You are jolted awake by the sound of blaring
sirens.
In a daze you look around the dimly lit room.
Through the curtains comes a blood red glow.
You slowly walk towards the window and pull
back the curtains.
The intense light from outside is blinding.
You bring your arm up to your face to shade
your eyes.
As you squint to bring the world into focus
you see something looming in the distance.
A mushroom cloud the size of a mountain rises
from the ground.
It has finally happened.
World War III has begun and you most likely
won’t survive it.
You run across the room and grab your cell
phone.
It’s dead.
The EMP blast from the nuke has wiped out
all electronics and microchips in the surrounding
area.
You run to grab the survival kit you built
based on one of your favorite Infographics
Show videos.
It has everything you need to survive a doomsday
scenario.
You take out the crank radio and turn it.
Over the static comes a crackling voice.
The announcer confirms what you had been afraid
of this whole time.
The voice on the radio fades in and out.
You can only make out pieces of the announcement,
but it is clear what is happening.
The world has broken into all out war.
This is nothing like past world wars with
soldiers, tanks, and planes.
No, this war is all about nukes, cyber hackers,
and space.
The voice on the radio relays which cities
have been hit.
It started with Washington D.C. then Hong
Kong.
Retaliation from the Chinese took out Los
Angeles, then nukes were launched at Moscow.
The Middle East is in plumes of fiery oil
and gas.
Mainland Europe is at war with Britain.
Almost every major city around the world has
been hit.
Billions of lives have been lost instantly.
But what about you and the others who were
lucky enough to survive the initial blasts?
Can you survive World War III?
Probably not, but let’s see what may be
in store for you.
As you prepare to leave your house and seek
shelter in a more rural area, you hear the
radio announcer trying to determine how the
carnage started.
It seems that no one is quite sure who launched
first, or who the aggressor was.
But before World War III broke out there were
some ominous conflicts brewing.
You hear a shuffling of papers as the broadcaster
organizes his notes.
He, like everyone else left on earth, is trying
to make sense of what is happening.
The announcer begins his run down of what
sparked World War III and the end of the world
as you know it.
“This all could have been avoided if the
United States and Iran maintained diplomatic
relations instead of blowing up each other's
military assets,” he says.
“Or maybe it all started with North Korea
threatening the United States over and over
again.
Then someone with a happy trigger finger launched
the first nuke.
My best guess,” continues the broadcaster,
“was that China had finally caught up to
the military strength of the United States
and differences in ideology led to a conflict
that may very well end up eradicating all
of humanity.”
You grab your survival kit, thank you to The
Infographics Show for helping you to prepare
for a doomsday scenario, and walk out of your
house.
Planes have fallen out of the sky and lay
in fiery wrecks around your neighborhood.
The EMP blasts from the nukes fried their
controls and caused many to fall from the
sky.
You start walking down the street, you know
the radiation from the nuclear explosion is
enough to cause third degree burns, even if
you're miles away.
Not to mention even small doses of radiation
can cause mutations in your DNA, which can
lead to cancer and other diseases.
Just by being within eyesight of the nuclear
explosions of World War III means you may
not survive.
Then suddenly something enters the atmosphere
causing a sonic boom.
You look up and shield your eyes as a fireball
careens towards the ground.
The object smashes into your house causing
it to ignite in a fiery explosion.
You run back to see what happened.
Where your house once stood, there is now
a large crater.
On one of the metal shards that is sticking
out of the earth you see writing.
You kick the debris to clear off the dirt.
The acronym NASA adorns the metal plate.
The fireball that fell from the sky and destroyed
your house was a satellite.
This is a new type of warfare you think.
The warfare of space.
You look up into the sky and see flashes of
light beyond the atmosphere.
World War III has gone beyond the terrestrial
world and now includes the cosmos.
Crewed rockets are launched to take control
of the International Space Station.
It is not a military asset per se, but it
offers a strategic advantage.
From the International Space Station rockets
and other spacecraft can be refueled, satellites
can be manipulated, and data using onboard
sensors and cameras can be relayed to the
military.
World War III has now weaponized space.
Outer space is not the only battle ground
that is not on the planet’s surface.
Hackers have turned cyberspace into a warzone
as well.
They have taken control of military assets
on both sides of the war.
These hackers may be working for the opposition,
or just for themselves.
Either way, they have hacked into satellite
guidance systems and military computers.
This war is not just being led by generals
of the military, but by the tech geeks who
command the world of code as well.
World War III is a physical war and a cyber
war.
Since your coding skills are not up to par,
you figure it’s best to get away from populated
areas and the technology that is associated
with them.
You never know when a hacker will take over
one of the military’s autonomous robots
or drones and send it after you.
“There is no way I am going to survive this,”
you think as you head towards the city limits.
As you run towards the tree line on the outskirts
of town you begin to cough.
There is smoke coming out of the forest.
“What fresh hell is this?” you think.
You head for higher ground to survey the area
that used to be a protected state park.
You climb the ladder of a water tower and
take out the binoculars from your survival
kit.
“Where would I be without all the survival
tips from The Infographics Show?” you think.
“Probably already dead.”
From the water tower you see that the forest
is ablaze.
Smoke pours out of the treetops and into the
air.
