Solar Minimum Read online

  

  The Duke of Devonshire entered Buckingham Palace through the south Ambassador’s entrance and quickly walked up the Grand Staircase to the White Drawing Room where he waited to be announced to the King. The Duke had been instructed to report to the Palace after he had first visited Kensington and received the official report from the Kensington Guard and after he checked in on Veronica of course.

  The King received him directly and the Duke entered the drawing room to find the King alone, deep in thought with his hands clasped behind his back facing a two-story window looking out on a very dark and dismal day with heavy rain. The White Drawing room was one of the largest receiving rooms in the Palace and today it was very quiet and the feeling equally sober. The Duke shut the door quietly behind him trying not to disturb the milieu of the room and walked softly toward the King. Seeing him there, alone in a dark room just like the darkening world around them placed an appropriate frame around the situation. The Duke stopped 10 feet behind the King and cleared his throat quietly.

  Without breaking his glance or his train of thought the King spoke soberly but without discouragement quoting Henry Longfellow, “Into each life some rain must fall, but ours my dear fellow—ours—we are about to walk into a hurricane.” He turned around slowly, still in deep contemplation and only smiled slightly signaling the Duke to report.

  The Duke bowed respectfully, “Your Majesty, it is just as you had predicted and the report of last night’s events at Kensington is as equally disturbing I’m afraid.”

  The King motioned for the Duke to sit while he began pacing the floor very slowing as if we were contemplating something else altogether while he listened to the Duke’s report. The Duke slowly took a seat and then continued, “At 4:00 a.m., the sentries posted at Kensington Gate were killed without a single shot fired or alarm initiated but the sentries within heard the approach and gave it chase into the woods for the better part of an hour but then lost its trail until they saw it leave the forest directly for the Palace. It apparently was very fast and they were not able to intercept it or give warning and it was indeed looking for Lady Veronica as you suspected. Sadly, it found her and I’m sure Toprak knows of her location by now.”

  The King didn’t verbally respond and only looked at the Duke when he paused motioning him to continue. The Duke leaned on his knees still trying to wrap his head around the events, “The inspection confirmed—as much as they possibly could from the historical accounts—that the beast was Fenrir—or at least a Fenrir-like beast. I saw it as they were carrying it off to the forest to dispose of it by fire and it was massive; completely beyond belief. How Lady Veronica was able to kill it—well, she too must be supernatural.”

  The King stopped and looked at the Duke with his eyebrows raised, “And the hour was 4:00 a.m., you are sure?”

  Finding the question odd, miss-timed and out of place the Duke responded, his voice slowing like a musical retard, “Yes, that was the hour I am sure. Why?”

  The King walked over and took a seat opposite the Duke, “The world is changing more than you are aware and more than the entire world is aware I’m afraid. Have you ever wondered why Biblical stories just don’t seem to fit into the reality of our world?”

  The Duke thought for a moment considering the numerous passages of miracles and other fantastic stories, then concluded that the King was onto something and nodded casually.

  “The world was different when those passages were written, that’s why they seem so unbelievable and out of reach for us. It has been over 400 years since the last minimum and it lasted for about 70 years. Most of the people who lived through it had never known anything different and so much time has now passed that any records of the period have vanished—except for the few fragments the Crown has been able to retain. The world has no idea what we are about to crash into and they are sadly, grossly unprepared for it.” The King paused in very deep contemplation.

  “And 4:00 a.m. is significant how?” asked the Duke confused.

  The King was brought back to the discussion at hand again by the Duke’s question and he shook his head slightly as he responded, “It’s not the hour that is significant but the number. The number four anciently was symbolic of the beginning, the creation. It’s curious and I think hardly coincidental that the first paramount event of the Minimum occurred at 4:00 a.m.—the appearance of a long forgotten beast that has been written-off today as a myth and the wild imaginations of an ignorant world long since passed. There have been signs of an impending minimum for 10 years now—I realize, but this event feels different, like we are about to plunge into a new world, a new creation if you will. A place we will not recognize.

  Reading from the fragments of the Royal Chronicle that we have, it is plain that the elements respond differently during a minimum period. For example, while hydrogen and oxygen will still create water, its inert energy will be different.”

  The Duke was now confused even more instead of enlightened, “How do you mean?”

