Apocalypse Awakening

It Begins!

Apocalypse Awakening

Book I: 2016—It Begins

By

Jay Mouton

Part I

Catastrophic events don't always explode in front of the eyes of humanity; they often crawl forward with agonizing determination. And so it was when the World fell into the abyss of horror that brought about the awakening of our apocalypse.

Some thought the fall began its destructive crawl with attacks on The World Trade Center, and then the political administrations that followed in the United States of America in 2000s; destructive policies of the political aristocracy began to accelerate the erosion of national infrastructure: political, psychological, financial, and more. The fall began along with another resurgence of madness in the Middle East, and the death cults nurtured in those desert sands. It began as the headlong saturation of technologies led so many humans to believe they were more powerful than God; and in the basest form, perhaps they had become as gods as they toyed with the very essences of life.

Nobody may ever know exactly when what became known simply as "the fundamental transformation" began, but begin it did; and it was devastatingly effective in its destructive end. Ultimately, exactly when "the fundamental transformation" began became a moot point—.

Jacksonville Beach, Florida

Elliot Leader lived in what was, at one time, the richest country in the world. It wasn't that everybody was wealthy, far from it. But in the late 20th Century, and into the earliest part of the 21st Century, even the poorest of its citizens had access to wants, needs, and desires that many of the world's people could only dream about. On Election Tuesday, on the night of Nov 8th, 2016, the zone of comfort that, precariously, cocooned the people of the United States had a metamorphosis.

One of Elliot's former students, from the art school where he was an adjunct professor, happened to come by his apartment in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. The polls were still open, and since he and his student were often on the same side of the political spectrum they drove over together with over an hour before the polling booths closed. They arrived and completed their civic tasks swiftly. Elliot silently wished the opposition candidate a quick and painless demise, and they drove back to his place to celebrate their coming success or defeat with the help of a bottle of Jose Cuervo. His student, Webster James, brought the salt, lime, and his favorite mix; His former teacher supplied the company of their mutual friend, Mr. Cuervo.

They flipped a coin to decide which collection of talking heads to follow for the evening's political overviews; Webster won the toss, and that aligned them, at least for most of the evening, with the folks at CNN. Elliot cut up some lime wedges, salted the mugs, and mixed the first round of margaritas just in time for Anderson Cooper to announce the first returns coming in from cities on the East Coast.

By 11pm, Eastern Standard Time, the Jacksonville Civil Defense Network cut into CNN's programming to announce that it appeared that a nuclear device had, just minutes earlier, been detonated on the Island of Manhattan, in New York City.

Elliot was looking at Webster's face, whose mouth gaped open, as his eyes were riveted to the screen in front of them; He wondered if he looked as dumbfounded as his student.

"Are you hearing what I'm hearing, Teach?"

Elliot didn't reply, but his head was nodding up and down as he stared at the screen. By now, Anderson Cooper was back on as the network returned control to CNN. He was saying that reports were sketchy at best, but that he and CNN would keep everybody posted as events transpired.