“Please, tell me one last thing. Have you ever found a refugee who has surviving family?” The woman shook her head.
The refugees were herded into a waiting area. One by one, they were taken away and given a brief medical examination, photographed and fingerprinted. Then, they were given a peculiar looking badge.
“Pin this to your dress Frau Schultz and never leave it anywhere. It is your radiation dosimeter. Once each month you must take it to a registered doctor. Your dosimeter must be with you at all times. This is the law. Here is your identity card and your food ration card. You are fortunate, as a young and healthy woman you are entitled to the B ration. When you become pregnant you will be upgraded to the A ration. But if you exceed the permitted monthly radiation dose you will be downgraded to the C or D ration.”
Elsa Schultz waited as the day wore on. The last of the women were given their identity cards and radiation badges and they joined the waiting crowd. Eventually, the loudspeaker system started calling names. Elsa Schultz was one of the earliest called and she was taken to another train, one that would take her to the community that would be her new home. Once the last of the selected refugees was on board, the train pulled out. The refugee center had been surrounded by trees and behind a ridge, when it pulled clear of the center, it also left that cover. What the trees had covered and the ridge had screened made the women on the train scream.
Gorlitz had been a town of 87,100 people. Now, it was gone, completely. It was a blackened, charred ruin, the outer areas skeletons of destroyed buildings, the city center completely leveled. Right in the center of the blackness and destruction was an incongruous, perfectly circular cobalt-blue lake. The refugees stared, horrified by the sight and the knowledge that the fate of Gorlitz was that of every significant town and city in Germany. Until this moment, they'd known that Germany had been destroyed but it had been words, seeing a town that had been destroyed by nuclear attack brought home the terrible reality.
The refugees had been given a booklet that introduced them to their new world. Elsa opened it to a page with a picture of the strange circular lake. “Crater Lake” it read “a lake formed at the detonation point of the Hellburner used to destroy a city. After the explosion, the ground underneath slowly subsided and the crater filled with a mixture of ground water and rain. The water in a crater lake is both radioactive and poisonous. There are more than 200 crater lakes in Germany, all are prohibited areas.”
She shuddered and looked up the word used at the border, fallout. There was an entry on that as well “Fallout. Highly radioactive waste produced by the explosion of a Hellburner. Most fallout has now faded to insignificant levels and is not considered to be a danger under normal circumstances. However, some areas are still heavily contaminated and must be avoided. The Ruhr Valley is one of these, this area is considered uninhabitable for the foreseeable future. See Hot-Spots.”
Elsa turned to the entry “Hot Spots. Although radiation levels have now, in general, fallen to levels that do not pose any significant hazard, there are still areas that have radiation levels far above the norm. In most cases, these are an order of magnitude or less above average but some are much greater than this. The most dangerous known hot-spots have a level of radioactivity five orders of magnitude greater than average and exposure to these will be fatal within a few minutes. Hot spots vary in size from less than a meter across to more than a kilometer. They are more common in the ruins of cities than in the countryside and are particularly common near targets where Hellburners exploded on the ground rather than in the air above the target. Cities destroyed by multiple Hellburners are particularly likely to be associated with the presence of hot-spots. However, hot-spots can occur anywhere and there is no visible evidence of their presence. People walking outside cleared areas must carry radiation detection equipment. Women with A and B ration cards are not permitted to leave cleared areas due to the danger of encountering hot-spots.”
Cleared areas? What did the book have to say on those? “Cleared areas These are areas that have been thoroughly explored and are known to be safe from radiological hazards. Their perimeters are indicated by yellow-and-black striped barriers. Citizens should remain inside cleared areas unless accompanied by guides who are familiar with the uncleared area and are properly equipped to detect radiological hazards. See also Cities and Prohibited areas.”
What did the book have to say on those? “Cities. All cities and major towns are considered uninhabitable and are uncleared areas due to the presence of extensive hot-spots and other hazards.
Even apparently undamaged buildings may be dangerous. Entry to these areas is prohibited unless wearing protective clothing and accompanied by a qualified guide equipped with radiological detection equipment.”
And “Prohibited Areas. These areas are dangerously contaminated and must not be entered under any circumstances. Prohibited areas are indicated by orange-and-black barriers.”
So this was to be her new home then. A country where the ground could be killing you even while you walked over it, one where towns and cities were unapproachable death-traps. As the train rattled over the damaged and hastily-repaired tracks, Elsa Schultz settled down to read her booklet from cover to cover.
Government Building, Rangoon, Burma.
Sir Martyn Sharpe wished The Ambassador was at this meeting but she was still in Washington. He desperately needed her assistance and advice as a soldier. There was a serious flaw in what he was hearing from General Charles Moses but he didn't have the specialized knowledge to put his finger on what was wrong. He was certain that if the Ambassador had been attending this meeting, she would have spotted it and corrected the situation.
“The situation around Rangoon and in southern Burma is reasonably stable and, due to our prompt intervention, the Government of the country is now secure. The areas to the east are also secured by forces based in Thailand. However, our problem lies here, in the North, in the areas adjacent to the Chipanese border. This long finger of land that stretches North has Chipanese territory on two sides of it. It is in this area that the Shan States Army appears to have achieved its greatest success and here that the Chipanese have established their strongest position.
“The heart of the area is here, the Hukawng Valley, between the Mangin and Kumon Mountains. Access to this area from Chipanese territory must pass through this area here, called The Triangle. As you can see, the road network in this area is extremely limited. While there are several reasonable roads in The Triangle, they all converge here, at Myitkyina, before spreading out to service the Hukawng Valley. Furthermore, there is an airfield at Myitkyina.
“We are planning to move a full regiment of the Australian Division to occupy Myitkyina. This will fulfill three roles. Firstly, we will be in a position to control the road access to and from the Hukawng Valley and this separates the Shan States Army from their Chipanese sponsors. This will reduce their ability to operate in the valley and thus reduce the problems the insurgency there causes us.
“Secondly, we can use the base at Myitkyina as a focal point for offensive patrols into both the Hukawng Valley and the Triangle. This will allow us to take the offensive against the Chipanese-backed forces and drive them out of the areas in question. Our actions with regard to this insurgency to date have been regrettably passive and defensive in nature and this operation will allow us to change that. The Chipanese insurgents have had the initiative to date and have established their presence in too many areas. This must be reversed. It is time they were made to pay a measurable cost for their activities.