Zombies were -- pardon the expression -- dead as a fucking doornail. 

Everyone made a zombie movie or a zombie game or a zombie novel. Always the same plots with a few variations. Sometimes the variation was better makeup, sometimes a different pseudo-scientific origin. Alien brainchips, voodoo magic, mutated fungus. But it was always the small group of survivors, always the gore, always the paranoia, always survivors turning on each other before the walking dead overran them. 

The only thing more played out than the zombie story was the found footage "Hey, we're from the Ghost Stalkers TV show, and we're going into this abandoned asylum! OMG, GHOSTS ARE REAL?!?" movie. 

And then -- AND THEN -- exactly like the bad set-up for a particularly bad movie, people start getting on the news and saying the dead actually are rising from the graves to feast on the living, complete with bloody video footage, cities on fire, anchormen weeping in terror. 

I don't believe a single word of it. It's fake news. It's all fake news. 

Why does anyone expect us to believe this nonsense? The undead digging their way out of the earth to eat living people? There's absolutely no trustworthy science behind this. 

And all these ridiculous precautions they want us to take? Staying inside? Wearing masks and protective clothing? Keeping away from infected people? Closing schools? Not going to restaurants? Not going to bars?! I've got a life to live, dammit! 

Yes, as a matter of fact, I do think it's a conspiracy theory, and I don't need Q or Alex Jones to tell me so! Listen, just because a horde of bloody people missing chunks out of them swarmed over the Davidsons down the street, killed them, and ate parts of their bodies -- and then the Davidsons got up an hour later and started shambling around and moaning? That doesn't mean there are zombies. It just proves the Davidsons are antifa BLM crisis actors trying to hurt our president! 

You think I don't know my rights? You think I don't know all about the First Amendment? I am a man who loves liberty more than he fears the New World Order! I will never yield! No one is allowed to tell me to do anything I don't want to! 

So here I am, Mr. so-called Davidson, with your fake chewed-out eye and your fake dangling intestines! Here is a Real American Hero, telling you I don't believe your lies! I'll never believe you're one of the hungry undead, and I'll prove it by letting you bite me on the arm! 

Ow! Y-You goddamn asshole! Leggo! Dammit, let go! This isn't funny, Davidson! Call your family off, Davidson! Oh god, call them off! S-Someone help me! Z-Zombies! Oh god! Oh god! Zombiiii--


It's that time of year again. Let's try to scare each other.

Write an original scary story. Write a horror-themed poem. Node a story that is in the public domain. Write a factual writeup that is about horror or scary stuff. Write a biography of a writer or actor closely associated with the horror genre. Create a review of a horror film or story. It can be any length and any topic -- as long as it's scary.

What's the runtime for the Quest? The entire month of October, plus November 1, server time. Halloween is too awesome to limit to just one day a year.

If you need inspiration, or if you just want to see some more of the scary stories that Everythingians have produced, check out our previous horror quests: I can make you howl. And vice versa. Let's get down to business., Everything Quests: Scary Stories, The Blood is the Life: A Frightful Halloween Quest, They Hunger For Nodes: An e2 Halloween Scary Story Quest, I Will Show You Fear in a Handful of Text: The 2005 Halloween Horrorquest, It's the Season for Graves Cracking: The 2006 Quest for Fear (a deleted quest announcement, unfortunately), The Poet and the Worm, The Night's Plutonian Shore: The 2007 Halloween Horrorquest, Necronodecon: The 2008 Halloween Horrorquest, Pickman's Nodegel: The 2009 Halloween Horrorquest, Ten Years of Terror: The 2010 Halloween Horrorquest, The Nodegel from Yuggoth: The 2011 Halloween Horrorquest, Children of the Night: The 2012 Halloween Horrorquest, 13 O'Clock: The 2013 Halloween Horrorquest, No More Room in Hell: The 2014 Halloween Horrorquest, In the Nodes of Madness: The 2015 Halloween Horrorquest, Grisly Ghouls from Every Tomb: The 2016 Halloween Horrorquest, We All Float Down Here: The 2017 Halloween Horrorquest, Tender Lumplings Everywhere: The 2018 Halloween Horrorquest, and The Culture of Fear: The 2019 Halloween Horrorquest.

Again, the Quest will run for the entire month of October and November 1. If you post early or late -- too bad, so sad.

When you write a story for the Quest, just /msg me with the node title, then softlink your writeup to this node. I'll include a list of all the Quest participants below.

So start thinking horror, boils and ghouls. Halloween is coming. Let's scare each other.

Fiction:
Zombie Apocalypse: A Liberal Conspiracy by artman2003
July 10 1816 by teleny
Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family by andycyca (and H.P. Lovecraft)
Grasslands by BookReader
It's dark and scary out there. The night can avenge itself. by Auspice
Annelid by lostcauser
From my corals grew by antigravpussy
The Poet and the Worm by A2S3
I'd Love to be a Fairy's Bride by Zephronias
An Analysis of Fractals by BookReader

Fact:
Booty v Barnaby by Gaius Julius Caesar
October 31, 2020 by JD
Samhain by losthuskie

Reviews:
The Skeletons by Jet-Poop
The Booth at the End by Zephronias
The Paul Lynde Halloween Special by JD
Something from the Nightside by Glowing Fish
Cry of the Werewolf by JD
Silver Bullet by JD
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Tem42
Halloween Season by Jet-Poop
Bell, Book, and Candle by Glowing Fish
Beetle & the Hollowbones by JD
The Immortal Hulk by Jet-Poop
Scrawl by Glowing Fish
Revolt of the Zombies by Glowing Fish
Where the Wild Things Are by Glowing Fish
Rosemary's Baby by JD
Boxing Helena by Glowing Fish
The Boogie Man Will Get You by Glowing Fish
Curious Toys by JD
Eraserhead by Glowing Fish

The Horrorquest is ended for another year! Thank you all for your enthusiastic participation!