Timeline

2010-2037 - At some point during this period, a devastating earthquake hits California
2010 - Scientists create synthetic life | Haiti is struck by a devastating earthquake | One-fifth of Pakistan is flooded | China becomes the largest energy consumer in the world | Localised renewable energy is becoming affordable | Apple debuts the iPad | Augmented Reality is entering the mainstream | Macular degeneration is curable | The first demonstration of solar-sail technology | Speech-to-speech translation is common in mobile phones | Major breakthrough in robotics
2011-2015 - British forces withdraw from Afghanistan
2011 - The Space Shuttle fleet is retired | The web has a greater reach than television | Multi-touch surface computing is available to the mass market | The first open petaflop supercomputer comes online |Batteries that charge in seconds | 22 nanometre chips are in mass production | USB 3.0 is available |Consumer-level robotics are booming | Completion of the ISS | World's first commercial spaceport |China's Three Gorges Dam is fully operational
2012 - Economic growth remains sluggish in many markets | London hosts the Olympic Games | 
Windows 8 is released | OLED screens are becoming widespread | Brain-computer interfaces allowing the paralysed to walk again | A cure for baldness | World's first 1-Gigawatt offshore wind farm | 
Mars Science Laboratory explores the Red Planet | Mass hysteria grips the world as the Mayan calendar reaches the end of its current cycle
2013 - Iran carries out its first nuclear test | Solar flares are disrupting the Earth's magnetosphere | 
3D technologies are widespread | The first products to use memristor technology are becoming available |Full-body scanners are mandatory in US airports | Direct high-speed rail from London to Frankfurt and Amsterdam | The 4G standard is finalised | India launches its second lunar exploration mission
2014 - The James Webb telescope is launched | Personalised DNA sequencing for less than $100 |Internet "lifecasting" enters the mainstream | 16nm chips are in mass production | Terabyte SD cards are available | Robotic pack mules are entering military service | MAVEN probe arrives at Mars | The Rosetta probe deploys its lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko | Most telephone calls are made via the Internet now | Increased automation in retail environments | Brazil hosts the FIFA World Cup
2015-2019 - Virtual Reality makes a comeback | Tigers are going extinct
2015 - Worldwide PC use reaches 2bn | Lifesaver water filters are spreading to developing countries |
The first climate change refugees | 3D printing enters the consumer market | Scientists resurrect the woolly mammoth | New Horizons probe arrives at Pluto | Dawn probe arrives at Ceres | Voyager I enters the heliopause
2016 - The US military withdraws its last remaining troops from Afghanistan | US vehicles are becoming more fuel-efficient | The first space hotel | Laser guns are in naval use | Holographic versatile disc (HVD) replaces Blu-Ray | Sony launches the PlayStation 4 | The Strait of Messina Bridge is completed | Rio de Janeiro hosts the Olympic Games
2017 - China establishes the largest megacity in the world | Total solar eclipse in the US | The Gotthard Base Tunnel is completed | Electronic paper is seeing widespread use | Portable medical lasers that seal wounds | Teleportation of simple molecules
2018 - The European Extremely Large Telescope is operational | Ubiquitous internet nodes connect appliances, vehicles, etc. | Crossrail opens in London | Robot insect spies are in military use | Russia hosts the FIFA World Cup | Consumer devices with 100 Gbit/s transfer speeds | Anti-fat drugs are available | The last of Nigeria's rainforests have disappeared
2019 - Acute spinal injuries are fully treatable | The ITER experimental fusion reactor is switched on |Computers break the exaflop barrier | Bionic eyes are commercially available | Automated freight transport | The Aral Sea disappears from the map | Oil demand is outpacing supply by a significant margin


