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A Chapter by -47-

We the people

of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union,

establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity,

provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare,

and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity

do ordain and establish this Constitution

for the United States of America.

Son, it’s about time you know what happened. You need to know who exactly did this to the world. Well, alright, more like what happened to this country. They won’t teach you this in school anymore, so I’m going to tell you now. And I’m going to warn you. You’re not allowed to tell any other educators what I’ve told you. They thrive off the propaganda they fill your head with. If the whole world knew what happened to the west coast… Honestly, I don’t know what could possibly happen. Not that it means nothing would, or that things would change for the better. I could be arrested for treason and sentenced to death within five minutes of my trial.
America used to be 50 states, 14 territories. After the second World War-sorry. Yes, the entire world was fighting itself. Twice. The second World War left America standing higher than all the other countries. A superpower, if I may say so myself. That country had never lost a war. Ever. Then one day, 2016 rolled around. America never had any real issues with democracy after their Civil War ‘till then. The election was rigged. Every single voted office was already decided in 2015. For some reason, the entire nation was giving the government the benefit of the doubt. Then things started happening.
There was a mass invitation to conferences and conventions that went out to every poverty stricken family on the east coast. The conferences lasted three hours each. The news stations started interrupting broadcasts and presenting breaking news. They killed every single person in those buildings.
Son, they taught you that in school, I know. But they never told you about how it started, did they? The war, I mean. That massacre did. That benefit of the doubt was held by half the citizens. A quarter of them knew something was wrong and the other quarter went straight into hiding. The government went straight into finding every person in the nation that posed a threat, made the country look bad or was trying to overthrow the government. Back during the Civil War, the south wanted to be a separate country. They lost. But in 2017, they did it again. And the government didn’t question it. The south became the Confederacy again. It wasn’t for money, or power or slavery this time. People actually supported it. All the territories did the same. There was just this amazing and terrible day the whole nation tore itself apart. 50 states and 14 territories became 16 countries.
I know what you’re thinking. What about California? What was the terrible tragedy that caused the obliteration of an entire country? That’s where this whole damn story starts.
What you know as California now, is actually what I remember as Idaho, Washington, part of Montana, Oregon and northern California. Here, look at the map on the wall. California was so different back then. It was the place of free spirits and gay people and liberals and art. You could sue anyone for anything. You know about that conflict, correct? California split in two. Northern California combined with all those other states, while the southern part joined the Confederacy. The government was not happy about that move. There was a specific reason for that. California was the perfect place for all the rebels to hide. While California was out there combining states and hiding people, the government was just boiling with this seething fury. They figured if they couldn’t kill all their in the country, they could at least kick them out to help preserve what was left of their superpower reputation. So they kicked out California. Once they received their own border, people fled. The US population went down by a third. California became its own little country. Yet somehow, there was no government. You think now about this. I can see it in your eyes that you can’t help but wonder about the 47. Yes, I’ll get to that..
The states still kept their military bases in California, but changed their statuses, so to say. Since they were no longer in the country, they became “overseas” bases. All the bases in the Confederacy were seized and opened to the public in most cases. The Confederacy changed their currency to Confederate American Dollars. They used the same exact cash as before the Separation. The States and California still used the American Dollar. Pay attention, son, this is important. The Confederacy currency had an equal exchange rate as the States’ American Dollar. The States’ dollar was weaker than California’s by a mile. Californian Dollars were worth $2.75 in the Confederacy and the States. This part is complicated. Since there were military bases in California, the standing governments agreed an exchange rate would be allowed, but since all the currency was the same, all transactions between California and the States had to be completed electronically. The Confederacy was not allowed to exchange with the States. The rivalry was increasing at the time of that decision, but was lifted a year before you were born. The Confederacy exchanged with California on occasion before the Second Debate. Anyways, about the paper money. Every dollar was exactly the same, so it was all contained to each country. All the former territories refused exchange with the three mainland countries. The major flaw with containing paper currency was the military from the States stationed in California. Nobody was able to tell the difference in currencies. The Staple System was created by the States. They punched a single hole in their part of the money. Since they controlled every Convention, they ordered the Confederacy have two staples, and California have three. The military was by far more intelligent than their government. When they wanted to cheat their money’s worth, they punched two extra holes in the bill.s Of course they couldn’t simply just punch holes; they had to smuggle Staple machines to match the States’ regulatory Staples. In all reality, California didn’t mind one bit. All the money was disappearing in the States, and California was magically getting richer.

