Debauchery, Demise, and the Downfall of America (pg.2)

It is not enough to say that the illusion of independence and individuality were both devised and perpetuated upon the masses to ensure a cohesive bonding within a national boundary. It is better to say that it is the link which secures and fastens us to the illusion that it is for our betterment. And that nationalism further instills pride and association, even as it limits individuality. Therefore, independence and individuality are but the illusions that we have some sort of control over our lives.

And too many were becoming aware. Too many could read the signs and determine their eventualities; while glamour once more returned to the White House. 1981 was somber as our hostage crisis ended, but by ’83, Reagan had signed the EO that forbade anyone with the wherewithal to these eventualities, to speak of them publicly under threat of incarceration for life. Needless to say hundreds more learned of the impending cataclysmic events which would soon be upon us, and were killed off in numerous unassuming accidents. Obama fearing for his life created the EO granting the President the authority to affect Marshall Law without intervention of Congress. And in 2017, 200 entertainers were eliminated from the lists of potential future survivors. These numbers are insignificant when compared to the usual hundred thousand citizens reported missing each year, which has swollen to over one million these last half dozen.

Countries had been folding throughout the decade. First Greece, then Venezuela.

Support for many of these countries were in vain and eventually discontinued like Belarus where we invested billions into a resurgence of tourism, while retooling their airlines. And Argentina since the late 80’s, only to have them fully collapse in 2014. Likewise, Belize and Jamaica succumbed to a lack of exports and fell that year too. The Ukraine is holding out, but even Russia wants nothing more to do with them. Brazil and Great Britain have been existing on handouts this decade as well, but the most ridiculous is America doubling their debt to over 21 trillion dollars these past two decades. Thus, the demise.

There is a loop that many of these governmental heads have been brought into. Once in, coercion decrees what actions will be taken, along with where and when. It is a smoky glass reflection that even they do not understand, but they know living is better than dying. And for everyone else, there to be sacrificed. Presentations are made, planning to be foretold, and the illusion continues to mask the changes to the masses. That is, until the dollar falls as the standard for global currency. Which is exactly what happened next. European banks and creditors wanted solvency and extracted payments. China, Japan, and Korea discontinued exporting, as did the Scandinavian countries. Threats came upon the US from both Mexico and Canada, as not only did capital cease to exist, but soon so did products. Rioting, looting, and many more despicable acts were carried out over the next years. Without electricity and the invisible web, communications eventually halted as well. There were round-ups and battles and slaughters, and anyone still left alive wasn’t really sure of it. And that was just in America.

 

2012 EPILOGUE 1b

The sliver of moon which had hovered overhead for most of the night continued its path towards the western hillsides, and evaporated into a sea of blue as the sun peaked from the east. The near treacherous trek which spanned close to ten hours was at its end, and the soft bed of sand was now replaced by the asphalts sturdy sure footedness. But I nonetheless felt an uneasiness as I peered intensely into every undraped window, and the uneasiness grew as nothing revealed itself. Not even a sound. Not a bird, nor dog, nor outside lights and lamps lit. Every building appearing as vacant as a showroom ready to be dressed. Two blocks in, I spied a drug store café a couple of blocks to the west. I know my first thought was to raid it, but with each step in its direction, every other thought I’d had throughout the night came flooding back in.

I found myself missing my family and friends. Wondering if they’d found shelter anywhere. Wondering if they were still alive. Not my California family, they were surely gone. As inland as 130 miles to the Sultan Sea and angling north from Palm Springs to Sacramento, a hundred mile wide, hundreds of miles long, strip of California no longer existed. But the ocean had no shoreline or beaches, instead only ripped and jutted mud banks resembling the Cliffs of Dover. The sky to the north had been darkening for days. A clear indication that Yellowstone finally erupted, and I wondered how long it will take to reach this far south. I wondered if there was anyone left in the Midwest at all. I wondered which of the fifteen contingency plans the government prepared was in effect. I knew all the catastrophes which were considered, and general consensus of which was most likely to manifest itself. But I don’t think anyone conceived we’d have near a dozen of them simultaneously. I even laughed at myself for thinking I could make a difference. All the warnings I spread. The people I begged to get to higher elevations. And for what. Not even the Jardines De La Paz could have prepared for the Andean civilization to crumble into the Ocean below. What was I thinking, there is no safe place.

