Around the World

Lore written between Ecliptic, RT, and I.

Similarities Around the World

The entire world reported many of the same things happening. Everyone was being hit by the equivalent of psychological warfare in the groans, screams, and cries of the infected. Families and friends trying to care and support those who were infected were suffering and dealing with deep psychological damage at watching loved ones be entirely non-responsive to them, and the endless state of pure rage of they were in. 

Sleep deprivation became another serious problem, millions were complaining of inability to sleep due to stress and noise, people were hallucinating, and becoming unsure of what was really going on around them.

While still effected, military and medical units around the world managed to somewhat stabilize the problem in their ranks by ensuring that the protocol of work limits and rest hours were being strictly enforced. By keeping themselves on a set schedule of hours worked and sleep, they were psychologically able to protect themselves far better than most of the populace.

Everyone at first was unsure of how to handle the aggression in those who were ill. Stories were spread of family members begging and pleading to their loved one to return to their senses, while they were being brutally murdered. Many did the same as their loved ones were killed in front of their eyes by law enforcement or other citizens who had taken up arms. It was well known some were using what was happening as an excuse to commit murder. The hospitals sedated as many people as possible, but it was too much to keep up with. 

 Stories were coming from rural areas where people had little access to hospitals or aid, that there were people being kept tied up, in makeshift cells, cages, and anything else that could hold them back. Some jails started tossing out low crime prisoners to use the cells for the violent infected. Many fires started due to bombings and carelessness, razing entire cities to burnt ashes. Some people would use the fires to their advantage, putting piles of the dead in the pathway to be taken by the consuming flames. 

Coastal cities and lakes suffered severely as dead infected piled up on the shore and began to decompose, polluting the water. Many coastal areas with fishing boats began rituals to try to keep the area unpolluted. In the morning, using protective gear they would locate, bag, and transport them to special containers on the ships. As they went to sea, a priest of the major religion of the area, would bless the bodies and the crews. Once in designated areas, fisherman would throw in chum until a school of sharks or other predatory fish would appear, then slowly give the bodies to the predators to consume. 

About three weeks into the outbreak, Japan shook the world as Yasushi Miyashita (Ph.D.) of RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS) made a worldwide public announcement, stating that testing done on some of ‘the infected’ with permission from their families, had yielded disturbing information. 

Multiple areas of the brain that involved the identity of the self and decision-making, had been irreversibly damaged by the virus. The damaged areas worked just enough to pass signals to other areas of the brain, allowing specific body functions to still work. There was severe damage to the area of the brain that regulated mood, along with extremely elevated activity in the area that regulated primal predatory responses. 

He issued sincere condolences to the world. The infected people were in a permanent-never-before-seen-hybrid of a coma and functioning state. All aspects that had made infected ‘human’ before, no longer functioned. Leaving them essentially as a violent human body, with no ability to make any kind of rational conscious decision. He lamented that there was no way for them to fix the damage done to the brain, but that they would not rest in finding something to aid people. 

The world was in a state of complete chaos. 

China

Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, and Guangzhou were the first to fall to the infection. Shenzhen and Tianjin followed quickly after. The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) lost control of major cities and evacuated citizens to quarantine zones in more rural areas while they tried to deal with the hordes. 

As streets and city roads went to a full standstill filled with abandoned cars, military and rescue units were stranded and unable to reach many people calling for aid, resulting in an unknown amount of deaths. 

President Xi Jinping called upon military Generals Zhang Youxia, Xu Qiliang, and Wei Fenghe for a major project. Secret to the public, Jinping ordered them to send elite troops to Dìxià Chéng in Beijing, and Sanmenxia in the Henan province. Also going were CBRN units along with large groups of chosen workers of various professions including plumbing and electricity. 

Both were immense underground structures filled with tunnels and homes. Dìxià Chéng had been built during the Cold War underneath the city of Shanghai and had been made to comfortably hold the entire population of Shanghai. This included survival measures such as protecting the air inside, and even had stores and movie theatres. 

