Indivisible

      “Thank you, Vanessa,” said Clyde Brackenbaum from the anchor chair, hollow brown eyes filled with two white dots coming from the studio lights behind the camera. He did that turn all anchors do; that gentle spin when you duck your head to the side just a touch and bring up the left arm, letting the right palm slide across the polished wooden table with grace. There was nothing gracious about this man at a first glance, but what he lacked in beauty, he made up for in charisma.

           “Now, this just in, we’re receiving a breaking news report from Santa Fe, New Mexico,” said Clyde, cheesy white teeth freshly flossed under his lips greased lip balm. “Brace yourselves, America. Our continent is finally splitting apart. Here’s Grace Welch with the report.”

           The camera cut from the relaxed image of Clyde to the uncomfortable picture of Grace with her hair frizzy from the wind. Her seat in the helicopter gave the camera a splendid view of both her and the county thousands of feet below them. She smiled and cleared her throat before speaking.

           “Thanks, Clyde,” said Grace into her headset, with a paper-thin voice that was hard enough to hear without the feedback of the pounding helicopter blades. “We’re floating a good height above Santa Fe right now, watching the Divide happen right before our eyes. You can see below us, the drift is now almost complete, the actual earth splitting our nation into two pieces.”

           The nation was certainly splitting. The camera view switched from that of Grace’s cameraman to the one attached to the bottom of the helicopter. Sure enough, there it was; the Divide, as it was being called. Cleft down the middle of the good-ol’-US-of-A was a deep gash in the earth, like those long incisions surgeons make for open-heart surgery. Water from the Pacific was already seeping through the middle, flooding the channel as the continent continued to split gently like pulling each end of a piece of warm taffy.

           “Having already broken apart from Mexico, as well as dividing New Mexico into two pieces, The Divide heads up to Colorado, destroying what used to be the Rio Grande Rift, then takes a sharp right, coming up through the top left corner of Nebraska, severing South Dakota in two and shaving the very most corner of Minnesota with it. The Divide will end up in Winnepeg, splitting Manitoba’s largest city almost in half. In only a couple of hours, the entirety of the US will become two separate continents, but still united under one branch of government.”

           “How is it over there, Grace?” Clyde asked offscreen. You didn’t have to see him to know that he was smiling.

           “Oh, it is sweltering here, Clyde,” said Grace, flapping the front of her blouse. She blinked furiously as beads of sweat rolled from her forehead. “The temperature is definitely in the one-hundred range here and it’s only March. Sources tell us that this summer will be the hottest we’ve seen yet. But the air up here isn’t as bad as it is below.”

           “Well, we all will pray for rain when you come back!” said Clyde. Grace laughed without sincerity, disgusted by the pit stains seeping through her shirt.

           “Thanks. The Divide still proceeds to split at an impressive rate. Only time will tell when it’s over. More updates to come. Back to you, Clyde.”

           “Thank you for the update, Grace,” said Clyde, the camera returning to his spray-tanned cheeks. “As the crisis of continental drift arose two years ago, the Federal Relocation and Housing Association was founded, now successfully relocating over seven hundred million families. Our gratitude goes out to the men and women who have reached out to those in need with their helping hands. Now, let’s hear from Dave Manbera about the big game this season and how the Divide might affect your Super Bowl party. Dave?”

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           The Divide split the United States of America in 2042. It’d be useless saying that anyone saw it coming because who really did before it was too late? It seems like the world took a turn for the worst when 2020 rolled around. Sure, it was a rough year for everyone, but the moment we started saying “2021 will be better than this year”, shit started to hit the fan. It’s hard to say where it all started, but there were certainly a lot of factors in what lead to the Divide. Everyone has their own narrow opinion as to what caused it.

           Racial injustice brought the Divide upon us! Sure, this could be argued. After the George Floyd incident back in 2020, after the protests and the riots, and after the election, the fighting didn’t stop. More innocent black people were slaughtered by cops and white supremacists, leading to more violence, renewing the cycle once more. It all culminated in a large three-day riot that came to be known as Black Wednesday, not only because of the fight against the injustice brought to our dark-skinned brethren but because the air was heavy with lead emitted from the guns fired that day. There was so much lead that the sky started turning gray as if a storm had rolled in threatening to rain bullets. It stuck to our skin, in our eyes, and into our clothes. Cop and anarchist fired at each other like the Constitution didn’t exist. A body count of almost six thousand was tallied after the small war came to its dramatic conclusion. Nonetheless, the people won and white supremacy started to recede as the phrase “We Bled Lead” became a symbol of black empowerment to remind us of the victory. No one who fought that day is a saint, but that’s definitely one of the only times we can say violence -kind of- solved the problem. So, racial injustice led to the riots, riots lead to battle, the battle led to bullets, which led to lead, which polluted our air. So, sure. Racial injustice brought the Divide upon us.

