Young Writers Society

I live in Canada, So I got this idea when one of my friends had a moment and couldn't say the word "Canada". He said Canadia, and That is how this Idea bloomed! This is the prologue of the book i will be writing soon, and this is just a rough copy...


Canada gets hit with nuclear bombs from an unknown source and Havoc reigns. Millions of people were murdered in less than a second, they didn't even know they were dying.

Where human life is still sustainable in the scattered country called "Canadia", food and clean water are scarce; hope is dimming and life as we knew it is fading. Plants have withered and faded sickly green colors, hardly any new plants springing up. The sky is constantly overcast with lumpy grey clouds, and when it rains, it’s all acid. Animals are no longer quite as we remember them; they are sicker, weaker, and smaller. Some animals have mutated, such as frogs. They now have three eyes and red horns sprouting from their foreheads. Perhaps sitting in contaminated water all day was enough to make to horrific change. People live in areas called "zones".

The first zone has the smallest population and is located on Prince Edward Island, but what is now referred to as Zone Charlotte, named after the place where most people live on the island, Charlottetown. Here they survive by growing potatoes and fishing. The Confederation Bridge was destroyed in the blast, so there is little or no communication from outside the zone.

The second zone includes the lands previously called, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and lower Quebec. It is now known as Zone Lawrence, after the Saint Lawrence River. Most people stay near to the coast, since they need the fish to survive. Transportation is easier since the river can be used to travel back and forth.

The area surrounding Toronto and Ottawa is still the capitol of the country, Canadia, but goes by a new name: Zone Parliament. All of the well-to-do people live here, barely having to work for survival. Technology is advanced here; leading scientists have created water and air filtration systems and have upgraded existing technologies to create electricity. An alternative farming method has been devised, and once a month, they send food to all the nearby zones.

The other half of Ontario has also adopted the alternative farming. Their soil is weaker, being affected by the Canadian Shield, now called the Rock Ring. This zone is named Zone Great Lakes.

High in the nearly unbearable colds of British Columbia lays Zone Nelson, after Fort Nelson. It stretches from just inside the Albertan border to the Ocean on the other side, but isn’t very thick. The people here hunt and scavenge to keep themselves alive. Rumors have said that food is running out in Zone Nelson, and people want to move into a different zone, abandoning Zone Nelson for forever.

Zone Skeena is just below Zone Nelson, following the edge of the ocean for miles until you reach deserted ocean village of Bella Coola. They raise horses in the northern parts of Zone Skeena, Horses that carry messages and communications all over through the Zones west of the Rockies, Mimicking the Pony trail Express from hundreds of years ago. Food is foraged or grown; the soil was less affected here for some reason, but affected enough to stunt plant growth.

The boundaries of the Zone Fraser are from the edge of the Rockies to the Fraser River, no higher than Prince George, but going all the way down to Hope. This Zone has an abundance of natural materials, from mines, to forestry, to fishing, and natural power sources. Water wells have been fixed to different places along the river, but all of the previous dams were destroyed. In the summer, fires can easily start with a bolt of lightning or a misplaced spark. All of the people in the Zone have been trained what to do in a fire.

Zone Vancouver is one of the smaller zones, but it has the largest population, meaning more people, and less food. All forms of government have been destroyed in this zone. Mayhem and chaos reign free. If you live in this zone, you learn to be tough at a very young age, forced to fight to stay alive. Staying on the streets is the quickest way to die. Some people have set off on the journey to safety, stealing a boat or crafting a crude makeshift raft to attempt the journey to the abandoned Vancouver Island, or leaving the zone, escaping to Zone Fraser.

I'm going to start with premise then move down to science and geography.

First off, why would Canada be hit with nuclear bombs? That sort of attack is usually after the world's superpowers: US and UK. Therefore, the kind of nuclear devastation you're talking about is far more likely to be global, which means the US/Canada border just sort of disappears.

Onto science!

Nuclear radiation actually doesn't cause mutations that extensive. The most likely results are instant death, increased cancer rate, and food becoming inedible because of radioactive ash landing on it.

It also doesn't effect the weather that much. Copious amounts of ash from a massive volcanic eruption, sure. CO2 and other dangerous gases released by fossil fuels, also sure. But radiation... the sun produces a ton of radiation. The Earth has its systems for dealing with it.

