introduction

WHEN WE WERE YOUNG

The complete and silencing stillness of irreversible night. Existing solely to swallow the remnants of the day. The Darkness. Bleeding itself through every crack, door, wall, floorboard and ceiling. Trying to satisfy a homicidal hunger for stray sun rays.

Eternal Night…tirelessly advancing. Finding solace and safety by burying itself deep within our quieting chests. Hiding patiently until first light.

In this moment…the darkness, shadowed by sleep, defining a natural order to a chaotic world dormant and dreaming.

Sleep would inevitably consume us. Perhaps the most useful and dangerous of our earthly challengers…second only to Death. Flexing its formidability, its immortality, every night.

All the swirling colors of consciousness fading. One by one. The wasting reds…the fleeting greens…the fading blues…quietly vanishing. How we would struggle to keep one last dissolving recollection from the day alive in our minds before being pulled beneath the blackening waves. Quietly disappearing from the world we knew. Descending deeper and deeper into an accelerating chaos of a strengthening subconscious.

One last dying thought. A dissolving recollection. With a little good fortune a caterpillar thought. A fading remembrance about to metamorphose into something grandiose. A thought breathing, twisting, turning, growing and transforming.

A thought re-emerging as a…warm…bright…beautiful …weightless butterfly dream.

Or perhaps not.

Maybe this thought becomes a little too curious. Starts to wander. Gets confused. Disoriented. Scared. Begins to panic. Tries to run. Trips over the unimaginable. Falls. Tumbles headfirst down a tunnel. Slides deeper and deeper into the darkness. Gets entangled…immobilized….trapped.

Winds up alone, lost and forgotten. Vanished somewhere deep within the spider web Nightmare.

We were now existing within the realm of an unrestricted imagination. Control no longer an option. The Court of the Mind was now in Session.

The Fate of our dreaming, unconscious, state to be decided by forces known to none. Complete and total surrender was the choice given.

THE STRUGGLE

Years later we would awaken to the realization that we had become adults. Somehow. Someway. At some involuntary point in all of our pasts life had made the decision for us.

And now here we are. Adults. Disoriented …distracted …disconnected adults. The collective confusion within our civilization led to a cataclysmic societal catharsis.

THE CONSTANT SEARCH

Society had painfully detached itself from what was once referred to as THE LIFE EXPERIENCE.

The Happy Pills held our moods up. The crushing anxiety forced our gazes down. We searched aimlessly for relevance.

We tuned-in to our television sets …reality tv …talk shows …sports. Followed celebrity lifestyles.

We turned to social media. Nervously watched as legion after legion of posted selfies engaged in an endless battle for internet supremacy. Craving likes as a new form of daily sustenance. Feverishly searching for the instant comfort accompanying the most readily available distraction.

We also turned to God. But the unconditional love and the promise of eternal life doesn’t always bring the inner peace. The emptiness grew.

The deterioration in both self and society was accelerating. We searched everywhere. Looking for anything remotely resembling meaning. Anything offering reinforcements of self-worth.

We began hunting for ways to stave off the appetite of an increasingly carnivorous world.

A world we found ourselves trapped in. A world which fed on the insecurities and the fears of a society being stripped of its’ purpose. Bled of significance.

We were being dragged further and further away from self-awareness. From self-enlightenment. From self-love.

All the while a crippling doubt was fortifying itself within our minds…

…Was this It?
…Was this all there Was?

WE WERE LOST

A War was raging within. The preservation of the soul was at stake. Identities were not being stolen …they were being lost. The Human Condition had gone Critical.

THE CONTAGION

It spread through the population like hellfire. A violent and mysterious new sickness.

Transmission of the disease was carried out through any form of contact. Both physical and non-physical. Hyper accelerating the spread.

Once inside…the Contagion went straight for your Mind. Drowning every thought in uncertainty. In Fear. An Apex neurotoxin.

Then the Contagion would poison your Heart. Pathological in its conviction. Ceaselessly advancing until it had ultimately destroyed your Soul. And with it… any will to live.

Some said it was a sickness so Complete in its cruelty …so efficient in its desire for destruction …that it could only have been born from the Human Condition itself.

We watched helplessly as everything and everyone held close to our hearts were mercilessly consumed all around us. Those still clinging to the belief in a Higher Power slowly began realizing prayer and faith were becoming increasingly ineffective at stopping the apocalyptic starvation underway.

The incessant thirst
The morally deranged hunger

The understanding of the necessity to live an enjoyable and fulfilling life ...Gone. The importance of caring for ourselves …caring for one another …Gone. All those tiny little things that were so critically important to the survival of our species …gone.

The sickness flash-flooded the population in wave after wave of suffocating feelings of worthlessness. A blind and destructive apathy was born out of the wreckage of our previous selves. Hopelessness endlessly rained down from a cold gray sky. Homelessness and hunger swept through the streets. Darkness covered the heart as death filled the air.

