When the Americans learned of the destruction, the generals urged even more major Russian cities that were not vital to the war effort to be destroyed. And so the U.S. Vice President gave the order to fire some nuclear weapons at still undestroyed non-war important Russian major cities. As far as EMP's were concerned, Europe had been lucky. American Pegasus missiles launched from aircraft had been able to destroy Chinese and Russian EMP satellites, but they failed to destroy one of those Chinese EMP satellites as it crossed over the North American continent. It detonated and the electromagnetic pulse knocked out electronics in much of the United States. The Chinese had five EMP satellites, the Russians had three, and the U.S. had two, so since they would only use those against Russia and China at most, they didn't need that many.
Meanwhile, the Thompson arrived at the small port on the west coast of England. Everywhere they saw cars, caravans and also some army vehicles. Many people were camped outside.
David stopped the SUV near a parking lot on the beach.
They looked around. Many had built campfires and were grilling. Some were also cooking on gas stoves. The small supermarket nearby was destroyed. The windows were smashed. Empty packing cartons lay in the store and in front of it on the street. He also saw the bodies of three dead policemen and two burnt-out police vehicles.
They started to set up the tent.
Here it still looked so normal. So undestroyed. There was no major city nearby, David hoped, they will not be hit by a nuclear weapon here either. There was no worthwhile target far and wide. He was relieved, they had made it to the port. His plan was to wait a few days and then take a fishing boat somewhere to an undestroyed port, and from there take a cargo ship or something to Africa or South America.
In the first eight hours, most of the nuclear war had also been over. Most of the nuclear weapons had been fired. The NATO forces in Europe were no longer anything organized and were already disbanding. There were many small squads of ex-soldiers making their way on their own. Their enemy, hunger and radiation. Soldiers looted stores and populations. Many people were shot by soldiers and others if they carried much food.
Passenger planes on their way to Europe found no more intact airports in NATO territory. Switzerland, however, still had many intact airports. But those were overcrowded. So the Swiss flak began to shoot down passenger planes trying to land in Zurich. The tarmacs were jammed, there was simply no more free space. Again and again one saw a passenger plane hit by the flak coming down in a less densely populated area. This is what happened to
Flight AF4011. They had already passed Greenland when Paris disappeared forever in the fireballs of nuclear weapons. The pilots lost contact with air traffic control. They therefore set course for neutral Switzerland, hoping that there were still intact airports there. There was no time to search.
Sandra Hopkins sat at the window. She could see huge flaming areas again and again. They were cities on fire. Thick black smoke rose from them. They noticed that the A380 began to sink. On the screen in the airplane they saw how Zurich was selected as a goal also the pilot made an announcement and told the passengers, which they will try to land in Zurich.
The plane sank lower. The airbrakes were extended. You could hear the hydraulics pushing the airbrakes out by the wings. Sandra looked down. She could see the Rhine below her. Shortly after they passed the Rhine, their plane was hit by flak over a rural area. The plane tore it apart in the air. The A380 exploded. Debris fell into wooded areas and nearby fields.
The Swiss Army fired near the Swiss border on a stream of horribly disfigured refugees trying to find shelter in Switzerland. Millions of Italians, Germans and French. Many of them badly bewildered, with badly burned skin, found themselves dead in the machine gun fire. Switzerland was too small for the many refugees, many of whom would die anyway. Medicines could no longer be bought. Most of the pharmaceutical factories that existed in the world were all destroyed. What was there was the last thing that was there. It had to be enough for one's own population and could not be shared.
Soldiers, who had belonged to the German army, shot inhabitants of villages, whose villages were still intact and quartered themselves in the houses. It was the same in other parts of NATO Europe. In the U.S., too, there was no longer really an army. But parts of the command staff of the US armed forces and crews of the missile silos, ships and nuclear submarines were still able to carry out nuclear attacks against Russia and China.
Deaths in the evening 11 p.m.: Worldwide: 683.2 million. But very many seriously injured who will not survive the next hours and days.
The next morning. The Thompsons slept in the tent.
David got up early, and so did his wife. They boiled hot water with a kettle for instant coffee.
David then said he was still looking to see if any of his relatives who live here were there and then left.
He didn't want to use the car to save gas so he walked.
He walked past tents and caravans and into the small village. He saw that more and more people were coming. He also saw now for the first time many very cruelly disfigured severely injured people. Some of them were bandaged. He also noticed many blind people who had become blind because they had looked into the atomic flash.
Meanwhile, Emma was also waking up. She ate a sandwich and then wanted to look around. Her mother wanted her to stay, but she said she wanted to go to the river to wash. The river was not far away, only half a kilometer. Emma walked there and saw that there were also many other people there. For the first time she saw a seriously injured man. She stopped and looked at him. She was in shock. It looked so terrible. His skin was burned red. She walked on slowly, almost stock-still. Only looking ahead. Just not looking like that. As she got closer to the river, her breath caught. It was terrible. The river was about forty meters wide. There was wood and plastic and corpses floating in the river. Some of the bodies had washed into the sea. Other bodies had washed up on the shore. She was presented with a picture of pure horror. Emma felt sick. She began to retch. She tried to suppress it at first, but then ran to a tree and leaned against it and threw up. She felt sick and gritty. She was in a daze. As if in a trance, she was aware of what was happening around her. She was in another world. She became aware of that. The world where she had once known no longer existed. It had ceased to exist. She was now in a world where the civilization she knew no longer existed. She ran back to her mother and cried.
Hours later, her father came back. David had a newspaper with him in which something was wrapped.
"David, there you are. We were getting worried," Eva said, greeting her husband.
"Brian was there. He gave me some fish. He knows one of the fishermen very well," said David, who seemed to be in shock, and handed her the newspaper in which fish were wrapped.
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