The no-return

February 14, year 2031. Valentine's day. The day most people remember as "the no-return".

THE CAUSES

The No-return was caused by a sudden sun-exposition to a massive plant of Leto, in Canada, where it was hidden by Walter Selklerc. The reaction was brutal, since it triggered the immunity system of the Leto, which leaded the atmosphere to have its mass changed, until the sun rays couldn't get through it anymore. This reaction in chain provoked, in a little bit less than a year, the very cold temperatures and the amount of dark matter in the atmosphere, current in the timeline of the TV series.

LETO CONSEQUENCES

First, the interaction between dark matter and the atmosphere started to prevent the sun from passing through. If the process took less than a minute above the incident area, the earth surface took a bit less than one year to froze.

The dark matter apparition within the atmosphere is a violent process, whose human bodies aren't used to. The citizen who were around the northern areas of America (Canada, New York, Chicago etc.) saw the majority of its population affected with Leto-suffocation. The survivors were most often left to themselves. The middle and south America didn't endure as much deaths as it would have in case of nuclear or epidemic scenario. Even though, old, ill, young and generally weak population also suffered from Leto suffocation within the first two weeks. Europeans sent some help in the first months, but as soon as the swarms showed up, all contact with the rest of the world was lost. Last reported radio-communications of the world indicate a quarantine on the whole American continent.

The swarms appeared a little less than one month later and started to attack any radio interference source in the continent. It took about two weeks to understand "what" the swarms attacked, too much to save the civilization, who lost all the communication and high technologies it got used to.

The mutations took a bit less than three years to be common in the population. At this time, northern America's population already went from 395 000 000 citizens to 260 000 000. The population stabilized at that moment, to never grow much since then (people make more babies, it's true, but the rate of stillborn is much higher than before the no-return.)

GOVERNMENT AND ARMY CONSEQUENCES

Of course, the government started to act as soon at the incident occured. From a secured shelter, it organized the survival logistics, for which most of the military was deployed.

Refugee camps were created all around the USA and most of the major cities, Saint Louis and Phoenix excepted, were evacuated. The absence of evacuation measure for those two cities is why they now are the two biggest ones of the wastes. The reason of this evacuation was to make sure what happened to the northern cities wouldn't repeat ; the cities needed logistic measures to create isolated areas for the citizens to live in.

The luckiest ones were allowed in atomic vaults all around the country. Even today, the existence of an underground population is wildly accepted by the wastes citizens. Globally, up to this point, the world of before could have rise again in a few years and have all the necessary means to destroy the Leto. But then, the swarms appeared.

They managed to destroy all electromagnetic interferences sources. Which meant all communications technologies ; the cities had been evacuated already and many people believe it is thanks to this decision that humanity still exists. Saint Louis and Phoenix saw their population dramatically dropped, but also, it meant that the government had no way to communicate anymore.

Which means that one week after the first swarms attacks, the government simply ceased to exist. It has never really been officially announced and it is very possible that the president, the congress and the ministers made it to survive as long as any other citizen. But without communication, not a single government can run a country.

The army was left to itself and the lack of logistic plan was felt during the very first days that followed the government's silence. It meant that the refugee camps had no food deliveries anymore. The army had no orders anymore. The cities weren't taken in charge anymore.

It soon became obvious : the USA fell into anarchy.

The army regiments had to raid local malls and stores to feed people ; the lack of orders slowly disintegrated the army discipline, which lead many soldiers to turn into simple survivors. Many camps suffered from exactions and attacks from other regiments who needed food supplies. It took two months for the army to disappear.

On year after the no-return, the refugees began to get into cities again, even if they were mainly in a pretty bad shape. Nature had taken its rights back : many buildings were destroyed by the simple weight of the growing vegetation, the roads weren't in a very good shape anymore, there wasn't electricity, gas or water anymore. Wild animals started to populate the roads, replacing human beings ; there was nothing left to steal in cities, since it had all been raided or eaten by animals.

It didn't take much time then for the first new political powers to arrive, using the logistic matters to ensure domination. Caravans, Dies Irae and Selfmads were the first ones to rise, making cities and people able to move on, under their mutual juridiction. A few years later, several gangs of raider would unite to create the monarchy. The Svauks would organize into a moving nation and the Amaroks would take back their lands.

At 2034, the United-States of America became the wastes.