The Earth Zombie Incident

The Earth Zombie Incident, codenamed Operation Z-Day, was an infectious disease outbreak which nearly wiped out the entire Earth population, only to be stopped by effective vaccines discovered by scientists within a few years and quarantine zones set up by the United Nations.

## Background:

It was the year 2045, decades after the Third World War broke out. The War has caused destruction to China's and Russian's capitals and their military were decimated. The U.S., on the other hand, was unscathed by the war and it has complete military superiority over the Russian and Chinese military. While the Russian and Chinese had over 4 million troops in total, the U.S. alone had 16 million troops in active and 14 million in reserve and additional 24 million troops from NATO. The U.S. economy was increasing significantly as it was the sole manufacturer of daily necessities and things ranging from washing machines, to pencils and cups and plates. It peaked at $147 trillion before falling back to $127 trillion decades later and spiked up to $200 trillion. Everyone was happy and many countries prospered, with the collapse of the Russian and Chinese Industries.

## The outbreak:

In late May 2045, a Russian scientist accidentally discovered a cure for multiple diseases, including common cold, flu and cancer. The cure was proved successful and was produced in small quantities for testing in research labs, on hard core prisoners who are suffering from some of those diseases. It was not known what caused the outbreak but after injecting the cure into 4 prisoners, something horrifying happened. The prisoners suddenly died and before anyone could do anything, their bodies sprung into life but their faces resembled zombies from the movies and they bitten the scientists in the testing room and their security officers. The research facility was ordered to be locked down and security personnel were deployed to every location in the facility. Even though there were security personnel at the floor where the attack took place, they were quickly taken out and were all infected. Soon, the infection began to spread throughout the facility. Security officers were literally swarmed and overwhelmed with the number of zombies attacking them. As they were going to be overrun, the security personnel called for back up and the Russian Army was deployed and surrounded the facility. Attack helicopters hovered above as security personnel escaped form the facility to join the Russian Army.

400 out of the 4000 security detail from the facility managed to escape and joined the Russian Army. After gathering for 4 hours, as many as 10,000 zombies came out from the facility(consisting of the dead troops, dead scientists, dead officers and test subjects) and attacked the Russian Army, which had 20,000 troops surrounding the facility. Fierce fighting soon followed, with more than 500 zombies dead from the massive firepower from the helicopters and tanks. However, the vehicles and helicopters soon ran out of ammo and had to retreat to reload, leaving the troops and their jeeps behind. The troops managed to keep the zombies back but soon, most of them had to reload or ran out of ammunition and the line broke. The zombies pounced on the living and ate them, turning them into zombies. The remaining survivors, approximately 600 troops, boarded their own jeeps and fled the scene. The zombies, left uncontrolled, poured into the nearby towns and cities and caused havoc, overrunning local police and feeding on the local population, turning the people into zombies. Medical personnel at hospitals were overwhelmed with the injured and one of the patient was turning into a zombie. Within minutes, the hospitals at Western Russia were all closed, with all of the staff and patients turned into zombies.

The Russian Government declared state of emergency and deployed a ring of troops surrounding Moscow and tried to contain the outbreak. The Russian Military managed to contain the outbreak, with the help of Chinese troops. When other nations heard of the outbreak, they panicked and many nations had troops deployed on the streets. Police were reequipped with rifles and shotguns instead of pistols. SWAT teams were on the alert and the UN Peacekeeping Force was mobilized and coordinated the military effort. After fending off the zombies for a few weeks, the Russians and Chinese were unable to fend them off any longer and the defenses crumbled. The Russian Government fled to a undisclosed location and the Russian Army retreated to Eastern Russia to set up a military blockade and quarantine zones. Approximately 5.5 million Russians perished in the outbreak and that number kept increasing every single day. After a combined effort with the UN Peacekeeping Force and NATO, Russia was cleared of zombies on the 11 September 2045. Military experts, scientists and the World Health Organisation (WHO) scrambled to figure out what had happened and when they did, they advised all nations to close their borders to prevent further spread of the infectious disease. However, most nations did not heed their advice and still allowed tourists to enter and leave. The WHO warned that another outbreak might happen if all countries do not cooperate with each other and promised that they would work on a cure for the infectious disease.

It was not after almost a year later, on 21 August 2046, that another reported case of the contagious disease sprouted. It was a 20-year old woman. She was unconscious on a train in New York and paramedics immediately brought her to the nearest hospital. However, when doctors were checking on her, she bit one of the doctors and seconds later, the doctor became a zombie and the two of them raided the entire hospital. Within half an hour, the hospital was overwhelmed with zombies and they poured onto the streets, terrifying civilians and attacking police officers, whom opened fire on them. The police officers were quickly overwhelmed and the disease spread through downtown and midtown. The New York Police Department was soon overran and they retreated to Manhattan, where the SWAT Teams were. Over 500,000 civilians have become zombies within a few hours and they overran local police stations in New York City. The U.S. Government declined to say what was happening, which in turn caused riots and protests across the continental United States. The U.S. Government issued the evacuation of New York and several states while deploying more troops to the affected locations.

