Speculation that Enbridge’s Line 9 carrying DilBit from the Alberta Tar Sands is still leaking after the rupture last week at the Richview Transformer Station has caused massive public demonstrations at Queen’s Park and Parliament Hill calling for the end of the Tar Sands and the shipping of DilBit across the country. Environmental groups world-wide are slamming the Canadian government for keeping the initial findings of the Richivew investigation quiet. What are they hiding?
Monica sits in her kitchen grabbing a late dinner after a long day responding to 911 calls. She hasn’t eaten since noon and neither has she had a break since the tornado hit Pearson airport at 3:18 this afternoon then ripped through the northwest end of the city. The airport fire is under control but why is the transformer station still burning?
Tim’s hands are pasted to his travel mug as he listens. He takes a sip of his coffee, then spits it violently into the garbage pail. “Tastes like gasoline.” The ground shakes. “What was that?”
Lorenzo adds a short introduction as to how they came about the envelope and carefully pulls out what looks like a legal contract on Oxley Corporation letterhead. He quickly flips through the details and stops on the final page. “Zoom in on this will you, Robert?”
The Oxley Estate gates are in view and soon a suspiciously muscular butler invites Amanda into the foyer where Angela, Robert’s mother, is seated quietly wearing a stunning emerald green fishtail gown. “I believe you two are acquainted,” a voice echoes form the top of the spiral staircase. Mr. Oxley descends into the marble foyer and offers each lady one of his arms. What else is up his sleeve?
Lorenzo hands the camera back to Robert and joins his girlfriend at the couch. “Seems Mr. Oxley picked a likeness of himself as the messenger,” referring to the corporate mogul’s propensity to hide behind a fabricated public image. “What’s it holding?”
Amanda’s face moves into the frame as a crowd of cameras and microphones scurry back up the stone steps to assault their next target. “After 2 weeks of closed negotiations, there is still no statement from the Oxley Corporation on the state, the nature, or even on whom the charges are being laid. The only information we have at this point is that the Columbus mining operation is still on hold and the workers are still being detained at the site.” But why?
The sun blasts into the indoor park as Selina and Victor’s shared ocean paradise daydream quickly fades. The sound of parents transferring their children’s care to the school teaching staff quickly turns into a pirate who sets fire to the projection screen of their bonded minds. Selina jerks away her hand and smothers Victor with a desperate embrace as she attempts to save him from an agonizing death which only exists in her mind. Is it too late?
Selina stares dreamily across the indoor field to the window at the far end. The sun is just about to begin its upward swing. Soon the generators will switch on and the air-tight community of buildings and walkways will come alive. A canned cool artificial breeze will fill the city— the closest thing to a fresh fall morning any of its residents, except for Selina, have ever experienced. “Remember, Victor, how we used to watch the sunrise from our villa in Costa Rica?” What went wrong?
The anger is difficult to contain at times, but years of repressing it and routine medical treatment for the resulting depression has helped Selina manage her insomnia somewhat. She fiddles through her purse and pulls out a plastic box containing an indistinguishable mess of “food”. She plays with it for a while, feeling rather apathetic about the whole feeding process, as she contemplates her miserable human existence. Had it been her choice, she would have selected otherwise but what could she have done to prevent this?
Above ground, the helicopter lands near the ghost truck. A dozen heavily armed masked men and a few women surround the vehicle and point their weapons at it. This was not what Eduardo had ordered. As suspected, the chopper was hijacked. So what can they do now?
“Eduardo? I just got an accurate satellite picture of the Land Rover. I think you should look at it,” yells Anita from the back of their mobile data centre. The UV is still at least 5 kilometres from the failed sensors, so Eduardo deems it safe to join his colleague at the computer. The satellite watch will alert them of any other vehicles that may approach in his absence. He grabs a seat next to Anita and leans in to where she is pointing on the display. It can't be...
Eduardo moved to the Sahara all the way from Mexico, leaving his family behind. He is part of a new generation of educated workers who have grown more valuable than the mega-farms of the southwest viewed their ancestors who had submitted to manual work in the fields that brought meager wages to millions of unskilled labourers and their families back home. The situation in Africa is vastly different.
Ms. Sawyer, as she so introduces herself, is a ruthless corporate lawyer whose only contact with Earth is the dirt she digs up on her acquisition targets to use as “leverage” for the purchase. She will be hard-pressed however to find anything incriminating on Gilbert or his father. Perhaps she conceals a new tactical maneuver inside that candy-apple red briefcase of hers?