  “Have you ever heard of Holy Water?” said the King as the Duke nodded. “It was very real in ancient times and had the power to do magical things when administered by a man of God. Holy Water as we have come to know it today is foolishness and doesn’t differ in the least from water in the sewers. If you want a picture of what the world is returning too, look up.” The King pointed to a very large painting hanging above the fireplace depicting a great but long forgotten battle. There were piles of dead and wounded on the ground as the war continued on top of them. The soldiers were fighting with swords, axes and arrows from horse and elephant back. In the background there was a dragon attacking a castle and a tall ship being burned in the harbor. Squinting, the Duke also thought he saw a hydra. He turned from the painting slowly and looked at the King with both wonder and horror.

  The King gave a small nod, “While world knowledge has increased significantly, our ancestors were not stupid. They just had the unfair disadvantage of living in that kind of world; the world we are also about to experience for ourselves. I don’t know how bad things will get—it’s hard to image losing the knowledge we have—but I can assure you it will feel like 1600 AD at least. It just all depends on how severer and how long the Minimum continues. With all of our conceited knowledge, we still know very little about our sun and the affect it has on our planet, but it’s time you knew the whole story my dear fellow.”

  The Duke sat back in his chair and appeared to be getting more comfortable in preparation for a long discussion as the King got up and began pacing again, “There are some things we do know. The Minimum will cause the ozone layer to descend closer to the earth’s surface which will cause some plant life to fail. If you look at history, maize was not the world food staple as it is today. As it turns out, maize is heavily affected by increased ozone. One of the more fascinating affects is how our pineal glands respond. Over the past 400 years, we have experienced substantial solar flare activity, certainly more than our ancestors did. An abundance of flare activity causes our pineal glands to produce excess melatonin, which as you know produces sleep in both human and animal. A decrease of flare activity—well, we produce less melatonin causing us to be in effect, more awake. Certainly increased strength and sharper senses will be some of the results but also for some, supernatural power.”

  A light went on in the Duke’s mind, “Ah! So like Lord Guiscard raising the dead?” The King nodded as the Duke continued, “This appears to all be a good thing as far as humans are concerned—right?”

  “I suppose that depends upon the human does it not? When one’s assets are increased their true colors are shown. A street urchin who is sullen and passive will be something totally different with a million pounds in his pocket. Certainly there will be many who will use their increased faculties for the benefit of others, but sadly—there is much evil in the world and they will use such power to subdue, plunder and attempt to control it I’m afraid. This applies to the animal ki
ngdom as well. Some animals have a gentle disposition and this will only be increased however, take the wolf for example: with increased faculties they only become more vicious and with a larger body, they also become more deadly—enter the Fenrir and heaven only knows what else. We can only assume that all of the mythical beings our ancestors wrote about were indeed real.”

  They were both now silent as each recalled from the myths of the world the heinous monsters that had supposedly once roamed the earth. After a few minutes the Duke wondered about the harbingers that Toprak had been able to enslave, “What about the Toprak harbingers, how did the Minimum affect them so early?”

  The King came back to sit with the Duke as he took a sip of his tea that a servant had just brought in, “I am not sure of the specifics, but it is clear that not all life will be affected and that goes for humans as well. However, some humans will be greatly affected due to their individual sensitivities. We have concluded that Toprak has been able to identify—through Moran’s research—bloodlines that are hyper sensitive to a decrease in melatonin and they have then sought them out and have used them most cruelly. The pineal gland is also known as the third eye by the mystics of the world and we now have every reason to believe them.”

  “The third eye your majesty?” said the Duke leaning forward to adjust the sweetness of his cup of tea.

  The King waved his hand motioning triviality, “The ability to see visions, clairvoyance, precognition—that sort of thing. With the third eye opened, and no longer calcified—if you will—some will be able to exhibit these psychic abilities to an astonishing, and perhaps frightening degree.”

  The King sat his cup down on the table and eased back into his chair and changed the topic, “So, Toprak Esir not only knows Lady Veronica is of Saxon blood but they also now know where she is. This is most unfortunate. Kensington Palace kept her safe from harbingers but I didn’t count on such desperate measures. How they were able to harness a Fenrir and how they even knew of their new existence is frightening when you consider what else they might know. We must assume it is 1000 AD and all your worst nightmares are real. With that as a backdrop, what do you suggest we do with Lady Veronica to keep her safe?”

  The Duke sat quietly, as he was obviously walking through medieval England in his mind as best as he could imagine trying to strategize as his ancestors might have. The King offered the first idea, “I suggest we invite the Bishop of Durham to reside at Kensington and triple the guard.” The King thinking more medieval added, “And issue non-ceremonial swords, axe and mauls. I’m not sure why but there must be a reason our ancestors used them, and lets instigate a sentry march around the perimeter since our security cameras and even the satellite coverage revealed nothing until it was too late.”

