THE NEW AMERICA GROUP - A. P. Davis 4.5.2018 Thursday

chapter 1

Tony Franks stood on the roof of New America One Tower looking down 500 stories below. Nothing but clouds.

Jake Swanson and Mike Dexter and David Pierpont via Shuttle 10.50 MAX, were due to arrive at the teleport landing at the summit of New America One and Tony had not seen the three of them since the briefing last week. The wind was stronger now than it had been all week. 35 MPH against his face as he looked across at the horizon. The only place to land a shuttle is on top of the towers. At approximately 12 hundred hours they would fly to the border. The security force was waiting. The Wall was complete and the grand ceremony would start within the hour.

The year was 2099. Location - Texas Co. USA - 280 miles from the border wall.

The tower lights were shining through the thick mass of clouds, hovering over the upper limits of the structure and it reminded him of the days of traveling through the mountains in a dense fog of an early July morning.

Without proper computer guidance the 10.50 MAX would surely crash land against the outer edges of the massive monolith. GPS was not all that accurate and the pilot would have to rely on a visual of the beacon lights. "We have visual. Prepare for landing." - the pilot announced as the three man crew put on their outer gear to prepare for their exit.

It was once considered by the engineers of the New America Group to use subterranean passages and go underground to elevators. Well, that idea was a good one, and in fact the designers did in fact create such means of human transport from tower to tower, but the time it takes to go from point A to point B would take much longer and the crew didn't have the luxury of having that much extra time so they took a ride aboard one of the MAX shuttles. From the rooftop of the tower, Tony would greet the three security officers who would remain on the uppermost level of NA1 for security purposes, until his return. David, Mike and Jake remained inside the shuttle. Tony gave the three security officers their orders and then he went inside the shuttle, greeted by the pilot and his pals from Scientex. "We have enough time to look over the weather data. We need to take this bird to a lower altitude and fly due south. That storm is headed our way. How's it going guys?" The three crew were anxious to get themselves as far from the massive cumulonimbus clouds to a safe fly zone.

"This ride was not the best one." - announced Mike, who was the one who did not like flying, much less landing on top of the tallest tower in Texas during a thunderstorm. "Tony, we have to move fast." - "We are ahead of schedule and this shuttle is designed to fly through all sorts of weather. We'll be alright.", Tony replied, with a reassuring grin.

The pilot was experienced at flying high and fast. But even he was a bit anxious to get that bird down to a safer altitude and out of the way of that storm front that was about to hit the area within under 20 minutes.

"Please have a seat and get yourself strapped in Mr. Franks." The pilot made sure the door was locked and quickly descended and headed away from the storm front. The three security officers took the sky elevator down to level 298. They entered the tower's main observation room. There were about 30 digital monitors along with a large main screen that captured the shuttle in real time ultra high def, as it followed a programmed course.

The New America Group, founded in the year 2050, by Max Davenport, then president of USA co. was created to house the many millions in tight formation, to allow for the redevelopment of larger land mass for the purpose of agriculture and mining. The many structures of the former era, bulldozed and flattened to make way for digging and planting seemed to be the best way to provide surface areas for future citizens of New America to provide room for new growth. Some several thousands of acres were used strictly for solar arrays and wind turbines to generate electric power to the towers. The entire surface of the North American Territories underwent great levels of change.There had already been over 100 clusters or groups of towers built since 2068 and there were new towers being erected at a rate of 30 or more every year from the west coast to the east coast.

Since the sea levels had risen dramatically, towers were built at higher elevations in expectation of future sea level risings from global warming. The polar shifting that started back in the year 2018, causing large areas, once experiencing only moderate long cold weather conditions, ended up turning the north eastern portions of the old USA into a new arctic. The weather was continuing to behave in a vastly unpredictable manner.

Areas that were once frozen were turning tropical. Areas once desert were under water or experiencing colder temperatures for the very first time in recorded history.

The border wall was originally the idea of the current president of the United States of America, before the third wave of hostility. The 3rd Wave or WW3 began in the spring of 2018 with the launch of the first intercontinental ballistic missile, originating from an unknown origin, carrying a payload of ultra magnetic pulse bombs that were detonated in the higher altitudes of major cities in the European Union and America, creating blackouts and causing mass waves of social confusion and panic. It took over a decade to regroup. The American forces learned later on that the launch of these strategic Pulse bombs were controlled by remote locations and no point of origin had ever become realized. Official reports indicated, however, that the launch of these MAGMAX bombs were from, of all places, the UAE.

