FYI this is a prequil to my 9 other Scenarios
Scenario 0
© 2011Northern Raider
http://preppersuk.freeforums.org
The City
The city was huge, a behemoth a massive interconnected and inter-reliant lattice work of career people, families, travellers, traders, migrant workers, and refugees both economic and political.
Wealth creators and wealth users, consumers and producers all kept functioning by the never ending efforts of the utilities and service industries.
The city was like a giant living and breathing entity and it was dying. The massive swings in the global economy coupled to political uncertainty at home had caused the financial sector to take massive calculated risks with billions of pounds of investor’s monies; it had caused much of the nation’s remaining manufacturing base to move overseas seeking cheaper non-union work forces and lower production costs.
The rising unemployment in the nation especially affected the city as its wealth ebbed away on just trying to keep the utilities and public services running, more money haemorrhaged away on the various social welfare and benefits schemes that had flourished during the wealthier times.
The over indulgences that made the city so unhealthy and so vulnerable to the fatal infection was complacency and over confidence. People and systems became utterly reliant on services provided on demand at the moment of need. They became too confident that technology would provide all their needs 24/7/365.
People imported almost everything they needed without giving where those goods and services came from a seconds thought, or as to what would happen if those supplies stopped arriving.
People could and did simply go to the 24 hour supermarkets to buy that days food not giving a thought as to what they would do if the food did not reach the shops.
They turned on a tap and pure clean drinking water spurted out, they turned on a knob and natural gas belched out to cook their food with and to heat their water for washing with. They flicked on a switch and the electricity flowed to power their lights, run their computers, and drive their TVs.
The same people poured waste down sinks, flushed toilets, and put rubbish out and it simply “went away†the people did not know nor cared where all their waste went to. If a problem occurred such as a blocked drain, outbreak of rats or cockroaches they simply a phone call and someone else fixed the problem.
When interviewers asked many of the city’s younger inhabitants where food came from or where fuel came from they replied most ironically “shops and service stations†and that was as far as their knowledge based reached.
Broken street lights, bunch of young thugs scaring the community, overflowing drain, fallen tree, failed traffic lights, late running train, protest rally causing trouble, body found behind shops, insects found in take away meal, stolen car racing the streets, stranger enticing children, noisy neighbours stereo, thug with vicious dog attacking people, ethnic gang robbing school kids, overflowing bins blocking pavement, car on fire, light not working, missed parcel delivery, doctors surgery closed because of violent incident, young mum faints in street, anarchists squatting in mansion, illegal immigrants aggressively begging, burst water main, daily paper undelivered, bread delivery late, cash point out of action, fresh bought chicken leg found to be rotten, wheely bin gone missing , fallen tree embedded in shop front. This list goes on and on, and all are either fixed or made better by simply E mailing a department or phoning a help line. People simply relied completely on the “system†to provide for all their needs from cradle to grave.
But what would happen if the system failed or stopped?
8AM
Charles Winstanley city broker pulled up at the ATM to withdraw cash, he needed funds to pay for his daughters ballet lessons at Miss Markova’s that evening. The cash point refused his request for funds, the screen simply apologised and asked him to try again later.
8.10AM Gavin Boyes tried to fill up his car but the guy in the cubicle barked over the speakers to say CASH ONLY the card reader was not working. Gavin did not have any cash so had to leave without his fuel. Gavin was heading back to Northamptonshire over 100 miles away he only had enough fuel for probably 30 miles, He wagered himself the Bug Out kit in the back of the car would almost certainly be needed, some instinct confirmed by the radio news made Gavin very cautious about the day ahead.
8.10AM 3E27 was the train’s designation, 10,000 tons of prime coal for the power station, it is part of a never ending set of trains that continuously supply the power stations with the coal they need. They are called Merry Go Round trains because they follow a circular never ending route from coal mine (or docks) to the power stations. Day in day out they keep feeding the ravenous furnaces with the coal that is burnt to heat the water that is turned into high pressure steam that is used to turn turbines that in turn spin the generators. The generators that keep the city supplied with its electricity.
This morning was different though, Driver Ackland saw a yellow light followed by a red light in the far distance and slowed his train right down, when he finally got the green light to go ahead he was baffled to find himself being routed into a very long siding, and in that siding he found the sister coal train that was supposed to be 2 hours ahead of him. Driver Ackland could do nothing but sit and wait and took the opportunity to drive some piping hot tea from his flask. About two hours later Driver Ackland was startled to see that the route signalling lights were not showing any lights at all. So he decided to walk to the line side phone and check with the control room as to what was happening.
When he reached the little grey box he found the other coal train driver chatting with the driver of a local commuter train also held up on the southbound side just out of sight at the junction. They told Driver Ackland the phones were not working! The trio waited five hours before shutting down their engines offloading the few passengers from the commuter train and setting off on foot for the next station.
