It has been known by many names: "The Crisis", "The Dark Years", "The Walking Plague", and the most common title, 'World War Z". I need not go into deep detail of what it is I'm referring to, after all it's hard to imagine that humanity will not have its events burned into its collective psyche for at least another thousand years if not longer, the global war that was raged against the undead still needs to be studied while we still have memories that can be tapped into while they are still relatively fresh. At the time of writing my original report to the UN Security Council, it had been approximately twenty years since the first cases of the virus were recorded in China, and just ten years since the official declaration of the war being "over" in that same country, but even after so long the word "zombie" continues to conjure fear unlike any other known in the history of human language. This document was originally meant to be a secondary research document to be attached to the overall United Nations Post-War report that was commissioned to do a comprehensive study on the human history of the conflict, focusing on the countless Men and Women who served in the front lines as members of militaries, law enforcement, or intelligence agencies and their experiences in combating the living dead.
Odds are, however, that you, the current reader, are not a member of the United Nations, which is rather the point of this updated and "open" publication. I do not pretend to ever compete with the complex and brilliant nonfiction work written by my colleague, Max Brooks, who transformed his part of the report into a brilliant conveyance of both human suffering and determination that shined throughout those dark days. Rather, I seek to build upon what he laid out for future generations, to fill in gaps that he was not able to access in his own limited scope of information and people he was able to access in interviews of non-classified materials. In the time since the publishing of his novel, a mountain of Freedom of Information requests have been sent to the US Government along with cries for transparency of the overall United Nations Armed Forces command to give the survivors a better picture of what actually happened in the leadup to and during the war itself. This tireless work by both activists and citizens alike was rewarded when the International Community created the "Alexandria Agreement" that would allow the declassification of many military and intelligence operations that had hitherto been kept secret. I was given permission by the UN Post War Committee to publish the interviews I conducted during my own part of the historical mission (with the agreement that I would not seek monetary gain from my work) and ensured that all the participants would allow me to put their names out in the public domain.
Within that vein, I must also offer an apology to those whose voices I was not able to hear. Most of those I was given access to interview were those who were part of the American Military and their allies in the Old World, as even to this day the Holy Russian Empire has closed its archives to the world, the new Chinese Republic is working tirelessly to collect an accurate archive of accounts and documents, and far too much of what was written was lost in the cataclysm of war. Perhaps one day in the future, I will be able to make another volume of this publication after the records of more heroes emerge from their current obscurity. It would be the very least someone like me could do.
I suppose it's only right that I give a summary of my own background if only to show my own credentials in these matters. It's important to stress that I am not nor was I a soldier who carried the heaviest of burdens before or during the conflict. I spent my days in the pre-war world as a small-town psychologist, being one of the fortunate citizens on the US East Coast to be evacuated by the Military to the west of the Rocky Mountains into the safe zone before my home was completely overrun. I was then drafted into the Armed Forces to serve as a moral monitor on the Frontlines, doing very little fighting myself in lieu of ensuring those who were clearing the way were fit enough in the mind and soul to carry on in such things. I was fortunate enough to witness true actions of bravery and selfishness along with the struggles that those souls had to endure to reclaim our planet. Through that experience, I can confidently say that I hold nothing but awe for those who carried on the brutal fighting that lasted for so many years, and one of the reasons I am so passionate about ensuring that their voices can be heard. Even if this limited capacity is all I can offer.
Doctor Eric Vincent, 1st Division Combat Psychologist (Ret.)
