Note:I am taking a two week trip to Vietnam and will update my blog when I return with my reflections on my trip, updated publications etc.
Cosmic Dreams and Nightmares
I don’t dream dreams. I dream movies complete with action, music, food, smells everything. In this one I had a vision of a possible future. it was so vivid, almost as if I were watching the hearing take place.
Don’t Go Jogging in the Middle of the Night
Don’t touch this button!
Don’t open the door
Don’t go to the theater tonight stay home with me
Don’t go to Dallas I have a bad feeling about the trip
Dream Girl
Cheating Death 100 Times
Guardian Angel
Medical Mystery
SLA Hit List
Dream Girl – A true Story – reprinted from Dreams and the Unexplainable
Dream Girl
You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.
~Author Unknown
The dreams started when I was a senior at Berkeley High School in 1974. About a month before I graduated, I fell asleep in a physics class after lunch and had the first dream:
A beautiful Asian woman was standing next to me, talking in a strange language. She was stunning—the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She was in her early twenties, with long black hair, and piercing black eyes. She had the look of royalty. She looked at me and then disappeared, beamed out of my dream like in Star Trek. I fell out of my chair screaming, “Who are you?” She did not answer.
About a month went by, and then I started having the dream repeatedly. Always the same pattern.
Early morning, she would stand next to me talking. I would ask who she was, and she would disappear. She was the most beautiful, alluring woman I had ever seen.
I was struck speechless every time I had the dream.
I had the dream every month during the eight years during which I went to college and served in the Peace Corps. In fact, when I joined the Peace Corps, I had to decide whether to go Korea or Thailand. The night before I had to submit my decision, I had the dream again and it made me sure that she was in Korea waiting for me.
After the Peace Corps, I still hadn’t met my dream woman. I got a job working for the U.S. Army as an instructor and stayed in Korea. I kept having the dream, until I had the very last one: She was standing next to me, speaking to me in Korean, but I finally understood her. She said, “Don’t worry, we will be together soon.”
Why was that the last time I had the dream? Because the very next night, the girl in my dream got off the bus in front of me. She went on to the base with an acquaintance of mine, a fellow teacher, and they went to see a movie. I saw her and found the courage to speak with her.
We exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet that weekend.
The next night, she was waiting for me as I entered the Army base to teach a class. She told me she was a college senior and she had something to tell me. I signed her on to the base and left her at the library to study while I taught, and then we went out for coffee after class. She told me she was madly in love with me, and that I was the man for her. I told her not to worry as I felt the same.
That weekend, we met Saturday and Sunday and hung out all day. On Sunday night, I proposed to her. It was only three days after we had met, but for me it felt like we had met eight years ago. I had been waiting all my life for her to walk out of my dreams and into my life, and here she was.
Her mother did not want her to marry a foreigner. One day, about a month after we met, she invited me to meet her parents. I brought a bottle of Jack Daniels for her father and drank the entire bottle with him. He approved of me, but her mother still had reservations. After a Buddhist priest told her my future wife and I were a perfect astrological combination, she agreed, and we planned our wedding.
The wedding was a media sensation in South Korea. My wife explained it to me years later. At the time, I was overwhelmed just by the fact that we were getting married and I didn’t fully understand how unusual this was. My wife was of the old royal clan, distant relatives to the former kings of Korea. In the clan’s history, only two people had ever married foreigners: my wife, and Rhee Syngman, who was the the first President of South Korea. My father, who was a former Undersecretary of Labor, came out for the wedding, which fueled even more media interest. Our marriage defied the stereotypical Korean-foreign marriage where the women married some hapless GI just to escape poverty and immigrate to the U.S. We were the first foreign/Korean couple to get married at a Korean Army base. Over 1,000 people came to the wedding, and my father was interviewed on the morning news programs.
This all happened thirty-seven years ago, (45 years since the first dream) and I am still married to the girl in my dreams. Now in my dreams she watches over me when we are apart.
~Jake Cosmos Aller
General Zod Conquers the World
SETI and the search for extraterrestrial life goes on overdrive when scientists report what appears to be radio and television broadcasts from a planet eight light years from earth, the same planet as the Vulcans came from in the Star Trek universe. The programs show a world where dinosaur-like creatures are running the world and there appears to be a civil war. Over the next six months, the world is transfixed watching the alien broadcasts which are translated in English via a supercomputer program. In the broadcast, a nuclear war has occurred. The surviving party regains absolute control and announces the formation of the Galactic Empire. General Zod is the First Emperor. They have discovered Earth as well. The aliens launch a crash project to develop interstellar travel so they can come to earth and conquer the earth.
The revelations that there is an external threat to the planet causes the United Nations to get together with the help of the United States and Russia another space powers, they put together Space defense International organization And also invigorates efforts to make the UN a real Planetary government including finally conquering climate change.
But it was too late. General Zod’s son arrives to take over the earth. He makes a broadcast saying that they were liberating Earth in the name of the Galactic Empire and that resistance would be futile.
They land at the White House and when President Trump comes out to greet them,
General Zod cuts off his head, and then cuts off the heads of all the staffers as they come out White House. After an hour of unimaginable horrors, including mass rapes, blowing up the Pentagon and the CIA, General Zod announces that he had taken over the world.
Life will continue as before as long as people behave and follow the rules they would be fine Resistance to the new empire will be met with instant death. Life in the Empire is not a democracy. They would not tolerate Freedom of speech, and Freedom of Press, and Freedom of Assembly And the freedom to oppose the State. The state is everything. As long as humans remember that they would be just fine. They took over the United States because it was the biggest country in the world. And that his forces will take over the rest of the world but in the next couple weeks. If people on earth accept the new order, their safety would be guaranteed. Companies would be taken over by Galactic Empire companies, and everybody would have to learn Galactic standard. Within one year older languages will be banned.
Sam Adams Vs. the Social Cleansing Board
the summons
Sam Adams was worried. He could not sleep. He got up at 4 am and wrote in his journal and tried to cope with the dread that was overwhelming him. He had received the summons yesterday that he was to report to the social cleansing board for a review on whether he would allow to continue to be on the automatic permit list or would be referred for final status determination. Sam was a retired Federal worker trying to live on dwindling savings.
Sam had Alzheimer’s and was rapidly depleting his life’s savings. Two years before he had been released from prison, one of millions of ex political prisoners. His crime? Authoring anti-government poems just before the beginning of the Christian States of America, right after the second civil war. Unfortunately for him and his millions of ex-prisoners, his side lost the war. He wanted to flee to the United Provinces and settle down in California but lacked money to move. And getting a job at his age, with Alzheimer’s and his political rating was proving difficult at best.
All of which added up to a 90 percent probability his last days were approaching.
