Subpages (1): Part III: Eric of The Apocalypse
"Humanity is on the cusp of a Brave New World. A future full of un-imaginable possibilities now lies ahead of us. The advent of cold fusion reactors powering our cities and faster-than-light travel opening up the galaxy for Planetary exploration and terra-forming...the sky is the limit.
At the centre of these miracles is Capitalism. The driving force for human endeavour. For it is money and greed that is good - for all of us. Invest in a better future, invest in our Fund Managers - money makes you happy and it makes the world go round".
Alonso muted his earphones in disgust.
"Capitalism at the centre of progress??" he said behind gritted teeth. "It is hard work, imagination and perseverance that has ushered in the discoveries that have lead to this New Age".
"When will man learn that silver bullets do not solve the Republic's problems. That gambling remains an unsustainable form of wealth creation? In fact, if risk-making was actually a value-adding activity, those who play Russian roulette would be praised for contributing a disproportionate amount to the global economy, rather than boo-ed during every financial bailout every 3-5 years!".
"We must learn to become developers rather than consumers or middle-men, else remain mired in infancy and prone to self-destructive cycles!"
Still overcome by his frustration Alonso decided to stop in front of a hotdog cart on Boulevard Avenue and commit an atrocity of his own. “Hotdog please”.
Almost immediately the old vendor picked up a sizzling sausage from the top grill.
“No, no... none of that synthetic in-vitro crap, I want the good stuff from real pigs.”
“Alonso you do know that the in-vitro meat constitutes 75% meat product, as opposed to a much lower percentage for the 'real' sausage?"
"John, those are big words for a hotdog vendor."
"Alonso, all that fat is not good for you. All certified Doctors in the whole of the Earth Republic agree. It will cause you premature death” said the old vender tutting “death at Ninety, according to recent studies…”
“Pah, I don’t care- Ninety sounds like a ripe old age to die…”
The vendor shrugged his shoulders at those words and opened a small hidden door on the left side of his cart. Alonso sneaked a peek of the hidden grill where the vendor kept banned, normal sausages sizzling and popping in a pool of fat.
“Nice and juicy” he said as the vendor placed the beautifully cooked sausage in a crispy warm bun. “How much for that?”
“A little more than a normal hotdog, say four dollars? Oh and don’t tell any officials about this dealing.”
“As always” Alonso said with a hint of outrage in his voice, he was an Accountant. Spending too much money on things was never to his liking. He was hungry, so what the hell, one outrageous buy a year wouldn’t kill him.
Alonso paid quickly, before he changed his mind and desperately as the bun touched his hand he bit out a huge chunk out of it.
While he was attempting to chew quickly to give his mouth more room to stuff another piece of the plump and juicy sausage in his mouth, a tall middle aged man, much like himself, pushed past him, causing him to drop his half eaten bun. As Alonso knelt down to pick up the still decent hotdog, another pushed past him stepping on his precious hotdog.
Alonso felt like crying at the site of his splattered hotdog, but revenge was far more important…quickly he turned his eyes glowing red, to find the culprit of the hotdog crime.
He could see him, back turned to him in the middle of a crowd in front of the Electro Shop, he knew he was avoiding him; that electronics shop never had anything new worth looking at...he shrugged his shoulders and he began to walk away…violence would not solve anything…
As he moved away the curiosity slowly burned him inside and he stopped suddenly because the thoughts were unbearable…“Why was there a crowd standing there if that was the case? Was there a new robot out…a fantasized AI one?” Alonso pondered to himself, his eyes glinting at the prospect.
Forgetting about his trampled hotdog, he turned back and pushed past people to see what the commotion was about.
As he pushed past various men and women of different ages and race, he saw they all had one thing in common, the shocked expression on their faces.
Finally, he found a spot where he could see clearly the shocking product…nothing more than a TV, an old wafer thin one.
“Yes Folks these are live images you are viewing here, this is not a hoax… I know it looks like something from a sci-fi film but its not. The image on your screens is real…”
“How long has the ship been hovering over D.C., Charlie?” a woman beside him asked her husband.
“Over an hour…and they haven’t even attempted to make contact”
“Maybe they are hostile.” The woman said a hint of fright in her voice.
“Hey don’t panic Andreina for all we know they could be happy, friendly aliens” said Charlie trying to cheer his wife up. She was comforted by his reassuring words hoping they were correct.
On the TV thousands of men, women and children could be seen welcoming the alien ship with cheers of adoration and excitement, many in Alonso’s crowd wished they were there with their fellow citizens celebrating this joyous occasion in human history.
Finally, the ship responded to the cheering crowd by opening the cargo doors on all sides of the vessel where red light escaped from the inside.
“A sort of alien fireworks display perhaps?”
The red glow shot up into the sky and quickly arched and plummeted to the ground covering half of D.C. in a beautiful red glow for but a few seconds. The glow disappeared leaving nothing but a flaming singed wreck where beautiful buildings and countless humans once stood.
Not even the White House was left by the merciless red glow.
The gasp that ran right across the world was even felt by those oblivious to the fact that the world capital had been destroyed by what seemed at first sight to have been beautiful lights.
Almost instantly all of humanity of voting age was paged directly to their optical readouts.
"Attack vessel?" the message read. "Vote: Yes or No."
Humanity replied instantly to Tellus the super computer who collated the results in seconds.
"Election results in: Yes 74.5%; No 24.5%"
Immediately, countless nuclear weapons struck the hostile ship, each bursting with enormous force against the lone ship's hull. Slowly destroyed by fires with every blast, the ship began to fall out of the sky like a piece of twisted scrap metal.
The threat was over, for now. The Earth Republic had directly and democratically opted for war.
"Will the Insurance Companies deem the attack an Act of God?" pondered Alonso, still shocked by the devastation that had rocked his peaceful planet.
© 2012 H Williams. All rights reserved