from the private journal of Kerry Burgess: 01/10/09 3:19 AM
At the end of that dream when I last was asleep, I had regained superiority over my captors but I was also frustrated because the impacts of my fists was having little effect on my opponents. I have thought often of that today and I have been thinking today it was a post-traumatic stress dream similar to what I wrote about where I saw my hands grabbing at vegatation as I was trying to escape the AK-47 armed North Vietnamese soldier after I had been shot down behind enemy lines. At the end of this recent dream, I had one of my captors pinned to the ground by his neck but the dream is vague or may have ended at that point because I cannot remember what I did to subdue the other captor at that point. But that is the point where I felt frustrated because I could not inflict enough damage to my captors. I have been thinking today this is a stress-delayed memory of how I was having to fight opponents that were 10 to 15 or more years older than I was and considering that I was only 8 years old, for example, the power of my fists was not that great when battling a 25 year old. And so I have thought again since waking that is why I practiced to gain skill in such martial arts techniques as akido so that I was not using force against force but instead using my opponents force against himself. If my opponent was even an opponent, for example, then I was using that aggressive stance of my opponent against himself. If he moved against me then I was calculating how to move him off-balance as he move against me.
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http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/35/pg35.html
Project Gutenberg's The Time Machine, by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
Title: The Time Machine
Author: H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
IX
'For some way I heard nothing but the crackling twigs under my feet, the faint rustle of the breeze above, and my own breathing and the throb of the blood-vessels in my ears. Then I seemed to know of a pattering about me. I pushed on grimly. The pattering grew more distinct, and then I caught the same queer sound and voices I had heard in the Under-world. There were evidently several of the Morlocks, and they were closing in upon me. Indeed, in another minute I felt a tug at my coat, then something at my arm. And Weena shivered violently, and became quite still.
'It was time for a match. But to get one I must put her down. I did so, and, as I fumbled with my pocket, a struggle began in the darkness about my knees, perfectly silent on her part and with the same peculiar cooing sounds from the Morlocks. Soft little hands, too, were creeping over my coat and back, touching even my neck. Then the match scratched and fizzed. I held it flaring, and saw the white backs of the Morlocks in flight amid the trees. I hastily took a lump of camphor from my pocket, and prepared to light it as soon as the match should wane. Then I looked at Weena. She was lying clutching my feet and quite motionless, with her face to the ground. With a sudden fright I stooped to her. She seemed scarcely to breathe. I lit the block of camphor and flung it to the ground, and as it split and flared up and drove back the Morlocks and the shadows, I knelt down and lifted her. The wood behind seemed full of the stir and murmur of a great company!
'She seemed to have fainted. I put her carefully upon my shoulder and rose to push on, and then there came a horrible realization. In manoeuvring with my matches and Weena, I had turned myself about several times, and now I had not the faintest idea in what direction lay my path. For all I knew, I might be facing back towards the Palace of Green Porcelain. I found myself in a cold sweat. I had to think rapidly what to do. I determined to build a fire and encamp where we were. I put Weena, still motionless, down upon a turfy bole, and very hastily, as my first lump of camphor waned, I began collecting sticks and leaves. Here and there out of the darkness round me the Morlocks' eyes shone like carbuncles.
'The camphor flickered and went out. I lit a match, and as I did so, two white forms that had been approaching Weena dashed hastily away. One was so blinded by the light that he came straight for me, and I felt his bones grind under the blow of my fist. He gave a whoop of dismay, staggered a little way, and fell down. I lit another piece of camphor, and went on gathering my bonfire. Presently I noticed how dry was some of the foliage above me, for since my arrival on the Time Machine, a matter of a week, no rain had fallen. So, instead of casting about among the trees for fallen twigs, I began leaping up and dragging down branches. Very soon I had a choking smoky fire of green wood and dry sticks, and could economize my camphor. Then I turned to where Weena lay beside my iron mace. I tried what I could to revive her, but she lay like one dead. I could not even satisfy myself whether or not she breathed.
'Now, the smoke of the fire beat over towards me, and it must have made me heavy of a sudden. Moreover, the vapour of camphor was in the air. My fire would not need replenishing for an hour or so. I felt very weary after my exertion, and sat down. The wood, too, was full of a slumbrous murmur that I did not understand. I seemed just to nod and open my eyes. But all was dark, and the Morlocks had their hands upon me. Flinging off their clinging fingers I hastily felt in my pocket for the match-box, and—it had gone! Then they gripped and closed with me again. In a moment I knew what had happened. I had slept, and my fire had gone out, and the bitterness of death came over my soul. The forest seemed full of the smell of burning wood. I was caught by the neck, by the hair, by the arms, and pulled down. It was indescribably horrible in the darkness to feel all these soft creatures heaped upon me. I felt as if I was in a monstrous spider's web. I was overpowered, and went down. I felt little teeth nipping at my neck. I rolled over, and as I did so my hand came against my iron lever. It gave me strength. I struggled up, shaking the human rats from me, and, holding the bar short, I thrust where I judged their faces might be. I could feel the succulent giving of flesh and bone under my blows, and for a moment I was free.
'The strange exultation that so often seems to accompany hard fighting came upon me. I knew that both I and Weena were lost, but I determined to make the Morlocks pay for their meat. I stood with my back to a tree, swinging the iron bar before me. The whole wood was full of the stir and cries of them. A minute passed. Their voices seemed to rise to a higher pitch of excitement, and their movements grew faster. Yet none came within reach. I stood glaring at the blackness.
from the private journal of Kerry Burgess: 02/07/09 10:10 AM
One other apocalyptic scenario that has been in my mind for I don't know how long is something I eventually understood to be similar to lemmings that kill themselves.
I pondered many times over how this area was in the future going to be overrun by about 30 million people as they streamed through here to drown themselves in Puget Sound.
I gave that scenario a great deal of thought and even now I ponder over why it seems important that they all drowned themselves in Puget Sound instead of taking such logical steps as jumping off the I-95 bridge into Lake Washington.
I think to myself that such a plan would be more logical because the bodies would not pile up near the shores as they would if 30 million people walk into the Puget Sound here in the downtown area than if they jumped off those bridges where I think the lake is very deep.
Sometimes I think they will have other lemmings that will transport them here in buses and trains so the movement will be orderly and so that the ones waiting to reach the bay will not pass out from lack of food and water.
Other times I think they will stay strictly on the roadways so they will not trample the foliage or cause any other such damage and that they will know to find place to use the bathroom instead of simply relieving themselves where they stand or where they are slowly walking as I imagine there will be a great mass of them as they make their way to the sound.
Other times I imagine that other lemmings will arrange for a long series of makeshift piers that extend into the deeper waters of the Sound so all those 30 million or so people will walk off those temporary piers and into the deeper water.
I imagine they will carry weights with to drag them down to the bottom of the Sound. It dawned on me they will carry extra weight in backpacks.
- posted by Kerry Burgess 01:00 AM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Wednesday 27 December 2017
