Zombie Squad

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The official logo of the Zombie Squad organization.
The official logo of the Zombie Squad organization.

Zombie Squad, or ZS, is a satirical paramilitary organization created by horror fans who combined their shared interests of zombies and experience with disaster preparedness. It describes itself as an "elite zombie suppression task force ready to defend your neighborhood from the shambling hordes of the walking dead."[1]

Contents

[edit] History

Zombie Squad was created in St. Louis, Missouri in the summer of 2003. After watching the British horror movie 28 Days Later, a group of friends began discussing how they would prepare for a zombie pandemic, which in turn led to a discussion of other zombie movies and what they would have done differently. This was the initial inspiration for Zombie Squad. [2]

The stated goal of the organization is to present disaster preparedness in a manner which would allow for serious exploration of multiple worst-case scenarios, but still interject humor throughout the process. ZS combines a large online presence via its forums with community service and charity event participation to spread its message.

Since the initial conception of the organization in 2003, ZS has grown into a small cult phenomenon with thousands of members all over North America and members in countries all over the world, including the UK, the Netherlands, the Philippines, and Serbia among others. The success may be due in part to the synergy between two phenomena that have emerged in the new millennium: A resurgence of zombies in pop culture, with hit video games (Resident Evil franchise, Dead Rising, Stubbs the Zombie) and films (28 Days Later, Resident Evil series, Dawn of the Dead '04, Shaun of the Dead, Land of the Dead) combined with a renewed interest in disaster preparedness in the wake of natural disasters (2004 Tsunami in Indonesia, Hurricane Katrina) and high profile terrorist attacks (failed millennium plots, 9/11, 3/11, and the 2005 London bombings).

Zombie Squad's strict position as an organization to not take any sort of ideological stance has also helped to create an open community to people from all walks of life and backgrounds. This has also helped to draw members who otherwise had a hard time finding survival enthusists that they can relate with.

In spite of ZS's satirical nature, the members of the organization bring in a lot of experience ranging from civilian American Red Cross disaster reponse volunteers and emergency ham radio enthusiasts to professionally trained paramedics, firefighters and military personnel. [3]

[edit] Concept

The basic concept behind Zombie Squad is that zombies are a useful metaphor for a worst-case scenario; if someone prepares to survive the complete breakdown of society due to an uprising of the living dead, then he or she will be prepared for almost any real-world disaster or emergency conceivable. Or stated more simply, "If you can survive a zombie apocalypse, you can survive anything." The zombie metaphor was chosen for humor, originality, and a bait and switch for horror movie fans, science fiction fans, gamers and others who otherwise may not be drawn to the idea of disaster preparedness or community involvement. Thus the claim on Zombie Squad's website that they are "an elite zombie suppression task force ready to defend your neighborhood from the shambling hordes of the walking dead" is to be taken in the playful spirit of the site and not literally. Site traffic for both the main page and the forums increases noticeably when high-profile zombie movies such as 2005's Land of the Dead are announced or released, attesting to the effectiveness of the zombie-metaphor as a hook.

[edit] Forums

The bulk of Zombie Squad's disaster preparedness and survival information can be found in its forums. Additionally, some of this information makes its way to the main page and the Zombie Squad RSS feed. The content of the forum is predominantly user-generated, and consists of a combination of information gathered from outside sources and personal experience. Collaboration between forum members transcends the forums proper, with members frequently joining together to perform "real life" activities related to preparedness (camping, mock "bug out" exercises, shooting range outings, etc.), take part in fundraisers, socialize, or team up in online multiplayer games such as Eve online and Urban Dead. The forums have an age limit of 18 to avoid the problems of having minors on the boards. If it is found out that any new members are minors, they will have their account promptly removed.

[edit] Chapter Locations

Zombie Squad has three official chapters at this time:

  • Zombie Squad Chapter 001 - based in St. Louis, is also referred to as "HQ". This chapter comprises all of Missouri and Illinois at this time.
  • Zombie Squad Chapter 002 - based in Pennsylvania, and comprises all of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York at this time.
  • Zombie Squad Chapter 003 - based in Toronto, is also known as "ZS North". This chapter comprises all of southern Ontario at this time.

In addition to these three, more chapters are being planned. Many ZS forum members from countries across the world also plan and participate in smaller get-togethers, although these do not constitute "official" Zombie Squad events.

A ZS "zombologist" lectures the Archon crowd about his captive undead subject.
A ZS "zombologist" lectures the Archon crowd about his captive undead subject.

[edit] Community Service

One of the first major events that ZS participated in was Archon in 2004. They hosted a seminar that dealt with surviving a zombie apocalypse as well as the creation and use of a bug-out bag (or BOB), which they have continued to host annually at the convention. Since its inception in 2003, ZS has organized charity events for organizations such as Meals on Wheels, American Red Cross [4], Youth In Need, Feed My People, Food Bank of Monmouth and Ocean County, Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, Project S.H.A.R.E. and they have raised thousands of dollars for Hurricane Katrina relief. They have participated in several flash mob-like events known as Zombie Walks to raise awareness for blood drives for the American Red Cross and local food banks. Their contributions to these charity organizations and events include the aforementioned zombie walks, zombie movie nights, trivia nights, Hotwheels car races, food collection, and holiday parties.[5]

[edit] Other Community Activity

Zombie Squad's principal event is a convention known as ZombieCon.[6] The first annual ZombieCon took place in June of 2005, and was staged in the style of a camping/hiking trip in Irondale, Missouri. ZombieCons consist of survival seminars, trips to a local shooting range, watching zombie movies and canoeing. A similar event called Wintergeddon [7] is held in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee, the first of which occurred on January 5th, 2006.

[edit] Confusion

Due to the tongue-in-cheek nature of the ZS concept, someone who has not taken the time to read over the main page/forums in depth may mistakenly believe that Zombie Squad members are cosplayers or somewhat delusional, self-styled mercenaries, or even a militia group which believes in the existence of the walking dead. This has led to multiple instances of internet trolls spamming the forums with messages that zombies are fictional and that ZS members were crazy. Such trolling is responded to either with patient explanation of the Zombie Squad premise, deadpan assertions that zombies are not only real- but that it is in fact the troll who is delusional, or some combination of the two, depending on how hostile the initial encounter began. Despite this, the ZS forums have remained pretty much troll-free, due to the diligent work of the moderators and administrators.

[edit] Trivia

  • Brian is the official ZS mascot. He is a line art zombie featured on the red ZS T-shirt, one of the downloadable shooting targets and the ZS Neighboorhood Watch flyer. "Brian" is an anagram of "brain", as according to movie lore, zombies crave the brains of the living.
  • HAPPY!!! Team! was a practical joke that was played on the ZS forums on April Fools Day. This resulted in the ZS logo being replaced by a giant animated smiley .gif. The words "Zombie" and "Squad" became the words "HAPPY!!!" and "Team!," respectively due to the wordfilter. Many people were amused and slightly disturbed by this when they first logged on.
  • HAFU or "Human Advocates For Undead" has protested Zombie Squad at Archon. The group, who employs a similar tongue-in-cheek sensibility to ZS, is modeled after human rights groups, and fights to protect "the rights of those who have been denied the privilege of fully cognizant life" insisting that "zombies are people, too". Their members are comprised of friends of the Fear The Boot podcast. Fear The Boot conducted an interview with HAFU about the 2006 Archon protest.
  • ZS Fleet. ZS has a fleet of vehicles, many of which have been modded and armored, like founding member Will's truck and a van. They also have several cars which are not modded, like this Crown Victoria, and this Mustang. These vehicles are a popular attraction at ZS events.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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