AML WWZ

Port Bounty, New Hibernia

[During the pre-war period, this lonely port was the economic center of the Republic of Basidia. Now it is the capital of New Hibernia, a breakaway state on the continent of Mu. I speak with Roger Bares, a political advisor to the new government. He takes a long puff of a cigar and pours a drink as we sit at a table in a local restaurant, Hades Bar, overlooking the Pacific coast. He speaks with a harsh Hibernian accent, which hints at his Baltic and Celtic ancestry, common among most of the population here.]

"We were brothers, you see. Us, New Cambria, and New Livonia. At least, that is what we were supposed to think of ourselves. We all had one common enemy, and that was you! The Americans! We had spent the whole Cold War sucking up to the Russians just to spite you. You see, in our history, before we became one nation, your country had spitted us, reneging on trade deals and promises of American capitol in exchange for declarations of independence from our British overlords.

And yet nothing came of it. We were furious. And much more importantly, we were isolated. We couldn't go groveling back to the Brits, our pride wouldn't allow it. We couldn't go to the Manchots. Those smarmy bastards looked down on us in every way. They had learned that from their parent nation of France, no doubt about that. And we couldn't trade with Mu, that place was a ticking time bomb of instability back then just waiting to blow. No, we were all alone.

And that's when the Cambrians got funny ideas. 'What if' they thought 'what if we united?' and that is how we came into union, sheer spite! We were together through thick and thin. When the world went dark, we toughed it out. When the world was divided between you and the Russians, we handled it. But when the world went completely batshit insane? We were alone."

(He smiles.) "And we were isolated. No help from central authorities, no response from inquiries, it was just dead silence. Abandoned, left to fend for ourselves. They had made their own version of the Redeker plan, the Cyquil plan, and just fucking forgot to mention it to us!" He reaches into his pocket. Grabs and waves an old pre-war paperback Basidian Ruble* in front of my face. "This thing is worthless! You Americans have that saying, something about your government leaving you? Well, our government sure as hell left us, all of us."

Is that why you decided to declare independence?

"Of course, it was! We had trouble convincing the others to leave us alone, mostly the New Cambrians. We told them straight up we wanted all of our old territory back and not a scrap less. We almost went to war several times. It was like 1877 all over again. Porous borders. Overlapping claimed lands. Unknown amounts of hostiles inland. But this time, the dead were rising, and the military had most of the fire power, and they were scattered in former Basidian and Russian bases.

Thankfully we were held up in one before the outbreak grew worse. Our plan was simple, since our country's interior isn't as hot as the Livonians, we had to take the fight to Z. In colonial times, the mountains along our southern border had hemmed us in and stopped us from further expansion, unlike the Livonians. I think that's why they act so cocky, having 'conquered' nature. In that sense they are a lot like you Yanks. That's partially why there was friction in the union, different national cultures and identities.

But now, those mountains served as a permanent indestructible border fence in what was a siege from a new enemy. Now we were the ones with the upper hand. And we had conquered the undead first. This helped us A LOT in enforcing our claims."

So how did your government reestablish good relations with the American government?

"We had realized something. We realized that YOU realized how it felt to be completely isolated from the world with your back turned against the wall. You had been given a taste of your own medicine." (He laughs) "We had realized at the Honolulu conference that you would go on the offensive first and would be in a willing position to give us a leg up in our own struggle.

It wasn't easy, holding out long enough for you to finish the job on your shores, but it was well worth it. In fact, it was me who personally convinced our new president to establish new ties. (He gives me a wink, then chugs down the glass of Hibernian Rum in his hand before taking another puff of smoke from his cigar.) "Might as well die young. God this stuff is good. I'm a 44-year-old man you see, I can handle myself just fine, its handling a nation that's the fun part."

(He looks out to the sea.) "You know, the beaches are beautiful this time of year. It's a shame no one goes to them anymore. Too unsafe, too risky. To me, it just proves our fight isn't yet done. Did you know New Hibernia had the highest rate of beach outbreaks and washed-up zombies? Our country has one of the longest contiguous coastlines in the world. Half of our country consists of plains and coastlines running from east to west until you hit the mountains.

