Apocalypse in the Badlands #0

The world is going crazy. The news is one thing, there's always crazy stuff on there, but I'm starting to see shit go down in my own back yard.

The weather in Jersey is crazy always, but this season it's been on the some other shit. Construction is at an all time high. It's everywhere- zones being coned off all over the place, and lets not even talk about the police. They're everywhere, they sit and watch every intersection, and come out of backstreets and corners like roaches or something. Every move you make around here is observed. The cops have an abundance of new vehicles; all the cop cars have been upgraded to be Dodge Chargers or Derangos, but they still have all the old cars too. And now they're starting have alteast half of the of the cars be undercover. I've seen a whole bunch of teal and brown colored Chargers, and I've even seen some 2008 Honda Civics with absolutely no markings turn on cop lights and pull people over. To Serve and Protect? Yea right, it's To Search and Detect. They have plenty of ghost cars too, cars that sit by highway underpasses with no one in them just to scare you.

It's crazy man...

So right now i'm staying under the radar, creeping like a ninja in the night and shit. Through the smoke I observe how the powers move, then plan according. The world's gone crazy, but I was made for this.

-Rage, March 12 2009 C.E.

Choose Your Destiny

These times are strange.

It's like there's a war going on outside nobody's safe from. Invisible and intangible but we all know we're ducking bullets. They could come from anywhere, at anytime, and be everything from a kid shooting up science class, to losing your home, to catching your garden variety cancer.

But, thankfully, we have been told by people more informed then us that you have a much better chance of making it through if you stay between the lines. The lines that lead right to the cheese, the pension, the degree in whatever your parents believe will get you ahead in the rat race. Truthfully I'm not any different from most people except for one thing.

They're looking at the cheese. I'm looking at the mouse trap.

I see where these lines lead, to spending all your money on houses, cars, and education until you're trapped in the cage of taxes, bills, and credit card debt. If you even make it there anyway.
But you know, it's times like these, when the country is in a depression and politics as we know it is changing, that history is made. And there's never been a time in history as crazy as now.

So when faced with the choice of getting a degree and acceptable job, having a wife and two kids and making my family oh-so-happy, or crossing these lines, navigating the danger, leaving my mark on this rock and most importantly, being true to myself I could only say one thing...

Fuck it.

-Rage, March 9 2009 C.E.

Breathe

Deep breathes. In, and out.

I dream of starting a revolution, but how can I do that if I can't even breath properly.

So deep breathes, no matter where I am or what's happening to me.

Just deep breathes. In, and out.

-Rage, March 2 2009 C.E.

Sirens

8:51 PM E.S.T., February 8th 2009 C.E.

I walked down into the kitchen only to freeze. A siren was going off, high and long and nothing like I had ever heard before.

Well, I actually heard Klaxons going off when I picked up my sister from school. At first I thought I was going crazy, but then my sister heard it too. We both just stood there until it stopped, then looked at each other with a distinct What The Fuck? expression.

This time the siren was different but just as eerie. Sirens are nothing new around here. you here them all day and all night - Ambulances, firetrucks, police - you name it. It's to the point where if I don't hear one or see flashing emergency lights flying down the streets it feels like something is out of place. I hear them in class and in my room when I'm trying, usually unsuccessfully, to sleep. Sometimes even when they're not there I hear the phantom ringing in my ears. I've asked other people and they say it happens to them too.

It's really just that bad.

But therer was something different about this one. The pitch, the length, it was all wrong, and I had no idea what it could be for. The only thing I could tell was that it was in the distance, but it was so loud that it reverberated off the houses on my block and probably around a good size of the town.

Strange things are going on, it's not lie anyone needs more proff the what is already there. But lately things have been wierder than usual, and I get the feeling that things will only get stranger.

- Rage

Living In Fire

Yea yea it's dark and Hell is hot.
Our daily bread sex drugs and violence, and now
the whole world's burning, drenched in oil and set on fire.

The Third World, apparently not our world, they burn from
the bullets and bombs. From the seemingly endless wars
and sickness and starvation.

We burn in a classroom, the curriculum a cell block, over medicated,
working until you die for a system you serve instead of the other
way it's supposed to be.

The people lay in the flames of apathy and selfishness and greed,
and that sweet indulgent fluid called lust. Destroying us, all for the
love of money and sex, with the only thing spreading faster than disease
is corruption...

Look around, we're living in fire.

-Rage, February 16 2009 CE

Writings: Vietnow

With the sounds of rage through the speakers I exhale the smoke,
and watch as it forms a vision of the world we live in.

It's a Vietnow kind of mind-state. What real here?
Terror and fear is the code that we live by
The God that we pray to.

A shadow covers the world like an eclipse.
I take my medication like the rest,
stuck in something we don't understand.
Knowing that there are men who hold absolute power,
and that the Earth itself is changing before our eyes,
and it's beyond scary so we drown ourselves in TV
and every other form of escapism.

But here, in the smoke,
to the sound of the drums and the bass is where I'll always see it.
And no amount of medication, of Ritalin and anti-depressant,
can distract me from I feel in my heart.

I don't want to be afraid anymore. Afraid of terrorists,
afraid of hell, afraid of judgment,
Afraid of each other...

Afraid of live for myself instead of living the "right" way.
And I know that if I keep walking down this road
I will die empty and unfulfilled.

This is the promise of the system.

But I refust all that now, and I will rage against this machine.

I will make this legend.

-Rage, February 6 2009 CE

Eve of the Empire/11-4-2008 (12 o'clock AM EST)

Today we'll make history.

One nation having influenced the whole world will decide who will lead us through these next four years, when many say the planet is running out of time. Pretty amazing this little rebel nation turned Empire has become.

I might be young, but even I can see that this is an event the world has never seen, because this is a country like the world has never seen. Where else has there even been a possibility that a person whose ancestors were slaves might come to lead it; or much more importantly, lead it at a time like this. His opponent will make history too, because no matter who wins they will be making decisions that will be far reaching across the globe.

It's a Brave New World where humankind has dreamed of since it's birth. One where we touched the stars and explored the ocean floors. It's the age where no place on Earth is left undiscovered, unmapped and diagrammed; where time and space are transcended and ideas and information are sent half way around the world to a mailbox that doesn't even really exist, just like these word you read.

And today the country that has been the most powerful in the new world, and many argue that it still is, will change forever whether we like it or not. Although I think I can say confidently that none of us are too happy about the way things are. The strain on the world is getting worse, we can see it every time we turn on the TV that sometimes seems more real than we are.

I can see this even though I'm young. Then again they say it is the youth that will decide the future for the first time; depending of which side we choose and of course, if we even choose at all. In the first nation to wipe two cities off the map from across the world, each with a single bomb, that's a lot of pressure. Even more with the talk of the country declining, and everyone knows, at least by now, that choosing wrong can be disastrous. This time we are totally divided.

So today will be history because the world is changing, and the country that changed it is changing itself. We're all holding our breaths, because we see a bit of what's coming and it definitely looks bleak. But today, we're a part of this future in the making.

So let's make it.