[ WP ] As it turns out , the desolation is not worldwide , you 've just been living on an `` Apocalypse Reserve '' your whole life .

Mike looked at the room around him with disbelief. He'd been looking at everything around him with disbelief for the past 4 hours, ever since the car had reached that city. That modern, wealthy, non-post-apocaliptic city. Mike had only known one other city in his life, and it was made of a bunch of tent and shaggy wood sheds; the best food that could be bought there was overcooked raccoon meat, and you would n't survive more than 7 minutes if there was n't at least one person in your group carrying a shotgun. The city where he was, in the other hand, had tall, beautiful buildings, with plants growing on the walls and solar panels on the roof. People were riding bikes, and purchasing food which he did n't even recognize but which looked delicious nonetheless. 
 
 `` So. How did you manage it? How did you keep that El-Dorado alive in our fucked-up world?'' 
 
 Mike was really only interested in the answer to the next question he was going to ask, which was whether he would be allowed to live there. A question which he was in fact never going to ask. 
 
 `` This is n't an El Dorado. It's not unique. 
 
 -You mean that there are other cities like this? 
 
 -I mean that most of the world is like this.'' 
 
 There was a short silence. 
 
 `` Wait, what? 
 
 -I said, the whole world is like this. 
 
 -What do you mean? 
 
 -Most of the planet is modern and wealthy. The devastated world you have been living in only occupies a relatively small area, which corresponds to approximately one fifth of what used to be the United States of America. 
 
 -I... I do n't understand. 
 
 -When the First Civilisation collapsed, a small entity, known as *the phoenix seed*, survived. It had been created by the United Nations in preparation for the apocalypse, and it's mission was to keep all human knowledge safe, then use it wisely to rebuild humanity. Their mission worked better than anyone had hoped. Not only did they survive, but they kept their 22nd century tech, and within a few decades they were by far the most advanced military faction in the world. At first, they stayed in their shelter-city in central Eurasia, then they started spreading their knowledge and building a new civilisation around them. Almost everyone was eager to join them, and they were able to organise the new society in a smart liquid democracy, with an advanced local social-focused economy, strong ethical values, and an ecological mindset. The new world they were building quickly became better than any utopia our ancestors had ever dreamed of. Culture and philosophy flourished, and everyone contributed to building this new world. Within less than a century, most of the planet was re-settled. 
 
 -Bullshit! This is... this... Fucking Bullshit! I've heard enough of that. My whole life, I've never seen even a trace of that `` Utopia'' you talk about. 
 
 -I know, that's on purpose. 
 
 -Wha... hu.. I do n't... 
 
 -Let me finish please. Our new culture valued, among other things, knowledge and diversity. We did our best to recover all we could from the fragments of the dead cultures and traditions which had been shattered by the apocalypse. But as we were spreading, we realized that we were about to kill a culture ourselves: the apocalypse culture. Without us, the world had organised itself in a violent, brutal, self-destructive, but also complex and fascinating way. The people living in the post-apocalypse world had a mindset, a way of thinking, a way of acting, which was unique and which no one in our world could ever possess. And we were about to loose that.'' 
 
 Mike began to see where this was going. And he did n't like it. 
 
 `` So we created the apocalypse reservation. We designated an area in which we would never spread our new civilisation, we made sure it did n't know about what was happening outside, and we made it's borders difficult to cross so the people in it would stay, and thus your world was preserved. 
 
 -How... how long? 
 
 -The reservation was created 93 years after the apocalypse. 
 
 -... 62 years. For 112 years, we've been living in an artificial apocalypse. For the past century, we could have been living in your heaven, and instead you left us in our hell. 
 
 -Yes. 
 
 -Why? Whyy? 
 
 -Heaven would n't be complete if it did n't have a bit of hell in it.'' 
 
 Mike burst out crying. He kept crying for what seemed to him like a very long time, and the others waited. Then finally he stopped, and looked back at them. 
 
 `` You said you had strong moral values. Is this the work of strong moral values? 
 
 -We, as a society, spent a lot of time thinking about this, and in the end we reached the conclusion that it was, ethically, the right thing to do. 
 
 -Was it worth it. 
 
 -Yes. Now people like you exist. 
 
 -What use are people like me? 
 
 -Well, if you were n't useful we would n't have brought you here. 
 
 -Wait, you mean...'' 
 
 Although the circumstances which had lead him to be driven to the new world had been odd, he had completely forgotten about them as soon as they had entered the city. Now that he thought back on them, everything suddenly made sense. 
 
 `` First, we'll let you settle down in our city, and enjoy our food, healthcare and comfort. Once you're rested and strong, we have a job to offer you, Mike'' 