It amazes me how we don't get more funding considering our track record. That was one of the main points this country exists today. Endless swarms of the undead rising from the sea and no help from the central government or the UN* for that matter. It's what made our case so powerful to our citizens. We had a new solidarity, and that solidarity was to ourselves.

When you declared VA-Day, it gave us hope. Hope that we can liberate ourselves from our undead oppressors and those in Victoria. It was a relief to us, and especially to me. You see I was on the ground floor of our new government's diplomatic outreach to yours. I met with your president personally to offer our full support in the deliverance of our nation. We offered them basing and docking rights, and even helped them build a military training camp for our armed forces.

In exchange you defended our claims and helped us secure peace between our old neighbors. We were so successful that, bar your neighbors, we were the first nation to receive your assistance for clearance and post-outbreak buildup. We received generous terms for aid and investment. We were grateful. We had finally received that American kindness everyone had talked about."

*pre-war nickname for the Republic of Basidia's' currency, owing to there then affinity for close Soviet/Russian cooperation.

*The UN ruled against changing political borders during the Crises. It was hoped that through this action less conflict would be generated.

[New Hampstead, Commonwealth of British Lemuria

Sitting on a park bench in front of the VL-Day war memorial, a fountain surrounded with every name of the known citizens lost to the outbreak, I watch as local war hero Geoffrey Carnell, 65-year-old distinguished general of the Lemurian front, cane in hand, waves hello and shakes hands with onlookers and passerby's. He speaks in the Kings English, what amounts to 'proper' English in the country, sounding like a mixture of Queens English and rugged Aussie Bogan. He then, after a warm greeting, sits next to me and begins to speak.]

"You see, my family has a long history of personal service to the country. We were very proper like that. Our family is very proud of that heritage. My family can trace its ancestry to the first British settlers of the continent. I had always known I would be in the military. My father had served in the military, as had his father and his father before him, and his service was during the civil war*.

I just didn't think my service would end up like this!" (He laughs jovially.) "Of course, I don't think anyone did. Our society is very hierarchical, you see, so when things started to go awry, it was naturally up to us to handle it. We had a duty, and our honor, much more important than our lives, at stake. It wasn't very proper to run away.

You know, we once had all these countries under our belt. Arcadia, Werrubro, The Free Cities, Qlach, Suisse. They were all once ours. However, when the news broke out about South African rabies, our careful attempts at concealment went out the window. We had our own Alpha teams, you see. I was part of the top brass that led them. It was my job to keep these countries from getting ideas during our difficult time by eliminating the menace at the source. We were right next to South Africa, practically a hop and skip away via plane or boat. We would get these cases in our docks or our airports.

They were manageable. However, with constant news coverage and questions from the news media and journalists, God the journalists…no offense…we became paranoid. Many of them were from the independence radicals who thought we were oppressors. We were staring down the barrel of another civil war, of losing our civil liberties again*. So, we said, 'to hell with it' and we let them on our marry way."

You just let them go?

"In a sense, yes. Don't get me wrong, we weren't monsters. We armed them, fed them, guarded them, shared intel with them. Classic standard the enemy of my enemy is my friend type deal. Mind you, this wasn't part of our Dempsey plan*. I would rather have died then to allow those annoying rebellious wannabes to paint their history books with there lies and slander. However, I knew that this was an invaluable opportunity to bring peace and prosperity back to Lemuria, after years of tensions boiling up again in our new democracy.

Better a benevolent hand to set the path strait then a merciless fist to crush moral and faith in our government. We were already starting to have that problem at the start of our little mess." (He looks around shiftily) "Those countries should be thankful to me. If it wasn't for our guidance, and my recommendation, where would they be? Dead, probably. After the war we guaranteed them independence and a seat at the UN."

You said you had your own Alpha teams? What was that like?

