Excited Delirium Book: Chapter 66 (Watching the Quake Real-Time)
Author’s Note: The following is Chapter 66 of the my online book “Excited Delirium”. Please post comments. Please tell your friends about this story. If you’ve missed a chapter, please click here for Chapter 1 (Prelude) or here for the full index.
The world had already turned its eyes to Channel China, via their TVs and TIVOs and other recording devices, as preparations for the launch of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games started.
Around the world, more than 2 billion people watched news reports, expecting to witness a great celebration of the power and might of China and its cultural heritage, only to watch in disbelief as the City of Beijing fell before four billion eyes.
Reporters and news crews were not immune from the bone-crushing events of the evening of August 8, 2008. They scrambled to protect themselves, many unable to utter a small sentence, before being slammed by a three-tonne slab of concrete or got swept away by a rush of water released from the City’s once great infrastructure or as they got sucked into a great flame, their last words feeding a missive and unforgiving wall of insatiable heat as it spread through ancient neighbourhoods.
Kite, Eddie, Chaos, Hummus and the others could only watch in horror, along with the rest of humanity, as reporter after reporter succumbed to the endless arsenal of the earth’s fury.
Each tried to say something to the group, stopping temselves as they opened their mouths, each realizing that nothing could be said here and now that could sum up the moment they were experiencing.
At moments, they looked like fish, tossed from their watery homes, mouths open and closing, gasping at nothing, saying less.
It was Hummus who finally broke the silence as they stood and watched the International News Corporation (INC) live reports on the Quake.
“Sometimes, I just don’t feel we deserve what we’ve got … and then there are others who think we deserve what we get. I don’t think I can watch this much longer. This carnage hurts my heart.”
With that, the reception started to fade and looked like a side-road in Buffalo during a January white-out. Reception was now an issue and the crowd in the bar started shouting for another channel.
As the bartender flipped through the channels, his remote control pointed to the TV like a wand to a toad, hoping it would transform into something more palatable, he showed frustration at not getting anything but fuzz and a few kid’s shows that were not already pre-empted by national news reports.
“Sorry guys. I’m not having a lot of luck,
He said as he clicked the TV off in annoyance.
“Now hold on …” Kite said. “Give it a few seconds and someone like INC or ABCNNBCBS will start editorializing on what’s happening. In fact, Jake, can you set your TIVO to record some of the updates, especially from the UCC?”
“No problem,” Jake said, “but you’ll have to tell me what the hell the UCC is.”
“Sorry … it’s the Univist Communication Channel, the mouthpiece for the OMNINet’s religious organization. It’s channel 88 on the satellite,” Kite answered.
“Done,” Jake said as he adjusted his TIVO setup. “Any reason why?”
“I might need some of the their quotes later,” he said, knowing full-well their religion-based reporting services will be packed with messages about the end of the world, the sins of China as a godless land, and so on.
As Jake set up the recorder to test that everything was set up properly, the group turned to look at each other, signs of worry and anxiety pasted on their faces, as obvious as billboards on a busy highway.
“We have to do something,” Eddie declared, his A=plus personality showing. He was feeling like he had to lead them out of this madness, as he felt responsible for what was happening.
“Eddie … there was nothing you could do about what’s happened,” Kite said, trying to reassure his friend. “Really. You have to know that. And you have no idea how much you’ve helped us understand why it’s happening. And … you have no idea how what you did when you left your office will help us as we catch these fuckers in action.”
“Then let’s get hi mand his little ferret buddy Hadlock and string them up by their ass hairs,” Chaos demanded angrily.
“Let’s see if we can track Diana first. She might have some ideas about what to do,” Kite said as he used his phone to log on to his remote email service. “Oh … look at this.”
“I guess she’s watching the news too,” Kite said, as he showed the screen to each of his friends.
“Well then,” Hummus said, “maybe our beacon has come to shed light on what the fuck is happening to the world.”
OK guys … let’s get our things and get acting on this,” Kite shouted. “Eddie … Forest might be a pretty big help to us. Do you want to ask him to join us?”
“Good idea. I’ll be back in a sec.”
As Eddie went over to chat with Forest, Kite sent a note back to Diana to confirm location.
Within a few moments, everyone was packed together around each other like a football huddle, eagerly awaiting next steps.
“I just got a note back from her … we’re meeting at her apartment.”
[Author’s Note: I conceived of this plot component in 2006 and wrote most of these chapters into the story of ‘Excited Delirium’ during the course of 2007. I was stunned like the rest of the world when a tragic earthquake struck the province of Sichuan on May 12, 2008. Please believe me that I do not want to ‘profit’ from the suffering that the hundreds of thousands in this quake experienced. I remind all readers that this is a work of fiction and that my goals are to speak to the symbolic reference that’s used in the numerology along with the viewpoint of one fictional cult concerning the fate of the Chinese. ]
(Note: “Excited Delirium” is a work of fiction. Any person, place or thing depicted in this work of fiction is also a work of fiction. Any relation of these subjects or characters to real locations, people or things are an unintentional coincidence.)
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Excited Delirium by Liam Young is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License .
Based on a work at www.exciteddelirium.ca .