Most of the western, central, and southern Virginia counties simply walked away from Richmond when the capital ran out of the money to pay the soldiers and police it took to keep them in line. Gaining their freedom was not that simple though. Many disagreed with the idea, and in an age of convenient kitchen chemicals and commercial fireworks, those disagreements could become explosive. Those counties that broke with Richmond soon found themselves targeted by arsonists and worse. The military called it asymmetrical warfare. The counties trying to survive the end of civilization as they knew it called them terror attacks.