"Well in those days I was quite the experienced special operative, having dealt with the buggers on many occasions before and having firsthand experience and expertise as to what they were really like. Before the Panic we were some of the most equipped and capable outfits in the world no thanks in part to our government's contingency weapons stockpiled in case some of those radicals ever got a taste for blood.

That was our tasks force original goal, you see. To take out any radical terrorist who threatened order and stability to our nation. The government decided it would be best to coverup any outbreaks and, if anyone saw or reported what we were doing, to make them look like police brutality or riots. Better to sell the public something it had known and heard about, and given our history, expected rather than awaken them to unimaginable horrors. 'Look at all these horrible secessionists, we just had to do something about them' was the line we had to use.

We planted drugs and weapons near the areas we had to sweep and mop up to make it look like the government's claims were valid. However, I knew it couldn't last. It was my task, you see, as high strategic commander, to convince the government to see things our way and to have them establish a plan to properly withdrawal with minimal casualties."

And how well did that go in the beginning?

"Terribly, absolutely God awful. Failure from the start. Miscommunication at every turn and level. The bureaucrats told me 'No no no, you simply must stay behind where we can keep you safe. The loss of you would simply be atrocious for our morale! Think of what it would mean for the citizens to see their beloved general eaten alive and come back to haunt them! Think of what it would do to the war effort!' And I said to them 'that isn't proper, that's not what a war hero does.'

When our country was on the brink of a brutal crackdown in 82, when tanks were there staring at the capitol building, I stepped in, front and center, and ordered them to stop. That is how I became so famous and beloved in the first place. Back when I was young and cocky. I had heard my father's old war stories. I knew what would happen if we had just let it happen.

And I knew that the people needed a general who would stand up and fight the darkness roaming the land. A commander who suffered along with the common man in our great struggle as a nation against extinction incarnate. I knew that optics and action would win us the war. That is why I failed to comply and oversaw the evacuation of New Hamstead."

You personally led the evacuation, didn't you? What was that like?

"It was a major pain. You had at least a million scared and screaming individuals all running around as if they had their heads cut off. And here I was telling them to head to the Ackerson Desert, one of the most desolate places on earth, for safety. Naturally people didn't take my advice into consideration. We needed food and water, but most importantly we needed time, and we had run out of time long before. We had whole columns on foot, I had to leave men back with them so they wouldn't be taken by the undead. We marched for 3 months straight, all while I'm being filled to the brim with reports of the utter chaos in neighboring countries.

I think we all had the same idea. Honestly, I can't blame them, although it caused us a bit of a headache with worries about refuges and territorial integrity. There were lots of fears that the mandelists* would use this as an opportunity to wreak havoc. Thankfully it didn't come to that."

Is that why the people respect you more than the rest of the government?

"I would certainly like to think so. That's what made it so easy for me to convince the civilian leadership that I should lead the reclamation efforts. The civilian leadership was, understandably, greatly worried about the military taking control of such a large endeavor. Ever since 82 they've been reluctant to share administrative duties and giving so much power to one man would be seen by many as a step back into dictatorship. I never had such intentions.

Although in full truthfulness I sympathized with our leaders. It would be hard for any rational government to give up its people and land to that scourge. Well, no sane one that is. I suppose sanity is relative, dependent on circumstances and what not. But as they say, desperate times call for desperate measures. And this world seems to have gotten very desperate as of late." He gets up from the park bench "I hope we can avoid the mistakes of the past in the future, maybe then our leaders will better be able to suck up there pride and deal with disaster."

*British Lemurian Civil War, fought between several factions of secessionists, partisans, and government forces: 1941-1946.

*After the war, British Lemuria became a one-party state from 1946 until the democratization of the nation in 1982.

*British Lemuria's version of the Redeker plan. Modifications were made to the plan in order to keep the country from falling into chaos, in the end concessions were made guaranteeing independence for several countries at the end of hostilities.

*A radical political and religious movement to bring back traditional values and the reunification of Kumari Kingdom's lost lands.

