April 2020: Billionaire Donald Trump was elected president of the United States in November 2016 and swiftly enacted many of his campaign promises, including the construction of a wall between Mexico and the U.S. and the forced deportation of 12 million illegal immigrants. This diary was found wrapped in burlap cloth in a drainage pipe under Highway 90 outside of Valentine, TX.

January 23, 2019.

There was this renewed sense of hope from much of the country — the heartland types.

People thought that this new direction for leadership would work. Even us skeptics wondered what life in the White House would be like for a non-beltway type.

But when the President of Mexico denounced the 45th leader of the (once) free world, we knew things would never be the same. Trump tried to make sacrifice sound worthy; tried to get everyone to chip in.

“ If you live in this great country, just chip in twenty bucks — it’s no big deal for your security, right?”

He delivered that speech from behind the Eisenhower desk, with a “Donate now!” ticker running along the bottom of the screen.

He almost made it too, until the Oaxicaña oil field was discovered, dwarfing anything OPEC could muster. It was located just off the coast, in the Gulf of California — and the president declared it ours, sending in the Marines to claim protect it. 45,000 people died that summer, mostly locals. It was a ghastly fight, two nations with something to protect, sitting atop the world’s biggest oil field.

The Mexico government acted swiftly, sending in troops and then reserves to attend up against American oppression, but to no avail.

The country had to finance the incursion somehow. Once the wall funds were burned up, Trump tried doubling down on his move into the Mexican territory. He sold much of the Northeast U.S. to Canada, with New York seceding via a quasi-nonlegal escape method… anything to get away from this madness. But it wasn’t over with: we couldn’t out-run them.

Once the draft was reinstated, that’s when a number of us packed up and left — headed, anywhere: we had to get out of here.

Greed will do so much to a man.