Desolation Separation

Chapter 2: California Girl

Art Credit: Brushstrookes on Tumblr
https://brushstrookes.tumblr.com/post/186437562977/ya-era-hora-de-hacer-m%C3%A1s-cosas-respecto-a-la

Chapter 2: California Girl

North Carolina rushed back into the capital building with Texas following him. North Carolina saw the mess of drunk citizens with tipsy congressmen. The men looked over to North Carolina and their eyes widened, before they all got up from their seats at once and walked to the conference hall.

The Conference Hall was a large building meant for both North Carolina Senate and House of Representatives to interact when making laws. North Carolina always sat in the front line of desks, where the Speaker of the House and Pro Tempore sit. Unlike with many states, North Carolina didn't sit higher than the rest of the people in the room. Rather, the Speaker of the House and Tempore sat on higher seats than him, representing that they had more authority. The state spirit was rather used as a tool to summarize North Carolina citizen's opinions about the country- and what they would want continuing further.

The Speaker of the House, an older man named Thomas Dew cleared his throat. "Unlike with Texas, California's Declaration of Independence is a large surprise. California means a lot in terms of how votes are made in America. California is the most populated state, and it's votes are almost always Democratic. Without California as a state, the voting process for America will almost always be Republican. That will be worrisome, considering their intense admiration for the military. With California leaving, we can only expect for the Republican votes to strengthen and that will mean trouble for our new country." The rest of Congress nodded, and NC's eyes scanned the room- noting many different faces from different cultures, women and men old and young, and he leaned back into his chair.

The President Tempore started to speak just after Thomas Dew, saying, "In order to keep ourselves as a nation there needs to be established alliances win California. As it's own nation, California is now the 23rd richest country in the world- and that can easily climb with its own trade network. We need to start to manufacture military weapons and start to farm extensively to establish good trade roots. California is needing weapons to secure itself. Is there anyone opposing this deal?"

A man rose his hand. "Aren't they commies?" The entire hall groaned.

After the conference meeting North Carolina finally had a chance to sleep. He pulled up the ratty blankets up to chin and fell asleep quickly, listening to the passing of cars behind him.

———

He was awake, standing in the flat and empty fields of the countryside. He looked over his shoulder and saw nothing, just the endless fields of grass. Before him was a small two way road, this area looked suspiciously like the countryside of Eastern North Carolina.

North Carolina's eyes squinted when he saw something in the distance, something rectangular. He walked slowly towards it but when it was within vision to where he noticed it was a mirror, he ran towards it instead.

He looked into the mirror and saw something grotesque, one of his eyes... it was hallow with an array of stars vibrating and pulsing inside of it. North Carolina's mouth gaped as he his hands slowly made their way to inspect it.

Oh god, it was hallow. His hand rubbed against the edges of his eye, and his fingers slowly went in deeper to feel the cold brisk air- god his hands they were tingling. The world crashed down around North Carolina, the world became dark and cold where it was only him and the mirror. The heard the sounds of gunfire and children screaming- vividly he looked further inside the mirror and saw a decrepit hand crawl out- bloodied and swollen, bruises caked it, dead skin flaking off and the bones of its fingers pointing upwards while the now hallowed out fingers pointed straight forwards for god the bones were sticking out as if a man dug inside the hand and pulled the skin and the bones apart, they split and fractured for hell- North Carolina stood and suffered quietly. For North Carolina's right hand went further inside his own eye and the cold air surrounded it, for a version of his hand slowly made its way out of the mirror right over where his reflection of his eye stood.