Wandering the Badlands of New America

The hungry man wandered through the woods with one thought in his mind, where to find his next meal. It had been almost a week since he had wandered upon an abandoned convenience store and found three savory cans of beans. He had decided to cut straight through the woods hoping to come upon a hunting cabin or maybe even an isolated home. As he looked into the sky he saw a solid wall of dark clouds approaching and knew he had to find shelter soon.

John stumbled into the run down shack just as the unrighteous storm caught up to him. The powerful wind slammed the dorm behind him and the light was immediately cut off leaving him alone in a dark box. As he took his third step forward in the dark he caught his foot on a loose board falling face first onto the ground.

As John wearily pulled himself up to his feet his legs almost gave out on him, the hunger he had been feeling was now taking away his physical abilities. After searching the entire shack he scrambled up enough debris to start a fire with his worn zippo lighter. After warming up for a while he started exploring around the shack with a homemade torch. After carefully examining every inch of the small building he came up empty handed and angry with his continuous stream of bad luck. As he headed back to the fire he stubbed his foot on the board he fell over earlier. “Shit!” He yelled in utter hopelessness. He leaned down and ripped the board up in anger and to his surprise the light showed the existence of a basement under the shack, as he ripped out more boards his excitement grew as he could make out the basement halfway full. As he cleared enough boards to fit through the floor and ran back to the fire to grab his homemade torch.

He felt a renewed energy as he lowered himself into the basement, only to fall on his back breaking one of the crates. As he slowly recovered he looked around at tarps covering the entire contents of the basement. He slowly got up and uncovered the first pile to find box after box of spam. It finally looked like John’s luck was taking a turn for the best as he began chowing down on a tin of spam.

After finishing two cans he know he had to stop or his greedy stomach would let the little food he had eaten in a flood of its contents. As he wandered around he found a battery powered lantern hanging from the rafters which still work. John stood there as his eyes adjusted to the new found light and he could now make out the camo tarps that covered the contents of the basement. As he uncovered the next tarp he found four large boxes marked “AR-15”, and next to them were thousands of rounds of ammunition. “My own arsenal!” John chuckled to himself as he pried open a box and admired the brand new looking AR-15 and began to load the first clip.

By the time John was done exploring he discovered he had over a year supply of rations, over ten thousand rounds of ammunition, forty rifles, ten 45 caliber S&W, and hundreds of miscellaneous survival gear. As John sat back on a container of dried milk he deeply inhaled on a Marboro red. “How has my luck changed so much in just a few hours?” he thought to himself. “Maybe God is looking out for me.” He chuckled to himself. As he snuggled up in his newly acquired sleeping bag a feeling he hadn’t felt in a long time fell upon him, hope.

John woke up not knowing what time it was or where he was and was initially in a panic until the night before began to dawn on him. As he counted his blessings John began to remember the events that lead him to the state of almost starving and lost in a forest. As he thought back it seemed like only last week and not nine months ago.

It all began with a slowing of the economy but everyone thought it just needed that jumpstart that America and Europe always had just at the right time. America like always thought the more they got involved in the world the more power they would eventually gain. However they had overstretched there reach like many empires had in the past, at the beginning many compared it to the fall of the Roman Empire. As funds began running out riots spread across the nation like a wildfire. The government decided too late to bring its troops back in a attempt to bring order to bring back order. Gangs began to organize and within three months of the initial riots the government lost its ability to fund its security forces. Many left immediately worried about the safety of their families and the few remaining banded together in an unrighteous abomination of a security force taking whatever they wanted and killing anyone in the path. Thousands died every day from violence and starvation until only small bands of the strong were spread out throughout America creating tribes of their own. Lost souls like John who wandered across the continent trying to eventually get home in the chance of a reunion were many times fallen upon by warring parties of violent individuals who banded together and just by chance John had made it so long.

As John recalled how it all started he began to get ready to go on a little excursion to see the lay of the land. As he geared up he made sure to bring plenty of ammunition and weapons in case he ran into any of the assholes he usually had to hide from. He started by heading to the nearby cliffs he had seen the night before.

Please let me know if anyone is interested in hearing the story go on.