tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1896783608556587882023-11-15T09:10:18.491-06:00Dreams in the Shade of InkDreams built with fragments dropped from day's caravanJakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069266783997777691noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-189678360855658788.post-66186301808192880652014-05-21T13:55:00.001-05:002014-05-21T14:02:33.845-05:00UNCLAIMED<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-0230ce0e-2022-8106-4716-89d498a74086" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">NOTE:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="color: blue;"><span style="background-color: white;">This was a short, random piece of fiction I wrote during the 2014 A to Z Challenge at <a href="http://crytonchronicles.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Cryton Chronicles</a>. Feel free to check out it’s original posting <a href="http://crytonchronicles.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-to-z-2014-unclaimed.html" target="_blank">here</a>. Being it was specifically a fiction piece, I thought it made sense to also display it here as well.</span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Samantha — or Sammy as her parent’s called her by, despite the pleas against it — trudged down the hallway, each footstep lightly emphasized by a soft echo. Her head was hung low. The flowery sundress she wore swayed with her movements, now and again obscuring the view of her cute, pink-sparkling, princess shoes. They were brand new and she had begged her mother to purchase them solely for today’s event. To show them off. To show all the other six-year-olds that she was somebody too. That Samantha was important.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There was no need to pay attention to where she was going, she had been here before, and knew the layout of the house; where the bathroom was. Samantha drifted away in her thoughts, the muffled clamor of the birthday party being celebrated in the backyard fading. All the other children were playing games together. Ones that required you to have a partner. She was certain that with her new shoes and dress that someone would take notice. There was no way she would be the odd person out. Not this time.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But no one had claimed her as a partner. She watched as, one by one, teams were formed among the other twelve kids. That made her thirteen. That made her unlucky.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">One parent, who had decided to stay and help chaperone, offered to be her teammate, but Samantha knew the truth. They were just feeling sorry for her situation. Pretending to care. She wasn’t completely oblivious to the generosity of such a deception. It was more than could be said for her friends attending the party. Like Becky, her best friend. At least when no one else was around for Becky to engage with instead, that is. The two of them had barely exchanged more than two words since being dropped off. A brief wave and curt smile.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Samantha became aware that she was about to reach her destination. It wasn’t so much that she had to go to the bathroom, but that it offered seclusion. She turned right, just stepping past the threshold of her makeshift sanctuary, when the slow creak from the door directly behind her stopped her cold in her tracks. Goosebumps raced up along her arms and her muscles tensed. The sound continued to resonate throughout the hall, as she began to turn around. An idea she was certain she would regret. She may only be six, but she had seen her fair share of horror movies.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This was the part where someone dies.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The creaking subsided and Samantha spun around faster to get it over with. Nothing. Blackness. She then realized her eyes were cemented shut and hands balled up into small fists. Throwing caution to the wind, she slowly opened one eye, determined to face her demise head on, more or less. Again, nothing. Just a partially opened door. No killer with a knife, no monster with sharp teeth. Sammy let out a long sigh of relief.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The dark stained, wooden door loomed over her, but it didn’t take long before curiosity sprung to life. She crept her way across the short span to the room across the hall, as though afraid there still may be someone, or something, lurking close. She reached out with a tiny hand, gripping and twisting the doorknob out of habit. It gave her a brief sense of control. Then Samantha was stepping into the room, as she opened the door fully, and was greeted by blinding light.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The room was so bright, sunlight pouring through a large window across the way, Samantha couldn’t get a bearing on her surroundings. She brought a hand up to shield herself while her eyes adjusted. She was amazed that the room had appeared so dark originally from out in the hall. Perhaps the sun just broke free from a string of clouds. But then she saw it. The light seemed to be focusing around a central figure sitting in a chair positioned in the middle of the room. The sunshine illuminated it, rays of warmth surrounding its otherwise shadowed being. She squinted a little more.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It was a doll. Or perhaps a puppet, dressed in a red and white jester-like outfit, sans the cap. A fool with his hand-painted, wooden head exposed. And despite the light display, highlighting the toy, it looked rather gloomy. The puppet seemed to be frowning. It — or </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">he</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, it seemed — was against the back of the chair, but hunched over, its gaze cast to the floor. She was reminded of the ventriloquist puppets she had seen on television programs. They always made her uncomfortable, and what sat in front of her seemed to fit the bill. She took two steps in attempts to gain a better view.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It was then that she became aware of the some other features of the den she had just entered. A fairly small and clustered room. Her attention, however, was drawn to the couch to her right. It was placed diagonally in the room so that it faced the door. Simple, a light brown with slightly darker matching pillows tucked into the corners. In the middle of the couch was an array of dolls. Beautiful ones. Some had streaming blonde hair, others brunette, but all were adorned with intricate, white dresses and smiles. They all seemed so happy. A close knit group sitting together gossiping about their lives, waiting for the tea party to begin where they would be served sweets with their drinks.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She counted twelve of them. Of course. Something was off about them, though, despite the merry disposition of the scene. Each of the dolls were facing the same direction, their blank stares turned away from greeting people as they entered. She followed theirs back to the lone puppet occupying the center of the room. On his throne of loneliness.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Samantha understood then. He was an outcast, like her. Cast aside and left alone. It now made sense to her why he was staring down at…</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She was startled as she locked eyes with the puppet. Eyes that looked alive, and were no longer downcast. On it’s pale white face, marred with black paint surrounding its eyes, with red surrounding its mouth and cheeks, was a smile. It did little to distract from the sorrow encompassed in the eyes, however. Samantha’s breath quickened and she assessed her memory. There was a good chance she had mistaken how the puppet was originally positioned. With the drowning light and her imagination already running wild, she possibly projected it in her mind to mimic her current emotions. It was impossible that the doll could have been looking down and frowning one moment, then staring and smiling at her the next.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But there he was. Smiling at her. Eyes searching hers, almost yearningly.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She felt a growing sensation of need growing within her. A need to connect. Thoughts came through to her from seemingly nowhere. Questions being asked. Would she be a friend? A best friend? Promises being made. I will never leave you. We will be friends until the end of time. Samantha almost thought she could hear them voiced, or rather whispered, through her mind. She became lightheaded, woozy, almost drunk with emotions. With an equal yearning she imagined from the puppet.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She really wanted a friend, a true friend. Needed one.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There was the desire to touch the puppet. To hold it. To play with it. The urge began to overpower all of Samantha’s other senses. All other thoughts beyond the doll, her parents; Becky; the birthday party, were suppressed and systematically eliminated until there was only that connection with the puppet. Her peripherals narrowed, giving her tunnel vision, and at the end was her new friend. The only thing that mattered. In her dreamlike state she watched as her hand tentatively stretched out towards the puppet.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Play with me, she heard, and she had no choice but to comply.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Samantha never heard the creaking, or the latch engaging, as the door slowly closed shut behind her.</span></div>
Jakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069266783997777691noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-189678360855658788.post-4458450906820554432013-03-21T22:58:00.000-05:002013-03-25T00:57:34.299-05:00AFTER ARMAGEDDON - 3 -<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.8289821445116161" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Run -</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In
those first moments, when you came to learn the world was erupting in
chaos, you couldn’t help but be stunned motionless. Nothing made sense,
nothing seemed real. It was like watching a movie. Explosions, the Earth
trembled from unseen forces. God was angry. You couldn’t help but watch
it play out.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And then, people were running. Running and screaming.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For
the better part of my adult life, I had always felt the inherit urgency
to be prepared to run. It was nothing I could explain, beyond that.
Just the knowledge that I had to be ready for something to come. That
and that I was falling behind. Facts; they just simply were.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I
don’t know what kind of source created such an intense base of knowing,
but it was inaccurate. No amount of preparation could have conditioned
myself, or anyone, for what was to come. That little voice in the back
of my head was a little too optimistic; offering some semblance of hope.
Had I known that it would have meant the difference between life and
death, perhaps I would have taken it a little more seriously.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Like
I said, though, nothing could have prepared you. Once the nightmare
became a reality, the rest was tossed to the wind. It became a matter of
luck.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And as everyone knows, Lady Luck can be a fickle bitch.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* * *</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Roughly 1 year After Armageddon (1 A.A.) -</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Riggs
pressed his back to the wall, aware of the others following behind him.
Slowly he maneuvered to the corner of the building, at the mouth of the
alley. Once reaching it, he put back an outstretched arm, hand open,
signaling to stop. He looked to make sure they were complying, just as
one member of the group stumbled, bumping into Connors. The large man
quickly turned, grabbing the collar of the man who had walked into him.
Riggs looked away, knowing nothing would come of the confrontation. The
fuck up had an </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">in</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fucking rookie</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.