8.35 Ali Saddiq of the village bakery tried yet again to phone the big regional bakery to find out where his supplies were, he now had less than 4 hours to prepare enough bread, rolls and cakes for a 1200 place school and an 800 place sixth form college with whom he had contracts with. The lady on the other end said she could not help him and told him he had to phone another number which was a government agency number, not as he expected another department of the grain suppliers company.
The problem was the government number was permanently engaged. With little food available the schools were forced to close at noon and call the parents to come collect their kids. But 7PM that evening nearly 300 kids were still uncollected from school.
9.08AM Tom and Louis stood open mouthed in awe and surprise they looked at each other in amazement. Roughly two minutes ago the entire control panel of the pumping station that they were in charge off went silent and dark. Normally the room buzzed with the sound of hundreds of dials, meters, printers, hydrometers, pressure monitors etc. The noise was normally compounded by the high pitched whine and rumble of multiple high and low pressure pumps and their associated electric motors. But two minutes ago the pumps and motors slowed down then stopped, the gauges fells and the dials and lights went out. The water supply for nearly two million people and businesses that they controlled had stopped flowing. A minute later they got a call from their sister plant at the other side of the city who reported that their pumps had also stopped, they also got a call on Link Net the emergency radio system that ALL of the areas effluent and sewage plants had stopped.
9.35AM “ They are nearly two bloody buggering hours late†growled a furious bus depot fleet maintenance manager to his foreman, “Where the hell is my diesel delivery, last nights did not come and now my bloody buggering morning fuel delivery has not turned up. I don’t bloody buggering well need this, at this rate I will be pulling buses off the road just before lunchtime and head office will kill me if I doâ€Â. At 10.30 AM when his foreman went to meet his manager for coffee he found him dead on his office floor, He dialled 999 but the operator said it may be a while before help comes because they ambulance service is struggling to find fuel for its fleet.
12.02 PM Gladys Mabel Arkright stood at the bus stop and wondered where had all the buses gone to, 73 years old with a dodgy hip now faced a 14 mile walk back to her village.
15.40PM Ross Carr was feeling light headed and sweaty, her hands were trembling and she felt suddenly very tired. Ross was a type one diabetic as well as a teenager. And like many teenagers she took silly risks with the control over her condition. She had missed her morning shot and noon shot and was now paying the price for her folly. She got back to the tower block where she and her mum lived on the 5th floor. She found the main entrance door open which was unusual because it’s an electromagnetic card operated door system. She would tell her mum when she saw her. She hopped the elevator and pressed 5 but no sooner had the door shut and the lift started climbing it stopped dead and the lights went out. Using the battery powered back up light she found the emergency call button and pressed it, but no one answered it. Nor were they likely to either the microwave radio link to the control room was without power and its back up battery was defective. For 15 year old Miss Ross Carr, type one diabetic no one would find her until it was too late.
1800PM a radio, phone, cell phone, text and pager message went out ordering all police officers to report for emergency deployment. Many officers look out the window and listened to the radio news about the developing problems and decided to stay at home with their families.
20.20 PM a group of commuters whose trains had not arrived and who could not get a straight answer from the few remaining railway staff were walking through Lake Valley Gardens the lowest point in the city, the street lights had faded out nearly an hour earlier, and as they walked in a group led by a guy called Adam who had a street map, flashlight, compass, light sticks and radio in his rucksack (someone asked if his nickname was Rambo the survivalist, he replied the name was wrong but the title right). The group reached the bottom of the gardens just as it reached the new executive housing estate that had been built on the old marshland five years ago. Adam paused and asked “can you smell that and what is that noise it sounds like running water?â€Â
Playing his FenixLD20 flashlight out ahead he could see water or liquid percolating up out of the gullies and drains ahead of them. It had formed a growing pool across the full width of the path and was flowing very freely and quite fast into the streets of the executive housing development.
Sewage, neat untreated sewage, plus other effluents and waste water was pouring out of the drains and sewers, this was the lowest point on the drain and sewer network and pumps were supposed to carry the effluent from the underground Victorian built storage chambers and pump it to the treatment works outside the city limits.
The pumps had stopped and now the raw sewage was following the easiest route that gravity would allow, straight towards the homes of 30,000 city workers.
22.00PM , Chaz,, Kam, Dodger, Davie, Chris, Wayne, Akim, Paul, George, Wallace and Carl were all sat in the lounge of the regional secure unit for young violent criminals. All were guests of the state for carrying some of the most horrible and depraved crimes you could imagine. Our young products of broken homes had already noticed the night shift of prison officers had not turned up for work and in the last 90 minutes they had not seen nor heard from the remaining members of the day shift. Suddenly the lights flickered and went out and the emergency lighting kicked in. This made the boys laugh as it was a change from the drudgery and routine they were used to.