2020-2035 - World energy crisis
2020 - Internet use reaches 5 billion worldwide | Texting by thinking | Complete organ replacements grown from stem cells | Holographic TV is mainstream | Sweden becomes the first oil-free country |Glacier National Park and other regions are becoming ice-free | Wholly lifelike CGI | Smart meters in every UK home
2021 - Water crisis in southwest USA | "Thoughtcrime" is a reality | Fully reusable, single-stage-to-orbit spacecraft | Telecommuting is a standard flexible work option | Traditional microchips are reaching the limits of miniaturisation
2022 - Qatar hosts the FIFA World Cup | Nanotech clothing enters the mass market | Tooth regeneration is transforming dental care | Piezoelectric nanowires are appearing in high-end products | Deafness is fully curable
2023 - Laser-driven fusion energy makes progress | Borneo’s rainforests have been wiped from the map |Gorillas are extinct in Central Africa | Turkey becomes self-sufficient in energy production | A permanent cure for migraine is available
2024 - The biggest refugee crisis in world history | Gay marriage is legal in every US state | African elephants are on the brink of extinction | A cure for the common cold is available for general public use |Completion of the Square Kilometre Array | Petabyte storage devices are available | The first probe to fly into the Sun's outer atmosphere
2025 - Human brain simulations are becoming possible | Medical nanobots are being developed | China's economy continues to boom | Vertical farms are appearing in many cities | High-speed rail networks are being expanded in many countries | Africa and the Middle East are linked by a transcontinental bridge |Progress with longevity extension | Stress and anxiety are reaching crisis levels
2025-2030 - The threat of bioterrorism is peaking
2026 - Wireless electricity is ubiquitous | Rising sea levels are wreaking havoc on the Maldives | 
The United States of Africa is established | Construction of the Sagrada Família is complete | Contact with the Voyager probes is lost
2026-2029 - Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM)
2027 - BRICs overtake the G7 nations | Carbon sequestration is underway in many nations
2028 - Printed electronics are ubiquitous | UK population reaches 70m | Manned fighter planes are being phased out and replaced with UAVs | Amputees can regrow lost limbs
2029 - Human-like AI is becoming a reality | Heavy automation of supermarkets and retail environments |Intelligent advertising | Lake Chad disappears from the map

 2030 - Global population is reaching crisis point | AI is widespread | The USA is declining as a world power| AIDS, cancer and a plethora of other diseases are becoming curable | India becomes the most populous country in the world | Full weather modeling is perfected | Emerging job titles of today
2031 – Web 4.0 is transforming the Internet landscape | Stem cell pharmacies are commonplace | 
Married couples are a minority | Chocolate has become a rare luxury
2032 - Manned mission to Mars | 4th generation nuclear power | Terabit internet speeds are commonplace

2033 - Hypersonic airliners are entering service | Holographic wall screens | IT's share of the US economy reaches 15% | Lung disease in China has killed over 80 million by now
2034 - Exabyte storage devices are available
2035 - Turmoil in the Middle East | The Arctic is becoming ice-free during summer | Self-driving vehicles are widespread | Holographic recreations of dead people | Robots are dominating the battlefield |Artificially-grown meat is available to consumers
2035-2040 - The final collapse of the European Union
2036 - Bionic eyes surpassing human vision | Detailed probing and mapping of the Kuiper Belt is underway
2037 - Quantum computers are becoming available
2038 - Teleportation of complex organic molecules | The FIFA World Cup trophy is replaced
2039 - Full immersion virtual reality | Universal translators are ubiquitous | Nanotech fabrics are ubiquitous | Australia's national symbol, the Koala, faces extinction | US population reaches 400m |Extreme heatwaves are commonplace in the US

