Some Fiction

[Coopdog]

I was having a helluva time adjusting to all of this. I never thought I would see the day I would be out here getting ready to dunk a chicken in a pot of boiling water to make it easier to pluck the feathers off. Six months ago if someone told me that the entire global economy could collapse, and that our infrastructure and goverment could collapse so totally, I would never have believed it. This is America! How could this happen?

I remember a year ago sitting at work, listening to my headphones and this native american kid walked up. He was laughing about the old phillapino guy who sat at the far desk talking about the New World Order and the collapse of the economy, and the kid was laughing about it all.

I told him in all seriousness that it was all true, and that he had better pay attention to the old man, cuz he was one of the people with is eyes open, and he was paying attention. The kid looked at me and shook his head, and I could tell all he thought was "Oh great, TWO crazy old men" I wonder where he is now....

Six months ago I had been a crane operator at the worlds number one aerospace company. Six months ago I had a job, and a paycheck coming in, and a grocery store to go to. That seems an awfully long time ago now. Six months is not a long time, but a lot can happen in six months. A helluva lot.

The economy had gone bad, and everyone was finally aware of it. The mainstream media had downplayed it right up to the end, not telling anyone what this meant to their lives. A few people, the folks that some people were calling conspiracy theorists, and right wing wackos, were aware of what was going on in their lives and were prepared. I am ever so thankful that I was a halfhearted conspiracy guy, and I watched the internet for trends and signs.

I didn''t believe everything I heard and read, but I used my gut instincts and ferreted out what I considered to be possiby true, and that was enough to get me preparing, at least somewhat.

Over and over again things that were said would come true 3-6 months down the road. They were talking about the economic collapse for two years before it happened. Folks like Ron Paul, who had been labeled an anti goverment terrorist, were indeed telling the unadulterated truth. The federal Reserve HAD bilked the american people out of their fortunes and quietly folded after taking trillions in bailout money. There was such an outrage and bedlam in trying to replace our monetary system, that the country had divided into regions.

The New England territory was made up of several states that had decided to create their own monetary system in light of the goverments lack of ability to agree on one. Texas, arizona, Nevada and California had banded together, and were fighting a border war with Mexico, and building fences to keep out the stem of illegal immigration, which had faltered and almost stopped since the USA is not so desirable a place to be anymore. There were reports of many people trying to sneak back into Mexico from the US. That was different.

Many of the states declared themselves sovereign, and simply seceded from the union. Before you could blink, an eye, the United States of America was no more.

Louisiana was holding the whole center of the country hostage, by keeping foodstuffs and supplies from going up the Missisippi river until substantial sums of gold were paid by the states to the North to release the hostage food. Riots had erupted in all the major cities as soon as the supply chain broke down. It got really ugly really fast, and most people were caught off guard because of the softpeddling of this whole thing by the main stream media.

When it all started, in that school in South Carolina with 125 people coming down with the flu, Most people just listened to the news and went on with their lives, it was just a few people in a school in South Carolina, right? For some reason, it made me extremely uneasy, and the next payday, I went to the store and bought 50 pounds of beans and 50 pounds of rice. When I came carrying them into the house, Melissa didn't even give me a sideways glance.

By the end of that month, I had put up 200 pounds of each, along with lots of canned meat, vegetables and fruit. I had laid in a dozen 5 gallon bottles of water, and kept on buying it until both of our extra rooms were full of it.

Thank God I had the sense to stock up at the last minute, damn near literally. I picked up a good 30-06 and a nice .22 rifle and also just in time I got a case of ammo for the .22 and a couple hundred rounds for the 30-06. I had a .45 and a .38 for personal protection, and a 12 guage for general purposes.

I got most of this stuff in the last two months of civilization. I also got a nice rototiller and lots of canning jars and enough seeds for several yrs of gardening. I think the location of our home helped us to get through the most virulant times of the flu. We live at the end of a long dirt road in the middle of nowhere on an acre and a third, which ain't much, but may have been our Godsend. The neighbors are all still alive also, so I think our location may have saved us.

The last week I went to work the news was in an uproar over the Presidents ineligibility to hold office due to his actually being born outside the US. He had been in office for 14 months when this all came out. How did it happen? How could he pass the in depth background check necessary to become President? Yet another conspiracy coming true before our eyes. It was announced that the Vice President would be assuming the presidency within the week, and people were in an uproar. Before they all got sick that is.

