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The first report of a suspicious-looking person attacking and canabilizing another human being is reported. Within 7 days of the report, over 120,000 similar reports are made. At first there is heated debate as to what is causing these strange, dead-looking people to attack and canabilize other people. After extensive observation of the culprits and many eye-witness reports of persons mortally wounded suddenly rising to their feet and engaging in canabilistic attacks, the public begins to agree on a common explanation. For some inexplicable reason, the bodies of the recently dead are coming back to life and eating the living. Something is allowing these bodies to continue to function, and all they seem to think about is food – human flesh. What is known about them is that they are sluggish, not very strong, and generally harmless on their own. However, the problem is that they are almost always encountered in groups, and that is when they become dangerous. The only known way to permanently disable them is the destroy their brain. The method doesn't matter, so long as the brain is decimated sufficiently so as to end all neural functions within it. A gunshot to the head does the trick almost every time. Occasionally one of these "zombies" will continue to move after taking a gunshot to the head, but in an extremely uncoordinated, almost random manner. Fortunately, there has never been a report of one of them withstanding a second shot to the head. Decapitation is full-proof to kill them, but most people are too weary to move in close and cut the head off of one of the beasts. It is also impractical to attempt decapitation against them when they are encountered in groups larger than 2-3.

It has been over ten years since this horror began. People now generally refer to these walking dead as "ghouls" or "zombies." The cause of this phenomenon is still not known, but there are many teams of scientists around the globe working hard to find the answer. The battle against the zombies has not been going well. People's emotions tend to cloud their judgement in matters like this, and unfortunately most deaths at the hands of the zombies come because the living victim couldn't bring theirself to kill the zombie. Because of this, and several other factors, the zombies now account for approximately 35% of the world's population by most estimations. There has been one benefit to come out of all of this – for Uncle Sam – military enlistment is at an all-time high, and people are volunteering by the thousands for protection forces and regional militia. The military, particularly the Navy, are the only safe people in the world. However, many analysts project that the world's supply of guns and ammunition may not be sufficient to rid the world of all zombies if something were to happen that prevented production. Therefore, a massive global project is put underway to develop weapons that can exert destructive force using only energy.

The global zombie situation has deteriorated to the point of almost total loss. The war against the undead is all but over, and the living have lost. The bulk of the world's survivors are military personnel, mostly United States Navy. The Navy SEALs are the only untouched demographic on the planet. The United States Navy are the world's premiere zombie-killing force, logging over 100,000 kills per week. However, many feel that it is all for not. Most experts agree that the zombie population now outnumbers the true-living population by 420,000 to 1. There are only about 15,000 true-living human beings left on the planet. Most consider the war against the zombies to be hopeless. However, the United States Navy continues its daily bombardments of coastal cities, and the Navy SEALs continue their amphibious assaults and raids, searching for survivors on the mainland of the United States. Many feel that there could be survivors on the mainland somewhere, perhaps in old underground bunkers, but there is no way to know for sure.

Thanks to the efforts of the United States Navy, the zombie population has been reduced significantly, and the true-living population has actually increased. Most of the first generation of post-zombie babies are now celebrating their 10^th birthday. The US Navy has logged and confirmed over 50 million zombie kills, and their efforts have not faltered. Also, this is the year in which the human race was handed another gift. Scientists under the employ of the US Navy have finally perfected an energy-powered weapon capable of destroying a zombie in a single shot. A prototype weapon has been in use for some time, but it takes multiple shots to weaken and penetrate a zombie's head. This new weapon, dubbed the EG-443 (for Energy Gun version 443), releases a very powerful shot that easily vaporizes a third of a zombie's body. It is powered by a self-charging energy cell which is good for an almost infinite number of shots. Forty of the weapons are produced, and they are given to a platoon of US Navy SEALs for a field test. On August 29, 1996, the legendary SEAL Team 9 went ashore at Charleston, South Carolina to begin the first of the fabled "Messiah Raids." Over the course of 90 days, armed with the EG-443s, SEAL Team 9 logs over 315,000 zombie kills. All forty members of the team return safely, and the EG-443s test out at an average of 99.992% power remaining. This is the final advancement which turns the war on the undead back into the favor of the true-living humans.

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