Under the new rules imposed by the Christian republican party in the newly established Christian states, all citizens over the age of 18 were on the permitted list if they met all of the following criteria. He tried to think why he was being referred to the board. Perhaps it was because of the recent crackdown on social deviancy. Millions of homosexuals, transgenered people, atheists, drug users, alcoholics, and non-religious people had been rounded up and eliminated according to the rumors. Perhaps someone had fingered him as a possible deviant. He fit the stereotype, no children, known drug user, known alcohol user, suspect politically, atheist and now Alzheimer’s patient. And he was not racially pure having some black blood, some Asian blood and some Jewish blood. And he had married across the racial divide which was now illegal.
The story was that if you flipped and named names you would sometimes be spared for now, and if your info was correct, you could be rewarded. Of course, those whom you flipped were not too fortunate. That was probably the story or someone could have heard that he was an ex political prisoner, or simply that he had Alzheimer’s’.
He had no children. And he was a secret atheist and had been involved with the dissent movement and had spent five years as a political prisoner at the start of the Christian Revolution. He was determined to make a stand and denounce the whole rotten system before the board although that would probably seal his fate.
As an Alzheimer’s patient he could no longer work. His wife had died the year before while he was in prison after she had been deported to her native Korea. She left him some assets but he had little idea how to manage his finances and he was behind in his rent and had received an eviction notice which had probably triggered the visit by the social cleansing staff who recommend a final status determination. But it was just as likely he was on the list because some one flipped on him.
He also did not make it last time when they came for him at midnight. Always at midnight the story goes.
The soldiers came took him away from his wife and locked him up for two years. They deported his wife whom he heard had died shortly afterwards. He spend two years at hard labor in the dessert near Las Vegas and was released into Las Vegas.
Las Vegas was a different town now that the casinos had left town. All that was left were back office operations, and underground booze and pot operations and underground casinos. It was a hot bed of political dissent and there was an underground railroad to California, which was not part of the Christian states. Sam had been preparing to leave which was a crime and perhaps that is why he was on the list.
The hearing would be at 10 am. He was meeting his lawyer at the hearing board but his lawyer was not too optimistic.
the Permit Criteria
The basic criteria for being on the permit list were:
For Males
Age 18 to age 70
White race
Married to a white woman with children
Must be either working, in school full time, serving in military duty, or working in prison if convicted of a crime.
Homelessness was not allowed. If unemployed and or homeless, would be referred to social cleansing department unless one had a relative who was willing to take care of your needs.
Since there were no pensions or social security anymore and no government provided health care, one must have sufficient assets through one’s work, or savings or through one’s relatives to provide for one ‘s needs. If not you would be sent to the social cleansing board for final status determination.
For Females
Same basic rules applied but if one were married, and had children one would be on the permitted list, if children are older, if spouse’s income is sufficient one would be on the list.
If single or divorced, and homeless one would also be subject to social cleansing unless one’s relatives would willing to sponsor you. Since there were no pensions or social security anymore and no government provided health care, one must have sufficient assets through one’s work, or savings or through one’s relatives to provide for one ‘s needs. If not you would be sent to the social cleansing board for final status determination.
For Aged People
Additional requirements for the age you were expected to take care of your basic needs through employment and savings and the help of relatives. If you were evicted for non-payment of rent, or judged to not have sufficient assets left to sustain your basic needs including medical care, you would be referred for final status determination.
For all people additional requirements applied.
Sexual deviancy, drug use, alcohol use, gambling, sex outside of marriage, homosexuality would result in immediate referral to the social cleansing board as all were banned conduct that could result in final termination. Being a member of a prohibited religious class could also be grounds for referral as would a pattern of not attending Christian services. Finally, if one had been arrested for political crimes one would be marked forever.
Sam’s Rating
One had a government social rating. Sam knew that his rating was a D meaning that the government would be watching him all the time, and it would be difficult to get a job. Only the A’s and B’s were guaranteed to be on the permit list.
To be a A you had be to a true believer, had to be white, had to attend church on a regular basis, and had to be employed naturally.
To be a B same thing but you could be a B if you were a minority, or had engaged in alcohol or drug use under the old rules.
C meant that there was something wrong with your background, you were an atheist, you were a minority etc.
D mean that you were a serious threat to the regime.
E meant that you would be terminated.
F met you were terminated as it met Failure to survive, and family members of F were also labeled F as they were usually terminated at the same time.
Being associated with banned political movements, including reading banned materials could also lead one to being referred to the social cleansing board as all were grounds for either termination or criminal prosecution if under the age of 70.
The board has three choices – granted temporary status extension, referral for termination, or referral to criminal prosecution.
The termination would be carried out quickly. There would be an optional funeral at your Church, then the execution through the method of your choice – firing squad, beheading, electric chair, or gas. The default was gas where you were put in a room with up to ten other people and put to sleep.
Afterwards your body would be cremated in an electricity generating plant with the ashes turned into fertilizer products. There were no burials allowed unless one was rich enough and connected enough to request a burial exception. Most people did not qualify.
the Hearing
The hearing started. The presiding Judge, Judge Miller was a stern face white man in his 70’s and a true believer. He was sent to Las Vegas to clean it up as Las Vegas was the wild west, a hot bed of dissent, illegal drug use, illegal prostitution and illegal casinos. It was also near several political prisons so many ex cons lived there.
The Judge was the chairman of the Nevada state committee that did not exist and was a senior official in the Federal committee that did not exist that brought together government, business and church leaders to coordinate government policies and that secretly ran the Christian States of America.
Probably a score of A thought Sam.
The judge announced that he had reviewed Sam’s file and was shocked that Sam had escaped final termination. He said that the previous board had erred in simply sending him to prison. He should have been eradicated as a social evil, as a cancer that needs to be removed from the pure body politics. Sam and his ilk sickened him. Sam was a free thinker, an atheist, a mix race mongrel, married to a non-white and was therefore guilty of crimes against the white race which was a crime. The Judge was determined to see justice done.
He asked Sam a series of questions. Sam’s answers sealed his fate.
Sam, what is your occupation?
None for now.
You realize that under the law you must be working, in service, in school or in prison?
I can’t find a job due to my age, my Alzheimer’s; and my political record.
That’s irrelevant. You are just a lousy atheist piece of shit. You deserve no sympathy. And have none from me.
Are you white?
No, I am mixed race, part native, part Asian, part black.
I see you were married to a non-white and had no children. Good for you we would not want to see more mongrel children. Such children should be eliminated at birth in my opinion and will be starting next month when we begin enforcing the racial purity laws.
What was your crime? Let’s see reading prohibited writings, keeping a journal, publishing an anti-government blog, authoring anti-government poems and stories. You served two years at hard labor?
Yes
Do you still write?
Yes, everyday but I no longer publish on line.
Good. No one would want to read that trash anyway.
Do you go to church?
No
Do you believe in God?
No, I do not believe in an imaginary man in the sky.
