Old New Mexico Tales

England

The UK Government had been, to a degree, lucky with a degree of advanced warning of the impeding catastrophe which it later claimed was due to good intelligence and statistical modelling work. They also gained access to a vaccine early in the outbreak which would be a major advantage but even still it lost control of much of the country. The vaccine was added to reservoirs and food supplies to at least slow the number of infected while a more targeted approach was used for the military, police and essential services. Smaller survival zones were established in which vaccination was mandatory and martial law strictly enforced. The government was able to relocate to the Isle of Wight and kept the island infection free while in Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland, which had their won devolved parliaments, they tried to run their own affairs as best they could. Unfortunately the larger cities span out of control with the infected running wild and law and order swiftly collapsing. Outside of the survival zones matters were bad for several years and many a petty tyrant rose from the ranks of the hard pressed wilderness survivors.

After a long three years the government felt matters were stabilised enough to reassert its authority. Much of the infection had burnt itself out and the survival zones were becoming squalid holes unfit for longer habitation. In the south the expansion began from the naval base at Portsmouth and met with good initial success but soon petty warlords and even larger count kingdoms were met. Compromises were made and battles fought but the pace of unification slowed down till caches of re-start items were discovered in previously unrecorded locations. It seemed a whole project had been in place without the then existing government even knowing. It was both disturbing and a blessing at the same time as newly equipped govt. troops moved forward defeating the Free Dudley Commune and the likes with new found confidence. It took two years to finely defeat the Yorkshire Truth and Purity Commission, and to free the remaining ‘interned’ ethnic minority groups, but the largest challenges were the other devolved nations of the UK.