  As the King and Duke continued to try and piece together a strategy rooted in fantasy, a member of the palace staff entered the room, “A call for you your Majesty. Forgive the intrusion but I felt it was of some importance.”

  The servant was holding a mobile phone that the King immediately identified and thanked the servant. Taking the phone the King waited for the servant to leave the room and then looked at the Duke wondering if he should also leave the room. Considering everything, he concluded that he could trust the Duke and it was only a matter of time he knew about Moran anyway. He walked over to the sofa across from the Duke and answered the call, “Moran, thank you for calling.”

  The King and Moran were long-time friends since the days when Moran worked at Hebrew University. They became acquainted due to the King’s great interest in blood genealogy and Moran was the foremost expert in the world. Moran had actually worked for the Crown back in those days and had mapped the entire living royal blood line. However, when Moran attempted to publish his research and was then subsequently dismissed from the University the King lost contact with him until he discovered that he moved back to Dagenham, England. Moran resumed his work searching for pure royal bloodlines in the general population when Moran was offered his current position with Toprak.

  Knowing enough about Toprak at the time and that they were an organization that needed to be watched, Moran and the King jointly agreed to send Moran in as a secret emissary for the Crown or in layman terms, a spy. It was because of Moran that the King knew about Veronica and Gus’s pure Saxon blood and he also kept the King informed of the movements of Toprak as far as he was able to learn. Since Toprak didn’t use any communication technology, Moran was relatively safe making a cellular call so long as he was certain he was alone. In addition, the mobile phone he used was secure and used only Royal networks.

  Moran made a point to be friendly with as many as he could within Toprak and due to his age he was seen as a harmless and friendly old man and many confided in him with personal matters. Caleb, who was Hengist’s assistant, confided in Moran about the death of Aldegund and how he was asked to cut off his tongue and send the body to the Décideurs Council in Algiers. Moran told the King about Toprak’s plan for Algiers and how they were planning a takeover of the country although it was not clear exactly how. Hengist was already in Algiers and Horsa was on his way. Whatever they had planned it was about to ignite. It was unclear to Moran why Toprak needed Algeria other than for its vast oil reserves.

  Moran paused in a non-verbal acknowledgement of how absurd his next topic of discussion would sound, “Your Majesty, I believe I discovered how Hengist and Horsa have been utilizing the third eye, and how they were able to engage so early on with their harbingers—magic; dark magic. Horsa encountered a mystic of sorts during the Russian war and enslaved him, forcing him to share his knowledge. Horsa had a tremendous talent for dark magic apparently and at length became superior to his teacher where upon he killed him—of course; such is the way of all Toprak ex-employees.”

  Moran explained to the King that Toprak had produced some Fenrir somehow, no doubt through the use of the early Minimum conditions and magic. “They released them last night in several countries of which England was one. I would have called sooner but could not be sure I was alone. I have been trailed lately, but no need for alarm everyone is trailed here periodically. Have you had any reports of a very large wolf on the island?”

  With slight amusement in his voice the King replied, “Yes, we have seen, tagged, bagged and burned a Fenrir in the last 24 hours. It appeared to only have one mission and that was to destroy Lady Veronica.”

  “Oh! I’m sure not. Lady Veronica is much too important to Hengist—for reasons I do not know. No, I’m sure he did not mean to kill her. Horsa gave the command to release the beasts and he is a brute with nothing else on his mind at any given moment than accomplishing his goal. The Fenrir were enchanted to seek out pure Saxons, so far only Veronica was found to my knowledge. Hengist became alarmed when he didn’t know where she was and asked Horsa to find her. These Fenrir are an evil breed, and can scarcely be controlled. How did you ever kill it?”

  The King explained the details of the capture and disposal of the beast and they discussed several other topics including ideas on how to protect Lady Veronica as the storm outside increased and as the afternoon grew later and darker. A servant came in to light the room turning on several lamps and lighting a fire in the fireplace which provided the room with much needed comfort.

  Hanging up and placing the phone on the table the King looked at the Duke and sighed, “Toprak is making a move for Algeria; we should hear something any day now.”

  The Duke had gotten up to stand closer to the fireplace in order that he might absorb its warmth, “Algeria, why Algeria of all places?”