The lead of the group turned back to inspect around the corner. Nothing
but growing darkness and shadows. Evening was fast approaching. The
streets glistened from a short rain shower late that afternoon. Even
though the warehouse district offered many shelters from the rain, he
pushed on. Riggs wanted to get back to everyone else, and make sure
their encampment was secure. He was in charge of its safety.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
thought of babysitting a community wasn’t his idea of a good time, but
it wasn’t his call. Neither was patrolling with the handful of riff raff
behind him. Connors and Tj were alright; they had been with him for
years now. The others, randomly selected civilians amongst the community
deemed apt enough for subtle combat training.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Then
there was the rookie. Most of his squad didn’t like the idea of him
being part of the group. He didn’t belong to the community originally,
but he also wasn’t military. He was just... there. Riggs doubted the man
could even shoot a gun, and if he happened to manage that he surely
would miss whatever the hell he was aiming at.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Despite
the cooling temperature, and exposed to a soft breeze, sweat was
running down his brow. Scanning the street, he wasn’t able to detect any
sign of movement. No sound, no life, just silence. Something wasn’t
right, though. There had been no returned communication after his
repeated check-ins. He had Phillups on duty. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If that son of a bitch fell asleep again, I’m going to kill him</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There
was a light tap on his shoulder and he turned to find Tj greeting him
with a concerned look. His thinning, dirty blonde hair was partially
covered by a bandana — one replicating an American flag. His dull, blue
eyes were wide, made comical by the mustache he was sporting;
reminiscent of a seventies porn star.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Everything okay, Riggs?” Tj asked, keeping his voice low.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Still
no contact from the outpost, but so far everything seems on the level,”
he replied. He knew better than to think silence was an indicator of
normality, though.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Think
Phillups is jerking it again?” his companion scoffed. “How long has he
been rolling with us, man? That really kills my buzz, he should have his
shit together.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Riggs
nodded slightly. “He takes long shifts, but you’re right, he needs to
get his shit together. We’re in the thick of it.” Even some within his
squad could be a pain in the ass. “We’ll trade off duties, get someone
else on watch.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“This limited communication is bullshit, man.” Riggs couldn’t disagree.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
glanced past Tj, to the others, and gave a quick signal for them to
follow. He pointed to Connors and specified him to take the rear. He
watched as the large man purposely shouldered and glared at the rookie
as he passed, taking his position. The rookie shifted his gaze away,
successfully intimidated. Riggs sighed and went about pushing forward,
the group in tow. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Following
along the building, he kept aware of their surroundings; seeking the
slightest sign of movement. Around them, massive warehousing buildings
stretched into the night. Glassless windows stared down at them like
hollowed sockets of a skull, cold and black within. Each could hold a
threat. The shadows hid new nightmares. The entire district was like a
ghost town. Still and dead, as if it had suffered a nuclear fallout.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Just
down the road was the outpost Phillups was stationed at; there were
multiple throughout the district. It was a corner unit in a gutted
building, which was centralized near the heart of the establishment.
Their main housing was still blocks down. Riggs was thankful that those
he lead were mindful to remain quiet. He stopped the group again and ran
a head count, everyone was present. No stragglers, which happened from
time to time with tagalongs. Connors, pacing behind the group, would
have put an end to that. He wanted to get back to headquarters before it
was too dark. It was already getting to that point.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Riggs
lead the group to the specific warehouse and stood just outside the
door, allowing Tj to take point. Tj pulled out his a tactical
flashlight, the building being almost completely dark. They entered
single file, Riggs appointing Connors to stay at the entrance. He
followed behind the rookie, their footsteps echoing around them, and
navigated the halls to where their comrade was posted on duty.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Everyone,
except Tj, stopped and huddled outside the door to the room. He pushed
his way through them, and came upon the scene of Tj kneeling next to a
limp, bloodied Phillups sprawled on his back. Riggs flanked the opposite
side, and the two of them shifted their friend into a sitting position
against the wall.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Someone
get Connors!” he yelled to the group still standing in the hall. He
thought he heard someone take off down the corridor.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Fuck,
Riggs, he’s ripped to shit” Tj was examining Phillups. A sharp
inhalation of breath caused the both of them to startle. “Tyler, what
happened?”</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Tyler’s
eyes fluttered, mouth opened and closed — resembling a fish on land —
but was unable to speak. Riggs slapped his cheek, while Tj assessed the
wounds. “Tyler, can you hear me? What happened?” No response. “Try to
hang on, stay with us.” His attention shifted to Tj. “How’s it looking?”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“He’s
losing his guts, man. His abdomen is completely torn up. There isn’t
much I can do, but try and slow the bleeding.” his comrade’s voice was
panicky. “It’s fresh, this just happened.”</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Riggs
shouted, “Rookie, get in here and help! Grab some of those towels,” he
pointed to a small stash of supplies in the corner with his own
flashlight drawn, “and apply pressure to his wounds. We have to try and
stop the bleeding. Someone get on the radio and try to contact HQ.” The
man he gave orders to did as told, but stopped halfway. He just stood
there holding some towels, staring down at their comrade. “Hey, snap out
of it!” His words weren’t cutting through their paralysis. Riggs began
to stand to retrieve them himself.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Finally,
Phillups was able to utter a harsh whisper. “Stalker...” Riggs stopped
cold and turned back down to Tyler. “Fell... fell asleep again.” Blood
was trailing out of the corner of his mouth. He was staring at his
wounds. “I... I’m a... fucking mess...”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Don’t
talk.” Riggs gave a stern look to the rookie, who was still
immobilized. “Get over here and help,” he ordered. “I won’t ask again.”</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* * *</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack’s
head swirled in a fog. It was accompanied by ringing caused from the
impact he took, and the truck’s blasting horn. When he woke, tears were
streaming down his face. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious
for, but as the scene before him came into focus, he knew it hadn’t
been long. The vehicle that had crashed into the office had steam
beginning to trail out from beneath the hood.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What the hell?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
He squeezed his eyes tight, trying to focus beyond the pain racking his
body; exploding in his head. Explosions. He thought he recalled there
being an explosion or earthquake. The most prominent thoughts were
centered on his family, though. Images of his wife and children swimming
in a sea of confusion. He knew they weren’t there. They were gone.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
memory of the nightmare flitted and began to fade. He was glad to see
it go. If he was lucky, perhaps this was all a dream. A dream within a
dream. Jack brought his hands up, cut and bleeding, inspecting them. He
slowly pushed himself up, using the wall for support. He lifted his
blood-stained shirt up, afraid of what he may find. His stomach was
speckled with multiple cuts from glass, but most of it minor. Much like
his hands, the fine cuts released an abundance of blood, but not causing
much damage.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
leaned forward and reached for the pickup, using it to balance himself
as he maneuvered over the litter spread across the office, ignoring the
sharp pain coursing through him. He was still unable to think clearly.
He was aware of the horn, building smoke, and not much else. When
reaching the passenger side door of the truck, he looked inside the
window.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
driver was slumped forward, head pressed against the steering wheel.
There was either no airbag, or it hadn’t deployed. At least they were
buckled in. The windshield was completely webbed, the office light
resting against it. There was no intermittent sparking, offering brief flashes of light. Jack opened the door, climbed halfway in, and leaned
the driver back against the seat; finally relieving the office of the
horn. It was replaced by sounding alarms and screaming from outside.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There
was blood streaming down the driver’s face from a gash on his forehead.
