Tomorrow heralds the return of a peculiar annual tradition that just won’t die: Blog Like its the End of the World 2009. Over two years ago, Steve Wilson started promoting an unusual idea of his that involved a global zombie pandemic that swept the globe on June 13th, midnight local time, to be acted out exclusively on blogs all over the world. It was wildly popular, and rightly so, but why do the zombies keep coming?

After two years of fighting zombies here in and around our nation’s capitol, I’ve taken steps to avoid the zombie jamboree that’s set to begin in a few hours time. These steps are magical in nature and arise from my complete and utter boredom of what will certainly be a “zombie threepeat”, as opposed to a glorious alien invasion, demonic uprising, robot rampage, or some other non-ambulatory-deceased catastrophe.

Zombies are so 2007.

Update: the closest thing to a compendium seems to be the BLITEOTW community at LiveJounal.

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First, I’d like to thank our fallen hero Steven Wilson for first warning the world about the Zombie Menace well over over a year ago, on his site My Elves are Different. Thanks also go to those survivors and honored dead who left messages here, and helped me personally endure with their sometimes uplifting, but always brutally honest accounts:

P@RIX, Misty, Mata, Patrick Nottingham, Neth, A Brand New Boom , Jeremy Ruhland, Naoko @ Geminian Eyes, Sylvan (Dave), David, M H Ayinde, Patrick Nottingham, ladyfox7Oaks, Dred Pirate Bunny, Christine, Cheshil, Kerry, Ryan V , Yaseanne, Phr3d, Jacky Tar, Di @ Magickal Realism, Sarah, Arthur, Lisa, Jade, Cheshil, Novander, The Storm Cellar, Ebony14, Danica Enjolras, Tenchi Kaze, Apryl Knight, and Ooka.

I’ll add to this list as I find other personal accounts of those who really did “Blog Like it’s the End of the World.”

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As dawn broke a few folks drove into town to confirm that the undead were now simply dead. They stayed to help the survivors, and we’ll be joining them shortly. I can still feel that squirrel bite, even though my hand is downstairs on ice in a cooler. But at least I was the only casualty here. Lucky me.

Once life gets slightly more normal, I’ll work on a master list of everyone who told their stories, and then maybe the truth can be told, in spite of the lies our governments will tell us. There’s already speculation about how this will influence the US presidential election, but now it’s time to mourn the dead and comfort the living.

detail of original photo EOD by Vivek Chugh

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It’ll be 1am soon, and the little monsters that made it into the ductwork are all dead… not jumping around gnawing at things dead, but just lying there slowly decomposing dead. A few minutes ago we took a quick look outside to find nothing remarkable: no zombie anythings shuffling around, and no strange lights in the sky.

Now that the skittering has quieted down, and the effect seems to have passed, it’s kind of funny, really. Last year, faced with a metropolitan sprawl full of undead the family survived unscathed. Now, holed up in the wilds of Kentucky, an undead squirrel took my hand.

It was a small bite — a scratch, really — but we all agreed that loosing a limb was better than going zed. Of course it hurt like hell, and most everyone’s eying me nervously, but I’m sure I won’t turn.

Well, pretty sure.

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It’s hotter in here, now that all the vents have been boarded up. Of course, we weren’t going to waste the generators on AC, but it only adds to the sense of claustrophobia. More politically themed images are floating around now among the survivors. Anything to distract our attention from the horror that surround us, I suppose.

We also appreciate the comments that are coming in… it’s good to know others have found refuge. Keep ‘em coming!

Aside from the pervasive undead horror across the globe, folks are now reporting more strange lights in the sky: Sylvan published a short, cryptic message about the sky, but we don’t even have a way to see the sky here. Can anyone verify this?

The affected are also showing evidence of language comprehension, according to Amy. Kelly also sees evidence of coordinated undead behavior in her neighborhood.

Finally, a lot of detailed reports are showing up over on the LiveJournal Community “Blog Like it’s the End of the World“. Seems appropriate, don’t you think? I’ll run through them shortly to try to see what’s going on… you know, besides the dead walking among us.

image stolen from Steve Wilson (He’s dead now, he won’t mind)

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As the effect swept across the globe, word spread on emails, blogs and panicked phone calls:

Sylvan, reporting from Eagle Prairie, Minnesota, noted the similarities between normal teenagers and zombies, but teenagers don’t eat the Fraud Department. Here’s hoping the power holds!

Beguine posted a very helpful rundown of undead pathology. It seems our government might know more about this event than they’re letting on.

