Euan the Highlander: a brave and tender heart reads Robert Burns' poetry

SCENE: The Apocalypse had come and gone in 2036. Both Polar Icecaps had melted and billions had perished in their disbelief. Euan was enslaved by the Homeland Security Forces of the military dictatorship of America. The "Burning" words of liberty were sung.

Euan was born in 2020 in a foreign land. His mother, Krysta, was a faerie princess of the duathan clan of Eireann, the ancient realm of Ireland. His father,Garoid, was the Earl of Good, a small shire in the magnificent highlands of Scotland. The princess and Earl were forced to flee the floods of the British Isles as the beast of climate change descended upon the land.

The melted glaciers of the North and South Poles had raised sea levels on Earth so dramatically that many island nations were submerged and shared the destiny of Atlantis. The wise scientists had said such tragedy could never occur. Pacific Polynesia was the first to submit to the torrent of tsunami. The main Japanese island glowed radioactively and welcomed its burial at sea. The remnants of their ancient culture was transplanted to Japan's more mountainous islands. The Black Sea rose to swallow the radioactive wasteland of the Ukraine at Chernobyl. This rendered the Black Sea the newest Dead Sea. The meltdown reactor and now, local marine life, was irradiated for ten thousand years.

Who could have predicted the plague of Panama? Who could have anticipated the nuclear solution to the problem imposed by Israel? Who even knew that Israel possessed nuclear weapons before they attacked and destroyed Iran? The Palestinian question has now been decided by God as both Palestine and Israel rest on the ocean floor beneath the Mediterranean Sea.

Nuclear proliferation had become rampant. Most nations had the capacity to end the world in a single nuclear plant. When the fission bomb was invented, the technology toured the world on the internet. It was so simple. Student science projects demonstrated the principles to the despair of the United Nations non-proliferation treaties.

But the Panamanian Plague threatened the human race. It was viral and airborne. There was no medical solution in the books or on the horizon. The sacrifice of the few for the many seemed like a reasonable solution to Israeli Intelligence. How ironic that the Israelis raised the hand of the holocaust with their history of suffering at the hands of others.

A strategic nuclear fission strike would have successfully depopulated the Panamanians and left their real estate intact. The fear was that the plague may have survived a fission attack and that chance could not be taken. The "Chosen People" launched the barrage of long range nuclear fusion missiles against Panama. There was no warning and no panic. The terror of gas chambers was avoided.

The traffic of the Panama Canal was at a standstill from the purge of the plague. The lockes were blocked by grounded ships. The one hundred Jehova missiles silently and fatally found their targets. Armageddon followed.

"One man's meat is another man's poison", goes the old adage. Jehova waved his wand of death as predicted. What was not foreseen was soon seen.

Just as Jehovah had parted the seas for the Israelis to escape the pursuit by the Egyptians, the Panamanian isthmus was rent in two. Just as the seas had been parted in Biblical times, the seas were joined that fateful day. Atlantic met Pacific and all hell broke loose.

The radioactive atmosphere descended upon Central and South America as the winds warranted. The Panamanian passage was excavated as it had been manually done in the twentieth century as a modern miracle of engineering. The warm Pacific waters poured into the chasm met by the cool Atlantic. The waters flowed freely with ebb and tide.

The currents were first to fail. The weather followed with forty days and nights of torrential rain. Global temperatures peaked and the ancient glaciers melted like an ice cream sundae left in the sun. The waters of the sea rose and rose. Tsunamis rolled like clockwork against the low lying coasts around the sphere. Even the rotation of our world lost its constancy.

Billions were drowned in their disbelief. Populations began their panicked exodus inland and to higher ground. The world became a starving refugee. One hundred miles inland in some nations, there was new waterfront property. Other island nations and low lying nations were condemned to the realm of Neptune like Atlantis.

Tectonic plates began to shift and volcanic eruptions became commonplace. Typhoons, tornadoes and tsunamis were no longer predictable. The survivors were exposed to the elements, starvation and the ravages of inhuman violence. The end of the human species was imminent.

