Florida Oranges
09-02-2005, 01:24
The one-hundred-year-old pine and oak trees that had once dotted the rolling hills of Tallahassee had somehow vanished; in the place of the gnarled monsters was an ever-growing curtain of destruction. The shady canopies that befriended passersby on steamy Florida days now lay strewn about the roads, their golden leaves burning furiously as explosive bursts enveloped the worn soil around them. Snaking piles of telephone wires fizzed dangerously around them, over bullet-riddled bodies and pools of sticky red blood as the steady beat of artillery weapons filled the early evening sky. Carnage was a common theme throughout the Floridian peninsula, and one that residents had reluctantly grown used to. They had no choice. You either accepted your surroundings and pushed for survival or be swallowed in the panic of battle and swept away to your grave. Such were the lives of anyone who chose to live in a warlord's domain.
That is what Tallahassee, and in fact the entire state of Florida had become; the territories of bloodthirsty warmongers. The United States of America had long been disbanded. In their quest to spread democracy to the comfy confines of Europe, the Pacific, and even the Caribbean they had been thwarted by an alliance of determined foreign powers. The American government faced absolute annihilation, and the result was fifty new sovereign nations. Some were greedily snatched up and turned into European colonies; others established effective governments with accomplished politicians. And than there were those of the states that were thrown into what seemed to be a never ending anarchy. Florida was such a state.
Oh sure, there were attempts at forming a legitimate government for the Sunshine State. Those of the upper class society, with their fancy medical certificates and Harvard degrees attempted to organize administration that would cater to the voice of the people. Their reception was ill, and met with torture, rape, murder, and chaos. Cubans in Miami seized control of the streets and called them their own. Gun nuts in Southwest Florida mowed down all their opposition in broad daylight and proclaimed themselves sultans. Even a few homosexuals in Key West tried to make their home an independent territory, but they were eventually assassinated by a group of ambitious tourists.
Florida had been sliced into ten uneven factions, all which were constantly warring each other. The east coast tourist attraction had become an illegitimate war zone run by militant criminals and warlords. Disaster, death, and disease were every day events. But as a battle raged on between two villainous cretins in the Tallahassee streets, it became evident that anarchy could not reign forever.
Rumors of a hulking warlord spread through Florida like a case of herpes in a brothel. It was said he was marching to the capital with the intent of reuniting the Florida territories and making the former state a great world power. Stories of his bloody march had reached as far as southern Georgia, and were riddled with what seemed to be mistruths and falsified facts. Claims that he wore the skulls of his enemies as armor after yanking out their entrails were at first taken with a grain of salt, and were often challenged by the cynical. But the skepticism was misplaced; a hard fact of life the residents would accept when he showed up on their doorstep.
The echoes of explosions reverberated through the crumbling neighborhoods of Florida's capital. Stop lights dropped from their suspension and burst into a million pieces as the shrill screams of dying warriors overlapped each other before disappearing into a crimson sky. The march to unity could only be accomplished through the blood of others. Such was war.
That is what Tallahassee, and in fact the entire state of Florida had become; the territories of bloodthirsty warmongers. The United States of America had long been disbanded. In their quest to spread democracy to the comfy confines of Europe, the Pacific, and even the Caribbean they had been thwarted by an alliance of determined foreign powers. The American government faced absolute annihilation, and the result was fifty new sovereign nations. Some were greedily snatched up and turned into European colonies; others established effective governments with accomplished politicians. And than there were those of the states that were thrown into what seemed to be a never ending anarchy. Florida was such a state.
Oh sure, there were attempts at forming a legitimate government for the Sunshine State. Those of the upper class society, with their fancy medical certificates and Harvard degrees attempted to organize administration that would cater to the voice of the people. Their reception was ill, and met with torture, rape, murder, and chaos. Cubans in Miami seized control of the streets and called them their own. Gun nuts in Southwest Florida mowed down all their opposition in broad daylight and proclaimed themselves sultans. Even a few homosexuals in Key West tried to make their home an independent territory, but they were eventually assassinated by a group of ambitious tourists.
Florida had been sliced into ten uneven factions, all which were constantly warring each other. The east coast tourist attraction had become an illegitimate war zone run by militant criminals and warlords. Disaster, death, and disease were every day events. But as a battle raged on between two villainous cretins in the Tallahassee streets, it became evident that anarchy could not reign forever.
Rumors of a hulking warlord spread through Florida like a case of herpes in a brothel. It was said he was marching to the capital with the intent of reuniting the Florida territories and making the former state a great world power. Stories of his bloody march had reached as far as southern Georgia, and were riddled with what seemed to be mistruths and falsified facts. Claims that he wore the skulls of his enemies as armor after yanking out their entrails were at first taken with a grain of salt, and were often challenged by the cynical. But the skepticism was misplaced; a hard fact of life the residents would accept when he showed up on their doorstep.
The echoes of explosions reverberated through the crumbling neighborhoods of Florida's capital. Stop lights dropped from their suspension and burst into a million pieces as the shrill screams of dying warriors overlapped each other before disappearing into a crimson sky. The march to unity could only be accomplished through the blood of others. Such was war.