His nose was also bleeding, and he thought it was likely broken. The
man didn’t appear to be older than his mid-twenties, sporting a kempt
beard, and wearing a long-sleeved flannel shirt. His blonde hair poked
out from under a black beanie. A matching scarf was loosely wrapped
around their neck.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Hey,
buddy,” Jack shook the man gently, “wake up.” The driver’s head lolled
back and forth. If the individual were a hockey player, the broken nose
would be fitting. Seemed to be the stereotypical non-conformist,
conforming hipster, though. A broken nose would at least add some true
character. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Why the fuck is he driving a pickup?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
Hard times for everyone. Jack reached up, pulled down the scarf and
felt for a pulse. Still alive and kicking, just unconscious.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As he backed out of the truck, he called out into the office. “Robert?” He wasn’t expecting an answer, and didn’t receive one. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Where the fuck is everyone?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> It was hard to ignore the chaos outside. Perhaps Robert’s secretary and fellow employees were investigating that instead.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
made his way along the truck, still using it to transverse over the
rubble. The truck had crashed square into the office desk, splintering
most of it into pieces. Robert’s chair was flung back against the far
wall, having flipped over a toppled bookshelf.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Robert
laid motionless on his back, half his body hidden beneath the front of
the truck. Chunks of wall and desk obscured his upper torso. Jack was
surprised by the lack of gore. That was good, though. Too much and it
would have been more than he could handle. Robert’s vacant, unseeing
eyes stared up at the ceiling. Moving around the carnage, Jack knelt
beside the body, trying to avoid the lifeless gaze.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“They
really fucked you up, Robert.” For some reason that struck him as
humorous, but he held back the chuckle. He had to keep it together, this
was serious. He confirmed there was no pulse. Among the piles of
rubble, next to his deceased interviewer, was an e-reader. It must have
been tucked into one of the desk drawers. He suppressed the urge to call
Robert a hypocrite out loud.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
forced himself to look down at the man’s blood-streaked face, and into
his glazed eyes. Jack quickly turned away, and stood up; he was afraid
he couldn’t stomach it. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fuck this, I need to call Lisa.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
His attention was instead drawn back to the ruckus outside again. The
smoke from the truck was being drawn out of the gaping hole in the wall,
but he needed to get out of there. Get into the fresh air.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
crossed to the other side of the truck, slowly making his way past the
driver’s side. Part of him thought the driver inside would suddenly
spring to life, slamming his hands and face against the window, scaring
this shit out of him. No such event transpired, though, as he exited the
office.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack
raised his arm to shield his eyes from the sunlight that attempted to
assault him. As his senses started to come back to him more fully, the
stinging from his cuts intensified. He knew he would have to get them
attended to soon. His eyes focused and he was greeted by a pile up of
cars stretching along a glass littered street. A handful of vehicles
were blocking the sidewalk; those that had swerved to avoid connecting
with others.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Idly,
his hand searched his pocket for his cell phone. He held it open with
his free hand, in attempts to avoid the shooting pain it was causing.
Jack continued to assess his surroundings, not fully comprehending what
was going on. People were out of their cars, those involved in the
accident seemed to stumble about in confusion; some shouting at one
another. Others were exiting various shops, wearing panic-stricken
faces, holding their hands over their ears to block out the symphony of
alarms.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Panic began to seep into him, as well. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus, I hope Lisa and the kids are alright.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
At the time, he believed the kids would be at school and Lisa didn’t
work in the cities. They should be safe, depending on the radius of the
quake. He withdrew his cell phone and flipped it open; nothing fancy
like the majority of the populace, with their smart phones, but old
school.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
became aware of a man laying in the middle of the road, with another
hovering over him. Jack assumed it was someone hit by a car during the
madness. Perhaps the one tending to them was family, a friend, or even
the culprit. The man in the road was unresponsive, the one helping was
on their phone. He doubted the individual would get through to anyone.
Not during the fiasco, all lines would be tied up.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As
Jack clicked through his contacts, he could hear snippets the
individual leaning over the body was wailing, before being drowned out
again. The man was screaming for help and looking around for anyone who
would answer his plea. No one complied. He found his wife on the list
and was about to send the call when there was a sudden shriek behind
him, from within the office. It seemed the secretary had finally checked
on Robert.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It
startled him, but he didn’t turn to check. Instead, he hit the send
button and brought the phone to his ear. Even though he wouldn’t be able
to hold a long conversation over the phone, he would be able to
determine his wife and kids were safe. The first ring sounded. It was a
circus; people engaged in shouting matches with one another, sirens of
incoming emergency vehicles, storefront alarms.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Second
ring. As if on cue, the ground began to shake again. Jack braced
himself as best he could, keeping the phone to his ear. Then the tremor
abruptly ceased. Another round of explosions went off. Before he could
catch the reactions of everyone else around him, his attention was
pulled southward; deeper into the city.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
watched in horror as a large building began to collapse. Another began
to tilt, as if an uprooted tree. The leaning building stretched across
the street, ripping through power lines in a shower of flashes and
sparks, and connected with another. On impact the building seemed to
split and crumble as gravity forced it downward, taking gouges from the
structure it collided with. All of it plummeting to the traffic-filled
streets below.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">More
explosions sounded, and a third building began to collapse into itself.
Then another. It appeared to be a series of demolitions. Jack stared on
as the street began to fill with a massive cloud of dust and debris;
people, vehicles, and buildings being consumed by its mass. The dust cloud
mushroomed outwards, racing down the road, overtaking anything in its
path. It’s height increased as it bellowed forth. Despite the distance,
and unable to determine its speed, he was almost certain it would reach him.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
sirens behind him were louder. The sharp crack of metal on metal snapped Jack back
to his surroundings. He jumped and spun, just in time to see a fire truck
barreling forward in a blur of white and red, lights strobing; shrugging
aside one of the cars it struck. With no visible sign of slowing down,
the fire truck connected with the individual that had been calling out
for help, and the one he was tending to in the road.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
driver didn’t stop or waver from his course; treating the pedestrians
as nothing more than a minor speed bump. Jack assumed, or rather hoped,
it was shock from the events unfolding. The body of the second man
hadn’t gone flying as he imagined it would. Rather it was displaced
about ten feet from where he had just been. He thought of the man’s
blood splayed across the front of the fire engine. Red on red.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
remaining emergency vehicles stopped at the accident site. Jack
couldn’t focus enough to count how many there were, his eyes wandered to
the two dead and back on the incoming cloud. It was reminiscent of the
dust storms he had seen in pictures from Arizona; blotches of black and
grey in a bubbling sea of brown.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
watched the fire truck slam into another car and veer sharply to the
right. It slammed into a hydrant as it cut across the sidewalk, now
attempting to avoid bystanders, before coming to a halt. Water gushed
skyward and rained down over the truck and those closeby. Within moments
they were overtaken, complete hidden from sight, lost in the advancing wave of debris.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack felt somehow connected to his wife. The awareness reminded him about his call to her and he brought the cell back up to his ear.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“...ck? Jack, what’s going on, are you there?” he heard his distressed wife. He wanted to comfort her, but couldn’t talk.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A
new sound began to drown out everything else. It took a moment to place
it, but when he did it sent a chill slicing through him. It was the
chorus of people screaming in unison. A crescendo of shrieks and wails
laced with panic, fear, and despair. He watched as everyone in the path
of the ominous dust cloud attempted to escape it. Some of the faster
ones even broke free from the torrent of destruction, only to be
swallowed by it again.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“..are
you?”... "...the news...”... "...attacks...” He only heard snippets of
his wife’s panicked conversation, in between her calling out for him; trying to get some indication he was there. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">People
ran by screaming, some stumbling, others completely stampeding over
those in their way. No one stopped to help one another. It had turned
into pandemonium. Every man for themselves.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
urge to run began to overtake him. He had no idea what his wife was
saying, and he spoke over her. “Lisa, are the kids with you? Are they
okay?” There was a loud blast sounding from above, high in the
atmosphere. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">My god, what the hell is going on?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “Can you hear me Lisa?” he was shouting into the cell. “Lisa?” Silence.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She must have hung up, and at that moment he couldn’t have cared less. He closed the phone and placed it back in his pocket. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Run</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
his mind pleaded. Instincts told him to listen, join the masses. Flee
and survive the growing darkness enveloping the city. The crowds were
rushing by him, and his legs were no longer under his control.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And then he was running. He knew it was only a matter of time before he too would be consumed by the incoming carnage.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.03425538666374284" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">AFTER ARMAGEDDON</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/02/after-armageddon-preface.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">PREFACE</span></a></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/02/after-armageddon-prologue.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">PROLOGUE</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/02/after-armageddon-1.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">CHAPTER ONE</span></a></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/02/after-armageddon-2.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">CHAPTER TWO</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">CHAPTER THREE</span></span></blockquote>
Jakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069266783997777691noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-189678360855658788.post-32475810851157130482013-02-21T19:44:00.000-06:002013-02-22T03:34:05.359-06:00FIREFLIES<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>(A Flash Fiction)</i> </span></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jer
sat alone, on the stone bench, in the park. This late in the evening,
it was devoid of life. She wasn’t coming. He knew this, because he
hadn’t told her. But he wasn’t alone. He had someone, or something—or
both—with him. He kept it in an imaginary, glass jar. One kept close to
his heart; </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> his heart, he liked to believe. Intertwined.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A nameless firefly.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Love,” he resolved, at that moment.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
raised a hand to his chest. Jer could feel it pulsing, glowing
rhythmically with his heartbeat. Thump thump; a beacon shining through
his soul. Dimmer now, though, than just hours before. Dying.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Love
never belonged to him. It was her’s to give, not his to take. A lesson
of grave importance: Love deserved to be free, not caged in fear. Free
to explore, learn, and experience as it may.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He took a deep breath, reached inside, and slowly twisted the lid. Thump thump; the anticipation! Love knew what was to come.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A
solitary tear streamed down Jer’s cheek, as Love burst forth from what
it certainly thought its demise. He sat entranced, as Love exploded and
split into millions of duplicate fireflies. Dancing, lighting the night
sky, each pulsed and glowed in unison; to him, the Universe.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Connected. Beautiful.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Eyes
closed, star-bound, he watched them surge around the world. Her Love,
his Love—their Love—free to leave footprints where it may.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">More tears flowed. His beacon to the infinite illuminated anew.</span>Jakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069266783997777691noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-189678360855658788.post-1213714805083652292013-02-10T03:37:00.000-06:002013-02-22T03:41:30.020-06:00THE BLACK OMEN: BETRAYALS - PROLOGUE -<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.6586798866741963" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(A FFXI Fanfic)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Beginnings -</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When all is said and done, people still ask: Did we do the right thing? Was there more that we could have done? What if...</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“What
if...” That single phrase is capable of being the dismantling of one’s
inner self; in the matter of a heartbeat. It is unavoidable. It lurks
there in the darkest recesses of the mind, waiting. Yearning to be set
free and let loose. To unleash its unstoppable, corrosive disease of
guilt. </span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> In
the end, all we have are the memories and “what ifs.” Before the end,
though, there is the beginning and everything in-between. The exact
beginning, if one truly exists, it of no importance. The beginning known
is the beginning offered.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I offer </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">my</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
beginning. Take it or leave it, it is what it is. It’s the only one
you’ll get; the only one I have to offer. The only one I know anymore.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
stuff in-between, well, I am sure others will remember things
differently. It’s the stuff of stories and make-believe. Tales that get
twisted and warp with each telling while being passed on as fact.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And
the end? I am sure everyone will agree upon the end. It seems the only
thing in life that is ever constant and absolute. Death.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
gathering clouds in the evening sky are reminiscent of the night all of
this began. A different beginning, told to me in passing by a friend.