Motionless we lay
By the side of a lifeless road
Shell-shocked from the speed
in which the change had occurred

No going back in time. 
No search and rescue coming.
No stopping a future already here.

Sadness remained. But the sadness wasn’t alone. Something else had also decided to stay behind. Calling out. Reaching forward. From the darkest of spaces. Forbidden tunnels. Places buried deep within the hidden depths of human despair.

An Event Horizon was occurring. Human Civilization was shifting again. A New Future was hurtling towards us with the destructive power and blinding force of an exploding star. A population Supernova.

An alien World was rising.

The Earth was being born again.

GREED
OBSESSION
DESTRUCTION

SURVIVE

EXIST

ATTACK

colorbrickroad productions

presents…

the electric rain

ch. 000110001

:E X C E S S S T E N C E:

Build BIGGER Stretch TALLER
Expand WIDER Shine BRIGHTER
more Energy more Power more Consumption more Consumers 
MORE Places...MORE Ways...MORE things to CONSUME

EXCESSIVE consumption provided all the necessary physical exertion needed to perpetually stir one’s appetite for accumulation.

We had fashioned a society structured entirely around Extravagance. And GREED. Rationalized …legalized …justified greed.

The End was already here. But the World was too comfortable to notice.

A new state-of-the-art Unified Global Goods Distribution Network emerged …UGGDN in short.
And with it the belief that we were simplifying our lives.

Immediate, effortless commercialism. Instant delivery. Endless Goods.

Payment plans in every lifestyle shape…current financial status kind…and shiny bad credit color.
Fulfilling every possible inherent, humanly need for value.

UGGDN. The online marketplace.
Administering a rapid dose of positive reinforcement through each click of a button …every painless keystroke. $ALE. CONFIRMATION.

Purchasing power was the new therapy. Accumulation stimulated endorphin releases chosen
as the preferred medication in treating the blanket of depression suffocating society.

Every single sales receipt …a reassurance of our usefulness …another brick building our individual roads to redemption.

“Enriching Our Human Experience
with Every New Product Delivered”

…UGN’s official company slogan.

New TECHNOLOGIES were tested to enhance the Collective Acquiring Process of society as a whole.
To create limitless buying opportunity. 

The focus became Human-Grid Expansion.
Complete Mind/Body technological emersion.
With the end goal of infinite consumption.

We were given a new collective calling.
So we blanketed our cities with technology's SEEDS.
In hopes that one day our irreversible over-planting would produce something special.

Something unique…

The Sensory Feast of a Lifetime

An UNCONTROLLABLE passion and desire fueled society’s newfound drive.

The obsessive determination…

…to make the Feast EVERLASTING 

The ELECTRONIC EARTH had Arisen. 

Seemingly endless buffet lines began to form outside the HOTTEST ...NEWEST ...MOST EXCLUSIVE Digital Delicatessens.

OPEN 24 HOURS. Rain or Shine. Anything you want. Everything you need.

Endlessly adapting to a continuously evolving consumer base.

Society's new RECHARGING Stations 
Civilization's new Coliseums of Catharsis

Ironically, just as TECHNOLOGY was dramatically speeding up our lives …it was also drastically slowing them down.

We had opened the door to the possibility of living an entirely solitary and sedentary existence.
A human existence with no human contact.

The fragmentation of society…and the ISOLATION of the individual within society…grew exponentially.
Lethargy and LONELINESS gave way to Disease and DECAY.

Rot was everywhere you looked. We were sick.
Our lives…our bodies…our thoughts… but most importantly …our minds.

With year after year of continuous, compounding, systemic STRESS to the infrastructure
CRITICAL support structures began to FAIL.

Resources were shifted away from health and human services to accommodate corporate growth.
When the mental health facilities and care clinics closed …the streets opened.

The severity of the DARKENING situation dimmed well beneath technology’s promising GLOW.

We continued the ADVANCE.
With device in hand
Moving closer and closer.
Going DEEPER and DEEPER.
Curling up around the warm GLOW.

We brought it with us. Never far beyond reach. We carried its SEEDS.

We helped it SPREAD.

TECHNOLOGY  

Armed with discs, drives, files, folders and formats we became the pollinators.
Little Electric Honeybees in this RADIANT new ELECTRONIC World.

We carried the Codes.
The Electrical CURRENTS flavored our lives.

The CLOUD was our Hive.
The ELECTRIC GRID ...that was the Honeycomb.
And the Electricity…
the SWEET …SWEET …INTOXICATING …ELECTRICITY.
...that was our Honey.

Our Delicious ...Decadent
…DEVASTATING Honey.
The taste of sweet destruction.

ELECTRICITY.
Our SWEET …SEDUCTIVE …HONEY.

