Pennsylvania Zombie Response Team

As the question goes, what got you into the zombie culture?

As an 11 and 12 year old kid, I was terrified of Romero's zombies. Growing up in a religious household and going to church and hearing about the dead rising from the grave and then watching Dawn and Day of the Dead, I was so damn scared of zombies and movies. I couldn't stand to see people getting torn apart, but for some reason, I would keep watching them. When I was 21 I rented Dawn of the Dead and it still creeped me the hell out. I played the Resident Evil games and always had a thing for zombies, but didn't go out of my way to think about it. Then, I rented the first Resident Evil movie. It slowly got me into the whole zombie thing because it wasn't overly gory like Romero liked to get. Then I watched the remake of Dawn of the Dead and I was getting hooked more and more. I now own all of Romero's and a few other zombie movies. My friends and I are always talking about zombies and what we would do and it's become such a fun thing. I love movies and books that take a different turn with the genre and put it own spin on it. Romero will always be the American Godfather of the genre and I base everything on his zombies. I think the zombie apocalypse also got be back into gun collecting again and planning for a SHTF. Thinking of it in terms of the ZA makes the planning more enjoyable.

A real quick story. When I was 12 I was at a friends house on a Saturday and he lived about a mile and a half from me. He got me to watch return of the living dead 1 and 2. After they were over it was getting dark and I called my mom to come pick me up since I was scared of riding my bike home. She wouldn't come get me. I have never rode my bike that fast in a mile and a half before in all my life. I was like the Flash on that Huffy! haha

Next...

I think for a lot of people including myself, the ZA is just a more enjoyable way to prepare for any national emergency or WROL scenario. I guess I was drawn in by the whole survival preparation aspect. I also really like "killing floor"

i used to have vivid, horrible nightmares as a kid about zombies, except they were fast moving ones, which wasn't a thing in Hollywood back then. the first fast moving zombie-type movie i saw was 28 Days Later, which scared the living shit out of me, mostly because the scenario in that movie was more believable than dead cannibals. i was new to guns at that point, and only had a handgun, and a few boxes of ammo for it. after seeing the movie, any little sound would wake me up, and i'd check on the kids, check the locks on the door, and wait at the window, looking for movement.

afterwards, thinking about the movie, and what the characters went through (no supplies on hand, no readily available weapons), and the reality of a pandemic of some sort, i decided to start preparing to the worst. less than 6 months after seeing 28 Days Later, i had a few thousand rounds of 9mm, a shotgun, over 200 shells for it, and the trunk of van was filled with enough supplies for a family of 6 to last for 2 weeks.

If your ready for zombies your ready for anyfuckingthing!

+1 on the metaphore.
I'm not planning on being a victim when society collapses.
I have tried to gently warn others and actually have one friend who started watching the living dead series. He has since purchased an AR from Prime Predator and is getting ready.

Like most other people, it's the fun spin on preparedness. It's kind of funny that when I used to carry a B.O.B. In my trunk, I was considered paranoid by most. Now when I explain it to them with a zombie apocolypse theme, they seem to be more accepting of it. Kind if strange to me. The reason I got into being prepared with food, supplies,etc. was because when I was younger, we were poor and never had anything extra around, just enough to get by. As I progressed in life and some circumstances occurred in life, mostly my poor choices, I was homeless for about a year and a half. I never had anything except what was with me, as I had nowhere to store things. Luckily I was offered a hand up and out of the detriment that I was in, and I was and still am determined to never go back to that scenario. But some things I just don't want to get rid of, like always having some food with me, something to drink, and extra supplies. It makes me feel more comfortable. Now, as a cop, I've come to realize that whatever you forget to bring with you, is always what you need the most. And no matter what you thought, the unexpected is always right around the corner!

I love the theatrics and macabre nature of the zombie mythology. Plus the 1% chance that zombies could happen someday is what keeps me intrigued! But mostly, it's the idea of preparedness and survival that keeps me interested.

+1 on what everyone has said already... in addition...I could start using some current events (last few years) to talk to my family and convince them of the necessity of being prepared. The Zombies thing is just cool and frightening at the same time. The whole viral induced zombie state scares the shitte out of me.

Preparedness.
I love the zombie genre, could something like it ever happen? Who the f knows, but if it does I hope to be prepared..in the meantime I'll try to be prepared for whatever natural disaster could befall us.

For me it all started when I got my Playstation at around 4 years old. My dad bought Resident Evil for himself, I lasted 5 minutes into the game before I ran out of the room. The game scared the hell out of me but I would have dreams about running around the Resident Evil house shooting zombies. Later in my teenage years my cousin and I would sit up in my room smoking pot and planning for the zombie or Russian invasion. When I had my son at 18 I realized that I didn't know shit about shit, when are society falls apart id be useless. So when that cousin referred me to PAZRT I've been soaking up as much info as I can ever since.