Trouble and Truth

Marcelina jumped out of her chair towards Natalia's call of distress, what kind of trouble did they run into? As the redhead burst into the bedroom from where Natalia's scream came from, she saw Natalia perfectly fine and standing in the bedroom.

"What happened? Are you in trouble? Why did you call me?" Marcelina said holding her machete ready to slash any threat.

"Check this out," Natalia jumped in excitement, "the girl that lived here wore the same size as me! Get a load of this dress," Natalia spread a beautiful dress over herself, "is this not the cutest dress you've ever seen, and would I not look amazing in it?"

Marcelina couldn't help but laugh and sheathed her machete.

"What's so funny?" Natalia asked with a saddened look, "Is the dress bad?"

"No, no," Marcelina calmed her laughing, "It's just, with how much urgency you called me I thought it was something serious."

Natalia pouted, "Fashion is very serious."

"Anyways, you search for clothes I am going to look around other parts of the house."

"You didn't answer my question." Natalia frowned.

"What question?"

"Would this dress look cute on me or not?"

Marcelina took a step forward and kissed her partner on the cheek, "I think you would look amazing in it."

Natalia smiled and Marcelina left the room to search more of the house, the redhead would try to find clues as to why was Perdido abandoned, while the blonde girl stayed in the bedroom trying out as many clothes to find the best amongst the bunch.

***

After a frivolous search, Marcelina decided to give up looking for clues. While her partner barely picked out a few items of clothing to take with her, she wanted the whole closet but there just wasn't enough room on the jeep and she had to give up most of what she wanted to bring.

The pair moved around the empty town searching. They wanted to test out the water of the river that flowed through Perdido, if it wasn't contaminated, they could replenish their water supply.

Before they could do that, a small shop caught Marcelina's eye.

"Look over there." The two girls entered the shop, and on the counter, they saw a newspaper. Marcelina pointed at the paper, "“There we will find our answers. It’s a wonder how newspapers became more reliable than the internet! Because of how many wars, disruptions from climate change and the general chaos on the planet at the time, the internet became slow and unreliable. Can you believe people used some kind of invisible net to spread news? I’m glad we wised up after it became too slow and returned to good old newspapers!”

"Why would some stinky old paper help us?"

"Because if this is the last issue this town received or printed for itself before Mexico's collapse, maybe we can find out just what happened here."

Natalia nodded in understanding and the two started reading the paper and it contained interesting revelations, the paper's authors were aware this was the last issue, and they dedicated an entire section, giving their readers a review on how things got the way they are.

During the early 21st century, governments around the world failed to take seriously the threat of climate change. Even with many warnings from the scientific community, an ignorance and denial of the problem persisted amongst the world population, many voting for politicians that promised to ignore the problem and accelerate the doom.

Unsurprisingly, the planet moved into a total ecological catastrophe, hurricanes, floods, droughts, tsunamis, and whole ecosystems of animals and plants died out.

In this ensuing chaos, many countries had their governments toppled and systems destroyed in revolutions, coups, and civil wars. One significant change was in the United States of America. While it experienced democratic backsliding and a shift into authoritarianism, it completed this process in its upending of their constitution, the worlds at the time, oldest and longest running constitution.

The country renamed itself the United Empire of America, and the president became the Emperor with a lifetime appointment and absolute power over the lives of the people. Checks and balances, and separation of powers were passé concepts.

The states that comprised America were no longer states, but subjects. Imperial subjects to the crown of the Emperor. All property is owned by the Emperor, and everything is rented to his population.

A new religion replaced Christianity in America, the cult of the Emperor, similar to the Roman Empire. No longer a separation of church and state, rather the Emperor is the head of the church and its divine figure that everyone needs to worship. An attack on the Emperor is an attack on god himself. God is the Emperor and the state is his hammer which he uses to crush anyone who opposes him.

