Captain's Journal

(Click.)

(Pensive and expressive sigh.)

"...I needed to take a break...Thinking about these memories is painful."

(A wistful sigh with sounds of shifting in a swivel chair.)

"Um, this is the captain's journal entry...18..."

(Warily exhale.)

"I miss some of the people there in the UFA, but not just there...When I left the UFA, I decided to make my way to a country called the UCA, the United Countries of America. It was a great place to live and better. I was hoping it would be the last place they or my father would look for me. A little history on the country. At one point it was three countries before the great illness. The history books said that the countries were called Mexico, United States of America, and Canada. When a great illness hit the country USA hard, it changed many lives. It spread so fast, mutating too quick to fix. At first the country thought it wasn't a big problem; it was just another superbug that would come and go. But the other two countries closed borders, concerned with it being more. The illness was acting like it normally did in the past, like the flu at first. Then it became severe and deathly, spreading like wildfire. It managed to jump the Mexico border, tearing through the country faster. Several countries cut them both off, terrified. But Canada decided to help, the illness spreading to them but slowly. All of the country's Allies cut them off as well. Desperate to end the illness, all three countries pooled all their abilities, advances, and resources, including finding out where it started."

"It was accidentally created by a young scientist named Kevin Emerson, looking for a new power source to end fossil fuel dependency. He thought he found it while working in his lab he set up in his basement. Poor guy. I feel bad for him; he loved science, growing up wanting to help change the world for the better. Working for a company he respected, fortunately, Kevin sent his work and studies, emailing the company all his information, and went out to celebrate. His unfortunate sister thought it was a new form of drugs; she believed he worked for a pharmaceutical company. She broke into his home looking for things to sell and stole it, sharing among her drug-addict friends, who mutated it and began its spreading. At first Mr. Emerson didn't know; he reported the break-in, thinking it was a rival company and left it at that, working on his research. Weeks later, he heard of the strange illness, didn't give it much thought like everyone else, until his sister showed up terribly sick and dying. When she told him that it was she who broke in, was hoping for drugs to stop the illness, he came to the horrible conclusion, but it was too late. People were dying...History says Emerson died fighting to find the cure...Millions died..."

"Through this, all three countries set aside all and any differences, power struggles, money, and pulled out of the crisis. Rising out of the ashes and into a decision with new possibilities. They were weak at first and had no way of rebuilding without each other, and within years of recovery, they began the merge. Shockingly, not everyone liked this... Anyway, I planned my trip, and after my holiday leave

ended and it was time to head back to school, instead of getting on the rail system, I took a boat and left the country. I changed my name to Jacob Kay Harrington when I traveled South America and was accepted in to the UCA a year later. I moved to Ontario, Chicago, at age eighteen where I got a job as a mechanic for a very innovative company. It was nice there. I lived on my own, worked to live, and earned my own reputation...It was good."

(Click.)