Exhibit 692: Love in the Time of Zombies: The Outbreak Archives, #1

By Margaret L. Fisher

Described as a "zombie novel with a twist", Exhibit 692: Love in the Time of Zombies takes readers on a very personal journey through The Outbreak. Karen, a solitary survivor in her mid-twenties, decides on a whim to start recording her daily life as she travels around the Midwest, decapitating every zombie she comes across. Separated from everyone she loves, she finally realizes it's time to head home and find the answers she's been too afraid to search for. Part of her knows there's a bigger threat than zombies or her fellow humans, who are often just as willing to eat one another as the zombies. The problem is that denial is the only thing holding Karen together. At least until Ron climbs into her life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Margaret L. Fisher
• Release date: Jul 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499760330

Book preview

Exhibit 692:

Love in the Time of Zombies

EXHIBIT 692:

LOVE IN THE TIME OF ZOMBIES

Copyright © 2014 Margaret L. Fisher.

All rights reserved.

Published 2014 by Margaret L. Fisher

Smashwords Edition

Cover Design by Margaret L. Fisher

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Author’s note: This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are a product of the author’s imagination.

This is the ebook version. Due to current limitations in ebook formatting, the footnotes that appear in the print version have been transformed into the current recommended format for such notes, which is (parentheses) immediately following the key word(s) or phrase. To get the full experience of the footnotes, the author recommends purchasing the print version of this book, available at most online retailers. Thank you for understanding.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Beginning

June

July

August

September

October

Afterword

About the Author

Foreword

Like the previous 691 journals published over the past two hundred years by the Outbreak Institute and Archives, Exhibit 692 is a window to the period of time known today simply as The Outbreak. A time of immense tragedy and drastic change, historians often look at our timeline in terms of Before Outbreak and After Outbreak, acknowledging The Outbreak as the most significant event in our global history.

Indeed, countries redefined their borders, completely dissolved, or joined other nations rather than rebuild. It is widely known that no corner of our Earth was left untouched during The Outbreak. Even a research base in Antarctica, the most isolated and extreme climate on our Earth during that time, was decimated due to lack of information and poor choices.

For almost a decade, humans fought each other and those-that-were in a war of survival. It is now known that the cause of The Outbreak was viral, though at the time many believed it was a great Resurrection, an Apocalypse, or even a Cleansing. People commonly believed there was a cure, so they would keep their loved ones in chains, which only perpetuated the infection. It took years before generalized handling procedures were developed enough globally to have an effect on containment. Lack of communication, lack of education, and lack of commitment were the primary causes.

Today, we refer to the infected as those-that-were, acknowledging their human origins and defining them as such, rather than what they became. We have identified several names various populations developed to describe the infected, including, but not limited to: boogeymen, creepers, dead ‘uns, demons, ghosts, the hungry, the infected, the lost, lost souls, monsters, saints, tainted, turned, walker, the walking dead, zombie. The author of this journal largely calls those-that-were zombies, a term originating from former Haiti (present-day Isla Tres).

It is unknown whether popular culture at the time had a positive or negative effect on the efficacy of the disease. Reanimated corpses first made an appearance in entertainment in the previous century, and had moments of rather brief popularity up until ten years before The Outbreak, when zombies became extremely popular in multiple formats of entertainment.

In fact, some journals we have recovered document feelings of excitement and happiness as the disease spread. On the other hand, fear of an apocalypse inspired a small but determined culture of preppers, individuals and families who made preparations for many different regional and global disasters, including a zombie apocalypse. The author of this journal references that particular trend.

A Note on the Time Period

This journal begins in late spring of 2014, about two years after the official start of The Outbreak. This was a time of extreme chaos and confusion, a time of great peril for all humans. It is said that the greatest number of losses occurred in the first two years. Indeed, about half of all Outbreak losses between 2012 to 2021 occurred in the first four years alone. It is difficult to calculate exact numbers for numerous reasons, but just know that in the time this account was written, the odds of dying, or dying and reanimating, were far greater than surviving.