The planks creaked under my footsteps, and the overhang absorbed my shadow, but each window passed presented the same scene. Tables and benches covered in dust. Chairs broken and strewn throughout the open areas. The hardware store shelving pulled down and lay in a mass of mangled metal. The upper shelves of wood still attached to the walls, but barren of any useful products or provisions.

When I pushed on the door of the drugstore, it fell in, splashing waves of dust to each side like dry tsunamis rolling up the walls and back into the room. For a split second there was light and I thought I saw something clearly, but now visibility was impossible as the dust congested any clear view. Looking to my right, there were still a half a dozen blocks of storefronts like this; and also across the street on the north side. I pulled a rag from my back pocket and covered my mouth & nose before going inside, the dust settling quickly enough to move freely onward. Less than thirty feet in, the counter on the right ended, yet there were no stools or chairs to be seen. But there was a large mirror on the wall paralleling above it, maybe fifteen feet in length and four feet in width. The writing had been smeared, it appeared, many times over, but the message was clear. GET OUT

2012 EPILOGUE 4a

Before the gaze was abruptly interrupted, my eyes drank in the dark rolling hairs, diminishing to a fuzz line just around the vulva. The clitoris’ pink pearl catching sunlight, as her right leg freed itself, her foot thrusting into my chest.

I tumbled at least twice and when I landed belly down and looked up, she was in a squatting position. Legs together, breasts just behind the knees, her left arm around her legs and her right hand extended to the ground, palm firmly grounded. She was a beauty no matter the position or pose. Some will say her lineage are the daughters of the daughters of the daughters of a queen. Some twenty five hundred years in the making since Gorgo of Sparta ruled her people. And if this be her, she has already impressed me royally.

‘How in the hell did you get here, naked and everything?’ I asked in the manliest tone I could gather, my breath barely returning. ‘Are you alright’ I followed as I scraped myself from the grassy surface. ‘Where are your clothes?’ I made two steps in her direction, and she stopped me cold with a stare. Her piercing black eyes surrounded by squints of white were both foreboding and mesmerizing. My body wanted to go to hers, yet my mind held me fast to the ground on which I stood. I thought for a moment I could just squat and kneel, and enjoy the beauty before me, but before I could, the air was filled with her shrieks and wails. And then the bawling started.

I turned to stare across the lake, noticing that the water line had dropped another couple of feet. The freshly receded mud glistening in the sunlight, the banks already drying in the early morning heatwave. And then I saw them, bodies it seemed, farther around the lake nearest the tree line some thousand yards to the east. I began walking towards them, and then my feet stretching the pace, I could make out the bodies clearly as I neared the five hundred yard mark. I know my gait was a run, but quickly slowed up as the reality of the scene I was viewing manifested itself. Even from a few hundred yards away I could see the scarred flesh of their faces, their hair scorched back away from their skulls. Their clothes appeared to be melded onto their bodies with no differentiation of what was once flesh or cloth. I was at a stumbling walk as I got within the final steps, approaching them from the tree bank side. I looked back towards the west, towards Penelope, and could only make out a small dark dot against the feigning tree line which ended just to its west. The sand replacing the green life which still embraced us, seemed endless in its stretch. And already, even a mile away, the waves of heat rising from it made ripples dance rhythmically, to and fro in all directions.