His beginning. None of that matters anymore, though.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Everything is over now. When all is said and done, it is what it is.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But,
as I stand here looking over the graves of my comrades, friends, and
family; remembering the events that took place, sacrifices made, blood
spilled, lives lost, I can’t help but wonder...</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">...what if...</span>Jakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069266783997777691noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-189678360855658788.post-27889892369858851272013-02-04T20:36:00.000-06:002013-03-21T23:50:44.735-05:00AFTER ARMAGEDDON - 2 -<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.005023325790330824" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Countdown -</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Immediately after the event–</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Armageddon</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
as many refer to it as–all the worries of the past seemed pointless.
Whatever hardships you faced, your loved ones faced, complete strangers
faced seemed null and void. The world, and most everyone in it, was
tossed into the same hellish shitstorm challenge; survival.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Not
just in loose terms; getting by paycheck to paycheck, being homeless on
the streets begging for money, food, and booze. Literal life and death
survival. The world sprung into chaos, and everything you thought you
knew no longer applied. The game had changed; a game everyone was forced
to participate in.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You
began to long for the days where fears of not making your rent on time
or a check bouncing was the epitome of a rough time. A life of distress.
Like when you entered adulthood and discovered the world is one fucked
up pile of shit and you wish nothing more than to be a child again;
innocent of the reality surrounding you. Innocent if lucky. Always
wishing you could go back.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Except
you can never go back. Like words spoken and actions taken in blind
rage, you can never take them back. Only mitigate the damage. Things,
however, would never be the same.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Our sins had apparently caught up with us. Our hate upon the world begat more hate and left its mark.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">All we could try to do was mitigate the damage.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* * *</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack
sat alone in the third bedroom which had been converted into an office.
At his desk, centered in the middle of the room, he leaned back in his
chair. It wasn’t leather, or very cushiony, but more like one you would
have if working in the corporate world stuck in a cubicle. He thought
that by avoiding luxury, he would be more prone to focus on work. The
room was simple; the white walls bare with the exception of a single
poster behind him. He valued simplicity.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Bookshelves
lined the far wall; three in total, one in each corner and the third
evenly spaced between them. He also valued symmetry. The books, two
deep, were organized by author and title. All of his favorite “masters”
of literature neatly categorized by his OCD, there for his viewing if
ever needing a spark of inspiration. There was only one issue with the
collection. He was not among them. No Jack Winterton.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Perhaps
the name wasn’t as befitting, lacked the flowing roll off the tongue,
as some of his counterparts. An alternate pen name may be more
suitable. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack Winterton</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">...
He would have to disagree with the assessment. It was a very plausible
name to attach on a creative piece of work. It almost sounded like a
hero’s name, if he did think so himself.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Below,
on the bottom shelf of the middle bookcase, was an array of books on writing and publishing.
Books that he had read a handful of times, the hope being that each
reading would uncover some tip or technique he may have missed.
Something that would eventually help him make his break into the writing
world. In the end, they ended up hindering him more than helping. Jack
found he began to worry about too many miniscule details to such an
extent that he would just freeze up. The creative process jarring to a
halt and leaving him alone with nothing. A blank canvas.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
became aware that his eyesight was blurred. Just on the outer edges;
his peripheral vision. It caused a slightly skewed, tunnel effect.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">His
attention turned to his desk where, unlike the the tidiness of his
literature, papers were spread in disarrayed piles. In a tray to the
upper left corner of his desk was a collection of rejection letters he
had received from various publishers. Jack had read once that it was a
good idea to save each one, as an inspirational tool. All he found it
caused were bouts of self-loathing and depression. His laptop sat
haphazardly on two smaller piles of paper, opened with a blank word doc
staring back at him. Taunting him. Challenging him to speak to it, to
humble it with his verbose expertise.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There
was a slam. He didn’t actually see it open, but when he looked over to
the door, to his right, his wife was standing in the hall. She just
stood there looking in the room, seemingly unaware of his presence. The
tunnel vision narrowed more. Her red hair, straightened and styled,
framed her face. Behind her black framed glasses, grey-blue eyes stared
into a void.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack
was unsure how, but they were suddenly standing face to face, holding
hands; He was aware they were still in the office, but it was out of
focus. He stared into his wife’s eyes, now alive and seeking out his
own. He cupped her hands in his, rubbing his thumbs against them.
Caressing her, for some reason attempting to comfort her. Was she angry?</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
reached up and tucked back some of her hair behind her ear. His finger
trailed down her freckled cheek as he studied her lips, wanting to run
his finger over them, to kiss them.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“I
feel like something big is coming, Lisa. I just know it.” He smiled at
her, and it was returned. It always was. “I think this next project is
going to be the one.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">His
wife tilted her head down. When she returned his gaze the smile had
faded. “I know, Jack.” She brought her own hand to his face, running it
along his scruffy jawline. He had forgotten to shave again. “You always
think something big is about to happen. Each new project will be “The
One” and we’ll be set for life.” He thought he heard pity in her voice.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“This
one will be different. It has everything, babe. Tragedy, conflict, love
transcending all odds of opposition. Human survival transcending almost
complete annihilation.” His hands were pulled away from her, in front
of him, animated; stressing the factors he was pointing out. He felt her
hand leave his face, the warmth going with it. “There will be a plane
crash, there’s always a plane, ya know? Oh, and a dog. I put that in for
you. I know you love them. Don’t get me wrong, I love them too, but you
definitely more so. Still unsure what kind of dog, but...”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She
took his hands into hers, stopping their random jostling, and squeezed
softly. “That sounds wonderful, it really does. I would read it in a
heartbeat. Even make a movie if I could, but things are getting bad,
Jack. Right here, right now. We are barely staying afloat.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
gave an involuntary facial twitch at her last remark. Serious business,
in the middle of talking about something exciting. He wanted to pull
away, but let Lisa keep his hands in her grasp. Her hands were always so
soft. He was looking down at them. Her nails were painted a deep
purple, currently matching the shirt she was wearing.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Why are you so upset?” He asked.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She
brought a finger under his chin and pulled his attention back to her
eyes. “Listen, I’m not upset.” Her eyes sought understanding from him.
He could feel them attempting to intrude into his being, wanting to make
sure he fully comprehended that what she was saying was true. He was
very familiar with this. “It is important that you understand that. I
love you, and have done all that I can to help support your dreams. When
you quit your job, I didn’t push you to find another right away.