2040 - Clean energy is widespread | Fusion power is nearing commercial availability | "Energy islands" are appearing in many coastal regions | Thought transfer is dominating personal communications worldwide |Ultra-personalised healthcare | Claytronics are revolutionising consumer products | Breakthroughs in carbon nanotube production | World population reaches 8.5 bn | Water crisis in Europe
2042 - Nanotech robot swarms are the latest in military hi-tech | Manned missions to Phobos and Deimos |Floating hotels in the sky are heralding a new era in luxury transport
2044 - The last veterans of WW2 are passing away
2045 - Humans are becoming intimately merged with machines | Global food and water shortages |
Gulf Coast cities are being abandoned due to super hurricanes
2045-2049 - China transitions towards a democracy | Major extinctions of animal and plant life
2047 - Fully autonomous, intelligent military aircraft
2048 - The Antarctic Treaty comes up for review | Reversible biostasis is available | The near-Earth asteroid 2007 VK184 makes a close pass
2049 - Robots are a common feature of homes and workplaces | The Dead Sea is drying up

2050 - The World in 2050 | 45% of the Amazon rainforest has been destroyed | Wildfires have tripled in some regions; air quality and visibility is declining | Smaller, faster, hi-tech automobiles | Continent-wide "supergrids" provide much of the world's energy needs | One in five Europeans is a Muslim
2051 - Britain holds its centennial national exhibition
2052 - Hyper-fast crime scene analysis
2053 - Moore's Law reaches stunning new levels | Genetically engineered "designer babies" for the rich
2055 - Traditional media have fragmented and diversified | Global population plateaus at 9 billion
2056 - Fully synthetic humans are becoming technically feasible
2057 - Computers reach another milestone | Handheld MRI scanners
2058 - Construction of a radio telescope on the Moon
2059 - Mars has a permanent human presence by now



2060 - Global mass migrations of refugees | Flood barriers erected in New York | Global extinction rates are peaking | An ageing population | Mining operations on the Moon
2061 - Halley's Comet returns | UK population reaches 80 million
2062 - Nanofabricators enter the consumer market
2064 - IT's share of the US economy reaches 20%
2065 - Longevity treatments that can halt aging | Self-assembling buildings made entirely from nanotech |Invisibility suits are in military use | Insurance crisis
2067 - Male and female salaries are reaching parity
2068 - A major landmark in the world of athletics
2069 - 100th anniversary of Apollo 11 | US population reaches half a billion

2070 - Fusion power is widespread | Fully automated homes | Expansion of Moon bases

2072 - Picotechnology is becoming practical
2074 - The Green Wall of China is completed
2075 - The ozone layer has fully recovered | London and other major cities are being flooded
2076 - Unmanned probes to Sedna
2079 - Practical flying cars are entering the consumer market | Total solar eclipse in New York

2080 - Some humans are more non-biological than biological | Construction of a transatlantic tunnel |Polar bears face extinction | One in five lizard species are extinct | Deadly heatwaves plague Europe; traditional agriculture is decimated

2082 - The USA cedes territory to Mexico
2083 - Hyper-intelligent computers
2084 - Androids are entering law enforcement
2085 - Global currency | Macro-scale teleportation is achieved
2085-2089 - Manned exploration of the Jovian system

2090 - Religion is fading from European culture
2092 - West Antarctica is among the fastest growing areas in the world
2095 - Many of the world's languages are no longer in use | Manned exploration of the Saturnian system
2099 - Sea levels are wreaking havoc around the world | Over 80% of the Amazon rainforest has been lost

2100 - Extreme droughts are affecting nearly one-third of the planet | Human intelligence is being vastly amplified by AI | Nomadic floating cities are roaming the oceans | Super-typhoons have increased tenfold |The chemistry of Earth's oceans has been radically altered | Emperor Penguins face extinction

2110 - Terraforming of Mars is underway | Force fields are in military use | Femtoengineering is practical |Man-made control of earthquakes and tsunamis | Our solar system is passing through a million degree cloud of gas
2120 - Mind uploading enters mainstream society | The International Space Elevator is operational
2130 - Large-scale civilian settlement of the Moon is underway
2135 - Point of my stor
2140 - A North American Union is taking shape | Teleportation of large stationary objects is possible