[Ogish, Constitutional State of Mu

Overlooking Kings Thumb, a port city once held by the British, I stand with Olijjia Jujaliq, a nuclear waste and nuclear ordinance management expert. He directs me to view the city from atop a hill peak. As the sun rises over the boundary of the city, he then points to a commemoration plaque. The plaque says 'Dedication to the 1963 incident'*.]

"A shame, isn't it? One of the worst nuclear accidents of all time and all that's left to remember it is a plaque. Yeah, our government has always been sort of a joke. You would have thought that with how many times our country has fallen into chaos and disarray we would have had a contingency for something like that. It utterly bewilders me how they thought testing nuclear bombs near some of our most important trading partners would never go wrong. Only until after everything went wrong did they think of a way to fix it."

And you were part of that contingency when the dead started rising?

"Not only was I a part of it, I was its head officer. I had to oversee the complete denuclearization of our entire arsenal, many times directly onsite, as well as the complete and utter shut down of our civilian nuclear program in order to prevent the entire countryside from becoming unlivable for the next five thousand centuries.

We didn't have time to work on a carefully considered master strategy that would guarantee both the undead and radiation were dealt with. Our government had been painfully slow, as per usual, to form a realistic plan other than 'SHUT IT ALL DOWN NOW!', as rational as that statement sounded or was at the time, it gave us little options."

Why did it take so long for your government to do something given the urgency involved?

"Well, I can't speak for certain, most of what I heard about the government's plan was both here say and above my paygrade. From what I gathered that to my knowledge is both too stupid to be true and yet totally in line with our bureaucrats' thinking, the idea was to potentially use nukes on our turned populations in the big cities. If worse came to worse, they would also put the reactors in critical, essentially chernobalyze our entire nuclear industry.

We didn't know back then what would happen to the Solanum virus once it got irradiated. The hypothesis was it would act like a cancer cell and be destroyed. Well later, thanks to Pakistan and Iran nuking it out, we found out what it did." (He leans in close to me, and whispers gently.) "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And believe me, nothing scared our national planners like their mistakes coming to bite them, if not give them cancer.

We saw how not only did the nuking not stop the horde, but they also made it a huge pain in the ass for everyone else in the neighborhood to clean up the undead, let alone survive in the hell that was leftover. When hordes with high radiation started coming across in Azerbaijan and Iraq, we knew we had to do something."

And that something was under your purview?

"It had to be, I was the only one capable and calm enough to lead the nations denuclearization program while juggling between lackluster bureaucratic resources and the greatest plague since the Blue Death*. I was the only one with a unified vision of what should happen and how to deal with the possibility of an undead compromise on the sites. We almost had several. In fact, we almost had one where I was there."

What was it like trying to shut down your nukes with the undead at your back?

"First to understand what it was like you have to understand how nuclear power works and our normal operations. Firstly, the denuclearization process for weapons versus power plants are very different. We had to shut down both. In order to deactivate a nuclear power plant, the reactor itself must be brought to a subcritical level. In order to do that you have to deal with the heat, usually with bromine water. The heat from the fuel rods is normally used to power the engines of the reactor that produces electricity. Think of it like a giant steam engine.

The steam from the fuel rods is usually why you see those clouds from the cooling towers. This heat is constant and the byproduct of the ionized particles from the fuel rods. This is why you need cooled regular water and if it's not cool it doesn't work. Normally the water used gets heated up and is dumped as wastewater, however due to environmental concerns of dumping thousands of liters of heated water into normally cool streams, this must be handled with care. Naturally we didn't have the time to follow regulation. Once you've done with the water and made the rods subcritical, you have to store them in the most painstaking detail, the rods are usually doused in bromine water, as it acts as a barrier to neutrino radiation, then encased in something, normally lead caskets, as lead is very hard for neutrinos to travel through, followed by cement followed by lead followed by more cement followed by more lead in a process to ensure maximum safety.