Remember?” He nodded. “You wanted to pursue your writing, and it was
fine for a time. I wanted you to follow your heart and indulge your
passion.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“And I appreciate that, I really...”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She
squeezed a little tighter. “I know you do, but it’s time to try to find
something. It’s been <i>time</i> for the past six months. You can still write
while working, everybody does it. We need the income.” Lisa’s voice was
sweet and soothing, but he felt like he was being boxed in. Like he was
being attacked. The blurring intensified and his full vision shut out
more.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Why is she so upset? Why is she doing this now?</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Lisa, something big is coming,” Jack repeated, “and I want you to be there with me when it happens.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There
was a blur and they were apart again. Both standing, but he was back at
the desk while she was in the hall. Something was off, though. It was
like he was looking down at himself, watching a movie of the two of
them. Images flashed through his mind. Memories of a fight, words
exchanged in panicked anger, packed suitcases and bags.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What is going on?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “What’s happening?” he asked aloud.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“I’m going to stay at my parent’s for a while. Just for some space, just to think.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Images
of a photograph came to him. In it, his wife and two children were
embraced in laughter. He recalled it being taken earlier that year. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What about the children?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
“What about the children?” Jack was back in his body, staring at his
wife. She was wearing a different outfit, but he had no idea how she
could’ve changed so fast. “Jack Jr. starts school this fall.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">His
wife answered, “It’s all taken care of. He and Natasha will be coming
with me, and will still be able to attend the same school. We’ll
literally be right down the road, remember?”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Please don’t go</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. “Why are you leaving me?” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Please don’t leave me.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
Jack couldn’t move, he felt glued in place. All semblance of the office
faded. The blurring increased until if phased into blackness. Just a
dark tunnel with his wife in the distance, standing in the hallway.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“I’m
not leaving you, this is temporary. For the time being, I will still be
paying the rent and bills, but I need you to understand this is
serious. You’re thirty-five. You need to grow up, and find a job. I love
you to death, but I need you to focus. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> need you to focus.” Her voice was still sickly sweet.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Focus? What’s going on?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> A sense of deja vu overcame Jack. These scenarios, fights, outcomes. All of them felt familiar. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">No, please. Don’t leave me again.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He couldn’t control his reaction. “Why are you being such a bitch?” Everything was scripted. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Why is this all happening again? What’s going on?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
He felt trapped within his body. His mouth moved and the words flowed
out, but he wasn’t in control. Meanwhile, his inner-dialogue was free.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Suddenly,
his wife was no longer in front of him, and the hall was drowned out in
the same growing blackness. There was a tightening in his chest. He
wanted to scream out. Scream at his wife for doing this to him, for
leaving him. Leaving him all alone. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wait, until the kids are gone. Don’t scream around them.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> He hated screaming, but it was welling up from deep within him.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Countdown from ten, and the nightmare will end.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack closed his eyes tight. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ten, nine, eight...</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
He remembered the first time he met Lisa. She was sitting in the coffee
shop, working away on her laptop. He normally wasn’t a coffee drinker,
but that day he needed the caffeine; a kick to make it through. When the
bell on the door signaled his entrance and she looked up, their eyes
locking, he could sense it. The feeling that, for whatever reason, this
woman would somehow play a role in his life. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Please stay with me, don’t go.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Seven, six...</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The darkness was all there was. Had there ever been an office to begin with? </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Don’t make me do this all again. Why couldn’t I change anything?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Somehow the darkness grew in substance, beginning to take form.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There
was the slamming of another door, somewhere in the distance. He refused
to open his eyes, because he knew there wouldn’t be anything to see. He
had lived this all before. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Five...</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
Images from the birth of his daughter flashed through his mind. Lisa
holding Natasha in her arms, his love going out to them both. He could
sense dark tendrils stretching out for him. He tried to focus his mind
on other events in his life. Ones that brought him love and joy, but the
welling up inside was increasing. His teeth clenched and his heart
raced.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Four...</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> He had to get out of there. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Please, God help me.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> There was no answer, just black vines of sludge working their way around his body. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Three...</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
The feelings of despair were inescapable. The darkness began to feel
comforting, wrapping around his waist and moving upward. Jack felt the
desire to give it what it wanted. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Don’t scream, hold it in. I can change this. I don’t want to be alone.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Tears
welled up in his eyes, as the anger was attempting to force itself
out. He tried to swallow it down. His neck flexed, veins protruding. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Two...</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
He had to hold it in. The frantic need to change the outcome of his
path flared. He was outside, in the darkness, again watching himself
from above. Watching the vile pitch of midnight consuming his entire
body.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It
pulsed as it wrapped around his neck, not choking him, but caressing.
Coaxing him into releasing his rage. How dare that bitch leave him? Grow
up? The blackness hissed and whispered to his soul.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Everything
was already predetermined; scripted. Jack allowed himself to release
from the struggle of maintaining any semblance of faux control. Eyes
still shut tight, tears beginning to stream down his face, he bellowed
out into the emptiness. All the rage and anger burst forth, exploding
from within. The darkness swarmed and enveloped him completely; surging
into his mouth, filling him up. It didn’t drown out his scream, but
amplified it. The scream was endless, the darkness offering a constant
supply to fuel it for eternity.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">One...</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">*</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack’s eyes snapped open.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
was kicking himself back against the wall, screaming out into the room.
It was matched by the blaring horn of a truck that had crashed through
the wall just ahead of him. Unlike in the dream realm,
though, his scream faded. He sat there heaving, taking in gulps of air,
trying to discern where he was. His lungs burned and his mouth was dry. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As
his tear-filled eyes began to focus on his surroundings, he couldn’t
help but feel relieved that the nightmare was finally over.</span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.03425538666374284" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">AFTER ARMAGEDDON</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/02/after-armageddon-preface.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">PREFACE</span></a></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/02/after-armageddon-prologue.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">PROLOGUE</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/02/after-armageddon-1.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">CHAPTER ONE</span></a></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">CHAPTER TWO</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/03/after-armageddon-3.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">CHAPTER THREE</span></a></span></blockquote>
</div>
Jakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069266783997777691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-189678360855658788.post-17389710280841057222013-02-04T12:25:00.000-06:002013-03-21T23:50:00.806-05:00AFTER ARMAGEDDON - 1 -<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.08128361714380394" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- They Came in the Day -</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
world was already a cesspool of corruption, greed, and scum.
Governments sending us overseas to fight in propagandic wars to fill the
coffers of the already filthy rich. The freedom of the people
systematically stripped in bits and pieces, under the radar when able;
masked bills passed in the dead of night. Those who bothered to warn the
people or fight for our rights as citizens were drowned out by the
horrors taking place around the world. Always fear mongering; the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">true</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
new epidemic. Though, not new at all. The fine art of controlling the
masses with fear has been used by those in power as far back as can be
remembered. Advancements in technology and media just made it all the
easier.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
majority of the world was continually left in distraught, following
commands blindly. The most fucked up part, I always thought, was while
people were being forced to kill others that so many of the human race
willingly did so of their own merit. Population control. Even now, after
everything that occurred; so easily we turn on one another.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As
though we weren’t doing a good enough job killing ourselves, Mother
Nature took it upon herself to bring her own brand of destruction to the
table. Through those final years, the world was plagued by a multitude
of natural disasters; earthquakes and hurricanes and tsunamis.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Oh my.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Who would have thought it could, so easily, get so much worse?</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Well, it did, and fast. On a warm, breezy fall day, it happened.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The event.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Even better, Winter was coming. I’ve always hated Winter...</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* * *</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“ton... is everything okay?”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
heard the question, but refused to answer it. For the past hour he had
been sitting in the cramped office trying to pitch himself. Attempting
to explain why his skill set would be a positive contribution to the
company; how they could function exponentially better with his expertise
in the field. All of this interlaced with trying to find some common
ground with another individual. Telling jokes, and trading anecdotes.
Word vomit. At that point, it had gotten close to the verge of begging.
That was where he drew the line.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">His
gaze had shifted out the office window where he could watch traffic
crawl by, being constantly hindered by the many stoplights lining
Central Avenue. He felt a longing for being stuck in rush hour traffic.
Frustrated at his fellow middle class workers who were only trying to
reach their destinations, same as himself. It brought an odd sense of
being normal; belonging. A sense of being productive, if nothing less.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Mr.
Winterton?” He could see the man vying for his attention turn to look
out the same window. The pause was only momentary until, with a touch of
annoyance, he was called out to again. “Jack?”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Absently,
Jack finally turned back to the man speaking to him and gave a small
smile. “Sorry, I was just daydreaming a moment there.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
interviewer, Robert, gave a laugh. “It happens. It is a beautiful day
out there and we should both be enjoying it, and yet here we are cooped
up in this place.” The man spread his arms signifying his office and
brought one down to rest on his desk; the other he ran through his
slicked back, thinning black hair. He was a bulky man, with calloused,
ink-stained fingernails. The suit he wore looked a size too small. Jack
imagined it couldn’t be comfortable.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Indeed,
it is a beautiful day.” He gave a soft sigh and looked Robert in the
eyes. “So you are saying there isn’t anything available at this time?”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Robert’s
face drooped into a saddened expression, but it never reached his eyes.
