Zombie Management

I used to have recurring nightmares about zombies. Probably one of out four nightmares included an undead horde chasing me (and I nighmare regularly - my ratio of nightmares to otherwise wacky/happy dreams is typically at least 3 to 1).

It bugged me a lot. I tried finding reasons for why they'd keep popping up, but nothing really made sense. I was often stressed out, sure, but it wasn't like I dreaded conformity or got bullied/mobbed in real life.

Finally in college, after complaining about them for probably the umpteenth time, my friend just sighed and said, "Why don't you play Resident Evil?"

At first this suggestion seemed counterintuitive; how would playing a zombie survival game improve my odds of avoiding zombie nightmares? However, my friend just waxed on how dreams represent things we're trying to get a handle on in real life; except in my case, there were no real life zombies to practice on so handling digital versions might actually help me.

The latest title for the series at the time was Resident Evil 4. Not gonna lie - that kinda killed the series for me. Only because it was the best game ever and no other Res Evil title can ever compare to it! - *cough* I had difficulty getting into other titles after that one.

Honestly speaking, the zombies in Resident Evil 4 (and other titles in the series) often feel a bit more like ominous mutants, especially with all the crazy versions that crop up. However, the plagas taught me to headshot early on as I quickly learned that bullets were precious and stab-and-grab often made for better strategy options than slaughtering everything solo.

After beating the game, and playing it through a few more times with my little sibs (coaching from the side and laughing when they got chainsawed) I finally had another zombie nightmare - and this time I simply pulled up my carefully managed inventory attache case and withdrew my favorite shotgun. I wiped out at least one horde's worth of monsters before I woke up, feeling a lot better than I had in a long time.

Although if I had the option to go back and do it all over again, I'd shoot Ashley. Or just leave her somewhere for the horde. Honestly, saving that idiot felt like an entirely separate level of nightmare...