Well, the official story of WWO is over for now. Time to peel back the curtain a little bit. If you don't like out-of-character stuff, go ahead and ignore this post. Otherwise, stick around for some behind the scenes extras.

This has been an eye opening experience for me. I like to write speculative fiction, and I do actually work for an oil company (name withheld for obvious reasons). I've also had some experience in writing collective fiction, so the chance to participate in something like WWO was something I couldn't pass up. The intensity of this, however, got to me. As gas prices rose in the real world, it became harder and harder to write in WWO. It was quite depressing, and it was almost impossible to come up with something that wasn't a major downer. That's why my posts became less frequent. I apologize for that and hope that what I did write was good for everyone.

Seeing everyone's different views was awesome. Some were more apocalyptic than others, but it all managed to work well together. I think we all captured the panic, the perseverance, and the general unbalance a sudden disruption of oil would cause. Do I think it will happen like we said it would? God I hope not. Hopefully, we'll wake up and realize that we can't afford to keep spending $4 a gallon on gas just to waste it. I believe we'll reach that point slowly, before a WWO occurs. Then again, who knows? That's the point of speculative fiction, really. To make us think about what could be, what might be, and what we would do about it.

So, what became of my WWO counterpart? Well, he and his family moved into a house near the office. They're doing fine, and he's even got into gardening and helping out at the market on weekends. His company spent a fair amount of money acquiring small alternative fuels firms and making collaborative deals with the rest of Big Oil to research a way to minimize the use of crude for transportation fuel. Some years down the road, a breakthrough happened and gasoline consumption was cut by 60% thanks to better engines and a new fuel source.

However, the Suburban Revolution was over. After 2007-2008, people weren't interested in living far away from where they work anymore. Cities that were once decaying were now revitalized thanks to renewed interest in tighter communities. Once an urban problem, crime moved out to the suburbs as the new city communities cracked down and drove out the bad elements. Safety and security was best found not behind the gates of some housing development 15 miles away, but in the closeness of neighbors and the ability to walk to the store and to work.

As for me, in this here and now, I'm a different person thanks to WWO. I'm much more aware of the fragile thread that supports the lifestyle I and others keep. I'm making changes, but there's a long way to go. But I AM changing, and that means that for me, WWO was a success.

Thank you to everyone who sent me words of encouragement. Thank you to the masters of WWO, for giving me the chance to participate and think. And thank you to the other Heroes, for without you this wouldn't have been as amazing a journey as it was.