One more anti-religious statement from you will result in an immediate ruling of termination.
Do you drink?
If I can find it yes
Do you gamble
Yes, when I can
Do you support the Christian Republican Party and the Christian States of America?
No, I do not.
Okay, I have enough for a ruling. Sam Adams, you are hereby sentence to termination. Tomorrow morning at 7 am you will be turned into electricity and fertilizer. Take him away.
Next please.
At midnight there was a knock at the door. A black man appeared and said he was a friend and he was being smuggled to California. Sam rejoiced and went with his new friend and reached SF in the morning, escaping death for the 23rd time in his life.
the End
Poetic Nightmares
Morphing Images from a Hellish Nightmare
Note: From a real nightmare End Note
I am in a room
Drinking at a party
And smoking weed
Watching people all around me
Change into hideous creatures
Monsters from the deepest depths of hell
Everyone in the room same dignity as creatures monsters and depressed tech stock
Has been transformed except me
The Chief of them all
Wears a Trumpian mask
Complete with orange hair
Half human half pig
His deputy
Wears the face of Putin
But his body
Half human, half horse: if
The other creatures wear masks
Many of them wear
Green Pepe the alt-right
Symbolic frog masks
And have T-shirts
Bearing alt right slogans
And Nazi symbols
And as they prance about
They chant alt. Right slogans
And neo-Nazi chants
Jews will not Replace us
And the rest of these creatures
Are hideous ugly beasts
With only a vestige of humanity left
And these monsters are engaged
In all sorts of foul evil deeds
Murder violence death
All around
And non-stop
violent drug-fueled orgies
As these creatures
Half human half monsters
Half male, half female creatures
Snort coke, cocaine, speed
Smoke weed and drink vodka shots
Scotch, bourbon and beer
The Trumpian Pig leads the charge
Starts engaging in sodomy with Putin
Who chases after people
Cutting off their heads with his sword
They turn on to their fellow creatures
Raping and killing each other
and eating their fellow creatures
All night long
Then they attack me
Screaming
Jews will not replace us
And I wake up
Screaming
As the sun comes up
Just another nightmare
The Endless Movie
Watching the TV coverage
Of the great government shut down
Of 2018-2019
I am reminded of a movie
As I fall asleep
Listening to the TV
Blather on and on
About what it all means
Mr. Natural pops up
And screams
“It don’t mean shit
“Dude, the endless movie
Is about to begin”!
A middle-aged white man
Down on his proverbial luck
Just been fired
Replaced by a foreign worker
Or a robot
Or just fired
Because he was no longer
Deemed useful
To the masters of the universe
If he was lucky
He’d be given a watch
And an IOU worthless pension
And the man wanders into a restaurant
Pulls out a gun
Eats his breakfast
After the official breakfast hour
Puts on a Pepe the green frog mask
Drops acid, Snorts speed
Drinks a shot of booze
And coffee smokes a joint
Snorts cocaine for good measure
and smokes a cigaret
And walks outside
steals a bus at gun point
Filled with passengers
He tells them
They are hostages
And he puts on his vest
With the dead man switch
Next to the bomb
He announces
Via tweet
He is going to take the bus
To the proverbial pot of gold
Hidden deep in a cave
And when he got there
He would release the hostages
And disappear into the mine
And never be found again
And as the bus careens around the mountain
At a 100 miles an hour
The dude sprouts out
Conspiracy after conspiracy theory
About Obama the Muslim communist
secret gay working with George Soros
the Jewish money people
in league with the shapeshifting lizards
and Mueller is one of them
they are all after him
because he knows the deal
And the passengers are transfixed
Half hoping he would make it
Half hoping he would be blown away
And as the bus careens out of control
With the wheels falling off
And the cliff looming ahead
You realize we are all doomed
Worlds Within Worlds Lost in Inner Space
A man woke up one day
Lost in inner space
Went so far down
The proverbial rabbit hole
That he did not know
Where he was
Nor what time it was
Nor when it was
As he stared out
At a bewildering world
A world lost in inner space
Deep down in his dreams
Satanic Torture
I find myself
In a dark room
Strapped to a bed
The light turns on
The large TV comes on
A smiling image
Of Satan fills the TV
He is dressed
In a conservative business suit
Looks like he came
Out of a corporate
board meeting
surrounded by demonic aides
who constantly shove papers
at him
He looks up from his lap top
And smiles
A deadly so insincere smile
His voice booms out
Welcome to Hell
My satanic slaves
I am Satan
Your new master
Each of you
Has been sentenced
To an eternity of torture
And the punishment
Must fit the crime
So, for you
Mr. Jake Cosmos Aller
Failed aspiring poet
And novelist
Your torture
Is to be strapped
To that bed
Unable to move
As you are filled
With the need
To piss and shit
But you can not move
And your skin
Is crawling with bugs
And itchy
as Hell so to speak
and you are so sleepy
but you can not sleep
the TV will play
endless repeats
Of some of the worst TV
and movie shows
ever produced
Starting with my favorite
A Series of Unfortunate Events
Featuring your favor annoying little girl
Carmetta! Singing for you forever
As you are the ultimate cake sniffer
I looked up
At the cliffs
Towering above
the roaring torrent
and see the dark demons
of my terrible nightmares
chasing the boat
firing flaming arrows
and I see werewolves
goblins, ghosts and monsters
running along the river bed
screaming obscenities
as they chase me
to my doom
and I see the waterfall ahead
and see my pending doom
as I rush over the edge
of reason
Micro Stories
53 word stories regarding unheeded warnings
Don’t Go Jogging in the Middle of the Night
It all started with a jog in the middle of the night. Despite my wife’s warning don’t go jogging in the middle of the night. Broke my heal in a million pieces, 14 operations ensured, mutant MDR Staff almost killed me, almost lost the leg. . should have listened to her warning.
Don’t touch this button!
Don’t touch this button the former President said. I said, what this button? And that led to the launching of nuclear weapons, going to defon three, and world war 3 with millions of people dead end of civilization moment. Should not have touched the red button.
Don’t open the door
When you find yourself running for your life chased by demons from hell and backed into a corner in a burning house filled with flames and are about to die in a million horrible ways you remembered that they warned you not to open door number three in this crazy reality TV show.
Don’t go to the theater tonight stay home with me
Mary Todd Lincoln had a vicious headache and was not in the mood to go out. The President though ignored her wishes and told her that he had to go to the theater that night to show the world everything was okay now the war was ending. Should have listened to her.
Don’t go to Dallas I have a bad feeling about the trip
Jackie was known for her moods and her premonitions. Something the President found both amusing an annoying. She told him that she a vision of death waiting for him in Dallas that day. The President dismissed her foolishness as he put it and went to Dallas to meet his fate.
true love story.
