TrenchTown

Part. 1

The next world war started on March 12, 2032. After years of economic downfall, the United States finally fell into the third world. Crumbling roads and cities, paired with civil unrest and no money, the United States government finally shut down forever.

Other countries, especially China, viewed this as an opportunity to annex parts of the old United States. China began invading, placing people in work camps, and taking anything of value from states on the West Coast. In a last ditch effort from the former president of a dead nation, nuclear missiles were launched to push back the invader. Seen as an act of war, China retaliated with its own warheads. This caused the United Nations to declare war on China, which resulted in the third world war.

That was the last transmission from the Old World, now there is just static. I’m telling this story from 4 miles below the ocean in a facility where the rich of the Old World live. This facility is built in the wall of Mariana’s Trench. It came to be because a group of billionaires saw the eventual demise of the United States and felt a need to preserve their wealth and lives in the upcoming war. Six years before the first missile hit, construction on the facility began in secret at the bottom of the ocean.

About six months before the end of the world, the billionaires and their families entered. The facility had a capacity of 10,000 people, and to make back some money, room in the facility was auctioned off to the highest bidder. That’s how my family got in. My grandfather bid away most of his fortune. That was 53 years ago. The facility is no longer a gleaming marvel of human engineering, but an overcrowded slum where only a few are safe and the rest are left to fight amongst each other. This is TrenchTown.