Also, things like distance make for fantastic radiation protection. Some types of radiation can be stopped by wood or plastic. X-rays need lead. A significantly thick slab of concrete can protect from radiation. Six or so inches does a really good job.

I'd suggest researching various forms of radiation and what can be used to stop them. The devastation might not be anywhere near as bad as assumed simply because the world is built up. And where it's not so built up, there is a lot of space between people to protect them.

Nuclear bombs themselves are wicked powerful, but the amount of fallout that happens depends on a huge number of factors, including if it was an air blast or ground blast and the weather conditions. Wikipedia has a fairly decent overview.

The human body itself is pretty fantastic at dealing with radiation in low doses. Cells have methods to replace DNA and repair it, so low doses just make those work harder. I am pretty sure plants and animals have similar such safeguards. Seeing as radiation does get emitted by pretty much everything.

Onto geography.

PEI would be completely destroyed by a nuclear blast. It's a very small island and the devastation of a bomb would level the place.

You forgot Newfoundland and Labrador in your description.

I'm not sure you actually realize how big some of the areas you're describing are. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, plus lower Quebec, is about the same area as the whole East Coast of the USA. Plus, it's heavily interconnected with the Northern portion of the East Coast, so the US lacking in your description looks off.

In a similar fashion, your lumping Ottawa and Toronto together is very much off. They're six to seven hours apart, and NYC is only 10 hours from Ottawa. Ottawa is only 30 minutes away from the Quebec border, 2 hours from Montreal. This means it's far more likely to get mixed in with lower Quebec than anything else. Unless you draw the line between East and West Quebec and include East in with Parliament. Montreal is an absolute meca and wouldn't exactly be ignored. Might be French but it's still 2 million people and one of the economic centres of Canada.

On a related note for what is actually in Ottawa and Toronto: they're mostly a manufacturing and medical centre. Auto industries are based around here. Major companies have their centres in Toronto because there's a lot of people. The universities in Ottawa and Toronto have some pretty wicked medical programs, though.

The place with most of the environmental breakthroughs is actually Alberta, because they have the oil sands. In order to find ways to reduce their own environmental impact, their universities have rather extensive environmental plans.

And the best place to farm is the Prairies. Most of the country's grain comes from there. If any place would have the best soil for crops, it's there, even after nuclear fallout. I noticed you didn't mention them at all.

You also didn't discuss Winnipeg, which is the other medical hub of Canada. It contains the only level 4 disease control centre in the country. Level 4 is the absolute max level of security, and there are only 53 in the world. These centres hold the most lethal illnesses known to man.

I don't believe you're well versed in BC, because it is the warmest province throughout the year. If you want cold, go to the Prairies or Territories. Those are the ones with Arctic air that turns their weather into -30 before the wind. Much colder with the wind. And there's nothing to stop it, considering the lack of hills.

I'm not even going to attempt sorting out the West, because you seem to have three areas overlap. I'm not sure what Zones are in the North and which ones are in the South, and they seem needlessly broken up. You seem to forget ocean fish as a source of food, along with not considering the oil sands. Not to mention the natural resources of BC's rain forests. There's fish, the plants, and any land dwelling animals to provide food, which really made me wonder why you said that area is nearly running out of food.

It's also strange that Vancouver is so chaotic, to me. It's one of the other cultural centres of Canada. You've already established that centres of government aren't going to be destroyed first (which, honestly, makes no sense. If I were attacking a place I'd get rid of government first and completely level the areas to cripple the rest) and Vancouver is one of the largest cities in Canada. What makes it so different?

You don't mention any of the Territories, either.

And as a side note, the Zones make me think of the Hunger Games' Districts. Which makes this look like a rather obvious Hunger Games rip-off.

Overall, I found this unbelievable from the ground, up. Do more research into radiation, military strategy, and economics of Canada to see what's logical.

Blimey Rosey >.<

I know little about geography, so the place names don't make much sense. I do like the idea though, and by the amount of effort you've put in at this stage I reckon you've got the brains to see it through.

I would say more but all has been said, so I will wish you luck with this idea. If you do decide to write it and post it on yws, link me to it. I'll be more than happy to read.