fiction
Copyright © 2010 Edward W. Pritchard
My exposure to Armageddon began long before my walk in the mountains of northern Georgia, heading southeast towards the Georgia Sea islands. On the last day of 2011, I received a prequel of the terror that the deadly Armageddon winds would bring to America.
Like most older people who live alone, I seldom venture out at night, preferring the comfort of my modest home. However on December 31, 2011 I sauntered through downtown Akron, Ohio for a First Night celebration, to hear a local band pay tribute to blues singer Big Joe Turner. I planned on being home by 10:30, then listening to some more blues music over a beer or two, before retiring to bed by midnight.
Well-satisfied as I left the blues concert about ten PM, a sub-zero snowy wind met me, providing limited visibility as I sought my car. Small groups of young people milled around unnaturally in the frigid gloom, staring at me and several older couples walking toward the parking decks. Normally this would be of little concern to me. For several years I have been unconcerned with what happens to myself, and I have little fear of ruffians or muggers.
Finally an old couple pleaded with me for help. They were being followed and a crowd was beginning to circle them. I, however, was being left alone. For though I looked every day of my sixty years, with an age-lined face, inanimate eyes, and thinning hair hidden under an arctic hat, I can truthfully report that I have a thug-like appearance. To the crowds, especially when seen from the back, I was not someone they would normally dare to confront.
The six young people following us were (I later decided) a small mob, under the influence of the madness of crowds. In an instant they completely encircled us, like a wolf pack. But though they outnumbered us, they seemed cautious, perhaps hesitant to strike.
“Enough of what,” I hissed at her, as I leaned toward one of the larger men in the group.
As quickly as the mob circled us they moved away, vanishing into the gloom. I escorted the old couple to their car and returned to my home.
In over two hundred northern cities and towns celebrating First Night, December 31, 2011, more than four thousand elderly were accosted by mobs, including ninety-eight deaths among these frail victims, primarily due to falls or heart problems. (There was little punching or striking, or other outright violence.) Of course later, throughout 2012, a few thousands injuries or deaths would be insignificant of mention. I am just referring now to mob violence against the feeble elderly, not to terminations caused by nature and the winds described earlier.
I mention the two older people and the effort I took to intervene on their behalf less than one year ago, before I explain my failure, despite my efforts, to protect my two new friends at the horse farm in northern Georgia (see Part 9). It provides an illustration of how the value of a human life has changed due to Armageddon, 2012.
Looking back on that first night December 31, 2011 I am now convinced that the divine first unleashed the forces of destruction against humanity at 10:15 PM, December 31, 2011. It’s been less than a year since I helped those two old people, that loving couple. I, the preserver. They, the weak, protected previously from the forces of nature by civilization. I fear for people like them and I doubt my ability to trek on helping people like that old couple. Please don’t tread on me, I fear what we will become.
Here is something I wrote previously, sub-titled Fears
Sunday, September 12, 2010
When they came
for Frantz Kafka
when they came my neighbors stout iron cyclone fence didn’t stop them
when they came two flights of stairs didn’t slow them
when they came a dead bolt lock and and solid oak door didn’t deter them
when they came uncle’s Smith and Wesson didn’t faze them
when they came my wife’s pleadings didn’t help me
when they took me my arguments didn’t interest them
end part 8 – the prequel
Next : At the Horse Farm
I have just retired after more than 40 years in the military, fire/medical service, law enforcement, Red Cross, Emergency Management, and other volunteer services that go in when emergencies occur, except for the military time all the other services were right here in America.
As far back as 1969, when things go wrong, the unprepard believe it is YOUR fault that this has happened to them and their families. I have worked floods, major fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.
When the light switch does not turn on the light, the water does not run, and people have no heat or a place to call home . . . it is YOUR fault. When I turned 21, and this was breaking all the rules, I carried a weapon and 6 extra clips. Toward the end of my being a volunteer, I broke the rules again, I staged my vehicle close to the area I was working, I had body armor, weapons used overseas, medication, food, water, and a way to purify water.
All I am saying is I have been there and done that and sold the tee shirts. If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you have no hope, as it is YOUR fault these people are in trouble.
Good luck out there, RangerRick.
Thanks, but scary, Ranger Rick.