The End, or The Beginning?

As part of the interviews I carried out, there was one question that I asked each of them at the end, just before I left. The question was met with a mixture of replies ranging from disbelief, anger, emotionally charged hope and vague dismissal. Some of them are listed below.

Question: So, who won?

Dr Allain Schwann

Nobody won. We all lost so much.

We often lost our humanity, we lost people we loved, and we almost lost everything. Nothing will ever be the same and although we will re-build, we should learn from this. All our eggs are in one very fragile little basket.

From a distance, it may look like a great green and blue marble hanging against the star-studded tapestry of space, but for a brief moment in time our little basket hung in the balance of fate.

Sigur Thormarsson

We did of course. Those who fell in glorious battle, fought as our ancestors did before us. We have proven that the blood of warriors still courses through the veins of the Faroe people. We are not big in terms of landmass, or population, but we have proved we are a still a mighty people.

We will continue to fight as long as those bloody things wander out of the sea, but we will reclaim the seas, as we have the land.

We fish, we sing, we fight.

We survive.

Aliana Sanchez

Hope won. As long as people have hope, they will survive. We have always lived in hope and trusted to God. We are still here when so many others are not.

Professor Colin James

Who won? Well it certainly wasn't the world of science or learning in general. We very nearly slipped back to the Middle Ages in terms of living standards. In some cases people slipped way beyond into utter barbarity and cannibalism.

The majority of the human race holed up inside stone fortresses or degrading metal fastnesses, fighting hand to hand with lumps of metal clasped in our fists. For years, people died from things like typhoid or tuberculosis, losing babies, starving through lack of food, but in turn being devoured by something higher up the food chain.

No, I don't think we've won. We won a war, but the battle against our own ignorance continues as it must. The trouble is there are now fewer minds to fight that war and until the Infected are eradicated, learning will still be considered a luxury. We have lost so much; so many great scientists are now wandering mindlessly around the earth or have been consumed by an unthinking locust-like entity.

I'm afraid I will long be in mourning for what has been lost, and even though we now appear to have a future; the cost is almost too high to bear.

Jan Penberthy

I won a family, does that count? Sadly I lost a friend. Overall I suppose that win overshadows the loss, but I do miss him. I think we have won the battle, but we have lost the sea for a while.

You been for a paddle lately? I'm damn sure I haven't.

Sylvain Le Blanc

You think anyone won? That's a damn fool question if I ever heard one.

Dr Elena van der Nacht

I believe that's what they call a very open question.

Ultimately, nature will always win. I take the view that perhaps the human population had just got so big that at some point something like this was bound to come along and knock us back down to size. A huge variety of species have, as far as we know, disappeared because of this, maybe nature meant for us to be wiped out completely to give another species a chance? Maybe that would imply the Mother Nature has a plan though, rather than just evolution being in action as it has been for millennia.

Unfortunately rather than something like the flu, or measles or any other disease, the Infection this time paralleled some of our darkest legends and nightmares and produced the mutated human, or Zombie.

Nature will always win, we as a race almost lost. We are still in a very fragile state at the moment, all it would take is a slight mutation of the current infection, perhaps to make it airborne, or a new version of the Infection that spreads via rats and we could be doomed. Go and read The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton. After all we've been through over the last decade or so, I guarantee it'll scare you witless.

Jenna Lehmann

Well it certainly wasn't my boyfriend or the drug lords. Perhaps I should try and put a positive spin on it.

I won, I'm still here.

Philippe Verdu

Philippe was walking away as I asked him this question. He stopped, shrugged, and then carried on walking....

His Holiness Ardal o'Keefe

The human spirit won, but the price was terrible to behold.

Samuel Jackson

Our generation lost almost everything. I can only hope that my children win the future back for themselves without having to hear the moaning echo of a Zombie answered a thousand times from all around them.

I hope they win back their dreams.

General Andrew Campbell

No one yet, but we're getting there. The bods at CERN are developing new toys for us to play with and the Americans are starting to clear the South Americas now.

A large part of the world's landmass is pretty much clear, with probably the majority of the remainder clear in the next few years.

All we've got to do then is clear the white zones like Iceland, Jamaica and North Korea, and then we get to play underwater. I honestly have no idea whether we'll ever eradicate it, but it'd be nice to tell the surfers that they don't have to wear lightweight body armour in the sea. You ever seen a surfer these days? They look like some sort of comic book hero. Rather them than me.

Now the world's production centres and economies are pretty much up and running again, we can start getting a little more technical on the Zeds. The GPS systems are helping hugely and we're getting better and better at taking out large numbers of Zeds with fewer and fewer casualties.

I would quite like to be out of a job in some ways, only then will we have won.

Craig, US Infantry

We did eventually. Or at least, we will once the seas and lakes are utterly clear. It'll take time, but we're on the home run now I think.

If you don't mind, I'll carry a gun for a little while longer though.

Max, Elite Zed Removal

Still fightin', still winnin'.

Tiamat, Chinatown

You may have won something, but I'm damn sure my generation didn't.

Alastair Klinsman

We're not quite at the winning post yet like you Brits are, but we're getting there. Give us a little time and a few more guns and we'll get there.

Dr. Anders Haraldsson

We've won; it's just that not all of the Infected have been told yet. We are constantly upgrading our techniques, our weaponry, and more importantly our knowledge.

As long as we keep learning all we can, and keep fighting the Infection, then we will eventually defeat this insidious thing once and for all. We may yet rescue the future of mankind.

It was close for a little while though wasn't it...

~~~~~ The End ~~~~~