Читать книгу The Zombie Book - Nick Redfern - Страница 40

It was a very odd story that got the zombie faithful in states of foaming at the mouth excitement when it first appeared. In 2012, and to the amazement and puzzlement of many, it was revealed that none other than the United States’ Social Security Administration (SSA) had secretly, and then recently, purchased almost a quarter of a million rounds of ammunition. Was the SSA fearful of being overwhelmed by hordes of angry grannies, all demanding increases to their benefit payments? No, it was possibly much worse than such a scenario could ever be.

When the story broke, the SSA was quick to play the whole thing down as a matter of little consequence at all. Some conspiracy-minded figures suggested the agency was perhaps just a bit too quick to lay matters to rest. It may come as a surprise to the majority of people to learn that the SSA actually has its very own, independent police force. So the SSA assured everyone that the bullets were simply bought for target-practice, as a means to train its personnel on all the latest tactics and trends in the world of law enforcement. Uh-huh. Of course, what else? Well, maybe, quite a lot else.

Not everyone, unsurprisingly, was buying into the SSA’s version of events. In fact, it’s correct to say that hardly anyone bought into it. Certainly, the news provoked understandable suggestions that the SSA—possibly alongside many other agencies of the U.S. government—was preparing for a near-future period of nationwide civil uprising, possibly from the effects of a collapse of the entire U.S. economy, or maybe, as a result of an outbreak of a nationwide zombie infestation.

In those online domains where the conspiratorial and the paranoid like to hang out, even bleaker rumors were quickly taking shape. One of the most controversial theories presented suggested that, to avoid complete economic collapse, plans were afoot to secretly, and drastically, lower the population level of the United States. This, we were told, would be achieved by switching on a dormant virus that was deliberately been inserted into the flu vaccine.

All of those tens of millions of people who regularly get flu jabs would suddenly mutate into murderous maniacs. In the days after the outbreak, the government would then step in and wipe out the infected—using not just the regular police and the military, but also agencies such as the SSA, that in 2012, as we have seen, very conveniently decided to arm itself to the absolute teeth. With millions upon millions dead and the population significantly reduced in number, the economic strain would be gone, or at the very least, be significantly lifted.

Of course, it’s all paranoid nonsense and couldn’t really happen. Could it? Maybe we won’t know the answer to that question until it’s way too late to do anything about it—aside from not getting a flu-shot, perhaps.