Global Situation at Large and the Implications of Weather.
Hey all, I've been doing some thinking and brainstorming on the possible situations going on in the world and the multiple factors that effect these situations. Basically I'm going to take a look at specific global regions and military logistics along with the possible major implications of the winter weather that is happening during the time period (2009 was an extremely cold year for most of the country) I'll go off by listing to make the format easy on the eyes. Please give me input on these ideas and tell me where I am wrong so we can work on this together.
These are the two main theories I am working with.
-The virus is natural and originated from the major fault lines in the "Ring of Fire"
-Weather implicating the current infected population
Possible proof KC is using weather.
So far there isn't much proof that KC is using the weather of 09 as a possible variable for the story, so this is the only definitive proof I remember of cold weather effecting the infected. Please add anything you can think of to prove this or discredit it.
-Freezing conditions have a large impact on the infected, slowing them down and freezing them in place.
-Boulder and most of the mid-west experienced well below average temperatures during the winter
I am going to go region to region based on information I know and general assumptions I think would happen.
United States
West Coast
Hit hard with ground zero outbreak hotspots, decimated within a few days. Fair to say g-zero states are gone with very few safe zones and no military presence (I am treating Ft. Irwin as the exception to the rule, even though it is now gone.). Adjacent states to g-zero will face the same fate. The West Coast doesn't get much freezing weather to begin with and they actually had a warmer than average winter in 09, so they have no benefit from the weather. Military wise I would say if the Third Fleet was still in operation, Ft. Irwin most likely would have had some contact with them, so the Third Fleet was most likely lost somehow during the initial outbreak, or went to Alaska to set some fortifications and wait it out.
Mid-West
Considering the landscape of the area and the general lack of population, I think the mid-west might have the most pockets of survivors in the United States. I base this off of a few things, population density, firearm ownership density and climate. Due to the lack of infection and greater firearm ownership, towns would most likely be able to gather the remaining survivors and band together and create "colony" type safe zones. If the LA colony was able to build and stabilize I think the mid-west stands a good chance of creating fortifications during the initial outbreak with the help of the national guard. Those states in the northern and colder climates get the added bonus of the 09 winter of having well below average temps, freezing infected that are unable to escape the elements. During the winter times I think safe zones would be able to gain a good number of force multipliers by gaining goods and weapons that are safer to reach now that the infected are slowed. States that don't get the constant below freezing conditions don't benefit from this and would be much harder to gain ground.
Southern States
The South doesn't have much going for it other than percentage of civilians owning guns. Even with the well below average temps the South had, temps didn't really get into the temps that would hinder infected mobility. With population getting more dense the infection would spread rather quick once a major population center was hit. Two of the main ways the South got infected would be Airliner via slow turners and infected ridding on the railway systems. Not much else to say that I can think of, there are probably a few colony like save zones per state if lucky, but I wouldn't count on them lasting for any longer than a year.
North Eastern States
This is where I think things are going to get interesting. As we know, the NE states were wiped out a week or so after day zero. Large population density in a smaller area, it's probably worse than the initial outbreak of the West.
BUT WAIT!
Two major factors are going to come into play here. The first is the Second Fleet and possibly Fourth Fleet (Although they may not have contact with each other, they may both be occupying separate spots on the East Coast.) With no chain of command, each fleet would have to decide their own actions. The Second Fleet would most likely pick a naval port/base to occupy when they returned to the mainland, sending a set of ships to set up shop and create a FoB, setting up for ground operations. Unlike the West Coast that has limited fire power and air support, this fleet can clear whole areas for ground forces to set up shop.
After setting up a main base of operations and many other FoBs, search and rescue starts up and they start to find stranded "colony" type groups that are brought in to expand their civilian count, creating a mini Boulder situation. The survivors get the military up to date on what ever type of infected are on the East Coast, giving valuable intel on their habits and tactics. Unlike Ft. Irwin, Second Fleet has the fire power to throw back almost any attack the infected throw that them, along with the logistics to start doing small hits on high populated infected zones. Not only that, they are able to gather a vast amounts of chemical and biological weapons that are able to take out the infected in heavy fortified areas, while keeping those defenses up for men to move in and set up shop.
The second factor is the weather. While it wasn't much colder in 09 for the North East, it is still constantly below freezing, which as we know has a good impact on the mobility of the infected. But along with the cold is the snow. Here is a fun fact, on the day Ft. Irwin was lost, the East Coast was getting hit by a huge blizzard. If the infected go into a type of hibernation mode when they freeze then a blizzard like this, and the other two that came after it the following months, will bury the infected in snow till thaw, giving a huge advantage to the Second Fleet. All and all, the North Eastern states are in far better shape than the West Coast.
