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The Guillotine and a Bag of Doritos April 15, 2010
The man had never seen anything like it, yet there was lacking the surrealistic
symbolism of his occasional nightmares, so it was neither a dream nor a hallucination.
This man treasured lucidity in his waking moments, and abstained from alcohol and recreational
drugs.
He had just witnessed a public, impromptu, state-sponsored execution in his own neighborhood
of Glendale, Queens.
Public - because it was done right out in the open, along the major commercial street, Myrtle
Avenue, miles from any prison facility or even a courthouse, and many blocks from any police
station.
Impromptu because it had occurred so quickly, that there was only a gaggle of about fifty passersby, some
snapping cell-phone videos, but no news crews present.
The whole thing was over in ten minutes.
State-sponsored because the entire affair was handled by three men wearing the uniform and insignia of
“Yeluga”, Immediate Enforcement of Local Infringement Under Global Authority.
The men were clad in deep green full-body Speedo suits which covered most of the face,
except the forehead, imprinted “666”.
A double half-moon executioner’s axe was embroidered in red on both the front and the back of
the suit.
Each wore green leather gloves and boots, and green helmets emblazoned in red on both sides
with a fist clutching seven thunderbolts.
A ring of ten white stars encircled the emblems.
It was now about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, on a balmy October day much like any
other.
The man was frozen on the spot, and would have fainted, if he had not been
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inured to the sight of voluminous pools and spatters of blood on faraway battlefields years ago.
He had arrived on this scene just after a young man’s head had been lopped off, rolling around
on the rear end of a flatbed truck, apparently for maximum shock value.
For the last week, all over the world, ubiquitous posters and media broadcast the directive, that
anyone trying to buy or sell anything without having The Mark or 666 on either the right hand or
forehead would be immediately executed at the transaction spot according to the prescribed
gruesome protocol.
This man didn’t have either tattoo yet. He hadn’t seen anyone with The Mark, but
there were a few in his neighborhood with 666.
The instructions had been to go to any place licensed for business under The Global Economic
Authority to get the imprint.
This included all medical facilities and doctor’s offices, all financial institutions, all utilities, all
services provided by mechanics, electricians, and builders, all restaurants, and all but the
smallest stores of any kind.
The directive had not specified any period leading up to enforcement, so it was a great shock to
have it strike so soon, and so close to home.
There had been daily figures released on the number of executions by country and major cities,
along with selected video clips depicting them.
Already, the number of victims exceeded one million.
Most people were prepared to take at least the 666, and he intended to do so at the
earliest opportunity.
He had not had to pay any bills yet; utility bills generally were
consolidated and synchronized.
Checks and currency had become relics of the past in the new cashless economy.
E-check or credit/debit card payments required the account holder to be “Marked”, and his mark
had to be either issued or authenticated by a bank processing his account.
Identities could not be stolen for the purpose of obtaining accounts, because the account
numbers were associated with one’s DNA.
Biotechnology had developed a non-invasive procedure to create radio-transmitting DNA within
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a new organ of cells which did not require replication.
It was neither necessary nor possible to know the hundreds of digits and characters,
dynamically encrypted every ten seconds, of one’s account numbers.
All point-of-purchase transactions not involving barter were completed through an RFID signal
from the account-transmitting DNA to the merchant;
the account was then debited at the bank.
Remote purchases, via the internet or cell phone, used RFID transmissions from the body to
RFID receivers on USB pen drives inserted into computers or phones.
Admittedly, the Global Government had brought about a Brave New World of
unprecedented prosperity, along with social, political, economic, and religious unity over the
previous three and a half years.
It was no longer necessary for a hundred nations to
fund their own weapons or armies, for there was now a universal peace between nations,
enforced by the Global Militia, costing a fraction of the former total military expenditures.
There was no more need for international politics; no nation was allowed to dominate
any other politically or economically;
each still retained an ersatz form of its former government, but national sovereignty had
disappeared.
By and large, most nations functioned as democracies with legitimate elections, but the choices
on the ballot had become virtually indistinguishable;
the electorate had become homogenized.
Crime had been reduced worldwide by 90%, because of draconian enforcement at
the local level under the dictates of the Global Criminal Council at The Hague, an outgrowth of
the International Criminal Court, which had overridden national sovereignty since the 1990’s.
Embezzlement, theft, assault, murder, and other crimes of passion still existed, human nature
being what it is, regardless of the deterrent level.
