UK SETTING - The Delta Zone

What exactly it was that caused the catastrophic melt down at the Heysham Nuclear Reactor is not known.  All that they knew was that there was a massive explosion, radiation leaked from broken reactors and a huge cloud of radioactive contamination spread across England on the south westerly wind.   As people fled there were earth tremors causing oil pipes to rupture and huge spillages which contaminated the ground.  Gas fed fires flared from damaged, abandoned pipelines.  Smoke shrouded the cities as buildings burned and collapsed, roads choked with abandoned vehicles, refugees fled inland or stayed put too stunned to do anything else.  

Over the days that followed the scale of the devastation overwhelmed the nation’s resources.  Rescue parties, ambulances, fire service and police vehicles simply disappeared, were found abandoned and some were plundered, their crews disappeared, killed or left mutilated.  Aid from outside was not possible as almost every area of the earth had suffered similar “events” and ensuing disasters. The government was on its own.  Added to the horror of the initial contamination and isolation was a series of simultaneous pandemics resulting from the displacement of people into overcrowded camps and cross contamination of water sources with faecal material and toxic chemicals.  These diseases included diarrhoeal diseases, acute respiratory infections, leptospirosis, measles, viral hepatitis, typhoid fever, meningitis, as well as tetanus and cutaneous mucormycosis. 

 All this happened while Parliament was in summer recess and the Royal Family at Balmoral.  In response the Westminster Government and the Scottish Government as well as the Assemblies of Northern Ireland and Wales co-operated in agreement and each created border forces, barricades across the country and seas surrounding the zones as well as clearing relatively safe routes across the Delta Zone mainly in the east of the country.  In alignment with the terminology adopted by the UN and other nations the devastated and contaminated zone in the UK was designated ZONE DELTA right across the country.  Though the British Media initially called it the DELTA ZONE. 

The first reported disaster of this type had been in 1986 in Central Russia (now Ukraine) near Chernobyl and the contaminated zone was called ZONA ALFA.  Other events in USA became ZONE BRAVO and in Central China became ZONE CHARLIE.  Others followed in a number of countries with the latest being ZONE LIMA in France. 

  It was not long before the press dubbed the UK Zone the “DEVIL ZONE”.  Nothing was allowed in and nothing allowed out to begin with.  Indeed aircraft overflying and vessels patrolling the coasts suffered frequent but irregular interference to their electronic systems and all air, land and water borne forces frequently reported that their magnetic compasses gave faulty directions at the same times. 

 Within the zone, for the few survivors, anarchy reigned; petty warlords rose and fell as all semblance of order disappeared.  Over the months and years that followed the zone was (mostly) successfully contained and any incursions dealt with. 

As if all that was not bad enough strange events and reports began to circulate of a new and terrible disease that caused physical and mental changes in those infected.  Some died only to rise again as walking cannibalistic creatures, others developed mutated limbs and others changed completely into what can only be described as aberrations and abominations too grotesque to describe. 

 To add further misery the weather was affected and freak torrential rain, hail, snow, violent squalls of freezing and/or contaminated rain and extreme electrical storms occurred as if from nowhere.  Clouds of bacteriological, biological and radiological contamination billowed in on the wind.  Patrols reported that some very strange and dangerous creatures had begun to appear and roam the zones.  Even the plants deformed and mutated.  The plants and creatures are variously described as unearthly beings that belong to myths, legends and nightmares.  Even the ground and air changed.  Lethal pools of slime, contaminated water abounded, clouds of poisonous gas erupted without warning and even common plants became poisonous.  It was as if nature itself was under assault.  Some cults arose claiming that the “Old Gods” had returned to reclaim their rightful place. 

 All these combined to cut the UK off from external visits though support from several UN nations and aid agencies arrived in large quantities. 

 Now specially trained military units are being deployed into the Zones to reconnoitre, gather intelligence, samples and survivors.  Meanwhile various bands of seekers are being granted licences to enter the DEVIL ZONE to recover items of value and seek out and rescue uncontaminated individuals.  Others enter to hunt down mutants.  Some black market organisations offer tourist trips into the Zone for rich thrill seekers.   It is also known that illegal traffic in weapons, supplies and people is taking place and the police and border forces have tried to suppress this trade.  They also deploy teams to hunt down the criminals inside and outside the Zones.  Armed scientific teams also enter seeking samples of mutated vegetation and creatures as well as survivors for study.  Of course, the black market for weapons, ammunition and supplies in the zone encourages unscrupulous, some might say foolhardy, traders to enter with or without licences.  There are even stories in the newspapers about groups of missionaries and cultists entering to establish colonies and spread their faiths.