 

2012 EPILOGUE 3a

The mud clung to me for more than a dozen steps, the sucking pops resounded across the emptiness of the lake. Sluurp-pop, sluurp-pop, sluurp-pop, and I finally met the water line. My body felt tired, as if running a few hundred yards, my legs feeling twice as heavy as they were. I waded into the water and walked to where it was at my upper thighs. It was easier walking in the water, the floor dissolving between my toes as they pressed into the silty basin. Bending slightly, I flailed the muddy tennis shoe just below the waterline. Rinsing the mud from the inside twice, I gave it a once over and started to turn back around. Realizing I had to walk back across that mud, I bent down and removed the other shoe as well. Filling them both with water, I started towards what appeared to be the shortest distance to get to the embankment. And it was, by four or five feet; and barefooted, I only dipped in a few inches because of the long strides. I placed the shoes down first and then climbed onto the near grassless knoll. Once sitting, I sparingly dowsed each foot with its appropriate fit, until they were clean enough to slide back into them. Pushing myself up to stand, I realized my ribs still hurt, and I knew I’d have to make a conscious effort to remember not to turn or bend left. And then I turned left in the afterthought, and spotted something, perhaps a hundred & fifty yards away at the tree line. I went straight for it, and with every ten yards accomplished, the image took clearer form. By the fiftieth yard I could see it was a figure, and in less than ten more I could see it was a woman’s. A dark haired naked woman, and my pace picked up. It didn’t feel like I was running, and in the time I thought to be at her side, I was. Bending onto my right knee, I leaned over her to clearly make out the face, Penelope’s. I took her cheeks between thumb and fingers, bringing her face upward, my left hand cupping under her head, tilting it slightly back to be sure for open airways. The slightest rise on her chest bone was evidence she was alive.

I have had good days and I have had wondrous ones. ‘If I am dead, and this all is hell, then I’m going to hang around and see what’s happening next’; my mind chattered to itself, my eyes drinking in the beauty of a fit form. Her breasts were more than desirous, the dark areolas giving life to the nipples, which seemed to swell from my panting breath. Her navel barely sunk below the waistline, her Venus mound rising to present itself, evenly covered in hair. I know I wanted to lean down to see the vulvas, to have that picture in my mind forever. But instead I drew both arms together across her waist, cupping her hands upon her magnificent mons pubis. I may have let my hands rest upon hers, lingering longer than a dare, and then there was a jerk. The shout was more like a scream, it pierced me, “what the fuck are you doing?” Her hands repelling mine, I lost my balance and fell backwards, dropping my elbow between her parted legs. My head caught rest at her knee, and I didn’t know who to thank, Satan or God, but I thought all my dreams had come true right there and then.

2012 EPILOGUE 2a

A weakness overcame me, and I near shuddered in my stance. It wasn’t the ribs, as I’d almost forgotten about them. And I didn’t think it was the heat either, even though I wasn’t used to 90 degree sunrises. And my reflection in the driver’s door window was distorted. Yes, there was a semblance of my facial features, but the few days’ growth was whiter than it was brown. And even though I was used to seeing my hair overlap my ears for some time now, the reflection pasted an electrostatic picture back at me. It stuck out in every direction as if invisible strings held each strand a minute distance away from the other. The picture smiled as I recalled Weird Science, imagining my hair a few inches longer, and being upon the poster with Kelly LeBrock. Especially because 1985 was such a great year for me.

But this was entirely different, and the smile faded from the glass. My eyes seemed hollow and I thought I might faint. For balance I gripped the door’s window slot, to have it buckle under my fingers. I leaned a little forward so as not to fall backwards, and in a few moments my mind & coordination returned. I looked again inside the cab’s emptiness, this time spying a half full bottle of water. Opening the door, it half hung, still adjoined at the lower hinge. I reached across the seat and grabbed the bottle, which melted onto my hand before I could snap it back. I wiped my fingers on the seat, slowly removing the liquid plastic, which felt strangely like a thick coating of Vaseline. And I thought about being dead again. Maybe this is what happens…you’re alone and everything is melting upon contact.

