The word “zombie” is derived from “nzambi,” a term from West African languages meaning soul or spirit. In Haitian Creole, the word “zonbi” refers to a reanimated corpse. However, the concept of the undead is much older, dating back to the early first millennium BCE in Mesopotamia. The story of the descent of the goddess Inanna into the Underworld was uncovered in two versions during the 1860s: one written in Sumerian and the other rewritten in Akkadian. In the Akkadian version, the goddess is called Ishtar. She threatens the gatekeeper of the Underworld, demanding entry, and warns that if the gate is not opened, she will unleash an army of the dead upon the living, causing the dead to outnumber the living.

In Haitian folklore, shaped by the historical experience of slavery, a zombie is a figure of the undead, reanimated by a sorcerer, or bokor, to serve as a slave. Author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston traveled to Haiti in 1938 to study Haitian Hoodoo, a cultural spiritual practice with roots in the Kongo. In her book Tell My Horse, Hurston provided a nonfiction account of her time in Haiti and Jamaica. She wrote about bokors poisoning victims with what was once believed, though possibly debunked, to be tetrodotoxin or bufotoxin. These poisons could induce a coma resembling death for several days. After burial, the bokor would exhume the victim and revive them, using them as obedient tools for their bidding.

Hurston even photographed a supposed “zonbi” victim, Felicia Felix-Mentor. According to locals, Felicia had died in 1907 and been buried, only to reappear naked and demented at her father’s farm in Ennery in October 1916.

In Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the protagonist’s lover, Janey, suffers from rabies after being bitten by a rabid dog. Over the course of a week, his health deteriorates rapidly, transforming him into a violent, monstrous shell of his former self. In self-defense, Janey is forced to shoot him dead—a tragic reflection of the themes of infection, loss, and survival.

While the earliest zombie stories stem from myths, spiritual beliefs, and curses, such as poisoning and sorcery, the zombie trope evolved as it entered Western narratives. It shifted to explore themes of science gone wrong or the dangers of governmental and corporate manipulation of science. In some cases, the culprit behind zombification was an alien life force, as seen in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Interestingly, parallels exist between the zombie and individuals infected with the rabies virus, with the disease’s symptoms of aggression and loss of control resembling zombification in many ways.

In my short story Rabid, the protagonist Sarah returns to her hometown in upstate New York to reconnect with old friends. Unfortunately, her visit coincides with a mysterious orange light descending upon the town in the middle of the night. Those exposed to the light succumb to a strange illness that turns them into rabid, zombie-like creatures.

In the spirit of Halloween, please enjoy a free read of Rabid.