Chapter 12

What seemed an eternity later...

“It’s time,” I said as I pulled out of Moira, much to her satisfaction.

Already, the Mayhem began in earnest, or at least the parts that I didn’t consciously instigate. Massive hailstones, acid rain, and incredible heat waves swept much of the globe. Volcanoes long dormant began erupting, earthquakes rumbled, We had to find shelter, which we did, for the sake of the mortals among us, what few there still were. I sealed as many as I could as quickly as I could, but some remained their old selves for the moment ... so far.

Nature’s fury was unleashed with incredible power upon the human race. We witnessed flash floods, spontaneous human combustion, lightning strikes, power outages, dizziness, public fistfights, and far, far worse. People became even more accident prone than usual. It was like a full moon ... on steroids. Something was definitely off, and people openly mused about the Apocalypse or some version of it.

“In Egypt, the Nile completely overflowed its banks and drowned an estimated sixty-two locals and seven foreign nationals. Another forty-eight barely escaped drowning due to swift action by the Egyptian government in this matter. Martial-law has been imposed in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities throughout Egypt to combat this emergency. A dusk to dawn curfew has been enacted as well.

“Nevertheless, riots have broken out in Tunis, Tel Aviv, Rabbat, Algiers, Ankara, Istanbul, Baghdad, Al Kuwait, and Riyadh. In Damascus, President Bashar Assad responded to the crisis by sacking four cabinet ministers and appointing an ‘emergency authority council’ to coordinate a crisis response plan. The Knesset in Jerusalem has voted no confidence in the Prime Minister and negotiations have begun for a new coalition government to take over Israel, assuming that it has enough parliamentary support.

“In Hong Kong, angry mobs have seized key administrative buildings and announced the formation of a new ‘Hong Kong Free State,’ a self-governing territory within the People’s Republic of China. Police have supposedly turned on Beijing and sworn allegiance to the new regime in Hong Kong, inspiring more uprisings in Macao and Harbin, the latter being heavily populated by ethnic Manchus in the Manchurian city. There was even talk of reinstating a ‘Sovereign State of Manchukuo,’ a name that echoed the days of Japanese occupation prior to World War Two and its Manchu vassal state.

“Massive strikes and disorders in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka have turned more serious, even as the transportation network has already shown signs of failure. In Singapore, Rangoon, Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta, and Manila, looting and vigilante violence are disrupting everyday business as much as the various plagues have done. In Pyongyang, North Korea, the armed forces have ‘replaced’ the ‘Dear Leader’ with a junta of ten men known as the People’s State Council,” the anchorman informed us all.

“And we have just received word that the Iranian government has been ousted in a military coup led by key elements of the regular armed forces and the Pasdaran. The identities of the new leaders of Iran are not clear, but every ayatollah in all three major religious councils has been arrested by the new regime and there are reports the word ‘Islamic’ might soon be dropped from the title.