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Dungeon Master Earth
Interlude: Update News Night 7/16/23

Interlude: Update News Night 7/16/23

Hello everyone, and welcome back to our program. I hope this broadcast finds you all safe and sound. This is Trent Rodgers with your Update News Night.

I have to start off with a technical report tonight. When the internet went down for good two days ago, I told you from this desk right here that the radio would never let us down. That no matter what was happening to our world, they could not take down radio waves. Well, I have been proven a liar—less a liar and more a naive optimist. Because, folks, as you know, radio signals have been nothing if not inconsistent. That said, they are still this country's only source of far-reaching communication, as cell phones and landlines have gone out as well. As long as I have you tonight, that is all that matters. I am told that our broadcast is strong, so let's continue with the update, shall we?

There is no word yet on who has taken over as the head of state in the US. Now, we have not yet heard confirmation that the executive branch, both the President and Vice President, have perished, but we have not heard from either of them since day 2 of this living nightmare. The highest-ranking official in the Federal Government that has made a known statement is Senator {static} from {static}. In this statement, he urged people to remain calm and let the government form a plan. Not much else of substance can be gleaned from his statement. God bless the Senator, but I think we need more than empty words right now. When the White House, Pentagon, and Capitol Building were all destroyed with tremendous loss of life, and the military and police can no longer use their weapons, then maybe it is time to put our trust back in the hands of the American citizen.

There is scattered reports of some organized government entities, whether military or civilian, but until this reporter sees or hears from them, I can only lend skepticism to those reports.

To other news. More pressing for all of you, I must say. We have now had confirmed reports of large monster concentrations in almost every major city in this country. New York is overrun by 7-foot-tall wolves, rats the size of large dogs, large brutish humanoid figures that some have described as orcs, and of course, the spiders. The city has evacuated almost entirely, but there are rumors of one of these journal holders leading a mixed band of citizens, NYPD, and National Guard. The last report was via radio about 24 hours ago. Let's wish them well and hope they can get help or make it out in one piece.

Other cities around the nation are no different. Monster hordes seemingly coming from nowhere. No, that's not true. Places with subway or even vast underground sewer systems have been hit the hardest, with the monsters seeming to materialize out of those dark places.

There are large contingents of people forming in rural areas. People are flocking to farms and other places off the grid that can supply food. This is reminiscent of the early seasons in The Walking Dead TV show.

Not to make light of the horrors of this world by comparing it to a TV show, but isn't it just so surreal, folks? One day we were arguing over an actress in a movie no one really cares about, and today it's reports of monster hordes and devastating weather events that haven't been seen since Noah.

Speaking of Noah, there are reports of large groups, or cults, might be a better word, forming around different supposed religious figures. Many have said that the disasters were the beginning of the end times.

I have said it here before, in these trying times people will look for comfort, and that is understandable, but people must beware of false prophets. No human being knows what has been happening and why. If they tell you they do, either because of a vision or words directly from above, then run. I would turn around and run away from that person as far as you can.

I understand beggars can't be choosers, though. We know of one of these people in Kentucky who thought he was the only one given a journal. He convinced himself and apparently a lot of others that he is a divine prophet receiving the word of God. No word on what happened when he found out that those journals are not unique and that there have been Muslims and Jews that have them as well. I doubt he gave that much thought once people started following him, but last I heard he has a compound and a large contingent of men and women bound to his service. People, I beg of you, pray to God if you feel the need to reach out for divine assistance, but do not pray to man.

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There are reports of other groups and cults forming as well. In good news, there is a journal holder outside of Atlanta that has started to form a community of survivors. Not much has come out to us, but one person I spoke to with knowledge of this group says it is based on mutual assistance and security.

It only took 5 days for most of our institutions to collapse. I never would have guessed it. I must be fair, though. There was a lot for them to overcome. In the days after the storms and earthquakes, police and military plus regular people fought back. There were firefighters using hoses against monsters outside of Washington DC. Then anywhere populated that was having success got hit with freakish storms or floods if it was by water or winds that could blow a car over on its side.

Whatever is causing this seems to be targeting organized government and resistance. There has not been any kind of invasion except for the monsters. Let's hope that remains true; monsters are bad enough.

There has been speculation as to who or what is causing these events. As stated, they go from the religious to the otherworldly. There are scientists hypothesizing that this is part of a multidimensional mix up of some kind. He said to think of it like different worlds and universes with different laws of physics merging together. Pure speculation at this point.

Now to what we know about the rest of the world. Devastating hurricanes, which caused floods and tsunamis in Mexico, have decimated our southern neighbor. The last report was that a great many Mexicans had perished in some of the worst this horrible event has to offer.

Up north, the Canadians have been struck with extreme cold not seen since the Little Ice Age. Accompanying that is the wildlife population of Canada turning aggressive and very dangerous. Vancouver and Toronto have experienced the same monster surge as US cities.

We have very little information out of South America. In Africa, the temperature has been dialed up as much as 20-30 degrees over past record highs. There is drought, and disease is running rampant. An expert from the WHO said, before they also went offline, that even if we could react to the plight of Africans on a pre-devastation scale, the loss of life would still be astronomical.

There has not been much out of Asia since the rumors that Japan fell into the sea. We were all relieved to find out that was not true, but then heard that it wasn't as far off as we hoped. Earthquakes and massive tsunamis rocked Japan, causing much of its island to go underwater.

The Chinese, however, have responded to these horrors in a way that would make Mao blush. Reports say that they quickly moved their vital personnel inland, as well as huge quantities of supplies and equipment. There is very little upside with running a totalitarian state, yet during times of immense crisis, those types of governments can call upon every citizen to do as they are told, even in the face of death for that person and their family. A similar situation happened in 1941 Soviet Russia. They moved entire factories to the east out of reach of German tanks and planes. Not to mention losing uncountable amounts of men, women, and children in their fight against Nazism. Well, the Chinese seem to be putting up a similar effort to fight back in their battle against whatever you want to call what's happened to our planet.

Finally, I give you Europe. At first, the reports out of part of Germany were that of people gone crazy. They were sucking blood, yes, but it had to be nuts, maybe even zombies. It was finally confirmed with one of the last live camera reports from Vienna, Austria. Germany was being overrun by vampires. If this were a movie script or God some wild book, I would say that vampires in Germany are cliché. But folks, this is no story, and if you come across a vampire, it is said that running is pointless. Try to ask it nicely if you can go. I kid you not, folks; this is too serious for jokes.

Apparently, they have an aggression scale for many of the monsters in Europe. At the top are the wildlife that attack on sight. At the bottom of this list, I was told just yesterday via radio communication with a counterpart are vampires. While they do attack random and innocent people without warning, they have also set up a manner house and they demand servants. These people apparently serve these vampires then go home at the end of the night. One more thing, and I am as shocked as you that we are talking about fricken vampires on this program. But these less aggressive ones are what they are calling OG vampires or patient 0 vampires. Ones that showed up one day coming out of the Tyrol mountains and other places. Anyone that they turn from a human to a vampire is close to mindless; at least, that's how it was described to me. Let's just hope we do not get any of them over here. Werewolves are bad enough, although who knows, maybe they fight each other.

Okay, everyone, that is our report for tonight. Check your station again at this time tomorrow, and if we have a good signal, I will be here. Thank you from somewhere and goodbye to everyone everywhere.