#i already quit but I have a few more weeks. I'm scared to be unemployed and embarassed. I want to help my family

[m1dnight-blu3]

someone please free me from the shackles of my ableist job so I can read my books, draw and write my silly little fics in PEACE

[c-u-r-s-e-d-i-m-a-g-e-s]

okokok

So this isn't my usual kind of post, but I have GOT to get this off my chest and I want ppl to Know

Heads up for Project Zomboid story/gameplay spoilers. If you care about surprises and really experiencing it completely for yourself, play the game.

This isn't going to be some groundbreaking essay. Just me trying to pour out my feelings for this.

ok so. enough stalling. here goes nothing.

I love apocalypse games. They're a lot of fun. Fallout is great, Mad Max is fun, and I LOVE Metro.

But none of them really. Got To Me, y'know?

At least, not until I played Project Zomboid.

This is a game that opens up with the phrase "This Is How You Died" if that says anything.

You're just. Some Person. You're not some super soldier, you don't have any powers, you're not going to kick ass. You're just a person. A mechanic, or a fire fighter, or a cook at the fast food restaurant down the road. Hell, maybe you're even unemployed.

You're just a person. Thrown into this apocalyptic hellscape.

But that's not all.

When you start, it isn't quite the apocalypse. You've got power, you've got water. You can turn on your TV and watch a kids show.

My point is that it's not quite over. It's the beginning of the end. The starting point.

You can watch a talk show. The hosts will talk about what's happening in Knox County. How it's contained. How it's scary, but no one's dead, no one's hurt.

While you're standing on the corpses of what were once your neighbors.

So the whole media begins to fall to hell from there. It only gets worse. Take this transcript, for example:

You're on the NNR Network.

What matters to you. What matters to America.

Now we're here in the primary military camp south of Louisville.

NNR have exclusive access to General John McGrew's operations today.

Let me introduce you to Professor Jake Wilson.

Now Professor Wilson, I understand that you're a scientist working with the military?

I am, and I'm here to put a few fears to rest.

People in there: they're in a bad way, but they're still standing.

The symptoms are flu-like, then it's panic and confusion.

The situation remains volatile.

We think it's slowed, maybe transmission has... uh...

It remains volatile. We think it's slowed.

Will they recover?

At this point in time we have no reason to believe they won't recover.

Why can't we talk to them Jake?

We're actually talking to Knox Telecommunications about that right now.

There's a lot of confusion. It could distress.

At this point in time we have no reason to believe they won't recover.

You really think that's a good enough answer for America?

Uh. We have the very best people looking into the samples we've taken.

Jeff Galbraithe, former head scientist at the CDC, says America isn't ready for this.

That chronic underfunding has left us unprepared.

What's your take?

I'm sorry, but that kinda talk's not my place.

We've got a guy who handles this stuff, I'll introduce...

I've already spoken to him several times. Thank you.

And you.

NNR Network: What matters to you, matters to America.

They're still claiming it's fine at this point. Hell, from here, they even continue to insist that it IS contained, that NO ONE is dead. It's fine, it's all good.

It'll be over within the week.

But it's not. Everything continues to drop. As it goes on, a curfew message is added. No matter how terrible the broadcast was, the curfew message stays roughly the same.

The curfew will be enforced until further notice.

Your regional NNR station will have all the details.

So there's this guy, the Woodcraft guy. Can't remember if he has a name or not, but he's always super upbeat.

Several days in, however, his tone COMPLETELY changes. He makes no more jokes, he's tired, he's scared. Then? The show goes offline.

<bzzt>

No more Woodcraft.

The news channels broadcast through most of the first ten days. One in particular deals with interviewing people.

You get the sheer desperation of these people. These folks are at their worst, their weakest, their most scared. You have people spouting conspiracies, and people just wanting help. Wanting to be out.

Hi it's Carla.

You watching the news Carla?

I don't need to see the news, it's outside my front room.

Cars, people... everyone moving North.

How do they look?

Scared. Same as me.

Will you join them?

I've got three children under the age of six.

My husband's been gone a week.

No clue where he is.

I can't go. My kids... and he'll come back maybe.

We've got enough to eat.

We...

<bang> <bang>

Hey! We only want to use the bathroom!

I'm sorry I've got to keep quiet.

Mommy? What's that...

<bang> <bang>

LET US IN! WE CAN HEAR YOU IN THERE!

<crash!>

What are you...

<click> <bzzt> <fzzt>

And it ends. You don't know what happened, but you're left to assume the worst. You watch, all while completely stuck, as the world crumbles to ash outside.

You can keep listening, keep watching, keep fighting your undead family, friends, neighbors, strangers at your door. In the current version, you're the last one left.

There's nothing else out there, just terror and death.

Earlier today we received the following recording.

The voice - that of General John McGrew.

These are the end times.

This is addressed to those unaffected by the second wave of the Knox Infection.

You might know who you are by now.

If you don't, you will in coming days.

The disease will not spread to you as it has to others...

... but through fluid contact, by which I mean bites...

... it surely will.

There was no hope of survival.

The time has come to bear arms against this threat.

They may be your family, they may be your friends.

Do not hesitate to pull the trigger.

These are dark days, but as a nation we can and will prevail.

You have not been forgotten.

We will come for you.

General John McGrew, out.

This is how you died.

<bzzt>

<fzzt>

<wzzt>