False World War

After 2070, geopolitical tensions escalated. The Earth had more than 10 billion inhabitants and access to drinking water was no longer guaranteed. Global warming accelerated the melting of sea ice, leading to the disappearance under water of many well-known coastal cities and a group of oceanic islands.

Rich countries such as the United States or China adapted easily, making the necessary investments to protect key coastal cities such as New York or Shanghai. Poorer states have had to relocate part of their population inland, suffering a net loss of territory.

Oil, water, precious metals or gemstones: as the world continued to drain fossil energies, their market value continued to skyrocket. Naturally, conflicts became more and more frequent.

In 2084, the Third World War was about to break out.

On May 14 of that same year, a terrible war did indeed break out, but it was far from what it should have been.

To sum it up in one sentence: Every major city was annihilated in a single day. Moscow, Tokyo, Paris, Washington, London; the names of every capital city one could think of had been erased from the face of the Earth. No explanation was given. No adventurous war reporter crossed the military cordon that cut off civilian access to these areas.

Many people had testified to seeing dazzling nuclear mushrooms blooming in most of these cities. However, many incongruities had quickly manifested themselves through millions of strange testimonies.

No government could completely silence the voice of its people.

The first anomaly was that all contact - whether by telephone or the Internet - had been cut off a few days before the nuclear missiles were fired. Some family members, friends and lovers who made a phone call to people living or working in these big cities had simply heard a loud static noise before hanging up without being able to intervene.

After communications were lost, no one came back. Even these days, the governments had not yet given a satisfying justification to the victims' relatives. Add to this the weird evidences via photos or phone videos of psychedelic rainbow light coming from these places, or the few pictures of uncanny airships.

People didn't need more to speculate and go with a theory of their own.

The terrorist or Third World War theories were, in fact, the less popular. The dominant one was the alien invasion. Not on account of the rare peculiar ship pictures or government silence, but because an Earth Government saw the light of day soon after.

If someone once had in their life any interest in history or politic, they then probably know that even if there was a clear loser from either side, negotiations should have taken a long time. Months if not years before agreeing for a consensus. Especially in the theoretical case of a Third World War in which many countries would be involved.

However, it happened. The Earth Government or United Earth Government. Created in barely four days, every religion and power speaking out from the same voice.

Understandably, this new Earth Government couldn't give no response at all either. They chose a rarely seen solution in politic: temporize. Two years after the 'False Third World War', as it was called now, the stabilized government made an announcement to pacify the mobs. It was rebroadcasted so many times that Jake could recite it by heart, in spite of his young age back then.

What happened on the 14th May is so unprecedented that it can't be resumed in a few words. Regrettably, we can't tell you the truth of what happened right now. We are investigating at the present time, and the bit that we know is so tremendous that most people wouldn't be ready for this.
In the years to come, the way we live will change, but you will put up with this. You will adapt effortlessly compared to what is to come. The day of no return will be two decades in the future. In about twenty years from now, something will happen on a very particular day. Even we can't say when it will happen exactly, we could be off from a few months to several years.

After the False Third War, when all the notorious and big cities were bombed, there had been a genuine shortage of space and manpower. More than half of every country's population had lived in these towns and capitals.

Areas within tens of kilometers radius around these places became wastelands. The inland, usually less populated and normally reserved for agriculture or pasture, became the new metropolis. Capitals and other famous cities were rebuilt, taking, for the most part, their old name with a slight nuance to flag-up the transition to the new era.

Like Paris was resuscitated as New Paris. It was built right in the center of France, a place with originally nothing but cows. Needless to say, it took up a lot of space. Far too much in fact. That meant less arable lands.

Thus, food abundance came to an end.

The 'good news' was that depending on the concerned countries the population was halved.

It should have been fine. Less space, fewer people, the winning combo. The reality was a bit different.

With fear, people copulated like rabbits. In twenty years, the average couple churned out three to four babies, sometimes five or more. Welfare was quite generous at first for those that lost a close relative or friend, sometimes even losing their job. The false sensation of safety during the beginning of the nuclear winter made panicked people even crazier.

Demography got right back to the numbers before the False World War, but food production didn't increase as fast. As a result, all food-related stuff naturally saw its prices rising sharply.

For those that couldn't afford them, vegan powder blends became their new best friend. In a desire of not discarding eating pleasure, insects were also part of these 'Happy-Meal' ingredients for all those that couldn't suppress their carnivorous instincts.

Junk drinks and food were still affordable, though...