Updated with additional press coverage and two poetic tributes.
The world lost a legend on Monday, January 13, 2026. Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead. To set the record straight, I never considered myself a Deadhead per se, but more Deadhead-adjacent, perhaps. My Euclid College housemate, Roy—well, he introduced me. He was a real Deadhead, and we played a lot of Dead at our infamous Euclid House Friday night parties, which we hosted for almost three years.
Here are some of Roy’s reflections on the Dead, followed by background information and listening suggestions compiled from Copilot.
Thoughts on Bob Weir’s Passing By Roy Dufrain.
Somehow, I feel a little lonely today—like maybe I lost a favorite cousin I grew up with but haven’t talked to in a while. That’s an odd thing to say, but it feels true. Like the radiating concussion of a blow to the wider family. It runs deep, my connection to this music, this world, the Grateful Dead. It’s not just a thread running through my life; it’s a silken rope, woven of dream dust and memories of other selves.
It’s 13-year-old me in a bedroom hearing Dark Star for the first time while my friend Dave raves about how the music swells and dips and rebuilds and crescendos. It’s 15-year-old me shoplifting Europe ’72 because I wanted to hear it so badly and didn’t have the money for a three-album set. It’s me and Guy and Ruthie careening over Hopland Grade in Mom’s Datsun station wagon, headed for a free show at Golden Gate Park. Sleeping in line at Tower Records—not for the show, just to buy tickets for the show. Monica’s denim skirt twirling to Scarlet Begonias in the quad at Raymond College. Winterland on windowpane, Sugar Magnolia pouring out of the speakers in technicolor. Me and Emma thumbing 500 miles for a show at the L.A. Forum. Learning to juggle in the park at the Kaiser. Me and Michael Strong selling joints at the bar to raise money for New Year’s Eve tickets. Crazy Tony in the med tent at Cal Expo. My VW bus full of teenage nephews on the way to their first show. My dying sister Debi and her oxygen tank at Shoreline Amphitheater. The call from Mrs. D that Jerry had died.
And more.
The music the Grateful Dead invented was essentially improvisational rock ’n’ roll, and it spawned a whole genre now known as jam-band music. But the Dead reached into all realms of American music. The variety of music they delved into is encyclopedic—from Bill Monroe to John Cage and everywhere in between. From Bob’s affinity for cowboy songs to Jerry’s love of Motown and Phil’s compositions for multiple orchestras.
Many commenters today will name Bob as the band’s “rhythm guitarist.” This is an incredibly incomplete understanding of his contribution. He was self-taught in the best sense of the phrase, in that he allowed his technique and style to evolve from his own taste and his own deconstruction. He dropped out of high school at sixteen to join the band. “I had to have the music,” he has said. He “figured out” the sounds he wanted instead of following an official system handed down from wherever. This approach made him a truly unique guitarist and songwriter, particularly in the chords he used and the way he used them. He spoke of jazz pianist McCoy Tyner as a huge influence. Other players speak of Bob as a master of chord inversions beyond compare. He was more than a rhythm player. Within the Dead, he was a rock, a wall, an echo, a question, and an answer to whatever the other players were doing—especially Jerry.
And I know two are left—the drummers, Bill and Mickey—and condolences to them as well as all others close to the center of the scene. But it’ll be different now. When Jerry went, you knew Bob would carry on; the music was still out there, alive and kicking. And even now, others will carry the songs forward down the years, but Jerry and Bob and Phil were the heart of it all. Now they’re all gone, and the music will never breathe quite the same.
But it never was just the music. It was the spirit of adventure in the approach to music and life—that was the real pull, the magnet that made them mean so much to so many. They were tie-dyed red, white, and blue—the embodiment of the American idea that you could follow your own path if that’s what you wanted most. The Grateful Dead was America looking at a funhouse mirror. And, as Bob liked to say, it was “more fun than a frog in a glass of milk.”
Fare thee well, Bob. Fare thee well.
#bobbyweir #gratefuldead #bobweir
“Bobby was completely allergic to compliments in the most endearing way. I’d say, ‘Man, that guitar riff you were doing on that song sounded really killer,’ and he’d respond, ‘Well, I’m sure I’ll fuck it up next time.’ I loved that about him.” — Trey Anastasio
History of the Grateful Dead from Co-Pilot Notes
The Grateful Dead formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California, emerging from the counterculture movement of the 1960s. Originally called The Warlocks, they changed their name after discovering another band had the same name. Known for their eclectic style, they blended rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, country, and psychedelia, creating a unique sound that became synonymous with the “jam band” genre. Their improvisational live performances and devoted fan base, known as Deadheads, made them cultural icons.
Key milestones:
1967: Released debut album The Grateful Dead.
1970s: Peak creative period with albums like American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead.
1987: Commercial breakthrough with In the Dark and the hit single “Touch of Grey.”
1995: Jerry Garcia’s death marked the end of the original band era.
List of Studio Albums
The Grateful Dead (1967)
Anthem of the Sun (1968)
Aoxomoxoa (1969)
Workingman’s Dead (1970)
American Beauty (1970)
Wake of the Flood (1973)
From the Mars Hotel (1974)
Blues for Allah (1975)
Terrapin Station (1977)
Shakedown Street (1978)
Go to Heaven (1980)
In the Dark (1987)
Built to Last (1989)
(They also released numerous live albums and compilations.)
Cultural Significance
Counterculture Symbol: The Grateful Dead embodied the spirit of the 1960s, aligning with anti-establishment ideals and communal living.
Live Music Innovation: They pioneered the concept of extended improvisational jams and encouraged fans to record concerts, fostering a unique tape-trading culture.
Deadhead Community: Their fan base became a social phenomenon, creating a traveling subculture that influenced music festivals and modern jam bands.
Merchandising & Branding: Iconic imagery like the “Steal Your Face” logo and dancing bears became cultural symbols beyond music.
Jerry Garcia – Bio & Orbit
Born: August 1, 1942, San Francisco, CA
Died: August 9, 1995, Forest Knolls, CA
Role: Lead guitarist, vocalist, and primary songwriter.
Orbit: Garcia was the creative heart of the band, known for his fluid guitar style and soulful voice. Outside the Dead, he collaborated on solo projects and with bands like Jerry Garcia Band and Old & In the Way. His influence extended into art and activism, making him a beloved figure in American music.
Bob Weir – Bio & Orbit
Born: October 16, 1947, San Francisco, CA
Role: Rhythm guitarist and vocalist.
Orbit: Weir brought a distinctive rhythm style and contributed significantly to the band’s sound. Post-Grateful Dead, he founded Dog and later played with Dead & Company, continuing the legacy of improvisational music.
Three of my favorite bands were the Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa and the immortal TOP still playing the best funk for the last 60 years!!
Famous Literary or Artist Figures
Create three stanzas of three lines each. Each stanza must 1) be a mini biographical sketch of a famous person or group selected and 2) have a 2-4-2 syllable count for each stanza. Any poem genre. Rhymes and artwork are not required. The chosen literary or artistic figures are not required to be of the same time period, ethnicity, or country of birth, but one or more must be popular to most FanStory readers. Those selected do not need to share the same type of background.
Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Ansel Adams, or the Beatles are examples of those persons or groups you may consider for your entry.
You may choose to include 1, 2, or 3 persons or groups. You can include three different entities or write the three stanzas about just one person or group.
For some reason I recalled a strange site, I recently saw in SF about seven years ago. The photos were taken recently .
Only in San Francisco
One day
While driving down Geary Blvd.
Near Union Square
at sunset
I saw something
That one would only
See in San Francisco
I saw a strange site
A sight that haunted my vision until now
I saw a white man dressed in leather
With a purple mohawk
Walking his dog down the street
Riding on top of the dog was a cat
And riding on the cat
Was a white lab rat
All were getting along
Were obviously friends
As they walked down the street
We all said
Only in San Francisco
City of St Francis
Scarlet Leaf Review has published several of my stories, including Cthulhu’s Revenge, Escape from Hell and Ghoul Haunted Woods of Weir. Here is an updated version of Cthulhu’s Revenge submitted today to Flame Tree publishing’s Lovecraft fiction contest. I am a big Lovecraft fiend – read all of his works decades ago.
Cthulhu’s Revenge
Night scene with the Cthulhu monster with wings standing on the shore of a sea. 3D render.
There is a secret gateway to hell. It lies beneath every city in the world, usually linked into the subway systems or sewage system of the city. A secret underground under the underground so to speak. The underworld is called by some Hell, by other Hades, and a thousand other names, all conjuring up images of darkness, depravity and evil. To the residents of hell, it is simply their home.
The underworld has existed for thousands of years and grew up parallel to the over world which is what us denizens of hell refer to the sunlit world above our heads. The underworld is vast, dark, dangerous, violent, yet has a savage beauty all its own.
The denizens of hell live on in their underworld and occasionally send agents to the surface world to spy on the world and report back to their leaders or to carry out secret missions on earth. The denizens of hell are also awarded passes to the overworld where they can engage in all sort of vile foul evil deeds, drink, take drugs and engage in violent looting, rape and murder. And they can kidnap victims to bring back to hell as their slaves particularly women as most of the denizens of hell are male and there are very few woman and few children born in hell. There are secret passages to the surface world everywhere. The main city of Hell lies underneath Hells kitchen in NYC. And there is a secret subway train that goes from Chelsea station to Hell central where the ruler of Hell reigns.
An overlord, an immortal creature some call Lucifer, some call Satan and a thousand other names, rules the underworld. Few in the outer world know his true name, Cthulhu.
Cthulhu is not a human being nor is he a mortal being. He is an immortal being, a real devil so to speak. Cthulhu is a tall octopus like creature with eight legs, and intense red eyes, and is red in color. He rules through fear and mental telepathic powers. He and his fellow Octopus creatures ruled the Sirian empire. The other sirians were humanoid type creatures. Cthulhu and his followers came to earth thousands of years ago from the planet Sirius. They crashed landed on earth as they were fleeing an interplanetary war and needed to get away fast and chose the earth because the earth was a primitive planet without an obvious civilization and no one would be looking for them there. Earth was the back of the beyond – outside the Galactic Empire. They had to destroy their ships so their presence on earth would not be discovered.
