EDITOR’s NOTE
This is the 13th in a series. For best experience read it sequentially starting at Pt. 1. Click on the His and Hurricanes button on the website for the others.
SCENE: Prosby was on his way due west to get to the Underground where Burneese was being held. Burneese had been found guilty of the trumped up charges and sentenced to death.
***
Burneese was popular, had lots of friends inside and outside of government. She got the highest grade meals because of her friendship with those in the kitchen. Instead of the dried spiced meat and smashed potatoes, she ate like a Queen, yeast rolls, turnips and collards and mushroom and leak soup.
Meat was rare and unwanted these days. Most of it was potted or jerked and at least 20 years old. Vegetables were both the mainstay and the delicacy as people mastered the art of hydroponic gardening and experimented with crossbred seedlings. For desert she had kiwi and raspberries.
Although confined to a small cell, she had two hours in an open space with televisions and music-makers. If you were really lucky you might snag a HelmVirt or HV. It was a helmet which you could put on for many virtual reality experiences. You could put it on and be on a beach in Hawaii in your mind. The HV’s were given to reward the “good inmates.” Of course Burneese, a big fan of vintage cop shows, used her connections to get an HV.
“Why do you get that, bitch?” A large woman with a hateful look, squinting eyes and snot tattoos, approached Burneese. In the old days ex-convicts could be easily spotted with their prison tats: Lettering between the knuckles; a tear drop on the face under the eye. Now snot tattoos which came with shiny ink looked like a trail of green and yellow snot dripping to one’s lip.
“I have permission.” Burnsee gave her a convict’s staredown.
“Give it to me now” the woman said, “or I will beat you down like a junkyard cat-rat.”
“Huh,” said Burneese.
The woman approached. Burneese could have taken her with one spinning leg kick to the head, but then she would expose herself as a trained fighter, bringing attention she did not need.
So she gave her the helmet.
Go ahead, the shows weren’t too hot anyway. Unbeknownst to the woman who bent down to pick it up, Burneese had opened with one hand a bottle of YaSuba Ghost-Haber sauce. And she had emptied it into the helmet. One drop of what was billed as the world’s Hottest Hot Sauce can heat a 2-gallon pot of beans feeding 25 people. Wonder what 100 drops will do on one persons head?
The woman immediately put the helmet on. and the screams were still loud behind the face mask. Apparently it was so hot, it impaired the woman’s thinking and she couldn’t take it off as big drops of the sauce dripped down in her eyes, her cheeks, mouth and nose.
She ran screaming down the hall.
Meanwhile, Prosby, about five miles from as the crow flies, was cold. A stiff breeze was rushing in from the north. And this used to be the Sunshine State?
Snow began to fall. It was common now. Snow in Florida. The climate had been turned upside down for the world.
That climate change is caused in part by humans used to be a debate, Prosby remembered from his school teachings. Hundreds of years ago some folks said climate change didn’t even exist. Their rantings fell silent over time as they saw record storms, tornadoes, Hurricanes and HIsicanes, 10-year droughts, massive flooding, and people moving underground. Prosby smiled when he remembered how one news investigation found the oil companies had underground shelters and living spaces for decades before the general populous. But of course, the tycoons and CEOs also had an average of 5000 times the annual salaries of the middle class workers.
In 2200, Prosby remembering his ancient history, the average plumber, computer technician or farmer made about $80,000 per year while the average CEO pay was $400 Million a year.
Over the last 100 years, the destruction of our ozone layer has turned up the volume — to 11 — on nearly all weather events. Scientist now theorize that the very laws of gravity are soon to be affected as the earth’s rotation slowly speeds up.
Many folks have actually attached chairs beds and couches, upside down on the ceilings because some think we’ll be weightless and pulled upward as gravity’s pull reverses itself due to the faster spinning globe. They think people will be literally walking on the ceiling, living in an upside down world. How long this will take is still a matter of scientific debate, it could be slowly over a period centuries or it could take place over a matter of a few years.
The slow believers say there will be people and all objects not tethered on earth will lose weight eventually reaching a weight of 0 pounds. People will feel very light and will be able to jump over houses. As the weight goes into the negative territory ( which the standard scale can measure as it sticks to the ceiling, people will be in danger as the lack of gravity can take them to space. Screaming untethered humans will begin to rise off of the ground and eventually suffocate as they move closer to outer space.
Critics of this theory point out that folks can wear weights on the ankles and waist and be just fine for hundreds of years until the counter gravity pull is too strong.
But this hasn’t stopped an entire industry now of selling at Tar-Mart “Ceiling Living” room concepts.
Prosby broke out of his reverie wondering how comfortable it would be lying on your couch on the ceiling when he heard a noise.
It was the sound of footsteps crackling in the ever increasing snow — about 2 inches now.
“Who goes there?” asked Prosby, feeling cold, damp and grumpy.