What do you think Greenland will be like?

Marcelina and Natalia explored the town further, any food they found had long expired, most interiors reeked of rotten food and were covered in dust.

After passing through most of the town, the pair saw the river that flowed through, it looked clean from afar but they had to test it. Natalia took her rifle and dipped it into the river, the weapon sampled a bit of the water and began analyzing.

Because the rifle was created in the beginning of 22nd century, when pollution was at an all time high, it had an internal testing system for air and water pollution. It can even rate the fertility of land and the edibility of food.

The rifle came back with a positive result, the water was drinkable, meaning the civil war had left this town truly untouched. An unexpected but welcome surprise. They would be able to fully refill their water tanks.

Marcelina drove the jeep as close to the water as she could spare them from carrying the heavy tanks for long distances. Once they were done, Natalia asked:

"So, what now? What do we do next?"

Marcelina looked towards the horizon and said, "It's getting late, I think this is a good place to call it a day. We've been on the road for so long and we haven't had proper sleep in a long time. This town is perfect since we won't have to worry about any attacks. I would still park it in one of the garages just in case, but I think we are in the clear. Also, with how clean this river is, we can use it to bathe and wash our clothes."

Natalia agreed and the two went to work, first they had to find a suitable garage to park in the slim case a group of marauders passes through Perdido. Next was to hand wash the dirty clothes they had, and finally to wash themselves.

The water was refreshingly cold since the region had an ever-present and unpleasant heat. The temperature never drops, only slightly during the night, even to the north, where they are going, there is no longer any snow or ice. The temperature isn't this unbearably high and is far more pleasant.

Once the washing and bathing was finished, Marcelina and Natalia went into their jeep. Considering that's where they spend most of their days, it had become their little home. Small but cozy, and most importantly it was safe.

While an ambush on the road is always possible, the vehicle has many built-in defenses. It has strong armor, and it should in theory have bulletproof glass. They never tested the glass, Marcelina is highly skeptical as to whether it works and she doesn't want to test it. What if it doesn't work and the glass breaks? What are they going to do without being able to air condition the car, also the car protects from radiation, what if they enter a radioactive area unprotected?

Outside the sun was setting and they had decided to sleep. Tomorrow they will continue on the road. Moving to the backseats, they lowered them and prepared to sleep. In the back of the jeep, they kept all their supplies, water, food, extra clothing, and so on.

Making themselves comfortable they prepared for sleep. As they lay cuddled up in the back of their jeep Natalia said:

"What do you think Greenland will be like?"

"I think it’s a true utopia, pleasant climate, parties, riches, there is so many things I want to do with you when we get there. There you don't have to work, there is an abundance of everything, they don't have to worry about safety and there is no violence. Their government just gives their people money to spend, and they can do whatever they want. We have to get there at any cost, the solar fissure effect is coming soon and it will wipe us all out. Greenland being the richest and best place on Earth surely has a way to save its people. I want us to be there when it happens."

Natalia paused to think, "What if they don't have any way for us to survive?"

"Even if we die," Marcelina shrugged, "I want us to live like kings and queens to the end."

Marcelina thought about the article they read on Perdido and the final Mexican civil war, she thought about how the world was falling apart and how Greenland benefited because of its geography and location in the period before the great collapse.

While climate change and its effects tore apart large parts of the planet in the latter half of the 21st century, Greenland saw a great improvement. Its ice had completely melted, and its climate became desirable and pleasant, unlike its previous bone-chilling cold.

The rest of the world saw extreme heat, failure of crops, wipe outs of animal and plant life, while in other cases, harsh winds, hurricanes, rising sea water destroying entire cities and even in some cases flooding entire countries. All of these climate factors are what contributed to the great collapse in the next century, but for Greenland, it only saw prosperity.

Once most of its ice had melted, Greenland experienced waves of immigration and an explosion of its population numbers. In just two decades it went from around 70 000 people to 50 million. Greenland was also helped by the fact that many minerals and resources were discovered under the ice it became the richest country by far at the end of the century.

Massive cities and infrastructure was built over the island. Nuuk the capital of Greenland became the financial center of the world, an impressive futuristic city with endless skyscrapers. However, not everything was sunshine and rainbows for the people of the island.

While the island nation severed its ties with Denmark, it too followed the wave of anti-democratic developments across the globe and its European style parliament and constitution was suspended.

It turned into the Empire of Greenland, a totalitarian military dictatorship, with the most powerful general becoming the Emperor. It closed it borders and banned all immigration. To implement a new policy of population control, giant walls were erected across the entire island, its citizens not allowed to leave and nobody allowed to come in.

While it may seem silly to create walls around an island, it was more of a symbolic show than for practical use but it did its job. The Empire of Greenland also started a few wars of territorial expansion.

The Russian Federation disintegrated way before the great collapse into small countries controlled by war lords and oligarchs. The Empire of Greenland invaded the territories of the former Russian state and turned enslaved the population there, reviving the old practice of colonialism. This new slave population was brutalized by the army of Greenland and it served to enrich the islanders.

Canada was also subject to invasion and colonization, the American Empire invaded Canada together with Greenland similar to how Poland was carved up and invaded by Nazi Germany and the USSR.

Marcelina and Natalia hope to reach Greenlandic colonial Canada, which still exists and to find a way to be able to reach the island.

As the great collapse saw the annihilation of what was left of the old world, Greenland and its colonial possessions saw no change, in fact, some ran with open arms to become slaves in the colonies to avoid dying of starvation or to the emerging marauders.

All of this information was what Marcelina was able to learn from the books she was able to find or radio broadcasts that still existed across the globe. Some tireless individuals organized and revived the abandoned radio stations and radio towers, they desired to reunite and connect humanity through these stations and broadcasts.

It is how the girls learned the fissure effect is coming, and how they found out about all sorts of things. It may seem like a pointless effort to try and operate these stations, especially with the end approaching but everyone needed a purpose. Everyone needed a goal in these hard times, for the radio operators it was relaying information to the people of Earth, to the Greenlanders it was maintaining their grand empire, for Marcelina and Natalia it was reaching a destination. A somewhat mysterious destination that would offer freedom, riches, and most importantly, a chance at salvation.

Marcelina's soon felt her eyelids closing in on themselves, she had only now realized how tired she was from the driving, she fell asleep with her partner Natalia in the embrace of her arms.