  The King got up from his chair and walked over to join him, “I had ruled out that Toprak was behind the Middle Eastern invasion forces into Europe but it appears I am wrong. Algeria is the weakest link along the African coast and an easy takeover target especially since they are bankrupt. I suspect they will move westwards into Morocco and position themselves for a Gibraltar invasion just like Umayyad did in 732 AD. These two Germans do everything
by the book, the history book that is—and with names like Hengist and Horsa, it is no secret what they intend—an English invasion eventually. I don’t know how exactly but I’m sure they had something to do with the unrest in the United States and if things continue to go south there, we will be alone in all this and I think Toprak knows it—planned it no doubt.”

  The Duke turned to the King remembering that Lord Guiscard was out of Washington, “Speaking of the U.S., what more have you heard from Lord Guiscard?”

  “I heard from him this morning actually. I’m very glad you reminded me so you can inform Lady Veronica. They are with a trusted General named Clancy and they are at his ranch in Montana licking their wounds. Apparently they had some difficulty getting out of Washington; someone of importance to them named Erdem was detained at the Pentagon. A fantastic story I will have to tell you some time. The unrest there is very severe he says and some of the infrastructure is starting to break down due to the unrest. Some areas have not had food for a week and that in itself has caused even more rioting. They take turns guarding the ranch during the night since they’ve had a few break-ins looking for firearms. The U.S. Government so far has done nothing except call up the National Guard in several states but as you can imagine they are only trying to keep the peace without too much force. The whole situation over there is like a slow match burning on top of a powder keg. I have instructed them to identify as many as they can who are loyal to the principles of freedom and right and identify the leaders of such groups as they form. It will be important to know whom we can call on in the next few months.”

  ddd

  After Moran ended his call with the King, he walked back to his lab and reluctantly called in his assigned harbinger and placed a herald to Horsa. As the harbinger’s eyes rolled backwards he could hear Horsa’s voice coming out of the harbinger’s mouth.

  “Your Majesty, I have…” Moran stopped after he realized what he had just said. Having just hung up with the King, his use of title was confused in his mind and he struggled with how he would recover.

  “Well, Your Majesty huh? I could get used to that, although it must be our little secret my brother would be very jealous,” replied Horsa being very amused.

  Moran, still recovering cleared his throat, “Yes sir.”

  “What have you got for me? I would be most pleased if you told me you have found Veronica,” said Horsa.

  Swallowing hard, Moran tried to sound enthusiastic, “Indeed Sir, we have found her. You were most wise in using the Fenrir.”

  Moran heard Horsa let out a loud yell and the harbinger in his lab flung his head back so hard it appeared that he might break its own neck. Recovering the harbinger’s head flung forward to its chest then resumed its normal position.

  “So where has the pretty little thing gone?” he said with great excitement in his voice.

  Moran paused having a hard time sharing Veronica’s location with Horsa. He paused so long that he feared Horsa would notice something was amiss, “Um—she is in Kensington Palace, England Sir.”

  Horsa’s excitement left him and he became very sober, “What! How did she get there?”

  Things became very quiet and Horsa said nothing for several long minutes, “You are sure of this? No mistake?”

  “Yes, very sure,” responded Moran.

  The herald ended abruptly and the harbinger in Moran’s lab resumed his normal personality and disposition as Moran rubbed his neck in sympathy and disgust at how Toprak abused the employees who were assigned to be harbingers. The harbinger said nothing and just looked up at Moran in gratitude before he stood up and left the room.

  Horsa left his cabin on his ship which was docked alongside Hengist’s, he had only arrived in Algiers a few hours ago and his crew was still packing sails and making ready the vessel. Toprak had many large sailing ships built after the style of Braque, three and four massed ships each capable of over 1000 tons. While the ships were styled after old sailing ships, they were made of light-weight metal consisting of magnesium and titanium. They were lighter than the old sailing ships and longer, which allowed them to sail faster—achieving over twenty knots on a stiff wind. Horsa had sailed from Turkey to Algiers with fourteen ships carrying over 100,000 troops.

  He walked into Hengist’s elegant cabin and sat down across from his brother’s desk and waited for him to complete what he was writing. After a few minutes Hengist looked up, setting down his pen and folding his arms as he leaned back in his chair, “You look like you have something unpleasant on your mind.”

  “We found your girlfriend,” replied Horsa unenthusiastically.

  Hengist responded with a confused but amused look, “My who?”

  Horsa sighed, “Veronica turned up in the net as I supposed she would but she is a royal resident at Kensington Palace. One of our Fenrirs found here there.”

