Bodies in a window

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Bodies in a window

By

Opher Goodwin

Dedication

To Margery Olive Goodwin and Ronald Alfred Goodwin

Introduction

I had the concept for this novel in 1981. It has been festering annoyingly in the back of my mind for decades until I finally found the way of writing it.

Many of the characters in this book are embellishments and adaptations of real people, even myself.  It is the same with the events; they too are based on real situations. But this is a work of fiction.  It has come out of my imagination. Nothing is completely true. The characters I have created are often composites and much of what takes place has been altered – having said that there is a strong element of fact in nearly all of it – particularly the more unlikely parts.

I began writing this in February while on the cruise ship Magellan going up the coast of Australia. I completed the first rough draft in March while cruising around Vietnam.

Opher Goodwin 25.3.2017

Review

A very human moment of painful insight and personal crisis launches this intriguing multi-layered story. Several apparently disparate lives are examined through episodic and frankly-confessional first-person accounts which in their very different ways explore the question of how far we are free and how much we are constrained. How are we connected and what if we could see through the eyes of others? The style is fast-flowing, the language direct and uncluttered. As the old 50s cop show proclaimed: All human life is here! In this case, life and death …

Bodies in a Window: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781986269544: Books

Extract – 53 and imploding Kindle/Paperback – Yet another

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I wrote this book twenty-two years ago. I wanted to write a book that had no plot but was a complete unadulterated stream of consciousness. I called it an Antinovel.

My heroes are Henry Miller and Jack Kerouac. I don’t claim to be like them or anywhere near as good. I just mention them as they inspired me.

Chapter 1

I am a watcher. I spend a lot of my time watching the people around me going about their life and looking for some signs of intelligence, understanding, planning; even a few hints of consciousness might be a novelty.

I can make no sense of it. I can see no sense in it. The more I study them, all caught up in their tiny lives, the more they appear like termites in a huge termitarium, building ever more grand mounds, rushing around doing essential things earnestly, importantly, frivolously, while a forest fire rushes towards them. I look around at the different mounds and see that they really believe each one of them will last forever. I look back across a huge flat plain of history littered with mounds that did not last forever. It matters little.

We live in the outer atmosphere of the sun. We breathe its flame.

I am merely the watcher. It was said by Tom David Thoreau — ‘Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.’ I want to sing every note of my song.

I sit in shopping malls and watch the shoppers spending seconds. I don’t expect much. Some purpose would be nice, perhaps an aim or two, something to work towards, some greater purpose than self-aggrandisement. After all, there’s enough to get your teeth into when we take the time to look around at life. We could set about proving Jesus wrong by eradicating poverty. We could make a fool out of Malthus by solving the population problem. We could save all those hundreds of thousands of species destined to die. We could end pollution, solve the energy crisis, transport dilemma, end all wars or simply protect the erosion of our environment. Oh, there’s no end to the possibility and scope that we are presented with. On the face of it we are, of course, doing precisely that. Pompous politicians set out plans to tackle this problem and that, seven-year plans, ten year plans. But I am the watcher. I see the money being siphoned off, the pockets being lined; I see the extravagant life styles as those that purport to be solving the problems set themselves up; I watch the political juggling as they build and protect their power base and defend themselves. I watch the deceit and hypocrisy. One set of politics against another – intrigue – manipulation -dirty tricks – undermining – power struggles – wealth – opulence and POWER. Amidst it all the purpose is lost and the problems mount up. Nothing is solved. We act like termites building bigger piles, seizing thrones and gaining followings.  In amongst the amassing and gaining the problems go on and we continue to prove fucking Jesus right about the poor and he was an ignorant zealot from the dawn of time before we knew about planets, stars and atoms. But I like to believe that one day we will wake up and deal with the issues; the poor will not always be with us. We might be stupid chimps with oversize brains and a power-mad vindictive streak, but we have the capacity for compassion and problem solving. We can do it if we want. One day we will come out of our crazy self-centred madness and use our energies for good. We will build and not simply destroy.

Everyone points to the bear-pits, the nuclear war-heads, the Jihads and Crusades. They know better than me.

I am a watcher; an idealistic dreamer.