Then once you've successfully done that you want to bury it in a stable enough place that will last thousands of years with no surprises like earthquakes or terror attacks and leave them there forever. Now for nuclear weapons, it's very different. Suffice to say I am not high enough in the command structure to give away state secrets, however I will say it is highly dependent on the state of your weapons upkeep and suffice to say self-sufficiency and nuclear trade embargos on our country had left a toll. Luckily for us, normally there are fail safes which keep the nuclear fuel from interacting with itself and the common explosive to prevent the things from blowing up. Under normal circumstances this is how it would happen, but thanks to our friends the undead this did not go to plan. And that was where I was when it happened."

Your close call I presume?

"Yes exactly. I was working to shut down the last powerplant in the nation, when all of a sudden, we got this radio transmission from the watchdogs, that was what we called the guards who helped secure the perimeter of the site. Mind you, you have to keep the power ON in order to shut down the reactor. In a newly evacuated city, all that noise and lights and activity attracts A LOT of attention from the undead. I remember the radio was staticky and hard to comprehend.

However, I made out one word and it made all of our blood in the room cold. 'Oguqli!' they yelled. That is what we call them. It means 'not fully dead'. Then we heard the faint sound of gunfire over the radio." (He cusps his hands together towards him in a sign of prayer.) "Thank the Ancestral Stars* there was enough backup power to charge our batteries. I wouldn't be here if it weren't the case. I knew my time was running short.

We were on our final rod and were finally putting them into the last casket. As soon as we laid them all down in the makeshift hole we dug on site, which was a pretty deep hole for what little time we had, we got another call on the radio. I will never forget the look of composed terror of the guard who was ordered to evacuate us. 'Alright you dumb fucks' he shouted, 'If we don't leave within 5 minutes this place is going to blow! Make your way to evac as quickly as you fucking can!'.

Understandably, I did what he told us to do, and we made our way to a helicopter just outside the back gates. We held on for dear life as we lifted off and saw a swarm make its way and breach the fence. As we got further away, we heard the sounds of two jets rush past us. We then turned around and saw a massive explosion from where the plant had been standing just a few minutes seconds ago."

(He looks down at the plaque, as if contemplating his situation.) "There is no doubt in my mind that my government wouldn't have blown up their own cleanup crew in an ill-fated and rushed attempt at containment. They say our evacuation plan was necessary, and I might have believed that once. However, necessary feels a lot more like cruelty when everyone else no longer thinks YOU are necessary."

*The 1963 incident refers to the broken arrow event when the Mu government lost control of a nuclear payload that crash landed near the port cities of Kings Thumb and Port Laurel, exploding and releasing heavy amounts of nuclear ash into the surrounding area, affecting neighboring countries like Wrightsylvania, Awarurua and the Kingdom of Ikaria. This setback had major repercussions for diplomacy in the region, causing the Empire of Mu to become a near pariah state and take on more hostile diplomatic posturing.

*The Blue Death, likely brought to Mu by Trinsuyan fishermen in the eleventh or twelfth century, is thought to be a strand of Black Death that spread throughout the ancient kingdom of Mu through ancient trade routes, killing up to 25% of the population, leaving Mu to fragment into several warring successor states, causing the Muor to start losing control of the northwest of the continent, and ushering in Mus' first dark age. It is also hypothesized the depopulation from the Blue Death helped lead to the relatively speedy takeover of the Kanagans in the northwest of the continent in the thirteenth century.

*Ancestors of The Holy Star, the main religious branch of The Muor Ancestral Religion, the other branch being the Ancestors of the Wrathful Gods branch. Called the Dragon Gods by Europeans upon first contact, it is theorized that ancient dinosaur fossils found on the continent led prehistoric Muor to help consolidate their ancestral veneration into an established religious worldview.

[Ciudad de Todorov, Free Republic of Tara

Kanaje Hernandez, democratic activist and teacher sits outside a classroom she teaches on Todorov campus. The lesson? How to democratize a nation. She gives lectures about her experience and what she has learned throughout the war years and how they can apply to our new world.]

"We were just like North Korea once. We had the trade embargoes, paranoid rulers, military parades, stifling of freedom, brainwashing, heavily armed borders, scary military buildup, the whole works. We could have ended up just like them, cowering in some grand tomb of concrete with no one from the outside world knowing the wiser what the hell was going on. And yet we didn't."

