Survivor 1
November 3, 2008: Time is something that most of us don't have. Time, I remember when that word used to have some meaning in my life. When I finally decided to form a bond with myself and a companion, the gates of hell opened and spit these creatures out. Surviving is something that most of us cling to. Surviving, I remember when that word did not have a meaning in my life. Now it's us in here and them outside, they who shamble upon the night and who used to be like us. It's selfish for me to say it but it's true, now they're nothing like us.
I recall when the first events occurred, how naïve we were to believe that the powerful United States was going to protect us from every single virus here on earth. The virus struck in the form of a harmless flu. It was pathetic seeing how each country blamed each other and how they spoke about a pandemic yet nobody did anything. There were experts in the radio blaming everything from pigs to deodorants. I recall one of these so called experts and their absurd comments "Thanks to China, we were introduced to this new flu, first they brought SARS and then this!", although it did elicit a chuckle out of me, it was wrong.
Our neighborhood lived in peace; we did not care about this virus spreading rapidly throughout the country and killing Americans. We lived our own lives; I lived my own life but yet… It took a while before we heard the word that James Vincent, our neighbor from across the street had fallen in bed thanks to the flu. Nobody realized, nobody…
Now, I know that the word for these "things" is zombies, yet I do not like to call them zombies. These were our people, these were our families. The attacks increased as the days passed by, the "clean" neighbors got together one night and decided what had to be done. We needed to quarantine the fallen ones. Sadly, it was too late before we came to the realization of this virus.
Our country misled us, our leader lied to us. I remember one time in a presidential speech how he announced measures to protect against this virus. "Wash your hands after you cough, if you feel sick stay at home." It was a bunch of shit, he knew as every single leader knew that this was more than a simple virus. How many of us have fallen thanks to their hypocrisy? I remember how my life was shattered thanks to them.
James Vincent's funeral was on April 13 of last. We remember how the reverend gave him the last rites; we remember how his wife hugged the coffin. I specifically remember how Alma (my fiancée) tried to calm James's wife. I remember how that coffin opened up and a hand grabbed Alma, I remember how James popped up from the casket and looked at her with those vacant empty eyes. I remember how he bit her hand and tore her flesh. I remember how she cried out to me and I remember how I struggled to set her free from his grasp.
The hospital was a madhouse and we could not fathom what just happened. That man was dead without a doubt but yet he… It was unbelievable. That day in the hospital was horrible; many people were being admitted with bites. I recall how I sat down with a patient in the emergency lobby and how he related to me the symptoms which I'm about to relate to you.
"I have been having these headaches for a couple of days and they have been ridiculous. It's unbelievable the pain that I'm suffering and how thirsty I feel. "
Suddenly, I felt really scared from Alma but I could not do anything; feeling impotent I stepped outside as the doctors worked on her and who knows how many more. The wind was blowing from the East, the hot air invading my body. An explosion rocked the parking lot that left me dazzled for a couple of seconds. I turned my back towards the hospital and it looked the same, but then I turned my face towards the highway and I saw a big ball of fire, then out of the ball of fire I saw a couple of them walkers shambling their way towards the hospital.
Ran far away from Mercy, my Alma is there waiting for me but I left her. Found a colony of people hiding in a church, finally some rest.
The scientist
December 2, 2008: From the first day that we heard how the infection was out of control in our neighboring country from the south, we tried to talk to the higher ups but to no surprise they refused to acknowledge everything. We knew that this virus was capable in transforming itself into a pandemic with catastrophic proportions, we also knew the effect that it was going to have on the economy but by God we never could have guessed that the recently dead from the virus were going to wake up again.
It sounds odd isn't it? The dead returning to life and attacking the living, it reminds me of that black and white movie from a long time ago. My boss realized that something had to be done before the virus spread throughout the United States and although a few cases were present from this virus, the government downplayed everything from the first cases in New York to the first death of a child thanks to this. My boss was instructed by an organization (of which I am not allowed to disclose its name) to offer a positive view on the president and basically lie to the millions of Americans. We were going to slaughter them and do nothing about it, we lied to the man in charge of the city.
The first test subject arrived after a few months of this epidemic, we being the scientists decided to tie him up to a harness and wait for it to wake up; it was eventually going to wake up. By this time the president knew the truth but he could not contain the scandal, it was the end of his political career that started with a bang when he won the election by a landslide.
Many people debated in how to destroy these walkers, they were us but there were some reports that they did not fall down after being shot multiple times. How were we going to terminate this threat? It might sound silly but I decided to read fiction books about zombies, there was one good book that dealt with a zombie epidemic the same that we are dealing with and although I found out that the walkers were easy to kill, the epidemic was still there and for 2 of them that we got rid of 6 others came back to life. (Good book anyways, it's a great recount of a zombie epidemic.)
Should we call them zombies? I don't know if we should but what other better term to describe them? What other better term to describe how my son awoke at night and how he attacked his mother, how he looked at me with those vacant eyes and… God, I'm sorry I cannot continue writing this.
"Kill them by severing the heads of destroying the brain"
"The dead have returned to life"
Let me return first towards the early days of the epidemic and how this paranoia translated on the media. Funny thing is one time when the world was the way it was before, I saw one guy in a supermarket laughing at a tabloid newspaper's front cover, he showed it to me and laughed.
"The dead have returned to life in New York"
For the first time, the tabloids were reporting the truth and nobody believed them.
Survivor 2
April 1, 2008: It's hard not to keep a written journal when there's outrage over many things in the world today, I've seen shit before in Vietnam and Laos, I've killed people before and if the thing is as bad as they say it is going to be then it's better to stay prepared.
It's been a few hours and I have been reflecting on something, I need to leave this place. I need to go to a bar even if those bums laugh at the way that I'm dressed, I'm a proud veteran of the armed forces and I'll be damned if any living or dead thing is going to stop me from fulfilling my duty.
April 4, 2008: Went to the bar for a couple of drinks and met a few people, some of the regulars were not there which was strange. The strangest thing was that Francis the owner of the bar had to kick one crazy hobo knocking at the bar window, he bit an average Joe coming into the bar. Strange things are occurring in this godforsaken city and there is nothing that we can do.
Survivor 3
March 29, 2008: As a woman I was taught how to defend myself from assholes like Adam (my boyfriend). But nobody taught me how to defend against that Hobo who tried to take advantage of me yesterday, is he stalking me? I have a bad headache and I don't want to go out outside, I'm afraid of everything going on, there is something going on with this virus but I can't put my finger on it. The president wants up to live our lives normally but how can we do that when hundreds are falling sick every single day?
April 4, 2008: Feeling better and I'm going to say hello to Francis today, maybe help around the bar for a bit.
It's late night and there are a few people left including the army veteran and some others. We got a scare when a crazy guy knocked on the window (could not see him well, his face was covered by a hood). Is it the same guy following me? Impossible!
It's him! He bit one of our regulars who was just coming in, Francis is grabbing his shotgun as we speak while I'm calling the cops.
A few minutes have passed by and the strange attacker has vanished out of thin air, where the hell is he?
The bitten customer had to be carried by 4 people inside the ambulance being as he is a bit on the heavy side, Francis laughed at this but being the kind of asshole that he is I wasn't too mad because I was expecting him to do that.
Survivor 4
April 5, 2008: What the hell was Z expecting me to do? It was funny! That fat ass fell from the gurney 2 times and had to be carried away. On a much serious note, I have to find that strange man who is harassing my patrons and I swear to God that when I find him I'm going to blow his fucking head off.