Have you ever experienced a moment in your life which shattered your image and interpretation of reality, yourself, or those you considered to be unshakeable?
Maybe it was an unexpected pregnancy, premature family death, annihilating storm, or some other life altering event. Sometimes such an event can be equal parts thrilling and scary as you invite a new life into this uncertain world or face a new challenge which has so much promise and risk accompanying it. Other times, tragedy falls and the life you built and believed to be stable throws you a curve ball as your understanding of mortality and stability is irrevocably altered.
Most everyone who has ever lived for any reasonable length of time, will have already experienced a version of at least one of these incidents, either personally or vicariously through an acquaintance. It is an experience in which we are ripped from our carefully constructed reality and pushed into a position for which we are vastly under-prepared.
Gathering what we can of the upset or shattered remains of our prior life, we limp on to face the new reality or changes in our transformed existence. Sometimes, such changes prove to be our undoing and destruction as we rage impotently against the new truth and fail to stay afloat amidst the chaos. Other times, it is from such events which awaken something new within us, something which might have lain dormant or hidden, even until the day we died from natural causes.
I was currently in the midst of such a catalytic transformation.
In the past 24 hours, I had undergone several life altering events. Like a shallow rooted tree in the midst of a terrifying storm, I was swept up into the chaotic winds and rain while being dashed about to and fro, with little to no control over where I might end up. . .
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To explain further, I need to backtrack quite a bit to account for how all of this started and took place.
My name is Andrew Matterson. I am a 22-year-old college student, focusing on the path of pharmaceutical botany, while actively working as a patient care technician. As some in the know in the medical field, I should be in a hospital based on my job title. Instead, I was stationed in a nursing home on a wandering dementia unit.
How I got there as a PCT rather than a nursing assistant is a different story, possibly for another time.
To continue on, I was a third-generation survivor of World War 3. My grandfather, God rest his soul, had been one of the many scattered survivors of the nuclear fallout and fracturing of society.
Contrary to what you might expect from the almost 50 years which had passed since the conclusion of the war, Earth was no longer the nuclear and radiation filled wasteland that many pre-war movies might have portrayed given the scenario.
Technology and sciences which had stagnated at the start of the war, in favor of researching new and more destructive means of genocide, had experienced a revitalization at its conclusion. Many strange and mysterious happenings, frequently only mentioned in rumored whispers, appeared to have occurred amidst the three and a half years of world-wide destruction.
Of the few more openly spoken changes, the development and proliferation of nanotechnology and AI had leapt forward with the times. Guided by powerful and refined artificial intelligences, those microscopic machines numbering far past the trillions were particularly adept at biological modification and terraforming. Sweeping across the globe, they cleansed and restored countless sites of destruction while giving birth to clean and fertile soil.
Empowered by the nuclear energy which these nanites drew from the land, numerous structures, both residential and essential were rebuilt from the ashes of their predecessors. Enormous cities which had dotted the earth were now being rebuilt in down-scaled versions to accommodate the needs of the much-reduced population and suffering survivors.
Many might have thought that such a miracle would only be possible from the aid of seemingly altruistic aliens as Earth’s technology had never hinted at such capability in all of its history.
Hard bitten survivors, jaded and transformed by the anarchy which arose from amidst the turmoil of war, suspiciously watched on as cities gutted by pillaging and ruined by fire and storm were restored.
Doubt and fear filled their minds as they witnessed this miracle of urban re-growth.
Pessimistically and through terrible lessons, they had long since learned that rarely was anything ever truly free, especially in the midst and aftermath of the war.
Need and desperation, however, can usually soften the hearts and minds of even the most recalcitrant of individuals. This was especially true when it was their loved ones who would continue to suffer were they to not take a leap of hope and faith.
Astonishingly, no loss of natural rights nor sacrifice of livelihood was asked of those who sought refuge within these pristine nano-built cities! All that was required of its growing residents was a fair and consistent effort to contribute to its continued growth and maintenance. . .
A frequently hushed topic occasionally sprouted, regarding where many of the malevolent gang lords and other tyrants which built themselves up amidst the ruin went. Those who sought to continue their tyrannical rule amid these newly built cities tended to disappear or die amid unlucky ‘accidents.’
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Decades later, societies across the globe had recovered and even greatly surpassed the level of disseminated technology and general health of the generations before.
Nano-technology and artificial intelligence were not the only creations to emerge from the ashes. However, they were the primary backbone off of which numerous other discoveries and developments were made.
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Full-emersion virtual-reality was the most prominent of such fruits of development. Education, communication, and especially entertainment had experienced a resurgence with its birth. Many of the behaviors which professors in theology considered regarding human nature and its evolution along-side AI, became a reality.
With the advent of these changes to society and technology, much of the new population had turned to the entertainment sector.
While most had welcomed this new world with open arms after seeing its legitimacy, there still remained a healthy fear among countless residents who continued to distrust this new stability. Many individuals had believed that their society and cities prior to World War III would be unshakable, and that their governments and leaders would continue to maintain the status quo. After being burned multiple times and losing loved ones, property, and safety as it was ripped away from them with careless abandon, they had returned to the ways of their forefathers in building and running homesteads, farms, and living off the land.
