The Future Memoirs of a Zone Nine Zombie

By Robert Trainor

There will be those who will attempt to discount the following novel as a ridiculous fantasy based on a number of logical fallacies that run counter to the modern system of knowledge that we so obsessively embrace. However, for those of us seeking something more than the usual soft-shoe dance of the modern novel, it will become obvious that I am not the one who should be accused of writing a fantasy.

It is no lie to say that many years ago, I lived in Zone Nine. And since I lived there, I have the right to describe it in any way that I see fit. If you wish to read a pleasant fairy tale with no real substance to it, you should stop here, but if you're seeking a truth that transcends all the modern varieties of accepted nonsense, then you might be interested in this novel.

Zone Nine is the last and final place before one is swept away into oblivion. Here, many, if not most, are overwhelmed by the vicious realities that permeate our so-called culture, and they are heard from no more. A few manage to escape, but it has proven to be a most difficult and dangerous task. When you are actually trapped in a terrifying abyss; when all means of escape have failed; when death is all around you—then what are you going to do?

This is a very unusual memoir of my time in Zone Nine. Eventually, I was able to escape thanks to an idea that was given to me. This idea, which is actually a fact of existence, opened the door to the power within me, and it is absolutely certain that same power exists in you. However, a truth so absolute is not as simple as you might think and cannot be approached unless one sees that this truth is the only possible way out of the incredible dangers that we face, both personally and collectively. People don't like absolutes, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. And this idea—this fact—is as absolute as absolute can be.

And so, even though I know it isn't fashionable in a novel to talk about the basis of our existence, especially when the ideas presented have nothing to do with religion or science, it would be impossible to write this book without entering into realms that you may not be familiar with. Granted, there are a lot of quirky dystopian disguises in the beginning of this book that tone down and sometimes obscure the basic underlying idea that is inherent in the plot, but in the end, you will be shown a path into a different world that is based on the reinterpretation of everything that your senses perceive.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Trainor
• Release date: Feb 26, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224225194

