Brainless

Survival against the most insane thing to ever happen isn't easy. Especially when there's a crazy military experiment gone wrong. What experiment; the government would never hurt their citizens, right?

Trust me, they would! Thats exactly what triggered the zombie outbreak.

The official story is that the Cold War ended in 1989, but that's a lie! Russia and America were at war in cyberspace for decades. Then in 2050, a coronal mass ejection, a gaint sun burp, fried all of Earth's electronics.

Well it took another decade, but the power grid was finally restored but nations around the globe decided that restoration of the world wide web wasn't a priority. Now the shadow war had to continue in other ways.

Lack of internet made it easier to keep secrets from the masses. Still both Russia and the United States sent spies to their rival country. They had an arms race to win.

Thats how the CIA discovered Russia's supper soldier program, Project Poslushnyy Soldat, or in English, Obedient Soldier. Russian scientists were taking members of their military and prisoners to make fearless, ultimate fighters.

The process was carried out by medical technicians and neurobiologists. One Amygdalae was removed and the Cingulate

Cortex was excised from test subjects. Then, along with an exercise regimen, the now brain damaged individuals were injected with androgens to increase muscle mass.

The result was a super strong, mildly agressive human weapon with low inhibitions. Partial removal of the Amygdala, the Neurobiologists believed, would make it easier to control test subjects. In essence, Russia created zombies.

Instead of reporting their intel to the United Nations, the CIA copied the experiment. The protocol was disseminated to all branches of the military and the United States began Operation Golem.

What neither side realized is that after years of secret zombie making, things woukd get out of their controll. There were leaks and eventually crime syndicates began to turn their enforcers into zombies. The big difference was the syndicates used PCP to enhance the violence of their new hitmen. They all thought they could control their new super soldiers. They were wrong.

The hypertrophic killers broke free of all controlling enteties. No one had a clue how many were out there. It turned out that there were zombie uprisings all over the globe.

That led to massive devastation as one by one the countries of the world were thrown into chaos. Hundreds of millions were killed by hoards of zombies. Survivors built shanti towns. Well, a more accurate description would be shanti fortresses.

Makeshift walls of debris and scrap metal constituted the barrier between refugees and the now roving mindless threat. Weapons varried by location but included guns, IEDs, pit traps and tripwire activated flame throwers.

Fending off zombies is the least of our worries here in the Boroughs. I live here, in what's left of New York City. The Boroughs have been under seige for nearly a year. We struggle with food insecurity, there's no supply trucks for anything. The grocery stores are running out of food. Water is collected in cisterns but all the plumbing is failing so there's not much reliable hydration sources. Clothes are becoming tattered. Not that anyone cares, we're running low on medical supplies too.

Just because there's zombies outside doesn't mean babies wait to get born. Neither does disease. We need medicine to treat illness, blood for transfusions and first aid kits.

I was hiding with my sister, Maya. We had both had enough of our communal shed. So we went to our own private retreat, the lobby of an abandonned office building. None of the grown ups bothered with it anymore they had more important concerns. So the two of us sat, trying to remember what life had been like before zombies.

"Janet," Maya said. "Are we going to die?" She was just a kindergartener, she shouldn't have to worry about this. I was the older sister, with our parents gone I was responsible for both our well beings. Being sixteen had never been so hard. "I hope not." I said. "Hey, you gotta keep your chin up!" Maya looked at me confused. She tilted her head back as far as it would go. "Like this, sis?" She asked.

I laughed, kids were so litteral sometimes. "Not exactly;" I said. "I mean don't worry, I'm going to take care of you. So it's going to be okay." I had to not let my fear show. Maya needed me to be strong. What could we do?

"It's getting dark baby;" I said. "You wanna head back?" Maya looked dissapointed. "Oh allright;" she said. "Can we come back tomorrow and play hide and seek?" I figured it would be a break from reality. "Sure;" I said. "In the afternoon."

I lay awake under my scrap of a quilt. There had to be some way to help the Boroughs. We needed a way to keep ourselves going. With food running low, I wasn't sure how long we could hold out against the zombies.

Our goal had been to weather them out. Let them be killed off by starvation, our traps and our weapons. How many zombies were there? I was pretty sure nobody knew. What we really needed though was a way to make supplies for living. An idea sparked in my head. Somewhere out there, there had to be an old neighborhood garden and a hospital or something. Maybe I could scavenge some veggies, plants, seeds and other usefull items!

I was pretty sure I remembered what cucumber, tomatoes and other food growing plants looked like. My mom had let me help in our community garden in Harlem. And hospitals always had signs saying what they were. How would I get supplies back to the Boroughs? I thought the others would forgive me for what I was going to do.

