Fallen Future

The End of the World as we knew it occurred in 2018. Some say it was back in 2015 but with some governmental services continuing until 2018 most agree the end occurred then. Everyone agrees that the seeds of the end were sown back in the 2006-2008 range. The major recession, which eventually was admitted to be a depression, began the problems. As the years ticked by it became self-evident that the peak of the US economy had passed. As a result the rest of the world suffered as well. Without the United States to sell their export goods to, many of their economies faltered as well.

The world had the knowledge of the 21st century but in many places had faltered back to an earlier standard of living. Oil was scarce and as a result gasoline was as well. Shipping was touch and go with only the occasional shipments to things like grocery stores and hardware stores. The electricity was still on in most places but only because the government had taken it over and provided it all for free. When I refer to the government here I am not talking about the one that once controlled the entire United States. In many cases, mine is one, the states had taken over to attempt to keep their people alive. While they provided a number of services, they also demanded taxes. With the way things were, these were more likely to be paid in labor or goods than anything else. Human society had devolved. You owned the land you could hold and not what the banks said you owned. The banks themselves were defunct, gone along with the fiat money that they had dealt in. Survival was the name of the game and what you could control and keep was yours.

Some had seen this coming and prepared. Stocking up on food and goods that would be invaluable in a post-apocalyptic scenario. They were just as valuable in the hiatus between civilization and apocalypse that we were currently in. I had made many of those preparations myself but there was one additional preparation I had made that most others had never thought of. In researching hypnosis, while the Internet was still available and you could buy a book with a 10 minute drive, I had discovered that there were claims it could work as anesthesia. I had purchased several of the more highly recommended books on the subject and studied them as I found time.

My wife was never quite sure if I was crazy as I made my preparations but as things soured slowly, in a downward spiral, she became a believer. Part of our preparation involved a good deal of agricultural work on our property. You’d be amazed at the amount of crops a little 1⅓ acre property can produce with hyper intensive gardening techniques. A good deal of it was perennial bearing plants such as fruit and nut trees, berries and the like. They took a fair amount of work from time to time but to have a steady food supply made it well worth it. In addition to my wife we were feeding two daughters, a 16 year old and a 10 year old. Both were old enough to work at helping us supply food for the family. Between the four of us we even normally managed to produce enough food to put some additional away for the future.

Now enough of the background and on to the story I wish to tell.