The last week I went to work, several people had said they had come out and found a sticky substance on their cars when they came to work. By the end of the next three days, half the shop was sniffling and bleary eyed, and looking sick. I was compulsively washing my hands and keeping my distance from everyone. I went home on that Thursday, and talked to Melissa, and together we decided it was time. I never went back to work, and I am damn glad I didn't.

I think that stuff was sprayed on the people. I don't know who did it, or why, but I think this was a deliberate act perpetrated on the American people, probably by the very ones appointed to look out for us. It spread like wildfire, and The news showed hospitals overrun with patients seeking help. It didn't kill as many as they had initially thought it would, but it knocked out about one of every three that was exposed to it. How very biblical it was.

We sat at home and for a few weeks, we watched the world we knew fall apart on the internet. It was like a bad Stephen King novel. Then one day when I went to go online I got a connection error message, and that was it. No more news. I dug out an old AM radio and listened to the stories of bedlam and riots in the cities. No food in the grocery stores. Power outages, and the goverment having lost all credibility with the people finally. It was a scary time indeed, and the lack of news was maddening.

I sat at home staying up all night prowling the dark watching out for us. Stories of home invasions and robberies were rampant. The people were hungry and they were gonna eat, regardless. We only had the one problem, and I was there watching when it happened.

I was sitting on the hill out front, in the bushes at the top of the driveway, when a pickup truck I did not recognize came idling slowly up the road with no lights on. It came right up to the top of my driveway and stopped, only about thirty feet from me. I could hear voices, male, but could not make out what they were saying. They sat there for a minute and I saw the reverse lights come on and light up the road behind them, and they slowly backed up 50 ft to my neighbors driveway, sat there for a few seconds, and then turned and idled on down the road.

I was relieved, but also frustrated at myself for not jumping out and showing them that this was a protected neighborhood, and that someone was watching. I went in and told Melissa what happened, and took the 30-06 and gave it to Matthew (Melissa's brother who lives with us) and told the girls if anything happened to hit the floor and stay there till I told them different. I went back outside with the 12 guage to watch, my nerves on edge and my heart pounding. I hoped it would be all quiet. My instincts proved true again that night however, and it wasn't long before I heard the engine of that truck once again coming up the road.

I watched it come up the road, This time I had taken up a position behind the corner of the house, where I had a clear view of the driveway. This time they cruised right down the driveway and stopped in front of the house. As their tires crunched to a stop, two guys jumped out the back of the truck, and both doors came open. I was standing there wondering just what I was going to do, how I was going to play this out. A dozen scenarios went through my head, then suddenly the time for thinking about it was gone. I stepped out...

"Stop right there motherfuckers." I said with a quiet voice. They froze, and in an instant, one of the guys from the back of the truck attempted to raise his shotgun in my direction. Luckily my own was pointed roughly in his direction at the time, and I jerked it up and squeezed the trigger. The Remington 870 express bucked in my hands, and he flew backwards with a gaping hole in his gut. I moved the gun slightly to the right and squeezed again, seemingly in slow motion, and another of the fuckers flew backwards. I watched in horror as the bullets streaming from his automatic weapon sprayed thru the wall of my daughters room.

I came back left, and the guy on the passenger side was raising a pistol at me. I blindly dove to the right and as I did, I got off a lucky shot at him, hitting him high on the chest. His shot went high over my shoulder. I also succeeded in bashing my head really hard on the cover for the crawl space under the house.

I heard a car door, and suddenly the truck was throwing gravel at me as it tore backwards up the driveway. I looked down the sights and he was within easy reach as he threw the truck into drive and for a moment sat stock still as the tires reversed direction and spun in the gravel. I squeezed again, and his head literally exploded inside the truck. The truck, suddenly without a driver, went straight forward into a pine tree thirty feet away, and came to a stop, steam rolling out from the front of it.

"Mother fuck!" I exclaimed. About this time, Matt came out of the house with the 30-06 and Melissa right behind him with the .22 rifle.

Matt stumbled over the dead guy I had shot first in the darkness, and sprawled out facefirst in the driveway. I was kind of in shock I guess, and just sat down in the driveway right where I was at. All was quiet, and not a peep from the neighbors. "Damn bro! You wadn't fuckin around huh? These fuckers are dead!"

