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

I kicked and punched, I felt my crotch get warm and wet. I shouted but couldn’t hear my own voice.
More hands, stronger, were trying to haul me somewhere. Kicking, squirming, cursing,
crying…suddenly a fist clocked me in the jaw. It didn’t knock me out, but I was suddenly relaxed.
These were my buddies. Zack don’t punch. They dragged me into the closest Bradley. My vision
cleared just long enough to see the line of light vanish with the closing hatch.
[He reaches for another Q, then abruptly decides against it.]
I know “professional” historians like to talk about how Yonkers represented a “catastrophic
failure of the modern military apparatus,” how it proved the old adage that armies perfect the art
of fighting the last war just in time for the next one. Personally, I think that’s a big ’ole sack of it.
Sure, we were unprepared, our tools, our training, everything I just talked about, all one class-A,
gold-standard clusterfuck, but the weapon that really failed wasn’t something that rolled off an
assembly line. It’s as old as…I don’t know, I guess as old as war. It’s fear, dude, just fear and you
don’t have to be Sun freakin Tzu to know that real fighting isn’t about killing or even hurting the
other guy, it’s about scaring him enough to call it a day. Break their spirit, that’s what every
successful army goes for, from tribal face paint to the “blitzkrieg” to…what did we call the first
round of Gulf War Two, “Shock and Awe”? Perfect name, “Shock and Awe”! But what if the enemy
can’t be shocked and awed? Not just won’t, but biologically can’t! That’s what happened that day
outside New York City, that’s the failure that almost lost us the whole damn war. The fact that we
couldn’t shock and awe Zack boomeranged right back in our faces and actually allowed Zack to
shock and awe us! They’re not afraid! No matter what we do, no matter how many we kill, they
will never, ever be afraid!
Yonkers was supposed to be the day we restored confidence to the American people, instead we
practically told them to kiss their ass good-bye. If it wasn’t for the Sou’frican Plan, I have no doubt,
we’d all be slouching and moaning right now.
The last thing I remember was the Bradley being tossed like a Hot Wheels car. I don’t know
where the hit was, but I’m guessing it must have been close. I’m sure had I still been standing out
there, exposed, I wouldn’t be standing here today.
Have you ever seen the effects of a thermobaric weapon? Have you ever asked anyone with
stars on their shoulders about them? I bet my ballsack you’ll never get the full story. You’ll hear
about heat and pressure, the fireball that continues expanding, exploding, and literally crushing
and burning everything in its path. Heat and pressure, that’s what thermobaric means. Sounds
nasty enough, right? What you won’t hear about is the immediate aftereffect, the vacuum created
when that fireball suddenly contracts. Anyone left alive will either have the air sucked right out of
their lungs, or—and they’ll never admit this to anyone—have their lungs ripped right out of their
mouth. Obviously no one’s going to live long enough to tell that kind of horror story, probably why
the Pentagon’s been so good at covering up the truth, but if you ever see a picture of a G, or even
an example of a real walking specimen, and he’s got both air bags and windpipe just dangling out
from his lips, make sure you give him my number. I’m always up for meeting another veteran of
Yonkers.