Jan tells me I do not notice anything about people; what makes them tick. I think she is right.

53 and imploding eBook : goodwin, opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

53 and imploding Kindle/Paperback

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I wrote this stream of consciousness antinovel twenty-two years ago! I still love it. Here is an excerpt from 53 and imploding . You might find it upsetting!

53 and imploding – another small bit!

How can you be happy when each new panacea for the world’s problems is a system run by leaders with vested interests? And none of them can be trusted?

How can you be happy when the aim of dominant males is to dominate everything that breathes – even if that means annihilating everything that lives – just as long as they end up top dog? Better to be undisputed leader of the last ten rather that a leader of a billion among many leaders of billions. They cannot rest while there is still one other potential leader.

            How can you be happy when your life is all about owning a third DVD player, another TV and a swish car and you feel shit because your phone is the wrong colour, shape or size? When you are obsessed with the label on your clothes, your body shape and muscle definition? When your new IPad cannot shop fast enough? You need a new one.

            How can you be happy when the world is being covered in concrete, corporations buy off politicians, MacDonald’s has a branch on the Amazon river, (which is now concrete lined), the last tree is in a museum and the music you listen to is a product of a mass industry?

            How can art be a commodity? How can creativity be assessed?

            How can you be happy when nobody cares about the scant600 Mountain Gorillas we have left? When the world is so depraved that a rich millionaire can pay a fortune to get hunters to kill three precious gorillas in order to capture a baby gorilla, have it ripped from its dead mother’s arms and hauled off to America so he can have it for a pet?

            How can you be happy when a moronic footballer’s salary is hundreds of thousands a week? Stupid, selfish, greedy Rock Stars, actors and actresses earn millions and babies lie bloated for want of a bowl of rice? A millionaire buys a trip on a spaceship while a whole nation festers in their own excrement?

53 and imploding eBook : goodwin, opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Some have too much

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Some have too much

Some have too much

                                                And some none at all.

Some live in mansions

                                                Some under the wall.

Not from hard work

                                                Neither from indolence

Some laze about

                                                No ounce of common sense

Others do the work

                                                Labour all the day

Others do what they like

                                                Every day is play.

Some believe in fairness

                                                Some believe in justice

For others it’s all just self

                                                It’s greed they practice

Some have all the power

                                                Some barely survive

Some are on the way out

                                                Others just arrive.

Opher 22.1.2025

If we had a completely blank page and the ability to organise the world.

Do you think we would create a world like we inherit today?

Would we have countries?

Would we have billionaires and poverty?

Would we put the power in the hands of the wealthy?

If we could design a social system from scratch what would it look like?

The Bright Bits of Harry

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The Bright Bits of Harry

Harry was bright as any bell

The army taught him how to yell

Around poor Harry they all fell

Making Harry quite unwell

Left looking very pale

Had PTS for a spell

He thought he too might catch a shell

Too late for that alarm bell

They blew poor Harry all to hell

Victim of the big hard sell

A trillion droplets off the scale

Bravery holds no parallel

While catching missiles from the infidel.

For Harry – one last death knell!

Opher – 14.8.2024

It’s just a game, deploying meat to the old meat grinder.

New Eden – A chilling Sci-fi novel – By Ron Forsythe

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What happens when an unscrupulous government cooks up a plan to eliminate excess population. What could possibly go wrong?

Foreword

I first mapped this novel out in 1996. It was originally called ‘Ebola in Eden’.

At the time Ebola was a virus that had already been around for twenty years. The first recorded outbreaks were in 1976 in Zaire and Sudan. The disease probably originated in primates, including chimpanzees and gorillas, and is also transmitted by bats.

It is quite likely that the first cases in humans were contracted from the butchering of ‘bush-meat’ by hunters who were killing chimpanzees and gorillas. The logging companies were opening up the interior and putting roads in to extract the timber. The hunters were using these roads to reach deeper into the jungles. They were encountering animal groups that had previously been isolated.

I was looking for a virus for my book that might possibly be used in the way described in this novel. I had a number of contenders but was attracted to Ebola because of the description of its horrific symptoms. A doctor performing an autopsy at the time described the organs of the victim as having ‘melted’.