Robert Trainor

Over the past twelve years (since I retired at the age of 59), I've written nineteen novels, four novellas, four non-fiction books, and seven anthologies, all of which you can find in the Kindle Store. Instead of writing a biography of myself, which seems rather irrelevant, I would prefer to write a biography of my books. Here, in the order in which they were written, is a brief sketch of the plots, themes, and subject matter of these books.1/ The Voice of the Victim describes a series of murders in a small city. I've always felt a great deal of empathy for the victims of violent crimes, especially those who are murdered by guns. What, I wondered, would these people say to us if they could speak? When reading this book, it is important to remember that my intention, from first page to last page, was to present the voice of the victim. And, to me, this voice is not a straight-line accusation of weapons and murderers but tends to veer to a pervasive mockery and total indictment of modern culture. This novel is much different than anything else I have written, and there will be many who will object to what the "voice" is saying.2/ Some Things Are Sweeter than God is somewhat along the lines of a classic murder mystery but is certainly not one of those books where the conclusion is some wild revelation that no sensible reader could ever discern beforehand. The protagonist is a forty-year-old woman lawyer who, in her role as a public defender, is required to represent a man who is accused of brutally murdering his ex-girlfriend.3/ The Road Map to the Universe is a well-constructed novel--at one time, I was a tournament chess player, and this book required a great deal of planning and analysis. Essentially, it's a highly unusual murder mystery, but the perceptive reader may be able to identify a standard plot theme lurking in the background. The Road Map also examines an interesting philosophical question: In a universe of four billion galaxies, what relevance, if any, does the human being have?4/ The Great Barrington Train Wreck, a truly offbeat social commentary, includes a unique type of murder mystery and is one of my favorite novels. Although I almost never include anything from my own life experience in my books, I was, just like the protagonist in the Train Wreck, homeless for many years. So I'm familiar with the lingo and attitude that some of the homeless have. This is a catchy, captivating book where the plot seems to materialize out of thin air until it becomes the elephant in the room. Also, to my mind, this tale could describe what happens to Holden Caulfield, the anti-hero of the Catcher in the Rye, as he approaches forty. It's not all peaches and cream! Especially when he falls in love with the daughter of a millionaire, and even more especially when he ends up on death row.5/ Your Kiss Is Like the Sweetest Fire describes a teenage romance between Jaime and Renee, who were adopted at a young age into the same family. It seems illogical to me, but in almost all states, the law views a sexual relationship between adopted siblings who live in the same family as a crime of incest--exactly as if they were related by blood. So Jaime and Renee have this difficulty to contend with, and also, their mother and father are both rather repulsive characters who are totally incapable of helping them. Wait until you meet Renee--I love her.6/ Requiem for the West is partially based on an apocalyptic poem that I wrote during the 1990's. Ten thousand hours is a lot of time to spend on a seven-hundred-word poem! Requiem is also an examination of some apparently abstract themes that seem highly relevant to me: 1/ The pervasive role of explicit sexuality in our culture and the very different ways that people react to it; 2/ The often farcical, Dilbert-like nature of the modern workplace, in this case a college; and 3/ Is doomsday just around the corner? The 1960-2000 version of myself considered a nuclear apocalypse to be inevitable, but nowadays, I'm ambivalent.7/ Frontier Justice was easy to write because once Adriana Jones arrived on page 10, she took over the book, and all I had to do was keep up with her as she overpowered every obstacle that crossed her path. I hadn't intended for that to happen, but that's the way life goes sometimes. Do I agree with, support, condone, or advocate Adriana's way of doing things? Difficult questions. Adriana is my creation, so I have to take some responsibility for her, I suppose, but I look at it this way: To be true to a character, one has to let the person speak and act in a way that is appropriate to his or her personality. I just can't legislate them into political correctness! Adriana didn't just overpower the other characters in Frontier Justice--she also overpowered me. I really like this book--I wish, as a writer, I could think of more characters who are as dynamic as Adriana.8/ A Tale from the Blackwater River is a novella that is meant to be a satire on a certain kind of story that is showing up far too frequently nowadays, but on another level, it's just kind of a humorous tale that was a lot of fun to write. This book is written in the first person by a forty-two-year-old woman named Alanda Streets. I almost published it under the pen name Alanda Streets because I thought some people might say that no woman would ever write a story like A Tale from the Blackwater River, but for those who feel that way, I hope you will ask yourself this question: If the name Alanda Streets had been on the cover of the book, instead of mine, would you have felt that a woman couldn't have written it?9/ The Blackwater Journal is another Alanda Streets novel--this time, she is only sixteen. I couldn't seem to get away from Alanda--she does have a spunky survivor's attitude towards life that appeals to me. In this book, she has to call on all her resources when her evil father imprisons her in a room and tells her that she has only a week left to live. As the days pass by, the terror mounts on her own personal death row. Does Alanda