Programming our landscapes.
Flowing forth from open faucets built everywhere into this world. Powering our lives.
Connecting our spaces.

We used it to produce the silicone soaking our surroundings. We used it to make the temperature RISE and FALL.

Electricity flooded the skies.
Electricity transformed the dark.
Electricity altered EVOLUTION.

We had created an Artificial Sun.
With the advent of this new technology,
the path of human history was altered.
We had dissolved the distance between the dream and the reality. Sustained, limitless POWER was now possible, but more accurately profitable and attainable. The future of energy, some would say, had now past behind us.

We had taken our most GIANT of Leaps. And we were about to come CRASHING down …head first …into a fully DIGITALIZED EXISTENCE.

ch. 100110002

Initially,
the Opportunities offered within this New digital State of Existence
were nothing short of REMARKABLE.
It Began with the EASE.
Utterly seamless ease.
Frictionless. Flawless.
Then it evolved into the ACCESS.
Restriction-less. Without complication. Without Resistance.
But soon, like seemingly everything else with an increasing value,
it became all about looks.

T - E - C - H - N -

PURE AESTHETIC PLEASURE.
the new Fascination.

O - L - O - G - Y

LUST went into OVERDRIVE.
Televisions. Computers. The Screen. Smartphones. Robots. A.I Assisted Living. Virtual Reality.
What the Transistor did to emitted light was EXHILARATING.

But Exhilaration would soon became a slave to Resolution. To Contrast.
And we would become slaves to this newly emerging form of controlled light. 

Human Existence began developing an Essential Interdependence.
The Dawn of the Integrated Circuit was upon Us.
The original Base 2 had changed.
Cooperation was dying in our DNA.
The Human Connection was breaking.

Convenience was the Binary Code. THE NEW COEXISTENCE. The new DNA.

Women and Men became 1’s and 0’s.
Conversation was the key stroke.
And LIFE…
…life was a mouse click away. 

Unknowingly,
We had become a focus group
in the largest case study ever performed on a population
regarding the Lesson of Hypnotics.

…the irreparable Damage sustained as a result.
…the Consequence for our participation in this Experiment.
…the final Cost soon revealed.

A Realization existing within incomprehensible scenarios of destruction.
In a time of darkness LIGHT YEARS beyond reasoning.

For lifeless we were about to lay
Cold unconscious gray

We were staggering Tech-Drunk into the Electric Sunset.
Tripping over a Vanishing Horizon and falling face first into EXTINCTION.

As Electricity began replacing the
FIRE in our homes
Technology began replacing the
FIRE in our imagination.
The FIRE in our SPIRIT.

DREAMS.
Dreams became the Manufactured Images, delusional desires,
of Mass Consumerism UNLEASHED.

COMMERCE …the new Religion. 
MERCHANDISE …the new Belief system.

The MESSAGE broadcast globally. Flooding the Airwaves. 
SURGING through the interstate land lines.
PUMPING and GUSHING through the Cables and Wires
stretched beneath the Earth's surface like Veins.
Spider webbing the landscapes above ground. 

Consumer Products ENDLESSLY flowing forth. The increasingly personal level of interest in your interests. The Inter-Connectivity. The Synchronicity. The permanent contact coupled with bottomless levels of Addictive content demanded Subscription.

-e-l-e-c-t-r-i-c-a-l- -f-e-e-d-s-
The DISORIENTING, DISTRACTING, DRAINING electrical Feeds.

Feeds camouflaging the mounting number of forgotten days.
Feeds burying the DISTANCING…DRIFTING…FADING…DISAPPEARING ways to find purpose.  

Gazes began to wander Less and Less. Thought soon followed.

A Culture
Deeply ENTRANCED by a Televised Reality.
VOID of True Mystery. 
Deficient in MAGIC
ENTRENCHED in Conformity.
With Unknown Possibility.

LIFE

Life.
Now defined by what was currently being broadcast through the closest pixelated portals. 
We had become DETACHED.
Drifting further and further away from the recognizable.

ch. 011000103

The RAIN.
Not too many people noticed the FIRST change in the rain.
When the rain became WARMER. Always Warm. Never cold anymore.
No matter the temperature outside.
Would glide or sizzle down.
Uncompromising.
CONSTANT
Warm. 

On cooler days the Rain would steam down to the ground creating a Tropic-Like fog thick enough to stop Sound. 
And when the coming days grew Hotter…

The Rain…
the Rain would become inspired.

On the particularly scorching days it was as if the Rain and the Fahrenheit were racing each other into the Sun.
Leaving behind a blistering Heat Index.

EXHAUSTING
DRYING
DEPLETING

Electricity unleashed…The New Fire...

We dug the OIL.
Heated the Planet.
BURNT the Freon.
Chilled the Air.