Well, dead or alive, I couldn’t remove the plastic completely, so I thought I would try the lake, thinking I could sure use some of that cool water washing over me right now. I had a very clear view to the west and somewhat the south towards the west, from the trucks side. And I could actually see the highway a few miles away, stretching from the north to the south. Southward, maybe ten or twenty miles was a fair sized city/town. But it really looked like little brown blotches in the very far distance, because everything else looked like sand. I turned from the west, to face north, eyeing what must have been hundreds of miles of single lane road, and hundreds more miles of sand. As I brought my gaze downward, the nearest part of the lake was coming into view. I hadn’t noticed during the night that there was a bench and overhang to its borders, but now I could clearly see the three foot drop to get down to the waters shoreline. And what kind of shoreline is this? My jump down buried me six inches deep in mud. Trying to lift my right foot from it, cost me my tennis shoe. I stepped the foot back enough so I could angle my left foot’s toes upward, and then bent down to find my shoe. Now I’m muddy and filthy and the water is still more than ten feet away. What the hell is going on? And where is everybody? Last night there wasn’t a moment’s peace, and this morning it’s void of any noise. Not a single bird across the water or flying from tree to tree.

Oh no, maybe I’m really dead and this is how hell opens up, my mind stated as I was planning my next series of steps.

 

2012 chap 5 p.60

First it was the Volcanologist’s. Then the Seismologists…the earthquake doctors so to speak, who found our stresses alarming, and disturbing news for our future. Soon after came the Geological Specialists and Geo-dynamicists joining the bandwagon. Lately it’s the Structural Geologists and the Geophysicists who said it’s true. That the average rate of continental collisions, and the average speed with which the continents change latitude, has doubled over the last 2 billion years. And actually they didn’t need to say two billion years, because just with the pace Australia was at, near two and a half inches of movement a year, went to five inches in this century alone.

So much for slowing down as you age. Earth’s tectonic plates are moving faster now than at any point in recorded history. The argument is why. Some say it’s because the planet’s inner heat which powers the plate tectonics. That that heat is ebbing away as Earth ages, but was expected to slow plate motion, yet…just the opposite is revealing itself. Others say as the cracks and crevices on the oceanic floors widen and get deeper, that ocean water is filling in, which usually resurfaces in the forms of geysers, as in Yellowstone. But are in fact igniting inactive volcanoes into becoming active again. That it was never uncommon for at least one volcano to be erupting each and every year. But now we have six of them going off simultaneously. And the different points all run on tectonic plate lines.

Yes, the world was in a mess. If the earthquakes didn’t get you, then the volcanos would. And if that didn’t kill you, then the viruses would. And without any semblance of governmental support and protection, then the guy next to you was probably going to shoot you. Or you may shoot him first. There were even rumors that the Van Allen belt sent meteors upon us from time to time, and we saw this happening last year also. Even the Kuiper belt (k eye per) was sending some our way from Neptune, but really never confirmed.

The two major space concerns was an asteroid the size of a house during a February flyby, passing within 101,000 miles of us. First spotted on January 30, the asteroid is the fourth giant space rock to have a close encounter with Earth since the start of 2017.

Last Sunday, the 25^th, a truck-size asteroid zipped by Earth at a distance much closer, passing at just 32,200 miles; the 19-foot asteroid was six times closer to Earth than the Moon is. Asteroids also gave Earth a “close shave” on January 9 and January 24.

The other concern of course, is the Chinese Space Station, which was unable for whatever reasons to adjoin with the ISS (International Space Station), and is now hurtling its way back into the Earth’s atmosphere, probably crashing down from Michigan and spreading east to the coast. Lucky DC’s already gone. But too bad for NY and Toronto and of course Vermont and New Hampshire. If they’re not all frozen already, things could be heating up there real soon.

Yes the continents were definitely moving farther apart, as New Zealand’s 6000 foot peak was only 5000 feet above sea level last month. Australia claimed its land mass was only two thirds of that measured at the beginning of this century.

No place was looking safe for any of the planets inhabitants, so most stayed where they were until one calamity claimed them, or another.