There was a theory as well, that Dìxià Chéng was not the only major subterranean area. People who had managed to see it before it was closed off to the public entirely in 1995, claimed there were roads and tunnels inside that linked the area to all major landmarks and cities in China. No one had any idea how big the area actually was. Only that it could fit millions of people, and potentially far more than just the population of Shanghai if the tunnels truly existed and connected to other underground areas. 

The military was to clear the major subterranean areas of any people and infected. Once cleared the workers would be rushed inside and to the best of their ability, make the areas as safe as possible within a month.  It took two months for the military to clear out the underground areas and hold a large enough portion of Beijing for workers to enter safely. 

During those months the military had also stabilized a similar area that had been made in the 1960s, codenamed “131” or Dìxià gōngchéng. Started as a military safehouse, it was meant to protect top commanders including the president, including giving them living areas and places to work, though the project was terminated in 1971. Crews had gone and in and sealed off unfinished areas and reestablished power, decontaminated, and gotten the area prepared. The president and top officials had moved in the second month into the infection.

Many original quarantine zones failed, and large riots resulted in millions of people dead as they were descended upon by infected drawn to the noise. PLA was able to make short work of some areas by use of more recent weaponry from Russia, though it tended to draw even larger hordes from distant areas. The military began experimenting with bombs, noises, and lights to try to herd the massive hoards away from the populace where they could be bombed or shot at. 

The first winter took an unknown number of lives, likely thousands if not many more. People were overwhelmed and confused, trying to find places to stay warm, food to eat, and avoid the infected. Shelters held protection, but many people outside of them froze to death in the cold. The only good thing the winter brought was that the cold killed thousands of infected. When the area began to warm up, first responders became careless in handling the bodies, and ended up setting off another wave of the virus. 

As soon as the spring began, quarantined survivor camps were forced to grow as many crops of rice, wheat, grapes, tomatoes, brinjal, spinach, and watermelon possible. Everything that possibly could be stored for later use was.  

In March 2019, President Jinping began having as many survivors as possible, who had stayed healthy within quarantine zones, moved to the locations of Dìxià Chéng and Sanmenxia. 

Currently the government and military are in communication with other major nations of the world. While the majority of the people live securely in the underground, ground forces and air forces continue working to kill and clear the infected that wander across the area.

China still is communicating and working in part with the United Nations Security Council. Thousands have been sent out as peacekeepers and soldiers across the country to attempt to aid survivors, including into India, Japan, Thailand, The Middle East, Vietnam, and other surrounding areas. Air support and aid supplies have also been sent to the Philippines and Indonesia.

The estimate of those dead or turned to infected is at the very least, half of the entire population of China. Survivors are believed to be around 675 million.

India

President Ram Nath Kovind worked hard in the initial stages to keep all communications open to the public. This ensured less panic in some areas, while as around the world, the largest and most populated cities fell first. Even with millions falling to the infection, the police and military were able to do an exceptional job in keeping the country as stable as possible. 

The National Disaster Response Force was deployed a few weeks in and combined with various other forces such as the Indian Army, Assam Rifles, Civil Defense, Central Reserve Police Force, State Armed Police Force, and Home Guard Forces to create thousands of well built and well protected safe zones. 

As other countries were figuring out, India used its historic areas to its advantage. After realizing early on that many infected would chase after loud noises, The Army Aviation Corps began using its helicopters to distract and herd hordes of infected away from populated areas. Attack wings would then fly in and decimate the groups via air support. 

The Corps leads the majority of hordes into the deserts, where the infected bodies have been noticed to quickly advance in stages of decay, if they are not taken out by artillery first. 

Assam Rifles were split into smaller groups. Some were sent to the borders to secure the areas as backup to the various Border Security Forces. The rest were spread across the country to help manage and distribute provisions of aid, protect, secure, educate, and provide medical assistance to people in survivor zones. 

The Indian Army being one of the largest in the world, is also well known for difficult operations over long period of time, including holding formations. 

