1998
************************************************** ********
The winter of 1997 and 1998 is particularly cold due to the dust raised into the atmosphere by nuclear weapons. At the turn of the year the civilian casualties in industrialized nations have risen to 15%, but the worst is yet to come. There are no longer any transportation and communications networks, and food distribution to those needing it is impossible. The nuclear war is accompanied by a famine the scale of which no one could have even predicted. Only the exceptionally cold winter delays the spreading of several kinds of disease simultaneously. In Third World countries the destruction of industry combined with the cessation of food aid causes ever more brutal misery, famine and death in many regions.
With the arrival of spring the unburied dead finally cause the spread of epidemics, which experts had feared but which they were unable to prevent. Plague, cholera, typhus, typhoid fever and many other diseases spread throughout the world. By the time they have abated over 50% of the world population will be dead.
In Europe France and Belgium have fared the best, practically standing alone while maintaining some sort of order in the midst of all the chaos. When refugees begin to stream towards the borders, their response is to close them. Military units begin to refuse entry to refugees at gunpoint. The French government allows the Army to advance to the Rhine in order to secure the eastern border with a natural barrier. A vast illegal zone is formed as refugees gather at the French and Belgian border. Open battles over food are followed by mass famine and epidemics until the illegal zone is deserted and dead.
************************************************** ********
To be continued
|