escape? Maybe so, maybe no.10/ Love Letters (Soaked in Blood) is another murder mystery that has a humorous undertone, which many will probably miss. The problem with writing a murder mystery is that anything that can be thought of has already been done about a thousand times. The only original idea left would be to have the most obvious suspect turn out to be the murderer. Think of it--that's probably never been done! And so...maybe you can guess the rest.11/ The Book of the Dead is about a man who goes to his 25th reunion and meets his high school sweetheart. The two of them embark on an impulsive twenty-four hour car ride that will take them through three southern states and bring them face-to-face with death. This is a tale where the boundaries of ordinary reality are stretched out a little bit! I'll leave it to you to decide whether The Book of the Dead is a fantasy or a reality.12/ Destroyed by Malice sees the return of a character who played a minor role in The Voice of the Victim. He's the world famous novelist Barker Drule, but unfortunately, he (and his wife) exit the book on page 1 when they are gunned down in their driveway. It isn't long before detective Jeff Willard is convinced that the murderer is a member of the Drule family. Perhaps it's Lenore, the older daughter, who was, years ago, secretly raped by her father; perhaps it's the beautiful Raylene, who wrote a novel about a rape victim that her father managed to have the publishing industry blackball; perhaps it's Ricky, the cocaine-addicted son who is desperate to get his hands on his father's money; and perhaps it's Dalton Drule, Barker's irascible eighty-two-year-old father who just happens to own the gun that was used to murder his son. In the end, when the truth finally comes out, there will be very few left to tell the tale.13/ How to Write an Imaginative Novel takes you through the whole process of writing a novel and then uploading it to Kindle. Among the many things covered are: Where will you find a plot? What is the best way to find names for your characters? How important is it to punctuate your book correctly? Is there a quick way to learn punctuation and sentence structure? What is the best way to write dialogue? What kind of things should one avoid in a novel? What is the significance of the first draft and why is it so important? How does one begin a book so that it immediately commands the reader's attention? How does one revise and edit a novel? Is it possible to create the cover for your book without spending any money? How does one convert a book to the correct format so that it can be uploaded to Kindle? And finally, how does one upload a book to Kindle?14/ I Ching 2015 contains a complete translation (minus the Confucian commentaries) of this ancient Chinese classic. Also included are detailed instructions on how to consult the I Ching using either yarrow stalks, coins, or dice. (For those who have been using coins, one should be aware that a significant error has crept into the method that many people use to cast an omen. This error, which involves using either three or four similar coins will seriously affect the accuracy of the omens you receive.) Additionally, there is extensive advice on how to interpret an omen. By using the correct method of interpretation, you will be surprised at how much clearer omens become. As part of this advice, I have posed a number of questions to the I Ching and have then interpreted the omen I received. Finally, for each hexagram, as well as many of the lines in each hexagram, I have included my own observations as to the essential meaning of these hexagrams and lines.15/ Blood and Blackmail is an elegant murder mystery with an unusual plot twist that took me some time to piece together. For those readers who enjoy the challenge of solving a crime before the final chapter arrives, this novel should provide you with a truly interesting puzzle. I doubt many people, if any, are going to see the underlying deception that runs throughout this tale because...if I say anything else, I might help the reader unravel this mystery, and I certainly wouldn't want to do that!16/ Fairy Tales by Martians takes a humorous look at the theory of evolution. Science, of course, claims that the human being originated from an amoeba that eventually became a tadpole that eventually became a frog and so on and so forth. However, I just can't conceive of the fact that ten million years ago, two frogs mated in a swamp and because of that event, I eventually arrived on the scene. What kind of a genealogy chart is that? Neither does the seven-day religious version of events appeal to me, so what I'm left with is a very cynical view of both the religious and scientific theories concerning the origins of our existence.17/ The Book of Dreams repeats a very old idea that has been used in many a novel. But here, in this murder mystery, the idea is taken to another level entirely and contains a twist that not many will see coming. The clues are there, starting with the poem in the Preface.18/ The Dark Side of the Moon is a tale about an attractive high school teacher who falls in love with one of her students. However, Carolyn Black is nervous that her sexual liaison with the student will ruin her career. Eventually, she tries to break off their relationship, but when he threatens to commit suicide, Carolyn is faced with an excruciating dilemma.19/ The Murder of Nora Winters was inspired by John Dickson Carr who wrote a number of locked-room mysteries. In this type of mystery, the murder victim is found in a room that does not allow the killer any means of exit. The doors and windows are all bolted from the inside, and it's considered very poor form for the author to create a room where there are sliding walls or secret panels. The solution to the murder of Nora Winters is, I think, relatively simple, but I've woven in enough deceit and misdirection to confuse all but the most astute readers.20/ The Vanishing Victim is a tale of a psychiatrist and a troubled woman who comes to him for