Fire
They all envisioned an attack with the worst of weapons.
And though they all indeed got the worse of it, it wasn't with a nuke. No dirty bombs were set off in large cities. No biological weapons were released at Disney World.
Instead the bastards used what we already had at hand. Things we took for granted in everyday life. Explosives laying around us everywhere that we just didn't see anymore.
With timed precision hundreds of gas stations blew their tops. Thousands of people were harmed in the initial blasts. Everyone knew it had to be terrorist related once the news started coming in from across the country. We all felt we had been hit, and hit hard. And we were waiting for the video, the demands, the claiming of this horror by one fanatic group or the next. And we went about the business of cleaning up the dead and the damaged. Watching the live coverage unfold.
But what came next no one expected. None had forseen. We had already been fooled into believing our stores and neighborhoods were safe, just to have them blow up in our faces. But as soon as medical help arrived on the scene. As soon as the crowds gathered. As soon as the news crews showed up and started filming. It was then the real horror started.
Armed men in thousands of locations simultaniously opened up with automatic weapons on the throngs. What had been thousands dead turned into the tens of thousands. What had been thousands wounded, became tens of thousands. All too often those killed were the first responders, the firemen, paramedics. So after all was said and done there weren't enough trained individuals to cope with what came next.
Gas stations across the country started going off like roman candles. Rags stuffed in the vent pipes, or a pump lit on fire. Plates picked up off the ground and a match tossed into the waiting tank. A huge fireball on corners across the country. America in flames. And the first responders who were left feared each new place they went. Would this be the time some random person would step through the crowd and open up?
Governors across the U.S. called for help and assitance. The National Guard was called out but with the war in Iraq there weren't enough to efficiently handle the problems at hand. Overworked police forces manned all gas stations and refineries. Roadblocks had to be set up. Emergencies handled. Questions had to be answered. How had they blown up the gas stations? Where did the weapons come from they used to fire into the crowd? Who were they and where did they come from? But before the questions could be answered new suprises waited.
Moltov cocktails sailed through the air. A night of flames being fanned hotter. Using the gasoline as a weapon against those who had subjegated them for their oil struck a bitter irony to those who had protested the war. But they died as quickly as the hawks in the flames. Hospitals were the target. Emergency rooms a favored place. Doctors became fearful of going to work. And gas was rationed to only those who could show a definate reason and use.
Soon anyone of Middle Eastern descent was not allowed to purchase gas. New immigration from any of these countries stopped. Travel in and out of the country became impossible for anyone not working directly for the government. And then the Mexicans left.
At first it was just a few. A couple of empty spots on the workroom floor. A few rows not picked in this field or that. But soon it became apparent they were leaving. The landscapers and laborers. The dishwashers and cooks. The skilled and the unskilled. They went home. This country had become too dangerous to live in. The money wasn't worth dying for. The people not nice enough to die for. And soon there were plenty of jobs for Americans. Unfortuantely there weren't enough people to go around to fill them all. And it wasn't like they could expect to be paid.
With the falling dollar, and these new attacks on our country, foreign investors wisely decided it was time to pull out. Those countries we had sold out to were starting to wonder if maybe it was time to call in those loans. Wall Street knew it long before any news agency was kind enough to tell anyone. But they were all too worried about how to save what they had left, let alone tell anyone else what was about to happen. The stock market crashed and the news really came as no suprise to those who had alreadly loss jobs to outsourcing. Those who were forced to find new lines of work because businesses had long ago sold them out to immigrant labor that was no longer here weren't suprised either. If anything the people were more suprised that the media and our leaders could actually act suprised. As if they never saw any of this coming.
You might figuire with the country on the brink of ruin the government would freeze all bank loans, and help people stay afloat until a workable solution could be found. But you'd be figuiring wrong. Across America banks foreclosed on houses. Trying to save themselves and their investments for a brighter tommorow. What the fools didn't realize is that they created a glut by lending to land speculators and developers, and only compounded the problem by foreclosing on so many outstanding loans. The housing bubble burst. With it went many technical jobs, supply side jobs, building material jobs. A ripple effect was felt throughout the country. Becoming homeless was suddenly in vogue. Perhaps not by choice, but more and more found themselves living in cars they could no longer legally purchase gasoline for.
Then with shipping down, and our economy tanked, the food shortages started. Having grown accustomed to food being within a corners reach. Always expecting our fresh vegetables in the garden department, and out can goods clearly labeled, we had forgotten where food comes from. The simple fact that someone has to grow it. We had forgotten that it was cheaper to have those poor countries grow our food for us. And now that we were poor we often couldn't afford our food. Our neighborhoods were filled with streets and houses, stores and billboards, but we had left little space for anything to grow. And it isn't like there were many farms left.
With the famine came looting. Many struck out towards what was left of the country, the great unbuilt places, but unless they were prepared and knowledgable enough to eat roots and berries many were destined to starve anyways. Those farmers who freely gave of their things soon found themselves with nothing. Those who fought back may have kept it, but at what cost to all of our souls. When the guns started turning on fellow Americans we all knew it was lost.
Almost overnight people had awoken and gone about killing Muslims. While all justified it with the attacks the soul of the country was lost. Many of those of Middle Eastern descent who were killed were Christians. Many protested this loudly in pure Americana accent. They still died. But there were those harboring hatreds and prejudices all along. Soon it didn't matter what religion you were if you weren't the right color, sex, family, height, weight, flavor. Soon the people were killing each other with their legally bought guns faster than the trashmen could keep up, because by now no one buried the dead. They were just dragged to the gutter where they would await a trash truck that would haul them to the landfill.