Usage SKYROCKETED.
Power companies CAUTIONED.
Energy consumption SURGED.
Lights dimmed.
The Blackouts began.

THE BLACKOUTS

Buried deep within the Blackouts a SECOND change in the Rain was already on its way.
A change about to literally come knocking on our doors.

We searched the sciences for reasons explaining the FIRST change in the RAIN.
Grappled with the divergencies involved in the scientific processes necessary for such an anomaly of transformation to transpire.

But before principal application …hypothesis proposition …theoretical explanation
Before any real discussion involving True State ABSTRACTION in Molecular Science …in Physics …Structure …Form …Chemistry.
Before any of this was allowed to exist …the SECOND change in the Rain had arrived.
SCREAMING down upon us with tiny little fists of vengeance. 

VELOCITY

Heightened Velocity.
The Rain was Falling Faster. Striking Harder.
PUNISHING
Bruising the skin of those caught within reach.
MERCILESS
Scars left behind from the unforgiving touch.

With SPEED. With FORCE.
The Sky ATTACKED.
The Rain had grown REMORSELESS. 

The Luxury of Contemplation was now immediately overshadowed by the Necessity to Act.
Focus shifted away from Origin to Termination. We sought immediate solutions for slowing its speed, strength and force.
Evaporate the Power. We had to dry the LIFE from It.

THE DAY

A Day would come. A day more important than any other day you or I have lived.
…have experienced
…have survived.

The day that would set FIRE to our understanding of the way things are.
The day that would burn the Governing Laws of Physics down to the ground.

The day we witnessed figments of our Collective Imagination become Reality.
The Day of the FINAL change in the Rain. 
When Fiction and Fantasy Swallowed the Earth. 

Every living creature took notice.
EVERY single one of Us.
The Final Change.
We watched it Together.
Side by Side.
Locked together by disbelief.

Total Silence.
Under this Unknown Sky.

ELECTRIC

The Rain had changed COLOR.
The FINAL change the Rain would undergo.

Beneath It. Above It. Within It.
Changing Color with It.

SPELLBOUND
Once clear and colorless rain had become the Visible Spectrum UNLEASHED.
Every BRIGHT …BEAUTIFUL …MYSTIFYING
Color contained within the limitless Imagination of the UNIVERSE spilt forth.
Vivid bouquets of luminous HYPNOTIC little drops.
SPARKLING down.

If Blue the Color of Sadness
And Grey the Color of the Sorrowful Day
Then Ecstasy my love
ECSTASY was the color of the Rainbow Rain

A Kaleidoscopic Monsoon of HAPPINESS.

The Rain. Showering Bliss. ELECTRICITY.
The Speed of Pleasure. PULSING.
The Impact of Pain. ENERGY.
Drowning in Joy. RAIN.
In THE CURRENT. 
THE ELECTRIC RAIN

The Ground beneath our feet
became Soaked and Sore as
We DANCED.

Bruising, Bare, Beating, Breathing.
COLLIDING into each other.
Back and Forth. Side to Side.
Swaying in the CURRENT.
Astonished. Bewildered.
DANCING HARDER.

Then… INSTANTANEOUSLY
an ELECTRIC SHOCK
…and the Electric Rain STOPPED.

Lasting 4 Days.
Changing Everything.

The Rainbow Sky, and the Electric Rain the Sky had delivered, disappeared.
Receding back into the anomalous waters of the Reality Void from which they first emerged.

But something was different.
The Electric Rain had left something behind.

…a Gift.

A gift embodying the sum of all of the residual oddity within the anomaly.
A gift which had been very specifically and intentionally DESIGNED to remain.
A special little present.

Living. GROWING. Flourishing.
Tiny little Presents.

An offering absent of intent. Thriving outside the arena of human understanding.
Existing somewhere on the fringe of science.
Born within an unknown Universe full of incomprehensible possibilities.

A Gift conceptualized far beyond the Gates to
…Sight…Sound…Scent…Taste…and Touch…
shattering the Pillars of Perception.
Creation, Death and Truth becoming indeterminable.
A cast of concepts now primed for redefinition.

Deep within this Absence of Normality
Unpredictability was now the Rule not the Possibility

what remained…

ch. 11011005

FLOWERS. Tiny little delicate flowers. DAISIES.
What The Electric Rain had left behind were
Fields and Fields of
MESMERIZINGLY BREATHTAKING
sparkling little DAISIES.
GLOWING RADIATING INCANDESCENT
beautiful little daisies.
HYPNOTIC NEON DAISIES

LIVING…GROWING

Feverishly RISING forth from The Electric Rain soaked soil.
Gasping for Air.
Tearing upwards into tender sky like Reverse Lightning.

The dancing had ended and here they were.
Petals opening Wide.
Stunning ALL within Sight.

PURE MAGNIFICENCE

What had remained…PARADISE

Paradise in perfect little floral form.

