Welcome to the End

Chapter 05: A Harsh Reality

The tour of Walton ended where it had begun, inside the welcoming office of the Governor. Once they were safely away from the unknowing population, Kevin decided to ask his questions.

"You care to tell me what's wrong here?" Kevin suggested.

"I beg your pardon?" Clark asked as if totally unaware of what Kevin was talking about.

"You clearly know more than you're telling, and your wall guards are in a heightened state of alertness," Kevin pointed out. "I used to be a cop, so I can usually tell when someone's hiding information. What aren't you telling us?"

The Governor sighed. "I suppose you might as well know."

"Sir," the guard who had been following them since they crossed the wall cautioned his superior.

"It's alright," Clark assured him. He waved toward the chairs positioned in front of his desk. "Please be seated."

Kevin, George, and Isabella took the offered chairs. A mixture of anticipation and unease filled the air. They wanted to know what the Governor was going to tell them, but they were hesitant to hear what was probably ill news.

"We occasionally send out scouts, people who travel the lands like you, and they report back to us the condition of the world in exchange for an occasional rest stop here. One of our best, Brennan Cobb, was checking on a sizable zombie horde a few miles from here. From his descriptions, it's larger than anything previously seen. It was three weeks ago, and we haven't heard from him since. We can only assume he's dead. You have to understand, this was a man who was extremely good at getting away from the undead. If he didn't make it, the situation is worse than anyone could possibly imagine."

"What size are we talking about here?" Kevin wanted to know. "Hundreds? Thousands?"

"From what Brennan saw, millions," Clark answered softly.

The room fell deathly quiet. No one moved or spoke, and it seemed as if even their breathing had been stilled. George found his voice first.

"Millions?" he said, desperately wishing what he'd heard had been in error.

"It's getting larger every day," Clark confirmed.

"Larger?" Isabella repeated. "How? Where are they coming from?"

"Everywhere, apparently," Clark replied. "After having our scouts study the undead for a time, we've discovered patterns in their behavior. They search randomly for food in all directions, but once a city or area has been picked clean, they spread outward. When two or more zombie groups meet, they change direction, similar to the joining of two rivers. The zombies don't go into the territory already cleared by another undead horde, and in so doing, they are working together to slowly empty the lands of the living. Eventually, every zombie group will combine into a single mass, stretching across the world and bringing death and undeath to every last human being."

"Who knows about this?" Kevin asked.

"Myself and the guards," Clark replied. "No one else has all the information on the undead like we do, and we're keeping it quite as best we can."

"Are you going to tell your citizens?" Isabella questioned.

"Tell them? Tell them what?" Clark shouted. "Would you have me announce the world is doomed? No matter how far or fast they run, the undead tide will catch up with them. No matter how many weapons or guns they have, the undead are too many and will overwhelm them. Do you realize the effect such news would have, everything from sheer panic to mass suicide?"

"What are you going to do?" George inquired.

"Nothing," Clark answered. "The war is already over, and humanity lost. The only chance we had of winning involved killing the zombies while they were still few in number. Now, they outnumber us, and we don't have the armies or industries to combat them any longer. It's over. We can hide behind our walls but not much else. If the walls fail to stop them, Walton is doomed, just like the rest of the world."