The Fall of America

The couple had been having marital problems for years. It seems everyone was right. They did get married too early, they moved too fast. It wasn't his choice-he wanted to break it off. He was a very busy man-he had a business to run. He didn't have time for a family. But she just had to marry him, and she just had to have a child. Now he has to pay child support every month.

His kid gets to visit every weekend. The upside of that-someday, he'll get to be the parent that lets him have ice cream for breakfast in Daddy's office. The downside-he'll have to listen to his kid talk about how Mommy's dating her (much younger) personal trainer. For now, though, he's stuck with a small baby who only eats, sleeps, and cries all the time. He set aside some money for a part-time nanny.

Even worse-his company has been losing money very quickly for the last few months. They've had to lay off practically half of their staff. They've lost franchises around the country, and bigger companies have been offering to buy them out. Freaking sharks.

Now he's filing for bankruptcy. Which means he has nothing to pay the bills with. She's suing him for not paying child support, his business partners are suing him for the money they lost, and he has a slim to none chance of winning any of the cases. More money out of his pocket that he doesn't have.

The money had to come from somewhere. He had to find a job-fast. So he joined the military. Two days after that happened, he realized he was in way over his head. His former status got him a lot of attention he didn't want with his "teammates". One morning, he washed his hair only to find that it had been dyed pink by the shampoo. He was forced to bleach and shave it immediately. He's being worked to his physical peak all day in the hot sun, has learn how to hold and operate a weapon he's never even heard of, and he's being yelled at most of the day by a man in green camouflage. Things couldn't be more stressful.

Except that they could. Congress was forced to declare war after foreign forces had invaded the country and taken control of a whole state. His boot camp was being sped up-which meant more training and harsher teaching methods. By the time he was cleared for combat, the enemy had spread through half the country. In the first week of combat alone he'd received multiple gunshot wounds to the leg and shoulder. They patched him up, dosed him with painkillers, and sent him back out. He didn't know how he survived this long. Too soon, they were pushed back to the last five remaining states.

They managed to hold them for a few months, but it was rough. They lost a lot of men and women. Society deteriorated. There was no such thing as safe anymore. Every able-bodied man, woman and, yes, child the age of fifteen and up were being trained to fight. They had to-they were running out of soldiers.

Then the enemy started pulling their forces back-bringing them back home. They were retreating! They regained their territory, as damaged as it was. Everyone thought they'd won. Until the radars picked something up. By then, it was too late. They had minutes. Some people managed to get herded into fallout shelters. They were packed to the brim with men and women, soldiers, and young children. Some people were left outside, pounding on the doors, begging to be let inside. After the first explosion, there was nothing coming from outside except for dead silence.

They waited for hours, listening to the ground explode above them, waiting for it to collapse and kill them all anyway. He counted at least three bombs. They were nuclear-he knew that for sure. They wouldn't use any other kind-nobody did these days. Nuclear was quick and easy. It killed anything and everything nearby and kept the area uninhabitable for years and years. It broke the enemy's spirit.

Then the door was forced open. People in radiation suits stormed in and started shooting. Most of the soldiers formed a barricade around the civilians and shot back. But they only served as human shields. Most that got hit died on impact, or bled out within a few minutes. The lucky ones, anyway.

Anyone else that was left was herded outside. They didn't get any protection from the radiation. As soon as they stepped out, their skin started to feel as though it was burning off. A lot of people passed out or just fell over, dead immediately. Some bent over or fell to their knees and started retching or coughing up blood. Their vision got blurry and they had to support each other to walk properly. People moaned and groaned-pain from shrapnel wounds and feeling like their insides were melting. Anyone that didn't walk-alive or not-was left behind. The rest were herded into the back of a truck.

It was like an oven, and there was nothing to stop the radiation from baking them alive. Sores and blisters spread out of nowhere. Their skin literally burned around their wrists and ankles-quickly turning black where they were shackled to the floor. The smell of cooked flesh filled the back of the truck, accompanying the screams of agony, shrieking that left his ears ringing. More people were sick to what was left of their stomachs-a dirty brown mix of vomit and blood on the floor that swished around their ankles like water.

After a few hours of driving-most had died, some had just passed out-they unloaded whoever was still able to walk. Once again, those who wouldn't move were left behind, whether they could walk or not. Some resisted, trying desperately to wake their family or friends, or tried to carry them out. The men in the radiation suits quickly disposed of those who did. They left the bodies and the unconscious where they lay and shoved the rest into a cargo plane.

The man was lost in his thoughts for the next few hours. He tried to block out the wailing from people around him. It wasn't hard-he felt like he was almost deaf. He wasn't sure how he was still sane-maybe he wasn't. It's amazing how quickly things can change. He supposed child support was the least of his worries now. There was a tortured, haunting moan nearby, and it took him a moment to realize it had come from him. He had lost everything.

He put his head in his hands and was shocked to find that he had lost his hair at some point. Imagine his surprise when laughter started flowing from his mouth. Yes, that was most definitely him. He couldn't believe this was happening. It felt like a dream. It had to be. But it wasn't. That was confirmed when the door of the cargo plane began to open. He had wondered why they hadn't secured those who were left. People were quickly sucked out, their screams drowned by the wind. He felt the metal floor of the plane fall away beneath him. He watched silently as the land below approached at an alarming speed. At least, he would be alarmed if he didn't know this was inevitable. He closed his eyes, embracing the wind pulling at him, urging him to fly back up. Not today. Finally, he would be free.

Then he woke up. He shook his wife awake.

"What is it?" She mumbled tiredly.

"Honey, please, whatever you do, do NOT vote for Donald Trump!"