World War Zed

10. Interview with: Sigur Thormarsson (Part 2)

Hamrabyrgi, Faroe Islands

Interview with: Sigur Thormarsson (Part 2)

Sigur and I carry on the interview after a huge meal: a superb fish supper at a mass feast that seemed to involve most of the Island, although as my host explains, most are relatives of some sort or other. Sigur leaves his vast family drinking and laughing in the main room of the house, and ushers me into his study or "man room" as his wife laughingly calls it.

Books, weapons, hunting trophies, and even a narwhal horn decorate the walls of this beautiful wood-panelled room, the window at the back looking out over the ocean to the south.

Sigur pours me a massive shot of Schnapps, and we sit in companionable silence for a few minutes, watching the fire shoot sparks up the chimney into the night sky. After a few moments of contemplation, he rejoins his story.

"We party a lot these days. There is much to be thankful for, much to remember. One thing this war has taught us is to live for the moment and recognise the importance of friends and family. Yet we almost lost everything."

"I'm sure you saw the defences in the port as you came onto the island. We built the majority of those during the first few months of the War. Thankfully, we are a determined, tough, and hardy people. Our ancestors were bred for war and it seems, through bitter experience, that a lot of that is still true today.

"These islands are rocky. There are few inlets, and few ports. As soon as we got back home from our horrific fishing trip, we set about warning everyone as to what we had seen, and the Island Government set in motion plans to defend ourselves.

"We shut the airport, refusing permission to most flights who tried to land. A few we allowed if they had run out of fuel, or were carrying supplies that could prove useful. I think we all knew we were in for a long haul. All passengers were put into quarantine on arrival, and once clear were allowed to stay and join in the general defence of the island. Those who were infected were offered the stark choice of waiting for the change or leaving the island. Most chose to leave, but I suspect some of them came moaning back to us later on.

"We started using dogs to detect the Infected; for some reason, they knew who was carrying the virus.

"Everything that came onto the islands was completely controlled. All ships trying to dock were warned away by the few naval vessels we had, and all around the ports and inlets, we put up fences, barbed wire, walls, and barricades. Anything really that would hold up the things that walked up out of the sea.

"Thankfully, we had our own power generation facilities on the islands. Because of this, we were still able to contact the remnants of some of the still functioning governments around the world, and of course the space station as it sped overhead, communicating whatever useful information they could. Brave men and women they were too. From our occasional communications, we learnt that Iceland was dead, that the British had retreated back to their little island off the south coast, and that the French were the first to get hit by a swarm, being virtually destroyed apart from those who had managed to retreat to the heights of the Alps or the Pyrenees.

"We stayed here and fought. What else could we do? We repelled anything that shambled out from the seas, and we kept our little islands Zombie free.

"As with most people around the world, we very quickly ran out of ammunition for guns and had no option but to resort to hand-to-head fighting. We worked out tactics to deal with them, depending on where we were on the islands.

"In the narrow coves and inlets, it was relatively easy. One thing we have here is lots of rocks. When you're at the top of the cliff and the Zombie is at the bottom, you could quite often catch them in the head with a rock and disable them before they even reached dry land. The kids on the islands are very good shots now, and we had a league table for years. My youngest daughter has many trophies.