They founded the city of Atlantis and ruled the humans they found there as their overlords. They were seen by the primitive humans as gods and indeed they were Gods so to speak. Cthulhu soon grew dissatisfied with the ruling elite of Atlantis. They were content to live out their lives in exile on earth and made no attempts to rebuild the ships and leave the earth. Many had intermarried with earth creatures and were losing their culture, and language and traditions. Cthulhu felt that the war was over and he wanted to head back to Sirius.
Eventually Jehovah, the green leader of Atlantis, and Cthulhu had a massive falling out. Cthulhu felt that as the senior Sirian he should be in charge of Atlantis and the earth and that all humans should be enslaved. This was the time honored way of life in the Sirian empire. Yet somehow on earth, the green Sirians had lost their way and were talking about educating the natives and treating them with respect.
Cthulhu denounced the green Sirians and called for their destruction.
“there can be no compromise. Earth creatures are animals nothing more and should be used as slave labor and when they die fed to the warrior class so they can take their life force and achieve immortality. That is the way of the Sirian empire and I Cthulhu as your lawful senior rulers declare that Jehovah and his followers must be destroyed by any means necessary. A holly war for the future is at stake.”
Jehovah and his followers launched a world wide war but unfortunately, Atlantis fell sank beneath the waves after a nuclear war.
Cthulhu and his fellow Sirians along with some humans retreated and build an alternate world underground. They would occasionally send spies out to the outer world to keep an eye on things. Jehovah though at the last minute was able to over power Cthulhu and put a mental curse on him and his fellow Octopus confining them underground for ten thousand years and hence hell was founded.
Jehovah and his fellows joined the humans and tried to civilize them. The end result was that most of Jehovah’s fellow Gods were killed by jealous humans. Jehovah and his senior staff survived and formed a secret society that persist to this day. Eventually most of his fellow Sirians intermarried with the local humans. Sirians and humans are both humanoids. And it is hard to tell the difference unless you run DNA tests. The main difference is that Sirians are long lived, the average life span is 10,000 years and a few are close to immortal. Cthulhu claims he is immortal but who can believe him anyway. ? He is the master of lies, deceit, and the dark magic arts of controlling other’s minds.
Jehovah’s descendants live on in small communities across the globe. Most are religious leaders. Buddha, Christ, Mohammed and Sai Babai were all Sirians.
Jehovah is worried. The 10 thousand year curse he had put on Cthulhu is due to expire next year and Jehovah knows that Cthulhu is plotting something horrible. And indeed, he is.
I know. I was one of Cthulhu’s senior leaders. I am what you humans call a defector and have joined forces with Jehovah to try to save the human race. I am writing this statement to alert you humans to the dangerous times coming down the pike and to warn you that Cthulhu’s goal is the total enslavement of Mankind forever. And then he will lead an army of Sirians and Humans back to Sirius to reclaim the throne of the Emperor. You see Cthulhu had been the next in line to the crown when he was overthrown.
About five of your earth years ago I was a senior clerk in the office of Imperial Propaganda. Our job was to send spies and saboteurs out into the outer world and stir up trouble. We were behind WW1, WW11, the Korean and Vietnam and Iraq wars and of course 9-11, and recent pandemics, SARS, MERS and Corona were all bio weapons created in Hell’s underground chemical bio weapons labs nicknamed “Hell’s Kitchens”. Bin Laden one of ours. You can’t find him because he retreated to the underworld and is working out of an office located underneath Karachi.
I knew all about 9-11. It was one of my minor projects. None of us expected it would work, and none of us expected that the U.S. would be so stupid as to get involved in the Iraq war. The terrorism, the lost of civil liberties, the constant fears. That is golden for our work. And the religious belief that Armageddon is coming is music to our master’s ears. For Armageddon is indeed coming and Cthulhu is getting ready. I work for Sam the cyborg deputy to Cthulhu.
On one of my trips to the outer world I had met with Jehovah who woke me up to the evil represented by Cthulhu and I became a double agent spying on Cthulhu and on Jehovah alike as I had been sent to meet him so I could infiltrate his organization and provide critical Intel to support the coming war effort. But I became a dissident and Jehovah and I worked out my double agent duties. Neither Sam nor Cthulhu suspected a thing although with both of them you had to be careful as they both had mental telepathic powers. Fortunately for me, Jehovah had taught me how to put up a mental block which I did whenever I was back home.
The ancient sirians had split into two factions, the red loyal to Cthulhu, and a dissident green faction who wished to educate humanity and live in peace with the natives giving up their dream of some day returning to Sirius which they denounced as fascist totalitarian state. The two factions fought for years and finally they ended up almost destroying the entire planet in a nuclear and biological war. The war destroyed Atlantis, but both groups survived and hid out among the native people. The green group tried to civilize humanity and usually failed miserably. But they continued throughout the centuries. The red group hid out in the wilderness areas and bid their time. They reentered human history when they joined forces with the Romans and taught the Romans the art of warfare.
Both groups however were hampered by the fact that it took a lot of mental energy maintaining their false human appearance, which was part costume and part holographic projection. Interactions with humans were always fraught with problems as few humans could handle the truth and most humans simply went mad when they encountered a Cthulhu unmasked.
Although Sirians were hominid in appearance, they did have either red skin red hair and red horns or green skin and bluish hair and no horns. The red sirians were the master race and the green sirians were a slave race but always revolting against the rule of the red skinned Sirians and their evil masters Cthulhu and his octopus’s race. The great writer Lovecraft was a Sirian defector who tried to warn people of the danger poised by Cthulhu but people dismissed his stories as nothing but purple prose horror fiction. And that was part of the propaganda office’s greatest victory convincing the world that Cthulhu, the devil and other monsters did not exist.
Only in recent years had the Cthulhu grow in power and strength that they felt that they could rejoin their ancient battles. Although Cthulhu himself could not yet escape his imprisonment under ground, members of his red group were able to settle in the U.S. and began associating themselves with prominent political figures, subtly shaping their agenda and their world view.
The master plan was to trigger another world war, and after destroying most of mankind, enslave the rest of the world, and then build spaceships so Cthulhu and his Sirian cohorts could rejoin their brethren in other solar systems. The Sirians were unable to contact any one back at home and that worried them. Then again they lacked interstellar communications and spaceships so they were stuck on earth for now.
Sam was the default leader of the Red faction. He was the result of an experiment years ago to create a hybrid human-Sirian android. By doing so, the theory was that the aging Sirians could live essentially forever. The plan did not work as all of the hybrids developed too much human awareness. Most of them ended up being destroyed or going over to the Green side. Sam was the last of the androids and the most successful. He was determined to destroy most of the human race, and then leave the earth behind.
As a part human, part Sirian and part machine, a cyborg, he needed every so often spare human and Sirian body parts which he obtained through having his demons go to the surface and bring back bodies, preferably alive. The Sirians and the Cthulhu octopi both believed that if you ate your enemy right after killing him you would absorb his life force, his soul and his memories and extend your own life by decades. During the various wars that the Sirians had formatted over the years ritual cannibalism was often practiced for this reasons. Sam was looking forward to the war to end all war the ritual bbq their enemies festival afterwards. He needed some new body part particularly a heart although Sam’s critics did not think there was any blood in his veins just ice cold vinegar. Sam was 12,000 years old and has been a cyborg for 10,000 years. With a new heart he could live for thousand more years.
On that day, Sam was very angry – as angry as a part human, part Sirian, cyborg could ever be. About a month before project Armageddon Sam was sitting with the senior staff of the Cthulhu organization – the secret society that tries to rule the world in their top secret base located at an undisclosed location 10 miles beneath the White House and the Pentagon.
Sam was the senior policy advisor to the President and was often called the President’s brain. Most of the senior advisers were in the room with me- most but not all were fellow Sirians. The president was a puppet whom they controlled mentally which is why one of his advisors had to be with him at all time. The Cthulhu overloads met nightly after the President’s mental conditioning was turned off and he was allowed to sleep. Even while he slept, someone was watching him for signs that he was waking up and asserting his human side, but fortunately the President seemed to be unaware that he was a puppet for an alien race plotting to enslave mankind.
So, on that particular day, Sam was very angry. Their latest plans – divert media attention away from plan Armageddon with a series of meaningless media diversions were not working. With these dismal thoughts racing through his head, Sam started the meeting as he often did by yelling at his staff.
“God damn it. We had a perfect distraction in the John Mark Karl case – they found the Jon Benet Ramsey killer after 10 years and he was a child sex pervert living in Bangkok! That story was made for operation diversion. Why or why didn’t we check it out to make sure that the story would last through January ? Remember people, we have to keep feeding the media shit so that they will keep their eyes off our plan Armageddon. Now, I am not going to play the blame game – today. What we need is another diversion media story. Ideas?
George, a pure bred Sirian, who remembered everything he ever heard or saw, piped up. “Sir, there are several stories we could use. There is one that is particularly good. A little girl in Austria was kidnapped ten years ago by her next door neighbor. They just found her alive and he is dead. She claims that he was not human, but some sort of evil monster from outer space. And she is right. He is a descendant of Cthulhu, one of the renegade ones that we encounter every so often. This story has everything we need – sex, depravity, mystery, violence, greed and proof that aliens are among the humans! We can pump this one up for months. We could link it to other mysterious sightings of UFO’s and aliens and start a real media frenzy. Then we could have the President announce that the USG would lead the fight against the menace of space aliens. We can double or triple military spending, enact even more draconian laws, and increase the fear factor by orders of magnitude!”
Sam stopped the discussion, and thought to himself, this is indeed the way to go. They could step up the fear factor, terrorize the population, increase defense spending and divert attention from plan Armageddon.
Without much further discussion, the plan was approved. The media team went to work creating false stories to plant through out the world. The propaganda department worked up the propaganda points to be made. Sam and his senior staff met and worked on what to tell the President and then the general public.
The propaganda wars continued, with fake news stories erupting up out of nowhere. All to keep the masses confused, and distracted while the real plans were laid down.
