World War Z: Chapter 8: Good-Byes Summary & Analysis

Burlington, Vermont. The Whacko tells the narrator that they’d decided to declare victory as soon as the continental U.S. was secured even though they knew the real war was far from over. They understood that the people were tired and needed to hear this news, and that they had to give their soldiers the option to return to their homes and stop fighting. The UN multinational task force was formed to help with the international missions, and many volunteers signed up. The Whacko says that he was criticized for not keeping this an all-American mission, but he believed that those who wanted to rest should have the opportunity to do so. As a result, perhaps the overseas campaigns were a little slower. In any case, not all the zombies have been purged yet, and the war is still on. 

Khuzhir, Olkhon Island, Lake Baikal, The Holy Russian Empire. Maria Zhuganova is four months pregnant with her eighth child. She says that she regrets that she couldn’t continue to serve Russia after they had eliminated all the zombies in the country—she would have liked to help liberate their former territories of zombies, too. However, she was already busy with the important project of repopulating Russia since there are very few healthy young women left. There are many facilities like this throughout the nation and she is happy to be of service. She hesitates a little when she says that she doesn’t care that she doesn’t know the father of her children or the children themselves.

Zhuganova wonders if the narrator is puzzled by ideas like this in a “fundamentalist state.” She says that no one in Russia really believes in religion, except for Father Ryzhkov, who has been packed off into obscurity. She tells the narrator that he, too, is being used by the state to let the world know its true nature and to warn them to not mess with it. They revel in the fact that they are feared again, and are therefore safe. They are happy that they have “the protective fist of a Caesar.”

Bridgetown, Barbados, West Indies Federation. The bar is closing down, but T. Sean Collins signals for another drink. He admits that he is addicted to murder, like some war vets, and gets a rush after he kills a zombie. When he stopped killing zombies, all he could think about when he met or spoke to any person was where and how he could hit them to kill them efficiently. He feared he would act on these thoughts, which is why he joined the Impisi, “a private outfit, no rules, no red tape,” to kill more zombies. He fights with a Maori weapon called a pouwhenua, a type of “sharpened steel paddle,” and derives the biggest thrills from hand-to-hand combat.

Collins has heard of other mercenaries who manage to quit killing and retire peacefully, and he hopes that will be him someday. And if not, he says that after the last zombie is killed, “the last skull [he’ll] crack’ll probably be [his] own.”

Sand Lakes Provincial Wilderness Park, Manitoba, Canada. Jesika Hendricks says that she met an ex-Iranian pilot who told her that “Americans are the only people he’s ever met who just can’t accept that bad things can happen to good people.” She says he is right, and she still feels angry and bitter when she sees that some people who don’t deserve to be alive survived and her parents died.

Troy, Montana, USA. Mrs. Miller says that she is the American system, and therefore she is to blame. She says that this is the price of living in a democracy, and she understands why other countries shy away from it. It is easy to be able to absolve oneself of blame, but she says that what happened is “the fault of everyone of [her] generation.” She wonders what future generations will say about them. They cleaned up the zombie menace, but they are also the ones who allowed it to become such a problem.

Chongqing, China. Kwang Jingshu says that he is happy to see children born after the end of the war since they “don’t know to be afraid, and that is the greatest gift.” He says he has lived through several upheavals in his lifetime, but that China has pulled through every time. He is optimistic that China—and the world—will continue to survive. 

Wenatchee, Washington, USA. Joe Muhammad says that a positive thing that came out of the war was that “it did bring people together.” Pre-war American society was pretty segregated—Muhammad’s parents were from Pakistan and never quite integrated—but now everyone in the world has a “powerful shared experience.” He admits he might be overly optimistic and that once things return to “normal,” people will “probably go right back to being […] selfish and narrow minded”—but hopes it will be different. 

Taos, New Mexico, USA. Arthur Sinclair says he loves his job of being a “money cop” or SEC chairman. He suspects that, as with his DeStRes job, he only has this job because nobody else wants it. His job is to discover who really earned the money they hold and who looted it. This includes small-time thieves as well as “big fish” like Breckenridge Scott who will be brought home soon to face the IRS (and everyone else who can’t wait to get their hands on him.) Sinclair says that everything is getting better, including the economy, since capitalism is based on confidence.

Kyoto, Japan. The Shield Society has been designated an independent branch of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. While watching Ijiro greeting guests, Tatsumi tells the narrator that he doesn’t “really believe any of this spiritual ‘BS.’” He thinks Ijiro is crazy, but knows he has “started something wonderful.” He says that Ijiro’s generation wanted to rule the world while Tatsumi’s generation was happy to let the world (namely, America) rule them. Japan’s future lies in taking the middle path, where people “take responsibility for [their] own protection, but not so much that it inspires hatred and anxiety among […] fellow nations.”

Armagh, Ireland. Philip Adler says that they “lost a hell lot more than people when [they] abandoned them to the dead.”

Tel Aviv, Israel. Warmbrunn says that he’s “heard it said that the Holocaust has no survivors.” Even those who are “technically alive” are “irreparably damaged.” He wants to believe that this is not true, but if it is, “then no one on Earth survived this war.”

Aboard USS Tracy Bowden. Michael Choi says that the whales lost World War Z. There were too many hungry boat people and too many explosions on the ocean. He says one doesn’t have to be “some patchouli stinking crunchhead” to know that this is a huge loss. His dad worked at an oceanographic institute and Choi came to love the ocean by watching whales. The gigantic creatures could have easily hurt people but didn’t. Now, they are gone forever.

Denver, Colorado, USA. Todd Wainio admits that he “lose[s] it sometimes” but that the army psychiatrist assures him that it is totally normal for this to happen since he’s been through so much. He recalls the final day of the war, watching the sun rise over New York. The word “peace” had lost its meaning for him as he tried to wrap his head around what it might be like to stop “fighting, killing, and waiting to die.” He thought it was a dream, and sometimes, it still feels like one to him.