World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

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World War Z is told through UN Postwar Commission agent Brooks during a series of interviews. Patient Zero in the zombie pandemic is a young boy in China who is bitten - the ultimate origin of the outbreak remains unknown. The Chinese attempt to cover up the zombie pandemic at first, coming up with a cover story of a crisis in Taiwan. The black market trade in organ transplants slowly spreads the infection worldwide until a major outbreak in South Africa reveals the ongoing catastrophe to the public.

Israel is the only nation which takes the zombie outbreak seriously at first, sealing its borders to everyone other than uninfected Jews and Palestinians. Iran and Pakistan annihilate one another with nuclear weapons following Iran's attempt to keep Pakistani refugees from crossing the border. The US is caught largely unprepared. Special Forces are deployed to help keep local outbreaks under control, but the country never engages in a nationwide strategy as the military is tied up keeping a lid on smaller outbreaks. Worse still, a fraudulent vaccine is making the rounds, giving citizens an unwarranted sense of safety. Once the world wakes up to just how serious things have gotten, a global panic (called the "Great Panic") immediately gets underway.
After New York City falls, the Army creates a highly visible base and defense system in Yonkers to contain the fallout of the zombie war in the area as well as to improve morale. Unfortunately, the military fights this war as if they were facing human opponents, failing with tactics like wounding to demoralize the enemy; and as everyone knows, whether or not they've read World War Z, there's no such thing as demoralizing a zombie. The US military is forced to retreat, on live TV no less - and much the same story unfolds around the world as humanity faces a very real threat of extinction.
Led by government official Paul Redeker, South Africa decides to clear easily defensible areas of zombies cod unlock all shop and establish safe zones; in the process, the government leaves many of their own citizens to fend for themselves against the zombie hordes. Variations of this plan are adopted by many other nations - and other countries opt to evacuate entirely, including Japan. In North America, many people decide to make for the Arctic wilderness, since zombies are unable to function in cold temperatures. Unfortunately, they're almost entirely unprepared to survive in the harsh environment of the Canadian Arctic and about 11 million succumb to exposure and starvation when winter comes.