They have worked with the combined forces to secure multiple areas as some of the largest safe zones. Bidar Fort, Chittaurgarh Fort, Daulatabad Fort, Jaisalmer Fort, Kumbhalgarh Fort, Mehrangarh Fort,  Murud Janjira, and Sindhudurg Fort, have all been occupied and held by the combined ground forces to serve as massive civilian safe zones. With strict rules and regulations to keep people as healthy as possible, the forts have been a saving grace for civilians against infected and bandits. While every single one has been attacked, every single fort has held its name as being unconquered.

The Navy quickly began working to refit local large ships as floating hospitals, and many cruise liners have taken on refugees. All passengers are given strict health exams before being allowed on board. These ships usually stay within close range of each other and make a large fleet, usually in the Bay of Bengal or the Arabian Sea. Ground forces worked to clear the Maldives Islands, which is also been being used for refugees. 

Special forces have been split up to both protect the country and be sent to other countries via the UN to help secure and protect civilian areas. Aid has been sent as well by the Navy via ships and soldiers, going to areas such as Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia. 

The estimate of those dead or infected is the same as China, half the population at its lowest numbers. Survivors are believed to be around 675 million. 

Iran

As the infection broke out, ISIS decided to use the opportunity to try to push the borders into Iran, they were met with the Iranian Army (IRGC) who were sandwiched between ISIS and the infected. Air support was quickly put in motion to try to push both forces away from the military units. 

The nuclear power plant at Bushire successfully shut itself down, preventing a nuclear meltdown and a major panic from the public. IRGC worked on creating safe zones for civilians, many set bombs to distract infected towards desert locations where they would quickly die from exposure. 

One-night in mid-December, massive bombings were reported at the borders of Iran, Syria, and Turkey. The other side of the country reported the same along the Afghanistan and Pakistani borders, as well as in large cities of Iran itself. Not long after, radio communications started talking about hundreds of thousands of dead in the streets, then trouble breathing. Within an hour all radio communications had ceased from the areas of the bombing. 

UN aid forces quickly approached the area, using CBRN protection and expecting from the countries past, to interact with a chemical attack. They recorded video and took photos as they searched, finding hundreds of thousands of dead in the streets, people of all ages, sick and healthy. All showed obvious signs of being exposed to a nerve agent, highly suspected to be sarin, or combinations of sarin, chlorine and possibly mustard gasses.   

When confronted, the Iranian government denied all accusations, claiming the attack being from ISIS. With the previous history of the Civil War, no one believed the claims. Samples were sent for testing, which eventually came back the same as during the Civil War; sarin manufactured and stored by the Iranian military. 

UN began evacuating civilians into Turkey, China, South Arabia, and India. While being concerned about resources to move large groups, they were far more concerned about the fact that the president had seemingly without hesitation or consequence, killed millions of his own people, both sick and healthy. Other survivors scattered into rural and abandoned areas of the country, trying to stay away from any large cities. Military forces did have save zones as well, people were also evacuated to them, and the UN added foreign soldiers to keep an eye on the troops there. 

32 million dead or turned was the most recent estimate of Iran, with 49 million survivors being in both Iran or evacuated to other areas. 

Japan

Major cities succumbed to the virus the fastest, the top being Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, and Sapparo. Tokyo alone estimated 33 out of 38 million people turned or died within the first few months. 

The sudden high rate of people around the world with the flu, including a from Japanese hospitals, prompted the government into a cautionary state within the first week of November. The week after, following reports of physical attacks from infected citizens; Emperor Naruhito issued an order for all towns to go under protective sequestration. 

Combined Japanese, American, and other assigned foreign troops were pulled to the quarantined towns to aid in supervising people, helping the sick to medical centers, and distribution of food and supplies. Even with the enforcement, too many had become infected too quickly, and the cities were becoming overrun. 

Emperor Naruhito fell ill with the virus, eventually being shot and killed when he repeatedly attacked special forces guarding him. Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, and Deputy Prime Minister Tarō Asō were evacuated to secure locations.

