The Lost City

Molten lava monster comes dripping down the road, leaving potholes of steam and footprints of disaster. His bowler hat was flaming, his bulging eyes were aiming, and his burning lips were blaming. With snarling flame he greeted a passerby.
"Well," blushed the passing woman, "Hello, Mr. Mayor."
And then he ate her.

The Mayor had now become most notorious - he kept eating people! To the aggrieved families of the eaten, this was outrageous. Some of them had even voted for the Mayor. Yet all their cries and protestations amounted to nothing. On a percentage basis, the Mayor simply ate too few people to be of concern. And besides, the Mayor was the architect of the city's success, a most helpful man to own.


Things were good in the Mayor's city and the citizens blessed themselves as prosperous people do. "See?" they opined with inescapable logic, "We must be doing something right or we wouldn't be doing so well!" In fact, they soon grew to believe they were doing everything right and the only - and greatest - enemy was change. This made even the Mayoral eating habits a Holy Thing.

Then came the rot. The burden of carrying the Mayor's sins being too heavy for some. A movement started calling for change(!) and the Holy War was on. Fools cried out,"Change is the enemy, you fools! Do you want to lose everything you have??" Like little stuck pigs, their voices squealed louder than all others and wisdom held the loudest voice must be correct. So change was called for but change did not come.


Rot came to rule, spreading like a virus. Beautiful things withered, bringing horror to all. The Stay Sane movement called this proof of the need to change. The Stay Same movement declared war on rot. Words of woe flowed from each side; righteousness must be upheld. There were votes and debates, protests and songs, crying and sighing. But in the end, those who prospered outnumbered those who did not. Nothing should change.

In the raging rot, The Mayor took much glory. Here, in the city's twilight, he reached his zenith. Rot with prosperity - the ultimate dream! Drunk with holy power, his appetite increased ten fold. Many marveled at the unstoppable Mayor and deemed a force such as his could only be a moral one. They too joined the feeding frenzy, amazed at their own ability to rot and prosper at the same time. "We are gods!" they exclaimed. "We can do no wrong!"


The war on rot rotted them. They grew conservative in their thinking. "Must not change" became the mantra, remembering the halcyon days of spoiled success. The Mayor grew sick, bloated with greedy feeding. "Vote with your soul, it's the only vote that counts." But with vain hopes of returning to former glory, die hards kept the Mayor in office. The virus of terror had won, destroying every last man, woman and child. Everything was lost by trying to keep everything they had.

A thousand years later, ruins of the Lost City were found. Its formerly stunning monuments were revered for their once wondrous beauty. The discoverers scratched their heads and wondered how this could happen to an obviously great society. Walking away, they mocked the once great city and returned to their own rotting metropolis.

Later, one liberal prick just had to say "I told you so!". (Though a voice in the background wailed, "If that son-of-a-bitch doesn't shut up, I'm going to kill him!")

"So when you see standing in the holy place the 'abomination that causes desolation', flee to the mountains. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! For then, there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now - and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive..."

Global warming, my ass!