One guy was still breathing, but obviously not for long, and as we stood there, he hitched in a gasping breath, and the life bubbled out of him and he was still.

I didn't know what to do, but felt that some sort of action needed to be taken. It was 3:15 in the morning, and it wouldn't be long before the sun started coming up. I couldn't believe none of the neighbors had woke up with all the shots. This was a good thing I guess.

I went into the house, meeting my youngest daughter in the doorway, so I knew she was ok, and with dread in my heart opened the door to my oldest daughters bedroom. She was facedown on the floor. "Andrea" I said, dreading the worst. She slowly raised her head and I could see by the expression on her face she was not hurt. She started to cry, and I could tell she was trying hard to hold it together. We were all in a state of shock.

We put the bodies in the back of the truck and drove it over on to the military base. We never heard anything more about it. In these days of no news is good news, if it wasn't happening on your doorstep, it was not happening.

It all happened sort of gradually. There was food in the stores for a while, then there was limited food, then the stores were emptied and the windows broke, everything looted and gone that could be taken. That was a scary time too. I mean everyone still expected it to come back to normal sooner or later. It has to, right?

2.

As I worked on plucking the chickens, the stainless steel bracelet on my arm twinkled in the sunlight. I thought back to how it came to be there, and once again was outraged by the thought. I had been on my way to work one day a few months prior and had noticed they had put up an extensive camera system at a major intersection as you come in to town.

These were not your average traffic cameras. There was one in every lane, pointed down so they would capture your face as you drove through the intersection. In other places they have camera controlled intersections, in which a camera takes pictures of traffic law violators and sends them a computer generated ticket in the mail. However, in those intersections there was only one camera pointing each direction.

In this major intersection there were nine cameras! They were positioned so as to not let anyone go through the intersection without a picture being taken of them. My first instinct was that this is a people tracking system that utilizes facial recognition technology. The why of it escaped me until the construction started, then suddenly it all had a certain feel to it.

They widened the road and made it where there was enough room between the lanes for two empty lanes, leaving a large empty center area with no explanation. Then they put in the new fences, with barbed wire on both sides, so as to keep people contained in this corridor. Suddenly this started looking like a place where they intend to have a checkpoint of some type. An enforceable checkpoint if you will.

Well that day in July, I came around the bend from the rural road onto the main road, and there was a traffic jam. Never a traffic jam here. It took me an hour to get to that intersection, and then I saw what the problem was.

U.S. Army vehicles had the road closed, and were stopping each car for something. The soldiers had rifles, and appeared very stern. As I got closer, I realized that every now and then someone was told to park their car and they were walked on to one of several busses that were sitting there.

From a dozen car lengths back, I could see that they seemed to be giving people shots! I had heard all about the swine flu vaccinations and how they were contaminated and would cause people to die. I panicked, but had no place to go. visions of crashing out of here were dashed by the thought that I was driving an Accura Integra, not a muscle car by any means. I didn't think it could crash it's way out of a wet paper bag. I thought of fighting and dying right there, but the thought of these fuckers going after my family afterwards prevented me from doing anything.

From three car lengths back, I could see that they were using some sort of tool to attach bracelets to those that were innoculated. Permanant looking bracelets. I considered again crashing through the gates, but then I would be inside the controlled corridor with armed troops all around me and no way out. It would be suicide. Instead I just inched closer and closer until suddenly it was my turn.

As I came to a stop by the newly installed gate, an angry looking very thickly muscled man asked for my driver's license, which I allready had in my hand.

"Per Presidential order 25471 article 13 paragraph 2, you are to be issued a vaccination for the swine flu. All US citizens are hereby directed to receive this vaccination, by the order of the President Of The United States. In order to be able to distinguish who has had the vaccination, a bracelet shall be worn until such time as all citizens have been vaccinated. Removal of this bracelet shall be considered a felony, punishable by up to ten years imprisonment. Per article 67 paragraph three, beginning on August 1st 2010, in order to purchase any goods or services, this bracelet must be presented as proof that the aforementioned vaccination has occurred."

There it was, biblical prophesy spelled out for everyone to see.

