Book - Which is scarier?

哪個可怕?

Ask if I’m scared of ghosts?  I’ll tell you, not one bit! Ghosts? Should say apparitions!

Exist or not, I don’t know.  And thankful have never seen one.  Since never seen one, there is nothing to fear.

Moreover, a clear conscience fears no midnight knocking on the door.  But I’m scared of the living dead! (zombies), starting with the 1980’s classic horror movie, “The City of the Living Dead” to the later “Return of the Living Dead”  and “The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre” , and the recent “Resident Evil” and such.  I’ve seen them all.  They were so realistically depicted that even knowing they were fabricated and therefore not real, I was still scared watching them. Can’t help it, but the more scare I am, the more I want to watch.

What are zombies?  From what years of “researches” have come up with, zombies are dead people who still cling to certain aspects of life but are totally devoid of reasoning and intellect capability, and are left only with humans’ most primal urge for food.  And their targeted food is humans' brains and hearts.  Wah! Scary, isn’t it?  

As to the ways of combating zombies, there are numerous suggestions. Some say stabbing their hearts with a sharp instrument or snapping their spines apart will destroy them.  Besides these, there are still many other methods, but since they are too gory to describe, I will omit them. 

But among the many ways, there is one that is really interesting, which is to use a mirror.  Ha! How does a mirror combat a zombie? The saying goes; zombies were originally of the human race; before ‘transforming’, they, like any ordinary people, lived an ordinary life.  And in their everyday life, checking themselves at a mirror was definitely a normal kind of behavior.  Hence, lodged in the zombies’ now debilitated memory is a vestige of how they used to look before.  Hence, when zombies encounter a mirror and see themselves reflected as a walking corpse, a living dead no less; no matter how voracious their hunger may be, they will flee the scene because they cannot accept their true form.  

True, a zombie is undeniably scary, but view from a different perspective, his/her circumstance is very pitiful.

Just think, what normal person would wish to become a zombie?  If not bitten by another zombie and be infected, who would want to get into an inhuman killing battlefield?  Also in the movies, once becoming a zombie, there is no turning back. Want to revert? There is no other road to travel, since its condition is irreversible. Can there be one day… an advance evolution or a transmutation?

~~Special News Bulletin~~

There appears in society a new product of zombies that are more advanced than the regular ones.  This new strain of zombies besides exhibiting all physical capabilities also retains humans' high intelligence.  Their physical appearances and mannerisms are those of normal people.  They are outwardly benevolent but inwardly malevolent.  To assuage their hunger, they are unscrupulous with their means and ways.  Sometimes, after gaining their victims’ trust through sweet words will they then reveal their true zombie colors.

The government warns the citizens to scream “No!” if they happen to encounter a zombie, and to immediately inform trustworthy people such as parents, teachers, police etc.

Remember -  Be alert and vigilant

Avoid being bitten

Is it..still afraid of mirrors?

source: 圖文並謬 pp 50-51

translator: Tamaya
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