World War

"How can you watch this stuff?" Jeremy asked as he through the options on the TV.

"What do you mean?" replied Nekane as she finished up making the popcorn in her kitchen.

"All these news programs. Look: your favorites are full of them. Don't you ever watch anything fun?"

"Only with you cutie", Nekane said as she plopped down beside him. She made sure there was plenty of overlap of their bodies.

"What? You don't watch the news?"

"Well sure. I'll watch MW-01 and what not, but nothing like this. Look: you have hundreds here. You even have news for the other Metros and these random rural stations."

"The moon? How does the moon even have enough news for a channel? There's like 20 people who live there! And do you even speak Chrii? This is some pretty obscure stuff miss."

"Oh hush, you'll find it interesting when you mature" she winked at him and snuggled a little closer as they both reached for some popcorn.

But Nekane knew she was an outlier. No one else regardless of maturity kept up with the news as much as she did. Most people cared about their sphere of influence, and that rarely extended beyond the Metro. Nekane however, absorbed news almost nonstop. All the Metros, the rural stations, the moon, and yes, even the obscure language news. It was helpful for her job, but her thirst for knowledge meant she would have done it anyway.

Jeremy had stopped scrolling through the movie options and watched the news in the corner of the screen. It was a Metro-West channel reporting about a local building that had been bombed. Of course the cause was a feud between two local factions. The damage was on the edge of the city, nothing that should have normally even crossed Jeremey's mind. But he sat still as his eyes glazed over a bit.

"That faction, the blue one. They have a chapter at my university. I wonder if anyone I know was there."

Nekane put her head on his chest and heard his heartbeat. It wasn't accelerated and offered a warm steady rhythm. Jeremy snapped out of his daze.

"What a weird world we live in. You ever wonder how it got this way?"

Nekane snapped up. She grabbed a pillow and jumped on top of Jeremy as he slid out of his sitting position.

"You dork!", she said as she hit his head playfully with the pillow. WHUMP

"Maybe if you spent more time watching the news.." WHUMP

"And paying attention in history class.." WHUMP

"You would know why the world is like this!" WHUMP

She could see his smiling face in-between pillow hits and feel his body grow with excitement beneath her. She rolled off and reclined next to him as he readjusted to a more dignified position.

"You dork." she said "we know why the world is like this. Have you never heard of the World War?"

"Well sure, but what made that one any different than the ones before it?"

"Everything! Everything was different! Do you know why there's no number after it? Every other World War had a number after it, but this one doesn't. Why do you think that is?"

"Well because... I don't know actually. I never really thought about it."

Nekane rolled her eyes as she put her hand on his chest.

"You're lucky your cute you know?" she joked with him. "All the other wars in history have been named after they ended. The winner usually names them. The World War was never annotated with a number because it never really ended. The war outlasted its participants. This is what a world looks like when no one wins."

Nekane was right. A war where no one wins became a world with no global authority. The War had begun like the many World Wars before it; countries picked sides and drew territories and sent delegations and had skirmishes and people died and speeches were made and enemies demonized. But for some reason, this war went on longer than others before. 4 years past, then 8. 12 years in and no one seemed to have the upper hand. As soon as one side gained an advantage, the other side stumbled upon some technological advance, or the weather pummeled their opponents, or supply chains were disrupted and the tides turned.

Citizens grew wary as their governments spent more and more resources to maintain the war effort and less for maintaining the wellbeing of the rest of the state. Eventually some soldiers realized that the equipment their countries has provided them with could be sold or used to better care for their families than blindly following orders. Entire companies of soldiers defected, gathered their loved ones and set up compounds. The governments couldn't waste resources hunting down and fighting these defectors, but this only led to it being more and more common.

It took less than a year for the concept of a country to be obsolete. It happened little by little and then all at once. More and more defections happened. The governments were less likely to trust their soldiers, which led to the soldiers being more likely to defect. It was a vicious cycle. And then there was a point where even the most loyal citizens realized the country government no longer had the power to protect or serve them. There was a race to align with one of the now many factions littering the country side. There was a mass exodus from the cities as gangs and warlords fought and carved out their territory. Eventually the population of the world gathered into 5 massive cities, the Metros. They were city-states who had little power outside of their borders except what they negotiated with the rural areas of the world. They held power too, and most importantly, they had the source of food.

There was no recognition that the war ended because it really didn't. It would be right to say there was peace now. But it would be right to say there wasn't either. There were wars and skirmishes and battles, but not like before. No one faction was strong enough to hold absolute power, even in the cities.

Nekane moved the empty popcorn bowl out of the way and cuddled up close to Jeremy, rubbing her body into his where he couldn't help but notice.