Sam an appointment with Cthulu himself and was ready. Cthulhu and his followers had finally escaped their prison a few weeks ago and were ready to launch Project Armageddon. Sam had to brief him on the final plans for Armageddon. Sam, filled with fear, went into Cthulhu’s office, located deep under the Pentagon building. This was his first meeting with the overlord.
Sir he began
Cthulhu looked at him and read his thoughts as Sam gave Cthulhu the latest Intel on the Mideast and the array of forces ready to blow up. Time was right, it would be very simple to edge one of the Middle eastern leaders to say or do the wrong thing, and the whole place will blow up.
Cthulhu’s agents were arming terrorists who were prepared to unleash a wave of suicide bombing throughout the U.S. At the same time, he would have one of his agents blow up a nuclear bomb. That would trigger all out nuclear war.
Cthulhu and his generals went outside to inspect the troops. They were ready – all 5 million of them – humans, Sirians, androids. As soon as the Nuclear war was over they would emerge and take over the world. And Cthulhu would have his revenge, 10,000 years in the making. Cthulhu and his senior staff would kill and eat their prisoners alive as they knew that eating a sentient being alive allowed one to absorb their soul, their memories and their life energies extending the life of the victor. Cthulhu ended his pep speech saying,
“Bring me the bodies of our enemies and we will have a feast and I will grant you the gift of eternal life. Project Armageddon is a go!”
I wrote on my face book page, outlying the end of the world and concluded with a call to action.
“Cthulhu has risen from his prison. Jehovah has been killed. the end times are approaching time is running out. The world is ending in a few days. The army of Hell is marching and world 111 will start with nuclear war and terrorism. Afterwards the army of hell will occupy the world restore Cthulu to power and enslave mankind. I hope that someone gets this message and can figure a way to stop the end of days but I know that my time here is running out. God rest our souls.
Escape from Hell
This is a true story. Hell is a real place, with real demons and real
punishments. It is a lot worse than any of us imagine and it is both more real
and unreal at the same time. It exists and does not exist at the same time in a
weird parallel universe. Once someone dies, and he ends up in Hell he
continues to live on in a manner of speaking; he does not die but he cannot
live in this world during the light of day. They become the undead and are
like the vampires of legend (who exist but that is another story). So, the
condemned live on in eternal torture and turmoil and they also must
work. Hell is full of workers working as slaves to keep the
machinery going. And Hell is a growing place – most people on earth end
up there. Running Hell requires lots of workers. And being a slave in the
Hell is no picnic my friends.
Despite its reputation as a place as a lawless place, Hell is a very legalistic place. Satan uses an army of lawyers (no shortage of fresh lawyers) and bureaucrats to run his domain. Despite his rules and regulations and lawyers, Hell is a bureaucratic nightmare run by evil, mendacious, corrupt and incompetent demons. But, there are a few loopholes in the rules, and a few strange quirks to the law and even Satan must obey these special rules.
One of them is rule number Nine: If a person goes to Hell by mistake because of a screw up in the computerized system that runs both Heaven and Hell and the whole other computer systems that run this world, and someone from our world gets to Hell and back out with their loved one in tow, both the condemned and the lover who rescue them may live a long life in this world and will ascend to Heaven upon death as cosmic compensation for the screw up. They have only evoked this rule one time, about a hundred years ago. Many people end up in Hell each year due to computer errors and a few people end up in Heaven by mistake. Many people have died to try to go to hell to try to take advantage of rule number nine, but only one person made it out. But there are ways, my friends. There are ways. Jack found the way, and this is his story.
Jack was a tall youthful-looking man for man in his 60’s. He still had hair and intense blue eyes and although he walked with a limp, he was in fairly good shape and worked out every day. Jack had retired from a lifetime of government service and was living in San Francisco as a pensioner. He had dreams of being a writer but was not getting too far with his various novels. One day his spouse went to the store and was blown up when a suicide bomber blew up in the car in front of her. Just another victim of the constant terrorism that had bedeviled the world since before the second gulf war.Jack was devastated. He could not imagine life without his spouse. They had been married for almost 35 years by then and he was looking forward to the remaining years together. They had no children but still had lots of friends from around the world from their days in government service and from the old neighborhood that he had grown up in.
Jack had met his wife through a dream. He fell asleep in a class in high school and saw the most beautiful women in the world staring at him. He yelled out,
“Who are you?” and she disappeared from the dream. He continued to have the same dream month after month for eight years. One day he had to decide whether to go Korea or Thailand in the Peace Corps. He had the dream then and realized that she was in Korea waiting for him. After the Peace Corps, when he was teaching ESL for the U.S. Army, he had the last of the dreams. She told him that he would meet her soon. That night she walked off a bus and into his life. They married 35 years later.
Throughout his life, he often thought of the dream. And when they were separated he would dream that she was right there in the room watching over him. So, Jack knew that he would soon encounter her in yet another dream.
That night after the terrorist attack that killed his wife, Jack had a dream that would haunt him for about a year. Every night the same image – his wife was in Hell and was screaming while being tortured by demons wielding whips and chains. She was yelling repeatedly that she was not supposed to be there. Her tormentors, five or six demons wearing red suits and white ties, laughed and said that she was right – it was a screw up in the computer programs that sent her there. She was due in heaven but hey once she was there what could they do about it? She might as well get used to the idea. And then the torture started again, and she faded away. The dream continued night after night.
Jack knew that she was contacting him in his dreams just like she had for eight years before he met her. He believed that she was in Hell. He decided to do a little research into this Hell business. He got on the internet and read as much as he could find, and hit the occult bookstores in the city and in Berkeley and after a few weeks of reading everything he could find on the subject concluded that were three basic schools of thought:
Hell was a myth and did not of course exist (majority opinion)
Hell might have existed in ancient times but not in this enlightened modern era. (minority opinion)
Hell existed and was real. The only problem was almost no one ever went there voluntarily and came back. (this was the majority belief among the occult writers and other assorted nut cases).
He became obsessive about finding out everything that had ever been written about Hell. He continued haunting these stores and visiting all the various internet sites that he began to be well known as the “man who wants to rescue his wife from Hell.” Jack will tell people the story repeatedly and most people thought he was a harmless old man gone batty because he had lost his wife in the terrorist bombing.
Most of his friends advised him to forget about it and get on with his life. They told him to get back to work on his novels. Some tried to fix him up with girls, but he refused all such requests. He was truly a man obsessed.
He finally found a few obscure references to the way to Hell in some writings in the Necronomicon (Al Asif) by the mad Arab poetry, Abdul Aliased, and other long banned occult texts as well as references in various occult publications and writers including Crowley and others. He also read the founder of the Church of Satan claimed he had been to Hell and back. After consulting these references, Jack decided he could locate Hell. Jack sat down one Saturday night and did a final re-reading of all his numerous volumes of material in Hell. His apartment was filled to the brim with books, articles, printouts of web pages and the like. Jack worked all night and at last, he shut down his computer. He poured himself a cup of coffee and looked at what he had written.
Jack decided he had a decent plan of action. He had learned from his readings of rule number nine and decided to pull it off. The last attempt that was successful was in the 19th century. Hell, it seemed had several portals that interconnected with this world. One theory was that Hell existed in a parallel universe as did Heaven. There were several places where Hell interconnected with Earth. Quite a few sites came to mind, some of them were even listed on various internet sits as “gateways” to Hell. What distinguished them all was they were in neighborhoods and regions of the earth where evil things seem to happen for no reason. In other words, the gates of Hell ran through neighborhoods denounced as “Hellholes.” And every big city had them. Some more than others.
You see the demons and other lower level functionaries of Hell occasionally needed to get out of Hell. The rules were that they could leave Hell once a month on the full moon but had to be back in Hell by sunrise. If they did not make it back in time they will be condemned to Hell themselves as an ordinary inmate, not as demon functionary. And in Hell you did not want to be a “defrocked devil” so to speak as the other inmates would make your life a living Hell and of course, your fellow demons would mock you forever as a loser. Hell was a viscous place.
So, the devils would dress up as humans and leave Hell and wander the dark corners of big cities, and engage in crime and random violence including rape, robbery, drunken brawls and the like. But they needed cash to do so. Hell did not run on currency; everything was paid for by the State. It was, in a way, a perfect communist society.
One-day Jack came upon a description of Hell written by a man who had gone to Hell to find and locate his wife. He managed to get out of Hell alive but without his wife. He had a very detailed map of Hell. According to this book, published in the early 30’s, Hell had a stop on the NYC City subway line, deep underneath the Hell’s Kitchen area of NYC.
The author also described the details of Hell’s horrific, terribly corrupt bureaucracy. He said everything was for sale, and the currency of choice was U.S. dollars. Many of the lower echelon officials dreamed of escaping Hell and many manage to bribe their way out for a weekend of fun in NYC. That is why NYC has always had very strange crimes reported now and then. The denizens of Hell while on earth look like humans but are very wild, violent, and crazy, as if they are very high, and most of them are. There are drugs in hell and they are very popular but must be smuggled in from earth. Hell does not actually produce anything, even the food and clothing are all imported from earth. One of the most popular jobs in the hell is to be part of the weekly courier runs that go to NYC to pick up supplies including illegal drugs. After the courier run is over, they get an extra day in NYC and must be back by sunrise the third day. So, after their duty night is over, they come out and commit horrific crimes and then disappear into sunlight.
The stories all agreed that the undead demons are instantly vaporized with the first light of the sun. The author said this accounts for the various stories about vampires. He said that there were other portals to Hell, one in SF, one in Berlin and one in Romania. He also said that Satan and Hitler had both died and were brought back by the devil himself and had almost succeeded in opening a permanent portal to the netherworld. That is why in Hell all the guards wear 30’s gangster clothing as that was Satan’s favorite period of US history.
Sam read another old legend dating back centuries that stated that there was only one known method to enter Hell alive and come out alive. If one goes to Hell to retrieve a lost relative and manages to return to the surface he will be given 50 years additional life as well as 50 years for his spouse, child or parent. But of course, if he fails to return to the surface he will join his spouse in Hell forever. And only a few brave mortals had ever attempted the journey. This was a bylaw written by Satan himself as Satan appreciate such acts of selfless courage.
