2045

On the 100th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima a dissident group takes over a missile base and fires an ICBM at New York. > This starts a global chain reaction of nuclear attack and response. > Remote Cooktown wakes next day to the news that most major cities in the world have been hit by nuclear attack. > Two men travel south and find towns there have been hit by biological warfare, one of them contracting tularemia. > Cooktown becomes self-sufficient in food and water, using wind turbines for power, and horses for transport and farming. > New crops are planted and new houses built for stranded tourists and survivors who arrive from remote Australia and New Guinea. > After conflict occurs over debt an egalitarian society is established with a 20-hour working week, a revolutionary education policy, and the world's first true democracy. > Religion is replaced by new fairness and good behaviour laws. > By the end of the year life in Cooktown has never been better.