So how did you not end up like North Korea?

"Three things. First, location. In order to do something like that, you have to be isolated. Both physically and politically. We didn't have many friends that's for sure, but our land borders were 3x that of North Koreas. We didn't have allies surrounding our rear flank we could count on. We were surrounded by enemies. Thankfully our borders had been fully wired to explode since the 40s. Second, culture. We had always been more individualistic than the North Koreans, we have a long history of individualistic leadership, as exemplified in this country's' former name. And third, history. North Korea had never been a democracy. We, however, do have a history of being a democracy, even if only for a little while. In fact, our first democracy was founded by Todorov's son* actually. Many people in this country seem to forget that."

What was it like protesting against a dictatorship and turning one of the world's most repressive regimes into a democracy during the outbreak?

"It was terrifying! We had seen how the world had cracked down upon other groups of protesters and become more dictatorial during the first few weeks of the outbreak. Basidia broke apart, Mu was turning in on itself, Canje, our cultural and political neighbor and beacon of democracy compared to us was slowly restricting peoples' rights to travel across the country. It was heartbreaking. Of course, some measures were necessary like the restriction of foreign trade and travel, but by the time those measures were implemented it was already too late. 'This is Great!' our leaders probably thought. 'The enemies of the nation have been cursed by God for their insolence to the great Todorovian state, now all we need to do is hold our position until they are wiped from the face of the earth, and we will go and reclaim what was rightfully ours and be welcomed as liberators!' Was this our future? Not only having to live under subjugation but to go and die for the subjugation of others? No one could live for that. We had always been aware that the government's propaganda machine was bullshit. We had always known. We had seen it for what it really was, a machine of conquest and desolation. But now that truth and reality were the brightest hope for the whole continent! We were miserable. We knew we had to do something. So, we protested. It was the only thing we knew how to do. It was a really big risk, most of us were underground so this was a big risk. Thank God it worked."

What was the reason you think you got so far protesting?

"Well, considering we weren't shot in the head on sight, I'd imagine someone high up agreed with us. Probably someone from the military. Our group had been making inroads with the handlers of power for a while, I guess that's why we were allowed to make it to the capital unscathed. I mean, it makes sense, right? You're a high-ranking general who also knows the whole country is built off bullshit. You've seen the most advanced armies in the world fail at stopping the undead horde that lay siege just beyond our fortifications and borders. And now your leader wants you to throw more bodies at the enemy, knowing full well that if they die, they will come back on their side. Fighting the entire world for smaller and smaller scrapes of useful people and land. You try to reason with him, as much as one naturally can be reasoned with a tyrant. Tell him the facts, tell him our fortifications are old, our infrastructure is crumbling, our supplies are limited and the ammo and weapons we have will run out in three days flat on a full assault. At least, I know I would be thinking and doing that. By the end of their deliberation the undead were already rising from our refugee camps. By that point you just say, 'fuck it' and instead of firing on your own people, you aim your guns at the presidential palace, and order the madman arrested. After being forced to face reality, the bastard finally let the reigns loose."

What was it like having to forge a new democracy in the face of the apocalypse?

"Stressful to say the least. We had no less than 3 coup attempts while we were facing the undead. And the fear that things might get worse for us as refugees and zombies started pouring in was all too real. The allure and temptation of dictatorship was with us the whole time. Some of our people actually wanted us to suspend elections entirely, saying we should be focused on the undead and not democracy building. 'That's insane!' I told these people. 'We had lived our whole lives in a constant hellscape and only now with the chance that we might actually improve our lot in life, and you want to go back just because the temperature of Hell got a few degrees warmer?' There was no way I was turning us back to tyranny!"

And what advice would you give to future activists?

"Always stay on the move and never let your guard down. During our initial protest we got lucky, I don't think anyone should do what we did. We could only do what we did due to having a friend in a high place. Never be too bold, be discreet and never directly out in the open. You want to whittle them down little by little. Keep the fool wondering. Never let them know your next move. And remember, patience is key, and the fight is never over."