie Necropolis can be preordered at Amazon.

Meanwhile, find out how it all started in Zombie Maelstrom, also available at Amazon.

Visit a terrifying new world where the living dead rule the land, killer drones rule the sky, and death lurks around the next corner in Zombie Necropolis.

Meanwhile, see how it all began in Zombie Maelstrom.  Click to buy at Amazon.

To read the entire review go to the Feb. 2012 issue of “Reviewer’s Bookwatch” at www.midwestbookreview.com.  Check out the reviews written by John Burroughs and you’ll find his review of Zombie Maelstrom.