Waiting Them Out

Java Leia stood in the doorway and peered into the distance. It was just starting to get dark, and there was a brilliant sunset. She stood watching it a moment longer, just soaking in the beauty. But it was her turn to check the boundaries and protections, so she finally adjusted her mask, took a shallow breath and headed out. The air quality had been improving of late, at least. That was a good thing. California had been burning for almost 70 years now, and the smoke had traveled all over the continent. The fires were finally dying down, probably because there wasn’t much left to burn.

As she walked the perimeter of the property, she thought about what had brought her to this point in her life, hiding behind these walls. She had been just a little girl during the pandemic of ‘20-’23, living on the East Coast of the United States, blessedly far from the West Coast Fires and thankfully not in any of the now famous Devastated Hot Spot Cities, but her community was far from untouched. She’d learned her lessons well from listening to the stories her parents and older siblings told of those times. Although no one had expected the actual Zombie Apocalypse to arrive at all, and they certainly didn’t expect it to play out the way it did, people who paid attention during the Corona Years maybe had a bit of an advantage. Oh, and so did the people who already lived off grid, and, surprisingly, Orthodox Jews, like Java Leia and her husband.

After there was finally a vaccine that worked (or five, as different populations needed different ones) things went back to relative normal, and companies went back to trying to solve the “problems” of self driving cars and automatic everything. Things became more and more automated. Orthodox Jews keep 1 25 hr period a week completely free of electronics, social media, and phones, even avoiding simple actions such as turning on and off lights, so, as appliances became more and more automated, they had to develop ways to avoid desecrating their Sabbath weekly. “Sabbath mode” was one option, but several Jewish-owned companies broke off and started marketing “old-style” appliances.

When Cybernetics became popular, more and more people in the general population had various electronics implanted in their bodies. At first it was just the richest people who could afford it, but then, in an attempt to appear anti-racist and anti-classist, government programs sponsored implants for everyone. And they worked pretty well at first, eventually being widespread enough to be used as ID and in place of exchanging actual money or using a card. Of course, there are always those who don’t trust the government in the first place, and they definitely didn’t trust government sponsored implants. And then there were the observant Jews. Jews are not exactly a large percentage of the world population, despite their tendency towards large families. And Orthodox Jews are a very small percentage of Jews. There are way more non-observant Jews in the world than there are Orthodox Jews, and most of them were happy to join up and have the latest technology, although of course there were some who fell into the category of not trusting the government who refused. But almost every Orthodox Jew eschewed cybernetics, preferring to give up the advantages they offered in order to properly observe their religion. So it meant they couldn’t join some clubs, shop in some stores, attend certain schools. They had their own schools anyway, and soon they had their own stores and their own clubs. Jewish history is rife with this sort of discrimination. They were used to it by now. At least their lives weren’t at stake this time, so they would adapt, and move on if necessary.

After their children were mostly grown, Java Leia and her husband joined a group of other couples, some with small children, others older, like them, who were looking for some space to start a new community, somewhere where neither off-grid nor Jew were dirty words. They were prepared to head to the wilds of Montana if necessary, but it turned out that they didn’t have to go very far inland after all. They settled near Goshen, enjoying the irony of the town name. The small community purchased an area that had formerly been a campgrounds, and built a small village, including a school, a shul to worship in, a study hall for adults, usually men, who spent part of each day reviewing the Torah and Talmud, and 2 libraries. A weekday library, which was rather digital, and an old-fashioned paper one for Sabbath use, full of large tomes, none of them the least bit dusty, and lots and lots of children’s books. In their cozy little commune, they didn’t quite go full Amish. They did bring back such skills as sewing and other needle crafts, weaving and spinning, cooking from scratch, canning, making cheese and butter, even raising chickens and goats, but they also used electronics 6 days a week, and they owned smartphones and kindles and similar devices. It’s just that the world had moved on to implanted phones that you could never turn off, and those were incompatible with their lifestyle. They weren’t sure they trusted the aging electric grid that had somehow not been updated as other aspects of technology were, so they had efficient generators that ran on renewable fuels or even off of their gym equipment and they kept most of their devices in the weekday library, along with charging stations for those devices. They definitely didn’t allow streaming services into their homes, preferring to monitor children’s device use rather closely. Attempting self-sufficiency, they put by lots of stores. Remembering the lessons of the Corona Years, they had supplies of fabric and thread, yeast and flour, canned goods, preserved meats and lots of toilet paper. Flush toilets were not something they were willing to give up either!

It was a pretty cozy and tranquil existence. They weren’t completely cut off from society, and visitors came and went. But they could close and lock the gates and feel safe from the world. Just in case. And then, one day, the world went crazy and the Zombies arrived.

Maybe Zombies was a strong word. They weren’t actually dead, after all. Well, not yet. Everyone blamed the Russians. Or the Chinese. But Java Leia felt the blame fell squarely on the American Government, who bargained and haggled and negotiated until they received cut rate prices for every implant they so graciously gave out. They got cut rate products, apparently. Or hackable ones, at the very least. Basically, these implants began short circuiting. It wasn’t so bad if you had a cybernetic finger, or even a chip in your arm or leg. But people who had implants in their ribs near their hearts had heart attacks, and people who had the newest implants in their skulls, well, they became Zombies. They weren’t dead, or even paralyzed or comatose. Oh, no, they were quite alive, but the part of their brains that was the voice of reason, the part that tells you not to do that crazy thing, was burned out. It was quite a specific injury, in person after person, and they started to outnumbered the rest of the population. You could think of it as a disability, and in fact, the Americans with Disabilities Act, which had protected so many people for many many years now protected the Zombies as well. And usually, the Zombies acted and looked quite normal. Until they got a crazy idea in their heads. Then, they were quite dangerous! The aging electrical infrastructure was the first to go because one young lady got the bright idea to hack into it and take it down. They never did get it get back up, because the technicians thought that partying was more fun than going into work. Actually, a lot of people thought partying sounded like more fun than going to work, and without that filter, they all went to party. Planes were grounded. Manufacturing ground to a halt. Doctors and nurses either barricaded themselves in the hospital, allowing only the sick or injured in if they could prove they weren’t Zombies, after the Zombie personnel left. The structure of society started to break down. Gangs roamed the streets. Supply lines broke, again. People who didn’t have brain implants took to hiding to stay safe. Java Leia’s community invited their relatives to come shelter with them and hunkered down to wait it out. Probably the Zombies would eventually kill themselves or each other. For too much of history, Jews had been a convenient scapegoat. It was better if the Zombies just forgot the Jews were even there.

As she walked the perimeter, she nodded to the guards stationed at key points along the walls. Finding all the guards at their posts and the walls and defenses to be strong and undamaged, she headed back inside to snuggle with her grandchildren.