The destruction of the natural environment, the massacre of wildlife, and the continuing destruction of our forests due to the increasing overpopulation of the planet is a source of great sadness to me.

I write in the hope that the worst may never happen.

Opher Goodwin 5.11.2014

If I had been writing it today I probably would have used the Corona Virus as my weaponised virus.

New Eden: Amazon.co.uk: Forsythe, Ron: 9798637512867: Books

Excerpt : Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years Paperback 

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Nick Down the Years

Excerpt : Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years Paperback 

Nick Down the Years

I first met Nick in the summer of 1968. I was a young idealist at college in London living the Sixties idyll. I had just met a mad musician called Roy Harper who invited me back to his flat in Kilburn. I did not quite know what to expect.

I rang the bell and went up the stairs.

Walking into the living room of the flat was like entering wonderland – Indian bedspreads over seats, a live chameleon on the lampshade, a picture of Mao on the chest of drawers. It was the bohemian dream.

I looked around with amazement. It was slightly different to the sparse squalor of the student bedsit I shared with my mate Pete.

Roy welcomed me with a grin and a handshake, and then sat himself on the settee next to Mocy, his wife, who gave me the warmest welcoming smile and instantly made me feel at home. She looked beautiful in an Indian print skirt. There was a relaxed atmosphere in the room.

Before I’d even sat down a small child with long fair hair came bounding across the room, flung himself wildly up into me, threw his arms around my neck and planted a great big kiss right on my lips.

Nick Harper had just introduced himself to me.

‘As for the flat in Kilburn – I left when I was four and a half – so not a lot of memories. I remember sitting in the garden downstairs where Eddy Fisher still lives. He’s been coming down to our house in Wiltshire since 1969 every Christmas and some summers and he still does. Sitting in his garden watching an aeroplane go across the sky leaving a vapour trail – for some reason that’s in my head. That’s either ‘Big Fat Silver Aeroplane’ or ‘Aeroplane’.’

‘I can remember bending down in the front garden. I was obviously very small and as I bent down there was a shard of metal from a rusty pram sticking up and I sliced my knee on it. Ran up the red vinyl stairs to Mum (who took me to hospital) and I had stitches in my leg while I watched a mobile spin above me of a donkey and a carrot. Then the nurse offered me what seemed to be a huge bucket of Dolly Mixtures, from which I was allowed to take one.’

Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781678850661: Books

Extract from the antinovel: 53 and imploding Kindle/Paperback

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I live in a nice house that is three hundred years old. The doorways and ceilings are low because people were smaller back then. Even I have to occasionally duck. It used to be a farm, a pair of two-up two-down cottages, and a shop and now it is my home. The mortgage is completely paid off. I own it. Except in reality I am merely passing through. I will leave it to my wife and then my children. It will be lived in by others after me. It will be altered, decorated, knocked around, improved and no evidence of me will remain. I am passing through.

I love this house. It is warm and cosy. It has room to stretch out. We have invested much time and energy into making it a home. It houses my books, records, CDs and computers. I am comfortable here. There is a sense of history in the walls. They lean and tilt, the floorboards creak, and the ceilings sag. It is happy with the way it has settled into itself and redolent with the memories of unseen people. I have grown into it and lean and sag to the same extent in sympathy.

I am passing through.

53 and imploding eBook : goodwin, opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Top Rock Album Books

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ere is a list of some of my top Rock Music books (all available in paperback or kindle and some in Hardback):

Phil Ochs – On Track: Every Album, Every Song

Phil Ochs was the ‘The Prince of Protest’ in the sixties. The only real rival to Bob Dylan, he was the archetypal Greenwich Village topical songwriter. Whether protesting the Vietnam War or campaigning for civil rights, workers’ rights and social justice, Phil was always there. Phil was the man to take up causes, write songs, play at rallies and even risk his life. His clear voice and sense of melody, linked with his incisive lyrics, created songs of beauty and power. As his career progressed, with lyrics and music becoming more highly poetic and sophisticated, he still never lost sight of his cause. Towards the end of the sixties he joined with the YIPPIES in protest against the Vietnam War. But idealism became Phil’s downfall. He was an idealist who could see no point in continuing if he was unable to make the world a better place. Phil lost all hope and descended into depression, which, along with excessive alcohol consumption, led to his suicide in 1976. Shortly before he took his life, Phil asked his brother if he thought anyone would listen to his songs in the future. Well here we are; sixty years later, still listening. The songs of Phil Ochs are every bit as relevant as they ever were and they are making the world a better place!

Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song: Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789523263: Books

Captain Beefheart On Track: Every Album, Every SongCaptain Beefheart (Don Vliet) was undoubtedly the creator of the most bizarre and wonderful music. A child prodigy sculptor, he applied his artistic approach to music, creating ‘aural sculptures’. He befriended Frank Zappa in High School, collaborating on a teenage rock opera and sci-fi/fantasy film entitled Captain Beefheart vs The Grunt People. It was from this film that Don took his name. Of course, a magic character had to have a magic band. Captain Beefheart On Track: Every Album, Every Song : Opher Goodwin: Amazon.co.uk: Books
Roy Harper On Track: Every Album, Every SongRoy Harper must be one of Britain’s most undervalued rock musicians and songwriters. For over fifty years he has produced a series of innovative albums of consistently outstanding quality. He puts poetry and social commentary to music in a way that extends the boundaries of rock music. His 22 studio albums 16 live albums, made up of 250 songs, have created a unique body of work. Roy is a musician’s musician. Roy Harper: Every Album, Every Song (On Track): Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789521306: Books
In Search of Captain Beefheart – A Rock Music MemoirThe sixties raged. I was young, crazy, full of hormones and wanting to snatch life by the balls. There was a life out there for the grabbing and it had to be wrestled into submission. There was a society full of boring amoral crap and a life to be had in the face of the boring, comforting vision of slow death on offer. Rock music vented all that passion. This book is a memoir of a life spent immersed in Rock Music. In Search of Captain Beefheart: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781502820457: Books
Bob Dylan 1962 to 1970 On Track (Decades) Out this month!!  Bob Dylan is the magician who sprinkled poetic fairy dust on to the popular music of the early sixties and his songwriting sparked a revolution and changed rock music forever. The diminutive poet/singer claimed he was merely a ‘song and dance man’ but Dylan altered popular music from intellectually bereft teenage rebellion into a serious adult art form worthy of academic study. Bob Dylan 1962 to 1970 On Track (Decades) : Opher Goodwin: Amazon.co.uk: Books
Neil Young 1963 to 1970: Every Album, Every Song   Out this Autumn!!  In the realm of singer songwriters, few have been as influential as Neil Young, whose music has always been creative and relevant throughout six decades. Neil is a chameleon for whom boundaries of genres do not exist. He has delved into folk, country, r&b, rock ‘n’ roll, grunge, hard rock, electronic and pop and made them his own.Neil Young 1963 to 1970: Every Album, Every Song: Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789522983: Books
Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years    Nick speaks!  I first met Nick when he was a young child and over the years he has become a close friend. This book illuminates the genius that I feel is Nick Harper and is designed to accompany ‘The Wilderness Years’, a trilogy of vinyl albums. Nick talks candidly about many aspects of his music and career. I include, with Nick’s permission, the lyrics of all the songs featured in the trilogy. There are also many photos dating from his childhood to the present day.Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9798815185630: Books
The Blues Muse – A novelI was in conversation with a good friend who, like me, is a Rock Music fanatic. We have both been everywhere, seen everyone and have had our lives hugely affected by music. However it is not who you have seen but what you failed to catch that you dwell on. I said to him that it would be brilliant if we had a time machine and were able to go back and see all the major events in Rock history; Robert Johnson play in the tavern in Greenwood, Elmore James in Chicago, Elvis Presley in the small theatres, The Beatles in Hamburg, Stones in Richmond, Doors in the Whiskey, Roy Harper at St Pancras Town Hall…………….. and a thousand more. Then I realised that I could. The Blues Muse: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781518621147: Books
Rock Routes – A History of Rock MusicThis charts the progress of Rock Music from its beginnings in Country Blues, Country& Western, R&B and Gospel through to its Post Punk period of 1980. It tells the tale of each genre and lists all the essential tracks. I was there at the beginning and I’m still there at the front! Keep on Rockin’!!Rock Routes: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781514873090: Books
Opher’s World Tributes to Rock Geniuses  If you like Rock Music you’ll love this! – 195 tributes to Rock Acts of Genius. – Each one a gem of a picture. You’ll find out what makes them so brilliant and a lot more besides! This is the writing of a true passionate obsessive. These are Ophers tributes to Rock geniuses – loving pen-pictures to all the great artists and bands that have graced the screens, airways, our ears, vinyl grooves and electronic digits – (well a lot of them anyway). These tributes make you thrill to all the reasons why they were so great.Opher’s World Tributes to Rock Geniuses: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781508631279: Books
537 Essential Rock Albums  – Pt. 1This is not your average run through an opinionated list of somebody’s favourite albums. This is much more than that. By the time you get to the end of the book you will be in no doubt as to the type of person who has written this and what their views are. This is Opher at his most extreme and outspoken. He’s been there at the front through thousands of shows, purchased tens of thousands of albums and listened to more music than seems possible to fit into a single life.537 Essential Rock Albums – Pt. 1 The first 270: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781502787408: Books

