Entry 2 ~ Goodbye, Malaysians

7 July 2014
2045
Location: Apartment 0

Reflections:

It's been 3 weeks since I've been cooped up at home alone. Since civilisation broke down. I feel like I'm slowly going mad, being on my own with only my cat and books for company. I wonder if there's anybody left outside? How long will I still have electricity? It's a miracle the internet still exists, though Google stopped working today. Good luck, Australia.

---

I have...had...many friends online, thanks to a game I play. You meet the most random of people online. Before there was ANY sign of the Problem, I developed a friendship with a guy from Canada that most people would call crazy.

This dude, is zombie obsessed! He plays zombie games, he watches zombie movies, and even believes that a zombie apocalypse will happen. Everybody laughed at him. Well, I guess the joke's on us now, huh?

Thanks to him, I'll refer to his handle as Zaph, I got what I considered then as crazy emails containing "Zaph's rules to surviving a zombie apocalypse". Hell, the crazy fucker saved my life. When we were first drafted by the UN to investigate the problem, I started re-reading his emails. We were sworn to secrecy though, and we weren't allowed to leave the lab or contact anybody for fear of generating panic. It was the hardest rule I ever had to live with.

When the government started implementing curfew, half of my lovable fellow Malaysians refused to follow it, believing it to be yet another attempt by the government to spread lies. They held rallies all over the country. The other half of us were safely locked up at home, or in my case, in the lab. That's when the horde invaded, via the Thai border.

In the northern state of Kedah, anti-government rallies were held and thousands attended. When Problematic humans crossed the border, there was chaos. Many were likely bitten but escaped. Cowardice, or misplaced confidence perhaps, led these to seek refuge with their families behind barricaded doors. 2 weeks later, the whole family would be infected.

The military was called upon to secure against the invasion and to enforce curfew. Nobody was allowed to loot. "WE MUST REMAIN CIVILISED!" become the national motto. Food stuff was parceled out, no hoarding was allowed. Those who could afford to leave the country, did. I called my family, told them what was happening, in direct violation of the law, and gave them copies of Zaph's emails. Nobody's been responding to my calls though. I'm not sure if I could live with myself for not doing more. I miss them. Mum's last words to me were to "Fight on". I cry everyday.

The military started to fail against the relentless rabid creatures that were no longer quite human in May.  Everyone fled southwards, which seemed like a good plan, except Singapore started having Problem cases of their own. I stayed behind in Kuala Lumpur. No point moving up and down. Dead is dead, except I'm still alive.

Not everybody left the city, we weren't hit by the Problem yet, though it was coming in a matter of days when the evacuation started. I raided for food, no law officers were left to enforce the curfew. I took only what I could carry. That was 3 weeks ago. I'm running low on supplies. Tomorrow, I will have to venture out of my apartment, my headquarters for the first time in nearly a month. The radio died 4 days ago, along with the television. I guess, there's nobody left to run programmes.

My mind is wandering, panic is setting in.

Before I end this log entry, I should post up a checklist of items I should attempt to obtain tomorrow. If anybody is still alive and reading this, I hope this helps.

Edibles:

• As much canned food, instant noodles and drinks as I can carry
• Gas stoves and portable gas canisters
• Cat food

Supplies:

• Rope, as much as I can get my hands on
• Containers for gasoline
• Gasoline
• Medication: fever pills, anti-histamines, bandages
• Magazines, have you watched World War Z? I did just last week. Wrap your arm with magazines and you can fend off bites for awhile at least
• Duct tape, lots and lots of duct tape

Weapons

• Guns, damned if I know how to use them, but I'd rather have them than not
• Machetes, long knives, axes, or motherfucking swords from lord of the rings.
• Cudgel-weapons. Malaysia doesn't play baseball but by God we play cricket and field hockey

Best not to get overly ambitious, being too greedy will slow me down.

End log.

Entry 1 ~ So the end begins

6 July 2014

Time: 2045

Location: Apartment 0, Selangor, Malaysia

It's finally happened. Damn you hollywood, fucking Resident Evil...How I've hated that game. Yet, I'm living it now.