Disclaimer

As per the Outbreak Institute’s procedure for journals and similar exhibits, I will let the reader experience the journal with limited interjections, except for footnotes to help explain possibly unfamiliar concepts and terms. These journals and exhibits are invaluable resources and often provide readers with extremely personal and informational accounts of The Outbreak. At the end, I will provide my comments.

This resource is not meant to be used solely as entertainment. However, we at the Institute acknowledge that exhibits are often interesting to process, and we enjoy seeing different personalities in their authors.

Reminder: apart from footnotes (identified by parentheses as such), this journal has not been edited in any way. Therefore, all spelling and grammatical errors, as well as strikethroughs, are the author’s original marks.

Foreword and Afterword by:

Margaret L. Fisher

Head Archivist

Outbreak Institute and Archives

Old York, U.S.N.E.

Beginning of Exhibit 692

For the Survivors

Day one, about two years after the outbreak

I was a little spontaneous on the last raid and picked up a journal I found on the floor. There’s always stuff on the floor, wherever you go. Normally, I stick to my rules and only grab what I need because stuff gets heavy, but I think it’s high time for some mental exercise (not to mention some spelling practice, haha).

I get so lonely sometimes…like I’m the only person still living. That’s not true, of course, but in between run-ins, it sure feels true. Anyway, I found some pens and pencils, too. Writing and drawing will help keep me dexterous. And help me keep my sanity. That’s my justification.

Well, I suppose I should start from the beginning, just in case whoever reads this has been living under a rock (an expression meaning someone is unaware of current events, social issues, or a known piece of information)! Lucky you! My name is Karen. I’m 24 now. I know it’s about May or June, but I lost track of the exact dates because all the planners in the stores ended last year.

Everyone thought the end of the world was going to happen December 20, 2012 (The ancient Mayan civilization created a calendar that ended on this date. Many interpreted this as a prediction of the end of the world). There were even movies about it, if you even know what a movie (a form of entertainment that, during this time, was often digitally written on discs, which could then be played on machines and viewed), but it actually started about eight months before, in China. (A large country of over one billion citizens, dismantled after the Outbreak. Present-day Hong, Jilin, Guang, Quinghai, Xinjiang, and others.)

At first, they tried to cover it up with another avian flu story, since the initial symptoms were similar. (Fatal respiratory infection originating from birds. Symptoms included cough, fever, sore throat, muscle aches, and, in extreme cases, respiratory and/or heart failure.) People were dying all over the place…but then, some of them started coming back to life.

Great, zombies.

It wasn’t exactly the end of the world that people were mentally preparing for. Everyone was thinking the Mayan’s calendar prediction would come true and a huge asteroid or tsunami or earthquake (take your pick) would kill everyone.

In short, people were sort of mentally preparing to DIE (you know, just in case). No one was really planning to survive.

Next day

I like to plan. Actually, I’m probably closer to being OBSESSIVE about planning. Before… normally, my tendency to plan would get in the way of life. I would worry about what ifs and should haves all the time. But I have to say, it’s because of that tendency that I’m alive and everyone I know is dead…or as good as dead. I never did find out if my boyfriend and his family made it out before they blew up the town. I keep hoping I’ll run into one of them someday. I don’t want to write about this now.

Instead, I’ll tell you how I escaped. I guess that’s the whole reason why I’m here writing in this journal. It’s a little embarrassing to admit this, but I’d actually kind of planned for something like this to happen. Movies like Dawn of the Dead and videogames (playable media where the player controls a character’s actions, similar to a modern arcade; games ranged widely and were often the subject of controversy, especially games like Resident Evil, which involved shooting zombies) like Resident Evil caused me to read books like The Zombie Survival Guide and other survival manuals.

Wait. That’s not true…the part about them blowing up the city is true,