The Survivors are Retaking Caiger Mall

Some time ago, in the midst of clearing out a hotel, a survivor shot a flare into the chest cavity of of an unusually old and verbose zombie. As what was left of the zombie's organs were slowly broiled it had this to say about the condition of NW Malton. What follows is the translation of what the zombie said from its native Zombinese.

The Survivors are Retaking The Mall… Now.

As you know Caiger Mall fell in the Autumn of 2006. The short reason is that as time passed the defenders naturally began to relax in their responsibilities. The time has now come, regardless of the reasons why, for survivors to deliver an appropriately scaled and measured response. Namely, massive and overwhelming retribution to a degree, duration, and thoroughness unprecedented in Malton history.

It has been reported from certain survivors that current tactics of harassment and avoidance will eventually diminish the number of zombie occupiers within the mall. If a thought so fatal and cowardly possesses Malton in the present contest, today’s survivors names will be remembered by future generations with detestation.

The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. This is not the affair of a group, a mall, a suburb, or a region, but of a city- of at least 1/2 of inhabited Malton. This is not the concern of a day, a month, or a year; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end of time, by the proceedings now. Now is the seed time of the return of Survivor dominance in every region of Malton. The least fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; the wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it in full grown characters.

This is a Job for the Entire City

In the vast extent of the city we forget the narrow limits of suburbs and groups and carry our friendship on a larger scale; those from Caiger claim brotherhood with every survivor, and triumph in the generosity of the sentiment.

It is pleasant to observe by what regular gradations we surmount the force of local prejudice, as we enlarge our acquaintance with the city. A man born in any suburb in Malton, will naturally associate most with his fellow suburbanites (because their interests in many cases will be common) and distinguish him by the name neighbor; if he meet him but a few blocks from home, he drops the narrow idea of a street and salutes him by the name of his group; if he travels outside his group and meet him in any other context, he forgets the minor divisions of street, suburb, and group, and calls him fellow survivor.

By a just parity of reasoning, all survivors meeting in Caiger, or any other corner of the city are countrymen; for Caiger, Giddings, Ackland, Blackmore, Yagoton, the Zoo, Creedy, or Dunell Hills, when compared with the whole, we stand in the same places on the larger scale, which the divisions of street, mall, and suburb do on the smaller ones; distinctions too limited for greater minds. Not one tenth of the survivors in past sieges were of the CMS. Wherefore claiming loyalty only to a group or suburb would be false, selfish, narrow, and ungenerous.

The Real Opposition

The character of those who argue not to retake the mall may be included with the following descriptions. Zombie Collaborators, who are not to be trusted; Weak Men who cannot see; Prejudiced Men who will not see; and a certain set of Moderate Men, who think better of the Zombies than they deserve; and this last class by an ill-judged deliberation, will be the cause of more calamities to this city than all the other three…

I have heard some say, many of whom spoke without thinking, that they dreaded another siege, fearing that it would produce further defeat. It is seldom that our first thoughts are truly correct, and that is the case here; for there is ten times more to dread from a continued zombie occupation than from a siege.

I mean not to exhibit horror for the purpose of provoking revenge, but to awaken us from fatal and unmanly slumbers, that we may pursue determinately our fixed object. It is not in the power of Zombies to conquer Malton, if it did not allow itself to be conquered by delay and timidity. The present month is worth an age if rightly employed, but if lost or neglected, the whole city will partake of the misfortune and there is no punishment which the delayers will not deserve, be he who, or what, or where he will, that may be the means of sacrificing a season so precious and useful. Regardless of the debaters, those who would promote discord, under an effort so equally formed as this, would serve his brains to the zeds with their choice of gravy.

Things Get Worse the Longer We Delay

It is repugnant to reason, to the universal order of things, to all examples from the former months, that Caiger can longer remain occupied by any Zombie power. There are injuries which nature cannot forgive, she would cease to be nature if she did. As well can the lover forgive the ravisher of his mistress, as the Survivors forgive those who sacked Caiger.

Everything short of retaking the mall is mere patchwork, that it can afford no lasting felicity, - that is leaving the sword to our successors, and shrinking back at a time, when, a little more, a little farther, would have rendered these suburbs the glory of Malton.

Those that oppose attack know not what they do; they are opening a door to eternal tyranny, by keeping vacant a seat of power. There are thousands and tens of thousands, who would think it glorious to expel from the mall that barbarous and brainless power.

The Mall is Ours for the Taking

Just as with the first siege, the mall is ours to lose. Lessons have been learned from the last siege. As the saying goes: The more men have to lose, the less are they willing to venture. The past defenders of the mall were rich in their own glory and were also in general slaves to fear. Most hid amongst the meatshields in the SE corner rather than face the dangers of the threatened ULC. Survivors now have nothing to lose. They may try, and try again until the mall is theirs.

It is not in numbers but in unity, that our great strength lies, yet our present numbers are sufficient to eject the force of all the zombies, and then defend the mall forever. What is it that we lack? Why is it that we hesitate? From zombies we can expect nothing but ransacked buildings and shattered braincases. If they are long admitted to hold malls this city will not be worth living in.

Survivors can now prove to the zombies that they still know how to point a shotgun, and have the stones to do so.

-Dictated by the Zombie of Thomas Paine, as he lay with a flare in his gut in East Becktown. Compiled and translated by Tyler Whitney0 04:32, 21 April 2007 (BST).