The government quickly realized most cities were a lost cause and told all people to evacuate into the countryside within 48 hours. Thousands of enforcement zones were being made by the combined military and police, including many in the more secluded areas of the multiple national parks. When the 48 hours were up, massive airstrikes were called in for an attempt to obliterate the millions of infected. The airstrikes would continue for months, trying to get the infected hordes under control. Napalm was dropped after bombing runs had finished, hoping to burn the corpses.

Military carefully used natural locations to the advantage of the people, such as the Narusawa Ice Cave, the Fugaku Wind Cave, the Lake Sai Bat Cave, and Shiretoko and Daisetsuzan National Parks. People were quickly moved to the various quarantine zones, and even stricter protocol was enforced. No one could leave once they had gotten there, and various testing and wellness checks were mandatory. The military rapidly eradicated any attempts of pillaging in the areas and of the populace there. 

Naval units were sent in to clear the infected out the surrounding islands of Bonin, Ryukyu, and Habomai by any means necessary, then set up guard, allowing no one in or out of the islands until told otherwise. CBRN troops were brought in to sanitize the island areas. Air Force was flying supplies to the islands and quarantine zones, including assisting in evacuations and attempting to get fires under control. 

The military continued battling the hordes and keeping quarantine in place. Solid communication between the government and military to the people kept communities from panicking. 

Three months into the outbreak, people who had shown no signs of illness of any kind for a month, began to be transported to Bonin, Ryukyu, and Habomai by the Navy. 

Five months into the outbreak, Prime Minister Shinzō Abe contracted the virus and died. Tarō Asō was instated as the new Prime Minister. 

Nearly a year after, Japan is one of the only regions with functioning power. They have slowly been clearing the cities, and as they continue to take the land back from the infected, and keep the sickness at bay, some areas are beginning to function again. 

Japan is using its energy to give aid to the rest of the world via the UN. Canning food, making and packaging vital products and medicines. It continues to create and export mass quantities of chlorine to be used to clean water around the world, especially in areas such as Indonesia and the Philippines. Fisherman have also kicked into high gear, going into deeper ocean past contaminated waters to bring back fish, crabs, clams, shrimp, prawns, and seaweed to be canned, smoked, stored, and distributed throughout the world. 

The World Health Organization estimates the amount of people infected or dead at around 50 million, believing survivors to be around 76 million.

Kazakhstan 

After being hit hard by the spread of the virus and the military coordinating safety efforts, the freezing winter helped to wipe out a good portion of hordes. As in other countries, carelessness in body disposal as the area thawed resulted in a relapse of the virus spreading. Native carnivorous wildlife ended up being a major asset, as while infected typically would go after any animal, they were no matches for Eurasian brown bears, foxes, jungle cats, lynxes, snow leopards, and wolves whom had no issues hunting infected, nor did they appear to suffer any ill effects from eating them. 

UN asked for support in providing wheat, barley, cotton, rice, potatoes, melons, and livestock, including various fuel and oils. They also began to harness power from various green resources including helping to begin building very small and portable hydroelectric tools and generators that could be operated in streams and rivers to be sent around the world.

Reports were coming in from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, of major terrorist attacks of unknown origins. People were found massacred in various areas as well as resources having vanished overnight, including artillery, food, and other goods. No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, leading to speculation it was bandits or other survivors. Russia asked to open large-scale transportation routes to transport special ops troops into the areas to aid in protecting innocents from infected and robbers. Kazakhstan agreed, as well as allowing Russian troops were to be stationed in Kazakhstan to protect the large oil reserves.

11 million survivors with added foreign aid are currently holding their ground against an estimated 7 million dead or infected.

Mongolia

With a far smaller population than most areas, Mongolia wasn’t hit anywhere near as hard by the infection by its surrounding countries. While borders had been closed and transportation stopped, there was also scientific speculation that the fierce cold throughout most of the country kept the virus from spreading. The cold mountains and the blistering deserts made short work of infected, quickly killing any who wandered into them. 

