Worse than Swine Flu

So I've been hanging out in Durham with a Polish guy named Maciek (Mah-sheck). It's a pretty cool area of the country and the nearby towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro are quite scenic. Also, the people around here are very nice. I picked up a souvenir to send home to my Godson at a local outdoor outfitter and and finished off another 1GB memory card to mail back home.

The small town feel of Carrboro is great, and the compact nature of Durham makes it walker friendly, which is beneficial to a person who is hoofing it most of the time. But there is one major problem with this area...

ZOMBIES!

I hung out with a bunch of couchsurfers on Wednesday, and many of them had never met each other. While I sat back and listened to them, the conversation drifted to the topic of zombies. This has been a constant among all the places where I've made friends, and it's not because of me or my obsession with the walking dead. I didn't start the conversation. I barely even join in. People just start talking about it and I sit back and enjoy. Another common theme is that I keep meeting people named Bonnie, which is significant because I once wrote a short story entitled 'Bonnie Versus the Zombies'.

So I'm sitting there on Wednesday while ten strangers talk about zombies and by the end of the evening they decide that it would be a good idea to dress up as zombies, drive to Raleigh, and invade a bar.

Yeah, I thought it was a good idea too.

So Saturday night, fifteen people, most of which I had never seen before, shambled into The Big Easy in downton Raleigh in full zombie attire... while a live band was playing.




It took only minutes for the walking dead (including myself) to completely take over the dance floor where they danced their zombie dances and frightened the living patrons. The band (Boomerang) made several references to the undead crowd and everyone who walked into the bar stopped for a doubletake as they were suddenly confronted with over a dozen zombies, many of which were decorated with fake blood.


I can't recall the names of most of the people there (I'm like that with names), but they were all great. One standout was a girl whom I had met on Wednesday who had a part in the movie 'Fistful of Brains', a zombie ripoff of the Clint Eastwood movie 'Fistful of Dollars'. I almost purchased that movie about six months ago. She has promised that if I get a copy, she'll autograph it for me.

I told people before that I would be present when the zompocalypse started and few believed me. Well, it's begun and I hate to say 'I told you so', but I did.



I'm leaving the area tomorrow to head west toward Greensboro. The weather is pretty chilly, with lows in the mid 40's. My sleeping bag is only rated for about 60 degrees, but I can bundle up in some thermals. I'm through with public transportation and will begin hitching as soon as I make it to I-85. After Greensboro, I'll move further west and see the mountainous areas of the state. After that... it's anybody's guess. I don't plan that far ahead. Last time I did I took a thousand mile detour.