I got up and moved stealthily. I grabbed some extra blankets and empty containers from our storage area. I borrowed a spade, work gloves, electrical tape and wire cutters. I'd need a weapon to keep myself safe, so I grabbed myself a sword that had been forged from an abandoned car's front bumper. It was a good thing it wasn't too long, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to wield it.

I found an old moving van in the motor pool. It was big enough to carry supplies back but not so massive that I'd have trouble driving it. I was lucky my friend, Steve, had taught me how to boost cars in high school. I jimmied the door open and pulled myself into the cab. Opening up the dashboard, I found the appropriate wires. As I was about to make the first cut, a familiar voice interrupted.

"Jannet, Jannet!" It said. "What are you doing?!" I looked through the driver window. Maya was standing outside. She must've been following me for a while. I climbed out of the van. "Baby girl!" I said. "What're you doing here?" She nervously folded her arms. "I heard you get up;" she said. "I need you to stick around!"

"I'll be back soon!" I promised. "Go back to bed!" Maya didn't budge. "No;" she said. "I wanna go with you!" I couldn't have her waking up everyone in the Boroughs. "Okay;" I said. "We must be quiet and carefull though. You can come if you do that. Deal?" She cheered up. "Deal!" Maya agreed. I knealt down. "Hold onto my back;" I told her. "I'll set you down in the cab."

It was harder getting back into the van. Maya didn't use her legs so if she'd been any heavier she would've cut off my airway. I let her off and slid her into the passenger side of the bench seat. Before goung back to hotwiring I told her. "Don't do any of what I'm about to do."

Once I connected the wires, the van's engine growled to life. Luckily I had some driver's ed so I knew the basics. Once Maya had her seatbelt on, I put the tuck in gear. "Right;" I said. "This next part is a little scary. Hold on tight!" I pushed the accelerator down as far as it would go. I aimed for a weak section in the Boroughs outer wall.

There was a loud screeching and crashing; I think Maya might've screamed. I couldn't stop now so I just multi tasked. "It's okay Maya;" I said. "The scary part's over. Can you help me play a game?" Maya took her hands off her head. "Okay;" she said. "What's the game?"

"I need you to play I-spy;" I said. "I need you to look for a garden or greenhouse and a hospital. Can you do that?" Maya was very enthusiastic. "Yep!" She said.

We drove for three blocks before Maya spotted a greenhouse. I pulled up to the curb and put the van in park. "You stay in the van;" I told her. "I'm going to grab some plants and soil." I slipped out of the cab and checked to make sure the streets were empty. Things seemed quiet.

Inside the green house, things were worse than expected. Rotten veggies had fermented into vinegar in the closed space. I looked for any living plants. I found a zuchini vine and lots of seed packets that were still good. I collected both and went back to the van.

My heart nearly stopped. Two zombies were headed towards the van! I set the plant and seeds down. I drew the sword from the blanket I had hidden it in. Yelling I charged towards the monsters. I sliced one's head off. He collapsed with plume of blood shooting from his neck. The other zombie changed course and began gnawing on the corpse.

I felt like vomiting. Instead I grabbed the plants and ran back to the van. I shut the door and quickly put it into drive. I could hear my little sister breathing hard. "You okay?" I asked. She started sobbing. "There was so much blood!" She said.

Great now Maya's traumatized, I thought. "Sorry;" I said. "I had to keep them away from you." She could barely speak. "I know;" she said. "I remember what happened to mom and dad." I had to get her mind off things. "Hey, sis;" I said. "You remember the other thing I wanted you to look for?" She nodded. "Yeah;" she said. "A hospital."

We found Presbyterian hospital near what used to be Times Square. I pulled into the Emergncy Room drop off. I figured it was a little more sheltered from view than out on the street.

I forced open the sliding doors and went through the triage and located the nearest nurse's station. There were bandages, stethescopes, aneseptic and a lot of other usefull items. I shoved as much as I could into the bag I brought with me. And went back and forth two more times. Once I thought I had enough to help the Boroughs, I got back in the truck. This time there were no zombies that needed killing.

"Right;" I said. "Good job Maya! Lets takes these back." I retraced my route as best I could. I felt proud of myself on the way back. That didn't last though.

I slammed on the breaks as I saw what had entered the breach at the Boroughs. Zombies and corpses were everywhere. There was probably no one left. One of the lumbering hoard spied the van. It yelled and pointed in our direction. Hundreds of zombies were headed for us.

I undid my seatbelt and hugged my sister tight. "I love you, baby girl!" I said. "Close your eyes, it'll be over soon." Maya clung to me. "I'm scared!" She said. "I love you too!" I heard the doors rip off their hinges. I knew this was the end.