Brains for the Zombie Soul (a parody) Read Online Free PDF Page A

had developed a way to reanimate the
bodies, essentially making them living again. They saw it as
recycling soldiers. In addition, since they were dead and certain
conditions were not necessary to survive, the top secret operation
didn’t feel the need to provide the amenities that living soldiers
required. During the course of Operation Reanimation, these
recycled soldiers were not given meals, times of rest, or
consideration for their mental state.
    The mental and emotional state of these zombies
was fiercely debated. Some personnel merely saw them as walking
corpses.
    The people who abused them as such stood by the
fact that they were not mindless, but instead full of rage, which
needed to be targeted at the enemy. In reaction to this theory,
they would dress up in enemy uniforms and torture the zombies. They
would treat them like fighting dogs, channeling their
aggression.
    Finally, the scientists and assistants who often
worked with the zombies realized that most of the reanimated
actually retained not only their mental capacity but also the
personalities of the people they were before they were killed. They
campaigned for humane treatment and rights for zombies, but were
denied.
    This last group was right.
    When the zombies were put out in the
battlefield, many of them were scared and conflicted. With limited
armor and extreme conditions, many refused to fight. They were
brought back to camp and “given another chance.” Before they were
sent back out again, they were trained to hate the enemy, abused,
and finally told that they could be heroes if they fought. And if
they refused to fight, they would be executed for cowardice.
    Due to their fragile after-life mental state,
most of these soldiers were in fact put to death. Since they were
designed to be the perfect soldier and therefore by definition hard
to kill, most were executed in ways no longer authorized by the
Geneva Convention. The two most popular styles of execution were by
guillotine or by forcing the victims onto their knees and shooting
them point blank in the back of the head. Then, since the cause of
death explained to the families did not match the fatal wounds of
the soldiers, the bodies were cremated en masse.
    When Operation Reanimation was finally leaked,
the public was outraged. First, they insisted that their zombie
relatives be sent back to them. They were told that none had
survived, although it was widely believed that the remaining
zombies were executed once the operation was outed.
    Then, by public demand, the president of the
United States officially pardoned these soldiers, saying they were
honorable upstanding members of the military and not the cowards
they were made out to be. He also posthumously awarded these
zombies Purple Hearts and Medals of Honor.
    Now, plans are in the works for a memorial in
Washington D.C. for these special zombie soldiers, the victims of
Operation Reanimation.

    (back to
TOC)

    ****

    A Soldier Back from War
    I thought the journey to the front lines
in the Middle East would be the longest trip of my life. I was
wrong. The trip back home was the longest.
    It wasn’t the ride in the caravan through a zone
known for its roadside bombs that was the longest. It wasn’t the
walk through the Kuwait airport in uniform, the wound on my face
quite evident, while being stared at by the local people. It wasn’t
the flight to Dubai. It wasn’t even the flight from Dubai to New
York. It wasn’t the time waiting on layover. Nor was it the flight
from New York to Indianapolis. The bus ride from Indianapolis to
Bloomington was short compared to the rest of the trip.
    No, the longest part of the trip back home was
from the time I switched over to the public bus until I got to the
Deeters’ front door. But I had made a promise to a dying man, and I
had him to thank for saving my life when I couldn’t save his.
    I slowly walked from the street to the front
door. There was a young boy playing in the back yard. He