Inspirded by Max Brooks and his World War Z, I have taken on the world of Fallout in the eyes of those who lived through the horror.

You may recognize some of the characters. Some chose not to give their names but it's not hard to pick them out. Some are made up characters but all have a story to tell.

Please R/R.

My name is Bodie Dober. Three years ago I was sitting in a cafe reading the paper that told the story of a family who held off feral ghouls in New York for 8 months before anyone rescued them. They ran out of ammo in the 6th week. They used whatever they could find in their small suburban house to fend off horde after horde that ascended on them. Their perseverance and unwillingness to be torn apart in front of their loved ones kept them all alive.

Their story was on page 11. That day it was the return of electricity to parts of Los Angeles that took the front page.

That got me thinking. How many stories of courage and heroism were lost on the last pages? How can we learn from our mistakes if the survivors recounts are lost because our interest is elsewhere?

I couldn't get a good night sleep for weeks. Finally, my girlfriend told me to do something about it if I was bothered so much.

I picked up a small pad of paper and a pen and sent a letter to a man I knew who acted as a historian for the war days before nuclear winter fell upon the world.

When several more weeks went by I assumed he wasn't interested in my idea but just when I thought I should give up, a letter arrived for me. He wanted to meet the very next morning at a small saloon in a settlement between us both.

I brought my little pad of paper and my pen and kissed my girlfriend that morning when I left. It took nearly 2 hours to walk to the neighbouring settlement but finally I made it and was thrilled to see my guest had arrived before me and sat patiently waiting. The saloon was dark and smelled of urine. Hardly a place I envisioned to carry out this interview.

I greeted Mr. Anwar with a hand shake and he offered me a seat across from him.

The barman brought us each over a beer despite the early morning hour. I accepted it graciously but given that the barman was a ghoul, I was a little reluctant to drink.

I sat and Mr. Anwar began to speak.

-XXX-

People don't like to read up on the history that started it all. We're perfectly content with simply surviving however, there is much that can be learned about surviving if we look to our past.

I grew up in these wastelands.

I know of little else but I read and educate myself as much as I can. The irony is the world has always been a wasteland if you can see the metaphor. Before our war there were many wars. Every war had its reason, but our war simply became 'the war.'

In today's day and age it's always kill or be killed but that's been true since the day of our ancestors. I am sure the war days are not over. Life will carry on and sure enough, in time, another will break out for reasons only justified by either side fighting in it.

We have exploited people and resources for thousands of years.

The day humanity evolved into the materialistic creatures we are was the day we shaped the future of the Earth. That was the day the Earth stopped being nature and became a mine.

All the signs were ignored. Petrol and other fossil fuels were never a renewable resource so why did our ancestors allow our world to go so unchanged and inevitably end in total war?

It's quite pathetic really. There were those who tried to curve our path into a more environmentally friendly industry but it all came down to money.

The world was a ticking time bomb. The less resources available meant costs were going up. Costs go up and the rich get richer and the poorer get poorer. Soon however, the richer began to get poorer and when you have that much desperation, of course fighting is going to break out.

It's no wonder humanity went to shit. Desperation does things to people. Entire countries were getting frantic. People were dying for reasons long since forgotten since the Dark Ages. It wasn't the third world countries at the time anymore. Countries that had once been global super powers were suddenly turned upside down by the crushing costs to keep an economy alive.

Two major super powers refused to fall to such feudal times. Of course that was the good ol' USA and China. We all know how that ended up.

Yet, why is it today we still haven't learned? Faced with near extinction we still seek to save ourselves and let others die in the wake. We insist on a currency and see civilization grow once more as the rich get richer but out here in the wastes, the poor just die.

/Has there ever been such a time when humanity faced extinction like it does now?/

It's funny you mention that.

There was a time long ago that a plague threatened the world. Literature is hard to come by telling of such times. I am sure there were many moments in history where our existence hung in the balance.

What I actually find funny is that this really isn't the first 'extinction' as you say. Millions of years ago the dinosaurs were wiped out with an asteroid.

/Why is that relevant?/

We didn't need an asteroid. We were content bringing about our own destruction. We created the asteroid.

What does that tell you about the human race? I for one think we are doomed. We were not made to be a species that lasts. If there really is a God then I sure as hell hope he found joy in the failed experiment known as humanity.