The Wrath of God

by Jim Balzotti

  Turning to his Chief of Staff he asked, “How could this happen?”

  “Mr. President, apparently the Chinese were able to create nuclear electromagnetic pulse bombs small enough to smuggle into the US. How they brought them into our country and infiltrated NORAD remains to be seen. Until now this technology was deemed not possible. But by doing so, and detonating them above our airspace, they wiped out virtually every electronic data line and machine that relied on electronics…in a nutshell, everything. Everything is down. The Internet has collapsed, and there is no way for us to communicate with the American public, or for them to communicate with each other.”

  “How can I address the nation…”

  “You can’t. I would normally suggest you attempt to reach every military base by sat phone and inform them of the situation, but because the Chinese took out NORAD, that is no longer a possibility.”

  “Did this affect all of the US?”

  “Pretty much, sir. Some rural parts, along our border of Canada, were hit, but not totally. Any areas that were heavily forested are probably okay. It’s just too early to tell, but it doesn’t look good. We’re not getting any communication out of NORAD at all. All of our military bases that had sat phones were affected, and they’re not reporting in. It appears all our communication and electronic equipment has been destroyed.”

  “Loss of life?”

  “Again, sir, hard to tell. Nowhere near what it would have been if they were all nuclear atomic bombs.”

  “Ladies and gentlemen, I need your best analysis as to a course of action, and I need it now!” the president said, looking at the stunned faces surrounding him.

  “Mr. President,” the Joint Chiefs replied after huddling together for a brief moment, “The United States is completely vulnerable. Every military aircraft, tank, and ship that is on US ground or anchored offshore has most likely been rendered inoperable. We have no defense, Mr. President. While we certainly have ground troops available, the Chinese have the complete upper hand. Not to mention, they appear completely willing to use nuclear force. Without a way to communicate to our troops, we would be fighting completely blind with our hands tied behind our backs.”

  “Can we respond with a nuclear attack of our own?”

  “No, sir. Not really. We do have attack subs off the Chinese coast, but with the safety protocols in place to avoid a mis-launch, and with our communications down, they would have to verify the attack code…if we could even get it to them, which we can’t. By the time they do that, we would be well past the 7 p.m. deadline. The Chinese have shown their resolve, and I for one, Mr. President, have no doubt that they will launch the rest of their nukes if we don’t comply.”

  President Mann sat in his chair knowing what he had to do. He could not suffer the destruction of his country by nuclear attack. He was sick to his stomach, and he was furious, but he was resigned to the fact that he would be the last sitting president of the United States, a country he loved but would be no more.

  “At seven, we will receive the Chinese delegation. I will unconditionally surrender the United States to China. I will ask for peaceful terms for our citizens. That is all. I would suggest you go to your individual offices and remove what personal items you may have. There will be no time to destroy documents. Go.”

  October 14, 2025

  Miami

  6 p.m.

  Miami was a city divided; for the uber rich it offered glitzy South Beach nightclubs and fine dining. You could order freshly caught stone crabs at Joe’s Crab Shack and indulge in a bottle of Dom Perignon for a cool three hundred dollars. Oceanfront mansions and sixty-foot yachts docked at their own private piers were common. For the most part, those lavishing in this lifestyle were white.

  Jack Gresophie was a retired CEO of New York Life Insurance Company. He started his career at the bottom, hustling small life insurance policies to returning soldiers starting a family. Born to a working class family, he believed in the value of life insurance. When he was a young man in high school, his favorite uncle died suddenly of a heart attack, leaving a young wife, two boys, and no insurance. He watched his father take on a second job delivering newspapers at night to help support them. Jack was a true believer in what he did.

  He advanced through the ranks—first he was a sales manager, then office manager, VP, president, and finally CEO. He stayed until he turned sixty-five and retired. His wife, Maryann, was the retired Chancellor of Education for the State of New York. She was also one incredible golfer, and the only member of the prestigious Willow Golf and Country Club to ever record two holes-in-one on the challenging Fazio-designed course.

  Their family raised, they decided to leave the bitter cold and snow of New York for the sunshine of Miami. Both avid sailors, they bought a sleek, sixty-foot mahogany sailboat and christened it Millie, after their beloved dog.

  For the rest of the population it was a place to eke out a hardscrabble living, usually doing one or more service jobs such as landscaping, restaurant help, or driving taxis. They serviced the people who flew to Miami to escape the harsh winter of the north and the wealthy people who made it their own private playground. The people in this group were mainly poor blacks and Hispanics who earned so little that they were actually eligible for welfare.

  Carlos lived in the Little Havana section of Miami that was predominately first- and second-generation Cubans who fled when Fidel Castro came to power. His father worked as a busboy at the Flamingo Hotel on Miami Beach for forty years before retiring with a small going-away party, a white cake but no gold watch.

  Carlos was employed as a landscaper for Miami Tropical Landscaping, a company owned by Anglos but that employed thirty-two Hispanics and blacks to do the backbreaking work of trimming the numerous palmetto and palm trees that grew on their clients’ oceanfront properties.