In 1974 I had the first dream. While sleeping in a boring class, I saw a beautiful Asian woman standing at me speaking a foreign language. I fell out of chair yelling who are you? I began having the same dream month after month for eight years. One day I realized she was in Korea so I went there in the Peace Corps to meet her. In 1982 I had the last dream. She said don’t worry we meet soon. That night she walked off a bus, out of the dream and into my life. We’ve been married 37 years.
Cheating Death 22 Times
I have cheated death 22 times in my life. I was born a preemie, almost died at birth, and had all the childhood illness at once. In 1979 I came down with Typhoid fever in Korea in the Peace Corps. In 1991 almost got hit by a train. In 1996-1997 had 14 operations due to a mutant drug resistant staph infection, almost died several times. In 1997 I had an acute stomach ailment that almost killed me, due to excessive antibiotic usage, if I had waited 30 minutes more would have been dead. And had dengue in 2010.
Guardian Angel Saves My Life
In 1990, I was teaching ESL in Korea. My wife and I drove to the East Coast of Korea for a weekend away. She was in the US Army then. As we drove towards Sorak mountain, I was filled with the need to get off the road right then. I had a premonition of doom, so did my wife. We got off to drive around another park returned a few minutes later and saw a 25 car pileup. We would have been dead if we had not listened to that inner voice telling us get off now.
Medical Mystery
Back in 1996, when I was in the hospital fighting a mutant staph infection after a disastrous jogging accident that led to 14 operations, the internal medicine doctor said that there was something else going on. He finally discovered that I had a rare parasite, a tape worm of sorts that remained inert, its only becomes active if you take steroids then it blows up like a basketball killing you instantly. Six months later I had to take steroids due to frozen shoulder syndrome, and if I had not gotten rid of it, I would have died a medical mystery.
Back in 1974 my father was a local politician in Berkeley, California who was on the SLA’s hit list as “an enemy of the people, a fascist insect that needed to be killed”. His crime? As President of the community college district, he began requiring IDS for students and staff to combat campus crime at the local community colleges. We had 24/7 police coverage for a while. One morning I saluted my father, “good morning fascist insect”. My father, being of Germanic stock did not like the joke as jokes are alien to the German DNA.
I wrote this story to submit to the Seoul Fiction writer’s contest, “From Seoul to the World”. The action takes place 25 years in the future after a North Korean bioweapon is released after President Pence cancels Peace Talks with North Korea and pursues a military option. the weapon kills 99.9% of people. there are about 25,000 people living in South Korea, most under the control of the Military base at Camp Humphreys. Another visitor from the recent past, General Lee is organzing the wild men, cannibal gangs into a militia force so he can kill all the foreigners. I will update it with the audio clip later.
Sam Adams one morning woke up to find the power out in his house near the airport on Youngchong island in Korea where he resided with his Korean born wife, Maria Lee. Sam was a retired US Diplomat who had served 27 years in the Foreign Service with the State Department and his wife was a retired US Army major. They had decided to split their retirement between Korea and Southern Oregon. It was early spring time and they had just returned from a trip to Southeast Asia.
They had spent the day glued to the TV Sam watching CNN and BBC, Maria watching Korean news and translating as needed as well as reading what kept popping up on their computers. The situation was grim. It was April 2020 and the democrats were leading the polls with a battle between Kamala Harris and Sherwood Brown shaping up, with Bloomberg, and Schultz mounting credible challenges to the two major parties. Pence was leading the Republican field but in a tight race with Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. In a four way race, Pence came in fourth place, Schultz and Bloomberg tied for second place , the democrats were in third place but just barely.
After President Trump was impeached, President Pence cancelled the North Korean peace talks after it became clear to all that the North Koreans had no intention of getting rid of their nukes, but were willing to freeze development and get rid of their missiles. They were also not willing to dismantle their bioweapons programs, but willing to discuss a freeze. The Russians and Chinese unilaterally suspended sanctions telling the U.S. to take the deal offered. Pence refused. He ordered family members and non-essential employees to leave. The North Koreans declared that the Korean war had resumed and they would launch hostile acts but would allow the U.S, to evacuate it citizens first and gave the U.S. two weeks to do so. The U.S. also cancelled the visa waiver program over night.
And announced that if the North attacked the South, the U.S. would retaliate in kind, including using nukes if the North used nukes. And in any event, they would destroy the bioweapons programs which would launch the bioweapons against the North Korean people. The UN security council members voted 9 to 3 to condemn the U.S. reactions and voted 12 to 0 to condemn the North Korean actions. The U.S., U.K. blocked the measure. Israel was the only country that supported the U.S. measure. NATO voted that they would not honor an article Five request if the U.S. were to ask for one. They also voted that the U.S. should take the offer. South Korea also urged the U.S. to return to the peace talks table and take the offer. Pence refused to do so and said that the U.S. was ready for any and all contingencies, and demanded that North Korea immediately dismantle their nukes, bioweapons, chemical weapons and artillery batteries near the DMZ. In return, the U.S. would recognize the North and would formally end the Korean war. The North refused to do so, citing the still hostile U.S. government’s rhetoric and actions.
They had managed to get a flight the next day at 3 pm and were planning on getting up about 6 am to pack up before leaving for the airport about 12 noon. The airlines advised early arrival as the airport was much more chaotic than normal as that morning was the 19th day. All flights would be suspended as of noon the following day as the Korean Military and U.S. Airforce would be taking over the Airport for use in possible military contingency operations. So they were fortunate to have gotten a flight at all, and had to pay three times the going rate, as only business class was left. They would be taking their niece with them as she had a U.S. passport. The rest of the relatives had visa appointments in two weeks but the rumor was that the U.S.G. was denying 95% of visa applicants.
Sam was 63 years old, his wife was 60. They had no children. He was tall, had mostly dark hair, blue eyes, and was in pretty good shape. Maria was also in pretty good health. They had decided to retire a bit early so they could enjoy life. They had made some good investments, had rental income to supplement their pensions so they felt blessed.
About 5:30 am there was a brilliant flash in the sky, and the building shook as if there was either artillery shells coming in or an earthquake. It woke Sam up. But his wife was such a deep sleeper that she did not notice a thing. He decided to let her sleep and he would check the news and then do his usual writing, as he wrote every morning, then wake up his wife and pack for the trip to the airport. Sam was spending his retirement as a writer and blogger.
Sam noticed the power was out, which was unusual. Power was very reliable in Korea these days, he could not recall the power having gone out during the year and half he had been living in his fifth floor penthouse apartment in the airport new city, about a mile from the subway and walking distance to lots of restaurants and services. . Sam and Maria felt that it was quite pleasant to live in, there was the World Peace Forest Park which was a five minute walk away, and Bakrangsan .mountain which was a forested hill about 1 mile from the house. He occasionally saw deer in the park.
