Dead Days of Summer

Five years ago to the day the world was subjected to a pandemic the likes of which humanity had never seen, nor would ever experience again. AIDS, Ebola, Avian Flu, SARS...not a single one would compare to the day the dead began to rise to feast on the flesh of the living.

It was during the summer of 2005, when American archaeologists unearthed a nondescript American Indian burial tomb in the Midwest that contained a partially decomposed body, whose brain – unbeknownst to those at the dig site – had been infected with a virus now called Solanum that turns people into zombies. The corpse, whose body was preserved by the virus, attacked the dig site, killing everyone to the man.

It only took a few months for the virus to spread and engulf the entire United States. Another 28 days later the Solanum outbreak had spread across to Europe and it, too, was quickly overrun in a matter of days.

The United States government did little to prepare for the pandemic, since it was sapped of political will by several "brushfire wars" with the undead and lulled into a false sense of security by an ineffective and fraudulently marketed vaccine called "Phalanx." When the world finally recognized the true scope of the problem, a period known as the "Great Panic" begin.

My story begins just after the proverbial you-know-what hit the fan...