2150 - Interstellar travel is becoming possible | Androids physically indistinguishable from real humans |Hi-tech, automated cities

2151 - Total solar eclipse in London
2160 - Mass extinctions are levelling off | The world's first bicentenarians
2170 - The first kilometre-sized space station is complete
2180 - Antimatter power plants are coming online | Asteroid terrorism
2190 - Matter replication is available for the home | Global languages are becoming few in number now; education has been vastly accelerated | The West Antarctic ice sheet is beginning to disintegrate

2010 Wikileaks, Peak Oil
2011 Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions inspired World People's Movements
2012 Begin the Occult Wars
2015 Middle East Revolutions come to resolution with regime change, mostly cosmetic, as the US, World Bank, and IMF help stabilize nations by blunting radical reform while reinstalling power players sympathetic to the old regimes.  This pattern is continuously countered by a near permanent protest presence in the heart of each capital, a pattern followed world wide as governments seek to balance stability with reform.  The youth population is simultaneously unified worldwide and radicalized into guerilla units with no central leadership.
2020 Decade of War:  War on Poverty, War on Climate Change, Oil War, Blood for Oil, Water Wars, The Drone Wars begin with freak explosion which triggers secret Israeli chemical weapon silo, Israel claims it to be a chemical attack, launches strategic nuclear drones, which are countered by Iranian EMP low-altitude satellites (Russian tech solar powered perpetual hoverbots).  Iran does not retaliate, instead it releases high-res satellite video of the chemical detonation, and the UN attempts to intervene in the conflict through diplomacy.  Israel stands down, but due to economic hardship worldwide, local uprisings continue to occur, rival right wing militias carry out vigilante strikes against neighbors, and the world is aflame with small wars, culminating in what become known as the Child Wars, with the average age of fighters dropping as the years go on.  Food shortages and resource depletion force power centers to protect and expand their own dwindling wealth and influence, leading to constant conflict between governments and their own people, world civil war.
2030 Decade of War officially ends with The EMP.
2030 - 2040 Ecollapse and Dark Age - the other 3 horsemen, famine, plague, and death reign alongside their brother war.
2040 Cyberwarriors move across America attempting to reestablish security under the mandate of the Singularity and Zeitgeist movements.  They are countered by the radical primitivist christian sects, and the so-called 'fallout families', gangs of survivors, militia 'patriots', criminals, roadwarriors, and cannibals ('The Meat Wars')
2043 The first Homunculoids and celluloids are grown, proto-singular host-bodies, clones, and vatflesh.  Animal intelligence is raised in pigs, elephants, apes and crows in top secret labs.  Empathics leak the technology to animal rights activists in plan to end factory farming through intelligent redesign.
2044 Adam 2.0 First true singular human born/created
2045 Dale goes out west on a delivery of smuggled goods.  He is not seen again until 2050.
2048 Heidi is 11, Vernon is 12, Garth is 15.  Their mother disappeared when Heidi was 2.  They are told their father is killed in a methlab explosion.  They are raised by their cousins, rather absently, as things on the farm grow more desperate and macabre,
2049 December Dale returns, a changed man.  He has been 'fixed'.  Part of his medical restoration includes a nanochip which records his actions and has rendered his experience invisible to him through temporary amnesia.
February 1st, Garth turns 17, joins the Deputies of the Sheriff of Warrior county, tells Heidi and Vernon he will be back as soon as possible, Uncle Dale will watch after them in the meantime.  Dale begins to try to convince the two to move to the city, that there is stability and opportunity for work and education,  he explains what education is through a portable computer pad.  Everyone is amazed, Dale studies what they are interested in, but keeps the computer a secret from Steve and Wally, who he does not trust.
Steve and Wally meet Willy Mach, a proto-singular who has been barred from further upgrades, and has made his home in Magic City.  He smuggles rare commodities including human flesh which he picks up at the farm.  He sells the flesh to Meat Partiers on the East Coast, disguised as a jerky brand called "Local Flavor".  It is the ultimate in existential hipster nihilism.   He's brought some bitches over for Steve and Waller to meet.  Dale walks in, and recognizes Willy Mach from the city.  "We got company?  Let's have some homestill liquor then."

