CHAPTER ONE - PRESENT DAY
The end of the world started on a rather ordinary Thursday evening in Hollywood. Adam MacArthur sat at the expansive polished wooden bar facing a large antique mirror, clueless to how he would single handedly herald in the end of all things. The light in the club was low as music flowed from the dance floor behind him. A small group of indistinct figures moved rhythmically with the churning bass that reverberated through the room.
Adam dropped his chin slightly to gaze at his own reflection. In the darkness, his light blue eyes looked steely and his blonde hair looked auburn. The rest of his countenance was shadowed. The only visible brightness was the whites of his eyes and the reflection off a dark metallic earpiece on his right ear. In the reflected light he looked and felt like a different person, a better person.
“Hey Casanova, you look good, stop foggin’ the mirror!” said Jenny, one of the early shift bartenders who paused from her bar duties and struck an inviting pose just begging for a witty response.
“Sorry, can you blame me?” Adam shot back with a slight smile and shoulder shrug. She turned away giggling and went back to polishing the bar. Mission accomplished thought Adam.
Adam turned back to his favorite view in the mirror and chuckled because he really wasn’t kidding. He recalled a recent meme that developed around a new demographic group labeled “Listless Dreamers” who were disaffected, over-stimulated, over-educated children from wealthy families, always getting whatever they wanted from birth. Their entire life was a rolling reel of activity after activity, and, as they matured; they cultivated and fed this need for constant stimulation with ever increasing stimulus and experiences, never completely fulfilled. The “mobile generation” of his youth, gave way to this new label. He took pride in the Listless Dreamer title, and smirking at his reflection, decided that pretty much described him perfectly.
I’m empty but I sure know how to have a good time. He thought as he absentmindedly spun his newest mobile device on the bar as he contemplated his evening stimulation ahead. He was going to go with his old stand-by solution, women. He decided he was looking to find a girl and find her fast. He wasn’t going to be picky tonight, in fact, it was going to be a handyman, his affectionate label for a fixer upper where the only thing that mattered was if all the plumbing was in place and worked.
He glanced around the room looking for any potential quarry. Since it was still relatively early, no winning trifecta of desperate, insecure, and drunk was presently visible. There was however, an extremely tall and attractive Asian girl sitting at the end of the bar engrossed in her own mobile device. She wore a low cut sweater showing considerable cleavage and her long dark hair was tied tightly back. She had tremendous potential, but she was momentarily preoccupied, and with no drink in front of her on the bar, would probably take a while. He swiveled back to face the bar, biding his time.
Adam waved Jenny over to order another drink but couldn’t keep his eyes from wandering to her bulging cleavage spilling over her bra and out from under her tight shirt. He momentarily considered her as the evening’s target but then his mind jumped back to the luscious brunette he had about a month ago. Chuckling, he remembered she actually lasted four nights before he stopped calling her, close to a record for him. Out of nowhere a flood of images came at him.
The brunette was naked lying on his bed. Her feeling of boredom at the awkward morning after coffee in Hollywood sitting outside at a small cafe. His mind and body lurched as he felt her emotions, felt them deep in the pit of his stomach. She felt ignored and then her feelings turned to anger, vicious, aggressive anger. Words and feelings began to flow through his head. No way, you son of a bitch, how dare you call me, you. Go screw yourself, you dick. The only one who will think it’s a good time is you. JERKOFF! Red colors swarmed in front of his eyes and images appeared in his head. He physically felt the pressure and anger constricting around him like a vice quickly closing.
Adam toppled off the bar stool and landed on his back as the tirade and images finally stopped. He whipped around sharply to figure out what just happened. His mind was racing. What he just experienced was indescribable. He tried to clear his head. He looked up to see Jenny leaning over the bar asking him if he was okay. Her massive breasts were spilling from her tight pink shirt. His eyes involuntarily slipped to her chest again, and the now familiar voice erupted again in his head, his vision was lost and he saw red in his mind’s eye blotting everything else out. His mind was again filled with a sharp pain and seething anger. It was the most visceral experience he ever felt. His head felt like it was about to explode as words and images flowed across his consciousness.
