Millions of toilets spewed wastewater like raging geysers. Sludge and foul liquid inundated homes within an hour. Roads and freeways transformed into rivers of toxic material. Small towns and cities sank under a rising sea of muck and rotten disposables. Forests drowned under a shade of tenebrous brown decorated with patterns of white specs. A major crisis that hit coast to coast, it was baptized as “the shittiest situation” ever faced, worse than any war or natural catastrophe.

There was nowhere to run for safety or salvation. With so many roads blocked by the fecal tide, evacuation procedures failed. Many perished just by inhaling the stench of their countrymen’s crap. Corpses floated down the chocolate-colored streams. More than two-thousand new viruses mutated every day, creating a pandemic of bacterial infections. Supermarkets lost all of their edibles, and hospitals were not immune to this deadly avalanche.

While the public cried for swift solutions, the government created budgets to hire emergency contractors, like plumbers, civil engineers, sanitation workers, and teams to clear pathways. The amount of work required to solve this problem included repairing miles of sewage pipes that had been neglected for decades. A multi-trillion dollar project, it was going to need the best and the strongest, but to everyone’s dismay, not a single soul came forward to help in any assignment.

The salary was tripled, even quadrupled. Signing bonuses and paid meals were offered as well, but for some bewildering reason, it wasn’t enough to attract able-bodied individuals eager to put an end to this misery. Some speculated that the risk was too high. After all, diving into rivers of feces to repair the corroded sewage system could lead to certain death, but those explanations were nothing more than pathetic excuses. If there is anything calamities have demonstrated over time is that heroes always come forward to take action. However, in this incident, there was but a population of cowards terrified of getting themselves dirty. How was this possible?

While the nation lacked a proper rescue and recovery response, there was no shortage of outrage broadcasted across media outlets and the internet. The abundance of cameras and phones recorded almost every square mile where the most perilous occasions happened. Indeed, it would become the most well-documented disaster for the history logs. Only then it became clear what was truly happening that nobody seemed to notice.

Recently, it was announced that the most experienced plumbers and engineers were either too old to work or dead. The country had run out of the very skills that were needed most, and the younger generations never developed an interest in utility work as they didn’t see it profitable or full of purpose. This is why there was no lack of entertainers and informers taking advantage of the situation to hopefully monetize their media.

Also, over the past few decades, professions that consisted of physical work, and a minimum forty hours-a-week shifts, were perceived as slave labor and promoters of toxic masculinity, which annihilated any desire to fulfill the occupations that helped everyone not worry about where our waste goes after flushing. Therefore, the system that used to take care of those concerns was left abandoned, forsaken by its makers, and somehow developed a personal vengeance prompting it to give back all the shit it took from us for so many years.

The plight worsened as no solutions were implemented on time, and everyone died.