  Hengist unfolded his arms and placed his hands together and touched them to his mouth as he thought, rocking back and forth slowly, “We haven’t given the old King enough credit—the royal bastard. He too has discovered Veronica’s royal bloodline and has seen fit to give her royal privilege—rightly so if I might add.” He took a deep sigh, “We certainly cannot now assign her a harbinger as harbingers cannot function within Anglo-Saxon strongholds—as you know, but at least we know where she is and for now she is safe. It is most unfortunate that we were not able to collect her before the King did but it is something we can live with. Send more Fenrirs to England and place them in the forests near the Palace so we will be alerted if she leaves.”

  Just then a knock came at the door of the cabin, “Enter,” said Hengist.

  Hengist’s personal guard opened the door slightly to announce that the soldier sent to the Algerian Parliament building had just come on deck having returned from his mission. Hengist cocked his head somewhat confused as the guard shook his head confirming what Hengist was thinking—no blast had been heard yet, “Send him in,” said Hengist with growing frustration.

  Nodding the guard responded, “Yes my lord.”

  After a few minutes the soldier Hengist sent to release the ozone in the Parliament building was announced at the door and was ushered in front of Hengist and Horsa as he stood at strict attention but still breathing very heavily from having run so fast to the ship.

  Hengist was concerned that he had not heard the explosion and the soldier was already back to the ship, “Were you able to complete the mission soldier?”

  In between breaths the soldier responded, “Yes, my lord, just as you directed—to the last detail.”

  Hengist got up from his desk and walked closer to the soldier, “And you were not discovered?”

  The soldier shook his head, “No my lord.”

  Hengist was now pacing in front of the soldier with his hands folded behind his back, “And how is it you are so sure you were not discovered? Not even by some random Algerian as you were running back to the ship?”

  The soldier thought for a minute then responded slowly, “Perhaps my lord—but not until I reached the waterfront. I made certain that I was not seen until I was within the frontage road where upon I then proceeded with haste to the ship as if I had been conducting some business at the dock.”

  Hengist turned to look at Horsa. His plan was to kill the soldier before he returned to the ship so that any loose ends would be sufficiently tied off, but he had eluded even the assassin in his stealth retreat. Hengist concluded if he was able to do that, he certainly must not have been seen fleeing the scene. Horsa shrugged in non-verbal agreement.

  “That will be all then,” concluded Hengist.

  The soldier saluted in attention with an arm to his chest and walked toward the door when a loud blast could be heard several miles away. Even with that much distance, the blast could be felt in everyone’s chest on the ship which also made their ears ring. Several wine glasses in the cabinet rang out as one shattered. Hengist and Horsa both looked at each other in surprised delight as if they were two childre
n playing with matches while Horsa began to laugh and then exclaimed, “Holy sh…”, just then another blast could be heard equally loud but with less intensity and they covered their ears.

  The two brothers looked at each other in amazement and then at the soldier who was still standing by the cabin door in great surprise. Horsa resumed his laugh, “That—that was unbelievable! What did you give him?” he said referring to the size of the ozone canister.

  “The right one, seven liters at 100K,” said Hengist.

  “It shouldn’t have been that large or loud, especially at several miles away like we are. And what was the second explosion?” said Horsa as he turned and looked at the soldier and then at Hengist. They both just shrugged as they left the cabin and walked out on deck.

  From the deck they could see a very large fire in the distance and sirens could be heard amidst the panic and confusion of the port. As they studied the flames they could make out that there were two buildings burning, but how or why there was a second explosion they did not know. Many of the ship hands and soldiers were also on deck watching the fire anticipating it would soon be their turn to participate in the ruin of Algeria.

  Hengist and Horsa both knew that the Minimum was gaining in strength since they were able to release a Fenrir outside their lab and have it live but like the King, they didn’t have a firm grasp on what other unknown effects there would be. As they stood at the taffrail, they delved into the unknown and correctly surmised that the Minimum had somehow exaggerated the blast and that could have also accounted for the second blast. Watching the fire they had started they also listened to the early sounds of civil war erupt just as they had planned and they looked at each other very pleased as everything except the size of the blast was going as planned. It wasn’t long before Hengist saw an emissary from the Décideurs Council running toward the ship with urgent news, which was that he Council had requested the military assistance of Toprak to maintain order in the city.

  Hengist turned to his brother with a smile, “Shall we beat to quarters?”

  Horsa smiled in return, very pleased and excited to be at war once again, “Indeed!”

  In the traditional naval style, Horsa called out to his number one, “We shall beat to quarters!” as the order could be heard repeated down the command chain and across to the other ships in the harbor. Battle drums began beating which was the signal to the private soldiers to take up arms make ready for disembarkation.