Steve:  We juss Drank it.
Waller:  How bout tater gin.
Steve:  Vodka.
Willy:  I'll take vodka.  [To Dale:]  Name's Willy.  Don't I know you from somewhere?
Dale:  Don't think so.
Steve:  He's been gone.  Back from out west.  You been out that way, ain't ya Willy.
Willy:  All over the god damned world.  [Willy looks sideways at Dale]
[Dale's intuition is amplified by the hexchip inside him. Dale fantasizes that Willy is an assassin, and that he has detected the assassin's intent, and reacts instantly, he kicks the table into Willy Mach's chest as cybercoils erupt from his dreadlocks to slice towards Dale's face at inhuman speed, who reacts by swinging the door open to block the attack.  The tentacles rip the door assunder.]
Steve:  Shut the door, Dale, skeeters comin in!
Dale:  I'm gonna check on the kids before we party.
Hooker:  Awww, I love kids.  How old are they?
Steve:  Too young for y'all!  Don't get any dirty ideas.
Willy:  You're the one with the ideas, here, Steve, haha.

[He walks down the hall to the end where there is a white painted door.  The floor is bare wood.  He enters the room and shuts the door.  The kids are asleep.  He can see in the dark.  He unlocks the window.  His truck is parked next to Willy's hovercraft.  Should he tell Steve and Waller?  No.  Why not? Wait till morning, early morning.  He grabs some clothes stuffs them in a backpack.  He wakes Heidi.]
Heidi:  What?
Dale:  We're leaving.
Heidi:  What?
Dale:  Git yer stuff together.  Don't turn the light on.  Just use the moonlight.

2050 March Eve 2.0
2050 May Buddha 2.0 and other AI brought online
2052  
2060 Galactite Imperium discovers Earth

Garth Wilder Part III plus Technology notes

Ironclad Confederate Patriots - Redneck Rebel Armor, highly decorative flag motifs - American flag, confederate flag, Alabama flag, Nazi swastikas, Christian and German war crosses, NASCAR pop culture - Coke, Popsi, Dorritoes, BP, Chestmate, Breastmate, Ballistic, Brigandine

Story Arc 2 - Garth Wilder, Deputy under the Sheriff of Warrior, who answers to Senator Caldwell.

I. Garth's assimilation
    A. Goal - better life, stability through martial law
    B. Conflict - Initial fighting with forest pigs reveals they can take hostages and communicate surrender, deputies watch in horror as drones bomb the woods.  The hostages are not worth keeping, as they are classified as criminals.  There are casualties, but some of the pigs escape and bring a hostage with them, as the pigs are shocked that the police would attack their own.  Something like a stockholm syndrome relationship develops between the pigs and their captives, human children.  The children are carried off into the magnolia jungle on piggy-back.  Garth has learned the value  of human life is low indeed.  He keeps his mouth shut.  We get the impression that the drones are the key to the defensive strategy of the new political landscape.
    C. Garth is deputized, returns home with mission to keep order- confronts Steve and Wally - After discovering Heidi and Vernon are gone, he investigates the camp, looking for evidence, Steve tries to stop him, explaining that they left without explanation, and reminds Garth that he was in on the business, too.  Garth delivers his speech on reconstruction.  Wally exits quickly, Garth moves to halt him, but Steve rushes Garth, and Wally drives off in the electric golf cart.  Garth and Steve fight.  Steve beats him back but Garth swings an elephant tusk, revealing the nano-enhancements of his suit, now activated.  Steve is shoved to the ground.  Garth gives him a chance to leave.  "Steve, it's me, Garth!  We grew up together, we're cousins, might as well be brothers.  I never wanted to get involved in the crap we did on this farm, but I went along like everyone else because the world was crazy, but we can rebuild.  You done wrong by assaulting an officer of the law just now, but we're blood kin, so I'm gonna let you go and you're gonna go find Wally and leave this cannibal farm right NOW!"  "What are you gonna do?"  "I'm gonna give us all a chance at a new life.  Forget about what was done here.  It won't matter after today.  I'm gonna burn this place to the ground."  As he climbs into the hummer, Steve seems to come to terms with his defeated life, then a shot rings out, Wally has returned with the hunting rifle from the electric car, Garth reaches for his assault rifle, the second shot hits him in the lower back, paralyzing Garth from waste down.  Steve walks towards the vehicle, says nothing.  In horrible pain and disillusionment, Garth touch activates the code for the drone flying overhead, ordering it to protect the officer, which strafes Wally with incendiaries, igniting the nearby canisters of fat-fuel ablaze.  Steve flings himself at the hummer as Garth pulls himself into the the cab and shuts the door.  Steve is yelling to open the door or he'll shoot, there are flames everywhere.  The Terrodrone lands atop the hummer like a pterodactyl and its eye meet Steve's for a split-second before it blows a hole in his chest with its beak-like sniper rifle.  Garth orders the Hummer to return to the police station, he passes out from his injuries.