With these thoughts in his mind, he turned on the computer, which booted up since the battery was still working. But the internet was down. He tried his phone, no service at all. Sam looked out the window and was astonished to find that all the buildings around him were falling in ruin, the cars were all destroyed, and there were no people to be seen, and the parking lot was filled with trees and bushes as the concrete had been taken over by a resurgent forest. Usually at 6 a.m. he would see neighbors getting ready to go to work either at the airport or to catch the train into Seoul or Incheon where most people worked.
Sam woke up Maria.
’Wife, there is no power, the internet is down, and there is no phone service. And I think that the North Koreans launched an artillery attack at the airport about 5 am as I saw a flash of light and heard a lot of noise and the ground shook like an earthquake. But that is not the most unusual thing. Wake up you have to see this.”
Maria got up reluctantly and walked out and Sam pointed out the deserted ruined landscape outside the house.
“Baby, what the hell is going on?”
“Wifee, I don’t know. We have to go outside to investigate.”
They got dressed and ventured outside. They walked down since the power was out everywhere. Their building appeared to be the only building intact but they knew that the neighbors were not there. Just a feeling that they were the only people left alive on the island.
Sam, being an avid reader and writer of SF speculated that “perhaps a bioweapon got loose in the North and spread across the border? Perhaps the U.S. accidentally released it or North Korean special forces released it. But why are we alive?”
Maria, the practical one of their household, looked at him and nodded. Sam sometimes saw things that she never could as he was a genius. They walked about located their car. Their car was ruined, rusting away. The windows were broken. The wheels had no air and it was obviously not drivable. Sam pondered on what was going on.
“Wifee, I think that somehow we have been propelled into the future. Whatever happened to kill everyone happened some time ago. Looking at these ruins it happened at least ten years ago if not 50 years ago. I wonder if we are last people left alive in Korea? And I sure as hell don’t know how we got here.”
Sam and Maria decide to walk through the town to see what had changed and whether there were any survivors. Most of the buildings were falling apart. A few lay in ruins. The cars were all rusted away. They started walking down the park heading down the bike path towards the central business district. The path had completely reverted to forest. It was early spring just like it had been when they had gone to bed back whenever they had gone to bed.
They came to the park near the library. And saw a gruesome sight. In the middle of the park there were six huge dogs mauling and eating a freshly killed deer. The dogs looked more like wolves than dogs.
wiild dogs
One of the dogs looked up and noticed Sam and Maria. Sam told Maria,
“Stand up tall, make a lot of noise and back away slowly. Don’t run.”
Maria looked at Sam like he was an idiot but nodded her head.
The dog looked at Sam, and growled. He got the attention of the pack and the dogs started walking towards Sam and Maria. Sam picked up some rocks and threw them at the dogs. The dogs stopped but Sam and Maria could not get passed them so they retreated. The dogs followed them back towards the house.
On the way back to the house, Sam and Maria noticed other things. There were bones here and there of deer and other animals. The dogs were apparently quite active. They may be other dogs about. They saw a cat who stared at them but did not come after them, but ran away from them and the approaching dogs. The dogs stopped and ran into the bushes pursuing a deer that they had cornered and began mauling.
Sam and Maria watched the dogs for a while then headed back to the house. Sam and Maria sat down in the living room and debated what to do. Sam said,
“We can’t stay here long term. We have to find a farm house where we have water, and a place to make a fire, and some farming equipment etc. We will have to learn how to farm, and hunt. We also need to find other survivors, otherwise we may be the last humans left on earth. So, let’s pack up our camping gear, and basic supplies and head first to the airport to check it out. I suspect that what happened was the North Koreans jumped the gun and attacked this morning about 5:00 am as I heard a large boom and saw the sky lit up. But how we ended up in the future I have no idea. Perhaps the North Koreans were experimenting with a new weapon system, or the U.S.?
You were still sleeping so I decided to listen to the news and then do my usual writing before waking you up. After we go to the airport, we will come back here spend the night then take off tomorrow for COSTCO to get more supplies then we can head down to Camp Humphreys. See if we can find any survivors and get weapons, more camping gear, and survival books from the library. But we can fire up the BB2 and at least heat up some soup and stuff for today, and tomorrow night. And head out the next morning.”
They packed up a back pack, stuffed it filled with hiking and camping gear. Made lunch and dinner and plotted their route to the airport then Costco. The next morning, they woke up to the same nightmare. Nothing had changed.
They ate breakfast, and walked out in the early morning calmness. Korea was at last truly the land of the morning calm as there was just silence. The lack of noise was jarring. They broke into one of the neighbor’s apartment looking for more survival gear. They found skeletons only and remains of ancient meals long rotted away. They added some gear to their back packs and loaded up and moved out by mid-day.
They had knives, and some large sticks as weapons against dog attacks. They walked through the park and saw the dog pack but the dogs left them alone. One of the dogs began to follow them but the dog retreated when they threw rocks at them.
They saw deer in the fields everywhere and they saw cows and wild horses wandering about, lots of wild cats, and birds but no sign of any human life.
korean deer
The stores were all filled with commercial stuff and they broke into a pharmacy and added some more survival gear to their back packs.
They then noticed a lion watching them. Where the hell the lion had come from they had no idea. The lion appeared to decide to leave them alone, perhaps he had already eaten breakfast.
lion
They stopped at the Lotte Mart –The stench of long rotting away food was nauseating but they were able to add some more essential provisions to their back packs. They also commandeered two large shopping carts and got another couple of back packs and luggage for good measure, got a tent, sleeping bag, booze, spam, flash lights with lots of extra batteries, and a first aid kit.
It took most of the day to reach the airport. As suspected the airport had been bombed back to the proverbial stone age. Nothing was left standing except for planes on the ground. Some had crashed landed, others were stranded on the ground. They went to the book store which somehow had survived the carnage and got newspapers, and some books, and more water and other supplies.
bombed out airport
They took the time to make a picnic lunch at the airport and while doing so read the Korean papers. They made a fire and cooked their first meal since the day before. Maria read the Chosun Ilbo, the conservative daily newspaper in Korea. The headline read;
“last issue due to bioweapon attack. 생물 무기 공격으로 인한 마지막 문제
saengmul mugi gong-gyeog-eulo inhan majimag munje “
A bioweapon apparently had escaped from a secret lab in North Korea and had spread across North Korea and killed everyone in the North within days. Terrified North Koreans rushed across the border and infected border control military and residents who all promptly died. The contagion then spread across the border regions, and reached Seoul within a few days.
The city government ordered a 100 percent curfew but that did not stop the contagion from spreading rapidly. All it took was one person to cough to contaminate a ten foot radius. The bioweapon caused a severe influenza attack, followed by an Ebola like reaction. It was 99.5 percent fatal and death occurred within days. The newspaper staff has been affected and there are only a few people left so this is probably our last edition. There is news that the contagion has spread to Asian cities and the US. Apparently some people get the disease but don’t show symptoms for several weeks, therefore people were able to travel spreading the disease wide and far and there are reports of contagions breaking out all over the world. All air travel, train travel, subway travel has been suspended but there are few travelers as close to 80% of Koreans may have perished. There are rumors that some people might be immune.