Canada
Other than the possible hot spots on the Western Coast, Canada might stand a good chance of creating choke points in the northern areas of the country and hold off the infected. The infected would need to traverse large amount of bush to get from high pop zone to high pop zone.
Mexico to Panama and Cuba
Screwed. Hotspots all over west coast, high population density, poor military, hot climate, nothing good is going for Mexico. Cuba will most likely get infected via island hoping from Florida to Bahamas to Cuba. Cuba might make a good safe zone if a navy (Fourth Fleet?) can clear out zones with chemical weapons and kill a good portion of the infected.
South America
I feel like it would face a similar fate to Mexico. I don't know much about the military capability of the South American nations, but I feel like anything they down would be thrown down by the infected, as it spread from the west coast to east.
Japan and Philippines
Due to the hotspots these nations/islands suffered, they are most likely completely decimated with little survivor potential. I think the Seventh Fleet was most likely lost during the initial outbreaks of these regions.
China, South Asia, India and Pakistan
Once China got hit it was most likely all over for most of Asia. If this thing spread across the US in a few days, China would happen even faster. Similar situation with the US west coast, hit hard and fast with few pockets of survivors. The infection would spread along the coast, from east to south, hitting Vietnam, Thailand and then hitting India. Once it hit India it would explode once again like China.
Due to the panic of India exploding with infection, the border tensions with Pakistan exploded resulting in limited nuclear conflict between the nations, before the infection took out Pakistan.
Middle East
With the vast majority of combat troops in Afghanistan, combined with the rough terrain of the country, it was quite easy to hold specific population points with the logistical help of the Fifth Fleet at their side. Once the military lost contact with their CoC, they decided to start moving the remaining population to extremely remote regions of the country that would be difficult to get to other than transportation. From there they set up bases like the Second Fleet did, instead they used areas with natural fortifications (similar to Boulder with the mountains to it's west.) These efforts were with combined operations with the remaining NATO forces, England, France mainly. (Continued in the England section)
The rest of the region went into chaos. The Fifth Fleet lost contact with the remaining forces in Iraq, though some "colony" areas exist with the remaining forces. Syria, Saudi Arabia all went into civil unrest as they saw the infection coming their way. Thanks to the many years of US funding, Saudi had the capability to make Riyadh their major standing population center with a good amount of defense. Similar to Ft. Irwin, Riyadh has a large airport and moved its air force to this city.
Israel didn't last long even with it's military capability. The country is far too condensed to make any stand and hold an area from the large amount of infected.
Western Mainland Europe
Like the East Coast, Western Europe had warning of this incoming infected, except they had about two weeks warning as they saw it spread through Asia and the Middle East. The European Union decided to combine their military forces and cut their losses and make large lines of defense around Germany, France and Spain, evacuating large amounts of civilians they could before cutting off the Line. Once the orders were given to stop the evacuations, tactical nukes were detonated to help halt the infected coming over from Russia and the Middle East. Over time the lines constricted into tighter groups, but so far they have been holding strong.
Before the Line was made, England decided to succeed from EU, deciding they had a better chance by holding their own borders with all their forces. Though they did send aid in the form of nukes.
The United States Sixth Fleet decided to aid the EU with their objective to hold the line.
The winter in Europe was well below average, with large amounts of snow fall during the winter.
England
England created a blockade around the English Channel in case the mainland is loss, to stop the mass influx of refuges coming over and risking infection. In case the United Kingdom is hit by infection, nukes have been deployed in every major metropolitan area, in the style of Boulder, to give extra time for a mass evacuation to Ireland of the remaining cities. England is the only country that has been spared infection.
Sometime in August, it was decided that they would evacuate the remaining population centers in Afghanistan via aircraft to England and move all remaining forces in the region to England and the Line. It was decided to split the Fifth Fleet to help aid holding the Line from Morocco to Spain, with the rest of the forces helping patrol England's waters.
Here are my sources.
Navy Fleet Locations http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...%282009%29.png
Weather for US in 09
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/rnk/Newslett...e_summary.html
US Population density
http://www.mapofusa.net/us-population-map.gif
US Gun Ownership
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BmJ0sd4XzT.../StateGuns.jpg