The images and voice in his head were switched off as quickly as they started. He started to have his first real panic attack. His breath was coming in labored gasps, his heart was galloping like a horse, and he was sweating profusely. He was definitely hearing voices and hallucinating. He wondered if he was having some drug induced reaction. He forced himself to relax and deal with the facts. He was sitting on a bar floor with some hysterical woman’s screaming voice and images rolling through his head. He wasn’t drunk yet and there wasn’t anyone near enough to him to talk so loudly. For some reason, his first thought was he needed to talk to his mother and get the name of the shrink she’d been having an affair with for the last several years.
His head was filled with images. For a split second, he saw himself as a young boy, sitting on their old porch at their Greenwich house. He saw himself as someone else saw him, an almost impressionistic view of him through the ages. He paused as he thought he looked nothing like the images he was experiencing. He felt a tremendous love, mixed with concern, disappointment and an undercurrent of contempt. Words (Thoughts?) flowed through his head. Hello, Adam heard his mother’s voice through his head. Honey are you there?>
Suppressing a scream, he raised his hands to his head. It finally dawned on him that he was wearing his new Dakarta phone earpiece and that the voices he was hearing were actually people that he was somehow calling. Exhaling and composing himself, he said outloud, “Sorry, Mom, didn’t mean to call you, I will call you this weekend. Bye.”
Adam laughed to himself as he pulled off his earpiece. Somehow he must have triggered a series of calls and ended up calling the girl and his mom. He wasn’t sure why the images and feelings occurred, though. Maybe Jenny had slipped some new mood drug in his drink.
Noticing something odd, he picked up the device from the bar and looked at the phone screen. No calls were registered.
Adam felt a moment of frustration. The geeky girl at the mobile store had spent considerable time with him to make sure he understood the operation of the phone. She told him repeatedly the earpiece could only make calls through voice recognition to his preconfigured contact list. As he put the ear piece back in his ear, he was greeted with another tsunami of feelings and information.
Feelings of boredom, frustration, and aggravation flowed over Adam. Robotically spoken words followed. Hello. This is TG Mobile Santa Monica. How can we help you? Hello, are you there? Hello?
It then hit him like a slap across the face. Adam made a call just by thinking about it. He didn’t use voice recognition or his handset.
He replied “Sorry, dialed the wrong number.”
No problem. Thanks for your ca--. Adam disconnected on the perky voice.
He took the earpiece off of his ear and held it out to examine it, as he turned it in his hand, the pieces fell into place and he made the connection. Somehow the device was reading his thoughts. His head began swirling with the implications. He felt compelled to leave the bar to better understand what he just experienced. Ideas were forming quickly as he realized what he just discovered and how he could use it. He placed the mobile device and earpiece into his jacket pocket and headed for the door.
The attractive Asian girl with the long black hair continued staring at Adam as he left. She looked down to her Dakarta mobile device and instantaneously retreated back into her own mind’s eye.
An image of a non-descript room appeared as multiple shadowed figures materialized around the Asian girl. Each figure stood at different spots in the room all perfectly still. Her thoughts flowed across the room, visibly tracing a colored and shifting path around each figure, as she opened up her mind. We have our first pawn. He took the bait easily. He was a perfect target. I was able to imprint ideas without any challenge. Each of you will have no issues with your implantations. Rejoice my sisters, it has started.
A deeper, powerful thought stream fell across the room, not emanating from any one figure, but surrounding and engulfing them all and wrapping them in ribbons of colors and pulsating energy. A powerful feeling of warmth and belonging embraced each person. Excellent. I told you all it will happen easily. We need to remember how this will propagate. Faster than anyone can imagine. Overnight our world will experience monumental change and no one will even pause to consider what has happened. Each of you must continue to develop your networks. Our journey is just beginning and our path is clear as our goal is in sight. Many will need our guidance. Many will try to stop us. We must remain strong and focused. Together we will succeed in changing the world forever.