While everyone was staying at home, staring at horror at the devastating attacks on the U.S., the next zombie outbreak broke out in China, Shanghai, on 15th October 2046. Apparently someone was already bitten before boarding the plane and when the plane landed, he became a zombie and infected the entire crew. The airport security were overrun and the contagious disease begun spreading through China. The Chinese Government declared that the borders will be shut and began setting up quarantine zones in safe locations. The Chinese Military was deployed but due to the recent Third World War, the Chinese Military had difficulty coordinating the troops but in the end, the troops were ordered to the quarantine zones and to sweep the "hot" zones. Now, approximately 20 million people in the world are infected by the virus and is increasing by 12,000 every day. The WHO declared in a statement that the disease is a very contagious one and that all nations must close their borders before the disease continues to spread. Fortunately, all nations agreed and for the next decade, nobody was allowed to travel overseas.

However, the travel ban was implemented too late and the disease had spread to Europe and Africa, causing devastation to the cities. NATO and the UN Peacekeeping Forces were deployed to the trouble spots and began setting up quarantine zones. The WHO said that they will find a way to develop a cure by capturing a few zombies to be as test subjects and had a heavy security blanket in the research facility that they were going to develop a cure.

It's been more than 2 years after the zombie outbreak, and the number of people infected is over 400 million, out of the 20 billion Earth Population. The U.S. has lost 4 states to the zombies and the Chinese Government is no where to be seen. The UN Peacekeeping Force had an increase of 4 million troops, from 1.5 million to 5.5 million and they are now responsible for the security of China, with an estimated deployment of 2 million troops to China to help defend the quarantine zones with the help of the shattered Chinese Armed Forces.

The UN Peacekeeping Force to Africa, codenamed Operation Tango, resulted in total failure, and together with the African Governments, they evacuated the civilians to India and Pakistan, where a refugee crisis started springing up. The epidemic in Africa began running out of control and some airports, desperate to evacuate, boarded a few passenger jets and took off for the Europe, where the zombie outbreak was contained. On board the passenger jets, there happened to be a few lone zombies and they infected the planes. The jets were forced to land and crashed landed in Italy, Naples. Civilians tried to help the injured crew but they weren't aware of the zombies and many of them were infected within minutes. Police and medical personnel arrived but it was too late. the zombies have already escaped into the nearby towns and cities and began attacking the local population. Their numbers then soon grew from 4 to 5.5 million in less than three days. The local police and SWAT were overwhelmed in a couple of days and the Italian Government declared national emergency. The UN Peacekeeping Force was then deployed in Italy to help set up quarantine zones as the unstoppable virus tore through Northern Italy and into nearby European countries.

The zombie outbreak then, as the world looked on in terror, was, for the first time, out of control. Most of the European nations were overran with zombies and their military were almost on the verge of defeat. The U.S. Military had lost over 15% of their troops and more than half of their quarantine centers were overrun with zombies. In fact, less than half of the quarantine zones in the world was remaining. Thus, ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) welcomed refugees from other countries to South East Asia. For the next few years, South East Asia served as a quarantine zone, with military personnel deployed everywhere. Then, as the world was almost engulfed by zombies, at 2 billion zombies, the WHO announced, on 5 February 2047, that they have discovered a vaccine to the virus. People who were injected with the vaccine are immune to zombie bites and thus reducing the chance of becoming a zombie. The vaccine was then mass-produced to distribute to the world population. The zombie outbreak, as soon as it started, has begun to end.

## Aftermath (2047-2050)

After the vaccine were distributed, all nations agreed to unite under the United Nations, except for the Chinese and Russian Governments which were disappeared. The world then worked hard to get back to its usual self and began eradicating the zombie population. Since there was a large number of corpses on the streets, they were burnt at landfills and the UN began rebuilding and repairing the infrastructure of the affected nations. The U.S. Government, as soon as the entire U.S. was whole again, declared that the zombie outbreak was over and that everyone was free to leave their houses. Markets began opening, economies began blooming and by 2050, the huge mess created by the zombies was cleared and life, as we all know it, became normal once again. This incident was an important part of Earth's history, as it nearly wiped out the Earth's population. But, the UN decided to cover up and it was not until after Galactic War 3 that the U.F.E. Central Intelligence Agency revealed the incident to the real world.