America had become a totalitarian society during this transformative period of the 21st century, so wide-reaching and unrestricted, it would make Maoist China and the Stalinist USSR blush with how much power and control this new America had over its citizens.

This was not the only country that had a radical transformation and departure from its historical roots. All across the globe, by the end of the 21st century most countries fell to totalitarian regimes.

The turn of the 22nd century saw a massive backlash against these dictatorships but it was too late, climate change was irreversible at this point, all of the world's ice had melted and many small-scale wars had decimated the population.

It all came to an end when the great collapse started. While the newspaper doesn't mention the term great collapse, this period is known as such now in the 2200s.

In 2111. the USA or United Empire of America as it was called then, several imperial subjects were fed up with the imperial system and their allegiance to the Emperor in Washington D.C. declared their statehood and independence. The new states joined together and declared themselves the old United States of America reviving the old constitution along with it.

This new United States did not last long, as the Emperor ordered an immediate nuclear strike on the breakaway states, and several nuclear missiles were launched.

Because of how corrupt and anti-intellectual this American empire had become, the missiles were not maintained properly and were operated by unqualified people, their only qualification was loyalty to the Emperor. Only half of the nuclear rockets were launched. The other half exploded on site.

With that, the launched nukes devastated the breakaway states. However, it also destroyed the ones loyal to the Emperor because of the ones that exploded on site.

The Nuclear fallout from all of these explosions killed the entire population of the US and some of Canada's and Mexico's. The Emperor and his dynasty died in this fallout. Nothing was left of the former US, just a radiation desert with no life ever capable of sustaining.

In the end, it wasn't the Russians, the Chinese, the North Koreans, or the Iranians that launched a nuclear strike on America, rather they launched it on themselves, through willful ignorance and blind trust in a cultic absolute monarch. By the time the states rebelled, it was way passed the point of no return.

The wipeout of the American empire off the map sent shockwaves across the world and most of the world fell into various civil wars, economic collapse, or anarchy.

Which finally brings us to where our two girls are, Mexico. The United States of Mexico had largely avoided the dictatorial uprising of many of the worlds great powers. However, just because it wasn't a dictatorship it was not spared the turmoil of the 21st and the 22nd centuries.

Many groups in Mexico were deeply unhappy with the state of the country for decades, the Cartels were unhappy over them losing influence and power over the decades as the federal government grew. The catholic radicals were unhappy with the country's abortion laws. The state governments were unhappy with how powerful the federal government had become. There were also many other violent radical groups that had a vision for the country.

All of these factors and many more contributed to Mexico's eventual demise. As America blew itself up into a nuclear holocaust, the fallout killed a part of Mexico's population and the disappearance of America destroyed the Mexican economy.

With the federal government weakened by these events, the Cartels armed themselves into a civil war against the government. Several states declared themselves independent and went to war, the catholic radicals also armed themselves and started capturing territory.

After a week Mexico was engulfed in a bloody civil war that destroyed and tore apart the country.

Which brings us to the town of Perdido. As the rebel army of the breakaway state of Veracruz came to capture the town of Perdido, fearing retaliation for siding with the federal government, the small garrison of troops ordered a full evacuation of the town and to retreat. The town's population ran from their homes to avoid war and death.

Because of this civil war Perdido was left abandoned, never to be resettled again. It won't get the chance to be resettled as the solar fissure effect will be upon the planet in a year, destroying all life on Earth.

Nobody in the end won the civil war, from the 2120s to the 2150s all governments and states of the world collapsed for one reason or another and modern society was over. What's left of Mexico are small villages, a few city states and the thugs of marauders.

What were these groups fighting for if nothing was left in their destruction and boundless greed for more power? What were the people of the past thinking when they so callously cast away what their ancestors and nature had left them?

Marcelina and Natalia sat in silence as they reached the end of the article, there weren't any words to say, only frustration at humanity's folly.

All countries and societies on Earth collapsed, all but one,

Greenland.