Branches Book

BRANCHES

moved behind her. Before she could push it to the other side of the room, it leapt upward. She ran out of the way. As it came falling down, the fire atop the stove grasped the tips of her hair. The fire spread, getting closer and closer to her face. She panicked and placed her head under the moving sink. However, the sink was not excreting water. She pushed herself away from the gasoline spewing faucet as her hair ignited in a fiery rage. She began to scream. One of the “hands” that cooked the meals in the kitchen came flying through the door and lodged itself in her throat. She could no longer talk or breathe. Wires descended from the ceiling and hastily approached the gasoline/water flooded floor. The house echoed with her terrified moans. Marian’s last recorded sight was of her propelling knife collection. Many people mourned the loss of Marian Carter. But some thought Marian had it coming, and others thought it was all a hoax made up by the government. It didn’t matter what any one truly believed, no one felt safe in their homes anymore. Everyone’s home had an over abundance of technology; real or fake, warranted or not, no one wanted to be the next one to die. I walked over to the next grave I wanted to visit, Marcus Demor. After Marian’s death, it was another three weeks before a similar situation occurred, some woman in Brazil, next a man in Kentucky, then a kindergartener in Scotland, then a family of ten in Thailand. By the sixth technological uprising, situations like this were happening daily. People all around the world were being attacked by what they had relied on the most, some lived to tell the tale, but unfortunately the vast majority did not. The story of Marcus Demor, took place about a year into the technological apocalypse. Deaths such as these had become increasingly popular and the event even got a name for history to remember, The Surge. I hate that name, and justifiably so, it sounds like some sort of wave or electricity came over the world, but it fails to acknowledge the famine, depression, and poverty that came out of it. So I call it what it is, an apocalypse. His story was interesting, and not very well reported. People got tired of hearing about death everyday, so the news often chose to ignore it. Every so often they would have to replace the newscaster, but the news still didn’t report on the events of The Surge, not until events like Marcus’s started to happen. Marcus had been one of the most well known software designers in the world. He was practically a celebrity, he was on countless magazine covers, he guest-starred on television shows, he was invited to red carpet events, and he was even the face of a cereal brand. Marcus had one of the most extreme reactions to Marian’s death. Once it happened, he cut off all of contact with the world, and he moved to one of the few remaining forests. Rumors spread that he lived in a tree, a tent, a cave, or even built his own house out of found objects. Unfortunately, since he used no technology during this period, I am unable to confirm nor deny any of these rumors.

79