Field Guide to Monsters

Darren Zenko has put together a great resource for all monster hunters. This handy little book is called the "Field Guide to Monsters". Of course I am not of the mind monsters are real or need hunting but a book of this nature could not go without a section on our favorite undead. I've copied just this section here as a sample.

Field Guide to Monsters by Darren Zenko:
They advance slowly, in eerie silence punctuated only by the occasional moan and the sound of feet scraping the ground. From a distance, the horde may appear to be a shambling crowd of normal humans. The truth is revealed on closer inspection: ripped and bloody clothes, gaping wounds, rotting flesh and the nauseating stench of the grave. These are the walking corpses, the living dead... zombies.


Where do these mindless horrors come from? There's really no easy answer. First and fremost, though, the zombie was once human - and a human body, even (or perhaps especially) a dead one, is a strong and powerful object. Many methods, technological and magical, take advantage of this potential to bring about zombification. Even a quick sampling of recorded zombie outbreaks reveals zombies brought to life by evil spells; zombies created by meteorites from space; zombies as the result of secret biochemical experiments; zombies created by strange viruses; zombies as the result of ancient curses; and zombies apawned by radiation from atomic weapons tests. In most cases, zombieism is highly contagious and spread by bites or scratches.


Although zombies can be created in many ways, the method of destroying them is more-or-less universal: go for the head. To function, zombies require a certain portion of the brain tissue to remain intact, and catastrophic damage to the head will stop the creature cold. Single bullets or buried hatchets aren't usually enough, however -your attack must be wholly decapitating. High explosives, firebombs and industrial-strength acid also work well. Extremely low temperatures will not destroy zombies, but they can immobilize them.

Note that, although the word "zombie" is derived from the Haitian voodoo word zombi, the true Haitian zombi is not undead. It is a living human, turned into a mindless slave by means of powerful drugs - do not blow its head off! Suspected zombie encounters in the areas of known voodoo activity call for careful inspection for rotted flesh and other indicators of zombification. Remember the zombie hunter's rule of thumb: "Signs of decay? Fire away!"

This is not the complete section on zombies but you can get a good handle on what the author has to say on them. A couple things to mention as everyone knows already, the infection is always contagius. He also makes a good point about how often a single bullet or blade strike will not destroy enough of the brain. When choosing weapons go for the two extremes, high and low caliber. High can destroy enough of brain normally and low calibers, such as .22 are not powerful enough to exit the skull which will mean the bullet bounces around doing more damage.

The Field Guide to Monsters is full of basic tips for a wide range of monsters. In fact every monster I can think of (and many I've never heard of) can be found within the pages of this great little book. This field guide gives basic guidelines for an encounter with any sort of creature and well worth the time to buy and read, for just the entertainment value alone this book is worth while.

Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.