Then a few minutes later Kam noticed the electromagnetic door locks to the secure lounge were clicking like mad. Kam went to the door and pulled at the handle, nothing it stayed locked. So being a typical teen whilst he was about to tell his friends that the door lock was “doing his head in†he leaned back putting his weight onto the door just as the mechanism clicked again as the power supply to it was briefly interrupted. Suddenly Kam found himself sat on the floor staring at a now open door leading out of the lounge, and no prison officer was on the other side to remonstrate with him.
By midnight with much pulling, prying, kicking etc aiding by an intermitted power supply the boys found their way to a fire door just off the library floor. From there eleven of society’s greatest failures, sadists, thugs and perverts found themselves outside in an unlit city with no sign of any authorities anywhere. It took them less than 40 minutes to rob their first late night store and to rape and kill the two girls running the store. From there the eleven melted into the night to add to the spreading anarchy and chaos that was devouring the city.
The next day
06.35
Adam the survivalist with a heavily bandaged left arm struggled to clean and re-cock the crossbow he had recovered from a cache of survival supplies he kept in a U –Hire 24 hour access Storage Company on the industrial estate. With him was a numb with shock, bruised and battered but very much alive was a young nurse who he came across during the night.
He had heard her scream just about 3AM the night before just as he passed an access road to the wine shop. He looked into the access road to see a group of young men clearly drunk to the point of almost collapse, totally inebriated but desperately trying to drag a young woman further up the access road.
Adam shouted a warning to the thugs to stop but just got verbally abused and a half empty bottle of vodka thrown in his direction. He had already seen enough over the last 18 hours and heard enough on the radio to realise no cops were likely to arrive any time soon. That is why he had elected to draw on his cache of survival supplies before trying to get out of the city. Boy was he pleased he had decided to collect his reserve Bug out Bag and bow.
Adam shouted again and two of the thugs turned to face him, one held a large bread knife and the other a Stanley craft knife. That was enough for Adam and he shot the guy with the breadknife with his crossbow, immediately reloading he shot the second before he was able to respond. Adam started to advance on the pair of which only the second one was still standing and screaming abuse in Adams direction. As he passed the vocal thug he brought his telescopic baton down hard across the thugs head and he fell like someone had turn off a switch.
The noise, swearing, screams and sight of a bloke in a combat jacket carrying a crossbow and a baton advancing on them certainly got the attention of the rest of the gang they could see very clearly their two chums were down and out, and before they could decide what to do the biggest member of their group suddenly doubled over with another crossbow bolt embedded in his lower abdomen. This was not the sort of “Agro or Bovver†they liked, they preferred defenceless opponents and as they saw the guy with the combat jacket raising the crossbow to the aim again they decided discretion was the better part of valour and they fled leaving the young lady on the floor.
It was a good ten minutes later before Adam managed to persuade the young nurse she was safe from the gang and that he would not harm her, her eyes kept flickering between him, the bow and the two original thugs laying still on the rubbish strewn access road. It did not take her long to persuade Adam to help her get home which fortunately for Adam was not too far off his own route home.
10.00AM The BBC news reports that her Majesty her family and the ministers of her government had relocated to Balmoral and Winsdor for the duration of the temporary crisis. A state of emergency was also declared. Also the news reported that many police and emergency services staff along with many UK based soldiers had not responded to the emergency order to report to work.
The news also said the government was implementing a curfew from dusk til dawn and ordered that people stay at home and don’t go trying to leave the city’s, emergency supplies would be brought to the people but they must be patient.
A final comment noted the arrest of some people found hoarding stocks of food they had stolen from an abandoned warehouse.
7 days later without power, water or sewage the first reports of dysentery and cholera were reported, numerous apartment blocks had burnt down as people tried to cook and light their flats with improvised tools like candles.
21 days later people who still had the energy and strength started to leave the city by any means available.
23 days later a very sick, heavily coughing refugee who was originally from Kazakstan arrived in a refugee camp that had spontaneously formed on the downs outside the city. He was a former deck hand on a scrap metal carrying ship that came from the Black Sea to the UK twice a year.
He was coughing badly, sweating profusely though complaining of being cold. A first aider gave him Aspirin to try and get his temperature down. They placed him with hundreds of others in a huge circus marquee tent where he lay down on the blanket he had brought with him. Four hours later someone realised he was dead and as they carried him out they noticed large black blue pustules around his neck and on his face. The camp was desperate for warm clothing for the survivors so they pulled off the seaman’s Norwegian army shirt and put it in a pile for giving to the needy. It was then some else noticed that those black blue pustules were also prominent under the sailors arms, and realised it looked like plague. They burnt the shirt the sailor had been wearing but not thought about the wool blanket he had worn when he arrived. At that very moment a family of four were just settling down for a few ours rest on the sailor’s blanket.
35 days later the survivors abandoned what was left of the camp and spread out in all directions, many of the survivors scratched at flea bites as they walked away.
Are cities just necropolis in waiting?
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RE: Scenario 0 the City