  Since the austerity measures were implemented, service jobs all but disappeared, along with the meager salaries they paid. The rich sought refuge and safety in their oceanfront mansions. Initially this social arrangement lasted without challenge, but as the poor could no longer feed their children, their anger grew into a murderous rage as they listened to their children cry at night of empty stomachs. It didn’t take long for the poor to determine where all the money and food was located. The rich of course had taken the precaution of hiring armed guards—really no more than violent thugs—to keep the poor away.

  Miami’s city streets turned into a bloody violent civil war. While the rich had the guards willing to use their guns, the poor had the masses and the righteous anger of the hungry. Mobs of the less fortunate stormed the mansions, and while many were killed, they were able by sheer numbers to overcome the guards and vent their long-simmering hatred toward the wealthy who time and time again fought against giving them a living wage and treated them with disrespect.

  As the violence escalated, Maryann and Jack knew it was time to go. They packed all the food and fresh water the boat could hold, a few personal possessions they couldn’t bear to leave behind and, of course, Millie, and set sail out to sea. The boat caught a breeze and sailed two miles off the coast before Jack set anchor. Jack and Maryann were on their boat having a simple lunch when the Chinese set off the NEMP attack on America. The effect on Miami was instantaneous. Blocks of homes caught fire, and without fire trucks or firemen to fight it, it spread like an inferno. Chemical plants exploded, spewing their deadly poisons into the air. They watched in horror as an American Airlines commercial plane, devoid now of all its electronics due to the blast, tumbled from the sky, crashing into the Atlantic Ocean, most likely killing everyone on board. What they couldn’t see or hear was a young woman grasping her father and whispering, “I love you, Lawrence,” as the plane went down.

  No words could describe how they felt. They sat in silence, holding each other’s hands, watching as their adopted city burned. Jack joked that they could live off the fish he caught, and Maryann said they’d starve.

  After sitting in the quiet,
knowing that this could be their last moments together on this earth, Jack eventually went down below and brought up a vintage bottle of Robert Mondavi Private Selection Merlot, his wife’s favorite. Jack opened the bottle and poured two glasses. They had just taken their first sips when they saw the missile launched by a Chinese sub just off the coast come out of the ocean and fly into the sky above Miami. They instinctively knew what it was and what it meant. They hugged each other tightly, looking only into each other’s eyes, mouthing the words “I love you” and holding Millie on their laps as the Chinese nuclear bomb exploded.

  Carlos, his loving wife, Juanita, and their five small children were eating a modest dinner of rice and beans when the nuke detonated.

  After that, nothing. Almost all of Miami and its population was instantly vaporized in the intense white heat of the explosion. The ones who weren’t would wish they had been. The blast caused a tsunami that raced ashore and destroyed the nearest twenty blocks of homes, drowning any who survived the nuclear blast.

  The class divide between the poor and the rich was eliminated in one brief, horrifying explosion.

  In San Diego, as in Miami, chaos reigned. Hunger and fear prevailed. The population—one that historically consisted of military families and their influences—looked to the San Diego Naval Base for some hope of civility. On this day, there had been an announcement of a fresh water supply plus some ration distribution. Thousands swarmed for both the free water and the perception of being safe by being so close to one of the most powerful navy bases in the world. Little did they know that the NEMP attack had rendered the large aircraft carrier, and the two battleships in port, useless. The base’s early warning detection system was made inoperable, and no warning would be coming from NORAD. The sailors scrambled to their assigned posts while their commanders waited for orders that would never come.

  When the Chinese nuclear bomb was launched from beneath the ocean and traveled into the air above the naval base, the sailors, men, women, and children watched helplessly as the second bomb detonated, annihilating everyone.

  China made good on its threats.

  October 14, 2025

  Washington DC

  7 p.m.

  Promptly at seven, as promised, the Chinese delegation turned onto Pennsylvania Avenue. They arrived in three military jeeps flying the Chinese red flag. They were waved through security and escorted by a team of marines up the elevator and into the Oval Office in the West Wing. The president watched them as they silently took their seats in front of his desk, the last president who would ever sit there. His Cabinet stood stoically behind him. They had already received the preliminary reports via a Chinese courier who brought them video evidence of two nuclear detonations. One in Miami, the other in San Diego. The reports indicated both cities were destroyed, with massive loss of lives.

  “Mr. President,” the head of the delegation said, pulling a binder out of his briefcase, “You need to sign these documents now, please. I was told to inform you that unless you sign them immediately, and I notify our authorities that you have done so, we will resume our nuclear attack on your country. As you can see, this form shows that you have unconditionally surrendered the United States and all of its land and assets to the People’s Republic of China. Also you will find a list summarizing the information and documents we need from you. Do this now, please.”

  President Mann reviewed the documents that lay before him. He had never seen an unconditional surrender form before, but mused that there were many such documents signed in history. Before today the only one ever signed in the United States was when General Lee surrendered the South to General Grant of the Union Army. Now he was surrendering the United States to China. He felt physically sick to his stomach.

  He picked up his pen and, with an angry flourish, signed his name to the documents. The deed was done.

  America was no more.