“I'm afraid not, my friend. Our local paper is pretty small, as you
know. With the internet and all, demand has dropped substantially for
almost all newspaper publishers from coast to coast. We have already
been forced to let go a handful of our columnists to recoup some loss in
profits. Publishing houses have even fallen on hard times, with the
introduction of e-readers and other digital products.” The man fidgeted
with his tie some, silky blue matching his suit. “I can only imagine, as
time goes on, it becoming worse.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Unless you adapt.” Jack offered.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Exactly,
unless we adapt. Change with the times. It’s like Dylan said, times
they are a-changin’, am I right? All these damn new age hippy types
screaming bloody murder about saving the trees and the environment.” The
large man raised his voice, along with his arms again. “Save the
fucking trees? The environment is shot to shit, there's no repairing
that!” Robert’s face was tinted red and he seemed flustered. “There are a
few purists out there. Those that like the feel of a newspaper or book
in their hands, but they’re a dying breed.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack
nodded in feigned agreement. “What can you do? Like you said, the times
are changing, right?” His interviewer was nodding with him. “The
economy has been in the shitter for some time now. It is improving some,
but not at the rate everyone had hoped. The rate I had hoped.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Wilcoxen...,” Robert scoffed.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Holding
his tongue Jack continued. “I just want to start working again to
provide for my family. The wife has been picking up my slack for too
long now. It’s beginning to weigh on her, I can tell. Living day to day,
paycheck to paycheck, gets old after a while. Cutting back on luxuries
comes with the territory, but I would like to at least have some gifts
under the tree for Christmas this year for the runts.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Yes,
your daughter Natasha and... What was your son’s name again?” Robert sifted through
Jack’s portfolio some, though the information wasn’t there.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Jack.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Right, Jack Jr. after yourself.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Jack
Jr. III technically speaking, from my great grandfather, but it’s
clumsy using that nowadays. I don’t use mine anymore either. Sometimes
on a professional level with some of my work in the past. Not much more
than that. In general conversation it’s annoying.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“The Third? That isn’t too common anymore is it? Maybe a Jr. now and again.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
shook his head. “Nope, not common at all. Our family loves its Jacks it
seems. So as I was saying, with times changing you have to adapt.
Perhaps expand on your digital presence? I know you already have a site
up, naturally, like any business now. Perhaps some blogging?”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Robert,
shaking his head, already provided Jack with his answer. “Blogging,
sure it’s a great medium for the forthcoming online digital world, but
we already have a handful on staff who do that. They create quite a
buzz, if you’ve ever bothered checking up on them.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“I have.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Excellent.
So as you can tell, we have that corner of the market pretty much
secured. We don’t want to over-saturate. I mean, everyone has something
to say, right? Can’t afford to pay them all.” The man chuckled at his
own half-witted humor. Jack gave another forced smile, playing along.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Everyone has something to say</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.
Robert wasn’t wrong. Everyone seemed to enjoy putting in their two
cents. The internet made that as easy as a few clicks of a button; he
wasn’t certain his two cents would be worth more than any other. Making a
living with blogging, without the backing and support of an already
established outlet, was too rare for him to rely on.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
placed Robert to be in his late fifties, his hair was obviously dyed to
cover up the white, and his round face sagged some. With how easily he
got worked up, Jack was surprised the man hadn’t yet suffered a heart
attack. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">No one likes forced change, I suppose.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">With a sigh, Jack resigned. “True, can’t pay them all. Just hoping to find something before the snow flies.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“I
understand,” Robert said, while closing Jack’s portfolio. “I am truly
sorry I can’t help you out with that. With Winter coming, perhaps you
can find some seasonal work?” Robert seemed lost in thought a moment.
“Winterton... You know, come to think of it, I think I’ve heard that
name before, elsewhere.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Both
of their attention went back to the window as two squad cars, sirens
blaring, rushed by; heading deeper into the city. He suspected he knew
where Robert had heard his name from, but he was hoping that it wouldn’t
be remembered.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Robert’s brow was wrinkled in concentration. “Do you have family in the military, by chance?”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fuck me</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.
“It just so happens that I do,” Jack answered. Robert beamed at his
triumph, this time it did touch his eyes. “But if it is all the same to
you...”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“He was in the press some time ago? War in Afghanistan?” Robert interrupted him.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“That would be correct, he got some air time associated with some of his involvement overseas, but...”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Hell
son, your brother is a goddamn hero!” Jack winced, but noticed how
engaged Robert was now becoming and thought he could use it to his
advantage. That felt a lot dirtier than begging. “He really messed up
some sons-o-bitches over there, didn’t he? Fucked them right up their
cave-dwelling asses!” Robert was laughing so hard his face was turning
red again, his jowls shaking. He even failed to notice two more squad
cars racing by. “What was your brother’s name again?”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack
stood up and moved to the window. He caught his reflection, mainly his
disheveled appearance. His hair was all over the place, a rat’s nest,
and his face was unshaven. He was sure if the reflection was more
prominent he would find dark rings under his eyes. No wonder he wasn’t
getting a job. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fuck this, the last thing I’m going to allow is my brother somehow, unintentionally, landing me a job</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Fuck Christmas</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. More sirens sounded.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“If it is all the same to you I would rather not talk about my brother. We don’t get on all that...”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“But your brother is a her...”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack
raised a hand, turning some to face Robert. “Yeah, a goddamn war hero, I
get it. Breadwinner of the family, like our father and his father
before him.” He must have offended Robert some, because he was trying to
heft himself out of his sleek, executive leather chair; struggling. He
tried not to imagine the imprint that would be left in it. The desk was
against the wall next to the window. He imagined it was so Robert could
stare out and watch people passing by if he so chose. There wouldn’t be
much to see beyond that except concrete, traffic, and storefronts. An
office with a view.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“What
the blazes is going on out there?” the rotund man inquired. Jack then
realized he was coming to join him at the window, just as a firetruck
and ambulance sped towards the city; forcing vehicles over to the side
of the road. The sirens faded as they made their way farther south.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Before
Jack could answer there was a deep rumble off in the distance. At
first, he mistook it for thunder, but there was a clear afternoon sky
above. The traffic outside was moving again, but the rumbling was louder
and constant. Then the glass began to rattle, his reflection no longer
clearly visible with the vibrations.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
entire office began to shake and Jack pivoted to keep his
balance. He checked on Robert who was bracing himself again his desk.
The handful of artwork, plaques of accomplishments, and calendar on the
wall pitched themselves onto the floor. Books jostled off their
shelving, bringing with them random adornments. The tremor became more
violent and the light flickered. The deep rumbling seemed to erupt
from below, all around them.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">From
outside an explosion sounded. Then a second, accompanied by alarm
systems of both cars and storefronts triggering. It was too hard to tell
just how close they were. The calm serene day was now alive with chaos.
He could hear screams from both outside and within the building. The
quaking escalated and a third explosion caused the window to explode
inward and the florescent lighting in Robert’s office broke free and
swung down from its wires, sparks flying. Jack and Robert both shielded
themselves with their arms; Robert losing his balance and falling back
into his chair.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack
was flung back and fell to the floor on his back. His head spun as he
tried to get his bearings, trying to move over against a wall; rolling
over onto his stomach. His hands pressed down and he attempted to pull
himself along the littered carpet, but he was assaulted by multiple,
sharp pinpricks.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And
then, all at once, the tremors ceased; the air now penetrated by only the
sounds of alarms, screaming, and an electric spark from above. The
office was now only lit from what sunlight came through the window and
the randomly timed spark from the lighting. Jack took a moment to gather
his senses before attempting to stand back up.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Are you okay, Robert?” He asked, shouting over the ruckus outside.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Yeah, I'm okay... I think,” the man answered back, “Jesus Christ, they did it again.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sitting up, Jack used his chair to pull himself to his feet. “What are you talking about?”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Them sons-o-bitches did it </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">again</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">!
Another terrorist attack!” Robert was wide eyed, hair disarrayed,
staring at Jack. Behind him the bookshelf had completely toppled over,
and the light fixture swung just ahead, over the desk. Jack wanted to
warn him about stepping back from the light, but the man continued
ranting. “Jack, those sons-o-bitches did it again! Can you fucking
believe it? After all these years, another attack on our soil?” The fat
man spun, looking to where his calendar was once hanging. “What’s the
date? Jesus, is it the anniversary?” His hands fumbled for the phone and
his pudgy fingers picked up the receiver. “Gotta call the police.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Robert,”
Jack spoke slowly, he was worried that the bookshelf had hit Robert
after all, “I don’t think you'll get through. Think about it.”
