Survivor communities outside the known world

[BarbaryLion22]

I am not sure if I missed this some where, but do Troll migrate? Do beasts? If they do not, and if they only stick to the areas surrounding cities, then there will be much larger pockets of human colonies.

So far, I think there isn't evidence for or against the migration of trolls, but I just realized something while reading your comment. In the info page regarding the different creatures created by the Rash Illness, Minna says that beasts "retain a treacherous resemblance to their former selves and non-diseased kin..." If they retain a resemblance to behaviors and not just appearance, then that decreases the chances of survival for places that lie in the path of migrational routes for mammalian species. If the beasts follow their ancestral migration routes, then that increases the range that the Illness can spread, increasing the chance of an outbreak in a location that would otherwise be isolated and relatively safe.

Some places that have been debated that may now be exposed to the Rash would be the Hawaiian Islands, with the humpback whales, Alaska and other places in the Arctic Circle, with their roaming herds of caribou (I think), the American Prairie, with the Bison, and lots of places in Africa that have all those herds of ungulates and subungulates.

[Snommelp]

Oi, I'd totally neglected to think about migration, as well. Good thing it's only mammals who can catch the disease, otherwise birds would've brought it to every place in the world!

I'm trying to figure out how New Zealand would be doing... I think they're probably gone. All of those sheep, and they weren't listed as one of the nations that closed their borders early on like Iceland and Japan did.

And speaking of island nations and closed borders, have we discussed Madagascar yet? They're one of the first four to close their borders in the comic, but they're also not far from the mainland at all, and have tons of native mammalian species. Also, tropical climate. Probably totally overrun, yes?

[Koeshi]

Anyone that has played Pandemic knows that Madagascar is practically immune to destructive diseases

[urbicande]

Oi, I'd totally neglected to think about migration, as well. Good thing it's only mammals who can catch the disease, otherwise birds would've brought it to every place in the world!

Birds can be carriers without catching it.  So can bugs (how many mosquitoes die of malaria and dengue fever?).

[princeofdoom]

It seems tho that something is either immune completely (doesn't even carry the pathogen), or not immune (dies or becomes trolls/beasts). So I don't think it CAN be carried by bugs or birds. It just doesn't seem to work that way.

[KMK]

Well, that's why I think it depends on whether they had new people coming aboard.  I don't actually know -- how often do personnel rotate on blue water surface ships?  And how "trigger-happy" are the quarantine policies in case of an epidemic?  That makes all the difference.

It's also why I think the best bet is the nuclear submarines.  By the same reasoning, they are conversely almost guaranteed to be un-affected -- and while their power plants aren't as apocalypse-proof as geothermal energy, they are enough to last through the worst decades of the rash crisis.

Those nuclear warheads might even be retroconverted into fast reactor fuel.. I could see the remnants of the US Navy spending decades trying to get that working.  Finally put those weapons to good use!

The U.S. tour of duty on the carriers is 3 and 6 months. Tours can be extended. The ships that had just left the U.S. coast and not yet made landfall in the Mediterranean or other European ports would be safe along with the carrier group ships (destroyers) that are sailing with them. The ones that they would be relieving (because of shore leave) though could be infected. Still I think that you could initially have 3 to 4 carrier groups unaffected. Two in the Pacific and two in the Atlantic.

The Brits might have one or 2 carrier groups that miss initial infection if they are in Mid Atlantic when the break out occurs. If Britain was overwhelmed before they could do anything for them they may have been ordered to Falklands to protect the colony there and insure the British culture survive in some form.

Most personnel is rotated while in port. Only occasionally is someone special flown out to the carrier group once it is in progress.

[Snommelp]

Anyone that has played Pandemic knows that Madagascar is practically immune to destructive diseases

Madagascar always ruins me in that game. Unless your disease starts there, you lose. Plain and simple.

Birds can be carriers without catching it.  So can bugs (how many mosquitoes die of malaria and dengue fever?).

I may be mistaken, but it seems from what Minna's revealed in the comics thus far that the disease can't live anywhere beyond a host that is actually susceptible to the disease. As princeofdoom said, at present it appears that either you're in danger of catching the Illness or you're completely immune and not even at risk of spreading it while remaining safe yourself.

The biggest strike against birds being carriers is Iceland. We see the Icelandic Coast Guard responding with lethal force to potential human carriers in the prologue, but there's never a single word spoken about anything being done to birds. And even if there had been something done to the birds, it probably wouldn't have been enough to save Iceland's horses and sheep, who would then have passed the Illness on to the humans.

[JoB]

I may be mistaken, but it seems from what Minna's revealed in the comics thus far that the disease can't live anywhere beyond a host that is actually susceptible to the disease.

It remains viable (read: infectious) outside of suitable host bodies for a couple hours - which is why the team members need to be decontaminated before they may come into contact with Tuuri.

It seems that the bodies of immune humans cannot harbor Rash agents, as nobody contradicts Tuuris insinuation that she should not necessarily be treated like the others upon entry to Mora, only that the procedures don't go further even for her.

[Koeshi]

If birds and insects worked as vectors for the disease I don't think we would be seeing even the meagre survival rate of populations that there is.  Trying to stop the movement of millions of airborne organisms is just too much when it only takes one to get through and ruin things.

The Brits might have one or 2 carrier groups that miss initial infection if they are in Mid Atlantic when the break out occurs. If Britain was overwhelmed before they could do anything for them they may have been ordered to Falklands to protect the colony there and insure the British culture survive in some form.

Now this would just amuse me so much if even after the end of the world as we know it the Falklands remain British

[Snommelp]

I was also wondering, briefly, if we might have to consider the possibility of some areas becoming military targets as panic spread, but the more I think about it, the less I think it's probable. Seeing the make-shift hospital in spot 24, it's pretty clear that we hit pandemic levels long before anyone started transforming into trolls. I'm sure there would have been smaller-scale military responses once trolls started emerging, but nothing on the level of the nuclear strikes I'd briefly imagined.

[Koeshi]

Nuclear strikes would be a poor response anyway.  Overwhelmingly destructive, hard to control and irradiates the area.  Fire bombing would be a lot more effective and efficient.

[urbicande]

Nuclear strikes would be a poor response anyway.  Overwhelmingly destructive, hard to control and irradiates the area.  Fire bombing would be a lot more effective and efficient.

Ripley didn't see to think so

[JoB]

Ripley didn't see to think so

Ripleys getaway car was a deep space craft.

[Koeshi]

Yeah, nuking the ducker from orbit is not exactly an option in this situation.

Now there is a nice thought, the Rash spreading on a spacecraft...  Whole corridors blocked off by fleshy mounds, small scuttling trolls bursting out of air vents...

[Snommelp]

Nuclear strikes would be a poor response anyway.  Overwhelmingly destructive, hard to control and irradiates the area.  Fire bombing would be a lot more effective and efficient.

I was figuring it as more of a panic response than something well-reasoned