Pterodrone - Hybrid solar electric/non-electric clockworker, therefore partially immune to EMP, the most common form of anti-robotic/tech weaponry.  Launched from handcranked ballista.  Equipped with sniper rifle and two Mephisto missles.
II. Elephant War - Conflict/Lowest point, rejoins Heidi, part was under bad circumstances
III. Resolution, Redemption, Sacrifice - not mortal but painful

Plot Notes - Pwnygyrl

Ansistars
In Cullman, Steve freaks out, the area is declared a FEMA site.  Steve's got over a hundred bodies worth of bones buried, from poaching and selling bulk meats to big city Meat Partiers.

Bubby Creeder's Deforastating Robot kills him accidentally in a fight with an elephant who was startled by the machine.  Perhaps elephants are rendered deaf in captivity?  Giant hogs are also watching from the woods, the young walk upright.  They are like gorillabears.

Heidi, and Vernon motivation:  witness Steve murder/cannibalism.  Fight & Flight to Magic City (funktopia)  where they are captured/rescued by BPS.  They are followed by double agent cannibal/drug lord Willy Mach (AKA William McDank, albino Afro-Mex mix, a bored GenZ - it is illegal to leave the utopian city without surveillance, so it provides an exciting lifestyle for some singulars, so he is a demigodlike criminal, evil, but like Loki, mostly out for entertainment and for self, manipulating everyone).

Magic City:  2 main bipartisan factions - the Elders (female dominated priest caste) and the Panzers (male ordered martial caste system)
Elders - conservative spiritualists, pscionisists, Peace Church, Hexagon Presence, debate on whether to go singular fully or incrementally
Panzers - Radical Liberators, Leftovers, Black is dominant ethnicity
Other castes delineated by color code

Heidi & Vernon travel by longboat, less conspicuous.  They are followed by dolphins, it is not revealed that they are singular semi-immortal dolphins, who save them during an ambush by Riverrats, cannibalistic inbred boat people.  The Dolphins sink their boats with cyber-amplified sonic shock, a sort of localized EMP.

In the NOLA Sub-base - the Crew will transport Heidi, Vernon & Uncle Dale to Hexico City, the mobile base of sage towers of the Order of the Hexagon.

