The Oasis: By Nathan Brown

The following is a diary entry found in an abandoned dwelling in the once great metropolis known only as The Oasis, now in ruins.

June 23^rd, 1885

       The city is cold at night. No longer does the steam rise out of the great machines the founders built. The city once known as The Oasis no longer goes by that name. Built near a great lake in the desert only a short distance from the once coal rich mountains only a few remain struggling for survival.

       Gone are the airships that once arrived daily. Gone is the coal which powered the great machines. Even the lake is now tainted by decades of pollution. The ruling class families are gone now for the most part. Most who could afford to left when the mines began to run dry leaving behind only the working class and a few of the upper class behind.

     The working class has split into factions at war for survival while the ruling class tried to hold onto what power they had. The ruling class tried to hold on to the belief that they were superior to those of the working class and in there minds imagined that they still had power over the workers. As coal became more valuable than gold in the city that remained total war broke out in the city.

     Towards the beginning of this civil war the working class factions worked together to destroy what was left of the ruling class which was essentially responsible for the situation they were all in. The ruling class fell quickly with only a few able to make it out of the city alive. What happened to these survivors know body knew. Most likely they died in their attempt to cross the desert to reach civilization. Once the ruling class was gone there was a truce of sorts between the factions that remained. This truce however lasted only about a week.

       The factions of the working class soon realized that even with the ruling class gone they were still in the same position they were in to begin with. Some of the factions formed alliances and tried to take control of the city to fill in the position the ruling class once held. The miners and the mechanics formed a strong alliance and soon both the traders and the artisans where wiped out. The remaining factions seeing this threat formed an alliance and in one great battle wiped out the remaining miners and mechanics.

       With the miners and the mechanics gone the remaining factions realized that there was now no possible way to escape the city, since there was no one left who knew how to build or operate any machines which could have helped them to escape the desert. With this realization in mind, the remaining factions broke out into total chaos. First the battles were faction versus faction, and then there was fighting within the factions themselves until the factions were no more.

       The city is now left with only a few hundred inhabitants. It is every man, woman, and child for themselves, a struggle for survival. We have no source of fresh food or water. We spend all of our time scavenging the city fighting for what supplies we may find. We make it day by day clinging to the fantasy that someday help may arrive, but deep inside we know that it is not true.