Seven thermal power plants across the country help to aid the country in electricity and major transport of resources still takes place via the Trans-Siberian Railway. While electric vehicles are in use, nomadic farmers and others who tend to be more alone have adapted more to traveling by horse. While not as fast nor having unlimited stamina as vehicles, horses make far less noise, allowing safer travel around areas with hordes. Like everywhere else the military has put up safe zones and enforce heavy protection of them. Mongolia is believed to have around 1.9 million survivors, with 1.2 million having died or are infected.

North Korea

Due to extreme oppression and control of media, most citizens of North Korea simply assumed another outbreak of Avian Flu was happening. Once the physical attacks began, the country started sliding into chaos. As citizens activities are largely regulated by the government, the virus spreading through areas has make everyone’s usual routines null, confusing citizens. As the illness got worse, hundreds if not thousands used the confusion to their advantage by running into South Korea to be reunited with family and loved ones. 

Reports stated that reeducation centers and labor camps across the country had been fully overrun by infected, likely due to people’s immune systems being compromised by the severe living conditions. Only a few guards make it back to areas where they would report what had happened. 

The government began to panic and attempted to barricade themselves in military instillations defended by the Korean Peoples Army. Troops not protecting government officials were sent out to aid civilians and kill infected. Air support from the Air Force was a key factor in trying to quell some hordes. 

Luckily for civilians, nearly all men and a large portion of woman had served in the military and had extensive training with firearms and working in units. Civilians managed to work together easily to hold areas and evacuate as many as possible from the cities, relocating to areas along the country, beaches, and in the mountains, where the military was able to find and meet with them.

All known information has come from residents fleeing into South Korea and via Air Force reconnaissance. While power and communication appear to be working in some areas, orders seem to be to isolate from everyone around the country. Any attempts to approach the border into the country have been treated with lethal force.

Estimates are 15 million survivors spread between North Korea, South Korea, and Japan. Dead or infected are estimated at around 10 million. 

 Saudi Arabia 

Saudi Arabia went into emergency levels of public panic as the infection began to spread. The ulema had no idea how to deal with the spread of the infection, except for basic quarantine. Areas that attracted mass amounts of people spread the virus faster than it could be contained, especially in Jeddah and Mecca. 

At Al-Yamama Palace in Riyadh, King Salman Al Saud attempted to calm the public. Resulting in a massive riot, the noise luring hundreds of thousands of infected towards the crowds. People panicked and tried to flee, only resulting in more becoming trapped as areas were blocked by fleeing citizens. The infected swarmed the city and overran both the crowds and the government building. The government was assumed dead, and the city a lost cause.

This resulted in the military pulling a coup d'état to gain control of the public and secure their safety. The military immediately began creating quarantined safe zones and began directing people to their locations. Air Force and Ground Forces combined to distract massive hordes and using a large amount of modern artillery, managed to take out a large portion of the hordes.

Technology and artillery managed to aid them in protecting their safe zones as well. The desert proved to be especially useful as hordes wandered into the desert, quickly dehydrated, were burned from the heat, and died. 

The military was approached by the UN regarding massive exports from the country; fuel, agriculture, and clean water. Oil and fuel products were a desperately needed resource, and Saudi Arabia was one of the highest producers of it. 

Self-sufficient in food production for its own population, which had been severely depleted, the UN asked for help for other countries in need. Fresh bananas, barley, citrus fruits, dairy products, dates, eggs, fish, fruits, grapes, guavas, mangos, meat, milk, millet, olive oil, olives, onions, pineapple, poultry, sorghum, squash, tomatoes, vegetables, watermelon and wheat began to be collected in mass and packaged to be shipped out to countries in need. Tons of food products such as milk, meat, cheeses, fruit, eggs, and grains were sent to be dehydrated into powders and canned to be sent in aid packages. 

The main other resource of vital importance to certain countries was clean, drinkable water. Saudi Arabia had major plants to desalinate seawater, and while owned by private companies, they were put into use for emergency. This also aided in production of salt, a critical nutrient for the human body. 

The country is slowly stabilizing and becoming a major resource for other countries with help from the UN. 20 million people are estimated to be surviving, while losses are estimated around 13 million. 

