Chapter Text
The mighty United States withstood the test of time for hundreds of years. Hostility and violence targeting citizens of the melting-pot nation caused uproar time and time again. Wars, both external and internal, have threatened its stability. Clumsy leaders and broken governmental systems have caused fathers and sons to stand divided in politics.
Still, the United States persevered. Thrived. Flourished. It became one of the most powerful and influential nations in the world, bested only by Switzerland and Japan. In the year 2010, the US was doing better than ever. The miliary was a force to be reckoned with. The economy was booming. Children were proudly stating their allegiance to the glorious red, white, and blue flag every morning in schools. Tears were shed at sporting events as "The Star-Spangled Banner" boomed from every mouth in the arena. The Fourth of July surpassed both Christmas and Valentine's Day as the biggest commercial holiday of the year.
Nothing was going to bring the United States down. There was simply too much patriotism.
(But of course, something did bring it down. Otherwise this wouldn't be an interesting story.)
Martin C. Weller, 44th President of the United States, was a very, very good liar.
For starters, he was actually the 104th President.
When the Allied powers (United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and China) finally won the bloody struggle against the Axis powers in 1945, WWII officially came to an end. People were dancing and celebrating in the streets. From the perspective of the American public, things were looking up for the beaten-down nation!
From the perspective of the government, however, things were absolutely abysmal. President Robert Campbell severely underestimated just how much money the United States had dumped into the war and was horrified to learn that the nation was in deep debt. Not only that, but the casualties as a result of the war virtually left the US without a military. Campbell feared that the enemy would hear of America's lousy state and would swoop in like vultures to finish them off; so, he did what any great leader would do:
He ignored the problem and hoped it would go away on its own!
Rather than rallying the American people to fix the nation's debt, President Campbell encouraged them to celebrate and enjoy life now that the war was over. Women were fired from their factory jobs as their husbands returned and were pushed back into the home. Efforts to refocus factory production from military supplies back to consumable products drained whatever money was left from the reserves. The Baby Boom of the 50's filled the nation to capacity and then some. Still, Campbell did nothing and instead spent his free time drinking rum and cokes with his golfing buddies in the Oval Office.
The Presidential cabinet could ignore the problem no longer. One April morning, two years into Cambell’s term, an uprising broke out in the White House. Campbell died accidentally after tripping down a flight of stairs while arguing with his secretary. Mary Beuford, the secretary, was immediately sworn in to keep the peace in the White House.
The new president realized that it would be quite tricky to explain to the American people why their old leader was dead. That would mean telling the truth about EVERYTHING: the debt, the overflowing population, the uprising in the White House…
So, she lied.
Whenever Campbell was expected to appear before the public, Beuford would say that she was appearing on his behalf because he was suffering from a long-term illness. Shockingly, not one person questioned this, and the secretary-turned-president was able to keep up this charade until she was murdered three months later by a jealous senator who wanted power. This tumultuous pattern continued for years.
Obviously, the constant rotation of political figures acting as “stand-ins” began to worry the American public. A few political groups outside of the government raised eyebrows about what was happening behind the scenes, but they rapidly disappeared and were never seen again.
People learned to not say anything.
The government has evolved into a weird pseudo-democracy that no one really understands anymore. Elections are just sort of glossed over. Martin C. Weller, former vice president, has stepped into the presidential role after the former leader disappeared under mysterious circumstances. He is adamant that he is the 44th president. The American public has no idea that he’s actually the 104th. He lies about the state of the economy (terrible) and the strength of the military (non-existent).
President Weller has many qualities that make him a strong leader; unfortunately, compassion is not one of them. As soon as he reached the Oval Office, he began to develop a plan to fix the mess of the overpopulated and struggling States:
...simply purge a few million people. It couldn’t hurt, right?
Weller ordered for the country’s top scientists to be flown out overnight to Washington, D.C. for an emergency conference. It was at this conference that the plan for Operation Resurrection was set into motion.
The plan was simple; a deadly virus would be created and released into some of the more overpopulated portions of the country. This virus would kill anyone unfortunate enough to be exposed to it in a “quick-but-painless” manner. After a sufficient number of innocent American citizens died to balance out the carrying capacity of the US, the virus would be eradicated via an anti-pathogen cocktail that would be released around the country. Simple, easy, efficient.
Weller, being the puffed-up peacock that he was, boasted that he would ‘resurrect’ the United States and bring it back to its former glory.
He neglected to consider the fact that creating deadly viruses from scratch took quite a bit of time. As the population count continued to soar and the economy continued to plummet, Weller grew more and more impatient. After flying into a drunken rage one night, Weller ordered for the virus to be released into major cities; New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and many others, despite the scientists’ pleading for more time to ensure that the virus wouldn’t spread out of control.
The virus was dropped that night by planes that sprayed a mysterious liquid as they flew by. It had been in development for only two months.