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But there were no longer jury trials anywhere;
all cases were decided by judges hearing court-appointed lawyers for both sides.
Abortion was decriminalized even in those countries which had held out against it the longest, in
Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.
Great progress had been made in the eradication of extreme poverty. The urban
poor were provided adequate housing, sanitation, education, medical attention, food and clean
water.
Traffick
ing in drugs and sex had been stamped out.
Recent scientific discoveries in genetic engineering, biometrics, synthetic food production, and
medicine had brought about a predicted average life-expectancy of 100 years in the developed
countries.
Cancer of all kinds, AIDS, malaria, TB, Ebola, and many other perennial scourges had been
reduced dramatically.
Green energy technologies and vast improvement of the transportation infrastructure had
brought the world even closer together. The internet highway and all other communications
avenues benefited from a quantum leap in bandwidth and throughput.
For these reasons, it would seem that the en-masse disappearance of hundreds of
millions of people that had occurred in a single hour three and a half years ago wasn’t a disaster
after all.
Most of earth’s inhabitants today felt that those trouble-makers had been an
impediment to progress generally, especially in the matter of religious agreement.
That area of concord alone had neutralized the threat of Islamic Jihad against the Crusader
Nations and the Zionist entity, Israel, as well as healing the perpetual rift between Pakistan and
India.
The vanished Bible Christians weren’t missed, since now true Christians were among the
adherents of the Global Religion.
It was a good riddance to those neo-luddites, who were constantly reminding everyone that The
Almighty did not want people to cooperate with each other to such an extent that they left Him
out of the plans, so He kept them separate for millennia by great distances and disparate
languages.
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However, the dispersion at Babel described in Genesis chapter 11, from the secular point of
view, had become the germ of all subsequent disputes and wars between nations, so how could
that have been a good thing? And clearly, the conception that both Jews and Bible Christians
had, of God having been for millennia bound in a covenant with tiny Israel was fatally flawed.
That concept had fostered the Arab-Israeli conflict that brought the entire world to the brink of
nuclear Armageddon, while its resolution ushered in the era of peace and prosperity which the
world now enjoyed.
Once the Jews no longer wanted to be a nation segregated from all other nations unto their God
in obedience to their scriptures, because of economic sanctions tied to political marginalization,
they were willing to join the European Economic Community, and allow the Superman to broker
a seven-year binding treaty between them and the Islamic world.
In return, Israel was transitioned from pariah status to member in good standing in the Global
Assembly, and was allowed to build the Third Temple, where none had stood for almost two
thousand years.
The Temple Mount Faithful decades before had trained Levitical priests to offer the animal
sacrifices prescribed in the Torah, and these were now enacted on a daily basis.
One provision of The Treaty that the Jews insisted upon was that their religion could not be part
of The Global Religion.
How significant then, that this agreement had been signed in the EU Parliament building in
Strasbourg, France, whose unique architecture with each level spiraling ever higher
heaven-ward mimicked perhaps unintentionally the Tower of Babel, as depicted in several
Renaissance paintings. Since the inauguration of this edifice in 1999, seat number 666 therein
had never been occupied.
The Superman had made reconciliation
possible on all fronts.
He would achieve
what Nimrod had failed to do, and reverse the cataclysm at Babel.
Strasbourg was his geopolitical capital, while Jerusalem was his religious capital.
His third capital, Babylon, had been raised near the Old Babylon, 50 miles southwest of
Baghdad, as an ultra-modern metropolis.
Its construction was financed by the same G-10 nations which had been involved in some way
in Iraq’s destiny ever since the historic invasions of 1993 and 2003.
Babylon was now the economic and financial center of the world, having displaced New York,
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London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Bombay.
It was at the geographic apex of a continuous string of skyscrapers and broad avenues that
stretched across the sands of the Arabian Peninsula, then up along the Persian Gulf, and then
along the world’s oldest rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates.
So Riyadh, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, and Kuwait City, which hardly existed a century ago,
were now part of a galaxy of cities together called the super-city Babylon.
The Superman wasn’t on the radar of any political pundit when he arose out of obscurity onto
the world stage. Even if he was finagling his way largely by outright lies and flatteries, he also
had an unparalleled ability to read the minds of diplomats, discerning their true intentions.
He scarcely required interpreters or technical advisors, being a polymath fluent in seven
languages, including Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian.
Few would dispute the fact that he had brokered a remarkable harmony between all political
factions, and smashed the partisan gridlock that had stymied progress in and between many
nations and for centuries.