THE NEON DAISY

ch. 011000006

The Electric Rain brought the Neon Daisies
The Neon Daisies erased the Pain

The Neon Daisies began MATERIALIZING
EACH and EVERY ONE of our Desirous Inclinations.

NOTHING was too SHOCKING.
LUST-LADEN inhibitions. HEDONISTIC intuitions.
NOTHING was off limits.
The Daisies SPREAD these thoughts WIDE across
the vacant beds of fragile solitary existences.
Existences lost in a permanent unforgiving past. 
Realities trapped in the echoing space. 

HEARTACHE was the Daisy oxygen.
FORGIVENESS the Daisy light.

The LUMINOUS flowerbeds offered
ACCEPTANCE
SANCTUARY
ESCAPE.

The Neon Daisies would SHELTER you.
STUDY you.
STRENGTHEN you.
The Neon Daisies would SET YOU FREE.

The origins of the Electric Rain remained a mystery.
Along with what, exactly, the Rain had left behind.
What was known for certain was the Neon Daisies had ARRIVED. 
And now becoming increasingly apparent by the day…they were Here to Stay. 

We had given the Daisies CONTROL.
We invited them into our LIVES…our THOUGHTS.
In Exchange, the Daisies offered us
a State of overwhelming relaxation. Complete contentment.
EVERLASTING BLISS.
We gazed DEEPER and DEEPER into their
BLINDING BEAUTIFUL BRIGHTNESS.

We were unwittingly surrendering our SELF again.
With it…our worth.
Society began sliding down the Spiral once again.
A chillingly familiar state of CATHARSIS crept back in.

The widespread Electronic Sedation created the opportunity
for our passive participation in the continuing Neon Daisy landscape transformation.

Our World inched CLOSER and CLOSER away from the Recognizable.
Technology being the strongest catalyst for the change.

ch. 010100107

The Neon Daisies began
constructing a NEW WORLD.
Their scope was MASSIVE.  
Their growth was EXPONENTIAL.
THE NEW EXISTENCE.

The Daisies built towers that scraped the sky.
They created phosphorescent clouds of LIGHT
that swallowed the Stars.
And they constructed DENS.

The Dens connected to form a Labyrinth. Incalculable in size.
An ever-increasing number of underground corridors, caves and caverns that hollowed the Earth…and swallowed the Lost. 

The Neon Daisies SPREAD
as FAR as the eye could see.
Photosynthesizing in the High Definition Age.
Broadcasting their MESSAGE over the thousands of channels
originally created to connect us to each other.

A Fatal Attraction.

Reveling just how fertile we had made our BODIES and our MINDS to them. How Infertile we had made the planet to Ourselves.

We began facing a TERRIFYING new realization…

What the Daisies liked best…
What the Daisies adored most…

What the Neon Daisies required to LIVE and to THRIVE

…us.
They needed us.

The Neon Daisies were literally FEEDING ON US.

Constantly Plugged In …Connected …Cell-Phoned …Head-Phoned …Inter-Netted and Televisioned.
We were beginning to serve a NEW purpose in Life.

We had voluntarily transformed our Civilization into one GIANT, nourishing, semi-conscious, Human electrical outlet.

A Free-Flowing, Self-Sustaining, Endless, ELECTRIC CURRENT. Spilling forth from the largest energy collective on the Planet.

The Human Population.
The Neon Daisy POWER Source. 

Alimentative Terra Firma…
THE NEW SOIL 

We had de-evolved into a different species. One with a singular purpose. The facilitation of another species Existence.

EXISTENCE…

The most basic, inherent, universal need there is.
The last shared desire remaining within this new changing landscape. Within a new escape-less reality.

The Neon Daisies were evolving. 
Humans were no longer at the top of the food chain.

We Became a Food Source. Processed energy…consumed, digested and broken down.

Our thoughts…our emotions…the constant energy emitting as our life-force. The key elements to the survival and proliferation of the Neon Daisy.

Enslavement the Calculation.
Procreation the Directive.
Continuation the Command.

Without Us the Neon Daisies could not Multiply…they could not Exist.

The World had become a giant window-box. We were living in a prison garden. 

We were conduits of the strongest Collective Electrical Current known.
The strongest RIVER OF LIFE.

And we were mobile.
From Daisy to Daisy...we powered them.

The EXPLODING Daisy numbers decimated our population. The underground Dens the Neon Daisies built, once thought for human pleasure, no longer hid their true intent. Death began overflowing out from their entrances. Bodies sucked completely dry…left lifeless.

Death piled high on the streets …the horror-stricken scent hanging heavy in the air.

Our Human Energy Source. Our Soul. Our Glow.
Our Collective Current…
Draining. Weakening. 
Bodies and Minds Deteriorating.

