The Chronicle(s) of Liberty - Short Story Teaser

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The Chronicle of Liberty

Prologue: [The Fire] That Day

”For this world in its present form is passing away.” 1 Corinthians 7:31

            War is the result of hate. Hate is the result of difference. Difference is the result of choice. And choice- choice is the result of one’s own liberty. The liberty to do what they want, to be what they want, and to think what they want.

            The war itself had lasted for over a millennium, but it was so common many had just accepted it as reality. Peace had been forgotten, love became disregarded, and ideology was considered irrelevant. Starting as a result of what was once considered the “War to End All Wars”, the tentatively named Cold War had erupted due to Soviet and Cuban nuclear efforts against their greatest rival- the United States of America.

            New Orleans was the first to go, a once prosperous French trade colony along the Mississippi River turned economic power was reduced to char and dust with a single button press. The missile had been launched from Havana itself, as were the countless many to follow. The next to perish were  Houston, Miami, and Mobile, all meeting the same fate as New Orleans had just days earlier. Millions readily perished to the new weapons they had once employed during the Japanese Theater in the “War to End All Wars” just fifteen years earlier.

            The American people reacted nearly instantly, voting nearly unanimously to declare war against the Soviet Union and utilized their own nuclear warheads to counterattack the Soviet threat to their immediate South. Troops were deployed, missiles were launched, and lives were inevitably lost in the millions- a death total that would never end, not even into the year of 2952. By then, nearly all of Cuba had been destroyed as with all Soviet operation in the area. Instead, new technology was forced into creation in order to strike opposing countries halfway across the globe. Likewise, the war had enraptured an estimated 78% of the entire globe, with the remaining percentile in a bloody struggle for survival in a warring world.

            The entire world looked onto the destruction of the human race- destroyed due to its own demons that had plagued it since the times of the ancients. Ignoring those that taught, preached, and struggled to explain the necessity of acceptance and understanding, the human race could merely watch as it slowly winked out of existence. That is, until lone vagabonds that had deserted the Soviet and American armies during the Cuban Theater ventured out and discovered “it” in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.

            “It” was believed to have been developed as a weapon by the Soviets, ironically thinking that the island of Cuba would survive the thousands of rocket strikes that would befall it as a result of its own nuclear endeavors. Discovered by these divers, equipped with ancient water filtering and pressure resistant suits that had been developed in 1977 by the American military which had been planned for aquatic troop movement in regards to their island threat, “it” was found resting below the Gulf and promised safety, prosperity, and neutrality in regards to the nuclear threat that encompassed the globe.

            On December 16^th, 2953 “it” rose from the Gulf of Mexico, and with it came a revolution unlike any the world had seen before.

            “It” was a flying city developed by all of the Soviet Union’s top scientists that was abandoned as soon as it was ready, due to the fall of Havana in 1982 and the quick Soviet removal that followed.

            “It” became the only truly safe nation on - or above - the planet.

            “It” was Liberty. The safest yet most terrifying, most free yet most restricted, and the most tolerant yet immoral civilization to ever exist on Earth.