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An American Liberal almost dies but finds himself 100 years in the future. |
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"Happy Birthday, Calvin!”, Gerally said smiling in that way that always made Calvin envy her husband. How could she be so beautiful at 42, Calvin wondered. “Thanks!”, he said giving her a hug. It would be as close as he would ever get to her but that was fine. He was happily married but enjoyed giving Gerally a quick hug. “How old are you today?”, Gerally asked in her Puerto Rican accent. “I’m 50 today if you can imagine it”, Calvin said. “Do I look 50?”, he asked. “No, not one bit”, Gerally said and then she went back to work. Calvin watched her walk away. Wow, her husband was a very luck man. Must be genetics for her to have a figure of a twenty year old. Gerally was the last to leave his desk, but he had many co-workers come over to his desk with black balloons saying, “Over the Hill” and “50”. He sliced himself another helping of the chocolate cake as he considered his work. It was almost closing time and he had most of it done. As a computer software programmer, he loved his work. His favorite thing to program was video games and his company did that but usually as a 3rd party vendor. Most of the time he had no idea which video games he played a part in programming. He knew that his company received request for various types of programming and he wrote code for that. He imagined that sometimes it was used in games and sometimes it wasn’t. He was flipping through what he needed to finish before he left and then noticed it was only five minutes before it was time to go. He finished his cake, tossed it in the trash and cleaned off his desk. He noticed everyone else leaving and he hurried to the time clock and clocked out and headed for the parking lot. It was hot outside. Feels like it’s at least 90 degrees, he thought as he climbed into his Ford Focus. He started it up and tuned in NPR. There was a news story about the Republicans seeking to block the President from his jobs bill. The Presidents plan was to use a few billion tax dollars to repair the roads. Didn’t the Republicans understand that, he thought as he pulled out into traffic. He never understood why Republicans were against everything and for nothing. They claimed that something had to be done about the debt. But didn’t the Republicans start the wars that increased the debt? Hypocrites!!! The Republicans increased the debt just as fast as the Democrats and then they wanted to complain about the debt! The debt would take care of itself, Calvin thought as he changed lanes into the fast lane. Calvin was headed home and he wasn’t about to let the Republicans ruin his birthday. He turned on some classical music and pushed his car just over the speed limit. He wanted to hurry home to his wife so they could go out and celebrate. Lots to do! Calvin saw it but he didn’t believe it. The traffic over to his left was going in the opposite direction…which was fine. What wasn’t so fine was he saw an eighteen-wheeler…no, that’s not right. It was one of those trucks that are larger than even eighteen-wheelers and this one was carrying something very large and it looked very heavy. He couldn’t tell what it was carrying because it was wrapped in green tarp. Normally he would only give it a glance or two as he passed by but this wasn’t a normal situation. No, it wasn’t. What he saw was a couple small cars in front of it swerve into each other and crashed into the barrier near his lane. A few cars back the huge truck didn’t seem to notice until it was too late. Calvin could see the driver slam on his brakes. A woman got out of one of the smaller cars and Calvin could see she had a small baby. She held up her arm as if she could somehow stop the truck. The truck was definitely going to hit her. The driver made a decision and, while he was still pushing on his brakes, pulled his steering wheel hard to his left. The barrier wall exploded and the truck headed straight for Calvin. Calvin quickly looked over to his left and could see that the woman and baby was safe. They’ll be fine, Calvin thought as he pulled his eyes back to the truck. The driver pulled the wheel hard to the left again and Calvin saw that he was going to miss hitting the truck. Thank God! And then Calvin noticed something else. The cargo the truck was carrying was falling off in one massive piece. It was heading straight for Calvin’s car. There was no time. Calvin pulled his wheel hard to the left and the Focus turned sharply into the barrier. The front end crumpled and the front wheels somehow managed to bounce up and for a moment Calvin thought he was going to make it up and over the barrier. At that moment, the trucks cargo slammed into his car pushing it back down the road and into another truck. Both sides of Calvin's car pushed towards the center and then stopped. Is that it, Calvin asked himself. No. He could hear the cargo tipping over onto his car. Now the bottom and top of his car pushed themselves into the center. Calvin heard someone screaming for help and then he realized that it was him. A fluid entered his car and started to flood it. It was a silvery, chrome liquid and it was very, very cold. At least I won’t burn to death, Calvin thought. He shoved his head up as far as he could. For a moment, he thought it wasn’t going to make it up to his mouth and nose. But it did. Now he was completely submerged in the strange liquid. I’m going to die, he