His orations were grandiloquent, yet at the same time exhilarating and captivating.
Multitudes had been saying for over three years that he had the voice of a god.
Now they were saying he
was
a god, because he had been hacked by an assassin across the right side of his head and body
with a saber.
After being pronounced clinically dead, he was immediately preserved in a cryogenic procedure.
Yet after three days lying in state in a gilded coffin, he opened his eyes, and climbed out of it as
though he had only been resting.
Upon his resurrection, the right forearm lost all functionality, and hung limply at his side.
A patch covered the grotesque injuries to his face and eye.
As if the first group of true believers, which included many fanatical preachers about Jesus’
Second Coming, were not bad enough, the second group, which sprang up out of nowhere after
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the first had suddenly been “beamed-up” as it were, from the earth to who-knows-where, was
even worse. Unlike the first group, which was comprised of mostly Gentiles from all nations,
these were estimated to be over 100,000 Hebrew/Yiddish-speaking Jews with an inexplicable
indelible mark on their foreheads.
It was completely unknown by what agency
they had been so branded, with what appeared to be a semicircle of twelve stars above a
crescent moon, surrounding a resplendent sunburst.
This pestilent group, a very hardy lot, seemingly impervious to many of the cascading natural
disasters in recent months, quickly gained hundreds of millions of Gentile converts through their
world-wide preaching.
And then, there were the two scourges in sackcloth at Jerusalem’s Temple Courtyard, who were
also constantly preaching, and warning Israel about the consequences of their peace treaty. Th
e Superman had tried many times to stop them, to no avail.
No one could get close to them;
even an intended assault would result in a fatal lightning strike launched from their mouths at
great distance.
What undiscovered freaks of evolution were these, and where did they come from?
The whole world hungered in a perverse way to attend their every move and word, because of
their unique power to inflict plagues anywhere, so the media cameras were always following
them.
In recent months they had correctly predicted that The Superman would soon be joined by
another charismatic figure, who would use the resurrection as a means of securing total
allegiance to this personage as The God Incarnate One World Ruler. He would implement
worship of The Superman by means of a colossal Statue to him installed in Babylon, on the
scale of the 90-footer that Nebuchadnezzar had erected for the same purpose, and at the same
place, 2600 years ago.
T
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he authenticity of worship would be effected by The Mark, which was the actual unique name of
the Superman, not disclosed until the first person stepped forward to make the decision to take
it.
Those who didn’t take The Mark could opt for the Number, thus signifying that they were not yet
ready to take The Mark, but wanted to be able to buy or sell without being executed.
Of course, The Numbered had to stay far away clear from Babylon, which would be a distinct
disadvantage for travelling global businessmen or financiers.
However, if one settled on taking The Number, there was an added prestige to receiving it on
the forehead, rather than on the hand.
It was easily seen as an advertisement for The Superman, since it represented his name, and
consequently entitled the bearer to a ten percent discount on all purchases and taxes, but it also
marred any winsome facial features.
Neither The Mark nor the Number could be counterfeited, because the special ink was a gel
within the dermis which would change colors every few seconds.
No doubt, one reason why no one had taken The Mark up until now was because of the
indefatigable preachers warning of the consequences, according to these words which they
read out of their Bible: “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in
his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is
poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation;
and he shall
be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of
the Lamb.
A
nd the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever;
and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever
receiveth the mark of his name”.
Strange as it may seem, The Superman did not possess any miraculous powers, except that he
never slept, and appeared to have unlimited energy and intelligence. And, of course, he had
managed to raise himself from the dead while the whole world was watching, as though to
negate the claims of the one whose disciples said that he was risen, but whose claims could not
be verified by the world at large, as could those of The Superman.
By contrast, his lieutenant, The Worship Enforcer, did have spectacular powers.
He could summon lightning bolts at will, to strike near any audience.
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The Statue to The Superman which he had designed was of an extraordinary material, capable
of all motions except in the feet.
He imbued it with a supernatural ability to speak, and to recognize those not genuflecting in
worship to it, or not bearing The Mark;
those not in compliance were killed by something like a laser within The Statue.
No one, not even he, The Enforcer, knew where these powers came from.
The man in Glendale now ran home. He was sweating bullets, and faced a conundrum. Being
in good health in his mid-fifties, early retired from his lucrative position at an investment banking
firm, he hadn’t plan to die just yet.
His wife had been killed in an auto accident last year, and he had no children or close relatives.