South Asia: Indonesia, The Philippines, Paupa New Guinea, Thailand, & Vietnam

With a highly dense population spread across large mass of islands, the largest were nearly overrun by infected.  

High amounts of tourism and religious sites helped to spread the infection as people traveled or went in large numbers to worship in various temples or churches. As the infection struck during the wet season, reports came of infected physically deteriorating rapidly. If the infected were stuck in the water for long enough periods, the skin would bloat, become necrotic, and slide away, the infected dying soon after. 

Water sources in densely populated areas quickly became poisoned. Infected could not swim and if pulled into a current or wandering into high waters they would quickly drown. People pulled from floodwaters with decaying corpses in the water nearby would become ill within a few weeks and suffer the same fate. 

People began refusing to rescue anyone trapped in water with infected corpses, deeming them a lost cause. Instead of leaving them alone to suffer, some would use a long-range weapon to give them a coup de grâce. 

Survival camps reported that boiling water to bathe or drink, did nothing to slow the illness. The first positive reports came from first aid workers, who began reporting lower amounts of illness in areas using small bleach solutions to purify their water. 

The various militaries tried to clear small islands and worked to get citizens to safety by fleeing in boats. While the mainland areas were overrun with infected, most survivors relocated to the several thousand tiny islands. 

When people on the islands first began to see the Indian Navy, they were afraid they were ghost ships filled with more infected. Once they realized the people onboard were very much alive, healthy, and had brought supplies, they rejoiced. Naval units worked to organize the islands, setting up specific islands for quarantine and others for healthy survivors. Air support was flown in and began bombing the large cities and islands. 

More hope came when air support from China appeared, dropping precious cargo of clean water amongst other supplies. The biggest concern became how to clean the water supply in areas that had become contaminated. China send hundreds of water samples back to the UN and WHO for testing to begin. 

 The one good thing for Indonesia was due to numerous hydropower dams it managed to keep power and irrigation to important areas for crops. People with knowledge to upkeep the dams were quickly stationed at them for maintenance, as well as farmers. Due to this the nation was able to produce and distribute food, keeping its people from starving. Fishing boats would go into the deeper ocean, escaping the polluted waters, to bring back fish to distribute.

The government and UN worked together to use the energy to continue producing products of importance such as medication, canned and bottled foods, batteries, et. 

In Indonesia, it is believed survivors outnumber infected at 1.6 million to 1.1 million. 

In the Philippines estimates believe 63 million survivors are against 42 million dead or infected.

Papua New Guinea is believed to have an equal estimate of about 4 million survivors and infected each.

Thailand estimates 41 million survivors versus 27 million dead or infected.

Vietnam survivors are estimated at 57 million, infected or dead around 38 million. 

South Korea

South Korea also prepared for what they believed to be Avian Flu. As word spread around the world of the spread of the disease quarantines were put into place, but by then it was too late for larger cities such as Seoul, Busan, Icheon, and Daegu.

Citizens fled into less populated areas, and when several North Korean military units became ill guarding the border, a massive mob used the chance to defect into South Korea, potentially bringing thousands if not a million or more people into the country over a period of about a week, until North Korea managed to get control of its border again.

The influx of people was chaotic, police and military had to create areas specifically for not only their own citizens, but now places to care for, identify, and aid the defectors in finding their families. As they worked to attempt to reunite families, house, feed, and protect their people, they were overjoyed at reinforcements appearing from both China and Japan. 

The islands of Ulleung-Do and Jedu were cleared out by combined Naval Forces and survivors were evacuated to the larger and smaller islands surrounding the country, along with military and police to protect them. Aerial bombings took place, and began to help ground forces start pushing back infected hordes. Military units work to try to retake their country while civilians either aid however they can, or survive with each other on islands. 

While nuclear power plants originally shut down, a few have been able to be reopened to provide power to the country, and are under constant protection, including having extra workers on standby. Estimates are 30 million South Korean citizens, with an unknown amount of North Korean citizens. Dead or infected estimate around 20 million.