The United States of America’s superpower from World War Two depleted drastically by 2025. The currency problem caused favoritism towards California. A huge wave of emigrants came from the States to California, most of them members of the military that already lived in California. They still scammed the currency rates. This caused the States to create a new law that prevented all their overseas military families from owning or being in possession of paper money. Paper currency in a military household in California was declared treason. The day before the bill was passed, military families cashed their bank accounts on base bank systems, had them Stapled, and on the day it was passed, deposited the extra dollar seventy five on top of their dollars. The average household $2,500 became $4,375. The States didn’t find out about the military’s scheming for years. When the military figured out the government was completely clueless, they took advantage of it. Family back in the States sent their military counterparts cash in exchange for electronic transactions. Usually they’d ask for fifty cents extra for every dollar the military family paid their family back.
The three countries knew they’d have to remain unified in some sort of way while staying separate. Many of the decisions the States made were based on trade among the countries. Without resources from California and the Confederacy, they’d be doomed. The States invited their neighboring countries to what they called Conventions. The original intention of the First Convention was to keep economies and governments upright. The Convention called for a government official to attend. Many of us saw that requirement as a ludicrous demand, as there was no set government of California. The Confederacy stepped up and sent a representative for California to relay messages.
I know this is one thing they taught you in that damn school. The Convention Codes. You know most of them, son. But there is one thing about the Codes the States doesn’t mention to the world. They’re ashamed in a way to admit the way trade worked out. The Confederacy was helping California in extraordinary ways, starting with the trade. The Confederacy refused any contact with the States outside of the Conventions, to include importing and exporting to the States. The only way anything would work was if California mediated, which was possible since they were on speaking terms with both countries. Mind you, I say speaking terms very light and generally; the States still had a blood thirsty view against California, but was in such a position, they couldn’t cut ties with everyone. This infuriated the States, as it gave the country of outcasts with no real government a kind of power over both countries.
It was a risky move on the Confederacy’s part, but each country had leverage over the others. The Confederacy gave the little country power, so it would be wrong for California to turn on them. California had control over the water supply through the aqueducts to the west coast of the Confederacy and still had the trade mediation.
The water supply of California has always been simple. The northern half of the state had all the water and the southern part needed it. The aqueducts ran all the way down the state to keep Los Angeles alive. After the Separation, the California Aqueduct was shut down temporarily to sort out the needs and uses of that aqueduct. The Confederacy had San Diego and Los Angeles to keep alive, and California owed them for the help they’d been providing. The aqueduct was stopped at the Mason-Dixon Line and split into two different rivers. One veered east, then north back into a reservoir in California, and the other continued south into the Confederacy.
In 2023, the States became frustrated with their overseas military in California. The currency schemes cost the government quadrillions and caused the currency to drop to around seventy five cents. The Confederate Dollar was stronger than the American Dollar at that point. The States lashed out at their military bases in the Midwest. Those bases in particular are very important to the whole outcome of this world still to this day because of what they held. Yes, the bombs. The nuclear weapons. Back before 2016, Russia and America exchanged inspections on each other’s nuclear arms. President Reagan sorted the whole thing out before I was born, made things seem safe so the countries didn’t blow each other into oblivion. They went to those bases the most to make sure nothing was out of order. One day, while the military was being not only reprimanded, but completely punished, the systems to half the nuclear arms from those bases were overrode. Every one of those missiles was pointed at Russia. One was fired. The missile wasn’t projected correctly and landed in Kyoto, Japan. In response, Russia struck a deal with Japan and launched one into what used to be Boston. The States plummeted into submission for a period of time. The Confederacy helped the State military in the Midwest disaffiliate themselves from their government. California took control of half the nuclear weapons and absorbed Wyoming.
The States sat in dead silence for years. By 2026, nobody questioned the silent neighbor country; the States were just rightfully suffering the wrath that was lashed back at them. Nobody knew that the States had been gathering and training a new army. During that second World War I told you about, an insane man brainwashed nearly an entire youth population to join his army. The States appeared to model that idea and produced a whole new army. They had a blind fury directed straight at California. They attacked in 2028. The army had a tactic that was actually smart for a change. Soldiers would travel to California and looked like Statesiders vacationing on the west beaches of the continent. We knew there was a bigger tourist population out of nowhere, but we had no idea what was to come.
Every soldier sent to California had a three kilo package of a cyanide-opium mix. Most of them were concentrated in the northern area of the original California, near the Bay Area and the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta. That May, the packages were emptied into flowing bodies of water that supplied the California Aqueduct. People were dying left and right, the hospitals became useless and nobody knew why the sick weren’t recovering. Eventually, California’s equivalent to the FDA discovered the contamination in the water. Every supply was cut off and there was an order to desalinate as much of the Pacific coastline as possible. After the runs on bottled water, households had bonfires on the beaches and boiled vats of the ocean at a time for drinking and other such commodities provided by water. People near the mountains found hope in the snow. Eventually, desalination plants started to pop up and the Confederacy started sending fresh water. The Confederacy and California struck a deal to solve the contamination. A giant dam was put in the fork of the California Aqueduct on the border. It was massive. The water that flowed to it was diverted to the east, into a tunnel system. Half the water was diverted back to California, used as energy and then was filtered completely clean. The same process went for the Confederacy’s half of the water. The whole Eastern Border of California and Northern Border of the Confederacy became a wall. There was a gigantic border that stretched along the countries to keep every aspect of the States out or contained in California. All Statesiders were imprisoned in Camp Pendleton, the Southern Californian Sector, Confederate States of North America. The border consisted of a trench thirty feet deep and forty feet across on either side of the wall. The wall was a quarter mile thick, made of stone, brick, cement, iron, steel, titanium alloy and razor wire. The former State military bases provided extra protection. There was never a real war among the countries, but the prisoners died in their jail cells.
This was the beginning. I remember having watched television shows about how improved the living situations in the States were. Their economy improved, their housing market came back, their democracy fell and Mitchell rose to power. Propaganda posters and advertisements were smuggled into California. TV stations immediately shut down as soon as an ad glorifying the States was aired. The new government made the States seem so much better. Everybody was having fun and laughing and making their way through life with a decent living. We could all relate to the stereotypical nineteen fifties family. Everybody in the Confederacy knew this was a sick joke on the Californians. But the propaganda worked.
There were stations for immigrants on the States’ side of the border. Californians were allowed to file their paperwork, receive their visas and start a new life. Everybody wanted to relate back to the original American dream, the one of foreigners coming to the new world on boats to become what ever they wanted to become. The few naïve that fell for the manipulation were allowed their paperwork, and then were gunned down on their way out. By using that tactic, the new government was able to slowly start infiltrating California again. The massacres of 2039 began.