Astor’s still a little out of the loop, but to be fair; riots in Philly aren’t that unusual.

The undead uprising is still in full effect in the regions struck earlier: In the UK, Crys seemed to be handling things well, but all it takes is one carrier to turn a refuge into a morgue.

Up north in Ontario, the Bruce noticed the strange reactions from local fauna. Are puppies immune to the effect? Have their been any zombie children sighted? I wonder…

I also caught a late report back in western Australia from Heidi Kneale about using sheep for defense against the hungry undead. I’m not sure what Linux has to do with this plan, but feel free to use it: I’m sure it’s Open Source.

Pamela is also fighting the good fight down under, and is hoping her 24th birthday tomorrow won’t be celebrated only by the undead.

Damn! Someone just said they heard scampering from the vents. Did the little rodents get in through the heat pump?

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We thought we had all of our bases covered. Maybe it happened last year and nobody noticed, or maybe this time the disease, effect, conspiracy, whatever… is worse. However it happened, we discovered this morning at around 4am that our biggest problem wasn’t going to be undead humans… but squirrels.

The little rats took out our cameras quickly, but at least they haven’t been able to breach the house yet. before we lost the last video feed, it looked like one of them cooked itself on the car battery we ran the cameras with. Could that be the solution? Electricity?

Back on OZ, where the effect should hopefully be ending soon, Steve had the great idea to get off dry land altogether… but so did lots of other folks. And we can only wish Martin the best of luck, but things don’t look good.

When first we heard from Naoko Kensaku in Malaysia, her office was quiet…. too quiet. It looks like she made it home in one piece and is… cooking eggs? Also in Malaysia, Michy’s post-exam celebrations seem to have gotten a little out of hand.

I’m still gathering news from here in the States. Trying to make sense of it all… I’ll post an update shortly!

original photo Ocean Squirrels by Linda Lopez

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It’s just after midnight here, and while we now have no illusions about this event being anything other than deadly real, everyone is still in relatively high spirits. Those who think they can sleep are trying, and the others watch the monitors for any signs of trouble.

If Australia is any indication, it may be morning before any unusual events hit the networks. The situation looks rough, but workable for Steve, while “Lab Brat” is holed up somewhere hopefully well-insulated from the horde.

Stranger still, Tiara published a short, but very confusing entry referring to “something that looked like people floating” and several sudden disappearances. No one here knows what to make of it.

Maybe it’ll make more sense after I get a few hours sleep.

original photo Past Midnight by Jasper Greek Lao Golangco

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Martin Livings posted some first-hand accounts from Edith Cowan University in Joondalup, Australia, just north of Perth. Hopefully we’ll hear more from him soon.

In another education-related dispatch, a brief undead encounter was recorded earlier today. As the effect has previously been seen closely following the arrival of the 13th day of June, this must certainly be some sort of zombie encounter training video. You be the judge.

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Mata’s hastily scrawled note begins: “The power died around 6pm yesterday. It came on again at 8 and there was nothing about it on the news. It went out again a couple of hours later. At 3 in the morning there was a car crash outside, and when I went out to see if I could help….”. Read the rest for yourself.

Meanwhile, Steve seems to have made it to his office in one piece, but he should definitely stay away from that rally!

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A few reports of trouble are beginning to surface. Steve commented earlier about some rowdy neighbors and some suspicious workplace vandalism, but is either playing it cool, or hasn’t yet put two and two together.

In nearby New Zealand, a supermarket employee named Courtie had a run in with some unfriendly midnight shoppers. Her hindsight can still be of use to those of you who have not yet encountered the carriers: stay away from population centers!

Honestly, I was slow to believe the full scope of last years outbreak, but this year we packed up and headed west. I don’t want to be too specific, but I’m hoping the Blue Ridge Mountains will keep any east coast zombies at bay.

Vintage Map by Ove Tøpfer, original photo Shopping Cart by Eva Serna.

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Steven Wilson, the father of BLITEOTW, stands as our vanguard on the battleground that was once our peaceful, zombie-free planet. As this post is written, Friday June the 13th will shortly arrive east of Vadivostok on the global dateline, then sweep over his big island called Australia.

Locally, early rumors of an undead American presidential candidate are hopefully just an uneasy attempt at gallows humor. Whatever else happens in the chaos to follow — now that we are ready and waiting for this second wave of the undead — we’ll soon know if this catastrophic, unexplainable plague honors daylight savings time.

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