Our New World 2, 3

Our New World
2
Ron still waited. He watched the parade of people leaving the restaurant.
 They walked out in pairs, or in groups of four or five. They were all chatting about this and that. Most of them seemed to be in a good mood. A cross-section of Middle America, if there ever was one. These people had good lives, good jobs, good families, and good friends. They were content. Only that wasn’t really true. Whether they themselves knew it or not, these people were truly happy. None of them knew real hardship, or fear or struggle. None of them knew pain. But they would. Soon all of these people would suffer in ways that in that moment they could never dream of. They walked to their shiny cars, laughing and joking, and when they truly began to feel the horror of what their world would become, most would despair, and most will die.
3
None of these thoughts crossed Ron’s mind as he waited for his coworker, watching the people go by. At this moment he was tired, and hungry and just wanted to go home. After about twenty minutes Jeremy came out of the restaurant. He walked out wearing a white undershirt with his Sally’s work shirt over his shoulder. He had let his hair loose from its ponytail. Jeremy walked into the parking lot looking around for Ron. Ron honked the horn of his small Ford Ranger once. Jeremy saw him sitting in the car and started walking over to it. He opened the passenger door.
“Hey Ron.” Jeremy said in a cheery voice as he got into the car. “I didn’t keep u waiting too long did I dude?’
Ron just shook his head and shrugged.
“Alright, dude, let’s get going then. It’s pretty damn hot tonight.”
“Ok, then where are we headed?” Ron asked
“Canyon Crest, out by the Sixty Freeway.” Ron knew where this way and soon they were both on their way home. They both lived in Riverside California. It was a suburban city in the Inland Empire, about thirty miles east of Los Angeles, and one hundred miles north of San Diego. Riverside County sat south of San Bernardino County, the largest county in the Continental United States. This entire area is an enormous suburban sprawl of mostly houses, shopping centers and schools. Many of the people that lived in this area commuted to work, usually to Los Angeles, to spare their families of the big city life. The main cities, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ontario, along with the smaller cities occupy an area of almost thirty thousand square miles, with a population of about four million. Most of the I.E. was in a valley surrounded by mountains on all sides, the tallest being Big Bear Mountain to the east. Eventually, all the unincorporated areas in the Inland Empire being filled in with cookie cutter houses in the last ten years or so. Mira Loma a small city just north of Riverside was mostly dairy farms not eight years ago. Now is an affluent community called Eastvale, complete with one of the largest and newest shopping center in California. Although some residents of the area say the old smell of cow manure will not leave the air.
Riverside was a nice enough place to live, and Ron had lived here his whole life. This being southern California, the sun was shining almost every single day. The only real weather was some rain storms in late winter. But even those were mild compared to other areas of the country. There was the occasional hail storm but they seemed to come only every three years or so. Ron had heard stories of snow in their valley from his mother, although he had yet to see any for himself.
Ron got on the 60 Freeway and headed east.
“Hell of a day, wasn’t it Ron?”
Ron let out a sigh. “Yeah it sure was.”
There was a long pause; neither of them spoke to break the uncomfortable silence. Jeremy pulled out his phone, turned it on and began clicking away. It was a newish smart phone, probably from early this year. The phone was in a red plastic case with a black rubber cover over it. After about six minutes he became bored with whatever he was doing and put his phone away.
“Can I turn on the radio, dude?” Jeremy asked. Before Ron could answer he reached over and turned on the radio. A sudden screeching alarm came over the cars speaker. Ron jumped in his seat a little. The radio was turned to X-103.9, the I.E.’s alternative rock. As he enjoyed the music from this station, he hardly ever changed it.
“What the heck is that?” Jeremy asked, looking confused. Ron thought for a moment. “It sounds like the emergency broadcast system, like the kind for when there is a wildfire alert. Or for when there is a flood warning for the people that live close to the river bottom. ” Ron said, with a frown on his face. “Just change the station.”
