Mostly Dead

Prologue

—early reports from outside the Safe Zone indicate that the Brücks Protocol has proved mostly ineffective. The crisis appears to have been exacerbated by the empowering of civilians to take up arms, with squads of looters moving in force and further hampering any attempts by the military to contain isolated threats. As yet, no news has emerged from the U.N regarding the proposed synthesis of a workable vaccine, with the most recent official word being that a possible antidote to B-R1616 is still “a long way off”.

On Wednesday the Head of the British Army, Gen Sir Robert Choice, issued orders to evacuate uninfected citizens from another four highly populated areas. The military has been working hard since Thursday morning to clear FARNSWORTH, Manchester; THETFORD, Norfolk; CORBY, Northamptonshire and UTTOXETER, Staffordshire. These towns are now designated Burn Zones. As always, if you have family or friends in these towns DO NOT ATTEMPT TO REACH THEM. Personnel lists are available from your nearest Safe Zone Information Centre.

Official word from the White House is that the US is undergoing similar procedures in accordance with Operation: Cleanse and Burn, and have seen a considerable success rate in isolating and eradicating large groups of infected. President Michael Lawrence appeared on an emergency broadcast on Thursday evening to reassure people that the crisis was being brought under control, and that “this generation’s Great War will be fought – and won – in the same way as any other in history. The evil we face is different, but our resolve, our determination, our will to win, remains the same.” Rousing words from President Lawrence, and sentiments likely to be repeated when Prime Minister Anne Kelly gives a similar broadcast on the newly instigated BBC Emergency Broadcast Channel this Friday.

In related news, recent reports of further mutations to B-R1616 are—

Partial newspaper clipping, dated Sept 7th 2013, Day 23 of Infection.

- THE BIRTH OF ‘BIG RED’ -

- or -

- WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE BOMBS WENT OFF -

No one saw the end of the world coming. Even while it was happening people looked the other way, found little things in their lives to focus on instead. They tried to ignore the news, tried not to read the papers or listen to the radio. The majority didn’t want to accept what might be happening, or they didn’t believe that what might be happening was real.

I wasn’t in London on August 15th 2013, when a global terrorist network called the Church of Our Inevitable Fate detonated a high altitude burst explosive above Waterloo Station. It was one of fifteen separate attacks perpetrated on a handful of capital cities the world over – attacks that no one could have predicted, with ramifications that no one could have imagined.

I saw it on the news. In nine of the fifteen cities, someone had been close enough to the launch sites with a handheld camera or mobile phone to capture footage of the missiles going up. Press reports explained that the football-sized devices had detonated at three hundred feet, producing a cloud of hot, crimson gas that was dispersed by the blast and wind to cover a radius of almost a mile and a half. The gas was dense and, after floating stationary for almost an hour, caused a ten-second rain of semi-solid liquid that evaporated in moments. The papers called the cloud “Big Red”, because frankly no one knew what the hell it was or where it came from and, well, it was big and red.

That afternoon, every major news station in the world received a recorded message from “Cardinal” Richard Rose, founder of the C.I.F, claiming responsibility and asserting that the attack was a simple show of power to demonstrate the inevitability of death and annihilation. I don’t remember much of what he said because, like most of Britain, I assumed at the time that whatever the C.I.F had set out to do had failed.