A hundred years ago in the year 3015, an asteroid hit the earth. It was a couple meters bigger than the chicxulub impactor.
It hit North America, wiping out 50% of the country's population. The strongest country in the world was massively weakened on a scale that was unprecedented.
The country's economy fell and the government couldn't handle the loss as the presidential villa took the brunt of the attack. The president, vice president and all members of houses were killed in the attack.
The streets were littered with remnants of shattered glass, the smell of burning flesh and rubber. There were humans with missing body parts scattered everywhere. Those who weren't directly hit wandered aimelessly, eyes wide with disbelief.
Hospitals were stretched thin, news reports blaring froom every screen, but no one knew what to believe anymore.
The entire state was wiped out along with others. It seemed as though the attack was aimed at the villa but Nasa had already ruled it an oversight on their part. They simply didn't see an asteroid of that size coming.
Bull.
Most of the world's population found it strange but the president who assumed office didn't. He was the secretary of defense at the time and had a different idea of what the ideal nation looked like.
Mark wanted to merge the remaining states and form some sort of Utopia, ignoring the possibility that there was something bigger at play. His haphazardly conceived advisers thought it stupid.
"We are a democracy." One said.
"That democracy might be the reason we're here today." He countered and gasps were heard.
"Don't tell me you're a part of the rubbish who believe this was a planned attack!" One countered.
"I never said that." Mark shrugged as he got up. He was to address his new people in five minutes.
"The president of America cannot endorse a conspiracy theory." Another said.
"I never said that." Mark said, "the democracy we all knew and I'm sure we can all admit: was a failure. We have a chance to redo this!" He said with gleeful eyes.
Ah there it was. The greed that ate every president America ever had.
"And what is your plan, Reynolds?" Reynolds cleared his throat.
"A new America." He said as he walked out of the blue room.
"America is now weak." Mark Reynolds said. He was a retired general of the Navy and rose through the ranks. He was only newly appointed as the minister of defense and was on vacation when the asteroid hit.
Of the 52 states, 20 were affected with the west taking a majority of the hit. The capital in the state of California was no more and the citizens watched their televisions eagerly with teary eyes. Someone had or knew someone that had lost someone. The nation had not suffered such a loss in centuries.
"I know you all are scared and afraid but I want us all to remember that though injured, we are still the most powerful nation in the world."
"We will unite the remaining 22 states as one Utopia." His words sent the already frenzied nation into further frenzy.
Kent's grandmother, Eliza, described the chaos as utter madness.
"I have never witnessed war but it had to be worse than war." She said as she brushed Kent's long tresses. His mother loved his hair and had refused to cut it since he was a baby.
"We were hungry. Mothers were killing their children to feed and the bizarre part was, that was the lesser evil of the kind of things that happened."
"We really had no idea how much the rest of world hated us until we were bare. Literally stripped naked." She said as she poured some of her tea.
"It was a curse to be American. I never saw my father cry until the war." She chuckled, "he wouldn't believe in a million years that this would be what we were reduced to."
Kent never met his maternal great grandfather but his grandmother spoke incredibly highly of him.
His grandmother never talked about the war, said it was too painful. The only reason she was telling Kent now was because she promised to tell him if he stopped crying. She had a soft spot for little Kent. He was eight.
Everything Kent knew about the end of the world 100 years ago, he knew from his mother's mother. Eliza Peckle was a phenomenal woman. Because of his grandmother, Kent truly believed women were ethereal.
Mark Reynolds ate his words not long after. He was killed during his second speech as new supreme ruler of the Americas. Eliza especially hated that name. They were a democratic nation.
She was 16 and had just nearly gotten killed. Eliza was a student of California state and had returned home to Washington.
She only came home because her mother had been diagnosed with stage four cancer and had three months to live. Despite her complicated relationship with her mother, she didn't want her dead.
She took a gap year without a second thought and drove home to be with her mom. Two weeks after she arrived home the ground would shake in a way millions will never forget.
She sat at the tv as she watched their supereme rulers head burst open. She in turn bursted out laughing.
"Serves him right." Eliza muttered, her mouth curling into a deceptive grin. The image of the exploded head of Mark Reynolds was on the screen and she stared wide eyed wanting to savor the moment. She didn't care that it was human life– he was a symbol of everything wrong. Everyone seemed to have moved on but not her, she was still there, stuck in the ruins of the collision.
"Elizabeth!" Her sickly mother cautioned her.
Her mother died three months after her diagnosis. What made things worse was that a new dictator had emerged. America was a joke.
The new dictator died, three more men assumed power. All shot through the head.
America was left destitute for 50 years, taking away everything Eliza knew. The regression was humiliating. They didn't deserve this.
Her fathers final words haunted her: "we didn't deserve this." It stung. But what hurt more was how the world moved on, as if nothing had happened. As if their pain was just another casualty of war.
Eliza was now an orphan. Lonely, she decided to try in vitro fertilization on a whim and it was successful.
At 66, she gave birth to Kent's mother, Liana. The war was over but the aftermath spiraled into both Liana and Kent's life. While a life with less was all Liana and her grandchildren knew, it was one of Eliza's many pains that they never saw America as a complete and powerful nation.