World War Zed

14. Interview with: Samuel Jackson

Masonville, Iowa, USA

Interview with: Samuel Jackson

We meet up with Samuel Jackson in his recently completed modern home. Samuel designed the house himself, and as the owner of a building firm, he is happy it meets the needs of modern society, its solid-looking yet decorative fences and airlock style double entry gates provide a sense of solidity and comfort, despite the President's assurances the Zombie menace has been eradicated.

Samuel's young family is playing outside in the sun with their mother and Samuel's father, and the shrieks of joy and laughter contrast with his descriptions of events from his own childhood.

"I was just twelve when it all kicked off. I was the stereotypical nerdy pre-teen boy, far more interested in playing games over the net with my equally sad friends than I was in girls or talking to my Dad. It didn't help that my Dad, who was a huge fan, had given me the same name as the great film star, but at least Samuel L was cool. I definitely wasn't.

"My Mom had died the previous summer leaving Dad and I to fend for ourselves. It wasn't working very well. I'd retreated into the land of online fantasy, Dad had turned to drink. How the hell he managed to keep his job at the prison I'll never know.

"I heard the phone go, but I was in the middle of a game and really didn't feel like leaving my friends to go and talk to some random insurance salesman. After a few rings, the automatic message thing kicked in and I could faintly hear Dad ranting away at the other end. I ignored it. Four of us had just managed to get our mixed party of Elves and Dwarven fighters to the top of MountDoom and we were facing a group of Orcs. It was getting a little intense and required all of us to really concentrate.

"About twenty minutes later, after we'd killed off all the Orcs and a couple of wyverns that had showed up during the battle, we agreed on a pause in gaming and I went for a pee and a can of coke. When I came back to the game, only two of us were back online. It happened sometimes; parents often dragged us away doing chores or other nonsense, so we sat waiting for a bit to see if he would come back online.

"I had my headphones on and was listening to some music to pass the time when a sudden shower of glass from my bedroom window brought me round; a pair of hands flailing at me from outside. I fell backward off my chair dislodging my headphones, and it was only then I became aware of the horrible moaning sound from outside. Several more voices joined the first one and I looked out into what looked like a scene from Shaun of the Dead but without the Queen music.

"There were four of them; one, a man in a pin-striped suit was scrabbling away at the window frame trying to gain purchase and pull himself in, the others were moving around to the other side of the house. The man in the suit was gaunt and grey looking, his face smeared in blood and gore. I was utterly transfixed, almost hypnotised by the rhythmic moaning and his vacant eyes.

"As one of them moved down the drive, there was a sudden screech of tyres, a wet-sounding thud and the Zed flew back across the lawn, landing in a heap by the fence. My Dad, wild-eyed, screaming obscenities, and crying with anger and horror jumped out of the car with a pump action shotgun and pumped two rounds into its face as it tried to get up again, blowing its head apart. He reloaded and took out the other three in a rush of gore and grey skin then ran into the house.

"He saw me standing numbly in my room and spent a panicky few minutes making sure I hadn't been bitten before enveloping me in a rib-cracking hug, all the while crying like a baby.

"Once he'd recovered from the shock of nearly losing me, we grabbed what useful stuff we could and ran, with him explaining on the way.

"The Governor had had a call from the prisons minister that morning. Full military rule had been ordered and complete autonomy was given to the Prison Governor. We'd been hearing rumours of some sort of rabies-type illness for days, but only that day had it really hit home, the dead rising in moaning horror in the suburbs of Fort Madison.