Something a bit dark. Speculative fiction, perhaps. Predictive, at least. But far-fetched? Maybe. Maybe not.
Three elements at work for you to contemplate. One, social unrest has traveled to extremes. Everything warrants “peaceful demonstration” from serious issues to the absurd, and minority views displace majority views. Two: Social reformers bandy about ideas bordering lunatic – defund the police? Three, science has advanced so we believe Artificial Intelligence arrives next week, if it is not already here. Agar-nursed replacement tissues, even whole organs. Micro-miniature robots performing surgery from inside the body cavity. It’s all up for grabs.
Benton looked to the edge of his one-hundred-acres. Until moments ago, it was mostly scrub, sand, cacti, weeds, and stunted brittle oaks lining an arroyo only damp three summer months.
Skeleton cacti now resembled burned matchsticks stuck in the sand. Brush patches smoldered. Arroyo oaks burned. Huge chunks of charred bacon littered the ground beyond the gate at the head of his drive. Blackened cars and trucks squatted in the sand at the edge of the road spewing the stink of burned metal, rubber, plastic, and meat into a desert breeze that promised oxygen to the oaks until there was nothing left to burn. Only the sizzle and crack of flames disturbed the silence.
A year after the president signed the Federal Firearms Act banning manufacture and possession of any firearms, and scant months after the last firearm surrender amnesty campaign, demonstrations began. Not against the act. Arguably, because of it. States north of Fermi Medical Laser Labs headquarters bled “peaceful demonstrations” southward. Reduced northern state police forces ceded the streets. Every minority successfully gathering more than a dozen people seized on the opportunity. “Peaceful” contorted into burning, looting, and physical violence against anyone perceived unfriendly to whatever minority cause “demonstrated.”
With state police hamstrung and most citizens effectively unarmed, demonstrations increased. Federal troops had yet to be adequately deployed to coerce deprived, cheated, abused, and entitled minorities to be more “peaceful” in their demonstrations. As the wave of unrest reached Fermi Labs’ state, employees everywhere left places of business to go home to do what they could to protect themselves, their families, and their property.
On leave from his R&D position at Fermi, single and with not much really worth protecting, Benton occupied himself with research and development in his home workshop and maintained the solar array and battery storage cells on the property he hoped to retire to in five or so years. Of course, he listened to the news. He was chilled hearing that Fermi Labs’ city was in disarray, Fermi Labs itself torched to the ground. Benton contemplated abandoning his property. His development work completed, he was bored but really had nowhere to go.
When Benton saw the caravan of “peaceful demonstrators” stop in front of his gate, he knew. He knew before the first improvised club was raised into the air. Before the first machete glistened in the summer sun. Before the first Molotov cocktail flickered. Before the first demonstrator started hammering away at the lock on Benton’s gate. He knew.
Benton flipped a toggle on the solar grid control panel. It took three seconds for his laser, the size of a Padron Panatela, to charge. Pointing it at the leading edge of the “peaceful demonstration” it took less than five seconds to fully describe an arc through the mass. As quickly as the beam touched anything, it burned with such ferocity that boulders struck exploded. Cacti, shrubs, trees, automobiles, and demonstrators never realized what happened, never suffered.
© spwilcenski April 2023
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Exposed by spwilcenwrites “Hidden Works – May 2, 2023” (thru 5/9/2023)
Ramblings 