Jack’s plan was simple – recruit 10 of his oldest and best friends to come with him on his rescue mission. He knew that none of them would believe him until they entered the gates of Hell, but he was sure they would stick with him to the bitter end. He read somewhere that the immunity from future stays in Hell would apply to them as well as to him. Jack started talking with his friends and eventually recruited ten people to his crusade. They, of course, thought he was crazy but perhaps he was telling the truth and besides it beat the Hell of staying at home enjoying retirement.
Jack called together about ten of his friends from all over the world and explained the situation to them.
They all said that he was crazy but what the Hell. It sounded like a lark, so they were in. Jack told them that he believed Angela was there and they had to try to rescue her.
Jack had prepared an extensive list of items for the journey. I had bought ten zoot suites complete with fedora hats and had managed to find some antique but serviceable Tommy guns through a friend of mine who had contacts in the underworld. The story was slowly making the rounds that there was this crazed American who was convinced that Hell was real, and his wife was there, and damned fool that he was he was going to rescue her.
Of course, no one believed this story, including those agents of Satan that lived everywhere lurking among the gangsters and criminal elements, so the story was never reported through official channels.
And Hell, Central never heard the story, thank God.
Finally, the day came. Jack had consulted several astrologers, tarot card readers, mediums, and the like and they all agreed that the plan was audacious but doable. We had to crash through the subway gate, tell the guards that if they let us in we would bring them out and pay them in real currency. That should work. We had the clothes, looked the part of internal inspectors (the feared Gestapo of the underworld). One contact made up some official looking identity cards that identified us as special agents undercover on the surface world who had to interrogate a suspect deep inside. We had to bring her to the surface to identify a traitor to the satanic cause. All my contacts in the occult world thought that might really work but no one really knew as no one had ever come back alive.
Jack’s books advised taking thousands of dollars with him, so he could bribe his way into Hell and back out again. Jack decided he needed two to four million dollars. He put up his property, liquidated his assets and had about four million in cash. It took some time to get all the cash together. Due to various anti-crime and anti-money laundering bills, it was very difficult to withdraw large amounts of cash. Jack had to finally go to a loan shark and pay for his cash with cashier’s checks. But he finally had the cash in hand, in 20-dollar bills.Jack called his gang of followers together for a planning meeting. 10 people showed up. General G. Patrick, ex-marine, was the first to show up. He was a tall muscular man who looked like an ex-Marine colonel should, almost from central casting. His wife, Betty was also ex-military but had retired as a general and was on the board of USAA. Pat thought that Jack was crazy and had been since high school, but hey if he wants to play a game, he was in.
Bob, the retired actor, showed up next. He was also a big guy could have been a football player and had a tough look to him. He often played a villain on stage and in TV and movies. He fancied himself a baadass. He also was quite amused by the whole thing but thought what the heck. It might be fun.
Keith came in next with his wife, Maggie, and child. Keith was a minor millionaire developer. He was the one who had introduced Jack to the money launderer. He was tall, blond hair and looked like a younger version of Donald Trump who was his hero. Maggie was from Colombia. Ken was 11 years old and they all agreed that having a kid around might prove useful as no one was suspicious of people who had kids with them.
Matt and his wife were there as well. Matt was a retired financial planner and was a logistics whiz. He was also tall and had a beard and looked like the kind of guy who knew his way around computers and financial spreadsheets. Matt would serve as the computer cracker and document reader if they need those skills on the job. Margaret was a retired nurse and would serve as the medic if they needed a medic. Jack planned on making Matt the second in command.
And then there was me, Roy D. I was an old writer friend of Jack’s from college and had helped him with his research. I was the first of what we called Jack’s Hells Angels to be brought into the cosmic conspiracy as we dubbed it.
Jack started the meeting off.
“Guys, thanks for coming. I know I have been boring the “Hell” out of you, pun intended, for the last four or five months. But, what you don’t know is that I have found the gates to Hell and have located where my wife is. I also know you don’t believe me when I tell you the dreams I have been having. I went to UC and had them record my dream onto a disk. It is amazing what they are discovering now a day. I heard that they had just invented that technology. Anyhow, I’d like to play it for you. Afterwards, you can decide if you wish to come along on the adventure of the century or not. For if we succeed in proving Hell exists and come back alive we will be the most famous explorers in history and of course, we will also be exempted from ever having to go there again and get 50 bonus years at our current age. And guaranteed admission to Heaven which most of you were going to go to except for Keith whom I am sure was headed to hell. So, let me play the dream.”
Jack puts the disk in the computer and plays the program. His wife, Angela was Korean and looked young for her age. She was short and still a stunningly
beautiful woman.
His wife appears in a pit of flames. There are four or five demons like creatures whipping her and telling her to work harder. She is mining something out of the wall. There are hundreds of people in the mines, most of them standing in a pit of burning flames. She is screaming, “I am not supposed to be here.
There must be a mistake. I demand to see the manager.”
The head demon walks over, and barks out, what is your name?
“Angela Lee.”
“I see,” he says, consulting a palm held computer. “Oh, here we are. Yeah, you should be in the other place. Must be one of those computer glitches. Well, it is too complicated to fix and too much paperwork. If you had some money on you, say 100,000 dollars perhaps I could fix it. But where in Hell are you going to get that kind of cash?” He laughs and laughs.
Angela turns and screams out “Help me. Save me from Hell. I am in Pit number 5720279 Sector Bravo,
Unit 524.”
The head demon laughs, and the demons start whipping her again and again. The image fades away.
Jack turns to his friends and says, “I have had that dream every night since she died. As you know I dreamt about meeting her for eight years before I met her and so I believe she is telling the truth and that she is in Hell in that pit and that if we can make it to Hell and bribe her head demon we might be able to make it back alive with her. So, whether you believe me or not, I want you to join me in this crusade. Are you in or not?”
We fly off to NYC and get a hotel in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood on the lower West side. We set off on our big adventure one Friday afternoon at rush hour and entered the subway system. We assemble at the appointed spot in the subway system and I chanted the mantra from one of the books of Hell. A doorway opens in the air and we climb through. The door closes behind us and we are in a mirror image of the subway entrance. A board booth attendant looks at us and comes to attention.
I tell them we are on a special mission and must locate an Angela Lee who was sentenced six months ago. He looks it up on the computer and hums and haws. We give him 500 U.S. dollars to not report that this has occurred and promise him 500 more and an opportunity to join us on the other side if he kept
quiet.
He grins and says
“You got it my man, but the price is not right. Gona cost you 500 dollars per person or say 25 K. You see I have lots of people to bribe to pull this off “.
Jack pays him off. He turns and says,
“Good luck and all that shit. You will need it.”
He said to take the A train to Hell Central, get off and transfer to the B train and stay on to the central coal pit, then get off and tell the chief super there that Bernie says we are okay. He will help you find your lady, but you got to know that if HE, the MAN downstairs, finds out you will all fry. I ain’t putting my neck on the line for you guys not at all. And the super, Mr. Black will need at least five G’s to look the other way…
We thank Mr. Bernie and enter the next A train. The train leaves the station and we gasp as we enter Hell. Miles and miles of open pits with fires burning everywhere and sounds of people screaming in endless agony. All along the streets of the city are filled with desperate looking people, dressed in rags. Guys in zoot suits dressed like us walk about shooting people for fun. The dead die again but come back to life so to speak minutes later in even worst pain.
There are bars on every corner selling all sorts of illegal drugs and prostitutes are everywhere promising all sorts of sexual delights for a price. Some of our company, the guys are talking about stopping off for a drink or two. I stop them and remind them of the mission and say that if they as much drink a drop of Hell booze they will never be allowed to leave. That shuts everyone for a while.
The train soon becomes a roller coaster and goes up and down up and down. People get on and off, but everyone avoids looking at us. My friend Robert waives his Tommy gun in the air a couple of times when people get too close. We get off at Hell Central which is a mirror image of Grand central but incredibly crowded, noisy and smelly as Hell. We finally find out the way and transfer to the B line, and it takes us deep into the cavernous pits of Hell.
I had heard a story that Satan had a deal with the coal companies where he mined coal using slave labor and export the coal to a mine somewhere in Pennsylvania coal country where it was brought to the surface. The coal companies sold it at market rates and kicked back the profits. The same person told me that Satan had lots of connections with politicians, businessmen and the like and his spies were everywhere on earth. Satan was plotting to take over but somehow never quite made it.
The other side he said also had their angels on earth as well. Good and evil were ever in constant battle and good seemed to have more magical power than evil. But Satan was gaining his power. Part of it was that no one believed in him anymore which gave him plausible deniability, a phrase he had taught the CIA, which he had set up as his secret army on earth as a secret organization within the CIA. They reported to the President and to Satan and did “wet work “missions for both. Most of the agents were demons who were temporarily assigned to earth and given special dispensation to allow them to work on earth. Such duty was highly sought after.
We keep going deeper and deeper into the bowels of Hell. The stench was overpowering but we were all wearing masks infused with garlic which was supposed to prevent us from becoming overpowered by the demonic stench.
Finally, after two hours we entered the coal company site. We walk up and demand to see the super. Robert waives his Tommy gun around. I scream and the rest of us look mean as we could possibly manage. The super comes out, a big, burly black guy. He says, yeah, Bernie’s cool. We were Hell-mates came into together with the service. What can I do for you fine gentlemen and ladies? He leers at the ladies in our group. They glare back.
I explain the situation. He says well let me see. I need some paperwork. I point the gun at him, saying it is urgent top-secret work, covert shit and all and we would pay him 3 g’s in Earth money if he just found the girl and looked the other way.
He looks at me and says make it 100 g’s and you got a deal. I offer ten and we settle at twenty-five, plus 40 G more as he had some people to bribe. We settled at 50 k. I think to myself we owe Bernie a tip. Mr. Black calls an assistant and says take these gentlemen to sector 214 B, subsection 212 A 6 C. That is where we would find the lady. He then turns to me and says look I can lose her for a day or so. You must have her back within 36 hours or all sorts of heads will roll. And if I must report this I don’t care who the Hell you all are. I ain’t being demoted to being one of them Hell no. I ain’t. You understand me, dude?
