Eden Reset

Dan never was much into politics, he was a lot more interested in doing some spelunking on his days off.

But he also read the papers, watching as the man elected to lead the Nation made changes.

Everyone running for office anywhere always claimed they were going to make changes, but of course they never really did so that mostly got ignored.

Far too late, the people realized that this man was serious. They should have known though, after all, he came from a world that most politicians knew nothing, or rather, cared nothing about.

The new President really did state flatly ahead of time what he was going to do, but hell. He was a politician, nobody really believed him.

When the economic "crisis" developed about 60 minutes after he was sworn in, and the first of a series of bills were passed, a few people realized what was likely coming but it was far too late.

The first step was national control over finances, mixed in there was wage and compensation controls. It wasn't very long and a bill was passed keeping "fairness" in the media, that made it impossible for anyone to complain using radio, TV, or even the internet.

The reason was simple, giving up free air time to all opposing viewpoints meant the media outlets could simply not afford it.

It seems that no one will ever listen to what they don't want to hear.

So the media mostly played music and offered up generic news from time to time. Neat stories in the papers about how the Corn crop was doing, things like that. The Nation became a place of peace, the massively wealthy were reduced to the same status as everyone else. A few complained and tried to fight back, but not for long.

The only people truly wealthy were those in charge. Even they had no real wealth, rather, they simply were allowed to have about anything they wished for.

In some ways, nothing really changed much about that.

When the price of energy went through the roof, the people compensated by being conservative, everything became electric powered.

Since the citizens had to apply to the government for a permit to see a doctor for anything short of an emergency, most learned quickly to keep their mouths shut. An appointment could become a bit hard to get if a person was known to be...problematic.

Medical costs fell rapidly once the wage controls came along, and of course major expenses like open heart surgery or kidney transplants were all assigned a value based on expected life spans and the citizen's ability to produce.

Folks much over 65 were simply considered non productive, unless they were government officials.

When the new leader got close to his term limit, a few people spoke of changes again but with the government now in charge of the census, this meant they really decided who got elected and which party. Everyone was required to vote, the little bar codes on the ballots made sure of that. In short order the opposition was out numbered by 10 to one. The constitution was amended to allow the new President to hold office for as long as he could win elections. By his 16th year in office, and reelected for the fifth term, things were pretty much under control.

There were a few upsets from the Supreme Court, but finally that was simply disbanded, the government then made law by the stroke of a pen.

All votes from Congress and the Senate were 9 to one when laws were passed. That was perfectly fair, in a democratic society, the majority rules.

There was even peace in the Middle East, Dan had seen the front page picture of the President shaking hands with the former terrorist leaders. Everyone was smiling, and the story proclaimed that the agreement meant peace for all mankind for all time. Reading the agreement for USA aid to mid-east oil producing Nations to help keep their economies afloat was interesting. Oil was so seldom used that it had little value. Most oil products were used to power the huge government transport trucks that distributed goods to markets.

There were a few other little news blurbs in the papers, local stuff mostly. Someone had lit a cigarette inside the 500 foot distance requirement from other people or buildings. He had been beaten to death on the spot. In another story, someone had tried to rob a local government Marijuana outlet on the corner, but the police found him quickly by using his global position sensor. They simply executed him on the spot. He had to be insane anyway, if he couldn't afford drugs the government would just issue a stamp to get them for free.

Yes, it was insane to commit robbery, there was just no reason to do that. Of course, in a peaceful society, there was no room for insanity, either. Since deliberately harming another person was considered to be....well, insane? It was amazing the amount of money that could be saved simply bypassing the criminal justice system, and dealing with running jails.

Crime became a very rare thing, and the news did still report about that, but just in passing.

The drug problem ended the day the government set up all of the drug outlets, and handed out prescriptions. Since there was no longer any money to be made dealing in illegal narcotics, that ended that in less than 60 days. Sure, some members of the south American drug cartels prepared to fight over that, but one rather small thermonuclear device ended the argument.

There was also some complaints from governments down there about that, but in short order all of the borders were eliminated and the entire western hemisphere became one Nation.

This left just three separate continents worldwide.

Government didn't bother with trials any more. Government also did not bother with spending huge sums on jails.

Government didn't actually print money anyway, the new World Order Dollar was all in the database, everyone got exactly the same amount assigned at birth. Therefore the price of things never went up, in fact, exceeding the government price controls was illegal.

The differences were all based on productivity, those that worked hard got better housing units, better vehicles, things like that.

When all of the stock markets were closed and government took control of all production, the economy stabilized nicely. Once in while someone would rebel and become non productive, but that was considered to be a sign of insanity.

The medical profession was charged with investigating and dealing with things like insanity.

Dan didn't really care too much about what was going on, what the hell, he was getting by. He mostly wanted to be left alone. But the final straw was when the government required breeding permits, this was to stabilize the population. That was just too much, Dan had had it with government. Sure, he could go to the government sexual outlets, those were always nice and clean and the government allowed just about anything a person wanted to do. There were specialists in any act. Somehow that just didn't feel right, it wasn't natural to Dan so he never bothered to go.

