Apollo's Plague

Every civilization has created its tales of cataclysm or apocalypse. We are perhaps the first generation, which by deliberate actions could create our own doom. It’s no great stretch of the imagination that humans might disappear from the face of the earth. Yet we’re tantalized by our own myths, about our own destruction, but even more certain by the notion that we might somehow survive. It is an interesting predilection of so many Americans, who strangely fantasize about the coming zombie apocalypse, yet when quizzed, always seem to think they will be among the survivors. In a recent online poll, over 80% of the responders thought they would live through a zombie outbreak. This, of course, is highly unlikely. Still, the instinct to survive is a powerful force and there probably would be some who would indeed make it.

Within hours after the unexplained apocalypse unveiled in Minerva’s Shield, lights would start going out around the country. More than 70% of power in the United States alone is generated by the burning of fossil fuels. These power plants would only continue to produce electricity as long as the fuel takes to be consumed. As discovered during the journey outlined in Nike’s Chariot, if there is no one around to provide the new fuel into the generating plants, then it will be quite quick before the lights blink off everywhere. Nuclear power plants are unlikely to melt down, because the average reactor holds enough fuel to keep running for two years, then automatically powers down. If you were in an area supplied by nuclear power, you could continue to have power for a significant time.

However, without humans consuming the power generated by the plant, the reactors will automatically shut down into a safe mode in as little as two days. Even wind generators can’t last forever. The turbines require bearings and lubrication of those bearings in order to keep operating. If there’s no one around to maintain the turbines, the electricity doesn’t get produced. Solar power could be available, but its usage percentage in the USA is very low. As all these generating plants shut down, outages on the power grid contribute to a cascade of failure. After a few weeks, everything within The Zone was plunged into a deep darkness not experienced since primal humans gathered around a campfire. Perhaps the final glow would be seen in the American Southwest, where the mighty Hoover Dam hydro-power plant took little notice of the absence of humans. Its source of fuel is virtually limitless. At Hoover Dam, the fuel is the water in the reservoir in Lake Mead, behind the dam. So as long as there’s water in the reservoir, the power plant will continue to generate electricity.

Yet, in the end, man’s supposed domination over nature would prove to be quite tenuous. The signs of our vulnerability have always been there. Now, years after the cataclysm, the roads are disappearing beneath a green mantle that will spread like some relentless monster. The advance of nature knows no boundaries. Not even the vaunted Grid will be able to prevent the inevitable march to its own destruction.