Jeremy did. He tried about six different stations he liked, but they all had the same screeching alarm going. He gave up and just turned the radio off.
“That’s just frickin weird.” Jeremy remarked.
“Yeah…” Ron agreed “It’s not just that all the stations are down, and have the emergency system going. But why isn’t there any information about what’s going on?” Jeremy just nodded. Ron began to feel a little uneasy.
“You think this has anything to do with those weird terrorist attacks that have been going on?” Jeremy asked. Ron had no idea what he was talking about. He had made it a point to not watch the news a few years back. He had always found it depressing.
“What attacks?” Ron asked. They were now passing the 91 Freeway interchanged. The truck continued on to the 215.
“You don’t know?” Jeremy asked. “Nope.” Ron shook his head slowly. Suddenly, whatever Jeremy was about to say, Ron didn’t want to hear it. He wanted to go back to the awkward silence. No, he just wanted to be home, but not in front of the TV anymore, but in his bed. In his bed where it was always warm; where it was always safe. He didn’t want to hear about these problems. He didn’t want to deal with what they might mean to him. For some unknown reason, at this moment he felt that something very bad was going to happen. The feeling came from deep inside his stomach. It was alarmingly strong, and also somehow very real.
Something is wrong…
Had this feeling been brought on just by the radio screeching? Ron didn’t really think so. That was a part of it, but not the main reason why. With a great effort, Ron pushed this feeling away. He was a little surprised to hear that Jeremy was already explaining and he had missed some of it.
“=that you haven’t heard of it. It’s been going on for a while now. Like almost three weeks. It started with the major news networks. The government called it some kind of terrorist cyber-attack. The major news sights and channels were brought down for a while. Only the local news stations were up. The government then said that the airlines were targeted next, so all flights were grounded. Except, my dad said that he saw a bunch of military planes flying by at about that time. Probably headed to March Air force Base my dad said. The government said to stay calm and all this would be taken care of soon. That there was no real threat, just large inconvenience for the companies that were attacked.„ Then my mom tried to call my uncle who lives up in Canada. She couldn’t do it even though she tried like ten times. We found out that we couldn’t make any calls out of the country at all. On the news they said that big businesses were getting angry because of this. The government made a statement that they had reason to believe that the communication satellites would be the next targets ant that they had to take measures to protect them. My dad got really pissed after hearing that.” Jeremy looked a little embarrassed at this.” Anyways we could still call pretty much anyone we wanted so I wasn’t really worried.’
Ron sat there, a little stunned. How had all this been going on? Why didn’t I know? No one at work had mentioned any of this at all, and neither had his parent. Could it be that no one really cared, as long as it didn’t affect them? His hands tightened around the steering wheel. Jeremy told him to take the exit at Martin Luther King Blvd and turn right. Ron did and then made a left on Canyon Crest Dr. as instructed.
“Last I checked, the radio stations where still going. The emergency channel thing probably has something to do with that.” Ron said nothing. Jeremy signaled for him to turn left. Ron pulled into a small street called Peachblossom Dr. “There we go, that house there.” Jeremy pointed. This was a rather nice neighborhood fairly close to UC Riverside. The house was rather beautiful. It was a white with a small yard and a two door garage. Jeremy jumped out of the car after Ron stopped in front of his house. He came around to the driver side window.
“Thanks for the ride, boss!” Jeremy said with a smile. “No problem.” Ron said and nodded.
“I’m sure all this crap will get fixed in no time, dude.” He pointed at the radio. “Everythin’ will be cool.” Jeremy patted the roof of the car and then turned and headed for his house. His work shirt over his shoulder again. Ron watched him go. He then drove to the end of the street and made a U-turn to head on home.
Ron kept looking down at his radio as he drove. He didn’t want to turn it on. He didn’t want to hear that awful screeching alarm again. Nodude, Ron thought. I don’t think that everything will be cool. Ron drove into the night. And the feeling returned.
Something is wrong…