We come to an agreement and slip him another 5 gs. He then says he has some TV to watch and would give us 30 minutes to get her and get back on the train. I tell several of my group to stay behind with Mr.
Black.
Pat, Robert, Keith, and Matt, all old high school buddies, and I get on the mini-tram and go into the pits
with the guard, Mr. Ramesh, a former Indian customs official.
He turns to me and says,
“Hey, did you used to live in Bombay? Did I say yeah, I was undercover at the time poising as a US diplomat? You got a problem with that?”
I slip him 2 g’s and he smiles and says
“This solves most problems. 3 Gs more and I forget who the fuck you are.” Jake slips him some more money and we follow him down into the pits.
We find Angela staying in a pool of stagnant water. She is haggard, tired, and looks like shit. She is digging coal out with a shovel. We walk up to her and start yelling at the guards, that we have a prisoner to take for questioning. One of the guards looks at us and
“Back off or we shoot your ass. Your choice.”
He turns to pick up his intercom and we shoot him. He drops dead and we know it will take a day or so for him to recover. The four other prisoners in the work detail beg us to take them with us. I tell them my mandate was to tell Angela, but we would give them each 5000 g’s to keep quiet and forget what they had seen. They take the money.
“Man, good luck with that shit. Angela was a great woman and was always talking about her husband. We could not figure out how she got here. Maybe just a screw up in the computer files. Happens all the time, man. But hey we did not see anything, right?”
They wander off.
We get back on the track to the main office. When we get there, we decide we should take out Ramesh and Mr. Black for the time being. We thank them and then shoot them saying it was for their own good. That would buy us a day as it would take a day for them to come back to life. We debate whether to take the money back or not but finally decide to let them have it as they had kept their end of the bargain.
We get on the train and head back to Hell Central. We get back to the exit and find Mr. Bernie waiting. He has a few police types with them. They had some questions for us. I decide to bluff. I tell them that this was a covert mission and I did not have to answer to anyone other than the MAN downstairs. And if they interfered it would be painful as I would have to shoot them first, then turn them over to our torture specialists, and I pointed out several of our more macho looking guys in the group.
They demanded paperwork. I told them the only paper they would be given would be green backs. They demanded 5000 g’s a piece and were adamant. I gave them 5,000 apiece and we shot them dead.
Told Bernie,
“You coming? “
“Hell yes.”
We say the mantra and find ourselves in the NYC subway early in the morning. I tell Bernie you have until dawn to get back. I tell him where the nearest bar was and that it was just in time for happy hour. And gave him 5,000 bonus cash.
He said, “yeah, I head of that place.” And he runs off in search of the nearest bar.
When we leave the subway, we are faced with a reception committee. Two special agents from Hell are standing there looking at us. They take us to a safe house in Harlem. Finally, we meet the agent in charge of NYC.
He looks familiar,
“I say, didn’t you used to work for the US government as a diplomat.”
He said yeah,
“I did. You used to work for me. Worst subordinate ever. I recognize the two of you. I always wondered what would happen to you. He then says, okay, now that I know you are human beings you had better tell me the truth and you know I hate your guts. And I know you are a lying scumbag and should be in Hell someday. “
I said, okay,
“David here’s the God’s truth” and tell the whole story.
When I tell him, he gets on the computer, and looks up the special rules and says, “holly shit. You are right. You are your friends all are given 50 bonus years at your same age and you will all be going upstairs when you die. But you must pay me 50 k to keep quiet for the next twenty minutes while you escape.
Listen, as a favor to us don’t publish this story. You know what kind of trouble that could cause us?”
Jack pays him off and promised him that he would never publish this story, but hey he lied.
Jack and Angela make it back out of Hell and back to SF. His friends all made it out too, and Satan honored rule number nine because even Satan must follow the cosmic laws that govern Heaven and Hell.
Ghoul Haunted Woodlands of Weir
Sam Hill woke up freezing cold outside in a howling wilderness of tall dense trees, covered with dense fog. Sam did not know how he got there, wherever there was, nor did Sam remember much of his prior life. Nor did Sam recognize the trees – they were different from any trees he had ever seen. All Sam knew was he was Sam Hill, late of Berkeley, California where he ran a restaurant.
And last night was lost in a fog of weed, drugs, and perhaps wild sex. Sam simply could not remember much of that night. After closing his restaurant, he went out with some friends and ended up in a club somewhere in SF. He had gone to the club where he smoked weed, snorted what he thought was cocaine, and drank way too much. Might even had dropped acid – he did not know what he had done. His friends left him at the club. He went home with a strange bosomy Indian woman he met at the club, but the rest was foggy at best. He did remember that she was hot – brunette, middle age with curves to die for. And she had a sexy come hither foreign accent – she was a devilish attractive woman from India. in short, she was Sam’s fatal attraction.
Sam suddenly remembered that he had been married before and that his wife had left him when she found out that he had been cheating on her. But Sam could not remember his wife’s name nor recall her face. Nor who he had cheated with. But he remembered the women last night, did not remember her name or whether they had sex – he think he did but damn everything was foggy. He wondered if she had slipped him a mickey? In any event, it was all a blur.
But that still did not explain how he had woken up here in the forest. He could tell that he was no longer in the Bay Area because of the strange unearthly trees and the landscape. It was clear that he was in a wilderness area but where he could not figure out. Sam got up off the damp forest floor and stood up to survey his situation. Frankly, it was not good. He had the clothes on his back, a backpack containing a coat, a book of Poe’s poetry, a pen, and a bottle of water. He had nothing else he would need to survive in a hostile wilderness, – no matches, no weapons and most importantly no food. He did not know how he had gotten back pack, nor why he had a book of Poe’s poetry in the backpack.
Sam looked around the woods and saw that he was in the middle of a dense grove of tall trees, of a strange species he had never seen before. Most of the trees were green evergreen but he swore that some of the trees were purple and some were red. It seemed like it was an autumn day as there was a crisp autumn like breeze in the air. He recalled that it was November 1 back in the real word, the day after his birthday. He almost felt that he had been transplanted to another world. As far as he could see in the dense fog the forest went on and on.
It was a cold, damp morning. But he felt that it could get warmer despite the autumn chill in the air. The sun was sneaking over the horizon so in any event it was about 6 am. But there was something weird about the sun – just did not look like the sun on earth and it had a faint reddish glow to it and seemed bigger than the Sun on Earth. Then the other sun dawned, and he knew he was not in Kansas or anywhere else on earth. He glanced at his watch, it seemed to be working. His cell phone had no signal – nada, but all the other features that were not dependent on an internet connection seemed to work.
Sam decided that the only thing to do was to walk to the end of the forest and see if he can find any signs of civilization, or at least get some food and water somewhere. Sam started walking and walking and the forest seem to go on and on. As he walked he recalled some of his boy scout training decades ago and headed in the same general direction, south he thought but the two Suns in the sky threw his internal sense of direction off. At least he was not walking in circles he thought.
He heard creatures stirring in the woods, but he did not encounter any wildlife. And Sam was unprepared – as he had no weapons other than a rock that he had picked up just in case. After an hour of walking he heard a noise. And the woods ended. He came up to a cliff and saw through the fog that there was a stream running down at the bottom of the steep canyon.
He was contemplating whether to try to walk down the canyon when he heard a noise. He looked up and saw two big ravens staring at him. Sam yelled at them, “Say, bird, do you know where I am?” Sam was surprised when the birds turned to him and laughed at him. Mocking birds, he though. But then then spoke.
The birds laughed at Sam. One then says, “Sam, you are in the ghoul haunted woods of Weir.”
Sam said, “Where?”
The bird said, “Precisely, where. The ghoul haunted woods of Weir. There is no escape from here. All who enter die. So, sad, we’ve seen it all before. Love to help but there is no escape. You are doomed to die here all alone except for the ghouls who will hunting you soon for their evening meal.”
Sam looked at the birds, and said “am I dreaming or on drugs? Is this real?”
The birds laughed and laughed
“Sam, my human friend. This is as real as it gets. You are not on drugs although you had some drugs last night. That women drugged you and left you for dead. But at least you got some sex out of it. You humans and sex. God. You guys are horny dogs. In any event, this is a real as any nightmare, but you will never wake up. You are doomed to die here. Might as well wait for the end to come. The Ghouls come out at dusk to feed.
But, Sam, since we like you, we can give you some advice. Try to get down to the river and follow the river to the town at the bottom of the river. Once you get there the ghouls can’t follow as they are banned from entering human towns. Once you get there the people might be willing to take you in. But probably not. Human, probably you are going to die. Well, nice talking to you, best of luck all of that. We have to get going places to be people to see and all that rot.”
Sam asked the birds a final question,
“what the fuck is a ghoul?”
The birds looked at Sam, and said,
“Your worst nightmare human. They used to be human at one time but now are what do you call it, zombies. The living dead. They haunt these woods and prey on the unfortunates who find themselves here.
“How and why am I here?”
“God only knows, and he is not telling. All we know is that every day some human finds themselves where you are and by the end of the night the ghouls get to them. None escape with their life. Well, we really need to get going. Best of luck, Sam. You will need it.”
And the two ravens flew off cackling to themselves.
Sam looked down at the canyon wall and saw a faint outline of a path that led down to the river and at the bottom of the river he saw some logs – perhaps he could fashion some sort of raft from the logs and make his way down stream. Sam did not want to come face to face with a Ghoul or zombie or whatever the hell haunted these woods. Sam did not trust the birds were telling him the truth, for some reason these birds seemed to omen of bad luck. Sam got to work and slowly picked his way down the steep path towards the bottom of the canyon and finally made it down. It was mid-day then and the fog was starting to lift.
Sam looked up at the cliff above and thought he saw something moving through the trees. Something large, and vaguely wolf like. He stared but did not see anything more. Then he heard the howling of the wolves and saw them – a pack of them on top of the cliff. The ravens flew overhead and landed next to the wolves. Sam also heard the ravens and the wolf like things talking. The Ravens pointed out Sam and seemed to wave at him. The wolf creatures growled but made no attempt to come down the path.
