W = War

War has served as a major plot device in several works of alternative history. As the catalyst behind the branch into alternative timelines in many of those works, it has driven some of our most interesting takes on our past, present and future

Ground Zero is set roughly 30 years after a Third World War. In it the Cold War between the US and USSR had escalated into a brief but deadly exchange of nuclear firearms. The soviet nation was all but obliterated as a result, while the city of New York was destroyed by a salted bomb that also transformed much of the American east coast into an irradiated wasteland.

The story explores the aftermath of the war, and how it had shaped the lives of the survivors living just outside Ground Zero. Theirs is a world that must be explored through the safety of hazmat suits, but it is ultimately one that is quite familiar, although hauntingly so.

Ground Zero is just one of the 10 stories featured in the IWSG Anthology, and I sincerely hope you enjoy reading them all, when the anthology launches next week.