33
Paul’s camera was in place and set to record at sunrise, maybe the lack of commotion would permit the boys to sleep in. It seemed like people weren’t the happiest down there, and a tad confused as to how a camp full of slackers had outsmarted a private security firm armed with razor wire and night vision. Should be a fun debriefing with last night’s paranormal investigator.
It looked like they were trying to dig into the rock hard congestion, they might be able to scrape out a chunk of it, but he jammed it deep into the inner workings of the machine. An adolescent prank at best, half a day lost, but a boxful of new switches arrived after lunch, nobody can stop the progress of destruction.
The cops tried to question the treesit, but no answers led to the threat of accomplisment, which started to sound like a farce as they were accused of somehow directing the spooky orbs through the open air of a creeped out mercenary hit squad.
The ordeal was almost over, ignitions almost installed, the guards smug enough to convince themselves that this was somehow a victory, of course they also claim a win after a shift of shooting at unarmed citizens in prayer, so whatevs.
Another moral reprimand to the trees, why don’t you guys just grow up and focus on what’s important in life? Get a job and a house and meet a nice girl, do you think any kind of self-respecting woman is going to want a man who sits around and wastes everyone’s time like this? Miles could think of a few.
He also thought that not everyone’s time was wasted. Sure, all those here for a cancelled paycheck had lost a day, but they already lost that when they took a job they didn’t care about three states away. And the cops, well they’re the ones who actually had to get off their ass and do their job during a shutdown, so what do they have to complain about? They might even get to shoot somebody.
Miles considered his own situation, and that this was the most utilized his time had been in his whole life. Before all this, he sold most of it off to the highest bidder, as he wore himself down from doing anything useful with the rest. But now he was in a different boat than that guy, he wasn’t foregoing his actual life to be here, he wasn’t biding the time until he could go back to living, this was his life, and every moment was filled with passion, and excitement, and a fulfillment unknown to the Miles of yesterday. He might be stalling the engine, but he wasn’t wasting time, he was making up for the years he wasted trying to convince himself that everything was okay in babylon.
The spectators of the halftime show got their own talking to, a colonial critique of their priorities, and threats of investigation for a crime that most had yet to even identify, plus a harsh reminder that the fence was five feet inside of the easement, so back off or else.
A row of heavily armored egos reinforced the guidelines. No one would be getting over on their corporate account today. Progress would prevail.
Switches switched and the motorpool revved to life, in your face you stupid water protectors, and ten minutes later the valves were so clean that white smoke billowed across the horizon. The crowds went wild.
Man were they pissed. Like, so pissed. Like, FBI task force pissed. Of course, that could backfire on the unlicensed security firm illegally enforcing their own agenda, except that it never has in the past. This was most definitely a step beyond passive defiance, though still arguably a nonviolent direct action, either way, the ante had just been raised against the biggest bankroll in existence. Things would be a lot more real from this point forward, the stakes were for keeps, the charges were federal, the ammunition was live.
The cops were as overheated as the motors, tensions fumed as the sideline soirée rubbed their face in it, back away from the fence or we’ll be forced to use excessive brute. A second humvee parked with their turret aimed to please, a line of gasmasks emerged with a chemical cocktail mislabeled by Mrs. Dash, they still seemed a little salty for Miles’ taste.
Paul focused his attention on capturing the subordinance, a few strays rattled the cage as they aggravated an assault, a command to fall back was answered by the protectors of unity, the rebels resisted.
Everyone that Miles recognized had moved outside the five foot perimeter, the unknown assailants were encouraged to join the compliance before they were caught in an onslaught. Nobody had to get hurt today, there was no point to it, construction was already in a deadlock and they weren’t prepared to rush the frontline, any further instigation would only add bleach to the firing squad. A few more fell into line as the line fell back another five, the three rogue instigators got nasty with the brigade, in a personal kinda way, not cool with the movement of peace, love, and understanding.
Nobody’d ever seen them around camp. There were a lot more people here now, the reinstated work order had enlisted those on standby, but Becca knew everybody and those three had never eaten her dinner. Maybe they were ultravegans.