The obscene, macabre, capricious death he had just witnessed unhinged him.
Why had it so affected him, while none of the other onlookers seemed to be bothered?
For the first time in years he felt impelled to read the Bible. He hoped he hadn’t misplaced it. It
had been over ten years since he attended any church, but prior to The Great Disappearance,
he had stumbled onto an occasional preacher on the radio or TV.
They were even on You-Tube, though he didn’t go looking for them.
The low-tech, no-frills, home-grown preachers seemed to intrude upon every subject;
so one was bound to encounter them just about anywhere, if surfing the internet.
But those people weren’t around anymore.
Not much of their preaching had sunk in, probably because he was really agnostic.
To him, it was comforting to think that if there was no god, he couldn’t be punished in the
afterlife;
and if there were, that god would be merciful in any possible judgment for life after death, rather
than vengeful.
All the religious rituals he had been brought up with were perceived to be just excess baggage
by the time he was in his twenties, and after the all-night bull-sessions in the college dorms, and
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the challenges from atheistic professors, he felt entirely justified in casting off all pretense of a
belief in God.
And after all, hadn’t he made his way through life successfully?
What need had he of God, since that apparently had nothing to do with his success?
So why was he having pangs of remorse now? Was God trying to tell him something? What
about that preacher he saw on the subway trains into Manhattan, every day, coming and going,
for five years, starting in 1988?
He looked dressed for work, and was headed toward the financial district, just as he was.
Perhaps he also worked there, just as he did.
That same fortyish man was often preaching on the crowded Fulton Street platform in the
evenings.
It turned out that he was a neighbor, a resident of Glendale.
Right up until The Disappearance he was giving out gospel tracts for hours every Saturday on
Myrtle Avenue throughout the year, according to the local shopkeepers.
He seldom passed that way, and had never stopped to talk with the man, but usually took tracts,
and occasionally read them.
That man and his wife were no longer around now, and had vanished with the others.
Was there anything in the Bible to explain that? Even if there were, he wouldn’t know where to
look.
He found the Bible, a lightly-worn King
James, which he had gotten in a garage sale, and couldn’t even remember when he had
opened it last.
Stuck into the pages was
one of the tracts he had accepted.
It was entitled “The Second Coming”.
On the cover was a figure in a white robe, inscribed on the flanks “King of Kings, and Lord of
Lords”, that was heavily stained with blood at the bottom, riding a white horse, facing away, so
that only the blade of a sword was shown.
Alongside were other horsemen, surrounded by clouds and stars, about to alight on planet
earth.
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A scroll was superimposed, with the words in red “Surely I come quickly” with the reference Rev
22:20.
Four questions were at the top, below the title:
Where Did Everybody Go?
What is Happening?
Why Am I Left Here?
Is there any Hope?
The 2”x 4” tract was folded once, with three pages of text, including the following scripture
citations:
1 Thes 4:16-17;
2 Thes 2:9-12;
Rev 7:14;
Rev 16;
1 Thes 3:13;
Mt 24:36-44;
John 14:3;
Acts 3;19, 16:31; Eph 2:8.
The bottom of the back cover was stamped:
IMMANUEL CHURCH, Corner of 31
st
AVE & 69
th
ST, WOODSIDE, NY 11377, 718-335-1623, SUNDAY SERVICE 11:00 AM.
Below that in small print was FELLOWSHIP TRACT LEAGUE, P.O. BOX 164, LEBANON
OH 45036,
www.fellowshiptractleague.org
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© Tract 135.
He read all of the tract text and scriptures, which he found from the index in his Bible. This
prompted him to read the entire book of Revelation.
Now, for the first time, he understood the answers to those four questions, and what he needed
to do.
The peculiar thing was - why hadn’t he understood it before?
Because finally, for the first time, he realized that the reason all those preachers called the Bible
the Word of God was because it was proven to be so, by the accuracy of its prophecies,
predictions of extraordinary events that had little likelihood of fulfillment, including many in
Revelation that he had seen fulfilled within just the last few years.
It had many other predictions of what he could expect in the near future, which would be a hell
on earth for another three and a half years, until the second coming of Jesus Christ.
It was now strikingly evident to him that no other belief system, besides the one he now saw in
Revelation itself, had anything relevant to say concerning this period of history. A few hours of
research on the internet satisfied him that this was so.
Atheism and agnosticism weren’t even belief systems.
None of the oriental religious systems even mentioned it.
