Viruses are not living, if you believe in the scientific definition of life. Yet they are not inanimate either. They are on the edge, the grey area between the black and white of reality. Viruses consist of two components; an outer protein shell, and DNA on the inside of the shell used for reproduction. They are efficient at surviving, though they aren't actually "alive". They can systematically annihilate any living tissue they wish and manipulate it to do their bidding. So why aren't they considered alive? The reason is because they aren't self aware…or rather weren't. It doesn't matter now though. It is too late to change the definition now. Most of the world has succumbed to this plague already. Soon it will be the rest of us. The virus has not only become self aware but socially organized. It teams up and consumes people with extreme efficiency, killing the host in less than a day. But that's not all. Once the host has died and complex body functions have ceased, the virus manipulates the countless cells of the body and bring back basic movement to the corpse. Then they use the vessel to spread their kind as fast as possible. We call these vessels "zombies". If these "zombies" weren't enough to fear, the virus is. It is able to spread throughout the air as it always has, and every breath taken can be a fatal one. What was once the common cold is now a zombie spawning pandemic, and there is nothing that be done.