NaNOWriMo - The Vote

The Vote

By Monk Peabody

The Beginning

When it started I don’t think anyone believed it, I mean it was like living something out of a science fiction story.

The first changes started in 2030, very small changes, headaches, nausea, some people felt the effects before according to their body chemistry & how much chemical X they had in their diet.

Chemical X… It’s almost laughable… but that’s what they (we) decided to call it.

But I’m getting ahead of myself… And I don’t want to leave anything out so that who ever reads this far in the future can clearly understand what happened to mankind.

In 2020 it was becoming clear that mankind had done irreparable damage to the earth, our waterways were drying up or had become too damaged to use, food was getting scarce.

Not in the western world mind you.

No… we were wasting as much as we ever had, but in Africa, Asia, Australasia & India things were very serious.

The populations of those countries were dying off in even greater numbers than we had been used to.

By 2022 it was clear that the countries with a surplus of food stocks were going to have to step up and help out.

It was crisis time and there was no time for excuses!

I guess we should have all been suspicious when the G5 countries met and in a single day released a statement & some very concrete plans that declared war on famine!

They had no excuses… and the plan was simple… the G5 countries would compile their food surplus, assemble teams of medical people, dieticians whatever was needed and “hand deliver” food to every place that was in need.

Needless to say this raised a great cheer worldwide and although a small minority raised questions about the motives of the G5, they were silenced quickly.

In no time the specially picked teams accompanied plane & shiploads of food on their way to those countries in dire need of food and support.

A solution to the crisis was underway and the people went back to their lives with very little thought about the specifics of what was going on in those famine plagued places.

Unbelievably, in a single year the crisis was over, suddenly there was more than enough food for the entire planet!

We were proud of ourselves!

Damn Proud!

No one was hungry anymore, we’d kicked hunger’s ass!

During that first year there were a few isolated stories of increased violence in the countries that received “Aid” but they were really no more than rumors, and the G5 found ways to discredit every one of them, calling them the “Ungrateful Minority”, or "insurgents".

Stories were leaked to the press about this “ungrateful minority”, or “anti west group” that were building pockets of anti-west hatred.

They told us the violent outbreaks were simple, petty squabbles over food, control & the like.

For a while there was a lot of talk about a new “Golden Age” for mankind!

It was two more years before the truth of how the famine was stopped in its tracks started to leak out and in 2225 we learned that the crisis that threatened the world was stopped by genetically modified corn, corn that had cleverly been combined with soy.

This new food they had created was incredibly potent in every way, it grew fast… it grew almost anywhere under the most hostile conditions.

It was a miracle of science!

We were assured that it was completely safe and harmless, although there had been very little time to test it.

Safe?...Ha!

We were so arrogant in those days, so conceited to think that the things we were creating could never harm us.

It wasn’t until uncredited pictures of the famine zones began popping up on the web that real questions started to get asked.

But by then… it was too late.

In some ways those pictures were amazing… beautiful… where there was once desert there was now the strange green & red fields of “Sorn” where there were once barren plains more “Sorn”.

Sorn fields in Central Australia.

Sorn surrounding Ayers Rock!

Sorn growing in what was once a rice paddy in Viet Nam.

In no time at all entire populations were being fed on Sorn.

Countries that have never had any exports were beginning to export Sorn, as well as process and manufacture products made from it.

Giant processing plants sprung up overnight.

The world was changing and although we didn't know it…so was mankind.

The Cities Are Burning!

The violence started slowly, winding it’s way around the globe like the pandemic we had expected for so long from mad cows or avian flu.

The violence was at the end of the cycle, it starts with liturgy, then unusual red blotches on the temples, flu like symptoms and what we thought were aural hallucinations… voices, but not the voices of the insane, these were rational voices that spoke of everyday things, shopping lists & aching feet.

In every major city the start of the violence is always traced back to the area where Sorn was first introduced, and then spreads outward, slowly and by week four you have riots.

I use the word riot but that’s not quite right… In a riot people have some sort of grievance, something tangible they are unhappy about, what we’ve experienced was more along the lines of mass hysteria.

Week one comes and goes almost without incident.

Week two you got people laying around like zombies unable to do much of anything, The kids are calling this stage “The Pricklies” because of the constant uneasiness you feel.

You begin to enter a state of heightened anxiety & depression and act on impulses that you would have never given time to before.
When a whole community goes through these "Pricklies" together that's when you begin to see that odd type of mass hysteria.

Week three you begin to hear and feel things… small things at first like the voices of your family & friends in your head.

Scenes in your mind that can almost be explained away as memory, except you know you were never part of them, pictures form so clearly in your mind that you think your hallucinating.

You begin to “feel” more people around you and then you see their faces in your mind, hear their voices, they get louder and louder until they almost drown out your thoughts.

