World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

by Max Brooks

questionable survival methods used by certain isolated zones.

historians like to talk about how the U.S. Army had such a low casualty rate during the advance. Low, as in compared to other countries, China or maybe the Russkies. Low, as in only counting the casualties caused by Zack. There were a million ways to get it on that road and over two-thirds weren’t on that pyramid. Sickness was a big one, the kinds of diseases that were supposed to be gone, like, in the Dark Ages or something.

there were mines and booby traps,

Only problem is, mines don’t work that way. They don’t blow up a human body,

you had all those stupid fuckin’ LaMOE jobs, the punji stakes and trip-wired shotgun shells.

then you just had accidents.

psych casualties. More than anything else combined.

Most of the Eight Balls were later in the war. Not from the stress, though, you understand, but from the lack of it.

A lot of the others, you just never knew. For me, it wasn’t just who was cracking up, but who wasn’t. Does that make sense?

Turtles were like unicorns back then, you hardly saw them anymore.

“Mitakuye Oyasin.” I found out later that it was Lakota for “all my relations.” I didn’t even know she was part Sioux.

That was the same day the president died.

By the time we reached Yonkers, I was the last of the old gang from Hope.

When we boarded the barges on the banks of the Hudson, we managed to lock eyes. He just smiled and shook his head. I’d made it.

Churchill kept pushing to help the United States against Japan, saying the fight wasn’t finished until it was finished everywhere. And look what happened to the Old Lion. That’s what we didn’t want to happen to our administration. That’s exactly why we decided to declare victory once the continental U.S. had been secured.

We still had to help out our allies and clear whole parts of the world that were entirely ruled by the dead. There was still so much work to do, but since our own house was in order, we had to give people the option to go home. That’s when the UN multinational force was created, and we were pleasantly surprised how many volunteers signed up in the first week.

I caught a lot of flak for going UN instead of making it an all-American crusade, and to be totally honest, I really couldn’t give a damn.

Maybe it’s made the overseas campaigns a little slower. Our allies are on their feet again, but we still have a few White Zones to clear: mountain ranges, snowline islands, the ocean floor, and then there’s Iceland…Iceland’s gonna be tough. I wish Ivan would let us help out in Siberia, but, hey, Ivan’s Ivan. And we still have attacks right here at home as well, every spring, or every so often near a lake or beach. The numbers are declining, thank heavens, but it doesn’t mean people should let down their guard. We’re still at war, and until every trace is sponged, and purged, and, if need be, blasted from the surface of the Earth, everybody’s still gotta pitch in and do their job. Be nice if that was the lesson people took from all this misery. We’re all in this together, so pitch in and do your job. [We stop by an old oak tree.

My only regret was that I couldn’t remain in the army for the “liberation” of our former republics. We’d purged the motherland of the undead filth, and now it was time to carry the war beyond our borders.