It was an ordinary day; June 23rd, 2010.

[Atticus]

The news that day was dominated by the President's acceptance of a general's resignation who had essentially abandoned military tradition and respect for the concept of civilian control of the military. There were endless interviews with a variety of people who were regularly called upon to tell the American people why events were either significant or inconsequential. They all agreed that the general getting canned was VERY significant.

Also reported that day was another in what seemed to be an endless chain of "mistakes" or "misjudgements" made by a huge and prosperous corporation. After over two months of tankers-full of crude oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico from one of the company's deep-water wells, and the failure of a series of cute-sounding prodedures to stanch it, the corporation announced that one of their cute little underwater robots had accidentally bumped into a part of the semi-capped wellhead and they had been forced to remove the entire cap. Oil was now flowing into the Gulf at a frighteningly increased rate.

What could be done?

The corporation, then making a profit of $66 million per day, essentially said "Stay tuned. We'll come up with something."

And, because they had heard similar news and similar assurances for the past sixty-odd days, the American people muttered a few obscenities, shrugged and either melded with their TV sets or logged onto their PC's like they had the day before and the day before that.

But, the oil company did not "come up with something". Eventually, after the bottom-kill did not kill anything, a whistle-blower revealed that the cute little robot had not "accidentally" bumped into anything. It had been rammed into the cap to create a justification for removing it.

Insiders---there were only a hundred people or so who truly understood what was really happening---had calculated that the cap had so increased the pressure on the well casing and had put so much additional stress on the visible structure above the sea floor that the well was likely to implode before either relief well could penetrate the casing and begin the "bottom kill" procedure. And, if the well structure somehow hung together until "bottom-kill" could begin, the procedure itself would not only fail, but would almost certainly accelerate the fragmentation of the brittle rock layer overlying the vast oil reserve.

And, allowing the free flow of oil to despoil the Gulf did buy some time. In late August, the nation held it's breath as the "bottom kill" was begun. Though the company and the government tried for several days to conceal the fact, the feared fracturing of the salt dome did occur and oil and gas literally boiled out of countless fissures on the floor of the Gulf.

That was several decades ago. Nearly all who were responsible for the death of our beautiful planet are now dead or, like me, incapacitated by guilt and grief. Parts of all the oceans inevitably caught fire and, even where dense smoke is not overwhelming, the fumes of all the benzene and methane and---the dead---force most to seek shelter inside or underground.

Food is in short supply, of course, and even barely potable water is increasingly difficult to find. People have been killing each other for several years for these dwindling essentials and most have sought the safety of neighborhood or family clans bound together only by their need to safeguard their water, their pathetic gardens and their stockpile of weapons from "others".

But, all this heartache and sorrow and pain did not begin on that "ordinary day" in June back in 2010. It began on the day that the majority of mankind decided that money and "McMansions" and luxury cars and the acquisition of ever bigger and more ostentatious "things" were more important than pelicans and porpoises and sunsets and flowers---and their grandchildren.

[Duer 157099]

1. Sounds like the voiceover for the beginning of The Road Warrior. k&r

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Noted so I can find this later.

[WeDidIt]

3. I love hyperbolic sci-fi drama

but is a political forum the correct place to publish fiction?

[Atticus]

4. They usually allow yours. nt

[WeDidIt]

5. You must have me mistaken with somebody else

I've never posted fiction here.

Do you usually post this stuff in the Lounge? Might have to check it out if you do.

As I said, I love the cheesy sci-fi stuff. Can't ever get enough of it.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. I'll take Senses Of Humor for $400, Att.

:wink:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. Well said, sir, very well said.

Horrifying.

Recommended.