Sixteen years passed with humanity teetering on the edge of existence. The world economy collapsed rejecting paper money, stocks and promissory notes in favor of physical barter. Bloated governments and their agencies collapsed and military dictatorships ruled with an iron fist crushing rebellion at its inception. There were no human rights. Mating was prohibited and pregnant woman were prosecuted as sex offenders. Their mates were labeled terrorists. The laws had been in place for decades under the banner of "Homeland Security". No one could turn the tides of tyranny with such a strong foothold in precedent. Forced abortion by radioactive implant sealed the fate of mother and child. Gruesome terratogenic offspring were born to dying mothers. The rage of fathers screamed in inhuman violence.

Corporations, insurance companies and banks were a thing of the past. All property was confiscated by and for the military. Food, fuel and weapons commanded the greatest value in he New World.

Incessant electrical storms enveloped the planet returning to communication systems of the twentieth century. Censored local newspapers flourished. In pockets where anarchy prevailed, warlords seized property and power and imposed their murderous justice.

Minneapolis replaced New York as the center of commerce in North America. Long Island and the five boroughs of New York were converted into a giant marine husbandry farm. The steeple of the Empire State Building rose eerily from the sea and now served as a ferry station whose elevator shafts transported the marine farm workers to and from submarine facilities at street level. All labor was slave labor under the guise of military draft and enlistment. The chain of command was built on the quality of ruthlessness.

In 2036, Euan Highlander reached the mandatory draft age of sixteen and was arrested by the Selective Service branch of Homeland Security Forces. Euan was a brave and gentle soul who was raised on the wisdom of Robert Burns, the Scottish Poet whose words informed the national identity of his father. Euan loved liberty.

The words of Robert Burns could not be deciphered by the military amadons. The linguistic nuances of the colloquial language of an insignificant minority population presented no particular threat to the tyrants in power. The power of poetry had never been so patently underestimated. Euan had recited his lessons dutifully for his father and committed the "burning words" to rote memory. Little did Euan realize that he had been fully armed for his military career.

Euan thought of the romantic words of Burns which his father used to capture the heart of Krysta. " O my Luve's like a red, red rose That's newly sprung in June; O my Luve's like the melodie That's sweetly played in tune. As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in luve am I; And I will luve thee still, my dear, Till a' the seas gang dry: Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear, And the rocks melt wi' the sun; I will luve thee still, my dear, While the sands o' life shall run. And fare thee weel, my only Luve, And fare thee weel awhile! And I will come again, my Luve, Tho' it ware ten thousand mile."

The human race stood on one leg at the edge of the precipice. Murderous marauders swept the countryside where the vestiges of liberty and pockets of freedom and decency still thrived. Undetected sex offenders and their terrorist consorts continued to breed in defiance of the laws and to secret their children underground and in caves to avoid detection. All young children were pale for wont of sufficient sunshine. They survived only if they could avoid detection by the flying saucer cams that flew in flocks to replace the extinct species of birds which had suffered most at the talons of the beast of climate change which had become known as Haterror.

Euan had been hidden and raised with knowledge in the caves of the underground. He was taught the ancient knowledge of humanity which was forbidden. The tapes and memories of civilization were first confiscated and then destroyed by the Military Dictatorship of America which now ruled the World, or what was left of it.

Children were first eradicated when detected but later adopted by the MDA through their courts and raised in orphanages. They were programmed for loyalty and ruthlessness on the Cambodian model of the Khmer Rouge.

"Liberty's in every blow! Let us do or die." These are the "burning words" branded in Euan's young soul."Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn!" These words etched restraint and empathy in Euan's heart."Nae man can tether time or tide." These words reminded Euan of his mortality and powerlessness over the sands of time and the forces of nature."Prudent, cautious self-control is wisdom's root." These words taught Euan to control and master his passions in order to acquire wisdom in his deliberation."Suspense is worse than disappointment." Euan learned acceptance of his condition and his fate and avoided anxiety"The wide world is all before us - but a world without a friend." Euan was self-reliant and suffered no dependence."There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing." Euan possessed a healthy skepticism and grip on reality.An eighteenth century poet from his homeland of Scotland served as his mentor and conscience.

Euan could not remember a childhood of romping freely through the fields under the sunshine. Children were soon detected if they ventured outdoors. Surveillance cameras were airborne drones and were everywhere day and night. Detection led to capture and confinement in MDA orphanages and military indoctrination. Euan had evaded detection throughout his childhood.

(Look for the next Chapter describing Euan's Childhood and military draft)