Those sure were busy places, though.

Weekends found Dan headed down into the crack in the rocks he had discovered out in the badlands. A 50 mile ride, unload and then a 10 mile run on his little 4 wheel ATV, add a short climb and he was there. Looking around, Dan saw no one, he never did. So he carefully hid the ATV and began the walk to the cave. He had already been in there several times, each time going deeper and deeper, marking carefully the return route.

It was quite the place, the huge boulder in front hid the tiny slit that was the entrance, it could not be seen until a person was right there, within just a few feet of it. Even then it just looked like a small crack in the rocks, it wasn't until Dan had actually stuck his head in there that he realized.

Over a period of several weeks, he began the laborious process of mapping out the caverns. They seemed to just go on and on. Dan set up battery packs at intervals, and began a system of regular recharging outside. The new batteries the government supplied were quite efficient. They were about the size of of a baseball card and would run a light for 48 hours. He did wish he had more than the 8 cards but that was all government allowed. But then he only had the one charger anyway, it would bring 4 of the tiny cards up to full power in just half a day so it worked out.

He had been amazed to come around one high rock wall nearly a mile inside and find the pool of clear water. It was cool, but not so cool as to be uncomfortable. He stuck his hand in the water, tasted it. It was sweet and clear. He saw the motion as a large fish of some kind with no apparent eyes slid by. The fish did not respond to his solar pack light, so he knew it was blind.

That was the first full night that he spent inside. The next day Dan began to move equipment, things that would let him stay and live down there for days on end. By the end of the first Summer he had enough provisions to last for months, maybe even a year if he was careful.

He had several good axes, and a number of good blades. He would have liked to have a firearm or two, but government had ended people using them. They hadn't bothered to outlaw firearms, or go to all the trouble of trying to take them away from people. They had just banned ammunition, in a few years that problem solved itself. Oh, sure, once in a while someone got hold of a gun and ammo, but if they did they were quickly caught and executed.

Dan had long since quit his job, the last tax increase had just made it too much. With government now taking slightly more than 90% of all he earned, there wasn't much point in working.

Dan sold the house and farm he had inherited, it was quite a bit of money even after the government taxes of over half of it. The reason taxes were so low on property sales was to encourage people to invest, of course. But only in property that produced and was worked. All residential property was owned by the government.

There had been some political turmoil over that one but the government offered big tax breaks for turning over the property. The vast majority did just that, then the rest were such a small number that it became a requirement.

Those farm investments had to be applied for and approved by government. Dan had no problem at all getting his permit to sell, and the buyer next in line had a permit to purchase so the sale was instant. The sale price was set by the government so there was no haggling to bother with.

This trip he drove his pickup out and parked it in a wide spot on the road. He knew that after a week the government would spot the location from the global position sensor. Vehicles that were parked and not moved were considered to be a waste, so government would send someone out to take a look. Of course they would just confiscate it, people were not allowed to waste assets. They wouldn't even bother to look for him. If he had gone into the desert and died it didn't matter, and if he was living out there as an Anti-gov, that didn't matter either.

So all government would do was tow his vehicle and recycle it.

There was no global position sensor on Dan's ATV though. He made sure of that, buying it through the black market. That was a bit of a risk since the penalty for avoiding the GPS sales taxes on any vehicle was high, but he did it since he had plans to vanish anyway.

There actually was a pretty active black market going on, a person could get just about anything they wanted. Of course all capital transactions were tracked, but there was still barter.

He hid the machine, setting the solar packs where they would catch the sunlight. They would recharge the system in half a day. The new systems were very efficient. No one could afford to drive a fossil fuel powered machine, of course.

Well, except for government officials, they all rode around in huge vehicles, with armed guards everywhere they went.

Moving the last of his gear into the cave, he moved through the passages in near dark, only a tiny light to help. By now he knew the cave like the back of his hand. It took Dan several hours to get his gear to his new area. The spot he had chosen was large, and one wall was warm. He was fairly sure there was some geothermal activity going on because that cavern was a steady 70 degrees all the time. Most of the rest of the outer cave was much cooler. Areas even deeper in got warmer, Dan knew he would not be able to go much further.

Dan had checked, there was a steady airflow in from somewhere, he hadn't found the source yet but planned to look for it. It was cooler air, but warmed as it flowed upwards though the area, and the natural vent at the upper end of the cavern allowed the warmer air to move up and out.

Hell, he could not have designed it any better. Even the small cooking fires he built made very little smoke, and it moved up and out with the gentle airflow. He had even gone outside to check on that, there was a very faint haze way off in the distance that he figured no one would notice.

Outside, there were Rabbits and other mammals, inside were large fish. The ones that looked like Trout were the best, their long slim bodies were devoid of marking. Blind, they relied on their sense of smell to find food.

Dan had learned quickly that some Ant eggs on a hook brought an instant bite, plus there were cave dwellers that looked like roaches of some kind that the fish took readily, too. He had to be careful with the fish, they had large sharp teeth. He had discovered that quickly, luckily it was a smaller one and his hand had healed in just a few days.

