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They're people first. Infected sounds icky, and I'm not a girly-girl who's afraid of bugs. I grew up on a farm—my first pet was a spider named Laverne. But icky has nasty connotations. And 'zombie' sounds like the product of voodoo, and voodoo didn't do this." Billie takes a deep breath and blows it out into the phone.

"So what do you call them?"

"I wanted to call them 'Others' but Lost ruined it, so I called them non-people, or non-peeps. That reminded me of those marshmallow treats at Easter time."

"How about 'Those Things?'" you ask.

"Hmmm…that could be anything. 'Hey, keep your eye out for Those Things.' And you could mean…chickens or something."

"How about 'Zeds?'"

"No, I have an Uncle Zed. Real name's Zedediah, but that's a mouthful. He's my favorite uncle, so if you say 'look out—Zed,' my first reaction might be 'oh cool, it's my uncle.' So in lieu of a better euphemism, I'm going with 'Goon.' No one likes a goon, but they're often just misunderstood."

With that topic covered, you say…