Annihilating the Past Read online

putting them out…

  Trevor

  I stopped putting them out under my name with big publicity and hype, but I’ve still got sorties going out. I’m doing the best work I’ve ever done, even if I’m not getting paid for it anymore. The fucking marketplace is flooded right now, and most of these sorties are bad, boring, or just plain evil. My work now is countering that, I empower people, I tell them that there’s hope, I try to minimize their fears.

  Me

  So are you fighting for Pacifica with your sorties?

  Trevor

  I don’t see it that way, but if the content I create happens to line up more with one side or the other, so be it. I’m not a political artist, but one side in the conflict has never tried to kill me, so I am a little biased in their favor. I think that’s enough Efrain, I need a shower and a bed.

  Me

  I hope you didn’t mind me asking some of those questions.

  Trevor

  It’s fine. I’m not a hero and I’m not a villain. I’m a dad, a husband, and an artist. (coughing) My perspective is limited and yours is too. If you remember that it will be a good article.

  -END AUDIO TRANSCRIPT-

  When the interview was over the sun was up and he looked exhausted. I had five or six new revelations about the man and his work, so I knew my editor would be happy. The most surprising thing to me was that he was still putting out annihilation sorties. I wondered what distribution method he was using, and before I left Cabo I got an answer.

  I wasn’t scheduled to leave until the following day and the family seemed to have forgotten about me already, so I was free to wonder around the ranch. There were six bungalows like the one I stayed in, and I found that two of them were filled with boxes. Being a curious person, I went to see what was in them. They were filled with small, hand-crank FM radio receivers. There were about two hundred in each box, and there were maybe forty boxes in each bungalow.

  I was back home, working on the article, when I got word of Trevor’s death. It was on the Pacifica News Portal, and I had to read through the notice twice before I understood what it was saying. He was with Carlos, sleeping onboard a boat docked in San Felipe. At four in the morning the boat was hit with a white phosphorous incendiary device. They were both killed. The notice said that they were doing work for a charity that donated radios to children in economically depressed border towns in northern Mexico. The perpetrators of the attack were unknown, but investigators said that the boat had been tracked via Carlos’s small-screen.

  I called Tiny up right away. After I expressed my sympathy for her and the family I told her about Lillian, and about how I’d caught her transferring something from Carlos’ small-screen. I cried telling her, and then found myself in the strange situation of being comforted by a grieving widow. “Maybe it was her, maybe not.” She said. “They’ve been trying to get him for years, maybe they used you, but we have no way of knowing. It’s not your fault…”

  “But if I’d told you…”

  “They would’ve gotten him some other way some other time. Trevor didn’t believe in death anyway. Your guilt is absolutely useless, and you need to stop it.”

  “I can’t believe I let myself fall for that.”

  “Trevor didn’t want to push his luck by antagonizing the party openly, but I think it’s important for people to know that he was fighting the CNP with his music when he was killed. Trevor and Carlos died on the front lines of the real war, the war against fear. Publish that if you want to assuage your guilt.”

  About the Author

  Benjamin Broke is the pseudonym of an author who wishes to remain anonymous. He currently lives in Pittsburgh and works a regular job. Please download and read more of his books, it would make him happy. He can be reached by email at:

  [email protected]

  Twitter: @Benny_Broke

  You can call or text Benny at: (412) 512-7732

  Also by Benjamin Broke

  Please go to Benjamin Broke’s author page at your preferred ebook retailer and check out some of his other work.

  -Other short stories in the Second Civil War series

  FULL EMPLOYMENT IN AMERICA

  A radical proposal to end unemployment and repair our economy.

  FREE SOUP

  When a homeless man and a young girl go to a soup kitchen run by a UFO cult, they find out that there’s really no such thing as free soup.

  THE MANY ITERATIONS OF KENDRA DIXON

  A brain surgery reveals the true nature of time to Kendra Dixon and allows her to freely roam all possible versions of her life.

  ANIMAL THEATER

  UFO cults, mass suicides, clones, designer drugs, brain-implants, propaganda, mind control, war, politics and conspiracies big and small -this collection contains all 20 previously published Second Civil War stories.

  In the chaotic aftermath of a complete economic collapse, the American people turn to a right-wing political movement, the Christian Nationalist Party, to restore order. When the western states refuse to enact some of the party's harsh new anti-terror measures, the military moves in, setting off a long and bloody civil war. This series of short stories explores the impact of the war on the lives of people from every level of society.

  -Other ebooks by Benjamin Broke

  SPACECRAFT

  This is not a book -it’s a scam.

  It’s the story of Nick, a seventeen year old weed-smoking, acid-eating, suburban nihilist dropout who accidentally stumbles across an idea that is truly revolutionary. In this text you will find arguments against art, money, sobriety, religion, education, and the rule of law.

  This is Benjamin Broke’s first novel and it is deeply flawed and wrong on many levels. You should begin downloading it immediately.

  INSURGENTS

  How far would you go to help a friend in trouble?

  Ben Perkins might go so far as to risk his job, but with a friend like David Telano, in the kind of trouble he's in, he'll wind up risking his life. With the encouragement of his girlfriend Jessie, a 24 hour a day weed smoker, Ben is soon mixed up in a war that's going on just beneath the surface of his quiet Ohio town. On one side is a lesbian newspaper editor, radicalized by the murder of her girlfriend, and on the other is a wealthy businessman running a drug-smuggling operation from a private airfield. In between them is Ben, who starts out trying to help a friend but ends up just trying to stay out of jail and continue breathing.