The deep pool seemed to be full of them, plus it went under the rocks out of sight. Dan had no idea how large the pool was but he suspected it was very large, there was no end to the fish moving in and out of the cave's pool.

Dan had also learned to use his light so he could jerk the bait away from some of the largest fish. Whatever those things were, he couldn't handle them, he had lost one line when something had grabbed his bait and almost pulled him into the water.

Dan didn't want to be pulled into the water very badly, he remembered those teeth. He had also seen what looked like a big lizard of some kind that was always near the warmer pool that was much farther into the cave. It was huge, about six feet long, and lay there on the bank, it's mouth open, just waiting. It was blind, also, but it's head slowly turned his way as he stood there. Dan retreated when he saw that, and stayed out of that area. There was no sign that any of those things ever came into the section he was in, but he piled up rocks making a wall just to be sure.

About 20 miles back on the trail coming in there was a sign, it had a nuclear emblem on it and said no admittance. He had read something about a waste repository around here, he had actually never thought about that much. Dan suspected that might have something to do with the rather strange things he was seeing. But the sign also was an asset, it meant that it was much less likely he would have any competition for the area.

After several months of living down in the caves, Dan was getting comfortable. Going out just once in awhile to gather wood to cook with and trap a few animals for dinner was enough. On some of the bright days he went outside to get some Sun, and always checked on his machine hidden up in the rocks with brush around. Once while he was outside he did see some riders off in the distance, but they never came close and would never see him even if they did.

Dan had become one of the mountain men, living outside and away from everyone else. People like him were called Anti-govs, he had read of them in the newspapers. There were far too few of them to be any kind of threat, so government just let them be.

Once in awhile one of them had been picked up and executed, but always for raiding someone's home, or something like that. Dan had no need to raid anyone, he had resources, everything he needed.

Well, a woman would be nice but that was a bit on the unlikely side. Not very many women would stand for living as an Anti-gov like Dan had become.

There wasn't a lot of danger of his being discovered if he was careful, and Dan was very careful. Even when he went outside, he climbed up to the top of a nearby pinnacle to look around. He could see for many miles in all directions, and except for some off road riders once in awhile, he was alone.

The last thing he needed was for some of the other Anti-govs to find his spot, Dan was afraid they would move in and quickly use up the available resources.

A couple of years went by, the seasons didn't have a lot of effect on the badlands. It got colder outside, then warmer, that was about it. Just once when Dan was outside did it rain, even that was over in minutes although the rain was very heavy. The world took on a ghostly appearance as steam rose from the surrounding rocks, then all was normal again. Back inside he found the water in the pool had risen very quickly, it has almost flooded his living area, then it had gone back down in just a few minutes.

That was another thing he needed to watch out for, too, he realized.

Another time a storm came up while he was outside, that one taught him a lesson as he barely made it back to the cave entrance. It became impossible to breathe outside with the wind tearing at the ground and throwing dust. Dan added weather to his list of things to check for before moving very far from the cave.

One day he was out checking his snares, the first two had been empty but there was a fine Rabbit in the third one. Rabbits were rare, mostly he caught the big rat like looking things. Those were OK but stringy, Rabbit was a real treat. He could see the snare was barely holding.

That was when he made a mistake.

Standing up and moving quickly, he grabbed a rock and belted the animal. It let out a loud squeal and fell silent.

"Hello." Dan heard a voice behind him. Startled, he turned and looked, reaching for his blade.

A young woman stood there. She had a bandana over her head, she was dressed in a skin tight colorful suit of some kind.

"I didn't expect to see anyone." She said with a smile, stepping off her solar assist mountain bike.

"I am just trapping Rabbits." Dan told her lamely.

"I can see that, it's a big one, too." She stepped closer to him. Dan backed away.

"What's the matter? I won't do anything." She stepped towards him again.

Dan looked around, saw no one else.

"How did you get up here?" He asked her.

"We are camped in that canyon over there." She pointed at a draw between too large points of rock a couple of miles away. Dan had been over there, water came to the surface for about a half mile before sliding under the cliffs again. There were quite a few plants over there, it was an oasis. He had planned to explore that some more with the idea of living there but had never gotten around to it.

"We?" He asked her.

"Yes, there are six of us, counting me. We came out to ride, the government sells permits to ride here on the reservation now."

"Oh. Well, I need to be going." Dan reached down for the Rabbit, started to reset the snare and then thought better of it. He picked the snare up and clipped it to his waist.

"Where are you camped? Maybe you would like to join us?" She smiled.

"Over there." Dan lied, waving his arm in the opposite direction. There was nothing over there but desert that went on for miles.

She got a confused look on her face, then looked at him closely. The rat skin jacket and fur boots were probably a giveaway. Dan did have on blue jeans but they had been patched many times with pieces of hide. There was a huge blade hanging from his hip, and the several year's worth of hair and beard growth made it obvious.

"Oh, my God! You are an Agee, aren't you?"

"Agee?"

"Yea, an Anti-government man?"