Cold Relics

Events in bold are related to our stories.

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1917: The dynasty of the Russian Empire comes to an end when the Bolsheviks violently overthrow Tsar Nicholas II, and Lenin leads the rise of communism.

1945: World War 2 ends. Germany is split in half through Berlin. East Germany is under control by Russia. The “Eastern Bloc”, countries annexed by a Russia on the offensive, solidify.

1947: Russia refuses to loosen their grip on the eastern nations as America enacts the Marshall Plan, which will finance and help rebuild the other, free war-torn countries. The Soviets execute a coup d’état in Czechoslovakia, the last remaining democratic country under its flag.

The CIA is formed, an American global intelligence agency.

1948-1949: Tensions increase when the Soviet Union enforces a blockade to prevent aid from reaching West Berlin. Following elections in East Berlin, Germany is further divided and the prospect of reunification becomes distant.

1949: The Soviet Union detonates their first atomic device. Western Europe begins the Radio Free Europe propaganda campaign, an effort to peacefully bring about an end to the Eastern Bloc through media.

The spread and ideals of communism also reach China, where a civil war takes place and Mao Zedong rises to power.

1950: Overseen by Stalin, North Korea invades South Korea, beginning the Korean War. In response, NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, founded a year prior) begins to develop a military structure.

1951: The Duck and Cover film debuts, which is shown to schoolchildren, advising them that should they see the flash of an all-destroying thermonuclear device, that they can save themselves by hiding under a desk or getting under a picnic blanket.

1953: Following American involvement, the Korean War “ends” with an armistice signing, and the country remains divided. Even today, the two nations are technically still in a state of war.

Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes president and reduces military spending, but still stands up to the USSR more effectively and intelligently.

1956: Following Stalin’s death, the new Soviet Leader, Khrushchev, denounces his methods and crimes while promising to take the union in a new, bolder direction, promising communism’s inevitable defeat of capitalism. Nuclear tensions with the west begin to rise.

The same year, the Sino-Soviet Alliance quickly falls apart, and China begins to move in its own direction amid contention between Khrushchev and Mao.

Throughout the later half of the decade, the Soviet Union also pushes for anti-colonization efforts throughout the Eastern hemisphere. The most significant development is France abandoning Vietnam, which leads to further efforts by the USA to prop up capitalist-aligned South Vietnam.

1957: Shortly after launching the first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, the Soviet Union puts Sputnik into orbit, the first artificial satellite. Though it does nothing other than broadcast a radio transmission, it begins an era of both paranoia about Soviet espionage, and the Space Race.

1959-1961: Fidel Castro’s regime topples the Cuban government, and by the following year, he was negotiating arms purchases from the Soviet Union, meaning that Russian weapons and an ally were now less than 100 miles from American soil. One of new president John F. Kennedy’s early major actions was an attempted invasion/coup, the Bay of Pigs incident, which was a humiliating failure.

Also, 1960 was the year that an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over Russia. The captured pilot was traded for an imprisoned Soviet spy.

1962: The world arguably comes the closest it’s ever been to a nuclear war during the tense thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis. It ends when Kennedy agrees to remove missile platforms around the Soviet Union, and in return, Russia removes its missiles from Cuba.

1963: JFK is assassinated in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald, although ongoing conspiracies point to at least one other gunman. The CIA is also suspected by some as having organized the plot.

With the country now led by Lyndon B. Johnson, the Vietnam War and America’s involvement escalate throughout the decade.

1964: Khrushchev is forced into retirement following his actions that were seen to have led to near nuclear annihilation and the construction of the Berlin Wall, seen as a disaster for global relations.

1965-1979: Amid the worsening Vietnam War that leads to the American counter-culture movement of the 1960s, many other areas of the world suffer destabilization of their own, including countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Cambodia, where a genocide claims the lives of millions and is only put to an end after Vietnam invades it.

1969: The USA lands on the moon, bringing about an end to the Space Race though declaring it an advancement for all mankind.

1972: President Nixon meets with Mao in China, and then Soviet leaders. The SALT I treaty is signed, which prohibits further nuclear testing. Global tensions ease some as the two super powers agree to pursue a peaceful co-existence.

1975: America evacuates all remaining personnel from Vietnam, and the war comes to an end after the North topples Saigon.

1979: The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan and becomes an occupying power. They remain there for nearly ten years. America covertly arms the Mujahideen so that they can counter the Soviet presence.

That same year, the Iranian Revolution and American hostage crises occur, and America cuts all diplomatic ties with the country.

1980: Construction concludes on a replica of an American city Main Street deep in Ukraine, its purpose unclear.

1981: Construction of the LIZ-4 station likely complete by now, as its IBM computer can be dated to this year.

1983: Russian officer Stanislav Petrov’s decision not to report a newly installed radar system’s errant detection of incoming American nuclear weapons likely prevents a large-scale nuclear war.

1985: Though the Soviet Union had spent the first half of the decade building a military force that rivaled America’s, relations with the west rapidly begin to thaw as the sustainability of the Union is put into question, with many of its nations beginning to seek a way out and becoming independent again.

1986: During a systems test, a number of safety mistakes combined with flawed control rods causes the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine to melt down. It is the worst nuclear accident in history and an embarrassment for the Soviet Union, who also mishandled and delayed the total evacuation of nearby Pripyat.

Known creation year of the Laser Tag toy.

1988: An American officer station in (what was then) Barrow, Alaska is assigned to help decommission an early warning station, a station known as LIZ-4, which appears on none or very few official records. She attracts the attention of a mysterious government entity and flees, being forced to leave her young daughter behind, who goes into custody. Both of their current whereabouts are unknown. 

1989: Multiple nations experience political revolutions and break away from the Union. The Fall of the Berlin Wall is seen as the book end of the Cold War. Europe is re-unified within about two years.

198X: The partner of someone from another story is dragged aboard a mysterious train and makes contact with an enigmatic figure.

1990: Likely creation date of the Fun Bunn game and hardware. It is not known to have been finished, and if it was in fact made by the same organization/company that created the Laser Tag set, it was probably their last product.

Our Hero’s direct experience with Kiddie Land, which he later recalls.

1993: The year that I, Tyler, “visited” Kiddie Land.

1998: A young teenager stumbles upon a dangerous laser tag set in northern Florida. What happens next is the precursor to further events and brings attention to a shadowy entity that produced enigmatic hardware.

2007-2009: Duration of the CreepyToys forum, where the transcribed journal detailing the Laser Tag incident was posted.

2008: Our Hero, myself, and Jack and Kate investigate Kiddie Land.

2012: The first two stories are posted.

2014: A mother’s adult daughter smuggles her story of LIZ-4 out into the world. It first appears on the Deep web.

Russia invades and annexes the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine, starting the War of Donbass.

Our Hero experiences the Fun Bunn game during a blizzard that strikes the New England area.

2018: Boris and Jack investigate a large warehouse in Ukraine, which holds the replica American town inside.

Our Hero finally wakes up on Christmas Day.

2019: Our Hero has a fateful meeting with someone from the Laser Tag story.

2022: Russia fully invades Ukraine with horrific brutality, raising the specter of the Cold War era.