It was time to go. He walked over to the logs and found that two of the logs could be wrapped together with some reeds growing on the side of the river. After an hour of work, he had a serviceable raft and started floating down the rushing river. He floated for hours with the forests on top of the cliff never ending, but the fog had lifted a bit.
Finally, it was getting dark and Sam needed to stop for the night. He pulled up on a sand bar. He noticed some bushes had some blue berries on them and Sam tried them. After realizing the fruit would not kill him, Sam ate as much as he could stand and drank some river water. He then got some twigs and tried to make a fire. Sam finally got a bit of a flame going and made a bon fire and fell asleep.
He woke up at dawn and saw that he had gone a long way down the river. He looked up and saw the birds flying above him. He called out, “Mr. Bird, I’m still alive.”
The birds turned to him and said, “Sam, nice to see you. The ghouls missed you last night; the werewolves too but everyone is ready for you know. We had to tell them where you are and where you are heading. We are spies so to speak. Nothing personal we like you, Sam, but we all have our jobs to do. That is the way of the world. There is no escape. Have a nice day.” The birds flew away.
Sam got up and ate some more berries and drank more water. Then he got on the log raft and continued his journey. All day he kept hearing the howling of wolves and strange yapping sounds which he assumed were the sound of the ghouls. He did not see anything, just heard the ghostly sounds in the forests on top of the cliff.
He turned a corner in the river and saw a town ahead. At least it looked like a town; just a few huts along a road and a boat landing. He pulled up and wandered into the little town. He entered the first hut and found several dead bodies piled along the side of the hut. Shot to death executive style. Sam backed out quickly as he realized the killers could be nearby as the bodies looked relatively freshly killed. He entered hut after hut and found death everywhere. He counted 100 dead bodies. The bodies appeared to be human like and were vaguely middle eastern looking, but there was something off about them as well and he realized that they were humanoid not human. He was about to leave the village when he heard a sound of someone crying. He ran inside and found a little child still alive somehow. He grabbed the boy and gestured for him to follow him and he left the hut. In the next hut, he filled his backpack with provisions – food, water, weapons, extra clothing and matches. They had guns that apparently were earth made. Everything else was alien in origin. That was strange.
He gestured to the boy to follow him and they left the town and walked down the road. As they walked the kid and Sam bonded despite the lack of a common language. Sam taught him a few English words and he seemed to be picking it quickly. He was about 6 years old.
About an hour later they came upon a bigger town. In this town, all the people were dead as well, but were buried in a communal grave at the end of the road. Mangy dogs were feasting on the dead bodies, but they ignored Sam and the boy whom Sam leaned was called “Abdul.”
They decided to camp out in the field outside of town and watch out for the return of the bandits who had destroyed the town. Sam was also worried about the werewolves and ghouls in the forest left behind. Sam made a bonfire and they ate their provisions and fell asleep. In the middle of the night Sam woke up and saw the ghouls eying him. They were tall, human shaped creatures all white in color with bright red eyes. He asked them what they wanted.
They laughed and said, “Sam, you are very lucky. You’ve survived so far. And we are forbidden to harm you once you are in the human zones. But now you are in the realm of man again and perhaps won’t be so lucky any more. You see the way back to your world is back up in the woods between the worlds. Down here you are stuck forever. And you can see what kind of violent world this is. You are in the middle of a war between two war lords. If you manage to make it through the battle field, you might live. But we wanted to see you. The birds like you and we like the birds. Usually the birds don’t intervene, and we get our reward – the opportunity to eat human flesh. We are disappointed that the can’t eat you and your kid tonight. But the rules are the rules and we can’t harm you. “
Sam asked the ghouls,” Will you let me and my companion travel back to my world?”
The ghouls laughed and said, “Sam, we’ve never allowed anyone to get this far from your world before.
What makes you think we will let you go?”
“Well, I run a nice restaurant back home and can cook you all a decent meal. And if you want you can visit my world. We can do a deal; make you a celebrity put you on TV even.”
The Ghouls laughed and told Sam that they would not bother him any more as he was out of their territory but if he came back through the woods they would have to kill him because no one was ever allowed to leave the woods of Weir alive. That was the rule of the ghoul master himself. Nothing personal – they liked Sam a lot. Perhaps if Sam manages to get to the doorway they might not kill him and take him up on his offer. No ghoul has ever been back. The ghouls were once human or humanoid in another world. The place where Sam came to is the woods between worlds. There are gateways to other worlds scattered throughout the woods. The ghouls hunt people who are in between the worlds. If they make it too far they can live
Sam said, “Fair enough” and invited them to join him for. The ghouls declined and started walking away.
Sam called out,
“Wait. I need to know what’s going on.”
The head Ghoul turned around and said,
“okay. We’ll break protocol and share your breakfast. And fill you in. But please don’t tell the birds – you can’t trust them. They work for the evil one that controls this world. Okay we are ghouls we came from your world and were taken by other ghouls and well we become immortal. Our job is to track down humans who manage to come over from you and other worlds and kill them. Once a human manages to break through and enter the human zone we must let him go. Few make it and we were surprised that you made it as far as you have.
There are two warring states in this area. You just walked into a battle field. Zorn is on the march and making a play to take over the entire planet. Then he intends to launch an attack on your world. He may want to take you alive, so he can use you for his nefarious purposes. That’s all we know. Well we must go. If we see you again we will have to kill you. Nothing personnel just what we have to do you know.’
Sam said, “Fair enough” and invited them to join him for breakfast. The ghouls declined and disappeared.
Sam and Abdul made breakfast and walked down the path. They entered town after town. Each town had been a sight of horrific mass murder. Hundreds of dead bodies. Sam stopped at each town and picked up more provisions and weapons. He got a pack for Abdul, so they could carry additional provisions including clothing, and what appeared to be local currency. He made it clear that if they were separated the food, water and weapons in his bag were for his survival. So, he must not lose the pack.
They encountered lots of dead bodies and Hyenas and wolves feasting on the newly dead. The snarled and five of them rushed Sam and Abdul. He told Abdul to climb a tree then Sam faced the wolves and a few wolves and as he shot them they turned back into human form before dying as they were all werewolves. The rest of the pack backed off and resume eating the dead bodies.
About noon they entered an intact town. This was a trading post and had Zorn and Torians working side by side. They appeared to tolerate each other but there was an undercurrent of hatred palpable in the air. Then Sam saw a fellow human and came up to him and introduced himself.
“So, who are you and how long have you been here? How did you get here? “
“Well my name is Jerimiah Moore. I have been here a long time. It seems that time here and time there are not the same at all. What year is it where you came from?”
“I came yesterday through the woods from Berkeley, California. It is 2017. “
My god. I have been here since the great quake. I fell through a hole and found myself in those woods with the damn werewolves and hyenas following me everywhere. I met a local gal and settled down here in this town which is a neutral town. I have two girls who run the inn and we can put you for free. Everyone must work here. So, I can hook you up for a job. What do you do topside?”
“I run a restaurant.”
“Great. Clyde is another human from London and he runs a bar and grill, but his cook got caught smuggling and was thrown to the werewolves as punishment yesterday. Come let me introduce you.”
Jerimiah was a tall fellow looked like a mountain man with thick hair, beard and a beer belly. He obviously liked his beer. Seemed like a decent enough chap but had seen a lot in what a lawless wild west kind of country was obviously. He told Sam that he felt only ten years had gone by since he arrived due to the difference in time between the worlds. He said that there were many humans living there and they all got along and helped each other out. But, he said, there were rumors that the King of the Torians was determined to launch an invasion of Earth and that he would do it soon as there were periods every thousand years when the two worlds were close to each other and the walls between the worlds opened for a few weeks. Last time that happened hundreds of Zorian and Torians had escaped to the earth perhaps five thousand years ago? Or 500 years ago according to local time. And then the Vikings had come through, and prior to that the Romans and the ancient Chinese. The Chinese still had a China town and had the best food around.
But lately it has been people dropping through the holes in the world occasionally. They usually are killed by the Ghouls and werewolves. Sam was very lucky to be alive.
Sam felt lucky that he was alive but first things first. He needed food and he need a beer to recover his sanity. Clyde turned out to be a nice fellow, a younger London hipster who came over last year or in 1966 or so. He ran an English fish and chips bar that was the center of the human settlement. Clyde hired Sam on the spot and gave him a room and hired Abdul as well. Child labor was common in Zorn, schools were reserved for the well to do. Sam explained that he had rescued Abdul and therefore felt responsible for him. Clyde said,
“Say no more. We’ll consider him your adopted son. Adoption is easy to do, just register at the local city hall and pay a bribe. Everything works according to how much you are willing to bribe. I’ll take you over later today. Having an adopted kid will help on your taxes. And it will help gain sympathy with the ladies both the humans and the humanoids. Interspecies sex is quite nice.”
Sam was curious though at how the animals all spoke English and most of the humans did not.
“Well,” Clyde said, “the Ghouls, werewolves and the birds are all telepathic, so you hear their thoughts as if they were speaking English. And they hear you in their native language. The humans are not telepathic.
Everyone speaks Zorian which is easy to learn, vaguely like Spanish. The humans mostly speak English, but some speak Chinese and Spanish. But the people who you must be aware of the most are the Bornean. They are lizards and are mean mothers. They work for a creature called Zed who is a monster who is worshiped as if he is a God. He runs the world with the Ghoul Master, and the head of the Werewolves
. The Zorian King reports to him as does the Torian king. The rumors are that they were not pleased with the recent war and that the two sides are being told to stop the fighting to prepare for the coming battle against the earth. The Zorns and the Torians are different species from different lands. The Zorns are very similar to humans, and Torians are a bit more different. Interspecies sex is common and there are many half breads. Borneans and the humanoids don’t get along very much. Sex with them is difficult but worth it as the women are hell cats in bed. But they are only fertile once a year and during that time have many lovers of any nationality. Once they get into you though they don’t want to let go. And they have no concept that humans and humanoids need sex more than once a year. The few that manage to marry humans usually take drugs to make them fertile all year long and they have wild sex with their partners. They often go for MMF threesomes as they are insatiable in bed.
