Confessions of a Mad Man, Page 4

CHAPTER 4

  My plan was ahead of schedule. By 2016 I had planned on running for my second tenure as mayor of a town I had transformed into a city. Instead, I was running for a seat as a Senator. I had only just turned 25 and was barely eligible, yet my mainstream appeal was staggering. The twenty five year old nuclear engineer turned politician was a story people were eager to grab onto. Once again, I was predicted to win a senate seat in a landslide. I ran as an independent and, as all politicians do, I promised to fix all of the problems on the senate floor and help bring back a fair and balanced America.

  It’s amazing how simple it is to fool people by simply proclaiming exactly what they want to hear. I obviously had no intention of doing anything other than serving my own ambitions. My partnership with Weiland Epison grew exponentially when I influenced the passage of several clean energy and zoning bills. The specifics of those bills are not important but it is important to know that those bills are directly responsible for that superfluous headquarters building Epison established in Dearborn, Michigan.

  Weiland Epison is an extremely shrewd and intelligent businessman. More importantly, he is nearly as intelligent as me. Had I been born to a wealthy father as he was, I no doubt would have been his greatest competition. I would of course be leading all facets of that competition. Disgustingly enough, I had to yield to his momentarily superior business sense. He had just been awarded several large development contracts from the department of defense, and he had shared his design theories with me. He was going to create an army of normal people strong enough to deal with the menace of the damn Enhanced Humans. Most of the E-Humans were teenagers back then, but that made them even more dangerous. They were too powerful and needed to be kept in check. I truly and deeply believed in what Epison’s vision that, in no small part due to the fact that were I to make my play to rule the world, those E-Humans would be the ones to stop me. If Epison could stop them, I was confident that I could eventually control him.

  It is important to emphasize that Epison had completed a prototype armor designed to replicate the unique abilities of the purported E-Human and haughtily codenamed Enforcer. The product was subtly named Epison Armor. Ordinary soldiers outfitted in these armored uniforms would have strength, speed and endurance far beyond that of typical beings. He had already amassed a private army independent from the United States armed forces. Outfitting them with these uniforms would have given Epison leverage over the government. I knew I had to ensure he didn’t gain too much power.

  I played both sides of the line. When Epison needed me to bend laws so he could facilitate his maneuverings, I did so. When I felt he was overstepping his bounds, I pushed back and prevented him from doing so. It was my little way of letting him know that I was not in his pocket. He was in mine.

  A senator only has so much leverage. If I was going to give Epison Technologies the exclusive contract to the department of defense, I needed to be in a position of higher authority. I would need to be the nation’s Commander-In-Chief. By 2018, Weiland was my puppet. I even had him introduce me as a presidential candidate in his precious hometown. I won the Michigan crowd without even trying. They would buy anything Epison sold them since he single handedly rescued their economy. I believe I spoke for less than three minutes and the crowd erupted. If I were a lesser man, I might have been surprised by the effect of telling a crowd exactly what they want to hear. This was the utter simplicity of my plan. I never intended to take control by brute force. I intended to let everyone know how direly they needed me and then accept power when they handed it to me.

  My popularity spread through the Midwest like wildfire and then engulfed the nation. With no short supply of endorsements and my ever growing celebrity status, there wasn’t a moment where my advertisements were not saturating television or where print ads featuring my visage were not on display. Even my campaign slogan, “the only candidate intelligent enough to fix the nation’s problems” was a rabid triumph. It should not surprise anyone that I dominated the election. My victory was final before the polls even opened.

  In 2020, I was sworn in as President of the United States of America. Everything to this point had gone according to plan. In many regards I was exceeding even my own expectations. I had been freely given the keys to the most powerful nation in the world. Moving forward would not be so simple, however. If I were to truly rule the world, war was a necessity. I needed a catalyst to declare war on another superior nation. I needed something to rally the mindless droves around my cause. There was only one way for me to goad a war-weary populace into a fresh conflict. I needed to incite the war myself.

  I once again turned to my “good friend” Weiland. I scheduled a public unveiling of Epison Technologies’ latest breakthrough technology at the White House. Expanding on his current body armor suit, designs had been completed for a mechanical exo-skeleton that was capable of carrying heavy weapons such as missile salvos, grenade launchers, blast mortars and more. It turned the already enhanced soldier into a veritable tank. It was the most impressive military accomplishment made in my lifetime. A sect of Americans would be glad that this piece of technology belonged to us, while another would protest its very creation. There is no better way to unite both factions than to orchestrate the theft of said exo-skeletons. That is exactly what I did.

  Thousands of Americans, protestors and supporters alike arrived on the White House lawn for the press conference. Imagine their surprise as the curtain dropped to unveil these monstrous suits of steel and death and they began opening fire. Oh, it was glorious. The carnage was immediate and deadly. One small cluster of missiles was all it took to destroy enough bystanders to garner the sympathy I would need. Even Epison himself played a part in the actions. In order to sell the notion that this was a theft, he allowed himself to be “kidnapped” by the assailant. I of course had taken the precaution of evacuating myself and my staff prior to the festivities. I held an immediate press conference from Air Force One and revealed the Chinese to be the guilty party. War was inevitable.