Islam’s teaching about this period is completely absent from the Quran;
its Hadith (Traditions) about it do not match up with what has transpired.
Rabbinic Judaism and the Talmud have nothing to say about this period itself, rather, only about
the glorification of Israel which follows it.
Catholicism and liberal Protestantism either allegorize the Revelation account, or regard it as
referring to past events.
Mormonism recognizes no special role for the Jews, either during, or after this period, and thus
misses one of its major themes.
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The Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that the 144,000 were not Jews, but members of their
organization who filled up that number and expired long ago.
Seventh-Day Adventists likewise regard themselves as the only true church, which must survive
through the entire seven-year period;
consequently they did not anticipate The Great Disappearance.
The Global Religion, only three or four years old, had to deal in broad generalities in order to
subsume so many diametrically opposed beliefs under one system, and offered nothing by way
of any predictions in advance of this period to indicate that it was of any divine authority. Howe
ver, one specific action the adherents of the Global Religion did agree upon was to
anathematize the 144,000, their converts, and the two preachers at Jerusalem.
Recently, they recommended to the Superman the extermination of these groups, by means of
the device which epitomized the very essence of terror – the guillotine.
It was used against 30,000 government critics during the Reign of Terror (1793-94) in France by
Robespierre, who said, “
Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible”.
The man was driven to his knees in prayer, calling out to God and Christ to save him from any
complicity in The Global Religion, and in making a decision that he knew could not be reversed
- taking the Mark, and being consigned to eternal punishment for that act alone. If there were
such a thing as the unpardonable sin, this was it, as described in Rev 14:9-11.
He had never been even a Bible reader, much less a Bible student.
But he noticed that there were four passages that mentioned The Mark, and he wanted to know
exactly what this entailed:
Rev 13:16-17;
14:9-11;
15:2;
and 16:2.
Was The Mark distinct from The Name and The Number?
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Or, was The Mark a generic reference to both The Name and The Number?
Or, was The Name synonymous with The Mark, while The Number was not?
The first of the passages cited above might support the first interpretation, but the other
passages did not.
The fourth passage could be construed to support the second interpretation, but the others did
not.
The second and third passages would support the third interpretation.
Also, because the first passage dealt only with buying and selling, and not with worship, it was
possible that The Number did not result in dire punishment.
The third passage spoke of the especially privileged position in heaven of those who also
avoided The Number, even if taking it did not result in punishment.
He decided that he wanted to be in that group.
In any case, he knew that he would be playing it safe as far as the counsel of the scripture was
concerned, to avoid any mark, name, or number.
Furthermore, there seemed to stand out a unique principle in this entire matter.
At what prior time in all history was there thrust upon men such an irrevocable choice to be
made at this precise moment:
either for Christ, gaining eternal life hereafter, and losing earthly life in the here-and-now, or
against Christ, keeping earthly life for a brief time, and suffering eternal damnation?
The only comparable time was the Renounce Christ or Die policy of the Roman Empire in the 2
nd
and 3
rd
centuries, when many died in the Amphitheaters.
Another interesting point was the relative shortness of this current reign of terror, which he could
expect to be another three and a half years.
He also realized that this would mean certain death at the hands of either Yeluga or the
Worship Enforcer, unless he went underground. There was enough food in the house to last for
perhaps a month, but no stored water.
And
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what would he do without electricity and gas for heating, hot water, and cooking?
His only hope was to find others in the neighborhood who believed as he did, and would take
the same step of avoiding The Number.
He might not find any.
Most would probably just take the easy way out, not even bothering to do the Bible study he had
just done.
He might have to look farther afield, and find a network of the converts of the 144,000.
Would he need to travel?
His car could take him only about three hundred miles.
Within three weeks all his utility bills would come due, and would have to be paid immediately.
Without phone or internet there would be no communications with any network of
fellow-believers.
Radio, TV, and even the internet had for a long time ceased to communicate anything for the
sustenance of believers, and he totally avoided the news media, which was all propaganda
anyway, to insulate himself from any more horrors perpetrated upon his mind.
As substantial as his account balances were, they were now inaccessible, unless he were to be
marked.
It mattered not that he had direct deposit of social security and pension checks into his account,
if he could not pay any bills or purchase any necessities.
He called dozens of friends, and walked around the neighborhood, looking for someone to talk
to. Everyone he spoke to seemed to be resigned to taking The Number, and they were all in
The Global Religion.