Standing now, he wanted to look out the window, but felt it more
important to focus on the man in front of him. The light coming through
the window, accompanied by the electric spark, gave Robert an exceptionally deranged
appearance. It was his eyes that solidified that; still wide and wild.
“I know things are confusing, but I think we just had an earthquake. As
hard as that is to bel...”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“That
wasn’t no earthquake, that would be impossible. You know that, Jack!”
Robert had the phone up to his ear but he hadn’t yet dialed anyone. He
seemed lost and disorientated. “It was the goddamn terrorists!” The man
paused a moment and his eyes seemed to grow even wider. “Call your
brother! He’ll know what to do!” Robert tilted his head slightly and,
for a moment, Jack thought he saw concern cross his face. “Jesus,” with a
thick finger, Robert gestured toward him, “they really fucked you up,
Jack.”</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When
Jack looked down, arms spread some, he saw the front of his white, red
splattered shirt ripped and torn. He felt light headed as he brought his
hand, which he noticed was also embedded with glass and bleeding, to
his abdomen; that was where most of the blood was pooling. He was unable
to focus, the sight of blood making him feel faint. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Shit, I forgot to tuck in my shirt. No wonder I didn’t get the job.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> He stared at his hands, small pieces of glass dug into his skin from when he was crawling around on the floor, blood dripping.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
looked back up to Robert and said, “I’m a fucken mess!” Then an
uncontrollable laughter escaped him and, to his surprise, Robert joined
in. Bonding. Maybe there was hope he could still get the job.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As
if in answer, Robert was washed in a bright light. Perhaps the power
had come back on; a generator possibly. A stroke of good luck. Jack
momentarily became aware of the light fixture still swinging back and
forth on its wires from the ceiling and cocked his head in confusion. It
was still out.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">From
outside, amongst the chaotic symphony, a mass of light and steel
crashed through the office wall, throwing Jack backwards in a spray of
chunks and dust. Slumping against the back wall of the office, he closed
his eyes and drifted away to the deafening blast of a horn echoing
through the room.</span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.03425538666374284" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">AFTER ARMAGEDDON</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/02/after-armageddon-preface.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">PREFACE</span></a></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/02/after-armageddon-prologue.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">PROLOGUE</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">CHAPTER ONE</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/02/after-armageddon-2.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">CHAPTER TWO</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/03/after-armageddon-3.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">CHAPTER THREE</span></a></span></blockquote>
</div>
Jakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069266783997777691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-189678360855658788.post-55022183964485994702013-02-03T21:16:00.000-06:002013-06-30T17:56:56.988-05:00AFTER ARMAGEDDON - PROLOGUE<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.7085121655035233" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Forsaken -</span></span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I
am uncertain if someday this will be looked upon as actually shedding
light on the transpiring of certain events. It’s hard to discern how
society will view things years from now, decades from now; centuries
from now. That is assuming there even exists a human civilization;
someone alive for this to fall into the hands of.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Perhaps
it will be uncovered thousands of years from now and be inadvertently
worshiped as gospel. A testament to the creation, or death rather, of
life and the world we knew as Earth.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fuck,
that would be hilarious. At this point, though, it wouldn’t surprise
me. Wouldn’t surprise me one bit. Out of all the fucken bullshit our
race has chosen to believe and worship, why not my ramblings? It has got
to be more entertaining than a book.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In
the end, we thought we had it all figured out. God created the Heavens
and Earth and said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. In those
next following days, seven in total, God created everything that was
ever to be known to man. We knew all this how? A book. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
book. A goddamn relic proclaiming scriptures inspired by the word of
God. Written by whom? Man. Someone not much different from you or I,
except their words are holy and blessed; claiming God spoke to them.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Well,
they say God is vengeful; a jealous fellow. We must have pissed him off
something righteous, because his wrath was unleashed. Roughly shy of
two millennium after the death of his son, God said, “Fuck you all,” and
we were fucked.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">After
all the wars; All the pain, death and suffering. After all the human
race has endured in its limited life span on Earth. All we are currently
enduring, fighting to survive his newfound cleansing; I can’t help but
think to myself...</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fuck you</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> right back.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* * *</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
man slammed up against the wall, pain coursing through his body. It was a
dull pain; felt distant. He attempted to move down the hall, but was
unable to stand without support; feebly offered by his deep lean. He
wasn’t sure how it was possible, but his feet began carrying him
forward. His left shoulder slid along the wall and he would periodically
pause to rest. He became aware of a wetness accompanying the deep
burning.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Precariously,
he pushed off the wall with his right hand revealing red. A glance back
showed the red patterned his brief rests; a pooled blotch followed by
straggled smears dragging across the wall. The further back the trail
went, the more thin tendrils of red dripped down the white surface;
racing to pool on the floor. The contrast of red on white entranced him a
moment. A soft pitter patter drew his attention down to his left hand.
Matching interlacing tendrils adorned his bare forearm. Creeping down
and pooling at his fingertips, his lifeblood stretched until embracing
gravity and falling to the linoleum.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dizziness
overcame him and he, once again, leaned against the wall. There were
two things he was aware of; he was tired as hell and he was dying.
Beyond him the hall stretched out in white, drowned in an ever brighter
white light. Follow the white light, they always said. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What a load of shit.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> He had no doubt he would soon be slipping over to the other side, though.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Continuing
to push himself down the hall, another discerning realization came to
him. He had no idea where he was. The smells around him were reminiscent
to that of a hospital. Sterile. Another dizzy spell, and another
frustrating thought. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Who, the fuck, am I?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
The attempt to focus sent stabbing pain through his skull and he let
out a moan. His teeth clenched and face twisted into a grimace. He
resisted the urge to press his right hand to his temple.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Just keep moving.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> That sounded like a good plan. Only a few feet later, though, an overwhelming desire to slump to the ground overcame him. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Maybe a quick nap is all I need.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
The fluorescent whiteness couldn’t force back the growing darkness
inside he felt building in strength. His blood falling to the linoleum
made a soft rhythmic melody. Almost soothing. He felt certain he could
just drift away to it. Drip... drip. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Play me that song, Harbinger of Death. Carry me home.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Taking
one forced step after another, the man’s eyelids drooped and became
harder to open each time he closed them; each time he blinked. Just
ahead, the doorless hall split into a “T.” Even the process of deciding
which way to go seemed heavy; weighed on him. All he wanted to do was
sleep. To disappear from wherever he was. Go somewhere he wasn’t
bleeding, somewhere he knew who he was.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">His
free hand idly groped at the jacket he was wearing. It seemed to move
with a mind of its own, trailing along the thick, padded inner-lining
just inside the left breast. His fingers brushed against something hard
sewn into the material. He traced the outline of the stitching until
finding a hole. His finger slid in, grasped the lining and, without
thinking, gave a hard pull. The stitching ripped easily, as though it
was meant to break away.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Puzzled,
he paused and looked down, still fondling the flap of a hideaway
pocket; the hard object revealed. It was about the length of a pen but
thick. It looked like a metallic test tube strapped into the pocket. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Use in case of emergency.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
The statement floated through his mind from some distant time. With a
sigh, he withdrew the object from the pocket to examine it more closely.
About a third of the way down was a thin seam encircling the tube.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
brought the top end over and grasped it in his trembling left hand. He
attempted to pull on the object above the seam, thinking it was a tube
that could be opened. The man’s blood stained hand made it near
impossible to get a tight grip. After failing, he felt frustrated and
wanted to throw the object down the hall, but felt lacking the energy to
do so. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Where the hell am I? What the fuck is going on?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
In a fit, he squeezed his fists around the tube and twisted. To his
surprise, the tube twisted in his grasp. There was a dull pop, followed
by a faint hum. In a matter of seconds, though, the hum faded to
nothing. Silence.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
man, still pressed against the wall, gave up on anger; it was too much
effort. He returned the shiny, silver tube to it’s pocket, strapping it
back in. He looked at his hands, dirty and calloused; one painted red.
He blinked, but his eyes remained shut. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Keep moving, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">he
reminded himself. He continued down the hall, not so much walking as
dragging; his feet sometimes never even lifting. Once again, he stopped
to rest. The end of the corridor was just feet away.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There was a sharp, clicking sound.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
quick, metallic click would have, in other circumstances, been barely
audible. Within the silence of the hall, it resonated clear as day.
Strangely, the man found some comfort in the sound. Familiarity. Someone
was about to interrupt his bloodlet tap dance, and force their own
brand of music on to him.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Dutch.”