Our Internal Energy REDUCING.
Our Health and Vitality EXHAUSTING.
Our Charge FEEDING.

Life Fading

The strongest current slowing.
THE NEON DAISIES THRIVING.
Earth HIERARCHY transforming.

End Results Altered

Our population had just been full-scale domesticated. We were reduced to the role of factory farm animal. Tables turned. Bodies now fertilizer for the Flowerbeds of our New Harvesters.

The Neon Daisies continued RADIATING.
LIGHT became the ILLUSION of LIFE.
Biology was replaced with Circuitry.

We Continued To Die.

Disappearances began sweeping through the population with the force and speed of discharged buckshot. 

SCATTERING
VANISHING

New MISSING PERSONS cases were buried beneath the avalanche from old unsolved MISSING PERSONS cases. No Matter... wouldn't have made a molecule of difference.

NO ONE REAPPEARED
…no one.

We were ALL Irreversibly Descending into our own Inevitable Daisy Death.

I remember when those that were responsible for finding the Missing started DISAPPEARING.
Fast forward a decade and the world was an EMPTY LONELY SPACE.

Faintly existing somewhere in-between the
Daisies' Bursting Cities of Light
and the VANISHING Human Footprint.
EXTINCTION was at our doorstep.
Staying Alive was the Struggle.
Continuation was the Hope. 

We began the EXODUS.

ch. 101000008

We FLED.
Everyone who Resisted.
The Hopelessness. The Death. The Apathy. The Outcome.
We all fled.
Anyone who wasn’t yet under Complete Daisy Control RAN as fast as they could.

The young …old …weak …tough …timid …fearful and the brave.
Evacuating. RETREATING.
EXHAUSTIVELY Marching. WEARY. FAMISHED.
Taking part in The Great Escape.
The EXODUS.

Deep Down we all knew where we had to go.
Every single last one of us remaining knew.
We KNEW where we had to go TOGETHER.

…where to seek Safety
…where to seek Shelter
…where to seek Forgiveness
…where to seek Healing

NATURE

The Instinct Within. It was always there. Waiting to be reawakened. Heavily sedated by the lulling beat of a “civilized” heart
....but still ALIVE

NATURE.
We STARVED it. POISONED it. Laid WASTE to its Wonder.
We built our cities on it’s ash. Reputations on its Ruin. We had tied the relevance of our society to its scalable DESTRUCTION.

But …deep Down …all Along …We KNEW.

With the power to create …to teach …to sustain …and to destroy. Our true Birthplace. Our ONE and ONLY Kingdom. The Kingdom of Earth. From which we Arose. Into which we Return.

To an Existence facing Extinction it WAS the Last Hope. Deep Down. We Knew.

We knew where to Retreat.
We knew where to be Safe.
We knew where We Belonged.
Our Once and Always Home... 

The Natural World.

The WILD KINGDOM

We headed Straight for the remaining Shadowlands. The places the Neon Daisies Did Not Grow. The places lacking electricity. Places lacking technological infrastructures. Places not yet envenomed by human vanity, greed and destruction.

We found our Refuge OFF THE GRID.

Home once again became the Mountains …the Jungles …the Caves …the Grasslands and the Forests.

Here …in these Worlds of Natural Light …undiluted darkness …we began devising a new plan.

With a Reconnection to our Natural Environment we began our Reconstruction.

Our RESURRECTION.

We started Repairing all of our Fractured Relationships, our Broken Alliances,
with the Plants …with the Insects …with the Animals …and with the Earth.

But more importantly, we began rebuilding our fractured relationships with each other. 

REBORN through Interdependence.
Reconnected by a perfect Heart and mind Symbiosis.
We once again UNIFIED ourselves with the Universal Life Rhythm.

The Human Experience was returning to our lives.

There was a new Energy in the Air.
True Emotion SURGED forth from every thought, feeling, word and action.

Kindness dripped from every pore.
Empathy spread to every Soul.

Rise.

The Lifeblood of the Natural Universe
COURSING through Our veins.

RISE.

We regained our Collective Consciousness.
Rediscovering the significance and the importance of
LOVE, LOSS, ANGER, PEACE and PAIN.

…and Pleasure

…Organic …Biological …Human PLEASURE

The OVERWHELMING feeling of TRUE AWARENESS sent the five senses into HYPERDRIVE.

TOUCH...
The heightened Sensitivity.
TASTE …SIGHT …SMELL …SOUND.

The Sensuality

We were listening again. We heard the Universe breathing around Us. The Music of the Stars. Breathing-in and exhaling with Us. Within Us. We Heard.

We were EXCITED and We were RESPONSIVE.

The MEANING Had Returned. 

Eyes …Minds …Hearts opened up. Sensation fueled Passion. Determination incited Drive.

