There is a famous experiment and you've probably heard about it. The experimenter took a frog and put it into a pot of boiling water. Naturally, the frog immediately leapt out. No surprise there.
But then... the experimenter took the frog and put it in a pot of cool water and then gradually raised the temperature until the water was boiling. And this time it didn't jump out. It just sat there as it slowly cooked to death.
What is the takeaway from this?
• Frogs are idiots.
• The experimenter was clearly a serial killer in training.
• People will believe anything if there are bullet points.
Because this experiment is obviously a myth.* I mean, have you ever met a frog? Of course it will leap out of boiling water. Hell, a frog will leap out of any kind of water. Why? Because it's a frog! And leaping is what frogs do. That is literally the thing that frogs are most famous for. Jeez.
That said, there is a toy surprise of truth in that Crackerjack box of nonsense. Because unlike the Robot Apocalypse which happened suddenly and all at once, the Zombie Apocalypse crept up on us gradually. In the beginning, it was just some strange and seemingly disconnected incidents scattered across the country. The people involved knew that they had encountered... something but initially they didn't even put a name to what it was, much less truly apprehended the scope of the Zombie threat.
Humanity sat in its bathtub, unaware that they were slowly being boiled alive.
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*And when I say "obviously a myth" I mean it was obvious to Lucas. I always thought it was true. But Lucas taught me a valuable lesson about the importance of questioning my own assumptions and in return I taught Lucas a valuable lesson about unseemly gloating. (Hint: It also involved boiling water and a dead frog.)