What'll Ya Have? Part 4 of 5

And now a step back into the realm of sci-fi...but with a big genetic possibility...

Number Two: The Zombie Apocalypse
The contagion seemed to come out of nowhere, but most of the former experts agreed that it originated somewhere in the Ukraine, possibly after escaping containment in a former Soviet biological weapons research facility, long derelict after being abandoned for two decades.  It is also agreed that the...disease...was spread through the world's international airports, passed from traveler to traveler simply by their breath.  As it turned out, the Soviet scientists did their jobs well.  The disease spread like wildfire across the globe, despite the best containment efforts.

In the United States the first infections were reported in the Northeast...New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., along with a few other large cities.  Just like the containment measures taken by the countries around the world, our also failed to stop the rapid spread of this nightmare.  There had simply been too many exposed to track.

At first it was reported to be the return of the Spanish Flu...an especially virulent strain of the Influenza virus that killed around 600,000 Americans in the span of 6 months in 1918.  But this was proving to be something much more aggressive than the flu.  There were so many deaths in such a short amount of time, that makeshift morgues were set up outside, attended by workers in full HAZMAT gear, who piled the twisted and crumpled bodies of the victims like cord wood until they could be buried in hastily dug mass graves.

Then something strange started to happen.

No one is sure how it happened, but it did.  About a week after the first deaths were reported, corpses inexplicable began regaining some form of consciousness, sat up and began walking around aimlessly.  At least it seemed aimless, until the...dead...spotted someone living.  When this happened, the dead became extremely violent, and much, much faster than anyone would expect from a body that had been rotting for a week.  Witnesses said that when the dead caught a victim, they would tear the flesh off their bones with their fingers and teeth, in a cannibalistic feeding frenzy.

Just when we thought it couldn't get worse...the dead came back to life...

The Army and National Guard units were able to hold off the initial numbers of dead, but as more began coming back to life, it didn't take long for them to overrun any fortifications.  It seemed as though their sheer numbers would overwhelm any firepower brought against them, which proved to be the case all over the world.

A few groups of survivors were able to escape, hiding in remote areas of the world.  Groups here in the United States hid in the Pacific Northwest, the sparsely populated desert areas, and the upper Midwest.  And of course, the better armed they are, the more likely they were to survive.  All those zombie movies were right...if you shoot them in the head it kills them.  Permanently.  Nevertheless fears still remain that the supplies of ammunition and food will run out, which will lower the number of living able to survive, but it's been witnessed that the dead will starve, and their rotting corpse will shut down, but how long will it take before they all run out of food?  I guess we'll have to wait and see....

-My 'guesstimated' chance of this actually happening:  Well, this is a tricky one.  Technically, there isn't a reason why a virus, bacteria of fungus couldn't invade the brain and take control.  So, let's say 1% to 2%

-My 'guesstimated' population survival rate:  The zombie apocalypse would be nearly as catastrophic as the nuclear winter.  Only about 10% of the population would be able to escape the initial disease and then the hordes of flesh-eating dead.  That percentage would drop as food supplies and ammunition starts to dwindle.

Guesstimated population survival rate: 10%, but it's going to drop fast once supplies run out!