Chapter 1 - China, Shattered
[Lilly Mason rejects the term "LaMOE." "Swiss Family Robinson" could be a more accurate description of our surroundings. I am seated on a stump at the Masons' rough-hewn kitchen table. The Mormon tea does little to settle my stomach as strong winds sway their treetop home. The crackled view through the plastic sheeting window is stunning nonetheless. I can understand why the Masons have resisted the option to relocate to a proper settlement.]
We had an obsession. The apocalypse was just around the corner, we told ourselves. It had to be nuclear. It was inevitable, really. With so many silos and hidden, converted barns ready to fire plutonium across continents, we knew that was the way we'd go. Probably China, from the look of things.
Or so we thought.
[She pauses to watch a spindly toddler playing on the rug. Chubby babies are still a thing of the past in many areas, although infant mortality is falling.]
By midterms, our picture of the world was changing. First, the weird news stories we'd come across in physics... Rabies, riots, China falling silent. China was what worried us. They had nukes. They had the treasury. We thought these stories were a plant: something to take our enlightened minds off the radiation cloud horrors that were really coming! The end of the world was no longer just to shoot the shit while knocking back a few. It looked like it could happen for real. Tomorrow, even! Kate stopped coming to our parties. She said we were being stupid, that she didn't buy it. Our "discussion groups" took a more frantic tone. We started talking for real about making a stand. Guerilla tactics, we decided. Micah stole potassium iodide from the chemistry lab and hid it in a backpack filled with a fortune in dehydrated camping food.
Did these plans go into action?
No.
What did happen?
Lots.
[She sighs, a half-smile flickering on her face. She begins again, albeit slowly.]
Months went by and not so much as a blip on the media radar. Zombies! was the new word thrown around the dwindling classes. People were getting scared, wanted to be with their families. And then there were more stories, Phalanx and all. Sophie was the only one to get it. She was the only one with good insurance. We congratulated ourselves on our foresight. We chose a university in the mountains! We were 100 miles from every city! Scholarships had nothing to do with it! But the cases rattled us. Campus TV even ran a report about a roomful of tourists on the way to the Grand Canyon. All infected, all locked in, right there in the city of Flagstaff! It was some of the best reporting they'd ever done.
By the time the Great Panic hit Phoenix, we were true believers. The living dead limping across our television screens, crawling up against cacti, throwing shadows against the citrus trees… No one could deny that this was our most pressing threat. Forget China. The living dead were snapping at our heels. At first it was only in the barrios. SWAT teams and county health would sweep in and "set things right" with black vans and automatic weapons. There were protests, a bit of cheering from the anti-immigration crowd, but they hushed up real fast after the Hensen affair.
[The Hensen affair was a well-publicized zombie attack within the gated community of Saguaro Ranch. Mr. Patrick Hensen returned infected from an overseas business trip. Security cameras within the family mansion captured the attack and were heavily broadcast by several major news networks. Hensen relatives are currently involved in a lawsuit over royalties.]
Cars started pouring through town. The highways were packed. Enterprising city planners started setting up detours, telling cars to drive around town, to not get bottle-necked on the two lanes of Route 66 that ran through the historic district. Cars ran straight through and ended up idling for hours. An ex-roommate of mine made bank selling snacks through car windows. She was gloating the last time I saw her. The rest of us knew it was time to go.