"I Lived through a Stupid Coup"

At the start of the fall of their government, no one believed it was the start of anything.  It was stupid.  It was dumb people with big mouths being loud.  A curse of the intelligent is to believe that nobody could be that stupid.  By the time the election rolled around again, it seemed that no one could ignore the depths of stupidity to which so many would sink.

A tank rolled by Hannah's house, tearing up the already ruined street.  She was briefly outraged, then remembered the remaining gas in their SUV had dried out.

The Extinction of Man

To Seth, it was an inexplicable feeling.  So alien that he couldn't even express that it was a feeling.  He thought perhaps it was his dinner, unsettled.  Seth's mind only brushed across the idea that the feeling had been there for much longer than this particular evening.  Perhaps it had burned since he was in his early twenties, when he peaked, but didn't know it.  He bought antacids and ate them.  He drank antacid liquid.  He swallowed antacid pills.  The feeling not only lingered, but grew stronger.  No general physician could have helped Seth.  While a psychologist may have been able, they, too, would not have been able to help in this case because Seth would and, indeed, never could articulate the source of this feeling.

If Seth had the emotional intelligence, the desire for inward analysis, or even the language, he might have said this: I am afraid of becoming extinct.

363

The government was flawed, even the most socialist of citizens would admit that, but it was all we had.  It mostly worked, too, but those who only looked at the flaws, and exaggerated those flaws, and illogically extrapolated those flaws into fears that the citizens took to heart, ignored the good parts.  Today, they say we have freedom.  Freedom from the government, however, does not mean actual freedom.  Who do you suppose survived the fall of the government best?  Yeah, the rich folk.  The people who had the money to still get food and water and gas and electricity and protection.  Everyone else was at the mercy of fear.

43

They have told me that my mother is alive. My uncle said she is in hospital with me and consented that she is unconscious and badly injured, but I do not believe him. After all, he was not on the plane and he was not in the water like I was. He does not know what I know. I only nod, carefully, because of my fractured collarbone, and say nothing; I know he is only trying to make my recovery easier. No matter the superficiality of my body's injuries, it is not easy to be the only survivor.

40

Shots echoed through the city streets at a quarter after three in the morning. Being so close to the Fourth of July, the majority of residents, if they heard the shots at all, attributed them to juvenile delinquents with firecrackers. Usually, the call center would be inundated with 911 calls, but there was only one.

Julie Robertoson was up at a quarter after three because her new baby son, just a week old, wasn't sleeping regularly. She didn't have any experience with babies and there was no one in her life to give her advice. Julie was walking him back and forth, back and forth in her studio apartment on the first floor of a building where social services said she could live with reduced rent. It was a bad neighborhood, and Julie knew it, but she only had a distant concept of what a "good" neighborhood would be like. Julie was the only one to call 911 that night.

The fifteenth time Julie passed by the window, infant son wailing in her arms, his head exploded.