World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

The narrator returns to interview General Travis D’Ambrosia (an interview with D’Ambrosia was previously conducted in Chapter 9) in Europe’s Combat Information Center. D’Ambrosia watches the crew’s operation from his video chart table in the high-tech communications blimp. He admits that when he heard about the UN vote to attack, he was terrified to send soldiers in against two hundred million zombies. The main issue was that an army needed to be “bred, fed, and led” (271). D’Ambrosia clarifies that a war against the zombies required bodies to fight, supplies to keep them healthy, and central leadership to prevent chaos and disorder. The zombies have a clear advantage in that they don’t need supplies, and any death on the human side adds a number to their ranks. However, their greatest advantage, according to D’Ambrosia, is that it is possible for the zombies to wage “total war” (272). While humans reach their limits in warfare, as each side works to wear the other down, the zombies are capable of being fully committed to killing humans 100% of the time. They will never surrender, negotiate, or reach their limits. That was why D’Ambrosia hesitated to send humans into battle against a potentially unstoppable enemy.