The US military has announced that they will operate an emergency shelter at Camp Humphreys, and medical testing is being conducted to find a cure or vaccine. Anyone who is still alive and not showing symptoms may be immune and should go to Camp Humphry for a medical evaluation. Anyone showing symptoms should stay at home as there is nothing that can be done for them.”
Sam scanned the U.S. papers and the English language media. Apparently what had happened was that the North had attacked on the 19th day five days ahead of their announced start of hostilities. They had bombed the airport and power plants knocking out the power. The U.S. launched an attack against their missiles and their bioweapons programs which released a bioweapon that killed most people in the North within days and most people in the South as well. North Korean agents had smuggled it into the U.S. and released in over 25 American and Canadian cities. Islamic terror groups had released it in European cities, in Latin America and in Africa. Pakistan and India had exchanged nukes as had Israel and Iran. And Islamic terrorists had launched nukes in NYC, LA and Washington DC and launched attacks including nukes across Europe and Russia. And the North had nuked the South and the U.S. had nuked the North before the virus made all military actions futile. The war had ended within five days as most people were dead from the virus, or the nuke attacks or the artillery attacks.
bio-weapon
Sam asked Maria,
“When was this dated?”
“May 15th, my 60th birthday in our timeline.”
“Mm well it seems like it is April 1, a few weeks before that date, and the 19th day of the North Korean self-declared two-week deadline. They must have jumped the gun, and the U.S. must have accidentally released the bioweapon. And North Koreans must have given the bioweapons to ISIS and Al Qaeda to release it in the U.S. and Europe. Perhaps they had an antidote as well to distribute. Wifee, we need to go to COSTCO tomorrow then on to Camp Humphreys a few days latter to look for survivors, get some guns and then find a farm house we can settle down in, if we don’t find survivors.”
They stopped by the Casino, and raided the bank stocking up on gold coins and bars, heavy to carry but could be very useful. They made plans to go to COSTCO the next day.
The bridge to Incheon was falling down. They walked across the bridge and looked down at the Incheon harbor. There were boats here and there in the water. Old abandoned cars and trucks everywhere. And abandoned burnt out building everywhere. The apartment towers and office towers were silent as death. No one had survived the apocalypse.
They got to COSTCO mid-day. Along the way they discovered that if they stuck to the freeway they would avoid lions, tigers, wolves and wild dogs as the animals for some reason did not want to go on the freeways. The road ways below the freeways were overgrown with brush anyway. The freeways were relatively clear except for the downed vehicles everywhere. Costco lay wide open. Sam said,
“Canned goods like Spam can last 50 years or more. So, we need to load up on more Spam, and other canned items, instant coffee, instant tea, charcoal for our stove, wine and lots of booze – we can use booze and Spam as currency save our gold. “
They entered COSTCO. There were skeletons everywhere mocking them and Sam felt that the ghosts of the dead were everywhere accusing Sam and Maria of being in league with the devil that had descended upon the land killing everyone overnight.
Sam speculated that whatever had killed off humanity had acted really swift. He said,
“Probably a North Korean bioweapon escaped from a lab up north and spread down south, perhaps the U.S. military strike released it. It must have been close to 100 percent effective and must have killed most people within hours if not days. Look at all these people. And notice that the store had not been looted? People must have gotten sick and died almost instantly. “
They loaded up their supplies and decided to camp out in the parking lot out front. As they ate their dinner they feasted on spam, powdered eggs, water, and booze liberated from the COSTCO stores. Sam joked,
“Well, I suppose it is fitting we are here at COSTCO finally getting out money’s worth.”
They camped outside and drank a lot of Costco Wine and ate canned spam and canned vegetables. They had stocked up on goods from Costco and their back packs and shopping carts were getting pretty heavy.
Six friendly dogs soon appeared and Sam threw them some food and the dogs ate the food and then settled down near by watching them. They took turns staying up, watching the dogs to make sure that they did not form a pack and attack them. By the morning the dogs had become very friendly and followed them as they left for their epic road trip.
Sam and Maria got up slowly and ate breakfast, and fed the dogs that had had adopted them. They were glad that they had dogs for companions. Sam was a cat person, Maria was a dog person. They talked about the dogs they had before and smiled and played with the dogs a bit. And gave each of the dogs a name and thought them simple commands. They called them Sam, Tom, Roger, Matt, Maria and Inga. The dogs liked the names, and were quick learners and appeared to be used to humans which gave them hope that there were survivors nearby and perhaps the dogs might take them there.
Then they contemplated the route to Camp Humphreys pouring over a map they had gotten at the airport. Neither one of them really knew how to walk there, but they knew the general direction was south. The freeways and highways were littered with abandoned rusting cars but for the most part were in fairly good shape. They hiked on the freeway as the roads down below were so overgrown that it was difficult to go forward and they were worried about wild animal attacks, although their dog patrol as they had started calling the six dogs in the pack seemed to act as a deterrent against attack.
Maria and Sam speculated whether there were any one left alive. Sam thought that the odds were pretty good that someone had survived at Camp Humphreys and that the survivors if any would welcome them and they could join them.
Camp Humphreys was the largest military base overseas with 35,000 people there, mostly American but a lot of Koreans and third country nationals as well. It was located about 90 minutes south from Seoul depending on how you got there. In any event 45 miles away, or two to three days walking distance. They had gone down there to shop at the world’s largest commissary but found the base to be a bit overwhelming, just too big and sprawling everywhere, and they went there on a regular basis to the hospital but they preferred the nearby Osan airbase – nicer commissary, PX and hospital. Sam joked that the “Airforce weanies always got the best stuff.” . Maria laughed and said, “You got that right.”
Along they would come upon skeletons by the side of the road, but no other evidence that anyone was alive and there did not appear to be any survivors. Maria who was very sensitive to ghosts and spiritual phenomenon, felt that there were ghosts all around them watching them. Sam made fun of her for believing in ghosts but as they walked in the silence Sam began to sense the presence of unseen spirits so perhaps he was sensing the ghosts as well.
Perhaps there were just sensing death all around them. The dogs too acted up, barking at unseen creatures and growling – Maria told Sam that dogs were sensitive to these sorts of things.
Sam wondered out loud whether they really were alive, perhaps they were in some personal hellscape? They stopped for the night at a highway rest area, and found to their pleasant surprise that the showers and toilets still worked after decades of non-use. Still no power anywhere. After taking a much needed and appreciated shower and using the western toilets, they decided to camp out and found an empty hotel room and brought the dogs inside as well as they did not want to leave them outside.
