A very important Preface

A very important Preface

[of a rather intriguing history…]

8

August, 2019 (or: 8 August, A.Z. 4:4; Anno Zombi 4 in the fourth, and final, season; summer). Nearly five years after the initial solanum outbreak, the scrawlings of a lone survivor are found scattered about a cabin in the eastern foothills of the Cascade Mountains. The discoverers of these scrawlings, drawn to the remote site by trailing a seemingly endless train of ghouls, pieced the pages together over a period of six-and-three-quarters months. They as­cribed his name to the manuscript and slowly made copies, utilizing an old mimeograph to crank them out. The fate of these copies is currently unknown – but at least one remains…and that is the copy from which Yours Truly transcribed the entries of Eli Gibson. The fate of the pur­veyors of these copies is also currently unknown; last anybody was aware, they left on an errand to spread them amongst the sparse settle­ments of the region. But that was in the spring of 2020 – or A.Z. 5:3 ac­cording to the NEO (New Earth Order) calendar * – which was almost two years prior to this incarnation of this manuscript. In all likelihood, they met with an untimely, if not gruesome, fate. Such is the nature of the beast these days (no pun intended).

After the Great Cleansing (a national firebombing campaign that in­cluded the scouring of every city in the Puget Sound region), which took place at the tail-end of 2014, no physical records could be recovered. And with the eventual downfall of the vast stores of information that were once a part of the global network that was the internet, there was no alternative means of dredging information or records. (So much infor­mation that quite literally vanished into thin air…though, many have speculated that backups must exist somewhere. And they probably do… question is: who wants to find them?) So the only information available to us regarding the author of these memoirs is what we’ve read within them – what you will read within them. Regardless of any truths or falsi­ties or overexaggerations, there is wisdom to be found in his words. Per­haps this is why his scrawlings were salvaged. Or maybe the people who found these scrawlings just liked the story he had to tell.

The additional “aside” side stories included in this version of Eli Gibson’s tale are speculative fiction, based on individuals as described in his memoirs. They are accounts written by (or dictated by, in some in­stances) various survivors of the pandemic and subsequent Great Clean­sing. But, in the style of Eli Gibson, they all impart wisdom – wisdom of survival and folly, or honor and malice, or loss and gain. These asides were compiled, edited, and reworked by Yours Truly in an attempt to mimic Mr. Gibson’s unique style.

Though it’s not a survival manual, the life lessons of Eli Gibson – as well as the fictional lessons of every “aside” – should supplement your actual (and hopefully abundant) survival manuals quite well. That is, if you pay close attention to detail.

Read, prepare, and – as the saying went – “live long and prosper.”

If you don’t get eaten first, that is.

* The NEO calendaring system is specific mainly to the Pacific Northwest settlements. Other settlements around the country have adopted similar methods, but most stick with the standard Gregorian calendar.