The highest priced call girls are Bornean followed by recent arrivals from Earth, Zorn or Toria.”
Sam was enjoying his second beer and his first Zorian cheeseburger and learning about the sexual habits of the humanoids and Borneans when five Bornean lizards walked into the bar. They picked up Sam and Abdul and told them that their boss, Zed the merciful, wanted a word with them.
They stepped outside and a black Cadillac escapade circa 1970 pulled up and they were hustled away.
Clyde yelled,
“If you make it back, you still have a job and a place to live for you and your son. Good luck and all that rot.”
Sam tried to engage the Bornean in conversation. The head Bornean turned to Sam and said,
“Human shut the fuck up. We don’t like you and if it was up to us we would kill you now and throw you to the wolves and collect our winnings from the birds. Now we are going to lose money because you ain’t dead yet. So, I advise you to shut up and enjoy the ride. And here has a beer on us.”
Sam drank his beer in silence and took in the sights. The town was substantial and looked like someone had created it circa London in the 1920’s. Perhaps they had given the history of secret exchanges between the worlds. There was even a mini underground tube. He saw humans, ghouls, werewolves, hyenas, Zorian, Torians and Boreans all walking about.
They pulled up to a huge mansion and he was hustled out. Abdul was told to wait by the car.
He was brought into a large room where a giant lizard dressed in green military uniforms sat on a thrown. He growled at Sam,
“Human. You just came over. You are going to tell me everything about your world. As you know time is different in your world. By the time we get back 25 years might have passed so you need to tell me everything including future speculation. We picked you because you are well known about town and seem well connected. If you do, you will come with me as my special advisor and will be given riches beyond your imaginings, and Zelda whom you met is ready, willing and able to continue the affair you started. You were her first human and she liked it. If you resist, well you will beg to be thrown to the werewolves. And we will let you keep your adopted son. It seems that you have been bonding and it would be a shame if something bad happened to him after he lost his entire family. If you refuse to cooperate we will kill him first while you watch as we torture the poor boy. Then we will send him off to brothel as some people like young boys. Your decision. Ten seconds.”
Sam thought about it and realized he had no choice. But he would try to figure out how to get a message out to the earth. Clyde might know, or the birds might be able to get through. They seem to be willing to work for all sides.
Sam told Zed he had a deal. And spend the rest of the afternoon telling Zed all about the earth. He told Zed that Zed did not have a chance given their level of technology and that Sam was not a technical kind of guy. Zed said he could send some agents to earth and kidnap some technical chaps and that the Zorians and Torians were smart and could bring them up to speed very quickly. They did have some special weapons though – poisons that they used on earth people. He had been brought here by one of their agents. They decided if he lived that he would be worthy of saving if he died there were plenty of other suckers they could kidnap.
Sam realized that Zelda, the woman whom he had been with was a Zorian and that he had probably had inter-species sex and that thought turned him on. He turned to Zed and said
“Well I suppose we have a deal.”
Cheating Death 20 Times True Stories
In my 62 trips around the sun, I cheated death 20 times. These are the true stories. If I ever meet the grim reaper I’d like to ask him why he spared me all these times.
Five Childhood Illnesses Hit me at age Six
I was a preemie. Born two months early. They had just developed oxygen tents for preemies and I was one of the first babies they saved using that technology, so in a way even being born meant that I had cheated death. The doctors thought that I would develop severe medical conditions. They were right; I have had bad eyes, bad teeth, and a residual learning disability from birth. And I had a weak immune system to boot. When I was six years old, I missed almost all the first grade and had to repeat the first grade because I developed all the childhood illnesses at once. I had whooping cough, pneumonia, the flu, German measles, and regular measles, chicken pox, and mono all in that year. And hay fever to boot. for me once I recovered I was in good health for years except for seasonal allergies in the fall and spring.
Typhoid Fever almost kills me in Korea
I graduated from high school and college and mostly was healthy, no major issues other than colds, the flu, and seasonal allergies. While I was in the Peace Corps training, we did a hike in the mountains in the East Coast of Korea. We stopped to drink water from a stream. I developed severe diarrhea and a fever. I was rushed to the local hospital and transferred to a hospital in Seoul. I had developed Typhoid fever, one of the last such cases in Korea as the Koreans had largely eliminated the threat of Typhoid Fever given the overall improvement in the country’s infrastructure. The doctors at first could not figure it out, but in the end they figured it out. I spent four weeks in the hospital missing a lot of my crucial language training. The Peace Corps offered me the opportunity to go home or transfer to another Peace Corps program but opted to finish the training and my service. During the stay in the hospital, I was a celebrity of sorts – the only foreign patient and the nurses and doctors stopped by to practice their English with and I practiced my very rudimentary Korean as I flirted up a storm with the pretty nurses.
Guardian Angel Saves Me in Korea
I have always been a skeptical person, and not much of a believer. I have never been a Christian. I have always been an agnostic or even an atheist. But one day many years ago I experienced an event that changed my perspective on life. Since that time, I have become a believer in guardian angels that look after us in this corrupted world of ours. I can’t explain what happened that day, other than to realize that there are stranger things in life than we can imagine and that someone or something was looking out for me that day.
In 1990, I was living in South Korea teaching ESL for a Korean University and government, and Asian studies for the University of Maryland for military forces stationed in Korea. I was living in Seoul with my spouse who was a U.S. army officer, newly assigned to Korea. She was born in Korea and was in fact the first Korean American female officer to be assigned to Korea.
We had been married for about six years having met in 1982 and had a whirlwind romance, marrying two months after we met. That is the subject of another story though. One spring day we took a trip to the east coast of Korea. It was about a five to six-hour journey by car. My wife was driving because I did not drive due to bad vision and because I was afraid to drive in the chaotic driving environment in South Korea. We left Seoul about 11 am and by 3 pm we were halfway to our destination, Soraksan which is the number one mountain park in South Korea. It was a fine Spring day, just perfect weather, and we were both looking forward to taking a few days off.
Just outside of the town of Wongju, the freeway backed up and there was heavy traffic ahead of us. I saw a sign for the Wongaksan National Park which I had never visited before and I told Angela, let’s get off the freeway and check it out. I felt something telling me we had to exit the freeway that moment. I had a premonition that something bad was coming down the freeway and we were heading right into it.
We never forgot that day. And to this day almost thirty years later I often think back what would have happened if I had ignored that warning in my head and had insisted that we keep going to what would have been our death.
Almost Hit by a Train in Korea
While in my first tour in Seoul, Korea I joined the Hash House Harriers. The hash was an international drinking club with a running problem as they put it. The Hash started in colonial Malaysia and spread around the world. Mostly expat Americans and British. The runs ended with beer drinking, ritual punishments and British style jokes and bawdy not safe for work and not politically correct humor. I thought it was a lot of fun, but it was certainly not for everyone.
One day we did a run down by the train tracks. I was running along listening to music and did not hear the train approaching. I jumped off at the last moment barely avoiding being killed by the train. Afterwards I said that I had cheated death yet again, not knowing that my real experience cheating death was waiting for me a few years down the road.
Mutant Drug Resistance Staph Infection and 14 Operations Almost Kills Me
The event that changed my life was a simple decision. One morning I decided to go for a jog. It was dark outside and I thought that I knew the path. I made a strategic miscalculation and fell down a five-foot gap in the bushes where I thought was a series of steps.I shattered my heel in a million pieces. I made it back to my room, called 9-11 after an hour when I realized my foot was broken. I called my wife as well.
I was a foreign service officer newly returned to DC for my first assignment in DC after working five years overseas in Korea and Thailand. She was an army officer stationed in Ft Sam Houston, San Antonio Texas.
The ER doctor bandaged me up and told me that I needed surgery and after surgery would be bed ridden for at least four months. We opted to do the surgery in Texas and we arranged for me to fly using a wheel chair assistance. By the time I arrived the swelling was so bad that we had to wait a week to do the surgery.
The Air Force doctors wanted to try an experimental procedure using shark cartilage as a replacement bone material. A few days after the surgery I developed a fever and went back to the hospital and they discovered I had a staph infection. They treated me with IV antibiotics and opened the wound area and cleaned it out and replaced the cartridge. Then sent me home to recover. I had to take antibiotics for four months.
I went back to her house. She got me an internet account and I learned how to surf the net and read a lot of stuff on line. I could not stand watching day time TV. We did not have cable service. We rented a movie nightly and I watched movies every day and surfed the net and read some books she bought me as well.
Her dog, Jason, was a cute dachshund that was bilingual – Korean and English. He became my best friend for the four months I was out of commission. I called my office once a week to check in.
Once I returned to DC, I stayed there for almost a month and commuted by crutches. I was amazed at how cruel drivers were. Many people cursed me for holding up traffic as I could not walk across the street with the green light which seemed to be timed to allow for only Olympic 50-year dashers to get across the street in the allocated time. Then on the metro not once during the two weeks I commuted by metro I was not offered a seat once during the entire time and I often had to stand on my crutches the entire trip. and several times people rushed by me yelling at me to get out of the way on the subway stairs.
I went one day to the military hospital for a routine check up on a different issue – a cist on my arm that I wanted removed. The doctor noticed that I was running a fever, quickly realized that the infection had returned, and I was back into surgery the next day.
My wife came out that weekend to see me in the hospital. I ended up having 12 more operations as the staff infection had become MDR. I had an IV inserted in my stomach and went through intensive vancomycin the nuclear bomb of antibiotics for four months. The final operation was a bone graft from my hip after they finally realized that the shark cartridge would not work.
My wife had to argue with the military doctors to allow me to stay in the hospital for a month. They wanted me to stay on the IV antibiotics, but I had to report in twice a day for blood work. She pointed out that I would be home alone and could not drive to the hospital but would have to go back and forth by metro and bus. Two hours each way. So, I stayed on until June.
I stayed sane by reading a book a day. During that year I read almost 300 books and started a daily journal. I went to the hospital library every day and got another book. The doctors were amused as every morning I had another book to read. I also watched lots of TV becoming hooked on the X files. I watched it frequently with the elderly black night janitor who was a big fan. He was also a conspiracy nut. He introduced me to the “reptilian overlords” conspiracy theory and speculated over who might secretly be an “reptilian overlord.”