  The soldiers marched armed to the hilt down the gangways on to the dock making their way into the city with Horsa their unconquerable leader at their fore. They were in very high spirits everyone happy to be at war once again, more than ready to pillage, plunder, and kill. Every soldier in the Toprak army was wealthy due to the great spoils of war and they were now about to be even more enriched.

  As they entered the city, they began shooting at random especially taking note to kill civilians in order to create a terrified migration out of the country into Morocco. Toprak soldiers made expert pirates since they were very well trained in how to make a big mess of things, destroying everything in their path, setting fires and making a grotesque display of mutilated bodies. Their goal was complete disintegration of both society and government and they were very skilled in their craft. Masses fled from before the Toprak army as the army pretended to put down the uprising initiated by the Council of the Nation, the political party who opposed the Décideurs Council.

  Within only a few days, massive numbers of refugees began fleeing into Morocco just as planned and Toprak soldiers also followed them disguised as refugees. Morocco and the United Nations helped provide food and shelter just as they had done in Van, Turkey and Toprak was now strategically positioned for a European invasion with an army in the east and an army in the west. Also just like in Van, Turkey, Toprak sent thousands of tons of supplies to the refugees in Morocco which also consisted of weapons.

  As expected, the United States completely ignored the refugee movements since they had more than enough to deal with at home. Civil unrest in the U.S. had spread and was now taking the shape of a small civil war as citizens were taking sides and some were migrating to various areas of the country based upon their allegiances. The East was loosely the stronghold of those who supported the President and totalitarian government, while the Midwest and Mountain States were the gathering point for the Conventionalists. The West Coast was in a state of confusion as citizens seemed to be fighting at random and without clear direction. People were fleeing those states into the Mountain States where there was more governmental stability and a clear banner.

  The movements of the public were not yet of epic proportions but enough to cause hardships on the receiving States. However, some areas were worse off than others especially where food and fuel were getting scarce. In these areas the Federal Government had completely broken down and martial law was in effect, causing even more migration. The brightest spot in the U.S. at the moment was its churches. All denominations were doing what they could to feed and house the homeless masses and they were even banding together, combining resources and facilities. The churches in most areas were more than houses of worship; they were houses of shelter and comfort. Never had they been more holy and sacred than now.

  Only the eastern military bases were following orders from the President and the mock Congress he led. Limited military operations were being carried out against citizens who directly opposed the government but so far there had not been any major equipment used, only armed soldiers and a few tanks just as a show of force. Tear gas was being used as a means of crowd control in the National Mall as thousands had flocked there to demonstrate against the President and his usurpation of power.

  The U.S. Senate now only consisted of 79 members and the House was completely dissolved by the President. Most citizens couldn’t be bothered with the comings and goings of their government since their hierarchy of needs was only focused on their physiological and safety needs.

  Psychologists for centuries had theorized that human beings could not achieve the higher states of humanity such as love, esteem and self-actualization when their basic needs were not being met. Abraham Maslow in the 1960’s theorized that when a society’s needs for food, water, shelter and safety went unmet that love and friendship would be abandoned and the fabric of society would unravel. Maslow was right on many levels. The human need for self-esteem, respect, achievement, status and contributing to the greater good were completely abandoned in areas where the unrest was most severe. However, Maslow and many of the psychologists who subscribed to his theory were wrong when it came to the human capacity for love.

  While some members of society completely surrendered to despair and resorted to evolutionary instincts of the survival of the fittest, there were many who refused to respond with such base immorality. In fact, there were many instances where there was an increase of love and acceptance across all social boundaries and classes as the people of the United States maintained their dignity and served and lifted each other up. It was these groups that were banding together and organizing themselves to not only ensure their own survival but the survival of the nation they loved.

  Meanwhile the Federal Government had completely shut down the international cellular networks and the Transnet except for the PubEx channel, which the Government used to spread its agenda. Without anyone being able to post to the Transnet or make calls out of the country, the rest of the world had little knowledge of what was really happening in the U.S. and the true extent of the crisis. International travel was also being monitored by the government and all passports had been cancelled, effectively closing the borders without actually closing them.

  In the west, all the military bases were becoming a law unto themselves, ignoring orders from the Federal Government and restricting access of all non-military personnel. Why they were dormant and completely ignoring orders from Washington was unclear to outsiders but the King correctly assumed it had something to do with the presence
of a powerful leader—a four star General in Montana.

 

  