Part Four
Los Angeles: 3 years until requiem
Just as ANON had predicted, the world was crumbling around me. Sea levels were rising at rapid rates. Still many chose ignorance over information. Information is friends to some, foes to others. As the months advance, fear is friends to some, foes to others. As the months advance, fear is traveling through the countries like an unstoppable virus. A group named "The Buckminsters" have formed after their ancient Buckminster Fuller to create an actual "spaceship Earth". Many sought information long from the past to try and figure out how to survive what was upon us. Production has already begun but only the most elite and wealthy of the nations are able to buy their way on. Social unrest is across the country. Wars have sprung between most of the major nations over resources. The "disciples" have organized over the internet. The march to the promise lands are beginning. Many who were not chosen are trekking as well, though there is no point. But as ANON said, information is free. All may seek it.
I have finally arrived at Cheaha Mountain. Thousands have inhabited the land to create the commune our leader has requested. We too follow in the footsteps of our ancestors and create geometric domes as living spaces. Pamphlets labeled "The Whole Earth Catalog" by Stewart Brand are being distributed to everyone. But unlike this catalog we are in essence going against their entire system by incorporating our advanced technologies. They hope that though previous attempts at this system has failed in the 1960s-70s, with our developments we will not succumb to collapse. I am less assured than most.
It has been 2 months since I've been here and I have tried to keep the peace as much as I can. Many outsiders have been stirring up problems in the camp. They are unhappy with the food rationing and living conditions. Many are growing weak. Many have died. I can already feel hierarchies forming.
Today I met a woman named Asha. It's strange interacting with females. I feel awkward and out of place but for some reason she does not mind. I don't believe I've talked to a woman since my mother died.
At least this woman could handle my fatalism, since it was reality at this point. Unlike the rest of the disciples, I knew that in the end we weren't going to a place like the Bible had told us. All I could hope for at this point was that it was a place other than here."So when did the episodes start for you?" said Asha as we walked through the commune."16""Wow, you were young. I was 25 when they begun. I honestly felt like no on win the world knew what I was going through. This place has really saved my life. Don't you think?""No actually, I don't. We're all going to die soon anyways.""Well aren't you pessimistic" she smirked
We walked the rest of the way in silence."Why weren't you one of the ones who offed themselves in the beginning""If whatever is communicating with us wanted that, maybe I would have done that. But it wasn't. Information can be friends to some, and foes to others...""Yes..." she smiled "information can be friends to some, and foes to others."
Asha and I had grown quite close in following year. We would discuss what we thought was coming for us. We both were some what reclusive to the rest of the commune. I think it was her age that attracted me to her. She had experience things I hadn't. Unlike me, she had once loved someone. Her husband had been killed shortly after being drafted to fight in the cyber war in the Middle East after the Stuxnet virus was activated and attacked Iran's nuclear power system starting one of many global wars. Before his death, she was ready to stay with him till the Earth was no more. He was not a chosen one. It was after his death that she took it as a sign from beyond that she should find ANON. That was her true mission in life.
As 2029 approached, one by one news of other communes collapsing into anarchy spread through the blog networks. We were just beginning our third year of keeping peace. Any squabbles that arose in the beginning were discuss and handled in town halls led by no singular being. All voices were heard, and each session would close with a prayer to ANON. Asha and I were fearing what was happening. What was once a commune turned into a strange cult. People began offering sacrifices to ANON to save the ones not chosen as if he were their God. To us, ANON was knowledge, it was light. Many would consider that the same thing as a God, but we knew better. The commune discussed ANON as if it were a singular being. I did not believe that was so. I believe ANON was described at best during the beginning of the "outbreak". It is a virus. A powerful virus that has been implanted in our psyches. This does not mean I consider it as something negative. It is a contagion to hope and of information. An information that can take our species to another level of existence. Or so I hoped. Asha agreed with me on this.
In the third month of that year, talk of a rebellion led by woman named Mara spread through camp. She was not a disciple but began convincing large groups that the being behind ANON was not our savior but the bringer of Darkness.
And just like that the commune began to crumble. Asha believed she could bring it back together. Mara was not one of the disciples so to her, ANON would not stray from his promise of savior. I feared Asha began to lose sight of what we had once agreed ANON was."How can we be so sure that who meets us on that day will be our light?! That face haunts your dreams yet you cling to it like he's our Lord and savior! Have you not forgotten who our true Lord is?! Thousands of us are dying here waiting as if to be raptured but ANON is not God! Come, let us take ownership of what we have done to this Earth and rebuild! We have our technologies! We have our Lord! We can restructure and join those who are prospering elsewhere!"
I had heard that planes were still in use to ship soldiers out to the wars in the East. I begged her to join me for I knew that the commune in Botswana was disconnected from all technological resources. They were not connected to the commune network that linked all the continents left together. They were spoken of as savages, but I knew they were not. They were in fact wiser than us all. I could see that was what was destroying us. The constant influx of ideas coming in to the commune was straying us from what was reality. The reality was, no matter what we did, the Earth was dying. At this point basically all wildlife and animals had perished. We were on our last supply of water and food reserves collected by the masses prior to our gathering. The end would come sooner than the rise of dawn in 2030.
On my day of departure I said my goodbyes to Asha. Though we had only known each other for 2 years, I had never felt more connected with someone. She was the reason I had spent the majority of my life in solitude. I had never wanted to lose someone, but I knew as I turned away we would never meet again...in any existance.
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