This is the first entry into my logbook, some might call it a diary, it might work, but for what it's worth, I hope that if I were to succumb to this outbreak, these entries will help any survivors.

My name is James Tan, just months ago, I was an immunologist working in a brand new laboratory with leading scientists across the world. Now, I'm fighting for survival in my HQ, designated Apartment 0, waiting to die.

The movies got it wrong. There was no mass outbreak, no hysteria. No "going crazy" within minutes or even hours of being bitten. No exotic bio-terrorism genesis. 

We were drafted by the UN in an international effort to contain "The Problem". Rabies started making a comeback in the States, fucking raccoons. Nature's idea of a joke, I'm sure, Raccoon City and all. Somebody created a vaccine that helped immunise household pets from the disease. Then, some fucktard redneck decided to inject himself and his family with it. The vaccine had not made it to human trials. They got sick. Flu-like symptoms, fever, fatigue. Evidently they didn't believe in staying in bed. 2 weeks later, a neighbour visited and was eaten alive. The police were called in, the family was subdued and investigations made. Long story short, nobody figured out what happened until weeks after, when various people around the country proved that foolish people evidently had the same ideas independently.

There was no Patient Zero. The lengthy incubation period caused it to spread globally before anybody realised what was happening. Apparently, it also spread through sex, making its rounds like a nasty bout of STD that made gonorrhea look like the common cold.

When we realised what was going on, the WHO issued a statement to promote a worldwide curfew. Teams of scientists were recruited to work on the problem. We figured out what was going on: rabies was a neurological virus. It takes over the brain of an animal and make it aggressive. It affected humans differently, but this vaccine-strain was apparently causing the same aggression in humans, as well as a strange craving for cannibalism.

We studied cases. My lab worked on identifying the genetic aspects of the infection. A team in China worked on the infection model. India tried to vaccinate against the vaccine.

China discovered it is a blood-borne disease, primarily spread by bite, unsurprisingly, considering the source of the problem. You need to get the virus into your bloodstream, to facillitate infection. Reminds me of HIV. Sex doesn't actually spread it, but fine tears in the tissue can cause infection, explaining the primary outbreak. We in Malaysia found that the virus, being a vaccine-strain and thereby less lethal compared to the original rabies virus, integrated itself into the genome of the human host like a retrovirus and caused changes at the genetic level, explaining the state of the bodies and the mindless aggression. Obviously the genius who designed this took genes from a retrovirus, probably HIV, to create this rabies vaccine. He's a fucking twat. I hope he got eaten.

Cell culture showed the virus to have an affinity to neurons and muscle cells. Typical...not only are they aggressive, but they retain control of their muscles so they can direct their actions.

India found...we never did hear from India. The country disintegrated in December 2013, when the people refused to follow the governmental order of curfew. It was only a matter of time before Pakistan and Bangladesh fell, and from there on, other neighbours. The American continent was already hopelessly contaminated. Latin America fought for a long time, but rampant drug use helped spread the disease. Thanks to Egypt, it spread to Africa. Thanks to Turkey, it spread into Europe.

Research moved to Australia and New Zealand, the last bastions of Problem-freeness. Strict airport security in Australia helped saved it. New Zealand somehow succumbed to it, nobody knows why or how.

We got hit by the Problem in March 2014. In 2 months, 90% of the country was dead or Problematic. They don't discriminate, if you're alive, they eat you. If you got infected and escaped, you'll join their ranks.

I'm woefully under-equipped to face the Problem. A city-boy, through and through. I don't know how to handle guns, I don't know how to fight, I don't know how to fucking cook. I'm surprised we're still getting power and water, but that can't last.

I've not seen a Problem-free human in the last 2 weeks. Phone calls were made but unanswered. Autralia beckons but I have no fucking idea how to get there.

I'm going to sleep, tomorrow will be another day in survival. At least I managed to note the origins of the Problem. With luck, that information would be helpful.

In case nobody's realised it yet, the Problem isn't minor, the Problem is zombies.

End log.