The Continent

           

One hundred twenty-five years ago the world descended into chaos. In the year 2017, the forty-fifth President of the United States of America was inaugurated. Almost immediately, the new President's hateful rhetoric set into motion a series of events that forever changed the destiny of our planet. The first year of his Presidency saw a national increase in gun violence, xenophobia, homophobia, racism, religious intolerance, and sexism due to the ravings of this unhinged, unqualified, and incompetent man. His administration was charged with collusion with the Russian government to influence the election, as well as treason as national security secrets were sold to the foreign power within the US government. Tensions rose, violence ensued, and soon, the United States of America witnessed its Second Civil War. Three major sects fought against each other and many perished as the US government collapsed into total anarchy. Crime ran rampant, political collaborators were assassinated, civilians fought and killed and died in the streets and were left to rot as hoards of militia groups scoured town after town.

Resources ran low and many Americans fled to Canada and Mexico looking for food, water, shelter, and security. As people became more and more desperate, violence increased and they were forced to close their borders. Countries across the Atlantic sent no aid to North and South America. Overseas partnerships were cut off, known as the Severance, due to fear by the European, Middle Eastern, African, and Asian countries who wanted to distance themselves from the failing Americas. Poverty and corruption in South America finally reached its peak as resources quickly ran out and its governments deteriorated alongside their Northern neighbours. People were lost, sick, without government, law, and order, fighting against one another for scraps for over five years. Eventually, people got tired of fighting. All sides had depleted their resources, and overseas trade had been cut off since the Severance. There was massive loss of life, over fifty percent of the entire population of North and South America had perished.

Out of pure desperation, each country sent delegates to assemble in Mexico to discuss a way to rebuild their society. They agreed that the previous system of governance needed to change, since the last one allowed for such hatred and greed to simmer in the hearts of humankind. They decided that they could not go about separately, rebuilding their own countries from the ground up. They needed resources and support from each other if they were going to do it correctly. And so, North and South America united into one singular Continent, utilizing the resources they had within their own land, and shared it with one another. Their goal was to transform the landscape of their society. There was to be no more densely populated super-cities where the air was so polluted it poisoned your lungs. No more ozone-killing exhaust from modes of transportation. No grey pavement that suffocated the nature that lay beneath it. The Continent was created from the mistakes of the past and built on the hope for the future.

And now, you are here. One hundred twenty-five years since that fateful election. Your countries could no longer sustain you. The same countries that turned their backs on what used to be North and South America, those countries have turned their backs on you. And so, you come to us. You ask us for help. And because we know what it's like to have your neighbours turn their backs on you, we've decided to be your refuge. We only ask for your full cooperation during the Integration Process into our very different way of life. Now, please proceed as instructed, and welcome to the Continent...

            The simulation ends and the room goes dark. The images that played in the presentation flash through my mind. The election, the war, the aftermath. The entire history of the last one hundred and twenty-five years condensed into a handful of images and videos that survived the collapse of North and South America. What disturbed me the most is how familiar it all looks because that's what is happening back home, what I managed to escape from.