By week the end of week four it’s all over, you begin to feel “normal” again, but you’re not the same!

We have seen cases in some areas, where for no apparent reason week two is stretched out.

To those unfortunates the “Pricklies” seem to go on without end and when their minds can take no more they begin to act out, they turn into mumbling, muttering time bombs on the verge of violent outburst at any time.

With millions of people walking around under the influence of the “Pricklies”, paranoid, uneasy and unable to sleep it was only a matter of time before the cities started to burn and burn they did hot and bright, the more brutal governments called in their military to calm the masses and restore order but how can an army control irrational crowds too unstable to feel fear?

Many lives were lost.

Time was the only cure, with time, even in the worst cases the “Pricklies” pass but not before many lives were lost and much damage was caused.

At first there were attempts to round up anyone that began to act irrational or unusual but the number of sufferers were soon too large for that.

The truth was met with denial, our scientists / saviors said that the effects of eating Sorn were benign, long term studies were never done but they all assured us that it was safe the was simply nothing in it that could cause harm and that was a fact… but it was clear that it was causing something

We all knew it was the Sorn, but by then we all had been eating the stuff for five years.

The voices are nothing to fear
In May of 2026, what was once the G5 has now been renamed the G7, named because it's representatives were chosen from earth's 7 continents.
After a short first conference in June of that year they had an announcement for the world.
A taped announcement the world received simultaneously via video.
"This great boon to mankind, this Sorn had made changes to us all, and even though they had not expected them they had now had time to research and study and have found that Sorn could prove a great asset to man."
They also said that now that everyone (with the exception of those born after Sorn was introduced) had now gone through the "Pricklies" we have seen the worst of the side effects of Sorn consumption, and further that we were now on the verge of a great new age of planetary cooperation.

This is the time that secrets died, and a world without secrets would mean a safer world for all of us!

They assured us that we would soon grow into our new abilities and as we did the cacophony of thought we were all hearing would become less distracting.

We would all soon learn to communicate using only our thoughts, there would be no more language barriers, no more miscommunications that could bring us to the brink of destruction.
Only truth!

The children were the first to know

We may never know how long it takes before the permanent effects of Sorn take hold.
We do know that the children that were brought up on the stuff become telepathic at about 4 years of age.
It has also been observed that these children hardly ever spoke, have learned to block out the thoughts of others, and that they were also learning to block their own thoughts from being read.
As we all grew into our "new abilities" as the G7 were calling them we began to realize that these children raised on Sorn were filled with questions... far beyond the boundaries of normal childhood curiosity, and the questions came so quickly and into all our minds.
The children had the ability to "broadcast" their thoughts for miles around them and no adult had the power to block them out, they could search our minds for the answers they wanted.

This was developing into far more than the G7 were telling us.



As I sit here at my makeshift writing desk far below New York city in an abandoned subway station, the only place I know that is far enough away to silence the “voices” of my fellow New Yorkers & prevent them from hearing my thoughts as I record them, I can’t help but wonder about the true nature of Sorn and what it has done to us all.

I know one thing for sure… This new age will not bring about the death of secrets this document proves that.

As long as I write far away from others and stay away from children I can keep it a secret.

I’ve spent the last 6 months learning how to keep some of my thoughts in the back of my mind buried so the world can’t see, you see I know a thing or two about secrets.

My name is David Robinson former director of the now defunct Central Intelligence Agency, and my business was secrets what I know about secrets is simple… As long as there are people there will be secrets.

David Robinson closes his “diary” and tucks it back in its hiding place under the 3rd rail sleeper, and starts making his way back up to the streets of New York pushing the thoughts he dare not think in public back into the recesses of his mind, and moves his thoughts instead to the off handed way his agency relieved him of all but his most basic and mundane duties.

Twenty minutes travel brought David to the subway grate that served as the entrance to his underground “den” he could hear the thoughts of the crowd now, the worries & fears of lower Manhattan and the one word that was in almost every mind…Sorn.

David thought to himself how quiet the city was now that so few people actually used their voices, how rich the sounds of the city are, the ticking of the traffic signals, and the buzzing of the neon signs, things that could not even be heard a few short years ago.

Now that the world was beginning to get a hold on their minds they were all beginning to learn to censor their thoughts there were starting to be moments of real silence.

David had learned to censor his thoughts years ago when the agency was still alive and vibrant, that was a skill that kept him alive on more than one occasion in fact he was known for his control it was most likely the reason he was allowed to retire and rejoin the world. He had shown the entire White House his control in the early days, spending day after day under those very stressful conditions he was the only person that never let his guard down he held out longer than the president a man known for his self-control.

He was considered to be unreadable by many… But he was no fool he knew the truth he was not immune to a probe as he approached his brownstone (part of his “buy out” from the agency) he thought of the only person that always knew exactly what he was thinking and why, long before Sorn.