Old Crow Wanderman

I am Old Crow!
The Wanderman
The Gamechanger
The Dungeon blaster
Wod'han'ashkinaz
I have returned from space hell
Metal lord of the blackpowersabbath
Astrofuturist
Heathenfunker
Paganizer of Black Panzer, bro
Or call me Black Whitey
I've tasted the unichronic,
Consumed the Unichrome
Now I am become the Star Geezer
But before your time, they knew me as the Butler and the Gardener
Before that, I was the Wanderjew,
Previously, the Black Buddha, the Buddhamental
More ancient, the Green Man
The Oakenking
Now me now as the Endgamer,
The Gamechanger
Call me Oldcrow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crow

The Skinbred Camp

Cruelty keeps the skins hard.  They have no pity.  Not even for themselves, so they don't despair.

The Skinbreds train for combat using live bait from a cagefull of starved illegals.  After the sport feed them to the dogs.  There's a butcher called "Smoker" over the hill who cuts up carcasses for loot.  Bastard's too crippled to kill on his own.  Old fucker cuts up the carcass.  Meat and bones go to the dogs, guts to the garden, heads on the wall.  So that's how we get to eat dog meat.  Rumor has it ole Smoker started skipping the dog and has been smokin' illegal meats into the jerky!  Sick bastard's got a sense of humor, I guess, tried it once himself, on accident, asshole smokes too much.

The Skinny bitches hang around their manfriends, taunting and jeering anyone and everyone.  Most of them hate the idea of motherhood, but will take care of children, found or stolen, and raise them to fight the other child soldiers.  Ain't right killin' children, less its kids versus kids.  They do what it takes to survive.  Heidi saw a runaway skinny once.  Her hair was bright red, a bright red mullet flying like a cardinal across the tops of the tall grass, on down the road.  Heidi watched her go.  She didn't know she was being watched.  She told Steve and Wally bout seein her.  They left in the electric car, the quiet car, so she knew they were up to somethin.  She didn't think about that skinny girl again.  The told herself she won't say nothing if she sees her again.

Garth Wilder at the Sheriff's Compound

The indian summer was a sure sign there would be an ice storm in the next few days.  At the Cullman deputy bootcamp Sheriff Marshall Tyler barked out the names of the potential recruits, and each took a step forward, "Pickens, Jameson, Loveless...Wilder."  The noobs were dressed in motley camo, a mixture of hunting gear and army surplus, whatever one could patch together, not-so-much uniforms as practical outdoor wear.  "You're guns will be returned to you after you have been processed."  Garth looked up at the canopy overhead.   An elaborate webbing of thick kudzu ropes woven together with tree branches, carpeted by yet another mass of living kudzu, the primary national resource of the CSA.  It reminded him of the ruins of the cathedral he once saw when he went down river during the raids with his daddy.

The Sheriff picked up a black plastic clipboard and read aloud from the clasped document.  "Now listen up, this here ain't no regular army, but you will kill.  This badge stands for security, but respect can only come from fear.  Fear and respect.  You will find that fear IS respect.  If you don't know this by now you will learn on the job.  Each of you will accompany a sheriff for a period of three weeks.  If in such time you have proved yourselves to be a real soldier of the Southern State, you will be eligible to earn your degree as an officer and be given your rights as a new citizen:  the right to bare arms, the right to a lawyer, the right to speak freely in private.  But you WILL uphold the laws by which you will live and die if need be.  Any children or dependents of yours will be compensated should you be killed in the line of duty, but not suicide.  No suicide pills are to be allowed by law of the Governors.  Any evidence of suicide will immediately disqualify you from any and all benefits including life insurance, death insurance, and any and all monies will be frozen and properties will be seized and used by the sheriff's department in support of the law by which you have surrendered yourselves henceforth at this time."  He dropped the clipboard on a nearby desk of sturdy construction.   "Have I made these rules and regulations clear?"  The men nodded once.  Garth admired the workmanship of the desk.  It was stained with the same native varnish he learned to make in his uncle's workshop.  The chair was of a previous age, reupholstered, and functional, but he preferred then handmade.  "Lasts longer" he thought.

