AFTERMATH

Introduction: End War The twentieth century was a testament to the true potential of man. We have the potential to bring wonderful things to this world, and at the same time we have the power to destroy it. As a child my father taught me to understand and respect the balance of the universe. Everything around us exists within this balance. Love is paired with loss, happiness with despair, and life with death. All actions result in consequences, without fail. This is what the people of the twenty-first century, that tried to push their own ambition and “progress” to new heights, had forgotten. A concept they had rejected. The developed world marveled at their own untouchable superiority as they continued to move farther away from the mindset of a being that shared this world with others. They lost any respect they once had for things greater than themselves. This attitude led to what became known as, the End War. The End War was a series of catastrophic destruction so immense that it consumed all, not just the physical; it destroyed our souls as well. Some would argue the violence was a testament to the fact that we’d given up our souls long before. America, after the 1950’s, competed for superiority of this material world with the United Soviet Socialist Republic. The tension between the two nations that became the Cold War fizzled out in the early 1990’s amid the collapse of the USSR. America’s superiority was unquestioned in the ensuing decade and they were determined to not become another statistic. Sadly all great empires in the history of man have fallen. The United States was no different; it could not help but follow in the footsteps of the empires of old. Their achievements slowly became burdens. They were forced to watch as their strength shifted to other parts of the world. Ironically, few were actually watching. Most were blissfully blind to the power shift occurring. We had more than we needed; we wasted too much and saved too little. When the power of the world started to shift America went on the offensive. Their foreign interests became more aggressive and in turn the other nations of the world started to back away. The spiral started notably in 2010 when North and South Korea reignited the flame of war over a sunken South Korean warship. America saw the conflict as a chance to secure their interests in the region and apply pressure to China, their main economic rival. Military might was still favored in America’s direction and they thrived on conflict. Their wars in Afghanistan and Iraq during the previous decade proved to the world that they were not afraid to act on their own. They were fighting in the Middle East as a part of a coalition of forces, but it had been solely the ambition of America that drove the conflict. When South Korea, an American ally since the Korean War in the 1950’s, called on them for help they jumped at the chance to float across the Pacific and show their strength. The undefeatable superpower was stretching itself too thin. It had made many enemies all around the world, even in it’s own back yard. A great many of which had adjusted their tactics in order to bypass the vast might of the American military. Terrorism had become the tactic of choice for the disenfranchised and under supplied. Muslim fundamentalists had become the “terrorists of the day”, despite the fact that terrorism had been utilized for centuries by groups all over the world fighting against superior forces, particularly occupying ones. All of these factors made up the landscape of the developed world at the time of the End War. What we truly know is very little. We know Washington D.C., the former capitol of the United States, was destroyed with what experts called a dirty bomb thought to be smuggled into the country through the Canadian border. It was detonated outside the Capitol building during President Obama’s State of the Union address in January of 2011. The bomb shocked the world. It obliterated the capitol building and a lot of the city killing nearly every member of Congress including the President, his family, and the Vice President. Every precaution to prevent such an attack had been taken, but when the news reports started coming in and the video of the destroyed city hit every television in the world there was no stopping the coming tide. The culprits behind this attack were never identified; there was no time. The ensuing chaos that followed took everyone by storm and affected all people around the world. America, in its anger, demanded action. The chain of command landed to a member of Congress that had been safely tucked away in a bunker, standard procedure during the State of the Union in case of just such an attack. Two days later a bomb of similar size was detonated in Time’s Square of New York City. America blamed everyone. It targeted all the enemies it had accumulated over the previous century. Anyone who hesitated to support its campaign of destruction was then targeted themselves in response. Missions were activated, missiles launched, and bombs dropped on four different continents. America was fighting most of the world with more and more countries turning against them every day. Pockets of their own people began to demand a stop to the violence. Rioting and open rebellion began to erupt. Domestic terrorism ran rampant. Utility hubs and power plants were attacked daily. Communications dwindled and eventually were lost all together. More bombs began to erupt in major cities across the world. In this terrible chaos a risky invasion of America’s east coast was launched by what was left of the Russian, French, and Italian Navies, in conjunction with many others, in an apparent attempt to sequester the chaos to within the borders of North America. There were rumors of a similar invasion on the west coast but never confirmed, not by us. I was one of the men sent to the coast to fend off the invading forces. The invasion accomplished one thing; it united the Americans again against an outside foe. The chaos within our own borders slowed and what was left of our resolve was focused on keeping our borders secure. We were too late. The world as we knew it had been changed forever.