The Post-Apocalyptic Roadmap/Minnesota

Part of the Post-Apocalyptic Roadmap Project.

Rochester

Before the bombs hit, we were known for two things: the prestigious Mayo Clinic, which had many of the finest doctors in the country; and IBM headquarters.

Chicago was close enough for radiation to be a worrisome, but the real problem for us was the anti-intellectual rioting by all the Somalians that Lutheran Social Services had been flying in over the past years. The fighting was brutal; it was then that we lost the few priceless electronics that had escaped the EMPs--and the people who could make more. They left the doctors alone, as long as they treated the rioters...

...Then the first militiamob came through. They forced the doctors into their gang, and blew away anyone who thought otherwise.

There's nothing left for us here. I have some relatives in the Dakotas, and I've got some gas left in the truck. Should make it a decent distance before I have to start on foot. Hope the coyotes out there haven't mutated.

Minneapolis

It's been a few years since the split. I was stranded in Minneapolis for almost half a year, the buses were all commandeered for mass-evacuations down in the Chicago area. Eventually I got back home, and was grateful to see that not too much had changed. Downtown College avenue was swamped with refugees from Milwaukee and Madison, though those cities had not been hit, they suffered nonetheless from the panic riots and a general fear of possibly being hit later. The parks were similarly crowded. The Performance Arts Center had by then been claimed as a base of operations and management center of the CGUS, who were handling aid for the refugees. Appleton natives were asked to provide what they could to this end. The refugees have mostly cleared out now that it's clear there won't be another strike anytime soon. Some stayed and have become a part of the community, while others along with some native Appleton residents moved further north to join the dispersed farming communities that have become popular since the split. CGUS still holds the PAC, and has been working along with the staff of Lawrence University to provide "post-crisis education seminars" frequently, as most local schools have been abandoned, though some people still aren't too happy about CGUS presence, they seem to think that the midwestern states can take care of themselves, and I've heard some talk of seceding to Canada. I've noticed folk like that tend to take walks down Olde Oneida street towards the river locks late at night...

CGUS has also been trying to place the Appleton Paper mills under military control, but they've had little luck there as martial law is no longer under effect. Fox River Mall and Northland Mall have generally been abandoned, there were some small looting riots from what I hear, and businesses have consolidated towards the more populated areas, people don't drive anymore unless they going somewhere far, so there's not much reason to go out there.

Webster

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Scavenger. Trespasser. Adventurer. Loner. Killer. Explorer. Robber.

There's been no word from Rosemount in a week. Probably the fault of the ghosts.. lost souls in the one-time Japanese internment camp. They tend to fuck with electronics. Apple Valley, scourge of my life, is now the scourge of Dakota County; full of gangs constantly fighting over nothing. Lakeville seems to have fared the best so far, but that's to be expected. They have the Airlake industrial district; concrete warehouses and a rail hub.

Maybe before the nukes, you played S.T.A.L.K.E.R.? Metro 2033? Fallout? For some of us, it was games and books that taught us how to survive. I was an Airsofter as well. This is part of what helped me survive. I had been working on my physical conditioning just before the nukes fell. I had the combat gear. My mind knew how to get around a firefight.

My cousin and my friends and I, we took over northern Farmington. We started our own survival clan, named Freedom, like in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. We banded together as brothers and sisters. It was people like us who had the gasmasks. We had weapons. We had the know-how. Those who didn't know, we taught.

We scavenged what we could. We bartered with the Donnelly farmers for meat and milk. We survived.

Then it all fell apart. Some had just had enough. People started offing themselves in the middle of night. Others simply left.

We had to become S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s to survive. We had to. But it's the nature of a true S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to wander. Eventually our dear Freedom simply fell apart. That's fine by me, I couldn't stand living with idiots anymore. John. My cousin. Thought he knew everything. Derek, my once-friend. Same way. Said the world would be reborn with swords and martial arts instead of guns and nukes. What the fuck?

I went south to Elko. Two and a half day trip on foot. I found a few friendly faces. I stayed the night at the old Elko Speedway, then went a day's walk further south to Webster. My family's hobby farm, now a refuge for all of us. Fortunately my father had been a US Army engineer. The farm was now a stronghold. My uncle and his friends sure as hell had the firepower to defend it.

I was the roamer. The loner. The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I was the first of our scouts. Even two years later, we were finding scattered people. We did what we can to help, but it's a hard fact that to survive a nightmare, you have to have a bit of greed in you or you get milked dry.

We hear radio reports from the north. Some garbage about Canada. America's hat is now a refuge for the desperate. And those assholes from Rochester, The "Militiamobs" or some shit. Our ground was too well fortified and too well defended for them to deal with.

Rice county is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. territory now. No gangs will threaten us. We are free to live as we want.