Apocalypse Dreams

The Frontlines

"Still not that bad," Red joked while lying flat on a black sofa.

"It's turning people crazy or something," I replied while turning up the volume on the television.

"I hope it's nothing big," Jack mentioned while sitting on a chair right next to Red.

"Will this year mark the end of the world?" A reporter asked on the television. "More at ten."

"Change the channel," Red said.

I changed the channel randomly to find a lawyer wearing suit and tie and looking directly into the camera while saying, "have you or your loved ones been injured by these beings? Have you ever killed one of these infected people and are facing a lawsuit from their families? If so, we are willing to fight for your case for you for as little as 20 dollars!"

"Umm, Red began. "Okay, it's turning into a joke now."

As I flipped through the channel again, a commercial popped up with an old man standing in front of a plain white background. He stared at the crowd for a good second while depressing music played in the background. "Are you tired of them?" He asked. "Reports say that in the near future, about 20% of these pests will get worse and might become a potential danger to themselves and others. Why should we keep them alive? They are costing the taxpayer's money. Help the world by getting rid of the..."

I flipped the channel another time to find a blonde woman this time standing in front of a black background. She began, "my grandpa served this prestigious country. He fought for us and now he is sick from this disease and they want to just get rid of them. Well, I say we stand up and protect our rights. What if tomorrow your child falls ill?"

I changed the channel and there was a fairly young, light brown colored man wearing a white coat, saying, "We should try and help as many of these victims as we can."

The next channel I changed to, a priest was shouting at the top of his lungs about how immoral it was to get rid of those victims from this world because of their mental status, however, in another channel, another priest said the exact opposite and argued that this was a sign from God that their times were up. There were no compromises from any sides or any ideas, however, it was all about blaming the other party no matter what and attacking their characters.

All of these people seemed to be more concerned with winning their arguments and rooting for their sides rather than communicating with each other to come to a resolution. At the same time, this was a time concerning matter.

This time, I stumbled onto politics and a governor was being interviewed. He spoke of this issue with his eyebrows a bit tense and closer together, his tone a bit low while he moved his hands around. He said, "Seemingly more and more people are getting sick by the second. Just yesterday, hundreds of people were gathered outside of Stanford in hopes to get some sort of treatment. They waited and waited and waited outside for hours until police officers had to come and stop it. I think police officers don't have a right to do that."

The interview asked, "What about the critics saying that it is impossible to help everyone and people should not expect hospitals to instantly let everyone in. It would be hectic and it turns out they would receive extremely poor care, wouldn't they?"

"That is a good point," the governor responded while drinking some water out of a water bottle. "But that's just what the other side is not understanding, that these people have nowhere to turn to. What if it were their kids?"

I turned off the television and looked at Jack, "we can do something else."

"No," Jack responded quietly. "I'm not feeling it."