Microstory 725: Credos, Convention Two: Collaboration, Chapter One

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The wandering child lifted his hand from the canister and admired it. The water of light inside had left a film over his skin that glimmered and shone brightly. He could use this light like a torch. He did not know how long it would last, but it was a lovely gift. He opened the second canister, and then placed his other hand inside of it, excited to watch another story unfold before his eyes. It began like this. There once was a world of great strife. Other planets had experienced world wars that soaked the land in blood, and tore it apart, and many more would have such conflicts, but this was unlike any other. There were dozens of countries, and each one was fighting all of the others. Long before this time, a summit was held in a neutral zone. Hoping to prevent all future war, alliances were deemed criminal. This meant that any nation wishing to wage war against another would have to do so by their own resources. All imports would have to cease immediately. The hope was that leaving them so defenseless would cause them to think twice about what they wanted, and ultimately choose to let their grievance go. For many years, this worked, and the world saw peace. But something happened, and a chain reaction of hatred boiled over upon the hearts of all nations, leading to a crisis that threatened to destroy all life. As a small miracle, however, this major conflict did end before everyone died, though the population was diminished significantly. Where once there were billions, there now were only hundreds of thousands. Not all nations survived with more than a few individuals, in fact. The world was all but dead, but these survivors thought up a plan. Instead of multiple countries, they would converge into one. There would be one nation; one peoples; one world. And a second great peace began. In order to maintain this peace, they imprisoned the former leaders of their respective original nations. All of them had survived, for they were greedy aristocrats living safely in bunkers and fortified towers. And ye, the story of collaboration is not over.