  Winter, 2025

  America

  The Chinese quickly set up their own communications on private channels using Chinese satellites not accessible to Americans. They commandeered the airports, harbors, and train stations, and began to rebuild America with Chinese technology. They forced Americans into hard labor and executed hundreds of thousands.

  In the coming weeks, hundreds of Chinese troop ships and cargo planes began landing at sea and land ports throughout the United States carrying thousands of Chinese soldiers, tanks, jeeps, and trucks. More thousands, much to the surprise of the United States, came over the border from Mexico, where they had been waiting all along. The US military was under orders to surrender their weapons to the Chinese, and for the most part they did. American soldiers are well trained in following the chain of command, and when their superior officer told them to relinquish their weapons, they complied. Truth be told, most just wanted to get home to their families. The few soldiers who took it upon themselves to fight on found that they were severely outnumbered, and did not have the resources or the manpower to resist for long. For those few who did resist, the Chinese decided to make a public showing of what was to happen to anyone who made that choice. Those resisters who weren’t killed in the brief skirmishes were brought to public squares in chains, where they languished in the elements until the Chinese put them to death by crucifixion. The deaths were painful and sent a powerful message to anyone who may have thought of further resistance. Their families were incarcerated in labor camps, which was essentially a prolonged death sentence.

  The first large detention centers were established in the former military bases, on college campuses, and in the cities. Where there were none, makeshift camps were built, surrounded by razor wire and guards with orders to shoot on sight anyone attempting to escape. American citizens were ordered to report with photo identification, which the Chinese scanned into a computer and matched against their lists of all political and military leaders. When identified, these leaders would be quietly removed and shot. All others were herded into detention centers and given starvation rations with assigned work details. Any American caught outside the detention zones would be shot by soldiers stationed in the surrounding watchtowers. The true purpose of the detention centers was not to detain Americans, but to kill them. City dwellers offered the Chinese no usable skills they did not already possess. By putting them on starvation rations and assigning them to hard labor, they hoped to cut the population of Americans by 75 percent.

  China needed America, not Americans.

  The population living in rural areas were allowed to remain in their homes for the time being, providing they did not cause any trouble and continued to work in the fields. They were also required to turn in all firearms. These people would be needed to maintain America’s vast wheat and corn fields; at least until more Chinese inhabited the farmlands, and then those Americans would be dispensable as well.

  Due to America’s liberal policy on gun ownership, there were an abundance of gun owners who either hunted or target shot. When the Chinese landed, there were hundreds of thousands of Americans with guns. All combined, it would comprise one of the largest standing armies of the world, and it had always been thought that this fact alone would protect America. But by destroying the communication infrastructure, these loyal patriots had no way to communicate with each other. Tom couldn’t call Joe and say, “Get the men together and we’ll meet at the park and form a plan.” Joe and Tom were alone, and despite all the good intentions of wanting to protect their country, the fact remained that they were not trained soldiers and thus no match for the crack Chinese troops. After a while, they too laid down their weapons.

  The world watched but did nothing.

  America, 2025

  When the Chinese conquered America, the first edict issued by Xi Chang read that all religion was banished, and anyone practicing it would be dealt with severely. Churches were ordered shuttered immediately. He had his troops set fire to them, then bulldozed the charred remains into the ground. The only punishment for disobedience was execution, and the C
hinese enforced it without exception or hesitation. At first, across the country, it was met with disbelief. The larger churches in the more populated cities were commanded to immediately close their doors and stop their services. When they did not comply, special Chinese execution squads would arrive without notice, usually on a Sunday catching parishioners at prayer. The carnage was terrible. No warnings were given. Anyone and everyone in church would be shot, and the structure burned to the ground with the people in it. The fact that some were still alive mattered not. After a few short, fearful months of that policy, church attendance dropped to almost zero. It took the Chinese longer to get to the smaller churches, but they were equally draconian in enforcement when they arrived.

  The truth of the matter was that for the most part, Americans had been turning away from religion for some time now. Most polls taken before the Chinese invaded US shores indicated people were spiritual, not religious. Attendance in churches was at an all-time low. Partially to blame was the Vatican itself. The Roman Catholic Church was hit with numerous scandals—not in the least were the burgeoning sex abuse cases involving young children which the church refused to acknowledge. Instead, it simply chose to pay off the victims. The offending priests were shuttled off to unsuspecting new parishes where they were free to sin again. In addition, the Vatican banking fraud scandal came to public light. Most practicing Catholics never knew that the Roman Catholic Church had its own bank which wasn’t subject to any banking laws, domestic or abroad. The bank had some questionable lending practices over the years, to say the least.

  When Pope John Peter was elected in 2018, he pledged to clean up the corruption. He launched an investigation into the church finances as a result of allegations of financial transactions with unsavory and immoral people with criminal backgrounds. He was hailed as the pope of the people. He rejected the trappings of the office; fired his chef, preferring to cook his own meals; and drove himself in a small Volvo, giving his security detail fits. Pope John Peter began to dig deep, pledging to bring light to the dark and secretive Papal Bank. He died mysteriously of unknown causes shortly afterwards. Many speculated that he was poisoned by one of his own. It was easy for Christians to think that if the Church could not follow its own doctrine, why should the average churchgoer do so?