Thursday, March 14, 2013

Borderland

There have been a lot of times over the last three years when something so simple, so easy, was overlooked by pretty much everyone. It happened with the vast oil reserves that so many of us knew were out there and yet didn't think to go after until recently. Thanks to that decision and a small, functional refinery well within Union territory, we now have a plentiful supply of fuel that will serve us through the near future. 

It happened with our brilliant and belated realization that there are vehicles out there fully capable of running on alcohol, which has been a huge boon to the people of New Haven and beyond. Fuel is what keeps our society running as we work toward our goals. 

But on the larger scale, the society itself runs on a different kind of fuel: people. In the normal run of things human beings are much harder to come by than simple supplies. We can always make more of them, but it takes time and love and effort, and in the world we live in now there are enough dangers to make that a so-so prospect at best. 

Which is why the UAS was clever. They knew they'd have to work something out to effectively wage the war they're pushing. Even now they've deeply engaged Ketill and his people in the west, taking risks and being aggressive--almost wasteful--with the people who fill their ranks. Why would the UAS be so casually warlike? Because they know a steady stream of fresh recruits waits for the chance at a better life. 

They're using South Americans. 

The southern hemisphere has been mostly forgotten and ignored since The Fall began, which is certainly a shame but does not make that part of the world especially unique. Zombies popped up everywhere after the initial outbreak in Cincinnati, and no one got off easy. I admit to being particularly blind to events south of the border, but the UAS is perfectly positioned to use the desperation of survivors trying to flee the region for their own purposes. 

Unfortunately those survivors bring the undead with them. That's where the massive swarms in the south are coming from. We have to assume that whatever the UAS did to restore communications and land travel between the north and central/south America, it also opened the floodgates for the hundreds of thousands--possibly millions--of zombies chasing the moving survivors from there to here. 

Which means they're now our problem. It feels better to know the facts even if there's nothing we can do about them at present. New Haven is already prepping to send fighters to the south in a concentrated effort to lay waste to the undead. If this is a deliberate tactic on the part of the UAS, it's effective; we'll have to focus on fighting the dead instead of waging war on the living. The UAS might achieve their goals without ever firing a shot. We can handle a lot of zombies, but fresh herds in the hundreds of thousands? No community can stand against that. 

But by God, we'll try. 

5 comments:

  1. If you can get into the Rockies, preferably into one of the mountain pass areas they have these huge snow blowers that are meant for clearing highways, they are mounted on the front of snow removal trucks. If you can get your hands on some of these beasts you could plow right through the undead swarms, and turn them into mulch.

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  2. I think places like Minnesota and Montana have those, as well as Canada.

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  3. Yea if you can make it far enough north Duluth, Minnesota is relatively zombie free, plus there is quite a surplus of plow trucks. We have used a few of them in our modified tanks. They are quite unstoppable against all zombie forces we have been against.

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  4. This pisses me off beyond recognition. The idea that the UAS is using the dead is one thing. But that they're using people from South America as cannon fodder is something else entirely. The casual racism of it is disgusting to me. I really wish there was something we could do to make them see reason.

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  5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vx369nR9HQ

    This is what I was talkin about.

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