counseling. What she reveals to him proves to be a confession to a brutal crime, but he is unable, because of the doctor/patient privilege, from revealing this crime to anyone, including the police. But even more troubling is that the woman's confession, although it contains a number of factual inaccuracies, turns out to have a terrifying reality of its own.21/ The Fatality Game follows a series of innocuous crimes in a rich neighborhood that seem to be more pranks than anything else. But when a woman is murdered in her bed, Detective Cody Barnes realizes that there is something evil lurking under the placid veneer of swanky mansions that are inhabited by millionaires. And when Cody becomes romantically involved with one of the earlier victims, the beautiful Lucinda Kane, the case begins to take on a life of its own that will eventually lead to the deaths of three more people.22/ How to Write an Intelligent Murder Mystery describes some of the adventures I encountered while I was writing murder mysteries (of my twenty-one novels, thirteen are murder mysteries.) This is a somewhat unusual instructional book that attempts to relate the problems encountered in the writing of a murder mystery to the more general problem of writing fiction in today's market where any new novel is almost instantaneously buried under an avalanche of new novels.23/ The Real Meaning of Life is definitely one of my favorite books. It's written in the first person by Patrick Devlan, a twenty-seven-year-old guy who writes murder mysteries. But his father, who is dying of pancreatic cancer, wants Patrick to write something that will take his readers to a "better place." Patrick decides to follow his father's advice, but a few days later, his roommate's pregnant girlfriend is murdered, and Patrick becomes entangled in a real-life murder mystery. Eventually, after his roommate is convicted of the crime and sent to death row, Patrick is faced with a dilemma that will lead him to the discovery of the real meaning of life.24/ Flight 9525 is a non-fiction book that attempts to answer the question as to why there is so much suffering in the world. For the most part, this book bypasses the usual political, psychological, and social reasons for suffering and examines the following: If God is real, then why do human beings suffer? Why would an all-merciful, all-loving, and all-powerful Being permit its creations to suffer? The usual explanations, such as the hypothesis that God granted man free will, don't answer the question at all. In fact, this is a question that's never been answered satisfactorily.25/ The Scriptwriter is the tale of a man who becomes entangled with three different women. There's the incredibly beautiful woman, the incredibly rich woman, and the incredibly homeless woman. Which one will he choose? Events, mishaps, and character flaws lead him to an interesting decision.26/ The Murder of Marabeth Waters contains a considerable amount of subtle black humor and describes the investigation that ensues after a prostitute is found strangled to death. Detective Devin Driver is quickly able to focus on a suspect; not only did this man send a threatening note to Marabeth, but also, her blood is found in his car. As it turns out, the real murderer lurks elsewhere, and unfortunately, Devin isn't a particularly perceptive detective, so it isn't surprising when the wrong person is convicted of the crime. However, even if Devin had been Sherlock Holmes on steroids, he undoubtedly wouldn't have solved this murder.27/ The Trial of Shada King--a district attorney in Hartford, Connecticut, is charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of the man who had raped her ten days before the shooting. Shada claims that she acted in self-defense, and since she was wearing a recording device at the time of the shooting, her claim of self-defense seems to be valid. But why was she wearing the recording device? The prosecuting attorney is convinced the crime scene was an elaborate stage production that was intended to deceive those who would be listening to the tape and that the victim was murdered in retaliation for the rape.28-34/ Finally, I have seven anthologies on Kindle that combine complete versions of many of the books listed above: Four Novels, 5 Novels, Four Murder Mysteries, The Blackwater Novels, Dark Tales, Six Novels, and Five Murder Mysteries. The purpose of the anthologies is that it gives the reader a chance to buy, for instance, five novels of mine at the rock-bottom price of $2.99.I spend a great deal of time revising my books. After finishing the first draft, I go through the book at least eight more times--first page to last page. Each journey through the book is slow and painstaking--no less than three hours and no more than thirty-five pages a day. From my experience, the kind of errors that pop up on some of the later readings can be rather surprising, if not downright alarming! I particularly look for inaccurate punctuation, lackluster sentence structure, and inaccurate or repetitive vocabulary. I also do not permit confusing sentences to stand--I can't imagine that any reader will want to read a sentence twice because I couldn't find a way to explain myself clearly.Finally, I would ask you all to keep an open mind about novels by an author who has no brand name. I am quite unusual because I do not advertise myself in any way, shape, or form (outside, I guess, of this little biography). My books are well-written, entertaining, and thought provoking, but they are often truly original, and I worry about the page-six syndrome. That's the point where some readers abandon a book by an unknown author because of a single sentence, idea, or attitude that seems amateurish to them. Have faith that there are some genuine diamonds in the Kindle arena and have faith that your instinct to buy one of my books was a good instinct. If you read any of my books to the finish, I think you'll feel that your time was not wasted because these novels are not cheap imitations--they are real creations.

