World War Z_ An Oral History of the Zombie War ( PDFDrive )

When I woke up, the screen was blank. I tried to sign on. Nothing. I tried rebooting. Nothing. I
noticed that I was on backup battery. Not a problem. I had enough reserve power for ten hours at
full use. I also noticed that my signal strength was zero. I couldn’t believe it. Kokura, like all Japan,
had a state-of-the-art wireless network that was supposed to be fail-safe. One server might go
down, maybe even a few, but the whole net? I realized it must be my computer. It had to be. I got
out my laptop and tried to sign on. No signal. I cursed and got up to tell my parents that I had to
use their desktop. They still weren’t home. Frustrated, I tried to pick up the phone to call my
mother’s cell. It was cordless, dependent on wall power. I tried my cell. I got no reception.
Do you know what happened to them?
No, even to this day, I have no idea. I know they didn’t abandon me, I’m sure of it. Maybe my
father was caught out at work, my mother trapped while trying to go grocery shopping. They could
have been lost together, going to or coming back from the relocation office. Anything could have
happened. There was no note, nothing. I’ve been trying to find out ever since.
I went back into my parents’ room, just to make sure they weren’t there. I tried the phones
again. It wasn’t bad yet. I was still in control. I tried to go back online. Isn’t that funny? All I could
think about was trying to escape again, getting back to my world, being safe. Nothing. I started to
panic. “Now,” I started to say, trying to command my computer by force of will. “Now, now, NOW!
NOW! NOW!” I started beating the monitor. My knuckles split, the sight of my own blood terrified
me. I’d never played sports as a child, never been injured, it was all too much. I picked up the
monitor and threw it against the wall. I was crying like a baby, shouting, hyperventilating. I started
to wretch and vomited all over the floor. I got up and staggered to the front door. I don’t know
what I was looking for, just that I had to get out. I opened the door and stared into darkness.
Did you try knocking at the neighbor’s door?
No. Isn’t that odd? Even at the height of my breakdown, my social anxiety was so great that
actually risking personal contact was still taboo. I took a few steps, slipped, and fell into something
soft. It was cold and slimy, all over my hands, my clothes. It stank. The whole hallway stank. I
suddenly became aware of a low, steady scraping noise, like something was dragging itself across
the hallway toward me.
I called out, “Hello?” I heard a soft, gurgling groan. My eyes were just beginning to adjust to the
darkness. I began to make out a shape, large, humanoid, crawling on its belly. I sat there
paralyzed, wanting to run but at the same time wanting to…to know for sure. My doorway was
casting a narrow rectangle of dim gray light against the far wall. As the thing moved into that light,
I finally saw its face, perfectly intact, perfectly human, except for the right eye that hung by the
stem. The left eye was locked on mine and its gurgling moan became a choked rasp. I jumped to my
feet, sprang back inside my apartment, and slammed the door behind me.
My mind was finally clear, maybe for the first time in years, and I suddenly realized that I could
smell smoke and hear faint screams. I went over to the window and threw the curtains open.
Kokura was engulfed in hell. The fires, the wreckage…the siafu were everywhere. I watched
them crash through doors, invade apartments, devour people cowering in corners or on balconies.
I watched people leap to their deaths or break their legs and spines. They lay on the pavement,
unable to move, wailing in agony as the dead closed in around them. One man in the apartment
directly across from me tried to fight them off with a golf club. It bent harmlessly around a