Junction City

Beneath the deserted ruins of Chicago lies, quite possibly, the busiest city on Earth. Junction City was named after its unique position in the dead-centre of the western civilization. The city's location led to it becoming a central hub for trading and travel. Any merchant or scavenger eventually ended up in Junction City, whether they were just passing through or settling down for good.

Out of necessity, Junction City was expanded much further than its original subway system. Once a comfortable lifestyle had been achieved for the city's inhabitants, they set to work digging out new tunnels to combat the sudden influx of travelers and merchants. This worked for a time, until the city began to encroach on other towns' boundaries. Horizontal expansion slowed to a halt, and the city was at loss of what to do. More and more people were flooding in and out of the city, and already it was making a name for itself. If further tunneling wasn't made soon, there was a real possibility of overpopulation. Again.

Digging remained at a standstill for some time, and the focus was drawn towards setting up a marketplace for traders. Although currency was a thing of the past, the traders played a key role in keeping the city alive. That was all that truly mattered anymore, survival.

Then one day action was taken against the growing problems of the city. A plan that had burned out months previously was rekindled, and the tunneling began once more. If the city could no longer be expanded horizontally, it would have to go deeper. Of course the idea had been suggested previously, but it had been shot down almost instantly, considered ludicrous.

However, as the situation grew more and more desperate, the city's officials decided that risks needed to be taken in order to accomplish what they had in mind. The greatest architects of the generation were brought together under Chicago's ruins, and it was there that they devised the solution that would benefit mankind for decades to come. It was the birth of Layers.

Using a unique and genius scaffolding pattern, excavators were able to tunnel directly underneath the original metro system without destabilizing the ground. This allowed for a massive increase in population, which greatly benefited the city in terms of supplies and morale. Travelers passing through Junction City picked up on the architectural design of the Layers, and before long it had been replicated in every major city throughout the continent.