The next morning, they feasted on left over spam, freeze dried eggs, and canned chicken meat washed down with COSTCO instant coffee, and whiskey shots. They shared their food with their dog pack.
Along the way they has seen a few more lions, and a tiger, but the presence of the dogs seemed to deter them from attacking them and the tigers and lions did not want to venture up onto the freeway. They also saw lots of deer, some wild cattle, wild horses, wild pigs, and in the distance saw some bears, and some wolves, on the roads below them, and wild chickens everywhere even on the freeway. Sam and Maria stopped for lunch and the dogs caught them some chickens which they roasted on the fire and shared with the dogs. The dogs had clearly adopted them as their pack leaders.
Sam told Maria that the lions and tigers had probably escaped in the chaos of the fall and had managed to link up with other lions and tigers. And perhaps the tiger population in Siberia and North Korea had spread into the south. Probably there were real wolf packs as well as bears running around. Just before the fall Sam had been reading about the proliferation of wild life in the country side, particularly wild deer and wild boars. The countryside was being rapidly depopulated and becoming wilderness areas. The Korean government was buying up farm lands and adding them to the existing state forest reserves and national parks which they had expanded by 25 percent over the last five years taking advantage of the growing wilderness areas in the countryside. And they had just launched an effort to restore tigers, bears and wolves to the mountain regions. Apparently it had succeeded after the fall of humanity.
The next day they came upon a gruesome sight. They saw below them on the road a tiger devouring a dead Korean man, who appears to have been middle age. So that was proof that there were some survivors and that Tigers were human eaters. The tiger looked at them but decided to not give chase. Probably filled from his meal or the dogs were still acting as a deterrent or the tiger were afraid of the ghosts on the highway.
tiger
Later in the day they saw what appeared to have been an intact village. They got off the freeway and walked down the street. It had the appearance of a real ancient village, complete with thatched roofs but there were a few modern buildings here and there and something that looked like an old fashioned inn and restaurant.
korea old house
They walked in and found an old man near death lying on the floor.
“Grandfather, what happened here? Where are all the people?”
“General Lee’s wild men took them. “
“Who are the wild men?”
The grandfather looked at them, and said,
“It appears that there may be others like you coming. We all thought that General Lee was the only one. He appeared five years ago just like you from nowhere. He was dressed in old style clothes and spoke the old language. People nowadays don’t speak proper Korean. They speak a mixture of English and Korean with a very simplified grammar, and no one uses honorifics any more, everyone speaks in pan mal. . Everyone can still read both Korean and English though. No one knows Chinese characters any more. Part of what happened after the fall.”
“Grandfather, tell us who are the wild men. We are indeed from the past just got here yesterday. We don’t know what has been happening since the fall. Please tell us.”
“You had better get going. The next village over is safe for now. It is within the Camp Humphreys administrative zone. Now that there are only 25,000 people left, most of the farmers have moved into the zone which is patrolled by the military and under military rule. This village is just outside the zone. General Lee has been attacking isolated villages, forcing the survivors to flee into the zone. You must tell the military commander something. Part of the deal we had was to provide intel in exchange for their protection. I am the last survivor of our village. We had about 100 people in the village. General Lee surrounded the village and killed the old people. He took the young woman to be sex slaves, and the men to be slaves. The old people they were going to BBQ. They also took the children as there are so few children left alive, even the cannibals are nice to children. The wild men are cannibals. But they only eat other people, or their own if they die in combat. We were defenseless but we put up a good fight. I ended up passed out and they thought I was dead.
I overheard that General Lee had heard that there were others like him walking towards Camp Humphreys. They are going to be looking for you. They also said that they were going to attack Camp Humphreys and enslave them all then unite all of Korea under General Lee’s command and kill all the foreigners and eat them, but keep the woman as sex slaves and raise any children as they own. Tell them that. Promise me that.”
“We will. Can you walk?”
“Thanks, but I am an old man and will be meeting God soon. Don’t waste any more time here. Stay on the freeway, no one goes there too many ghosts. Get off at the next exit and you will find the only inn in town. You will have to pay using gold or canned goods. Over there you will some hidden gold and a couple of guns with ammo. And whatever canned goods you see. Take it all. And get out of here before the wild men come back.”
They took the gold and some more canned goods although that made their packs and shopping carts very heavy.
They entered the village about noon. It was a small community of perhaps 1,000 people. In the middle of the village stood an old fashioned Korean “yogwan” a Korean country inn.
yogwan
They ordered rice wine and wild boar meat accompanied by fresh mountain vegetables. They were hungry having eaten nothing but canned goods for two days running.
korean dinner
They fed their dogs spam and the dogs were happy to have gotten a new treat. They had to leave the dogs outside.
Everyone was eager to meet the strangers. They told everyone the truth. Everyone said that they believed them as everyone knew that General Lee claimed he came from the past, just before the fall. General Lee had appeared five years before and turned the wild men from being cannibal gangs into a real fighting force.
They chat with the villagers and the villagers told them that they were very lucky to have avoided being captured by the wild men, the savages, 식인종 (sikinjong) cannibals as they called them. The wild men they described as being less than human beings, cannibalistic demons from hell “지옥의 식인종 마귀들. jiog-ui sig-injong magwideul.”
Pastor Pak spoke up,
“ God had condemned the Korean people to this hell scape because they had turned away from God. “하나님께서는 한국 사람들이 하나님에게서 멀어 졌기 때문에이 지옥의 풍경에 한국인들을 비난했다. “지옥에서 온 식인종의 악마들. hananimkkeseoneun hangug salamdeul-i hananim-egeseo meol-eo jyeossgi ttaemun-ei jiog-ui pung-gyeong-e hangug-indeul-eul binanhaessda. “jiog-eseo on sig-injong-ui agmadeul.”
The villagers filled them in told them that there were about 1,000 people left in the village. They offered to escort Sam and Maria to the base as the roads were not safe. Wild tigers, lions, bears, wild boars, wild dogs and wolves were running about as were the wild men. Sam and Maria told them that they appreciated the offer but they would be okay to travel by themselves as Grandfather Lee had given them several guns and sufficient ammo.
They left the next morning after breakfast of spam omelets. They left the spam behind as it seemed to be greatly appreciated just like in the old days. They got typical “precise” Korean directions as “precise” as most Korean directions were!
After coffee, they left for the final trek to the base. They did not encounter anyone else but felt that unseen people were watching them. Maria was having a hard time on the freeway, kept seeing or hearing ghosts. Sam told her that if they were walking down below they might encounter wild men or wild animals. Neither of which seemed to like being on the old freeways.
Around noon the encountered a wolf. They shot at him and he ran off.
wolves
The dogs were upset. They obviously knew what a wolf was and that a wolf and a dog were related species but the dogs remained loyal to their pack leader, Sam.