The rabble roused one last strand of obscenity, the disciplinarians gave one last warning, the community offered one last chance, then backpedaled another ten and sat down in a unison show of cooperation.
Could two dozen soldiers really feel threatened enough to unload on three rogue civilians through a ten foot razor wire fence? Well, sure, that happens all the time. Even if the perps are infiltrating fossils? Well, how do these guys know that, they’re just the pawns up front, and so were the agitators who were paid to incite the riot. And even if it means overspraying on a field full of innocent bystanders acting in good faith? Well, maybe.
“They’re coming around the fence,” radioed Paul from the crows nest. “Six on each side.”
The mosh pit turned to confirm the message, quickly realizing that more than a few paces lie between them and blending in with the seated audience. A look of hysteria washed across their faces, calculations that they would soon be the primary victims of their own demise. The stormtroopers moved with vigor as they closed in on the unallied rebels, it was too late for them to infiltrate the peace party, so they just ran.
The six of one side pursued the perps across the imaginary border, the half dozen of the other formed a pretty mean red rover lineup between the sit-in and the inaction. Gruff attitudes and gratitudes blended as they thanked the docile disruptors for complying in a uniform way, they also let everyone know who wore the guns in the relationship. They were not being detained, as was cleared up on forty or fifty livefeeds, but they weren’t exactly free to celebrate either.
The public speakers of the stationary movement calmly took turns sharing words of understanding with those who were simply following orders. Doing their duty. Their jobs. Feeding their families. Protecting their communities. And they shared compelling explanations that they were doing the same. That communities ravaged by pipelines were inevitable. And their water. And their food. And the food they supply other communities. Maybe even your community. And there’s only one water. And there’s only one humanity. And yeah, you’re just doing what you gotta do to survive in this system we’ve been thrown into, you don’t really care about oil, you just know it fuels the economy as it brings power to the people. But did you know it’s totally wrecking any chance your kids will have at a normal kind of life?
Ninety-nine percent of the world’s scientists agree that we have to do something soon or it will be too late. We’ve got until 2030 to completely decarbonize in order to avoid irreversible catastrophe, and maybe even a couple of you actually believe in this liberal propaganda, but what could any of us possibly do anyway? So they keep us compartmentalized and at odds, labor divided and exported to the next man’s backyard, strung out by a paycheck and doing what you have to do to get by. But we’re not just meant to get by. And we’re not meant to be at war with each other.
But we’re not meant to put in the next fifty years of biggest ever pipeline infrastructure either. We have to make a change, and fast, and we understand that everybody’s not gonna get a tipi and a bicycle, we have to find a solution that preserves enough comfort for normal people, and the only way to do that is to unite and pressure the energy industry to reform, as we hold our government accountable for the catastrophic mess they’ve gotten us into.
We can come together and make a difference. It will take a WWII style rallying of our resources, for a much more existential threat, but just think of all the hardworking American jobs it’ll create, as we transition from destroying the planet to healing her. The change is already coming to the Earth, she’s waking up all around us. Fires and floods and epidemics are just phase one of the sixth great extinction event, and the financial world’s gonna come crumbling down alongside her, but it’s not too late for us to mitigate the damage and give our children’s generation a fighting chance.
In a not too distant future of poisoned water and toxic air, do you really want to tell your grandkids that you sat by and did nothing, as everything good in the world was traded away for money? Or that you held a gun against the few people that were trying to do something? Wouldn’t it be way nicer to be able to say that you gave everything you had to protect their future? We don’t do this because it’s the easy way out, we don’t do it because we think we can topple an empire, we damn sure don’t do it for a paycheck. We do it because it’s the right thing to do, and we would rather die trying something, than live in a world devoid of anything.
A couple of them heard it, maybe some others would later, reimagining the way the world works and your place in it, is a process. Indian time.
An elder negotiated for the community, they’d return to camp for the night and let everyone rest, if the half dozen would join them in a prayer for the healing of the Earth and the health of her children. There were a few half hearts out there, but two halves make a whole, and there was a whole lotta love in the air for fellow members of the same human experience.
Miles was pretty touched, even from his elevated state. He also thought he saw the escapees make it to the highway, where they all climbed into the same white pickup, coulda just been the glare of sunset though.