Over the years that followed, New America was born out of necessity. There was put an end to mass travel using gas powered vehicles and commercial planes. People now had to decide where they wanted to live by choosing from several towers, that were typically either cities inside or integrated places of living, each serving a general or more specific form of life. There were towers that were grouped together for public housing, and others that served as places of commerce, and moreover, they were grouped according to a specific area of technology, science or place of higher learning. Some groups were devoted to agriculture and medicine, while other groups were devoted to the arts, entertainment and culture. They were positioned geographically to make it easy for distributing en mass, much needed materials and served the needs of the inhabitants based on the availability of goods, services and materials afforded by the expansion of land for the purpose of providing for future population growth.

The problem now was that the wall would be a barrier, preventing the New America Group from other less desirable cultures and persons from entering, to insure domestic tranquility but there were so many opposed to this idea, clearly in favor of OPEN BORDERS, that the wall presented the greatest single thing that would divide America and be the beginning of hostilities from within. The enemy was clearly not those who lived on the other side of the wall. The enemy was living in cyber space. There were only firewalls in cyber space. The forces of good and evil, creation and destruction were not restricted by physical walls. The wall, so to speak, was only a symbolic thing. It would only create a greater divide between those who lived in the world of black and white, all or nothing thinkers from those who believed in open borders and a world where freedom was for all, not just a few. The kind of thinkers who could look at things from both sides and see it from more than one single perspective, those were the thinkers that ultimately would be the ones who would eventually come up on top of the proverbial mountain of truth. No matter how high a tower, man could not reach heaven. No matter how wide or tall the wall of division, you can not maintain such a thing. Those who see the wall as an asset, were facing against those who realized that the wall was an incredible liability.

As the MAX shuttle soared at a low altitude across the Texas plains, Tony looked out and was able to see many bison, passing through what once was an urban wasteland. The new grass that grew, covering massive acres, was now providing fresh wild grass to feed the creatures of nature. Buffalo, horses among the many now living in a world that was more like paradise, yet that wall stood as a testament of an era of man that marked the transition from political and financial oppression to a new era of abundant freedom for man, nature and the day when that wall would one day fall. Even if that wall remained for a thousand years, it would be nothing more than a wall. No more, no less, a simple object like any other symbolic architecture of man's ego.

Before such realization, being alive in that time, the wall had a double meaning. First it was a way to keep others out and second, it was a way to keep people trapped from the inside. The towers were created with the same two objectives as well. Keeping people inside and preventing others from entering. The only symbol of freedom was the idea that nature was more abundant than ever before although mass extinctions of thousands of species had already taken place. The few wild things that remained, however unaware of the intentions of us humans, were blessed by not knowing anything. They would continue to live on the outside of the towers, and the humans would continue to live on the inside, feeling safe and free from the dangers that were more imagined than real. Such is the nature of us all.

If a man can stand on a mountain top and look over the vastness beyond, compared to a man who can only look out through a window of a single living unit, will have vastly different ways of looking at the world as it appears. The wild things that roam the planet, in search of food and not asking why will never know the feeling of limits that man has created for himself. The things that we as civilized people, know can so easily make us feel like we are either open minded about the future or closed minded to the infinite possibilities of it.

Tony had a better idea to put there instead of a stupid wall. He wanted at first to plant a row of trees along the border and start building a perimeter WALL CITY multi-level sky bridge - Economic and Residential - world within, with bullet trains below and a super highway on the top and pedestrian walk-paths at certain levels, and with interconnecting stairways, elevators and escalators to and from places of business, residence, manufacturing and production, similar to the infrastructure of the towers only going horizontally and stretching across the border from the east to the west. But the cost would have been astronomical to say the least. But then, the idea had many potentially beneficial uses and for some reason Tony held this and other ideas on his back burner, so to speak.

The possibilities of a wrap around wall city of sorts, with all the essential aspects of a horizontal tower that worked as a barrier wall, a gateway as well as having hotels, lakes, parks and galleries and casinos along the entire stretch of it would be the eighth wonder of the world, in theory.

As the Max began to finally reach it's destination, Tony could see the faint outline of what appeared to be a high fence of both concrete, steel and wire fencing that spanned several miles looking more like a security fence along a prison camp. Tony was disgusted by the sight of it and wished he had been looking at His vision of a City Border Wonder Wall with all of the bells and whistles of a combination of Disneyland and a world cruise ship and theme park. But the real world had no place for dreamers.

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Image Credit » new america picture by A.P. Davis 4.8.2018 original artwork

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