The Asian girl blinked out her mind’s eye as she removed her earpiece and quickly left the bar while the eyes and thoughts of every man followed her out.
Adam dropped his chin slightly to gaze at his own reflection. In the darkness, his light blue eyes looked steely and his blonde hair looked auburn. The rest of his countenance was shadowed. The only visible brightness was the whites of his eyes and the reflection off a dark metallic earpiece on his right ear. In the reflected light he looked and felt like a different person, a better person.
“Hey Casanova, you look good, stop foggin’ the mirror!” said Jenny, one of the early shift bartenders who paused from her bar duties and struck an inviting pose just begging for a witty response.
“Sorry, can you blame me?” Adam shot back with a slight smile and shoulder shrug. She turned away giggling and went back to polishing the bar. Mission accomplished thought Adam.
Adam turned back to his favorite view in the mirror and chuckled because he really wasn’t kidding. He recalled a recent meme that developed around a new demographic group labeled “Listless Dreamers” who were disaffected, over-stimulated, over-educated children from wealthy families, always getting whatever they wanted from birth. Their entire life was a rolling reel of activity after activity, and, as they matured; they cultivated and fed this need for constant stimulation with ever increasing stimulus and experiences, never completely fulfilled. The “mobile generation” of his youth, gave way to this new label. He took pride in the Listless Dreamer title, and smirking at his reflection, decided that pretty much described him perfectly.
I’m empty but I sure know how to have a good time. He thought as he absentmindedly spun his newest mobile device on the bar as he contemplated his evening stimulation ahead. He was going to go with his old stand-by solution, women. He decided he was looking to find a girl and find her fast. He wasn’t going to be picky tonight, in fact, it was going to be a handyman, his affectionate label for a fixer upper where the only thing that mattered was if all the plumbing was in place and worked.
He glanced around the room looking for any potential quarry. Since it was still relatively early, no winning trifecta of desperate, insecure, and drunk was presently visible. There was however, an extremely tall and attractive Asian girl sitting at the end of the bar engrossed in her own mobile device. She wore a low cut sweater showing considerable cleavage and her long dark hair was tied tightly back. She had tremendous potential, but she was momentarily preoccupied, and with no drink in front of her on the bar, would probably take a while. He swiveled back to face the bar, biding his time.
Adam waved Jenny over to order another drink but couldn’t keep his eyes from wandering to her bulging cleavage spilling over her bra and out from under her tight shirt. He momentarily considered her as the evening’s target but then his mind jumped back to the luscious brunette he had about a month ago. Chuckling, he remembered she actually lasted four nights before he stopped calling her, close to a record for him. Out of nowhere a flood of images came at him.
The brunette was naked lying on his bed. Her feeling of boredom at the awkward morning after coffee in Hollywood sitting outside at a small cafe. His mind and body lurched as he felt her emotions, felt them deep in the pit of his stomach. She felt ignored and then her feelings turned to anger, vicious, aggressive anger. Words and feelings began to flow through his head. No way, you son of a bitch, how dare you call me, you. Go screw yourself, you dick. The only one who will think it’s a good time is you. JERKOFF! Red colors swarmed in front of his eyes and images appeared in his head. He physically felt the pressure and anger constricting around him like a vice quickly closing.
Adam toppled off the bar stool and landed on his back as the tirade and images finally stopped. He whipped around sharply to figure out what just happened. His mind was racing. What he just experienced was indescribable. He tried to clear his head. He looked up to see Jenny leaning over the bar asking him if he was okay. Her massive breasts were spilling from her tight pink shirt. His eyes involuntarily slipped to her chest again, and the now familiar voice erupted again in his head, his vision was lost and he saw red in his mind’s eye blotting everything else out. His mind was again filled with a sharp pain and seething anger. It was the most visceral experience he ever felt. His head felt like it was about to explode as words and images flowed across his consciousness.