The voice of the newcomer was smooth, but menacing. It echoed
throughout the hall. Again, a familiarity struck him. He was certain he
knew who the voice belonged to, but was unable to place it. It stirred
something within him. A resurgence of anger. “Where are you going? We
were just starting to have some fun.” The stranger’s statement was laced
with sarcastic amusement.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Prick</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. The bleeding man chuckled. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">At least I know my name now. So left or right?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
Dutch contemplated the choice, but again that stabbing pain began to
intensify. He had almost forgotten about the next musical act that had
just been prompted. Embracing that flared anger, Dutch pushed off the
wall and made a sudden sprint down the hall; covering the last ten feet.
In almost unison, a loud thunderous blast rang out. Then another; it
was almost deafening. The second bullet just missed Dutch’s skull as he
turned the corner. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Left it is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. He was annoyed that he was rushed into a decision, but there was little option.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dutch
pressed his back against the corner of the wall, attempting to catch
his breath. He looked over and, had he been able to take a right, there
was a short hall with a few doors; a window at the dead end. Looking to
his left, he saw another window and a corner leading to the right.
Trying to make it across to the other side seemed like a death warrant.
Not that it likely mattered in the end with all of his blood loss. He
made his way to the window behind him.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Dutch,
why make things more difficult? Are you afraid to grasp the ultimate
truth?” The man continued to taunt him. “Your God has forsaken us,
forsaken you.” The stranger’s footsteps echoed as he leisurely made his
way down the hall. “You don’t have to be afraid of anything anymore. No
reason to fear for your passage into Heaven. Judgment has already been
cast. You are in hell. Accept it,” there was a brief pause before
adding, “embrace it. Accept there is nothing to fight for any longer.
Embrace the Mark.” </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Holy Jesus fuck, this guy is fucking crazy. Where the fuck am I?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
Dutch reached the window, a newfound energy fueling him; his earlier
fatigue and pain placed on standby. The plan to go out the window was
not only aborted because of how high up he was, but also because of the
view before him.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sprawled
out in front of him, under a blazing sunset, lay a city in ruins.
Skyscrapers ripped in half and blown out, their inner guts exposed
revealing raging fires within. The ash covered streets below filled with
abandoned vehicles and littered bodies. Everyone was dead. Something
living was out there, though. He could see them moving; some running,
some shambling among the dead. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What the fu...</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> before he could take it all in, a pungent smell assaulted him, and movement to his right caused him to instinctually turn.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Something
he couldn’t quite define was almost on him. An icy feeling washed over
him and he felt frozen in place. It was larger and thicker than a human,
the color of its skin a dark green with mottled brown; hairy and
bestial in nature, but it was wearing clothing. Belts were strapped
around its chest, and on one breast a holster concealing what looked to
be a massive blade. It wasn’t quite running upright, it was moving more
like a gorilla; beefy, green knuckles launching him forward. The beast
stopped short of him, towering, red eyes assessing him.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
creature inhaled, puffing out its chest and let out a guttural scream,
spittle flying; the stench of rotting meat and decay bellowed out. Dutch
felt himself go light. It wasn’t fainting, but rather almost a dream
state. Shock. Doing so, though, allowed his instincts to engage. Without
thinking he lurched forward, ripping the blade from the sheath on the
beast’s chest; it was solid and heavy. Whatever the thing was, it seemed
to be surprised at the assault, because it didn’t move. Dutch seemed to
have an unexpected advantage, which he wasn’t about to waste. In the
same fluid motion, he turned the serrated blade downwards and plunged it
into the creature’s chest; just above the sheath.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Its
skin was notably thick and rough, but the blade still pierced it. Dutch
could only manage sinking it in about halfway. He let go of the handle
and backed away a few steps, trying to be mindful to avoid being against
the wall. The creature looked to the knife protruding from his chest
and then back to Dutch. It threw its massive arms out to the side and
let out an even louder growl.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Then
Dutch was running, taking advantage of the adrenaline rush, and
attempting to cross over to the other side in hopes of an escape. Maybe,
the stranger would be distracted by whatever was chasing him.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The thought of just crashing out the window, at the opposite end of the hall, seemed logical at this point. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This can’t be real. What the hell is that thing?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
Running. Painless and numb, nothing from his wounds registered. They no
longer existed. No longer mattered. Running across the gap where the
halls joined, he avoided looking to see where the lunatic was. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I just need to get the fuck out of here</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A third thunderous blast rang out.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dutch
felt himself pivot and twist, his back slamming against the wall behind
him. Everything seemed to slow down. His legs wanted to give out from
beneath him, but he forced himself to remain upright. The gunfire caused
his ears to ring and he was unable to think. He felt that wetness
running down his other arm now, and could see the beast coming for him
in his peripheral vision.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">His
eyes focused on the deranged stranger, opposite of him, who was
continuing down the bloodstained corridor. That nagging of familiarity
toyed with him again. The man had thick, raven-dark hair stretching
down his back. He wore a dark leather trench coat which almost swallowed
his slim frame. He found it hard to focus, but he couldn’t avoid the
twisted smile offered to him. Dutch locked eyes with the man, who seemed
to be talking, but he couldn’t hear any of it. None of it mattered.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Finally,
through the disorientation, numbness, and his dreamlike state; a moment
of clarity. With that clarity came anger. So deep and profound that it
felt like it would instantly consume him; engulfing him, leaving nothing
but a pile of ash. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Veris</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. The name played through his mind some and he wished to vocalize it.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“You,” Dutch whispered harshly. It was all he got out before he became lifted from the ground. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The hunter had found its prey.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dutch
felt the monster’s arms wrap around him, lifting up, and carrying him
with its forward momentum. From the looks of it, it didn’t plan on
stopping either. Once again he would be slammed into a wall, or perhaps
thrown out the window. The repulsive, rotting smell was even more potent
while pressed up against its flesh. Entangled in it.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fuck this...</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He
was determined to at least inflict some pain and fight before he was
crushed to death. He twisted in the beast’s grasp and was able to wrap
his hands around the hilt of the blade still embedded in its chest.
Mustering what energy he could, he gave a sharp twist while attempting
to bury the knife deeper. The living hulk of muscle almost completely
stumbled over itself. He felt himself twisting with the beast, but the
rest was lost to another deep shriek; and an explosion of glass, wood,
drywall, and brick.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">That was then promptly replaced with the rush of wind and sensation of falling fifteen stories.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* * *</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">...but wait.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Let’s start from the beginning...</span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.03425538666374284" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">AFTER ARMAGEDDON</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/02/after-armageddon-preface.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">PREFACE</span></a></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">PROLOGUE</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/02/after-armageddon-1.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">CHAPTER ONE</span></a></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/02/after-armageddon-2.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">CHAPTER TWO</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/03/after-armageddon-3.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">CHAPTER THREE</span></a></span></blockquote>
</div>
Jakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069266783997777691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-189678360855658788.post-42971734529909004122013-02-03T18:13:00.000-06:002013-03-21T23:48:03.190-05:00AFTER ARMAGEDDON - PREFACE<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.6255815173738037" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- <span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Never Forget</span> -</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">They came in the night.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">That’s
how all of those fancy, mainstream horror novels seem to start. Dark
and stormy. They are then turned into even fancier, over the top movies;
a medium where part of our imagination dies, but other senses
stimulated. Monstrosities, darker than the shadows they maneuver
through, looming over their prey. Never seen, or heard, until it is
already too late. You are lucky to get out a scream before you are shred
to pieces, brutally mauled, or subjected to some other manner of sick,
twisted macabre imagined. I was never much for horror films; I could
barely stomach them, even knowing it was all fake. I believe now it
would be a cakewalk. It is amazing how the mind can adapt.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I
think, had they come in the night, we would have been better off. Even
in the fleeting moments of death, the phrase “ignorance is bliss” holds
true. Sometimes it is best to be left in the dark; never fully aware.
Even if what we don’t “know” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">can</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> hurting us.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Maybe,
had they come in the night, I wouldn’t be apt to so vividly recreate
the horrors that stalk me in my dreams; every time I close my eyes.
Every time my mind strays, unfocused. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t have
made a difference, because you could never forget the screaming.
Whether the sky had been ruled by the sun or the moon, when the event
took place, the screams would have been there. There was no escaping it.
That was the key. The key that inevitably snapped you out of believing
it was all just a nightmare; back to reality. People were dying, you
were dying. The world was dying.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You could never forget the screaming.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I will never forget the screams.</span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.03425538666374284" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">AFTER ARMAGEDDON</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">PREFACE</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/02/after-armageddon-prologue.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">PROLOGUE</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/02/after-armageddon-1.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">CHAPTER ONE</span></a></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/02/after-armageddon-2.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">CHAPTER TWO</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://dreamsintheshadeofink.blogspot.com/2013/03/after-armageddon-3.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">CHAPTER THREE</span></a></span></blockquote>
</div>
<i></i>Jakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069266783997777691noreply@blogger.com0