My fellow patients were all army troops – everyone called me major as they could just not comprehend that my wife was the major and not me. One of my fellow patients was recovering from an accident and had gangrene and was facing amputation and a divorce.
Another soldier was back in the army. He and his wife had inherited half million dollars and left the military and spend two years enjoying the high life and blew through almost all the money, so he went back into the military then had an accident and was recovering from a broken leg as well.
My best friend who was an actor in town for a season visited almost every day. My wife came for most of the surgery and many friends who had heard where I came for a visit. But I was cut off as this just before everyone got email and there was no internet in the hospital. Finally, I was released as Angela got assigned back to DC.
I went back to work. And things were going okay.
I returned to work and my life. The fibromyalgia was a chronic condition but when I went to India and discovered yoga it became manageable. The arthritis was chronic, but I eventually quit taking anti-inflammatory drugs and learned to just deal with the pain. Every four months I must see a foot doctor to debride calluses that build up. Then in 2007 almost ten years after the accident I developed hammer toes and had to have four operations to smash my feet back into shape. Ten years after the operation I was faced with chronic pain due to the fibromyalgia and arthritis and some limited mobility but was recovering enough to resume daily walks.
1996-1997 was my personal year of hell. The year in the hospital changed my life. Afterwards I felt that I had been given a new lease on life, almost as if I was given bonus games in the great video game of life. And despite my constant pain I was just happy to be alive, and to still be married and to still have a high-powered job. I had read 300 books in one year. I started keeping track of my reading and movies and never came close to that record.
Weird Parasite Could Have Killed Me
After enduring 14 operations and nine months in the hospital, I had developed intense chronic pain and after going to many different doctors was diagnosed with fibromyalgia as well as arthritis due to the operation. I also developed a frozen shoulder syndrome and had to have a steroid shot.
While I was in the hospital undergoing the 14 operations, the internal medicine doctor told me that there was some other infection going on. He eventually found out that I had a rare parasite that I had picked up in Thailand. He had asked me whether I had spent time in Southeast Asia. I told him that I had indeed spent time in Thailand. He said,
“Well I know what is causing the symptoms.”
While I was in Thailand, I had fallen into a canal during a Hash House harrier run. This parasite was benign, but I should take some medicine to get rid of it. If I ever had a steroid shot for any reason, the parasite would expand to the size of a basketball and then kill me within one hour of taking the steroid. I noted this in my journal and commented that this might be proof that God if he existed had a morbid sense of humor for if he created the universe what was the point of creating this parasite? Fortunately for me, due to the persistence of that doctor, they discovered the parasite before I had the steroid shot.
Ending up in ER due to Mutiny among my stomach flora
One day in the fall, when Angela my wife who was on a business trip to Korea, I developed strange symptoms. I could not eat or drink anything, but my stomach blew up as if I were pregnant. I called a taxi and made it to the nearest military base ER at Ft Belvoir. I was admitted to the ER and spent two weeks there recovering from an acute GI track infection. Apparently the nine months of antibiotic treatment had so disturbed my internal microflora that bad bacteria had killed off the good bacteria. They told me that was a side effect of taking IV antibiotics like vancomycin and that doctors in general don’t do a good enough job of monitoring people after being discharged after extended anti-biotic usage. Someone should have warned me that this could have happened. In an event, the doctors said that I had waited more than an hour I would have been dead.
Guardian Angela Saves Me in Texas
The last time I almost died was like the guardian angel incident in South Korea. I had gone to Texas to recover from the accident and the first two operations. I wanted to go back to work. In retrospect I should have asked for a few more weeks to recover. It was December and San Antonio where my wife was based was experiencing rare winter weather. The roads were covered with ice and commercial flights were closed but the military was still flying, and we had booked passage on a med evac flight.
While driving to the airport, Angela and I started talking about the weather and she had just explained to me what to do if we encountered black ice and boom we encountered black ice and she instantly reacted appropriately because we had just discussed it. Something had told us to expect ice on the road. We totaled the car but walked away unhurt. I went back a few days later but in retrospect should have stayed behind for a few more weeks. They might have caught the staph infection before it spread out of control.
I don’t often talk about that year but when I do I tell people that it changed my life in so many ways and that I was a far better person because of the operations and the year in the hospital. Every day I wake up and feel alive and thankful for that for I felt that I had cheated death at least 14 times that year. People often ask me why I am always so cheerful. My standard answer is that after cheating death 14 times every day is a bonus day and I am determined to make the most of it. The pain is there, and I just must cope with it the best I can without taking drugs for it. I have cheated death at least 20 times in my life. And I remain an optimistic happy go lucky kind of guy. After all I have been through I know that every moment if precious, and I feel that I am living a bonus round in the video game of life. Still waiting to meet the Grim Reaper and ask him why he allowed me to cheat death so many times.
Ink Pantry, Scarlet Leaf, Spill Words, Synchronized Chaos, Two Drops of Ink, have published 15 of my recent poems. The poems are posted below along with audio and photo clips.
Scarlet Leaf review will publish these poems in the following order:
the terrors of the night
the worst imaginings
of what might happen
war, rumours of war
end of civilization
nuclear war
and other horrors
ripped from the headlines
fade away into nothingness
with the morning light
and the love of my wife
who is always by my side
I regain my sight
and begin
regaining my smile
and my life
until the next nightmares
consumes my dark imaginings
Dora the Intergalactic Explorer
dora
Dora the intergalactic explorer
Is travelling to the strangest planet
of all the known worlds
she is traveling incognito
with a video crew
making a documentary
the planet earth
is known as a planet
of intelligent monkeys
not much is known
about them
as very few
have ever been there
the inhabitants are described
as blood thirsty insane creatures
ruled by hidden sexual and political passions
following incomprehensible
religious dogmas following Gods
that clearly do not exist
the inhabitants are just on the verge
of developing intergalactic travel
and the galactic empire
is worried that they will be driven
to try to conquer the rest of the universe
driven by their needs to impose
their religious dogma
the planet is divided into large tribal groups
governed by corrupt elites
corrupt businesses destroying the planet
in pursuit of profit
and the locals are little more
than wage slaves
barely making a living
addicted to alcohol, drugs gambling
pornography and illicit sex
and their main land
is ruled by a clearly delusional madman
intent on poking a fight
with all his alleged enemies
Dora assumed the appearance
of a character from TV
and will pose as a journalist
trying to make sense
of it all
but she was afraid
that she if found out
could face the worst consequence
her ship crash lands
and she is outside
the capital
of the non empire empire
called the United State of America
Dora gets her crew together
and walks into the city
staring at all the strange sights
as the monkeys go about
their daily activities
she stops at a restaurant
tries the coffee
the chief drug of choice
and is instantly addicted
wow no wonder
these people are crazed
she tries the local booze
and smiles
perhaps she could
become an intergalactic merchant
introducing the world
to the galaxy
her thought are interrupted
as a mad man armed
with weapons of war
bursts in and starts shooting
yelling at people
and she is shot dead
the authorities
are shocked
when they recover the body
and realize
that she is not a human
as she reverts other original
form
sort of a giant feline like creature
two legs and arms
and clearly from an advanced
civilization given her gear
what was she doing
no one knew
as all the aliens
died in the gun blaze
the world is shocked
at what had happened
and fearful that the aliens
were coming to invade
their world
the galactic senate
decides to contain
the humans
declaring them
a threat to the galactic civilization
and the humans vow
to discover the secrets
of interstellar travel
and travel to her land
to enter into business arrangements
and spread the one truth faith
to the heathen space aliens
thus ended Dora’s excellent adventure
in the crazed world at the edge
of known civilization
Mocking Faces Staring at Me
Mocking faces
hunting my dreams much
Hundreds of faces
morphing into one
after another
Faces I knew
The dead
and the living
women I knew
friends I missed
enemies I did not
One after another
Marching in my room
Staring at me
I tried to run
They laughed
They said
that there’s nowhere
to escape my cosmic fate
My time is coming
prepare yourself
the grim reaper
has your name
and once he has your name
your fate is sealed
and you will soon
join us
whether in heaven
or hell
is not for us to say
be warned though
you will be judged
and no one can escape
their cosmic karmic fate stop just going
a wild man sits in a gilded cage
man in cage
a wild man sits in a gilded cage
a cage made out of chains of his wife’s love
a cage made out of chains of his wife’s love
the wild man yearning to be free from his cage
the wild man yearning to be free from his cage
wondering how and why he was now tamed
wondering how and why he was now tamed
dreaming dark wild dreams of demented freedom
dreaming dark wild dreams of demented freedom
the wild man looks about his prison cage
the wild man looks about his prison cage
wondering whether he will ever be free
wondering whether he will ever be free
a wild man sits in a gilded cage
2019 The Last Year of America’s Greatness
2019 was the last year of America
when the proverbial chickens came home
when the proverbial chickens came home
to strut about the decaying landscape
to strut about the decaying landscape
as the world begins to burn and die
as the world begins to burn and die
led by the mad great leader and his merry men
led by the mad great leader and his merry men
the whole world lay in shock and awe
the whole world lay in shock and awe
at the destruction of the America they knew
at the destruction of the America they knew
when the proverbial chickens came home sources
Poetry Drawer: Insanity Lives by Jake Cosmos Aller
Why the thing killed itself
While the slaves closed in to eat
The cannibals or yes no quite indeed
For I can not not not notnotnotntontotnotntotntotnto ttntotnto tototntnotnton notntotnotntotoeifkt gjyhythfg~tdf wvxxfstwgeyd nbitmyi’~375892O~9(8 ?’4 596o~–9=O-~?9 ~ &#&~Q~ ~ ( ~ *~&~~#%@~ ~ & t ~
The death
The reason
The dream
The dream the dream remains
They are coming coming
To get me
I know too much
I will not tell they will not believe
OK they can’t think they can only screw
Dark the thumb
the race cards tell us all
The death of God
Killed in a drunken fit
That is my story
I killed god
They snare us while we sleep
They come for us while we sleep
In a bed of golden fleas
They are waiting
In the archway of my house
They are waiting outside
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.”
ne.
