Fifty Years of Peace (Abrupt Dissent Series) by Charlotte Andrews Page A

holding is really just the medium for you to interact with the tools, or software, which is stored on the device.”
     
    One icon said paint and opened a white screen with a little brush that changed colors as she swiped. Another said notes and revealed what looked like a school notepad. A flash of inspiration struck her.
     
    “Is that what happened during the war? These computer programs stopped?”
     
    Her grandfather smiled.
     
    “You’ve always been a sharp one Jenny. That’s close. You see, when we were all one country, we were the most powerful country in the world. We were constantly developing more and more computers and software and technology that could be used for all sorts of stuff.”
     
    “Like what?”
     
    “Well, like farming. You’ve seen the combines in pre-war fields?”
     
    “Yes.”
     
    “They have driver’s seats, but the computers drove them. The machines did the planting and the harvesting too. One of those machines, hooked up to a computer and a combine, would let one person harvest hundreds of acres in a day.”
     
    “It takes twelve people just to harvest our north wheat field!”
     
    “Don’t I know it, but before the war we just pressed a button and the computers did the work.”
     
    “There must have been so much food!”
     
    “There was Jenny. There was.”
     
    “But then what happened? Why did the U.S. attack us if there was enough food?”
     
    “Well… let’s just say the history you’ve learned isn’t completely accurate Jenny. You see, we were rich and powerful, and we were using computers in a lot of ways, including spying on other nations.”
     
    “Are there still other nations?”
     
    “Oh yes, there must be, but it’s hard to know these days. What happened was that we used our computers to spy on those other countries, and we did it for so long that many of those other countries got upset. But instead of attacking our army, they used their computers to attack our computers which we used to grow our food, and pump our water, and make our electricity.”
     
    Her eyes widened, so much suddenly made sense.
     
    “That’s where the starving came from! Someone else attacked us.”
     
    “Yes, Jenny. Our society was completely run on our technology and without it, our lives were turned upside down. There were hundreds of millions of people living in this country, but most of them were in cities like Old Louisville where they couldn’t grow food, and when the computers stopped, so did the production and transportation of our food supply. There weren’t enough people left who knew how to grow food or had the land to do it, and those of us that could, knew we wouldn’t be able to feed everyone. If we wanted to live, we had to keep what food we had for ourselves. There was chaos everywhere that made people do very bad things to try to protect themselves and their families. The city people attacked farms all over the country. They stole whatever food and resources they could, slaughtered the animals to eat, and often killed anyone that got in their way. They were desperate, and there were so many of them. It wasn’t a war Jenny. It was survival.
     
    “Eventually leadership arose on either side of the country to bring some stability, but then fighting amongst the new governments caused instability and a war over resources and territory. This pretty much lasted until there weren’t enough people left on both sides to keep fighting, until so many people died that there was enough food again for those who were left. Finally, after much unneeded conflict, the two governments that had built back up created new borders, and called a peace treaty effectively separating the country into two.”
     
    “How did…how did you survive?” she asked.
     
    “A few of us here, Manuel’s father, and a few others, we hid our animals in the mountains, and buried our food and seed. After things settled down a bit, we began farming again. We fought off any city folks