The United States Of Z

[YetAnotherBloodyCheek]

According to the WA setting, The United States Of America are merely sparsely populated, if not deserted. However, there are small pockets of survivors. People who know to fight, who know that their decisions and actions kept them alive and who managed to turn a bunch of strangers into a functioning community.

My question is, will there be a baseline where all these divergent groups can be reunificated? Will there be a United States 2.0 after the zombies? Or is it more likely that we will have a era of sectionalism like medieval Germany after the most devastating events of the Thirty Year's War?

[LiamKerrington]

Some very few survivors will uphold dignity, humanity, ethics and morality.

The rest of them will decline as human beings and become punks Mad Max-style ...

Just look at what happened in the small area of LA and its vicinity:

The "heroes" barely survived and got into conflict with
- criminals being organized in a somewhat chaotic dictatorship (Durai ruled, but Scratch did whatever she wanted to do based on her personal and/or secret agenda);
- a well organized dictatorship (Marcus ruled over the Colony, and the Colony worked 'well' within its rules and order);
- CJ's survivors were - actually - pretty close to what Michael and his friens treid to achieve; and yet she was too rigid with her rules and operations making people leave.

And besides this the military style of survival in and around Irwin-Boulder turned out to backfire because of the human factor.

I guess it is pretty safe to assume that things won't look very different in other areas of the zombified US. The question would be how close those small pockets of survivors would stick to the moralities and ethics they used to live by before the zeehpocalypse ...

Considering all this I think the situation may stabilize over several years when the zeehpocalypse starts to diminish. And then small pockets of survivors may even re-establish a certain order or (re)create their own view of civilization. But what would happen if such groups meet other groups? I think it is pretty likely that shit like that what happened on Germans' territories between the French revolution and the Industrial Revolution is likely to happen on US territory as well - more likely, actually, than anything else.
I don't know a lot about the US; but I see 50 states or many regions which could not be much more different then they are ... And this would apply to the more or less huge number of surviving groups of people. I mean no offense here; it's just an estimate mainly based on what we know about WA in LA and California as well as on what we learned from many other more or less "good" zombie-stories about survival ... (The Walking Dead)

Best wishes!
Liam

[nikvoodoo]

I believe we've already seen what the general path of humanity will take in this new world. We've encountered about 5-6 groups of people:

• Tower
• Mallers
• Other Tower
• Kalani's Hawaii group
• The Colony
• Irwin-ites

All we've seen these groups do is fight...fight over resources, land, supplies, Lizzy's crotch in what would have been the weirdest scene ever...

Point being the only alliances that have happened in We're Alive are ones that allow each member to achieve a goal. At this point there appear to not be many other pockets of survivors in L.A. I know the place is big, but with the Mallers and Tower running amok you'd figure they'd find someone else by now. The new reality is protect what's yours, take what you can, and the people who get in your way better take cover. I don't know that Michael and the others can afford to take anyone lightly at this point.

I see the U.S. and any other country in the world affected staying very regimented and segregated out of necessity.

[Malador]

I think that the best analogy we could look at for society in a post-apocalyptic infection would be Europe after the black plague. Metropolitan areas were decimated, and the survivors were forced to band together with other like-minded people for the sake of survival. Individuals experienced freedom from the social hierarchy for the first time, which played a factor in the eventual removal of the serf system from the western European countries. A major negative effect was the increase in bigotry based crimes, as xenophobia and a general fear of the unfamiliar gripped the continent.

I could easily see Michael and his group being looked upon warily if they came in contact with another group, just as they would to a group that came to them, given their experiences with the Mallers. I think that communities would sprout up in areas that were defendable and sustainable, and for a long time would act as unofficial city states, for long time before any from of national government began to reintroduce itself.

[Cabbage Patch]

I think there was a key point in Season 3 that determined whether there was any chance of the United States re-emerging from the Zombie Apocalypse:

SPOILER 

The loss of Boulder and Fort Irwin

Prior to that event there was a chance that the institutions and forms of the United States could be revived. After that there just wasn't enough of the old left to build off of, even if that is what the survivors wanted.

[YetAnotherBloodyCheek]

I think that there is another aspect. It sounds probably quite pessimistic but the whole z-day thing revealed the unconformity between praising - let's say - a grassroots democracy's advantages and the kind of self-organization within groups of people in extreme times. Even though this contradicts what the broad majority of us leant at school - democracy is regarded to be the best form of government (yeah!) - it appears to streamline a group's decision making if it is managed by a more authoritarian leadership style. I am sorry if this sounds a bit too, um, scary. But well, the aftermath of z-day does not provide the best prospects in my opinion.

[Duffusmonkey]

Read one of Stephen Ambrose's WWII books for some inspiration. America was a bunch of citizen solders that the professional armies of the world didn't take seriously. But when you push people who are used to freedom they tend to push back HARD. When I read stories about battles where America beat the odds , like the battle of Midway, I always am amazed at the sacrifice and determination. I hope that I woud be capable of rising to the occasion.

Back to the original subject. I believe that small groups of survivors would join up into larger groups, the best way to unite a divided people is to attack them. I could picture deadbeat 3rd generation welfare sponges fighting zombies back to back with Rush Limbaugh... It could happen... if Rush doesn't get re-addicted to drugs or die from lack of attention.