Book preview

PREFACE

There will be those who will attempt to discount the following novel as a ridiculous fantasy based on a number of logical fallacies that run counter to the modern system of knowledge that we so obsessively embrace. However, for those of us seeking something more than the usual soft-shoe dance of the modern novel, it will become obvious that I am not the one who should be accused of writing a fantasy.

It is no lie to say that many years ago, I lived in Zone Nine. And since I lived there, I have the right to describe it in any way that I see fit. If you wish to read a pleasant fairy tale with no real substance to it, you should stop here, but if you’re seeking a truth that transcends all the modern varieties of accepted nonsense, then you might be interested in this novel.

Zone Nine is the last and final place before one is swept away into oblivion. Here, many, if not most, are overwhelmed by the vicious realities that permeate our so-called culture, and they are heard from no more. A few manage to escape, but it has proven to be a most difficult and dangerous task. When you are actually trapped in a terrifying abyss; when all means of escape have failed; when death is all around you—then what are you going to do?

This is a very unusual memoir of my time in Zone Nine. Eventually, I was able to escape thanks to an idea that was given to me. This idea, which is actually a fact of existence, opened the door to the power within me, and it is absolutely certain that same power exists in you. However, a truth so absolute is not as simple as you might think and cannot be approached unless one sees that this truth is the only possible way out of the incredible dangers that we face, both personally and collectively. People don’t like absolutes, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. And this idea—this fact—is as absolute as absolute can be.

And so, even though I know it isn’t fashionable in a novel to talk about the basis of our existence, especially when the ideas presented have nothing to do with religion or science, it would be impossible to write this book without entering into realms that you may not be familiar with. Granted, there are a number of quirky dystopian disguises in the first half of this book that tone down and sometimes obscure the basic underlying idea that is inherent in the plot, but in the end, you will be shown a path into a different world that is based on the reinterpretation of everything that your senses perceive.

CHAPTER ONE: THE LAND OF THE ZOMBIES

The following passage is an excerpt from a book that was written by a sociology professor named Charles Albert Watson. His book was published in 2017 but received very little publicity and sold less than a thousand copies. What Professor Watson did was to make a prediction as to what American society, and to some extent the modern world, would look like in 2040. His book was entitled The Future of Class Warfare and the Demise of the Common Man, and it contains many controversial opinions that are perhaps exaggerations. But it is difficult to argue with the basic premise of his book, which portrays a society where wealth has become the principal measure of a person’s worth and influence. 

Professor Watson divided the society of 2040 into nine zones; in the old days, these zones would have been called classes, but since there are only three classes—the upper class, the middle class, and the lower class—the professor felt that a new method of categorizing the various levels of society would better describe what would exist in the future. It is important to note that he predicts a massive stock market crash that will occur in sporadic waves between 2027 and 2032 and that this crash will be the impetus that creates a new world order that is based almost entirely on money. This new world order, which Professor Watson calls the Tyranny of the Plutocrats, will create vast chasms between the rich and the poor—this chasm exists today, of course,  but the chasm that will exist in 2040 will dwarf the wealth disparities that exist in 2020..

I am not one who likes to quote other people because I have my own story to tell, and I don’t particularly enjoy injecting academics into an autobiographical novel that was written by someone who at one time lived in a much earlier version of Zone Nine, but it would be impossible to appreciate this tale without a clear understanding of the zones that have, in a shadowy kind of way, made up our world for a very long time. I grant you that in 2020, there aren’t any physical signs that delineate the demarcations between the zones, but anyone who has even a slight understanding of the modern world should be able to understand what Professor Watson is talking about. These zones have existed since at least the Industrial Revolution in the 1880’s, and the venomous shadows that lurked in 1880 are becoming terrifying monsters that have attained a life of their own.

At any rate, the professor predicts that this country, for legal and financial purposes, will officially be divided into nine zones by 2034, and while the government will refer to the zones by their numbers, Professor Watson thought it more appropriate to attach descriptive designations to them that more properly described their inhabitants. Generally, the zones were determined by the average amount of income that its inhabitants earned, although in the cases of Zones Six and Seven, cultural factors played a significant role. It’s also important to mention that Professor Watson theorized that each zone, while still under the nominal control of the national government, would develop their own forms of local government—governments that varied from the very autocratic to the worst kind of lawless anarchy. These zonal governments had the power to enforce their own laws and punish citizens who violated those laws—up to and including the execution of the lawbreakers. 

Professor Watson also theorized that guns would play a much more significant role by 2040 and that there would be large areas in the major cities, especially in Zone Nine, where the rule of law, while non-existent in any traditional sense, would be maintained by various individuals and gangs who possessed the necessary firepower to subdue those that they felt were undesirable.

With various edits, here is the introduction to The Future of Class Warfare and the Demise of the Common Man by Charles Albert Watson: 

Zone One is ruled and occupied by the dragons—a very small group of fabulously wealthy people, the multi-billionaires, who live in colossal mansions that are located in the most scenic parts of the country. Anyone below Zone Three who ventures to tread into Zone One without a legitimate excuse will be arrested and charged with criminal trespassing, which will carry, for a Zone One intrusion, a minimum sentence of five years at one of the large national penitentiaries that will be built in various swamps and deserts throughout the country. The hundred-million-dollar mansions of the dragons are surrounded by numerous defense mechanisms, including moats, guard dogs, and electrified fences. This is the zone where the movers and shakers live, and their influence on society through the power of their vast wealth will be enormous. Unfortunately, a characteristic of the dragon culture is that even though a great show is made of creating charitable institutions and donating to them, the principal interest of a dragon will always be the maintenance and expansion of his or her wealth. 

