Conflict started far away from home as conflicts always did back then. We were safe and protected, united in the land of the free. Our government had our back, even if we didn't vote them in, even if we didn't agree with their policies. Sure, they were slowly regressing, taking away equal rights, back peddling on environmental protections, dissolving tax credits and access to affordable housing. But we were safe from the barbaric Land War in the middle east, the from the Technology War in the far east. Then the Oil War broke out in the south.

Not long after, the Water War started in the north, though that didn't last long (Canada and Iceland were never known for their fighting spirit.)When whispers of invasion started to circulate, all types of folks were eager to expel pent up energy, misplaced anger, or fulfill a desire to feel important. Some jumped at the chance to enlist. Others waited until called upon. Many of us hid. But we could hide behind our screens anymore, sharing videos and our own social commentary on the atrocities being committed in far away places, sugary drinks in hand, air conditioners blasting. Everything changed.

At first, only those who were able bodied, born with a phallus, and eager for violence were accepted into the forces. Then they rebranded, and any natural citizen was able to enlist to 'fight the fight of our time.' The tens of thousands of people starving in camps for attempted border crossings, visa overstays, and other citizenship crimes be damned: if you weren't born here, you'll just have to die here. We didn't care if you want to integrate, fight for the continuation of our great land, for freedom. Back then, the minutia mattered more than the big picture. Until the war reached broke our borders and all hell broke loose.

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If you ask me, it was worse than hell. And trust me, I've been to hell. I live there now.

War depleted our reserves, devastated our resources, and tore us apart at the seams. A nation once united by our illusion of unity was divided by our differences so dramatically that we were destroyed. The irony of it all: invasion sparked a civil war unlike anything you've read about in history books. There wasn't even time for fractions to form or ration cards to be considered. Within days, retail consumerism ceased to exist, traffic rules and regulations forgotten, common decency replaced with each man for himself. Law and order seemed like a fable. As we watched our homes, loved ones, and the world as we knew it crumble around us, it became impossible to decide which direction to travel in let alone where your allegiances lay. The smart people got out early. Most people surrendered to invaders. The strong-willed fought the enemy, then each other.

Nuclear warfare had been a threat for generations, but once the first big button was slammed, every nation that was holding came to play. We'd laughed at doomsday preppers—even made TV shows mocking them. Now they are respected as elites. Anyone who knew someone with a bunker, food reserve or land beyond an urban center with some sort of reinforced shelter had a chance at surviving. City dwellers with electric cars and cryptocurrency stock turned to dust. Billionaires with urban property investments and private jets became paupers overnight. The mere definition of 'rich' was turned on its head.

Now, we live in the aftermath of their destruction, on one sixth of Earth's formerly-habitable land. Earth's population of living things is less than a third of what is was before the wars.

We are what's left. We are the pathetic people and things of New Pangea, unrecognizable as human life to those of the past. Minutia be damned, we've got bigger things to worry about, so what are we doing here?

—Excerpt from the testimony of Vera Grunewald, Sector IV, New Pangea