Bonnie musters a few words between sobs: "But who will show the other farmers how to plant? Grampa said it could make mama Earth healthy again? Now the bad mega-farms will keep polluting?" She scurries away into the corn field and just keep running and running calling out Farmer Tom’s name: “Grampa!” But something is tracking her.
The young Hoppers nibble on some lettuce leaves while their mother finishes her morning collection. "A little mint, some sage, some rosemary, and the nightshades next." She disappears into the tomato patch for a few minutes then out the other side to collect a few beans, all while keeping an ear up for her kits. But today Farmer Tom will not be joining them.
Apparently, the ocean has a fertility problem and the crisis has led to much bickering between the Royal Couple. So the Royal Couple are seeking council from the Queen and limiting their public appearances together until their issues can be resolved. How could this have happened to such a bountiful marriage?
Brandon brings his laughter down to a few chuckles and refocuses on his game. He lines up the shot and just when he is about to swing, Stacy's piercing accusation sends his golf club slamming to the ground just behind the ball. It hops forward a few feet carrying a chunk of turf with it. "What have you done with my brother?"
By the time hole 6 came up, Roger’s curiosity highjacked his mouth as the Iditarod team in training ran along the fairway beside them. “What’s with the frou-frou dogs. Is it duck hunting season?”
With over 1250 golf courses in Florida and over 70 golf courses in the Tampa Bay area alone, Roger is flying into a veritable nirvana. The days are pretty dark and cold up there in Fort McMurray in December, so he is looking forward to the sticky heat wave ripping through Central Florida right now. There’s nothing like a hot sauna to sweat out all those toxins. But the hot weather is not the only thing that makes him sweat.
Imagine that you are driving down the highway, any highway, and it gives way underneath you. You plummet into a deep dark hole and as you fall into the abyss that magically appeared in the middle of farm country, you snap a picture of your windshield and Instagram it with the caption WTF? But don’t worry, it’s OK to use your cell phone while you’re in your nose-dive to your ultimate demise. So you think you are safe in your SUV?
When it comes to the single-use culture we live in how far are we going to take it before our moral and ethical standards take us into the realm of pure hedonism?
The journey for Captain Steward to Fiji is anything but routine. Although she and Chief Officer Cousteau keep a strict vow of silence on the real nature of their exports and communicate only via the encoded scribbles in a secret manifest, she is wary of the rest of the crew finding out what she is transporting in a hidden tank in the ballast. Could some of the know already?
“Are we there yet?” Katie yells from inside the travel net to her parents pulling it ahead. Mr. Bramble raises a fin at her as if to say keep quiet. They are still swimming in unsafe waters and certainly do not want to alert any of the Lee family wisesharks scouting the ocean floor for fugitives. Will they be caught escaping?
Passage on underwater operations have become much more difficult to secure in recent months due a surge in local triad activity causing a near state of panic amongst the sharks. There are just not enough boats to service the refugees. Some families have even spent their life’s savings only to board a vessel that was a front for the Taiwanese finning industry. So how are the Brambles going to escape?
It's Friday night and the Bramble family have invited their neighbours, the Whites, for dinner. Their guests marvel at the scrumptious display of raw fish. Mr. White is especially taken with the salmon tartare, his favourite, and comments: "I've never seen a salmon this big in these waters." Are they imported?
Vanessa pulls out her smart phone, flips through her camera roll, and passes it to Ashley. Ashley stops to look at it. She squints, cocks her head sideways, and leans into it. “Those aren’t seashells.” Then what could they be?
It's a scorcher again today and Ashley’s car is ready to do some cooking. Pumping toxic steam in the air is so last year for her four-wheeled girlfriend, so Becky the Beetle plans to indulge in a newly acquired guilty pleasure. If Ashley only knew what the Great Gazoo has in store for her.
Daniel has been acting so strange since he got stuck without power in the subway during the last mega storm. He is dropping by on weeknights later and later, working remotely from home...What is going on?
Jessie pops out the Queens–Midtown tunnel, takes the L.I.E., and she’s on the home stretch…for about 3 minutes. Arrrgh! She drops the F-bomb and stares despondently in her rear view mirror. She’s trapped. What now?