           The President brought the Divide upon us! The President could also be argued for causing the Divide. After a long argument with his cabinet about expanding the country due to overpopulation, our nation’s leader decided it was high time to destroy our entire ecosystem, pillaging our forests and farmlands for industrial benefit. Housing projects replaced long green plains studded with trees, new cities being erected in valleys and mountain ranges. You’d be surprised at how well some of these cities actually turned out, but the cost was too great. The waste ended up everywhere, overflowing into the ocean and what remained of the natural landscapes. Street corners and city outskirts overflowed with dumpster loads of trash and plastics. By our president’s decree, every city was given permission to erect massive dumps almost as large as the cities they belonged to, allowing us to throw our trash there and forget about it. Forget, we did not. The emissions and backup from the rotting piles became existential, radiating into our air and polluting the waters and lands surrounding them. Agriculture became scarce, farm animals almost extinct by 2035. Food scientists cranked out a few food alternatives, some of which succeeded there for a while, but like always, it was never enough for the people or it didn’t last. Most of the time, it was both. So yes, you could say that the President’s issuing of further urbanization ruined our nation’s landscapes with deforestation and the abundance of garbage coming from the dumps continuing to pollute the surrounding environments, ultimately speeding up global warming to where continental drift needed its own speed limit, definitely could have advanced the progression of the Divide.

           The wrath of God brought the Divide upon us! This could also be true, yes. Perhaps, if there is a God -not that there’s doubt- he found our behavior and treatment of one another appalling and decided to give us a good old-fashioned lesson by splitting up our nation; quite literally. That’ll show them he’d think as he snapped his fingers and watched the continent break apart inch by inch. Maybe he was tired of seeing us beat around the bush and finally decided a split in the nation could eventually kill us off, issuing in a new phase of humanity that possibly held more promise. So, sure, the wrath of God certainly could have brought upon the Divide.

           In truth, it’s a culmination of everything. The hatred, the lead, the urbanization, and probably even God. All of this going on and the Earth said Fuck it. That’s enough. Though it doesn’t seem like much, the division of our nation certainly changed things. By the time 2040 rolled around, it was already too late to do anything about it. The Divide was coming and scientists didn’t know how to stop it. There is no stopping it; it’s the Earth. Mother Nature doesn’t give a fuck about the human race and will throw anything at us to be at peace again, peace being a world without us. So, doing what humans do, we fell into a panic, worried that it would bring upon “the end of the world”. It certainly felt like it with all of the unrest. That’s when the FRHA rolled in.

           The Federal Relocation and Housing Association was founded in early 2040, putting all the nation’s attention to the Divide and their plan to work around it. Their idea was to relocate all families that sat on either side of the Divide, knowing where it would arrive through seismic surveys, sonar readings, all that shit. Finding that it branched from the Rio Grande Rift was a huge advantage for us, but there was still the issue of time. Two years, the prediction that was eventually correct, was the amount of time we had before the country split. That’s a considerably small window, but surprisingly quick to the punch, the FRHA helped build even more cities and towns for those situated on the Divide to relocate to. There’s never been a bigger example of collaboration between all sorts of Americans in the entirety of world history like that of the build-up to the Divide. People flooded into Sante Fe, Denver, Lincoln, Pierre, Bismark, and St. Paul, the capitols of the states that’d later be referred to as “the Divided”. With a lot of manpower came lots of new buildings and new capitals as the old cities were left behind. The Divided states were either left abandoned or reinvented themselves; North and South Dakota, what remained of them on the western side, just became Dakota, the remaining piece on the eastern side absorbing into Minnesota. Nebraska had some choice words about that but ultimately lost the bidding war over the land.

