World War Zed

16. Snippets of Conversation

Snippets of Conversation

What follows are a collection of small snippets of odd conversations and / or the various recollections of people who I have met or talked to online over the years since the end of the war. Sometimes I can remember the names, sometimes they are changed to protect the person involved or due to security, but they are all very much true.

Craig, US Infantry, Boston

"I was already a soldier before the war started, so when we started drafting any survivors we found, I ended up as a Sergeant due to my army experience. I was involved in operations right back from the withdrawal from the northeastern states, through the defence of the Rockies, and then on through the years as we headed back east clearing the towns and cities as we went.

"We saw all sorts of weird shit, but the weirdest was definitely the kid. We found him, living an absolute shit hole. He'd been scavenging for God only knows how long, and we have absolutely no idea how he'd avoided all the Zeds. I say kid, he must've been a kid at the time of the outbreak, but by the time we got to him he was an adult, albeit a small one.

The place he lived in was pretty secure; big high walls, a good gate, and so on. We only knew he was there when the infra-red cameras picked him up. Quite a few people used to hide from us. Some due to trauma, some had set up their own little Kingdoms and didn't want to give up their little fiefdoms, and some were just nutjobs.

"This kid was different from all of them though. He was hiding from us, and once we got inside the house we understood why. His mother was chained to a bed upstairs. She was Infected, but through some freak of nature, she couldn't moan like the others so she lay there thrashing away, wearing her limbs to bloodless stumps. He'd swathed her in sheets and tied them down so that by the time we got there all you could see was her head snapping away.

"That's not the worst part though. He'd been feeding her. We found some IDs and stuff in the mess downstairs. The kid had been out killing survivors, and had then chopped them up and brought them home to feed her, or enticed them back to his rats nest, we never found out. Unfortunately, he legged it shortly after we got there and we didn't manage to catch up with him due to his knowledge of the area. God only knows what happened to the poor beggar.

We had to shoot what was left of his Mom.

Eugene, Runners Corp, Kenya

Prior to the War, I was a long-distance runner. I got picked up by the South African police during the start of the Infection and they quickly realised I might be useful to them.

I spent my time running backward and forwards between outposts. All the power stations had gone to automatic shutdown at the start of the War, so until we managed to re-capture them, we had few means of reliable communication.

I never ran so far and as fast as I did on the day I saw the first swarm though. There was a wall of moaning, staggering undead as far as the eye could see. As the ones at the front sensed me, they set up a moaning that spread to the entire horde. Hundreds of thousands of Zeds all moaning at me in a massive chain swarm that went on for kilometre after kilometre; I froze for a few minutes, stunned by the volume and sheer terror. Then, along with various small creatures, a couple of antelope, and a scared looking cheetah, I ran like all the hounds of hell were behind me. 

They were.

Tarno, Seychelles

I was fishing off the island when I saw them rise out of the water like some sort of grey unholy tide. The men and boys who were mending their nets on the beach didn't stand a chance, and I watched as they were ripped apart and devoured in front of my eyes.