A 2020 hindsight nightmare

The Journey, AD 2020 ( a 2020 hindsight nightmare ) 

    The Starbucks cup danced upon the damp cold breeze, skittering, and tumbling down the curbs edge, past man made mountains only to become lodged in the debris gathered in the storm drain. It was the first interesting thing I'd seen all day, I wish Ron was here to see this too, I miss my friend allot these days.
     Huddled as I am in the doorway of another nondescript brownstone as I make my way to see. I came to see the event, and all the people. I'd watched it on television in my youth and wondered if it still happened, if it was real. I am old, and tired, not too long now and I'll wake up dead, but first I'm going to see. That and I'm going to leave the memento I've been carrying where it can be seen, see I promised Ron I would do so.
     "People, or rather the lack of people, where are they? Am I the only one here?, man, Ron would be so sad!" I absently minded say out loud.
      I haven't seen another human outside in this city, at all, weird. In fact besides the movement of drapes and blinds as someone peeked I have though no one lived here at all. No cars moving, busses, pedestrians, lifeless, saving the usual VIRERS, thank God for the Starbucks cup! The streets are filthy, litter everywhere, heaps of tattered black garbage bags like barricades  line the curbs, no crow, no gulls feasting, strange, eerie quiet, otherworldly.
      There! I can see the grand edifice rising, the dome, the sheer mass of it, how far! I'm looking for the grandstands the thousands shall fill to listen, maybe I can get in? I wish Ron were here to see this!
       I hear sounds, mechanical, methodical, building sounds, construction. Can't say the last time I heard that sound, but I know it well, it's what I used to do. Back when doing something was worth the efforts, so way back then, yes.
       I need to be careful, the VIPERs will be here for sure!
       Grandstand! There, NO! This can't be right! one small high school football game grandstand for the event? How? But across the way, People! Men, women in monochrome clothes setting up cameras, lots of cameras, but no voices, no laughing, no ordering about, no cussing, just the same eerie, forlorn deadpan silence. They don't see me, heavens but I don't think they even truly see each other. Ron told me this could happen, he was right, that's my friend he saw things clearly.
       I pause, dart stealthily into another doorway, I can melt into shadow, been that way as long as I can recall, as a VIPER sweep patrols by. Monsters in darkest midnight blue, faces hidden behind blacked out face guards, weapons drawn, cocked, shoot first ! Cruel, wicked, I hate them, they are the face of the plague. They are everywhere, in every place, their drones scan like their street cams, unceasingly searching, looking, condemning. After the roundups, when the camps were filled, "God Ron they got you, oh fudge!" Anyway, after they took them, some like me were missed, just lucky, or unlucky depends how you look at it I suppose. So afterwards the camps just, well got empty, no one knows, I'm afraid to think about it too much, I get sort of blind, angry, ok beyond that, but so powerless now, watched hunted, haunted. But my journey isn't about that, but it is, you'll see what I mean, memento, like I said Ron, just like I said I would!
       I can almost leave now, thank GOD, I've seen what I came to see, the media will lie, fake pictures of a grand spectacle of thousands, but I know, I've long known, thanks to my friend Ron.
       As I make my way from the scene, avoiding VIPER I leave the memento for everyone to see. It's a portrait of a patriot, an elder Statesman, a quiet hero. Back in the day it was called a campaign poster, today it's called illegal. I've added a few words to it, not to deface it, heavens NO! I cherish it, it reminds me no matter what " they" do I'm free. Because freedom is a state of mind and spirit I got  from God, at least thats what Ron and I agreed upon.
      I turn to look upon my handiwork, cleverly placed so the cameras will catch it in a pan sweep, they don't even edit anymore, so everyone will see, but hidden from the VIPERS eyes. I smile inwardly as I look, likely for the last time at his smile, reflected deep within his brown eyes. His grey hair, his slim, no nonsense nature, the essence of the physician coming through, caring, nurturing, loving. The poster caught him with that slight lift in his brow, as if to say " listen ", it was a great picture of the last American hero, my friend Ron. " goodbye my friend, I've kept my word, I helped you reach an inauguration day, just not how we hoped it would be." my tears flow briefly, I've no time for grief right now, later, later, later Ron I promise.
     What? Oh, the words I carefully added so as to not mar my friend Ron Paul's picture? " RESTORE AMERICA NOW ! "      
  

( Let's not let this be reality ! )