DISCONTINUED

Chapter 1

The Second American Civil War ended in the spring of 2028 and while the conflict had mercifully excluded the use of nuclear weapons, there was certainly no shortage of destruction. When all was said and done and what was left of the "United" States began to pick itself up and dust itself off, it didn't take long for damage assessments to reveal the enormity of the recovery and rebuilding effort that would be required.

Much of the country was left in ruins, but there were a small number of states lucky enough to have been spared any real fighting on their own land. Of these states that managed to survive the war with their infrastructures relatively intact, perhaps the one that emerged in the best shape was Oregon. Not only did they avoid their share of any real large-scale devastation, but they were also energy independent, having benefited from the nation's investment in the development of wave and tidal energy farms in the early 2020's.

Oregon's leaders, sensing their relatively good fortune, decided that they really weren't all that interested in doing their part in helping the rest of the country rise from the ashes, so instead they chose independence. Naturally, this sparked cries of outrage from the rest of the country, but the timing of their move was impeccable as any formal or organized response simply proved impossible to muster in the post war chaos.

While convincing their citizens to essentially abandon the rest of the country wasn't a simple thing, in the end it really sort of was. This was after all a post war population that was living with a form of mass PTSD, scared and primarily concerned with protecting what and who they had left. Sharing wasn't really high on their list of priorities right now, and sufficient numbers of sufficiently powerful people easily dealt with any opposition before it got organized enough to be a real problem.

Riding the wave of public approval, or at the very least public acceptance, those in power quickly followed up their call to independence with a proposal to build a layer of physical protection from the outside. The idea was met with little opposition, with construction beginning almost immediately. And so it was that just 18 months after the end of the war, the newly formed Independent Republic of Oregon found itself to be not only fully autonomous but also quite tidily enclosed by a roughly 1,000 mile long fence that guarded a conveniently squared-off version of what had once been the state of Oregon.

While they certainly weren't the first "nation" to wall themselves in, and there's wasn't by any means the largest or the most elaborate example of such a barrier, the fence was still pretty darn impressive. It was actually two fences running side by side spaced 20 feet apart, allowing for a perimeter patrol road in the "no man's land" that ran between them. Each fence was 40 feet tall extending another 10 feet underground, and each was topped with barbed tape and wire. Additionally, a 100 foot "clear zone" was created on either side of each fence. The perimeter was monitored by surveillance cameras and sophisticated sensor systems equipped with motion sensing electromagnetic pulse (EMP) cannons capable of disabling approaching vehicles with a single targeted blast. Needless to say, the fence proved wonderfully effective in keeping unwanted visitors from flooding into what had become a relative land of plenty.

For the first couple of years the fence was looked upon rather fondly by most Oregonians. Relative to the rest of the struggling to get back on its feet country, life was good within its borders, and the fence made sure that the troubles and difficulties outside of it could be kept at arm's length and largely ignored. And while few felt the need or desire to ever venture out beyond its protection, travel outside the fence was still possible and in fact largely unimpeded. It was just controlled and restricted to one of a dozen different crossings spread around the perimeter. For those that were lucky enough to live within its boundaries, it really made for a rather comfortable existence - leave if you must to go about your business, but the fence was always there to welcome you home with its great big shiny, razor sharp metallic protecting-all-of-your-stuff "arms".

The Republic of Oregon was established - at least in word if not necessarily in deed - as a socialist / quasi-communist society. It was sold to the people as a "we've got to take care of each other" system and that concept sat well with most. Those that found themselves more adversely affected by the war than others felt provided for and protected, most of the middle class was happy enough to be good "team players" as long as they felt fairly done by, and those at the top of the food chain usually found enough creative ways around the whole "one for all and all for one" mantra such that nothing much really changed for them.

But as time went on, greed started to seep into the system and expose its flaws as those in power slowly began to flex their muscles and gradually become more demanding and oppressive. Theirs became, as all attempts before it had, a very imperfect communism. They got the gathering part right, but the fair redistribution was another matter altogether. Unrest led to protests and increasingly large scale refusal to conform and comply, and despite the government's best efforts at censorship and clever propaganda, news that leaked in from the outside began to suggest to some that perhaps they were on the wrong side of this fence of theirs, or at least maybe there was another side worth considering. As such, it wasn't long before people started leaving and not coming back.

This non-compliance and increasing emigration were real concerns for the powerful minority. They needed the "common folk" at their disposal to do all the nasty menial things that they themselves had no desire to do, and they began to feel their country club existence in this new nation of theirs start to crumble. Their propaganda and spin masters still held most of the people in check, but the momentum was shifting, and they knew that their situation was tenuous and wouldn't last much longer unless they did something soon. They needed a plan and fast.