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A Story of World War Z

BY MAX BROOKS

BERUFJORDHUR , ICELAND

Thomas Kiersted looks exactly like his prewar picture His frame may have thinned considerably, and his salt-and-pepper hair may have lost all its pepper, but his eyes show no trace of &039;survivors&039; stare&039; He waves to me from the deck of The African Queen The three- hundred-foot fornificent vessel, despite her patched sails and naval grey paintwork This for of the European Union and is the mobile headquarters of &039;Closure, Limited&039;

Welcome aboard! Doctor Kiersted holds out a hand as the supply launch pulls alongside Quite a party, eh? He refers to the collection of warships and troop transports anchored in the fjord Good thing for us this is only a recce expedition It&039;s getting harder and harder to secure our subjects South and East Asia are secure, Africa&039;s drying up Russia used to be our best exporter, unofficially, of course, but nowThey really otiations&039;, not even on the individual level What&039;s this world co to when you can&039;t bribe a Russian?

He chuckles as we head below to B deck A loud coeway froestures over his shoulder Cricket season, Sri Lanka versus the West Indies We get the BBC live feed directly from Trinidad No, our subjects are all kept below in speciallywe do here is

We descend to C deck, past crew cabins and various equip comes from the EU Ministry of Health They provide the ship, the crew, a military liaison to help collect subjects, or, if no troops are available, enough money to pay for private contractors like &039;the Impisi&039;, you know, the &039;Hyenas&039; They don&039;t co coress had on C-SPAN I cringed when that one senator tried to support it openly He is nohat, working as an underling in your Departistration?

The irony is most of our money comes from America, froal Reasons) set up the fund that&039;s given dozens of your countrymen a chance to use our services We need every dollar, or Cuban peso, I should say, the onlynow

It&039;s difficult and dangerous to collect subjects, very dangerous, but that part of the process is relatively inexpensive The preparation - that is where the real h to just find a subject with the right height, build, gender, and reasonably close facial features Once we have theins

Hair has to be cleaned, cut, possibly dyed Most of the time facial features have to be reconstructed or else actually sculpted from scratch We have some of the best specialists in Europeand Aes, or even &039;pro bono&039;, but soe for every second of their time Talented bastards

We couarded by two large armed men Kiersted speaks to theies, he says, I don&039;t ned copy of al disclaimer, and my letter of consent, stamped with the seal of the European Union&039;s Minister of Mental Health The guards exahts, then nod to me and open the door Kiersted and I pass into an artificially lit passageway The air is still, odorless, and extremely dry I hear the thrue and powerful dehumidifier The hatches on either side of us are solid steel, opened only by electronic key, and warning in several languages for unauthorized personnel to stay out Kiersted lowers his voice slightly This is where it happens Preparation I am sorry we can&039;t enter; a safety issue for the workers, you understand

We continue down the passageway Kiersted gestures to the doors without touching them Face and hair are only part of the preparation &039;Wardrobe personalization&039; - that is a challenge The process si the wrong clothes orsolobalization The same T-shirt, say, made in China, could be found in Europe, America, anywhere The same for electronic items, or jewelry; we have a jeweler on contract for specialty items, but you&039;d be surprised how many times we&039;ve found clones for so-called &039;one-of-a-kind&039; pieces We also have a specialist for children&039;s toys, you see, not to make them, but to modify them Children specialize their toys like no one else A certain teddy bear is ure has one black boot and one brown Our specialist, she has a warehouse in Lund I&039;ve even seen it, abut specialty piles of exact toy pieces: dolls&039; hairbrushes and Action Man guns - hundreds of piles, thousands Reminds me of when I visited Auschwitz as a student - the hills of eyeglasses and little children&039;s shoes I don&039;t kno she does it, Ingvilde She is driven

I remember once we needed a &039;special penny&039; The client was specific He used to be soed (Naal Reasons) and a lot of other dead stars In his letter he said that he once took his son to a place called &039;Travel Town&039;, soeles He said it was the only time he&039;d ever spent a full afternoon with his son Travel Town had one of thosethe handle presses it into a special medallion The client had said that on the day they fled, his son had refused to leave it behind He even h it so he could wear it around his neck on a shoelace Half the client&039;s letter was devoted to describing that special penny Not just the design, but the color, aging, thickness, even the spot on it where he&039;d punched the hole I knee&039;d never find anything close to that So did Ingvilde, but you knohat she did? She made another one, completely identical She found the con to a local ht coht Most importantly, she made sure that the penny was overnment removed most of the copper You see, when you squeeze it flat and the inside metal showsSorry&039;too much information&039; as you Americans say I only mention it to illustrate the kind of dedication we have to our work here Ingvilde, incidentally, works on a subsistence salary She&039;s like uilt&039;