A-Z Challenge 2017 - U is for Under-Region

Welcome to Day 21 of the A-Z Challenge 2017. This month I'm sharing my "Black & White Snippets" - snapshots of some of the characters, places and concepts that populate my forthcoming YA dystopian trilogy, Black & White. There won't be a lot of details or spoilers - just short scenes and vignettes that give you a hint of the world I've created. Today, it's U for Under-Region.

The Under-Region. A convenient myth to sell a population that had had its borders closed off by a fiercely xenophobic government. Well, “xenophobic” might be an understatement. Denying that any other country even existed probably required a whole new word. Due to what might be called an admin error, there was the faintest chance that someone from Harmonia’s nearest neighbour might find their way to this brave new self-sufficient society, but such a visitor wouldn’t be welcome. To avoid any awkward questions, the powers that be had decreed that that country was a hellish wasteland from another plane of existence, whose resident demons might occasionally try to infiltrate the utopia that had been created. And over the course of centuries, it stuck.