The Pole Shift

Macka's Masters.

It was Thursday. An enormous boom had rushed around the world. Macka knew it was a signal the world's mantle had reached the tipping point. In fact the Pole Shift had started, but was in a momentary stasis.  Like a boulder on top of a mountain can be once it has broken free of its stone cradle, poetically still, before causing carnage.

                Macka was notified Lett had initialised her crystal. At last he thought, he had worried she had lost her heart in the shabby house.  The Clarky kid had meant much more to her than was reckoned, but the Lett that had been profiled by Prophet had returned. He checked on the others, they all needed help and Macka had to make choices. Time was running out.

                The idiot Sean had been hog tied and held captive by his ex wife and neighbours, the brief promise that Sean would be able to manage without help was a lie. He would defiantly need assistance. Should he go to the fool himself? He contemplated sending the Pole Cops to arrest the offenders, but they were as likely to kill as arrest, including Sean. He took a deep breath of crisp morning air, the days were getting cooler. The blue sky belied a terrible time ahead,  there was electricity in the air, the tension tasted like metal. He walked the streets of Melbourne, thinking. He wanted to get out of the city and up into The Divide. He was excited by it, wanting to witness the dawn of a new age alone. His mind wandered, going through his tactics for survival, wondering if he should just go. He was thinking of himself and he pushed away the desire to leave his  assignments.

              The kid was going to have trouble after he chose who went in the pods, Prophet thought there might be violence amongst the teenagers, he should ideally be there to control them - get the chosen ones in the pod and cart the others away, again, he didn't want the Police involved, it was too late, they would be tempted to take the pods themselves. He said aloud:

                "You can do it Jimmy." There were a few people loitering along Russell Street, they looked at the man stride away. One of them shouted :

                "Yeah you can do it Jimmy!" They laughed. A girl with a torn and polka dotted wedding dress turned to her friend and announced:

                "You can do it Fifi!" The small group found themselves very funny.

                 Macka turned to look at them, he said sadly:

                "You're all gunna die this weekend. Rest In Peace." The laughter fled, and the young faces fought to ignore the reality spell that that had been cast on them.  Macka strode on and turned left into China Town.

                The thought of helping Sean at the last minute infuriated him. He had left an interface crystal on top of a can in Sean's cellar. The envelope was marked in red, SEAN! He had contemplated just giving it to the drunk, even performing the piercing to make sure he utilized it. He should have, then Prophet would have given Sean guidance rather than informing him Sean was incapacitated and in real threat of being murdered. Only his ex-wife's old loyalty stayed the execution. He looked for the hills up Little Bourke Street but the city blocked his view. He thought of the lemon tree bow Sean had been working on. No, he thought, Sean's on his own.

                Mnem had not found the crystal, or if she had she had not followed the instructions contained within the envelope.  He worried it would sit unnoticed on the Van's bed. He worried she wouldn't figure out how to get into the Van's cabin. He worried that the country clan she had bumped into would ransack her and the Van. He muttered:

                "Christ Mnem, wake up, get in that cabin and stay there." Faces turned to him, ashen, scared, no business was being conducted, but the Chinese were busy. He walked on. Mnem was on her own. It was all too late. He checked with Prophet. "Am I allowed to go?" There was a long pause.  He had crossed Elizabeth street and had turned left into Hardware Lane. At last the AI spoke:

                 No. Our masters want to meet you.