"Please sign this waiver and roll up your sleeve sir." Once again, the thought of fighting my way clear went through my head, but like an automaton, I saw myself pull up the sleeve of my blue sweatshirt. Dumbly I watched as they poked me with a little thing that looked sort of like a corn cob sticker that you use to eat corn on the cob. It left three small puncture marks on the skin of my forearm. I felt as though a time bomb had been put under my skin.

I watched in shock as they attached a heavy guage stainless steel bracelet to my arm, and winced as it popped and an eletrical arc permanantly attached it to my wrist. It was all very efficient and was done in minutes. I looked at my wrist, and the mark of the beast went through my head. Had I just sold my soul?

I was waved through, and went on my way to work. I immediately pulled my cel phone out and called Melissa, and told her about it. She was shocked and afraid, and very unsettled at this news. It was done though, and there is no going back from it now. What the hell had just happened to me? the New World Order had just put it's mark on me, and I would be forever changed.

I went to work that day and showed my new bracelet to the folks at work. Some of them had bracelets too, and I think the rest would have them shortly. People weren't laughing that day. Shots at gunpoint and a slave bracelet to wear like a shackle on your wrist were not the way it was supposed to be. You were supposed to have a choice. The stainless steel on my wrist told me otherwise and reminded me every time I looked at it.

I went through the same checkpoint on my way home that night. I showed my bracelet and was waved through. I stopped and bought three five gallon gas cans at the Chevron station and filled them up along with my gas tank. I filled the tanks on the other vehicles that night, and when I was at the gas station there were some soldiers in line inside. One of them saw the bracelet on my arm, and said "Man ain't that some shit? Just so you know not all of us are just followin orders, some of us remember the oath of service we took when we signed on." I noticed they did not have bracelets on though.

I went home and talked to Melissa about all this in hushed tones. The kids were alarmed enough by the bracelet on my arm and the round red spot where they innoculated me. "Those fuckers aren't going to give ME a shot!" proclaimed Andrea with an angry scowl on her face. I just looked at her, and suddenly she knew the futility of her words. Mystery, my youngest, always the realist just took it all in like she always did. She was 19 yrs old but had the soul of an elder, and had always been a watcher.

Later when we were alone, I broke out my pendulum crystal and talked to my higher self, watching the definite yes and no signals it gave me to let me know I was making the connection. I asked it if I was still in control and it said yes, moving towards me and away from me, then it suddenly started swinging in a circle, meaning I don't know.

I asked if my higher self was in control of my reality, and it said yes. We had learned this method of divination as part of a class on Huna, a polynesian religion or way of life, or magic if you will, and it was incredibly accurate, whether you are really communicating with the higher self or not. I asked it if we should go back to work, and got a definite "no" answer. I asked it if the flu was natural and it said once again "No" moving from side to side.

I asked if this was part of my own creation, and got a "yes" answer. I also got a yes when I asked if there was anything I could do to fix it. Melissa reached out and squeezed my hand and I asked if we were past the worst of this mess. The crystal moved from side to side as if an invisible finger had reached out and touched the beaded strand in the center and moved it on purpose. A definite No on being past the worst of this.

I decided to meditate on my world, and found that the stainless steel bracelet was a distraction to my meditation. I would get used to it I reckon. I meditated on a happy world where people love one another and treat one another with respect. I had some work to do on changing my reality for sure. I couldn't relax. I couldn't find my zen place, so I got up and went into the bathroom where I had converted my bathtub space into a small indoor garden complete with two High pressure sodium arc vapor lamps for mimicing the late summer sun.

My beautiful marijuana plants were blowing in the wind from the fans, and it would

[Coopdog]

Well I was gonna come in and edit this to put the paragraph breaks back in, but the option is gone. I swear they were there in the first copy!

[Shroomette]

I tried to fix it up for ya, what ya think? This connection is driving me batty right now and I have this thread bookmarked because I have to give my eyes some rest, they are crossing on me

[Beastmaster]

Yeah the time limit for editing your posts is 420 minutes, or 7 hours.

[Coopdog]

Cool shroomette, but the end of it is missing (I think)

[marmy]

That was a good read... Hmm I really should be working right now

[quittingtomorrow]

Although i'm terrible at it myself, i'm a tough critic when it comes to story telling. That being said, i've enjoyed your tale so far and am looking forward to reading more. Thank you for sharing sir.