Disenchantment 17

*****

Hornblende was looking at the actual maps from the county, for the storm drain systems, as he could not find them online. Real paper maps. As he already knew, there was not any sort of concrete wash running parallel to Sierra Highway. There was both the Bouquet Creek and Haskell Canyon Wash, both of which emptied into the usually dry Santa Clara river and neither of which was anywhere near Sierra Highway.

“How old is this damn map?” he muttered to himself. It didn’t matter, he supposed. He had been there. He hadn’t seen any wash at all, at least in the area that Phileus had claimed to have been.

He was in the office break room because the maps were big and he liked the large tables in there. Along one wall there were two large vending machines, one serving drinks and the other having candy bars and chips. Opposite the machines there was a small counter with a sink, and on it was a rather large coffee machine and a rather small microwave, symbolizing what was more important to cops on duty. It was probably the largest room in the station, and often empty.

The television had been on while he had been pouring over the maps. He rolled the map up, then leaned back in his chair and sighed, then noticing that the news was on and finally allowing his ears to listen instead of merely hear.

“The last of The Maldives is now under water.” On the screen Hornblende noticed a helicopter view of the sea, with buildings sticking out of the water. That was it. The ocean had swallowed up all the land, leaving the buildings as an eerie reminder that it was once land, once peopled, once full of life. There were no smaller houses or even trees, just what Hornblende assumed to be former skyscrapers sticking up in seemingly random places.

“Whoah.” The Maldives...gone? He had honeymooned with his ex-wife there. Memories of the marriage weren’t too terribly fond, but he had always kept a soft spot in his heart for that honeymoon. It was a beautiful place.

The female narrator continued: “Scientists of various fields and nationalities claim that this is just the beginning and other island nations are soon to follow. The Marshall Islands, Tokelau, Tuvalu, and Kiribati are all said to soon be underwater within the next couple weeks. Inhabitants of the Marshall Islands have been welcomed into the US, due to diplomatic relationships. The EU and other individual countries are working on allowing refugees into their lands, but that always spells trouble for both the displaced and those they end up living with. China initially stated that it would allow one-hundred thousand people to permanently move within its borders, but then recanted, causing even more confusion in an already chaotic situation, as several hundred thousand acres of land in China is already under water and it seems that they will try to rectify their situation first.

“Even if homes are found for all of these displaced people, what then?”

“Yeah, what then,” mouthed Hornblende.

“The world’s population is at the highest it has ever been, and we are losing a lot of land that once existed. All nations not landlocked are expected to suffer, with many Asian nations being hit the worst, like Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and the aforementioned China. Not only are we losing land, but we are losing many areas where food is grown or produced, and even if homes are found for everyone, it is expected that we will soon see the largest famine in history. Even if the famine is not as bad as predicted, the world’s economy is in danger, essentially affecting every single nation. Stocks are expected to plummet on Monday when the market opens.”

The reporter narrating turned it back to the anchor in the studio, who decided to check in with another reporter on the street in a city that Hornblende didn’t catch, as his thoughts were starting to overwhelm him.

When the reporter in the street came on the screen, he decided to ask for people’s opinions. Hornblende always thought that was a horrible way to conduct news. Average people on the street were not experts and he didn’t feel it added anything, even a human perspective to the story, as they usually picked the weirdest people to interview in those situations. And his thoughts were soon proved to be correct.

A man, seemingly homeless, or at least lacking in what should be considered typical hygienic practices began a rant. He mentioned the apocalypse and the rapture then went on to say: “You need to pray. You need to go home and pray. All of our sins are coming back to engulf us. You need to fall on you knees and pray! Everyone! For we shall be doomed.” The man then looked like he wanted to eat the microphone that the reporter had shoved into his face for a time.

“Yeah, okay, fellow,” Hornblende spoke to the television. Well, it seemed that they might take him off of missing persons for a while. They might take everyone off of everything if things started getting out of hand.

Hornblende gathered up the maps and stood up. “What then?” he repeated as he left the break room.

*****