Rewriting the Remembrance, from 23 November.
Finally time to write the Homeland bit.
After re-reading my past notes on the New and Improved Schuler, I’m left with the thought that the timing is still off. Having Schuler use the radio broadcast to dream up Locusts attacking Suburbia feels good, and the broadcast-as-trigger takes away the cheaty feeling that originally accompanied the idea. So, I want to go with that, but it still only gives a week for the Homeland to come into being.
If the Locusts attack, and keep attacking, as I hinted at back in May, it would certainly increase the speed at which “Us vs. Them” would develop, at which a military force would be accepted and expanded upon, at which Schuler would become the leader of the area.
Diane should be troubled by Locusts appearing without a meteor, and by the relatively low population density of the area. Is her theory wrong or is something else going on here?
Even with that, would it be enough time?
The more people believe in him, the more juice he has, the more Locusts he can imagine into being, rinse, wash repeat. He’ll need witnesses. A crowd. A few people wouldn’t be enough to start the snowball effect he’d need to create it all in such a short time. So, a mall, or a concert, or a protest, or an emergency response shelter crowded with scared civilians of all socioeconomic stripes. A high school gymnasium would make a good impromptu setting for that.
He could fight his way – maybe with Dave from the TV shop – to the VFW to recruit help. The fighting would be public, along roads. The dreamed Locusts would leap out from behind obstructions and buildings with no organization or apparent intelligence, just animal lethality. After all, there hasn’t yet been a broadcast about their organization and methodical way of exterminating people.
By the end of day 1, would Schuler have enough believers to create Locusts outside of his field of vision? I’d say so. Not many, but enough to keep the ball of fear rolling. The snowball of fear? With that sequence of events, and the fear caused by satellite, TV, radio, cell phone, etc. being down, I think the needed bits are in place for the social side of the Homeland to exist in a week. Getting the infrastructure working under Schuler will be a different matter.
Considering his and the local mentality, drawing lines and borders will be needed to “free” the Homeland from the greater grids, allowing them to focus on purely local infrastructure. This won’t need to be literal to work. Then they’ll move from generators to restoring local power, which everything else relies upon.
Why would anyone wonder how the gas stations never run out of gas, even with no deliveries from the outside? They’ve been saved from the desolation that’s wiping out the rest of the world. Don’t question – be thankful.
I need to reduce the amount of infrastructure that’s operational, and speak to everything that’s being worked on. Workers of all stripes have been temporarily re-tasked with setting things right (AKA the way they used to be) until the infrastructure is functioning. In this, Schuler is honest, and truly intends to re-establish the 9-to-5 world.
Through it all, the McDonald’s-turned-Mess Hall never stops producing food and drink. *ominous thunderclap*