A new mind set had been born within all survivors during the first few years of and after the war. Prior to the miraculous global revitalization, those with the best survival ratio had turned to a spirit of self-reliance and industry. Their trust in government had been well and truly extinguished as no help had come. They now adopted the mentality of planning for the future and building a hardier nature in the face and wake of the catastrophe.
Most other individuals and families simply held the singular hope and desire to simply survive another day. They waited in vain for the government and military to come swooping in to save them from their misery. Eventually, most either died or were pulled into smaller groups with varying levels of integrity or lack thereof. Their ends were frequently not pleasant.
Fond memories of the old life became clouded by the harsh new reality even as new ideals and standards of living emerged in their place.
The crippling of governments, banks, insurance, and other monitoring agencies whose carefully maintained records were lost amidst the fallout of the war from subsequent cyber-attacks as well as blanket EMPs as they never truly recovered. This wholesale destruction of electronic records gave way to a level of freedom which the citizens had never before wielded. With the loss of those safety-nets which had become stealthily tight in their embrace over the years, there was nothing left of officialdom holding back those with enough capability, opportunity, and industry to re-forge their own path in this new world.
The transition to new life, however, was far from easy.
In that time of great tribulation, the life which countless young and old minds had grown up in and become fluent with, disappeared. The potent EMP fields resulting from massive use of nuclear weaponry did far more than just reset the boards of financial accountability and property ownership. Nearly all pre-war technology was decimated. The greatest destruction involved the internet, online storages, and anything which utilized microchips and other fine filaments. After fire, water, and other natural disasters damaged the vast majority of surviving discs and other more carefully preserved electronic records, there was still nothing to read them on. The supporting pillars of society had failed and so much experience and knowledge rooted in the prior era had become as dust in the hands of the survivors.
Paper books of which only a small percentage survived the destruction, became a precious commodity. Whether utilized as toilet paper, kindling, or for its contained knowledge, these finds amid the wreckage of the old world were highly sought after. Those works which contained even hints of survival methods amid nature and the rebuilding of industry were treasured even more.
Harsh lessons were learned and countless survivors were lost along the way as their minds struggled to turn to the hard-won knowledge of their ancestors. Many proved incapable of the mental leap and change in character made necessary to survive and thrive in the shifting and chaotic world.
Opportunistic individuals who proclaimed an altruistic nature revealed their true character over time. Stalwart believers in their professed ideals suffered under their care, often to their defilement and death before their flawed integrity was realized.
Escapees and survivors of those tyrants had fled to the outreaching wilds.
It was there that they learned through back-breaking work and retailored ingenuity, the requirements of and workload involved in homesteading and farming. Through great trial and error but with a positive mindset, they learned that it can be a very heavy yet fulfilling endeavor. Unfortunately, it also become a very lonesome and tiring life without an adequate social network and support system.
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Now, with the return of technology and communication, despite the aim of many to remain separate from the larger cities, even they amidst their developing rural homes, were drawn into the lure of affordable and easily available entertainment in the form of full-immersion virtual-reality. There was too much to gain in its many platforms and free education to disdain this opportunity. Following its widespread use, the most difficult thing many participants suffered from, was managing their time in and away from it due to its many distractions.
All of this had been made possible by the studious efforts and creation of the global entity Millennial Enterprises. There were no records, lost or retained of this unassuming business prior to the war. It had sprouted amid the destruction and chaos and gained traction at an unstoppable rate as it aided humanity in its recovery from the disaster.
It brought many new levels of technology to the table, and yet those who oversaw it did not purposely retain a monopoly on its use and replication. It was their primary source and use of nanotechnology, which up to this point had proven impervious to reverse engineering, that rendered any would-be competitors incapable of wrestling away their clientele base. No business minded group or individual was able to replicate those industrious and multifaceted machines in capability. As such, they had to delve into the one field which Millennial Enterprises surprisingly kept their hands away from.
Entertainment. . .
Movie and gaming industries exploded with growth as they piggybacked off the inventions of the global giant ME. Numerous settings, storylines, characters, and ideologies were developed and delved into to fill the void of the loss of much of the pre-war digital media. Technology was not lacking as AI sealed the cracks of incorrect grammar and spelling, as well as many plot holes of ameature writers. It did have limitations as it certainly was not perfectly capable of turning trash into treasure.
However, if there was a good foundation in play, a seemingly insignificant theme or playful idea could become the latest hit sensation!
As a result of these changes, creativity of the mind and world-building skills became the highest valued commodity among the working public.
Many storylines evoking a sense of uniqueness and youthful heroics evolved from this renaissance. Such idealistic imaginings proved very popular among the younger generation. One such trope involving the creation of a down-trodden male or female lead who had to take care of a cherished parent, sibling, spouse, or friend became the ideal point of origin. Frequently this beloved character was ill from an incurable disease or suffered from various uncontrollable external or internal factors which required to sole action of the main character to save them.