Page 2

There was mass panic as the news broke, people in the urban centres fleeing for their lives as the infection spread. Roads became congested, trains stopped, airplanes grounded. All measures were taken to try and stop the spread but nothing worked, the stupidity and ignorance of the general populace prevented them from working. People turned to religion for comfort and protection and paid a high price for their beliefs. Don’t get me wrong I’m all for religion because everyone needs something to believe in, whether you worship God, Allah or Buddha, but when "something" is spreading from person to person with horrible consequences and your religion incites you to go sit in a small building huddled shoulder to shoulder with the person next to you is when it becomes a very bad idea.

By the time we were officially told to run for it the military had tried to stop the spread and failed. Travel restrictions were enforced and cordons erected but I don’t think that they fully understood the nature of the beast, hell they didn’t even believe in actual zombies until they came face to face with them, then again neither did I. You could set them on fire, try to drown them, nothing but destroying the brain worked. Once word got out that you had to shoot them in the head things got a little easier but not by much.

Our first major loss to the undead horde came about because my superiors in the military refused to believe in zombies, that the events unfolding was just mass hysteria but we didn’t have enough men or ammunition for the sheer numbers involved. The grand plan was to retake Manhattan Island from the rabid masses for use as an island fortress, a large safe haven that was easily defended. It was surrounded by water on all sides and only a few entrances and exits, it actually made perfect sense it couldn’t easily be assaulted and the depths and currents of the rivers kept a water assault out of the question. We were on the Brooklyn Bridge and our orders were to barricade the bridge and send in fire teams to do a street to street sweep. The teams had lost before they even began quickly becoming overwhelmed and consumed. Thirty minutes after the last radio went silent we knew there was trouble brewing. Forty five minutes after the fire teams had vanished without a trace the zombies shambled up the bridge on ramps and headed for the barricades, our own fire teams part of the shambling horde. The sniper teams opened up at long range and dropped as many as they could but there were too many, we opened fire with everything we had. High command figured this would be a cakewalk and didn’t bother to provide any vehicle or naval support, so we ended up fighting for hours to try and stem the tide, the bridge running red and the bodies piled four or five high but eventually we started running low on ammo. Imagine 20 million zombies all massing at 5 or 6 points, no one in the world has enough ammunition to stop that sort of nonsense.

As a last ditch effort we retreated back to Brooklyn and blew the bridge, finishing off any zombies that managed to survive the blast. Thank god for C4, we heard over the radio nobody else was having much luck either, blowing their assets not long after us. Once word finally got to high command about what had happened they knew we were all in deep shit without a spoon to dog with and still they didn’t learn. I don’t know if it was arrogance or ignorance on the part of everyone in charge but it seemed that nobody wanted to believe what was happening or maybe they had George Bush Syndrome – they sat around with their fingers in their ears refusing to listen to what anyone was telling them and making snap decisions with only half the facts. Either way it led to our second biggest loss, the massacre of Battery Park. Most of the survivors you meet will try to tell you it was the "Battle of Battery Park", however this is technically incorrect as there was no actual fighting, just lots of dying.

This was the military’s second attempt at retaking Manhattan Island. Luckily I had kept all my equipment and heard the orders filter out from the commanding officers. I imagine no one could quite believe what they were hearing, I couldn’t but orders are orders. Their brilliant idea was to erect barriers walling off a large section of the park then set up camp using the soldiers on the inside of the barrier as bait and simply wait for the zombies to arrive. Once plenty of zombies turned up for the show or meal depending on how you look at it, then simply use navy destroyers to shell them from offshore. I don’t know how the hell they thought this idea would work any better than the last one. I witnessed the whole thing from New Jersey, having deserted not long after the first disaster. I was making my way south towards Florida, no one could survive a New York winter without proper shelter and proper shelter meant zombies clawing at the walls. I watched from a hill hidden by a copse of fruit trees as the helicopters lifted the gigantic concrete blocks into place one by one. I didn’t have too much to worry about as the army was more interested in the zombies than deserters and I doubt they could keep track of everyone lost during the battles anyway.

[ Continue to page 3 ]