The sun was getting down near the horizon now and the chill was setting in.
Colonel Campbell folded his arms across his chest. "Pollution, wars, famine,
fires, floods. Government oppression and civilian uprising. Religious purgeing
and ethnic cleansing. It all just boiled down to a point where nobody seemed
in power to stop it. When the system broke down to where it got to be
impossible to repair or maintain the infrastructure it only sped things up.
The big cities starved under the weight of their own populations, the small
towns suffered from the plagues of those trying to escape the cities. Order
broke down."

It was like hearing a ghost story come to life. Mark had heard it all before,
but just in bits and pieces. The scientists with whom he'd interacted all had
their pet theories and solutions. "In 10 years," they'd say, "we'll be back to
the jet age!" But under the Colonels telling it seemed so much more permanent.