Judgement Day

DISCLAIMOR: It's just a dream, right?!?

It started with this strange "world news" unfolding, telling the world that the Apocalypse had finally arrived:  last reminants of world peace had evaporated, and the commications infrastructure had changed extremes: from being the glowing example of freedom and abundance, into being our planet's worst Achilles' Heel.  There was total information blackout, cause for global fear to run amuck.  Judgement Day. 

Sadness turned to mortal terror as it was no longer about morning the realization of Death, like seen by my friends Jeremy and Tina
who were present, but was now about fearing death for each and every one of us.

Somehow, the only trickle of communication still working, after we had all been corralled into fallout shelters, declared that God's judgement was litterally upon us, and only the 500 most virtuous people in our city would be spared.  The rest would listen for eliminations to be announced before their number was up.

Luckily there was a breif window of outdoor freedom before "lockdown."  We had to collect defensive evidence before the world we new would cease, and the shelter, housing thousands would be the only world known to us left to exist.

Jeremy's judgement was announced, driving Tina into ahysteria... and only unlocking some riddle about Catholic sainthood would save him.  Carol and I drove frantically through familiar neighborhoods to find books and clippings releveant to the clues. The rest of the population were seated by the thousands into classroom-styled seats filling the terminal.  Each were seated alphabetically, and with each announcement, the seating got thinner.

Sitting around an adjoining "cafe,"  The announcement went out for Tina to pick up a courtesy phone for news about Jeremy.  Carol and I had worked to save him, so we picked up phones at nearby tables to see our efforts through.  But the declaration was dreadful: in sheer ignorance of the evidence, he was weeded out, and Tina would be next.

Carol and I caught on that things were highly suspicious that this unfair justice system wasn't following its own rules.  Before either of us were to be announced, we did some invenstigating of our own...

Phase 1 in the Terminal was ending.  Phase 2 was begining where the world's brightest and best were being seated: from the world's most advanced computer scientists to your Nobel Peace Prize winners.  As we got ourselves seated among the "legitimate" champions, Carol managed to steal someone else's "winning ticket"; a small sheet of paper certifying their favorable judgement.  "I'll be right back," she said, and hurried off down some back hallway.

She returned minutes later to our Phase 2 seating, and reported back, "It's just as I thought: This is such a scam.  I flashed the ticket to some guards and you and I are now just as legit as the rest of these secret masters.  It's got to be some wealthy powers behind this."
Phase 3 would finally begin, and in a new classroom, we were now placed with desks holding new "Diebold Assistant Pads." A further exmination revealed that they were running "Microsoft Windows XP Tablet Edition."