I heard a ’homeless’ man named Mark say that one time — the title. I have no idea what it has to do with this article, I haven’t thought about what to write yet, I haven’t even thought about how I want my coffee yet. But a ’homeless’ man named Mark said that once and it stuck with me ever since so I’m using it as the title. Next up — cover image. I had a crazy ass dream last night is not how this starts. It goes like this — I had the whole city to myself, everything outside was a ghost town like Katrina when 9th Ward was boarded up and deserted. There wasn’t anyone outside but me. I’m walking down Society, not a single vehicle on it and everything’s abandoned, even the corner market on Seacrit. I braced myself against the window with my hands to look inside, there’s a Corona beer display in my way. Just then I saw a vehicle behind me in the reflection, by the time I turned around to see if it was real, the lady driving the vehicle is standing outside screaming. She’s got her face covered with some elaborate face mask thing — I have no idea what she’s saying. “What?! I can’t understand you!” I yelled back as I pointed at the mask on her face. That’s when I felt the eyes staring at me. I saw masked faces from inside the abandoned businesses all around me, their faces are stuck to the glass and they’re staring right at me, they’re all wearing masks. I finally made out some of the things the lady in the carrier vehicle is screaming at me. She said the invisible mosquitos with Viking helmets and shark-tooth swords are killing everyone in their path who isn’t wearing a mask and washing their eyes every time they make eye contact with another human. “Have you always been completely out of your fucking mind, lady?!” “Look around!” She yelled. Again I felt the eyes on me, “you’re the one who’s out of your fucking mind” she said and I have a brain in my hands — her tires squealed as she took off, my eyes opened. I went back to the display of Corona’s but it vanished as quickly as it appeared, everything inside the market is gone, it’s completely abandoned. I could see behind the empty market through the back window. It’s an endless sea of armored vehicles, tanks, helicopters, etc and assault rifle toting military AI, each with direct orders to erase anyone non compliant. I watched countless people all wearing custom face masks walk right into military hands where they stuck some type of metering gun against their temple. The gun detected whether or not their face mask met guidelines made mandatory by the people they vote and die for, even though they’ve never actually met or even spoken to that person. The gun verified mask authenticity or facial recognition and eye integrity. It detected how long you washed your eyes after each time you made eye contact with someone and how many times you failed to rinse them completely. If you failed either test, they harvested your organs and burned your remains. Everyone compliant was injected with a soul obedience that sent them into submission called N.O.W. They were all so worried about what their face mask looked like and the amount of time they spent washing their eyes with provided eyewash they never saw what was going on right in their own back yard — I’ve been spotted! They see me. There’s a rifle pointed directly at me, the infrared sight reflected off the window I’m watching all of this unfold through, I saw the laser at eye level. The glass shattered — a bullet pierced the window in front of my face and I could taste the brass, my eyes opened.
01:43
Somewhere Else
03:16
Snooze Button
04:10
