Inquiso opening, rough draft

I've been following a lot of what has been going on in politics, etc. lately. There's a  lot angst that seems to be generated these days about various government programs and government in general. A rather disturbing scenario started coming together in my head and the bit you're about to read is part of what resulted. It really should freak people out. What would happen if someone, or better yet a small group, took it too far? 

Note: this is pure fiction and is part of a short story.

During the end of 2034 the United States came to an end as a country. The former Washington DC mall area had been largely destroyed by a group of terrorists who had stolen a nuclear warhead that they detonated. Congress happened to be in session at the time and the President was in the White House. Only four members of Congress survived and that was because they were at their respective home states starting their election campaigns early to become the next President.

Another small group travelled over to New York City and blew another one up which destroyed the center of banking, Wall Street. They even made sure to take care of the NSA facility at Ft. Meade, MD so that government communications could be curtailed. It also destroyed part of the nearby interstate highway.

All of the bombs were simple 500 kiloton devices that had been stolen from an Iranian by Islamic militants that shared the same objective. Of course the government of Iran wasn’t about to publicly announce the theft since they were always concerned with more air strikes from the Israeli’s and other countries. What was the most attractive feature of them is that one of the warheads would fit in the back seat of the average sedan which made it easy to take them where you wanted to. They were also easy to set up detonators for.

While all of the terrorists ended up dead, either in the vehicles they drove or by the hand of the government security forces, their aims were achieved. There was an end to what they seen as the US governments intrusion and overreach into people’s daily lives. There were other unforeseen and unwanted side effects though.

Anarchy reigned for a short time throughout the rest of the nation with law and order becoming a thing of the past. What had once been a single country had devolved into over 100 different fiefdoms and small countries over the next ten years. Since there no longer was a central authority roads had fallen into disrepair and weeds grew through the cracks in the unmaintained pavement. You couldn’t even get gasoline so any cars that were left were totally useless unless they became someone’s shelter.

Life in general began to resemble much of how it had been during medieval times. Horse drawn wagons and walking became primary methods of transportation. Even currency as people once understood it was gone so everyone had to barter to get the things they needed. One of the fiefdoms was located in what had once been southern Colorado, the new kingdom of upper Arkansas.