NationStates News

by Max Barry
Sun, 27 Oct 2019

Wow! It seems like only yesterday that the undead began periodically rising from the grave to feast upon the flesh of the living. But no: Zombie scientists have confirmed that for the eighth time, the world is expected to undergo a horrific apocalypse.

You might be like, "Well if these zombie scientists can pinpoint the start time so accurately, maybe they should put a little effort into finding a permanent cure." But that's because you misunderstand the term "zombie scientists." They are literally zombies. They wear little white lab coats and sleep most of the year but once they start to get twitchy, we know the apocalypse is coming.

What You Need to Know

• The zombie apocalypse will begin 4 years 206 days ago (click for local time)

• It will run for 33 hours, ending 4 years 205 days ago

• Zombies move between nations in the same region. This makes it important to be aware of what your neighbors are doing, as will be difficult for an individual nation to hold out in a heavily infected region. Each region will report its infection rate so that residents can make an informed choice about which are relatively safe and which are basically pools of pandemic-level z-virus.

• You have three options:

  • Exterminate the zombies with military force. This converts them into dead citizens, who pose no further risk to the living. It is very effective when you have lots of survivors and few zombies, and less effective when your military forces have mostly been eaten.

  • Research a cure, which helps to lower your region's infection rate. Enough nations working together can slow or stop the spread of zombies and even begin to turn infected back into survivors. However, this takes time and is most effective with test subjects and collaboration.

  • Embrace the zombie hordes, becoming part of the problem as you spread zombies all around your region. Eventually, of course, your hordes may run out of food and starve. This option isn't for everyone. But there's always someone.

• Your nation may also unlock superweapons over time. Once built, they can be manually deployed against targets of your choice by visiting their nation page and hitting the appropriate button.

  • Exterminating zombies develops Tactical Zombie Elimination Squads, who can enter other nations and kill zombies there.

  • Researching a cure develops Cure Missiles, which can be launched at other nations in order to convert zombies into survivors.

  • Embracing the undead develops Hordes, which can surge into other nations and infect their survivors.

  Superweapons can be deployed every 20 seconds. If you take a hit from a superweapon, the resulting chaos makes your own superweapon unavailable for a few minutes.

• The World Census will maintain some relevant zombie-related ranking scales:

  1. The Most Survivors

  2. The Most Zombies

  3. The Most Dead

  4. The Most Zombified

  (Note: Up to one hour delay is to be expected in the ordering of these scales.)

• During Z-Day, Founders and Delegates can close their region's borders at no Influence cost, sealing themselves off the from the world, and the plaintative cries of nations seeking refuge. It seems pretty harsh. You're just sitting there watching millions of people die. But zombie apocalypses demand tough choices.

The Z-Day Tally Board will track global progress during Z-Day. Good luck!