The second half of the Chinese admiral's story. After thinking that he had been forced to kill his son to save his men, the slowly dying captain of the ship finds out not that only is he alive, but he wants his father to join forces with him to free China from the destructive rule of the Politburo. As the narrator puts it, "We thought the cheer would carry us straight to the surface. As the two crews ran to each other across the ice, I thought, 'We can finally go home. It's over'."
Queen Elizabeth II follows her father and mothers's example from WW2 and stays in Windsor "for the duration."
David Allen Forbes: "'The highest of distinctions is service to others.' Her father had said that; it was the reason he had refused to run to Canada during the Second World War, the reason her mother had spent the Blitz visiting civilians huddled in the tube stations beneath London, the same reason, to this day, we remain a United Kingdom. Their task, their mandate, is to personify all that is great in our national spirit. They must forever be an example to the rest of us, the strongest, and bravest, and absolute best of us. In a sense, it is they who are ruled by us, instead of the other way around, and they must sacrifice everything, everything, to shoulder the weight of this godlike burden. Otherwise, what's the flipping point? Just scrap the whole damn tradition, roll out the bloody guillotine and be done with it altogether. They were viewed very much like castles, I suppose: as crumbling, obsolete relics, with no real modern function other than as tourist attractions. But when the skies darkened and the nation called, both reawoke to the meaning of their existence. One shielded our bodies, the other, our souls."
In the hardback, eBook (and some paperback) editions Max Brooks includes a lovely little dedication to his mother who died around the time the book came out. It says simply, "I love you, Mom".
Ajay Shah's story of him and other survivors along India's coast attempting to flee the zombies. The story starts with him describing the calamity on the shore, as desperate survivors try to swim out to ships or barter their way onto smaller boats. At first, the story practically drips with Humans Are Bastards as Ajay describes how some took advantage of the desperation, demanding money and sexual favors or denying people entry to their boats on the basis of race or caste. But then:
Ajay: I'm just highlighting the most extreme negative examples, you understand. For every one profiteer, or repulsive psychopath, there were ten good and decent people whose karma was still untainted. A lot of fishermen and small boat owners who could have simply escaped with their families chose to put themselves in danger by continuing to return to shore. When you think about what they were risking: being murdered for their boats, or just marooned on the beach, or else attacked from beneath by so many underwater ghouls...
And then how Ajay himself was rescued by one of these boat owners:
Ajay: Just as I slipped below the surface, I felt a powerful arm wrap around my chest. This is it, I thought; any second, I thought I would feel teeth dig into my flesh. Instead of pulling me down, the arm hauled me back up to the surface. I ended up aboard the Sir Wilfred Grenfell, an ex-Canadian Coast Guard cutter. I tried to talk, to apologize for not having any money, to explain that I could work for my passage, do anything they needed to. The crewman just smiled. "Hold on, he said to me, "we're about to get under way."
The Reveal that Paul Redeker went mad after creating a strategy that would cause thousands of deaths to save millions and was thanked and forgiven by Nelson Mandela himself and is now writing a biography of his own life under the belief that he's a historian is somewhat sweet. He seems to be genuinely happy in his new self, even though people still want him dead.
For all of Kwang Jingshu's pessimism, the one thing he holds dear after the war is the fact that the children born after the war will be raised cautious, but unafraid. And that, as a warmer reprise of his parting words to his daughter, he genuinely believes everything's going to be okay.
Cuba and China finally becoming free and liberal-democratic countries after decades of dictatorship, albeit at the cost of a global zombie apocalypse. On the flip-side, Russia regresses even further in the opposite direction, becoming an autocratic theocracy.
The Film Version has these heartwarming moments:
When Gerry goes to a grocery store that's being ransacked in order to get medicine for his asthmatic daughter, a man shows up with a gun. However, the man simply helps them find the medicines they need and also gives them one they haven't tried before, saying that it's great for his kid.
Related: the cop that Gerry and family initially worry about passes by them and heads to the baby aisle, where he appears to stock up on baby food and diapers.
Gerry and his family are allowed to hole up with a Hispanic family in their apartment while they wait for Gerry's evac coming in the morning. While they initially choose not to go and the parents are killed, the son manages to get to safety with them and winds up becoming a member of the family.
The way he hugs Tommy in the helicopter, shielding his eyes from everything below.
In Jerusalem, Gerry is astonished to see that although the city has walled itself up to keep the zombies out, they're letting people in. The Israeli official explains "every life we save is one less zombie to fight." And the survivors are so grateful to be alive that they help each other, and pray together, all religious differences set aside in the face of the disaster. It's a sad thing that one group gets a microphone, the amplified singing agitating the horde even further and makes them breach the walls and ultimately destroy the city altogether.
When Gerry is being evacuated from Jerusalem, a soldier who was fighting to protect him gets bitten. He quickly slices her bitten hand off before she can become fully infected. They escape the city together, he helps treat the amputation, and she becomes key to finding the way to trick the zombies into thinking that they're infected.
Everything about Gerry being reunited with his family, especially the look of utter relief on his face the whole time, and when Karin pulls Tomas into the group hug.