The sheriff unbuckled his belt holster.  With steely fisticuffs dangling and shiny keyrings jangling the pork-bellied middle-aged man handled himself openly as he turned to an old tire filled with dirt and wildflowers and pissed long and forcefully, the pressure of his lunch bearing down upon his bladder, fried ostrich eggs, kudzu taters and greens, southern-style with wild bacon.  Another sheriff led the new deputies to the education center, a mud-and-cinderblock bunker half-buried and covered in kudzu and  transplanted magnolias.  Good camouflage versus spies in the sky, though no dougt the Eastern Army was full aware of the existence of such camps, which was fine, the locals had learned how to keep the location of their true leadership secret, and anyway the ceasefire had lasted for over a year, but there was always the threat of attack by a foreign drone.  Sheriff Tyler finished his pee, and returned his meat to its zip locker.

In the bunker Garth Wilder sat in the waiting room of a company clinic.  This is where he would be scanalyzed and probed.  They were looking for hard-to-find nanochips that may have eluded the initial detectors of the sheriff department's bots.  The doctor picked up a metallic surgical wand equipped with mandibles, "You won't be needing this anymore."  "What is it?  Shrapnel?"  "An obsolete birth chip." The doctor swabbed an alcohol prep on Garth's left shoulder, "rendered useless by the EMP, I assume."  The big one.  People still argue over who set it off.  It was a moot point now, Garth figured.  The doctor stuck him with the surgical tool which first injected a local anesthetic, then the intelligent machine parts set to work to extract the dead microchip.  Garth had the usual squeamishness of a yokel who had little experience with friendly bots, medical or otherwise, and occupied himself mentally by going over the usual EMP debate.  Even the officials could not agree.  Could Al Qaeda really have gotten so deep into the American National Security State to load a nuclear weapon onto a commercial satellite launch rocket and detonate it at the precise altitude to deliver the Electromagnetic Pulse that would wipe out the USA's electronic nervous system?  Garth knew he was a redneck but not stupid.  He was more inclined to believe those who blamed the envirocommies, who of course denied it, but they would now wouldn't they.  He flinched.  The calipers had found their target, "This might hurt a bit."  The doctor studied a viewscreen.  "Looks like the bone has grown around it.  This typically happens with chips from the old days that have been in there for...when is the last time you've seen a doctor, son?"  "Ain't never seen one except for a medic when I got shot once back in my home town."  "Well, you'll be getting plenty of vaccinations then in the biolab."  "I ain't afraid of needles."  The doctor was paying attention again to the greenscreen.  Garth's thoughts returned to the EMP controversy.  Maybe it was Al Qaeda and enviroterrists both combined.  But then there was the ultimate conspiracy theory.  What if Big Government itself pulled another nine-eleven.  His cousin Wally explained it better than anyone else he heard, "After all, why was it most of the government's computers didn't get taken out, huh?  And what about all those secret weapons buried underground?  Like they was planned.  Makes no sense, otherwise, don't it?"  Garth's brain was hurting.  Dehydration.  His arm hurt, too.  The Doctor seemed to be more delicate with the chip than with him, but finally withdrew the tool and in the mandibles was held a tiny triangular microchip, greased with blood.  He studied it like a jeweler through his electronic monocle, but Garth was too far-sighted and pretty much ignorant of technology, so all he said was, "Pain-killers, doc?"

The doctor scratched his bristled chin and light reflected off the minuscule gold and platinum veins which ran through the once magical triangle.  "Got weed."

Garth pressed on.  "Nothing stronger like poppy?  You were diggin around in there a while, doc."   He smiled revealing bad teeth.

"Fine, knock yourself out, boy.  Just remember me later when you go looting, alright?"  He reached into his scrubs and handed Garth a thumbnail sized bit of plastic bag tied off with thread.  "Good shit."

"I can get meth."

"Nigger, please, don't be stupid.  No go get your shots."   He dropped the chip on a brass plate and placed the tool next to some other medial instruments.

Garth left the room, "Thanks, doc."

The doctor nodded, "Next."