Zone Two is populated by the vultures. These people are also fabulously rich and will have at least five billion dollars in assets. However, the vultures are those who have not yet reached the thirty- billion-dollar mark, which is a requirement for admission to Zone One. Almost without exception, the residents of Zone Two will have made their money in the stock market where they will have been fortunate enough to escape the various crashes that plague this barbaric system of (so-called) investment. Thus, the typical vultures will ride the up markets to somewhere near their peaks and then sell their stocks when the market begins to plunge. Once the market nears a low, the vultures will not miss their opportunity to profit on the financial dead flesh—a euphemism for the ordinary investor who has, financially speaking, been turned into a carcass in the broiling heat of another major market meltdown.

The sharks rule in Zone Three—these people are multi-millionaires and have a bit of an attitude since, on occasion, they have to associate with people who live in Zones Four, Five, and Six. Mostly, the inhabitants of Zone Three are successful businessmen who make their money, gangster style, by orchestrating buyouts of smaller businesses, which are then swallowed up whole by the usual swarm of conglomerates with which the sharks are associated. Naturally, it isn’t necessary to threaten the smaller businesses at gunpoint—the standard method that the sharks employ is to open a store that sells similar products next to the targeted store and then sell those products at half price until the victim store goes belly up with a loud financial belch. Very genteel—at least compared to 1890. Another characteristic of Zone Three people is that they produce most of our politicians nowadays. They are certainly well-equipped for the task as these people have long been recognized as the acknowledged masters of graft, bribery, vote fixing, and the wide variety of swindles that are so common among those who have been elected to office.

Zone Four is inhabited by the Prima Donnas. These people are independently wealthy, sometimes through an inheritance, but other than their wealth, they don’t have a great deal going for them. It’s true that many of them hold high-paying jobs in the educational or medical fields and have made their fortunes as professors, college presidents, doctors, and surgeons. But although the inhabitants of Zone Four have fat bank accounts, they are looked down upon by those in Zones One to Three. For one thing, the Prima Donnas’ pretensions to knowledge are more than a little annoying to those who have thousand-dollar bills bulging out of their pockets. Zone Four people also like to participate in the political process and will run for various offices, but they usually encounter rough seas because they are a little too honest to succeed in an arena that is nothing but a spectacular smorgasbord of corruption.

The Orphans live in Zone Five. Most of them aren’t actually orphans, of course, but they are termed orphans because they are caught between the rich and the poor. Here, in this Zone, are the first people who carry debt, whether it is credit card debt or a mortgage. The bank accounts of the orphans can hardly be called obscene or even moderately hefty, but they often live in fancy neighborhoods where the houses sell for well over a half million dollars. Usually, the orphans have made their money through high-paying jobs in the business world where they can be found as executives and small business owners. However, the Prima Donnas laugh at the absurd strivings of the orphans to gain admittance to Zone Four, and those in the lower zones feel that the orphans are pitiful wretches who have sold their souls for a little bit of status. Thus, they have lived as orphans—ostracized from any real respect by those above and below them.

Zone Six is inhabited by the misfits. This is the zone that contains what might be called traditional people who have a strong belief in religion and attend church on a regular basis. Because churches are now mostly seen as thoroughly antiquated relics of an outmoded belief system, the people who inhabit this zone have a great deal of difficulty adapting to the general agnosticism of the times. Sometimes, to be fair, the pompous assertions of science go well beyond agnosticism and trumpet a kind of violent and sociopathic atheism where Darwin’s deceptively dangerous philosophy of the survival of the fittest now holds sway over the vast majority of the populace. (According to the professor, the pandemic-like proliferation of guns when combined with the murderous philosophy inherent in the survival of the fittest are hardly a recipe for a sane society, and I would not be one to argue with him on this point.)

Economically, the inhabitants of Zone Six are disadvantaged by their unwillingness to adapt to modern society, and although they are not destitute because they are hard workers and mostly frugal spenders, these folks are rather short of money and very short on exerting any real influence either culturally or economically. As they live out their lives in the