No matter how Petrifying the Fear…
We CHARGED towards it.
How Paralyzing the Love…
We COLLAPSED into it.

strangers danced
friendships grew
lives were made
and no fists flew

We began the process of UNITING every Soul that had fled from the toxic Daisy Gardens.
We were now Bonded under the Common Banner of
SHARING together. SUCCEEDING together. RISING Together.

We found our Humanity.

UNITED
Becoming ONE.

We had to Return.

Return to the the Neon Daisy Fields.
We had to go back for the Others still out There.
Anyone that had been left behind…left to die.

The Over-Flowing EMOTION propelled an overwhelming sense of Urgency. We Set a CRASH Course straight into the HEART of the Neon Daisy GLOW.

At SUNRISE…
We would begin THE STRIKE

ch. 001101109

We STORMED the Daisies’ Cities of LIGHT.
Forcibly Submerging ourselves DEEP into the RADIANCE of their Artificial Sunshine.

EXTENDING ENVELOPING CASCADING
over the Silicone and the Steel.
BLANKETING SOAKING SATURATING
the Intimate Spaces of every Neon Daisy in sight.

We had Repurposed ourselves.
Reassesed our internal priorities.
We were now Powered by Importance and Self-Understanding …Self-Worth.

Our re-imagined lives became a torrential downpour of electrically SUPERCHARGED thoughts and emotions for the Neon Daisies to FEAST upon. A redesigned vibe brimming with a POWERFUL new intentionally crafted hidden poison.

A Secret Toxicity.
A Daisy Killer.

Their Beaconing calls…
The GUSHING Neon Daisies.
RUSHING them.
SOAKING SUBMERGING them in our ATTENTION.
Cascading through the ELECTRIC Streets.
ROLLING FLOWING SWARMING
With POWER. With FORCE.

UNCOMPROMISING. UNRELENTING. UNYIELDING.

Descending Upon the Neon Daisies with shared Intent. Joined Purpose. One Sole Objective…

CORRUPT THEIR CURRENT 

We had come back. 
And the Neon Daisies could not have been more excited to see Us return.

The Neon Daisies SWARMED.
WILDLY…HUNGRILY…DESPERATELY.
SHOWERING us in LOVE and ATTENTION.

Treating our Return in the very same manner a
distraught parent would treat the return of a lost child. To the Daisies we were TRAUMATIZED Heart-Ached soldiers returning Home from a Devastating War.

We needed to be COMFORTED. Consoled.

…then BLED to DEATH.

The Neon Daisies began their ATTACK.

Their Sympathy Struck First.
WAVE after WAVE of Soft-Stroking COMPASSION.
Empathy and Tenderness showering down upon Us.
Their Attentiveness was both Pervasive and Powerful.
A TRANQUILIZING peace masked the true extent of the DECEPTION.

The initial sympathy was immediately followed by a weightless affection and an enveloping reassurance of our continuing worth.
The Daisies were Masters at the Art of Tender Loving Care.

TLC

Without pause. Without hesitation. Zero Judgement.

We were ENTHUSIASTICALLY Welcomed Back.

Back into the Convenience. Into the Solace. Into the forgiving, familiar stillness of the UNTRUTH.
…back into that TREACHEROUS Neon GLOW.

Their Glow had grown blinding in our absence. A Glow now ENCIRCLING Us. SWALLOWING every inch of SPACE between Us. Absorbing all the electrically charged emotions, thoughts and feelings emanating from our Rediscovered Minds.

The Neon Daisies’ roots REACHING …stems STRETCHING …petals SPREADING. WIDENING Daisy mouths opening Wider. …salivating. …sucking …draining. WIDER.

ENCLOSING

Beside Us. Seducing Us. ATTACHING. Connecting. Driving DEEP into our consciousness. Penetrating our Core. Dismantling all our Defenses.

But this time was different. This time…

WE WERE READY 

ch. 100100110

WE LET THEM FEED

GREED would become the Daisies’ greatest Weakness.
Overconsumption And Greed.

We LET them OVER-CONSUME.
Every SINGLE last one of them.
Every SINGLE last one of Us.

WE LET THEM IN

Connections SPARKED. Sockets SURGED.
Silicone FLASHED and CRACKLING PIXELS could be HEARD.

We let their roots DIG into Us.
Dig as DEEP as they could possibly Dig.
We let them DRINK. We let them FEAST.
We watched them GORGE.

Every single last drop we could give.
Every single last one of Us.
To the Edge of Sight.
Humankind Fighting Together Again.

We LET them BLEED Us. 

And with Purpose…Precision and Patience
…We BLED.

WE PURPOSEFULLY BLED.

The Neon Daisies were RAVENOUS.
Feverishly devouring our Energy Forces once again
with SPEED …with FURY. With a Surgical Lethality.
Draining Us.

The Familiar sight. Our Energy EXHAUSTING.
Strength DIMINISHING.