The images and voice in his head were switched off as quickly as they started. He started to have his first real panic attack. His breath was coming in labored gasps, his heart was galloping like a horse, and he was sweating profusely. He was definitely hearing voices and hallucinating. He wondered if he was having some drug induced reaction. He forced himself to relax and deal with the facts. He was sitting on a bar floor with some hysterical woman’s screaming voice and images rolling through his head. He wasn’t drunk yet and there wasn’t anyone near enough to him to talk so loudly. For some reason, his first thought was he needed to talk to his mother and get the name of the shrink she’d been having an affair with for the last several years.
His head was filled with images. For a split second, he saw himself as a young boy, sitting on their old porch at their Greenwich house. He saw himself as someone else saw him, an almost impressionistic view of him through the ages. He paused as he thought he looked nothing like the images he was experiencing. He felt a tremendous love, mixed with concern, disappointment and an undercurrent of contempt. Words (Thoughts?) flowed through his head. Hello, Adam heard his mother’s voice through his head. Honey are you there?>
Suppressing a scream, he raised his hands to his head. It finally dawned on him that he was wearing his new Dakarta phone earpiece and that the voices he was hearing were actually people that he was somehow calling. Exhaling and composing himself, he said outloud, “Sorry, Mom, didn’t mean to call you, I will call you this weekend. Bye.”
Adam laughed to himself as he pulled off his earpiece. Somehow he must have triggered a series of calls and ended up calling the girl and his mom. He wasn’t sure why the images and feelings occurred, though. Maybe Jenny had slipped some new mood drug in his drink.
Noticing something odd, he picked up the device from the bar and looked at the phone screen. No calls were registered.
Adam felt a moment of frustration. The geeky girl at the mobile store had spent considerable time with him to make sure he understood the operation of the phone. She told him repeatedly the earpiece could only make calls through voice recognition to his preconfigured contact list. As he put the ear piece back in his ear, he was greeted with another tsunami of feelings and information.
Feelings of boredom, frustration, and aggravation flowed over Adam. Robotically spoken words followed. Hello. This is TG Mobile Santa Monica. How can we help you? Hello, are you there? Hello?
It then hit him like a slap across the face. Adam made a call just by thinking about it. He didn’t use voice recognition or his handset.
He replied “Sorry, dialed the wrong number.”
No problem. Thanks for your ca--. Adam disconnected on the perky voice.
He took the earpiece off of his ear and held it out to examine it, as he turned it in his hand, the pieces fell into place and he made the connection. Somehow the device was reading his thoughts. His head began swirling with the implications. He felt compelled to leave the bar to better understand what he just experienced. Ideas were forming quickly as he realized what he just discovered and how he could use it. He placed the mobile device and earpiece into his jacket pocket and headed for the door.
The attractive Asian girl with the long black hair continued staring at Adam as he left. She looked down to her Dakarta mobile device and instantaneously retreated back into her own mind’s eye.
An image of a non-descript room appeared as multiple shadowed figures materialized around the Asian girl. Each figure stood at different spots in the room all perfectly still. Her thoughts flowed across the room, visibly tracing a colored and shifting path around each figure, as she opened up her mind. We have our first pawn. He took the bait easily. He was a perfect target. I was able to imprint ideas without any challenge. Each of you will have no issues with your implantations. Rejoice my sisters, it has started.
A deeper, powerful thought stream fell across the room, not emanating from any one figure, but surrounding and engulfing them all and wrapping them in ribbons of colors and pulsating energy. A powerful feeling of warmth and belonging embraced each person. Excellent. I told you all it will happen easily. We need to remember how this will propagate. Faster than anyone can imagine. Overnight our world will experience monumental change and no one will even pause to consider what has happened. Each of you must continue to develop your networks. Our journey is just beginning and our path is clear as our goal is in sight. Many will need our guidance. Many will try to stop us. We must remain strong and focused. Together we will succeed in changing the world forever.
The Asian girl blinked out her mind’s eye as she removed her earpiece and quickly left the bar while the eyes and thoughts of every man followed her out.