When the nuke went off the residual heat ignited
part of the forest.
Now the uncontrollable blaze is burning away
every tree in its path.
This is happening all around the world.
It is at this point you realize you are in
big trouble.
Yes you were in trouble before, but now you
see what the future holds.
Winter is coming, and it is not the Game of
Thrones version.
The winter that is coming for you is nuclear
winter.
There is no way you are going to make it through
this alive.
The weapon of choice for World War III is
the nuke.
Unfortunately, for all of humanity nuclear
explosions have long term effects that are
more widespread than just the initial explosion.
You leave the urban area that was once home
and head for the rural lands away from any
major hub of civilization.
You figure that the safest place to be during
World War III is where there is little technology
and even fewer people.
You find an abandoned coal mine that has been
drilled into a mountain.
The thick rock walls provide you some protection
from radiation and keeps you shielded from
the natural elements.
Your new cave home keeps you alive for a little
while longer, but how much longer will you
be able to survive with nuclear winter on
the horizon?
As you step out of your cave in the middle
of the afternoon the first thing you notice
is that it’s dark.
The smoke, soot, and debris that has been
flung up into the atmosphere by the nuclear
explosions is suspended in the air.
The superheated air around where the bombs
went off force particles from the surface
to rise.
The debris in the atmosphere has blocked out
the sun.
Earth’s temperature has begun to cool.
You are in the early stages of nuclear winter.
In the days that follow the beginning of World
War III soot and smoke from the smoldering
remains of cities enters the atmosphere.
The nuclear blasts melt everything from plastics
to metal, and release harmful chemicals into
the air.
This not only began blocking out the sun,
but vast amounts of carcinogens and other
chemicals are swept across the planet by winds.
No one is safe from the nuclear fallout.
Next came the firestorms.
The cities where nuclear devices exploded
are on fire, the surrounding towns are on
fire, the forests are on fire.
These fires never get a chance to burn out
before winds sweep them across the planet.
In the United States the fires in Los Angeles,
San Francisco, and Seattle are swept across
the Great Plains causing the entire midwest
to burn.
In Russia, even with its freezing temperatures,
the forests are ablaze.
Anything that could catch fire, did catch
fire.
No one is safe from the flames of the nuclear
holocoust.
And with those flames smoke and dust rise
into the atmosphere, ensuring that sunlight
won’t shine on Earth for weeks.
After weeks of no sunlight it starts to snow.
It isn’t white snow like you played in as
a child, but black snow.
What falls from the sky is all the soot and
debris from the fires that are burning the
planet.
The charred black snow covers the ground.
“At least the sun is back,” you think.
Unfortunately, it is too late.
The lack of sunlight has caused the Earth’s
temperature to drop.
Nuclear winter has begun
You lived through nuclear bombs exploding.
You lived through fires engulfing the planet.
You lived through black snow falling from
the sky.
But now that nuclear winter has started you
most certainly won’t live to see the return
of summer.
The days go by and World War III has slowed
down.
Not because there is a clear victor, but because
everyone is a loser.
The human species has lost.
You are one of the few remaining individuals
of a now endangered species.
After the black snow begins to fall, the temperature
declines by 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
Killer frosts and subfreezing temperatures
wipe out much of the remaining plant and animal
life left on Earth.
You struggle to find anything to eat and unpolluted
water to drink.
You subsist entirely off of old Army rations
you found at an abandoned military base.
Even in the extremely cold temperature your
body burns from the inside.
There is no escaping the radiation that was
ejected into the air from the hundreds of
nuclear explosions.
Like you, plants and animals around the world
are suffering from burns and harmful mutations
caused by the radiation.
Evolution can not keep up with the rapidly
cooling planet and changing environments.
Almost all life on Earth goes extinct.
You sit in the mouth of your cave and look
out at the once smoldering, now freezing,
world created by World War III.
Some humans who reached fallout shelters will
survive longer than you.
It will be years before all of the soot and
dust particles descend from the atmosphere.
It will be decades before the radiation from
nuclear fallout decreases to livable levels.
It will be centuries before life is able to
bounce back from the devastation World War
III has caused this to planet Earth.
And it will be millenia before the climate
and ecosystems in heavily hit areas return
to stability.
You will not survive World War III.
If you are able to make it through a nuclear
attack without being incinerated in the initial
blast, avoid being poisoned by the radioactive
fallout, or getting killed by collateral damage,
then you will be one of the lucky few.
But like most life on the planet, you will
not be able to survive the nuclear winter
that follows World War III.
There will be no winners in this type of war.
On a positive note life on Earth will eventually
bounce back.
Humans are currently messing up the planet
in many ways, and someday we might be our
own demise, but planet Earth will carry on.
Thousands of years after the end of World
War III when nuclear winter has subsided,
and the climate patterns become stable under
the new norms, life will evolve to thrive
in a post human, post World War III world.
Who knows what life will be capable of after
World War III eliminates all humans on the
planet.
It’s too bad you won’t be around to see
it.
If you’re worried about how likely World
War III is in the future then check out our
video What Are The Chances of World War 3?
Or if you want to be even more prepared, watch
How To Build A World War 3 BOMB SHELTER.
