The Western Third – Prologue

The year is 2021.  For the 10th time this decade, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has cut off diplomatic ties with both the United States and South Korea.  The mainstream media has long since stopped caring about the empty threats of North Korea–so much so, that the governments of both countries fail to recognize that this time, there are no such threats issued.  When the bombs detonate, no one is prepared.

In March of 2021, portable nuclear weapons were detonated in 23 locations across the western United States.  Military targets were struck in Northern California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and San Diego.  Major population centers such as San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles each suffered multiple nuclear explosions.  The remaining bombs targeted the infrastructure of the western US:  water treatment plants, coal and nuclear power plants, and major railway lines were decimated.

The explosions immediately killed almost 10 million Americans, and the nuclear fallout claimed countless more lives over the decade since.  Some immediately due to radiation poisoning, others died slowly of radiation-related diseases like cancer.  The explosions also affected the weather of the Southwestern US, plunging most of Southern California, Arizona, and parts of New Mexico into a semi-permanent winter.

The sprawling suburbs of the West Coast were abandoned–residents forced from their homes with no electricity or running water.  Small tent cities, teeming with suburban refugees, were built up in rural areas near sources of clean water.  It was weeks before the government could even begin to send aid to the western third of the US.  And when aid did come, there wasn’t enough.  People were forced to band together to help themselves, and to begin to rebuild their lives.

Corporations immediately saw the devastation of the Western Third as a business opportunity.  The entire west coast needed to be rebuilt.  Commerce and transportation needed to be re-established, and new resources needed to be found.  It was only a matter of months before the first company made itself rich by exploiting the destruction.  Blanchard-Fieldings Corporation found deposits of rare earth minerals worth tens of billions of dollars near the area that used to be the city of Los Angeles.  With no environmental concerns, and no government regulators bothering them, BF-Co began producing more rare earth minerals for cheaper than even countries like China could imagine.

BF-Co even installed its own form of pseudo-government.  As the company rebuilt the infrastructure of the areas surrounding Los Angeles, they needed workers, and the refugees needed work.  People volunteered to work for BF-Co in exchange for goods and services.  Workers were assigned a home, and given access to food, water, and medical care.  They were given rations for non-essential items, too, such as coffee, candy, cigarettes, and in some cases, even alcohol.  Parents who worked for BF-Co could send their children to school with permission from the company.  Indeed, a budding society started to take shape around the BF-Co work sites.

But just as these goods and services were given, they could also be taken away.  Being docked rations was all too common at  sites where workers were not producing well.  The company maintained a delicate balance:  Both reminding workers that they would not survive without BF-Co’s help, but also providing workers with enough compensation that they might overlook their dependence upon the company in favor of their relative comfort.  But like many delicate balances, this one would not last forever.