thought. Strangely, Calvin wasn't afraid. He closed his eyes and he could see the glow from the fluid and even though it was cold at first, he felt quite warm and comfortable. A part of his mind claimed the warmth must be coming from a fire. A part of him didn’t care. There wasn’t anything he could do about it. It was just time to die and he accepted that. He was glad that the woman and baby survived. He didn’t know either of them but it was his life or theirs and he was glad to die for them. He wasn’t sure why but he supposed it was just better that way. He had held his breath once the fluid covered him and now he started to feel the burning in his lungs. He had to breath or he would die. He started to feel fear. He had heard that dying by drowning was a very painful way to go. He knew it wouldn’t be quick but it would end at some point. He held his breath some more and felt the heat coming from somewhere. He wasn’t sure if it was an internal heat or external heat but he desperately needed to breath. He decided to take a breath. He closed his eyes tightly and took a deep breath. “You going to eat that?”, he heard a voice ask as air rushed into his lungs. He felt unbalanced and suddenly fell backwards as he pinwheeled his arms looking for something grab onto. He opened his eyes as the world seemed to rush about in unfocused abandon. He hit his head. Hard. He tried to get up but he was surrounded by several people telling him to stay put. He tried to open his eyes but they seemed…so…heavy. Am I dying, he thought. He wasn’t sure how much time went by but when he opened his eyes again, it was dark outside. He was in a small room with four other people. The beds were practically side by side with a little room for someone to walk in between the beds. He knew that because he could see a woman in a red uniform tending to one of people in a bed furtherest from him. “Nurse?”, he asked. She turned around to him and said, “No, I’m not a nurse. They were unable to identify you and so you were brought here for Plan Zebra care. It’s not much but it should keep you well. You just won’t be getting any visits from a nurse or doctor.” She went back to tending to the patient she had been working on. “Plan Zebra?”, he asked her. “Yes”, she said without turning around this time. “Are you saying you’ve never heard of it? Maybe you aren’t from around here. Your accent is similar to mine but somehow different. Where are you from?”. “I was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas”, he said. “Where am I?”. “San Antonio”?, she asked while turning around to look at him again. “I would have guessed you were from the China states but never from here. You dress strangely and your accent is odd, but if you say you are from here then I’ll take your word for it.” “I’m dressed strangely?”, he asked looking down. He wasn’t dressed at all. “Well, you were dressed strangely, but the clothing was found to be offense and it was burned shortly after you arrived. As soon as you are feeling better you’ll be given new clothes donated by the state”. “My clothes were offense? How?”. She looked back and rolled her eyes at him, “Seriously? Where are you from? You act like you have no idea what I’m talking about”. “I’m sorry, I am not trying to offend you, but I feel a bit out of place. I am from San Antonio and I was only wearing blu…”. “DON’T SAY IT!!!”, she yelled at him running to the side of his bed. He just looked at her shocked. “What’s wrong?” “You really don’t know?”, she asked looking at him. She pulled out a small handheld device and a light shot out from it and directly into his eyes. He closed them and held his hand up. “Open your eyes for a moment”, she said pushing his hands down. He opened his eyes and let her shine the light into them. She shot the light into his eyes again and moved the light from side to side searching for something. “Did you recently have an accident?”, she asked. “Yes”, he said. “I was driving home on Loop 1604 when a truck veered into my lane crushing my car. There was some strange liquid that filled my car and I thought I drowned…and then I was…somewhere else”. She put the light down. “Have you been to a Scan Master recently?”. “What?”, he asked. “I have no idea what that is. Are you talking about computers?”. She shook her head. “Are you a Conservative?”, she asked. He started laughing, “A what?”. He laughed some more but saw she wasn’t laughing. “I’m going to need some help here. I believe I’ve found a Conservative”. Calvin looked at her oddly. What was she talking about and who was she talking too? Suddenly two large men walked in. The moved faster than Calvin would have thought possible. They scooped him out of bed and were out the door with him before he could say a word. They aren’t men, Calvin realized. They were entirely glossy black and their hands and feet seemed to change as needed. Sometimes they looked human and sometimes they changed into claws or hooks to help pull them along quickly down the hall and up the stairs. Calvin could actually feel the wind in his face from their velocity. He guessed they moved about fifteen floors upstairs before they finally came to a stop. |
| Chapter | 1 | Chapter 10 | 6.51k |
| Chapter | 2 | Chapter 9 | 5.72k |
| Chapter | 3 | Chapter 8 | 5.89k |
| Chapter | 4 | Chapter 7 | 6.52k |
| Chapter | 5 | Chapter 6 | 6.13k |
| Chapter | 6 | Chapter 5 | 6.26k |
| Chapter | 7 | Chapter 4 | 5.15k |
| Chapter | 8 | Chapter 3 | 6.15k |
| Chapter | 9 | Chapter 2 | 6.75k |
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