Fortunately, he felt, he had never joined them. There was no point in
approaching any church building, for all those had now been appropriated by The Global
Religion.
He decided
to ask God to lead him to other believers.
Almost two weeks passed, and still he had not found any.
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It was hard to sleep, knowing that he would soon be running out of food.
Could he beg for food from the Numbered neighbors, or would that evidence a lack of trust in
the Lord’s provision?
He was spending more and more time in prayer and Bible study, finding The Psalms a
marvelous resource.
Under the circumstances, innocuous diversions, such as watching Abbott and Costello or
Charlie Chan films, his favorites, on Cable TV or the internet were no longer
satisfying entertainment.
Nor did listening to some of his classical music favorites comfort and cheer him anymore.
There was solace only in the Word of God.
Besides that, walking as much as possible was invigorating to him. One bright sunny day at
noon, he decided to walk from his home into Manhattan, a distance of six miles.
At a brisk pace, he could cover that distance in two hours.
Perhaps he would find a stranger who was like-minded, and they could pool their resources.
He made his way west along Myrtle Avenue, all the way to Flatbush Avenue in downtown
Brooklyn, and then turned onto the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan.
Then he turned north onto Broadway.
So far, he hadn’t felt hungry, although passing so many inviting eateries was extremely
tempting.
He hadn’t anticipated that, but should have, because over the last week he was basically
reduced to a diet of rice and butter.
Almost everyone in the throngs had The Number, and a few even had The Mark.
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A very disconcerting sight now loomed into view about two blocks ahead. Already, a scaffold! And on it, the accursed guillotine!
It was about fifteen feet high, with a diagonal blade.
Had it been used yet?
Apparently it had just been installed, but there were many curious people milling about it.
He hurried on, and hoped to see no more of them.
But the further he went northward along Broadway, the more frequently they appeared.
When he reached the intersection of Broadway and 14
th
Street at Union Square, a major nexus of streets and subway lines, he saw one at each corner
of the square.
A decapitated corpse was being dragged off the northwest scaffold into a body bag, but it was
all done so quickly that he didn’t see anything else, except that the blade hadn’t been cleaned
yet.
However, the onlookers were gasping and shrieking.
At least two hundred people were running in all directions.
As expected, several TV crews were on hand to record it all.
He ran with the others along Broadway, up to the next major intersection, at 23 rd Street and
Madison Square.
Here also was a similar scene to the one he was running from, but with executions repeated at
each corner.
There was total bedlam – more noise from the screams than from the heavy honking traffic,
which had come to a standstill, with gawkers pressed against every bus and cab window.
Some people were being trampled.
He had to keep running to avoid getting crushed, and decided to go down any side street, but
that wasn’t an option.
They disgorged a horde coming from the opposite direction.
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The Guillotine and a Bag of Doritos - 17 Written by James Herzel
Friday, 16 April 2010 11:02 - Last Updated Friday, 16 April 2010 11:05
The only way was to continue north along Broadway, which was completely clogged with
people, buses, and cabs, past Greeley Square, at 32
nd
, with more executions.
It was getting dark now, at about 6 PM. Finally, he reached the broad open space in front of the
nd Street, which on
One Times Square Building at 42
New Year’s Day could accommodate one million people.
Today, all vehicles had been diverted from that area, which was an ocean of humanity.
The famous gigantic electronic billboards and jumbotrons overhead were all depicting the
beheadings going on below, on fifty scaffolds, since few could see anything from the street.
He was exhausted and nauseous.
There would be no more temptations to eat, at least.
He remembered there used to be a Nathan’s at the corner of Broadway and 43
rd
Street.
The store there now was no longer called Nathan’s, but still sold the same world-famous hot
dogs that he loved so much.
He looked into the window, packed with patrons.
All of a sudden he was almost knocked down by a foreign-looking man being chased out of the
shop by employees with candy-cane striped aprons, shouting that he had taken a bag of chips
off a rack without going through the payment line, and must be arrested. The foreigner, who
was not marked, thrust the bag into the hands of the man from Glendale, and then melted away
into the crowd.
Instan
tly, the police were upon him, and snapped on the cuffs.
“No Mark and no Number!
You know what that means, don’t you, Mister!”, one exclaimed.
“Off we go!
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The Guillotine and a Bag of Doritos - 17 Written by James Herzel
Friday, 16 April 2010 11:02 - Last Updated Friday, 16 April 2010 11:05
Is there a free one?
Oh yes!
Right over there!”
.
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