[ WP ] It 's been 2 years since the zombie apocalypse started and California was cut off from the rest of America , supplies are running low and the state starts feeling a lot smaller as the days go by .

Charlie looks over toward the border wall - lost, emotional, exhausted. The sound a static plays on a nearby radio - long hours of listening, waiting have taken their toll. 
 
 Elaine, the eldest of 7 asks gently... `` Papa, can you tell us the story about Uncle Eurus.'' 
 
 `` Yes, Charlie, please do tell us - anything to distance our minds from of all this death.'' 
 
 `` Oh, alright. Dorothy... should I tell the kids everything? One of these times they need to hear EVERYTHING.. `` 
 
 `` Yes Charlie, everything...'' Dorothy coldly replies. 
 
 Charlie walks down by the children. Old bones creaking, he twists into a comfortable position by the children and rests his back against the old sofa. You know kids, its been a great many years since our old President Donald Trump completed the border walls. Should our countrymen live to have a history, as a people, it will always show his intentions were more than kind. But regardless of the politics, our family benefited quite nicely from the walls. 
 
 You see, back about 18 years ago, Uncle Eurus had just received his Doctorate in Chemistry. Eurus was cunning and adventurous. A quick smile faster than a racehorse, and bright like the north star. He could sell anything to anybody, but he was n't just a good salesman - he was also a genius. 
 
 Just out of college, he founded a startup making a boutique drilling fluid for the oil and gas industry - using a chemical composition that nobody had tried prior. Through a distillation of a very few, cheap, and readily available chemicals - he was able to achieve what others could only dream. The hydraulic properties were unheard of. This fluid was magic and Eurus knew it. I remember that like it was yesterday, Eurus had pulled me out of school and asked that I come work for him. He said, devilishly, that his new formula amplified pressure. 
 
 I can see by your face... yes, you heard that right. Amplify pressure. 
 
 We were able to market this liquid to oil and gas producers who could use this as a hydraulic fracturing fluid. Due to its properties, it required less powerful equipment than traditionally required to get significantly greater than traditional gains. We were making money like thieves - it was fun then. He'd walk in to refill his coffee mug and shoot that smile and say `` Double the price today''. And we did. We did this for a long while, and no matter what price he asked - the money never stopped. 
 
 Eurus was kind to us, his family - and we have never had to want as a result. These evaporators, that desalination station down there - we'd have been surly be without them. In the early days, its one of the the only things that had virtually guaranteed our survival. Well, that and our wall. 
 
 Eurus' connections in the oil industry allowed him capital to follow pet projects and when the then newly elected President Trump announced to build his border wall; Eurus knew he wanted to be part of it. Not that he wanted to actually divide land or stop access, but because he knew - we all did - that he could develop a way to do it better. 
 
 One thing I have to say about that president is that the program he devised was wonderfully crafted. It had a set budget to complete the wall and entrants had to sign a guarantee of death should they not complete their obligations. I was nervous, but Eurus knew he'd succeed. 
 
 The teams would complete during a penalty free vetting competition and then the team with the most clever solution was to be the sole contractor for the wall. They could have 1/2 of every dollar they saved if the project came in under budget, if their solution failed - they died. The potential was too tempting for Eurus. 
 
 Our company started working on a solution, in advance of the official start of the competition. One morning Eurus had done it, he had discovered that a slight modification used in the production of his drilling fluid, when processed through a vacuum, made it bond with naturally occurring elements found in the soil such as lignite and silica which created an fast hardening, workable solid. 
 
 Now, I do n't know all the science, but I do know that for pennies he could build a city. Using the soil around him and basically what was a plastic netting, he could create a virtually impenetrable structure. These walls here on our family property, all around us, were put here by Eurus when he was testing this product. 
 
 His invention satisfied the charter of the project easily and within one week of the competition - he had been awarded the contract and Eurus was able to utilize his invention to complete the southern wall. 
 
 When the southern wall was complete a few weeks after the project started; President Trump then wanted to secure the northern border. So Eurus continued on as the project director for that project, in less than 6 months he was complete and our country had a northern and southern border wall. 
 
 Eurus had been able to complete both of these walls for less than 1/3 of the original budget for just the southern part of the project. Unfortunately, when Eurus went to collect his earnings; President Trump would only pay out on one condition - he had to sign over all intellectual property on the invention. I remember sitting there with Eurus, he was OK to do this - his opinion was that he could just invent something else. After all, he was gifted. I was worried that he was showing all his cards, and losing the ability to bargain. I fear I was right. 
 
 Shortly after the President had full control of the technology and was able to utilize and deploy it, the President did something that nobody expected. He started building a wall along our border, separating our sate from the rest of the country. We were all furious, but none more than Eurus. He confronted the president and the president had Eurus taken into custody. The president made an example out of Eurus and fashioned a chamber in the middle of the California border wall and entombed your dear uncle. We all were... ARE, devastated... 
 
 ( exhale's sharply ) 
 
 I hate the man for taking my brother, but I thank him for building that wall. You see. We looked at the wall initially as a reason to be kept out of the rest of the country - but it was more than that - he deported to our state anyone who believed in science, maths, or anyone who questioned him. This caused our population here to grow - our state was bursting at the seams and more arrived every day. We had lack of water, food, and the sewage and fighing was immense. We. Here, inside our walls, were somewhat separated from the bulk of the violence, however... and quite wonderfully, this did n't go on for ever. One thing that the President did n't consider is that having smart people on this side of the wall allowed us to do something they could n't do over there - Think. 
 
 Through the transferring of knowledge and a focus on educating women and children we were able to slow population growth in our state, while its still tight here - its getting better every year. We have developed processes to turn our deceased into food for the earth - not wasting valuable farming land on memorials. Desalination and natural evaporators are how we get our fresh water. The sun provides our electricity... We were able to grow and develop infrastructure using the natural resources available to us in this state and eventually create something sustainable and perfect. All of this, while the rest of the country had locked us up and threw away the proverbial keys... 
 
 Now, on the other side of our border, while we were growing utopia here, something sinister had happened. In his quest for power, the president had tried to extend his existence on this earth. Well beyond his years, and on the verge of a natural death, he had utilized a Russian scientist he imported to develop an experiment with a type of chemical fountain of youth. Some how, I do n't know how, he had corrupted his body. He became, effectively, a zombie. 
 
 The sickness spread rapidly and continued to destroy his body and he developed a thirst for blood - intercepted radio chatter made it sound like his rampages and killing sprees were insane. He'd lock up groups of people in camps and then ravage them until nothing recognizable remained of their corpses. As they lay there, infected, rodents and animals were working spreading the sickness. Eventually, infected critters would contact a person and the sickness spread again. Now; see, from what we understand, the sickness spread through contact... Churches, banks, etc. all became places to transmit and spread this disease. The incubation period was months, however it has been said that after a week you were infections all while thinking you were not sick. 
 
 Across the whole of the country, the sickness ravaged our once countrymen. Fortunately the sickness was only contained by the border fences which were constructed, effectively saving California, Canada and Mexico. 
 
 It was about 2 years ago when we realized the infections were not going to stop. Today, I only hear static when listening to their communication frequencies. I fear the worst. I fear they have all fallen. 
 
 
 