He called her name in his mind –Barbara- and there she was, in his mind telling him to hurry up the stairs to her. He climbed the stairs, stuck his key in the door, turned it and there she was…

He knew they were probably the last couple for miles that still spoke out loud to each other but he loved to hear her voice so much he knew he would never stop.

“Barbara, how long have you been home darlin’?”

“Not long hon’ just long enough to pour a couple of drinks and slip into something more comfortable” Where’ve you been?

“Nowhere special…just out enjoying the retired life” Even as the words left his mouth he wondered if she could tell he was lying just a little.

“Well I certainly can now!” she said “ but I’m used to your little secrets”

David thought, “Yes and you’re the only person I know that can make National Security seem like a trivial thing”

As she moved across the room to kiss him she said… “It is… when I think about how much I love you.”


The Central Telepathy Agency
The name had changed but the activities were just about the same… Keeping the American continent safe… by any means necessary! This was the thought running through CTA Director ‘gunny’ Shiner’s mind as he paced his office 1000 feet below the surface of Washington D.C.
‘Gunny’ thought to himself… Those stupid bastards at G5 had unleashed upon the world a problem that might not ever be solved. They had decided to create a world where men like me could never be allowed out in public… we had far too many secrets for that”
These were exactly the type of thoughts that everyone in this facility and countless others like it around the world were being taught to suppress in their daily classes by those that for some still unknown reason, had the ability to keep small portions of their minds from being “seen”
All the “guests” in these facilities knew their freedom depended upon their ability to learn this very important skill, until they were able to block out parts of their minds they could not be allowed to mix with the population.
‘Gunny’ was allowed to run the CTA from his “blackout room” but he was a virtual prisoner, the only one allowed in was his “instructor”
It was an incredibly ironic fact that the men and women that had been charged with keeping the world’s secrets a few short years ago were now being held captive by those secrets.
As Gunny sat there at his desk, mentally building a wall in his mind, practicing for his next “lesson”. He found himself doing what he has been taught never to do … he was letting his mind drift, back to his first meeting with his instructor Alec S.
It was 2025, years before he was appointed Director of CTA when he’d first met Alec S. back then Alec was a talented but low-level field operative with what was then the CIA.
Gunny remembered that Alec was very eager to please, and before all this Sorn nonsense started he was beginning to catch the directors eye by making several very important captures back in the “War on terror” days, as soon as he’d joined the Baghdad office he got right down to business, got his finger on the pulse as they say and before too long people in the agency were talking abiut winning this thing again. What was even more impressive was the fact that he never took the share of the credit he was due, Alec was big on teamwork and service… at least that’s what it said in his file.
Back then because of his successes his identity was kept ultra top secret and who could question it… there was an unbelievable bounty on his head, or for his head.

Some of Alec’s accomplishments bordered on the uncanny, but in the end it was chalked up to fantastic Intel and great groundwork, there was no reason to think anything different.
Gunny had to admit to himself that he was a little jealous of Alec, not of his youth or talent but of the simple fact that he could come and go as he pleased, he was allowed to walk free in the world… to see his family if he had one.
Most of all Gunny missed his family.

The Instructor
Alec knew that his job with the CTA was important but still he hated it. Everyday was filled with the same mind-numbing activity… attempting to teach his “superiors” to control their minds. These people that had power and influence also had the most chaotic minds he had ever read. It was only his ability to block them out that kept him sane.
Alec looked forward to the end of each day he counted the minutes till he could sit in his car and watch the surface buildings of the “complex” fade into the distance in his rear view mirror, and then he could get on with his real work.
This was his last lesson for the day and his most uninspired student, Ian “gunny” Shiner. How ironic that this man was the director of the CTA when his mind skills were so below the average. Well… if Alec got his way (and he usually did) ‘gunny’ wouldn’t be director for long. In fact … there wouldn’t be a CTA for long!
For almost a full year he had used the time he had to spend with these insufferable airheads to get into their minds to get their secrets, secrets that were the key to his future power, it was unbelievable that they never noticed, that they never saw the signs.
If they knew that anytime that they had one of their secret thoughts or a long forgotten memory popped into their minds suddenly, that it was actually him gaining access to one of their precious secrets. In this past year Alec had accumulated enough information to bring the world to its knees, and he had the CTA to thank for this unlimited access. How good was it of them to keep all their secrets here in one place where he could easily access them. It was well worth turning down the under-directors position they’d offered him after Baghdad to serve as an instructor. Now he and his fellow instructors round the world could assume full control soon and there was nothing they could do to stop them.
They had the G5 to thank for there good fortune, if they had only taken the time to study the effects of Sorn on pre-existing telepathic powers like those that all the “instructors” possessed they would have found that Sorn only made them more powerful!