The Great Collapse

The names Estella, Estella Bowllen. The year is 2031, I’ve just turned 18. There’s nothing left anymore. I say nothing is left, what I mean is that society has crumbled. We’re all on our own. I was born in 2013, 8 years before the great collapse in 2021. I have a slight recollection of what life was once like. Back before the viruses and protests. Before the silencings and the bans. I remember how things once were before the stripping of our rights. Those things are long out of reach, and slowly fading from memory. With each passing day, I wake up hoping today isn’t the last. Things are different, we fight for survival. Well, unless you’re one of the few “privileged” families. They fight for nothing, they still live a life of luxury. I’m what they would call a rougher. I live in a village outside of what was once Oklahoma City. My village is named after Lafwa (Faith in Haitian-Creole). Some people claim it’s because this is where the collapse began, and that it was supposed to be a hopeful symbol for a reborn America. Funny how some people hang onto what once was. The idea of life before now. Lafwa, faith. Whatever you call it. It doesn’t exist anymore. Let me catch you up to speed on how things are now. First, you have the roughers. Which I’m part of, we are what was once considered a prepper. We live in small villages, and grow our own food. There are several other villages dispersed through out Old Oklahoma that specifically grow or produce certain things. We trade with these other villages in order to stay alive. We don’t have life the greatest, but it’s better than the ones we call the roamers and The Damned. The Roamers are the ones that could be associated to what Gypsies were. Except these guys don’t have anything. They roam from Village to Village with nothing to offer looking for a hand out. Occasionally you’ll have one do odd jobs for some scraps of food. The Damned ones, these are the ones that really should be watched. They are ruthless and love to cause mayhem. One would describe them as what was called Vikings. Thankfully we don’t get many Damned Ones around here. Those inhabit the West Coast. From time to time when they migrate to the East Coast they stop through. They don’t leave much damage behind, and usually cooperate well with the locals. You also have your variety of others that have no names, belong to no group. They are the ones that we call the Lost. They don’t fit in with any particular group, yet they don’t fit in with their “classification.” They are just warm bodies. We have no medical, well I say no medical. We have what used to be referred to as Alternative Medicine, Holistic Medicine, Naturopathic Medicine. We don’t have the technology that was used in the old days. We have nature. There is no more electricity, there for there is no tv, no phones. No computers or social media’s. From what I’ve been told that is a blessing in disguise. If you ask some of the elders, they would say the Great Collapse was Mother Nature returning us to our roots. We got too comfortable in our time, too spoiled and too privileged. So as punishment, Mother Nature sent us back to where we first began. Better times I’ve been told. Before television and corruption, before the propaganda and the brainwashing. Before neighbors and friends turned against each other. Welcome to the New World, this isn’t the New World Order that some were hoping for. In fact, this is actually the complete opposite of what the New World was supposed to be. So begins my story, our story.