On Monday, February 9, 2009, the cold wave that swept the nation had dissipated; scattered snow squalls and winds still pounced on portions of the upper northeast and mid-central regions, but - for the most part - the bitter weather was over, and people returned to their normal winter routines.
Workers continued to rebuild parts of Washington, DC; New York City; Philadelphia and other eastern coast cities hit hardest by the hurricane almost a year ago. Los Angeles still lie mostly dormant, but there were some signs of reconstruction along what remained of the earthquake-ravished Pacific coast. In other areas othe country, new shelters were still being built to house people still living in tents, left homeless by O.U.T.R.A.G.E. bombs just over a year ago.
On the West Indies island of St. Kitts, the Presidential Triumverate worked with dozens of O.U.T.R.A.G.E. committees to come up with plans to ressurect the crippled United States of America.
At the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Washington, DC, newly-elected members of Congress diligently put together the new law of the land, as mandated by the people over the past year. Thousands of laws would be repealed as fresh legislation would replace archaic, convoluted, inane laws enacted by an equally inane Congress over decades of political decadence. "The people" now would have a voice in virtually every legislative decision as the U.S.A. was transformed into an authentic democracy. New technologies made such mass participation a virtual reality, and all the fresh new faces in Congress recognized that they were there strictly to obey the people's commands. From this new Congress would emerge a new motive: that of serving the common good instead of cow-towing to the corporation campaign contributors, the industrial fat-cats, and the moneyed interests that had infected American politics for so many decades. "Pork" and "earmarks" would no longer even be part of the lanugage among public servants.
In Iowa, Mike and Donna Osborn, Bobby and Lovey Boyles, Bobby Cowles, Boo and Jo Warren and the rest of the Double B crew were busy bringing a legitimate supply of "pork" to market. Phil Baker was finally back home, and he sat in his study smoking his third pack of Marlboros and reviewing monthly production reports. Janie Baker was in the smokehouse taking inventory of whole hogs ready for shipment to overseas restaurant clients.
Back home again in Indiana, Jil Adams sat in her office feverishly working on plans for her Presidents' Day celebration, while her bevy of assistants studied logistical alternatives. Lynn, Michelle, Connie, Suzan, Sally and Cathy muddled through maps, trying to create an efficient 'route' for what would become a grand Presidential Parade across America. Doc was back home, helping with the plans. Eli was behind the bar; Dar, Hooter, Ryan, Bruce and Shorty all sat at the bar chugging two-dollar longnecks. Bob Ryan and Ron Oetting sat at a table guffawing and giggling over the same verbal graffit they always giggled over.
Just outside of Seattle, "Hammy" and Lynn were adding final finishing touches to their newly-refurbished lime green bus, which Hammy had managed to wreck twice. All that was needed were a few cosmetic touch-ups, and the bus would be on the roll again, continuing its road trip to promote the legalization of drugs.
O.U.T.R.A.G.E. 'cells' of volunteers around the country were working to assemble media kits, organize public meetings and motivate citizens to get involved with this new process of government. Most of the country's skies were overcast and gray, as people looked forward to an early spring and a new infusion of national unity. "Conservative" and "liberal" labels were pretty much avoided these days, as most of the general public began to recognize how those terms had only served to divide the country. "Red" and "blue" states no longer fractured the country into political pockets; we were all in this together now, committed to revitalizing the country, restructuring our patriotism, and embracing the concept of "Equilateralism" - a nation where all people are given true equal opportunity, regardless of race, creed or political persuasion.

No one noticed them hurling their way toward Earth at what could have been a million miles per minute. It was like one minute nothing was there, and the next minute there they all were! None of Earth's sophisticated radar facilities recorded anything unusual. Observatories observed nothing out of the ordinary.

The Earth shuddered.

The whole world was instantaneously bombarded by strange, oddly-shaped spherical aberrations, all roughly the size of Goodyear blimps. Hundreds - thousands of them kept coming from God-knows-where, and piloted by only God-knew-who. Because they struck with such silent instantaneity, few people even saw these colorless, noiseless 'aircraft' as they plunged to Earth and obliterated everything in their path. In less time than it took for you to hear your last heartbeat, you - and everything around you - was gone: skyscrapers; factories; retail stores; houses; restaurants; airports; military facilities; offices; bars; apartments; banks; houses....all were annihilated immediately. As was reportedly the case at the ports of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II's final days, human flesh simply evaporated. But this time there were no fires, no smoldering ruins, no charred bodies lying in the streets, no survivors with grotesque disfigurements, no remnants of animal bones or human body parts. Everything was gone....completely, totally expunged from the Earth, as if nothing had ever existed there before. In the snap of a finger, every major metropolitan area on the face of the Earth had been absorbed into the atmosphere. Nothing was left but parched earth - as if the unidentified flying objects intended to expurgate the land, freeing it from all the cement, asphalt, stone, steel, glass, brick, neon and plastic with which man had desecrated the Earth's rich, black soil and green grasslands.

Within that very instant, every major urban region on the Earth faded to black. I

From Beijing to Zurich, every major metropolitan area on Earth had literally disappeared off the face of the map, decimated by an unknown force of unimaginable power. London, Paris, San Francisco, Rome, and every other power center in the world was gone......not just demolished, but GONE. Disappeared, as if they had never been. Every financial center, political and religious mecca, resort area, industrial region and military community on Earth had been reduced to...earth. Oil refineries, coal mines, natural gas pipelines and factories were gone......not just vacated, or lying in ruins....absolutely, positively GONE.
It was as if some kind of third-dimensional force has swooped down on the Earth and sucked away all the accoutrements of man's avarice, hubris and gluttony. Virtually and city with a population of more than 250,000 had evanesced as quickly as lightning could strike, had vaporized into nothingness as it had never even existed.

Within that very instant, every major urban area on Earth faded to black. It was 4:55 p.m. EST.