           The Divide came and went rather smooth, actually. The ground shook and everyone around the world watched from their televisions or laptops as the remnants of abandoned cities and highways sank deep into the newest passage for the Pacific Ocean. It actually happened: the nation “indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” had finally divided. The people of the US, even those who had to relocate, didn’t throw too much of a tantrum, the drama eventually dying down for a while there. It wasn’t until questions about proper governmental systems surfaced when people started to panic again.

           Being that our nation was split into two factions due to pollution by our hands, the people started to question whether keeping our current governmental system was the right call. It seemed like the head honcho in the White House was calling the shots and they certainly weren’t the right ones; look where they got us so far. So, seeing the need for a fresh set of eyes, and with a little rewrite on some of our favorite American documents, our nation somehow saw fit that having two presidents, one for each side but still reigning under the banner of “The United States of America”, was a good choice for our country’s future. The western half and eastern half of the nation were named appropriately and the new age of America was born.

           Naturally, human beings have this instinctive urge to take and keep, like the little kid on the playground who doesn’t want to share the swing or hogs the monkey bars, especially the one that won’t let his best friend play with his favorite toy. Our two leaders, who started off so cooperative you’d think they were in love with each other, started bickering about fair shares and resources. The damage to the environment didn’t go away after the Divide happened. From Eastern America came hurricanes, and lots of them. Being pushed further east, the waters raged back at the land, engulfing damn near all of Florida and its neighboring states. In Western America, the opposite was happening, the droughts coming strong and relentless. Water was scarce from California to even Washington. The demand for drinkable water was one of several points being argued over when the presidents would convene, along with food supply, land rights, administrative choices, and cheap shots at their appearances.

           Unhappy with their share of land and limited resources, Western America, in secret -trust me when I say barely anyone knows how it was pulled off- found a way to sail to Eastern America, sign a treaty with four states on the coast, and get them to help steal seven massive ships harboring millions of cases of water imported from other countries. Needless to say, Eastern America was not enthusiastic about this when they found out. It was then when the two continents declared themselves their own country, Western America dubbing themselves the “United Coast” and Eastern America rebranding their name to the “American Circle”.

           Also, you know what happens when the lonely kid takes away the bratty kid’s toy, right? It becomes a tantrum-fueled war. The Continental War of 2051, it was called. A whole war fought over stolen cases of water. Hell, if you were thirsty enough, you’d fight someone for a bottle of Dasani, too.

           The war brought certain unpleasantries. Alaska and Hawaii seceded from the United States, declaring themselves free nations. Unhappy with this, the United Coast decided to target them along with the American Circle. Folks who felt they were on the wrong side of the war, or just didn’t want to get caught in the crosshairs, tried leaving their respective country, only to find that their presidents closed their borders, demanding everyone who could fight to do so.

           It didn’t take long for the actual fighting to commence. Missiles and tanks and ships and planes, oh my! Ground forces were deployed before anything else, most vessels meeting at sea and sinking one another before actually making it to land. Those few weeks were heavy with the stench of copper, sulfate, and lead. All the while, the summer had never been hotter, not a cloud in sight overhead. No rain, no snow. Just the sun and the burns that came with it. Those who didn’t die from the actual war died of exhaustion, roasting in the sunlight as the battle waged on. Starvation and dehydration complimented malnutrition and pollution sickness, half the forces for the American Circle collapsing within the first week. Seems the water heist proved helpful after all.

           But all things must come to an end. The United Coast won the battle after a heavy bombing on the eastern coast of the American Circle. As far as we know, their president died in those great, orange mushroom clouds. The chaos seemed to blossom with the fallout and the nation fell to shambles, remaining that way to this day. All that’s left is a forgotten land half arid and half-swallowed by the ocean. The United Coast didn’t turn out any better, those few who survived the war trying to keep afloat with what limited resources they had left. Ultimately, they suffered the same fate as the American Circle, dying alone and without reinforcement from other countries.

           Those other countries didn’t want the land once the American nations killed each other. Deeming it “cursed” or “foul with the scent of blood”, the rest of the world just chose to simply ignore it, leaving the continents to rot with their environmental fallout. Still, the rest of the world suffers from the United States’ pollution, the garbage still soiling the water and the emissions still lingering somewhere in the atmosphere. They face their own environmental problems, but they still do their best to prevent replicating the fate of the United States. Some scientists have discovered through more seismic readings a few more minor cracks underneath the earth, daring to split Russia and finish the crack already planted in Africa. They’ve nothing much to worry about though… so long as they remain undivided.