The Daisies once again systematically siphoning out the Life in Us.
Feeding on Us.

We kept on FLOWING.
Flowing to ATTRACT.
FATIGUE setting in.
Flowing to FEED.
WEARY. EXHAUSTED
Flowing until FAINT. 

...the Familiar Place.
...the Familiar Feeling 

We hardened our DETERMINATION.

We had to Stay Focussed.
WE MUST SUCCEED.

Deliver the Payload…
The Unfamiliar NEW CHARGE we carried Within. 
The CHARGE We had Weaponized.
The Unknown...Unrecognizable...Magnetic NEW CHARGE to the Neon Daisies.

The CHARGE created from the REBIRTH within.
The REBIRTH of HOPE …of LIFE …of DECENCY
now existing inside each and every last one of Us.

We had evolved again. With our NEW CHARGE…

We will CORRUPT the Neon Daisy CURRENT. 

THE NEW CHARGE 

The …HYPNOTIC …MAGNETIC …CURIOUS …CONTAGIOUS …ELECTRIFYING NEW CHARGE.

The Neon Daisies were INSTANTLY ADDICTED. They began FEVERISHLY Feeding on Us.

The Daisies were FASCINATED by this enigmatic NEW ENERGIZED CHARGE we were Emitting.
Unable to Identify it. Unable to GET ENOUGH OF IT. Sucking HARDER. And HARDER.
Unable to understand its confusing Electrical Make-Up…its unique and rare SIGNAL.
The Unusual ELECTRIFYING taste …the RAW POWER. The Daisies’ Fed FURIOUSLY.

INTENSIFYING their Connection.
ACCELERATING the Delivery of the CHARGE.

The Neon Daisies were HOOKED on our transformed CHARGE. Entranced by its INTENSITY. Overcome by its BRILLIANCE. Coiling TIGHTER AND TIGHTER to the New Stream RADIATING from within Us. Hysterically affixing themselves to every human in sight.

Then SUDDENLY …an ever so subtle little SPARK.
A DEVASTATINGLY significant tiny little spark.

A SPARK seen slowly crackling its way down the petal of a Neon Daisy.

Then gradually …one by one ...all of the other Daisies starting CRACKLING all over. CRACKLING and SPARKING as they began BLEEDING out their neon colors.

A SHOCK WAVE had been set in Motion.
The ELECTRIC SUN was about to go SUPERNOVA.

ch. 011000011

The Neon Daisies continued to feed. And they continued to BLEED. Like moths to a flame. FORCE FEEDING themselves the New Current until all of their stems began to Split. Neon Daisy Stems now could be seen BURSTING all around Us.

GULPING GUZZLING GORGING FLARING EXPLODING

Daisies SIZZLING and SPARKING uncontrollably in every direction as Far and Wide as the eye could see. FRYING OUT systematically.

WILTING as their Neon Colors DRAINED.

DROOPING LOW LOWER
Too THIRSTY to STOP
LOWER and LOWER
slowing SLOW slower and SLOWER

DIMMING

Dimming DARKER DARKENING
FLICKERING FALLING
falling down closer
FALLING down CLOSER to the GROUND

COLLAPSING

The NEW CHARGE

DEATH to the DAISIES

Too Full of EMOTION to Turn Away
CRACKLING

Too ADDICTED to Change
CRASHING

Too GREEDY to Stay
COLLAPSING

THE NEON DAISY FALLING DEAD
Dying where they lay

DARKNESS

A Drowning DARKNESS.

DARKNESS and DEATH.

Descending upon the NEON DAISIES. Covering them in Silence.

PERMANENT SILENCE

The colorless silent stillness of the fields and fields of lifeless burnt out daisies …all that remained

The TRANSFORMATION that had Occurred…

An AWAKENING of the Energy within all of Us. The re-discovery of the PURE ENERGY that FLOWS FORTH from the UNCORRUPTED SELFLESS Life.

The CHARGE the Neon Daisies could not Take. NEGATIVE to POSITIVE.

We were HOWLING at the Moon again.
We were HOWLING in our Hearts.

Inner LIGHT reflected Outwards. Energizing the SPIRIT. IGNITING the Soul.

LOVE UNLEASHED

Oxygenating …Fertilizing …Revitalizing the SKY above Us …the EARTH Surrounding Us …the SOIL beneath our feet.

We planted FRESH Roots into this new Soil. Into this NEW WORLD.

We planted fresh roots

…into a New UNDERSTANDING
…into a New AWARENESS
…into a New RESPECT 

For the IMPORTANCE
                                                                                             

  of LIFE                     

                                                             all life.

Detachment Attracts Destruction
Compassion Attracts Purpose
Love Attracts Life

the ENd.

story written by

BDEH

02   10050514  1019  00  7 8

   colorbrickroad@gmail.com

TOP