Pardon me, if I get a little nostalgic for a second and talk about zombies and what they have meant to me. My fascination began as a child watching George Romero's Dawn of the Dead at the tender age of 4. I remember how everything about that movie scared the hell out of me even though I knew it was fake and that make-up was horrible.

I remember watching their friend get bit early in the movie and slowly turn from a trusted member of the team, to a pitiful wretch resigned to his fate and finally a zombie that was quickly dispatched.

I wish I could say that zombies became an addiction at this point, but I would be lying. I hated zombies. They scared the living crap out of me and I couldn't stand to watch any zombie movie, especially Dawn of the Dead.

It was at this time that my subconscious would begin associating zombies with the demons that were present in my own life. Any time I was scared, nervous or had difficulties in life, they would translate into zombie dreams. I couldn't close my eyes without being transported to a post-zombie world where survival was the only thing that mattered. As I grew, so did my zombie dreams. They started out simple and by the time of my teens, they would incorporate other people, have many different scenarios and sometimes even be funny.

When I met my wife in college, she found my fear of zombies rather interesting and we decided that being afraid of fictional creatures was a little irrational. I thought the best way to beat my fears was to face them head-on and I began watching every zombie movie I could get my hands on. They went from figures of fear to fascination. What were the mechanisms of a zombie outbreak. Why do they eat people? Would they actually shamble about?

I became annoyed at the overuse of the zombie virus and became a disciple of the Church of Romero. Zombies still invade my dreams when I am stressed out, but I no longer look back on these dreams with trepidation and instead analyze my zombie battle strategy. I now love zombies to the point that I write about them regularly and finally have an outlet for my crazy ideas. I want to know what makes you love zombies? Is it their pure horror? The loss if individuality? The idea that a single bite can remove your personality and make you a brain eating machine? I want to know. You know my story, so now tell me yours.

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