Apocalypse in the Badlands #1

Everybody is talking about the End Times these days. Skeptics scoff at the notion while believers look to interpret world events as signs that it's coming. But I don't need the news or Mayan prophecies to convince me, because I can see it happening in my own backyard. As I write this my room echoes as a plane flies over my house. It happens every five or ten minutes or so, I can barely get a second to think let alone meditate. This wouldn't be so strange if we lived next to an airport, but Newark International is the closest one and it's 45 minutes away. I mean we've always had planes around here, but there's never been this much and they fly so damn low these days, it's insane.

The helicopters are new though, I never used to see them around here. Now after four or fives planes I hear one hover over my house and it gives me the chills. Worse are the military vehicles. Military choppers, C-130s, fly by every once in awhile. They're damn loud, enough that it seems like the house and the whole street shakes as they thunder by. The other day me and my friend were playing ball at the court and we saw two of them flying low, one even had the doors open and I could see tiny guys sitting inside with what looked like guns. I couldn't believe it, it looked straight out of a movie. My friend turned to me, gave me a look and said "What the fuck?!" I had no reply. I even saw a fighter jet about a month ago. It was just a tiny triangle in the sky, but it was so loud I couldn't hear my sister talking next to me.

I guess all the flying vehicles has me looking at the sky a lot, but that's strange in itself these days. The clouds look weird. We usually get totally cloudy gray days or sunny days with a few clouds. These new clouds that block off half the sky, or make crazy wave looking patterns are uncharacteristic this side of the Eastcoast. Add to that the thin misty streaks everywhere. Chemtrails used to be a Youtube thing five months ago. Now I see them spraying on my way to school almost everyday, it distracts me so much sometimes I have to swerve to avoid another car or one of the dead animal carcasses in the road.

That's one of the most disturbing things out here, the roadkill. Dead rabbits, squirrels, and birds litter the road, squashed flat and ready to stick to your tires if you're not careful. But the deer are worse. They're huge and often meet gruesome ends. I've seen a bunch with appendages sticking out at odd angles or even straight up decapitated. There's so many that the township doesn't even try too hard to pick them up before they start rotting. I saw one with it's body mostly gone, just a giant rib cage and decomposed intestines and muscles. That one even grossed me out. And this isn't on back country roads. No, this is all by the main streets with schools and Kmarts and Burger Kings. But the thing is, unless someone points it out most people don't even notice. They know that it's there but because it's nothing new they just tune it out, preoccupied with their own daily troubles. It really says something about the state of things when rotting animal corpses are so common that people don't even notice them anymore.

Times are strange. Dark clouds block the stars at night, so we've taken to sitting outside and watching those ever-present airplanes instead. As they move across the night sky, red and white lights flickering in a sea of blackness, I can't help but get an ominous feeling. Things are changing all over the world, and I know that somehow, as the new year approaches, it will only get crazier.

-Rage, November 2 2009 C.E.