Around lunch time they found the base. It was locked up but they were able to climb over a fence and they walked over to the library. Sam told her that they needed to find some books on survival. He had room for ten books. He also wanted a book of poetry to read and perhaps one or two SF thrillers to read, including post end of the world novels, especially “the Ending of the Light.” which was appropriate reading material, Sam thought. He ended up with ten books and his backpack and shopping carts were definitely too heavy, filled with ten books, gold, guns, ammo, food, booze, cooking equipment, a tent, sleeping bags, spare clothes and a camp fire stove. He hoped that they would meet people soon so he could set it down for good.
They stayed at the library until it was sunset and they camped outside. The dogs were still with them – they had accepted Sam as the alpha male of the pack. The dogs had chased down a deer and they brought the deer to Sam. Sam made a fire and cooked up the deer following instructions in one of his survival bibles. He gave the grateful dogs plenty of table scraps.
In the morning, Sam said that he wanted to find the base community and settle down among the soldiers. Maria concurred with the general plan and felt that they would meet some survivors that morning. She also felt somebody was watching them. When they left the base, after breakfast, Maria told Sam,
“We are being followed.”
Sam looked around and then noticed six men dressed in old tattered Korean army uniforms armed with bows and arrows lurking in the shadows behind a building. They looked like wild men, with a savage look about them, filled with violence, hunger and lust.
cannibals
Sam did not want to die for their dinner and have his wife who was still good looking becoming a sex slave. Sam was pulling out his gun, when there was a whistle and gun shots as the US Army band emerged from the other shadows and gestured to Sam and Maria to join them. A short fire fight ensured. The wild men retreated into the shadows. Sgt Jones yells out in English and Korean,
“You may retrieve your dead.” 당신은 죽은 사람을 되 찾을 수 있습니다.
dangsin-eun jug-eun salam-eul doe chaj-eul su issseubnida.”
And they walked out and picked up their dead companions and disappeared into the
shadows.
“Well, welcome. You were fortunate that we were on routine patrol. They won’t bother us any more. They were probably more interested in your dogs than you. The wild men do like their dog meat. You and your dogs are safe with us. It is unusual that they came into town, perhaps they were following you. We had heard rumors that there were two people from the old world walking towards Camp Humphreys. We saw you camped out by the library last night but did not want to bother you until the morning. We’ll take you back to the base where you can meet Commander Baker. You are not the only survivors, there are a few thousand people scattered about here and there. You are fortunate to have survived because some of the other survivors as you know are the so called wild men, basically cannibal gangs. But we have not seen any new survivors since the event.”
Sam told them their strange tale. As far as they were concerned, they woke up 25 years in the future. They had no idea how that happened or even what really had happened 25 years ago.
Sgt Jones said,
“That story is so strange it might even be true. What happened was kind of what the newspaper had said. There was a bioweapon that escaped from a lab in North Korea, and killed almost everyone in North Korea within days. Some of the survivors managed to get across the DMZ and infected the soldiers. And the contagion spread. Within weeks almost everyone was dead. The base gathered together the survivors and over time others joined us. We are the largest community, about 300 people half American half Korean. There are some smaller Korean towns here and there with 100 to 200 people here and there. Down in Daegu there was at one time a community of 1,000 survivors. But something happened to them five years ago and we have not heard a word from them. Same thing in Busan. And the rumors about General Lee being from your time makes sense. He appeared out of nowhere about five years ago and settled down among the wild men, turning them into militias and driving most of the remaining villagers into the CHMZ.
“CHMZ?”
“Oh, Camp Humphreys Military Zone, the closest thing to a government in Korea these days. In any event, we are thinking of taking some people down to “CWMZ, Camp Walker Military Zone” in Daeju, and “ NBBMZ, Naval Base Busan Military Zone” in Busan to see what’s up. We have not heard from either in five years. Perhaps you might want to join our expedition?”
“Sure, but we want to get settled a bit first.”
“Sure thing. In any event, you were really fortunate to have avoided running into General Lee’s wild men. He is a pretty mean mother f….. The Commander will want to debrief you in detail.”
They entered the base, which was located on the edge of the compound and consisted of housing units and a mini-commissary, and a bowling alley. They had even rigged up some solar and wind power so they had electricity and running water. Everyone had their own house but meals were served communally so to conserve power.
Sam noticed that there were few children. Sgt Jones said,
“The deal is that the plague is still out there. Most children die right away. A few survive. It seems that we are all immune and that we can pass that immunity onto some of our children but we have a 50 percent infant mortality rate anyway. We ran out of modern medicine decades ago. It has been 25 years after all.”
They entered the community center next door to the mini-commissary and bowling alley. Colonel Baker was an elderly black man in his late 60’s. He had the aura of being the man in charge. A good man who had the weight of the world on his shoulders.
The Colonel invited them to tell their tale of woe. They recounted everything that they had experienced since they woke up five days before in the future. The Colonel let them speak until they were finished. He asked a few questions, and was particularly intrigued by what the old man had told them and what the villagers had said as well.
“Well, your ordeal is over for now. You are welcome to stay. Welcome to the community. You can stay as long as you follow the rules. The rules are simple. Everyone had a job assigned to them based on their past life and experience and the needs of the community. Sam could be the base librarian. They had been meaning to move the library over to the community but just had not gotten around to it. Was that sufficient for him?”
Sam agreed to take over the library and help in relocating it to the community, and then to keep track of the library’s holding. Maria volunteered to help out in the community kitchen as she was a good cook and liked cooking.
Col. Baker told them the history of the community and their dealings with the wild men who roamed the hills hunting down animals and the occasional unlucky human they ran into. They had a deal with the wild men. If they ever encountered survivors they would turn them over to them. In return the wild men left them alone.
Sam started objecting, but the Colonel stopped him.
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of honoring that agreement. You can stay with us. But first we are going to take a trip down to CWMZ and NBMZ to see what happened to the community there five years ago. There are rumors that General Lee was either a defector or a North Korean general who had access to the bioweapons program and brought the bio-weapons with him. He may have tweaked it so that the virus can be tailored to only attack for example black people or white people. And he may have the antidote for his people. In any event we suspect that he killed everyone in the CWMZ and the NBBMZ as well. And we are next on his list. We also suspect that he wants to capture you alive so he can debrief you as to what you know. He may have been sent forward prior to the Fall so may not be aware of what you know. And he wants to know if you can travel back and forth in time. I want to know that too.”
“Well, Col. Here’s the deal. We have no idea how we got here. All I know is that there was a blinding flash of light about 5 in the morning and then we found ourselves in this time line.”
‘Fair Enough. Well, are you in for our adventure down South? Are you in?”
“Yeah, we’re in.”
“Good. We will move out in five days. Welcome to our corner of Hell.”