  Thank you for looking. Why not try one or two? And please leave a review! Cheers Opher

A few brilliant Sci-fi novels to Whet the Appetite.

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Neanderthal: Amazon.co.uk: Forsythe, Ron: 9798393554262: Books

What happened to the Neanderthals 40,000 years ago?They had larger brains and were more intelligent. Why did they disappear?When the President of Brazil begins a project to build a highway through the middle of the Amazon he knew that he was going to provoke a response – little did he envisage what earth-shattering results it would end up becoming.This story delves into the very psyche of humanity and how people might respond when confronted with an alien invasion from a superior race. A Science Fiction story like no other.

God’s Bolt: Amazon.co.uk: Forsythe, Ron: 9781092713597: Books

Helen Southcote is looking for a purpose to life through her Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence work on the United Nations Space Station when she watches the Earth destroyed by an asteroid. What can she do next?

Reawakening: The Sequel to God’s Bolt: Amazon.co.uk: Forsythe, Ron: 9781094954585: Books

This is the sequel to God’s Bolt.Helen Southcote, the sole survivor of a stricken Earth, is alone on the Space Station.This is the tale of her journey through space and time towards Tau Sagittarii, 122 light years away.This is also the story of the aliens who live in the system around Tau Sagittarii and their reaction to the destruction of Earth.After dealing with the rigours of isolation, mental illness and hopelessness there is the hope of awakening. Then there are the questions about the purpose of life, altruism and the nature of consciousness all in the course of an epic adventure.

New Eden: Amazon.co.uk: Forsythe, Ron: 9798637512867: Books

How do you solve the problem of a world that has been ruined with overpopulation?What part do a small group of genetically mutated children have in the future of mankind?How might an eccentric genetics engineer be involved?New Eden tells the story of dystopian disaster and unlikely renewal.

Star: Amazon.co.uk: Forsythe, Ron: 9798647632906: Books

It’s the sixties – the three thousand one hundred and sixties. The Federation is in conflict with the Confederation. The Troman war rages. There is a civil rights issue with the Androvians. Youth all across the galaxy are in revolt. Rock Music, on an intergalactic scale, is the medium of the rebellion. Zargos Ecstasy and the Terminal Brain Grope are providing the impetus for the rebellion. Zargos, a larger than life character based on Bob Dylan, Hendrix, Jagger, Jim Morrison and Bowie, struts the stage, putting his poems to music and rousing the spacefreaks to seek social justice. If you lived through the sixties you’ll recognise it all.

Quantum Fever eBook : Forsythe, Ron: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

The System is made up of thousands of planets housing trillions of people in tiny doms arranged in tiers. The people are fed drugs to keep them happy and are plugged into immersive tridee.The Consortium are a group of wealthy capitalists who live above the metropolis in floating mansions.The name of the game is expansion and profit. The Quships cross quantum space in search of planets to either colonise or plunder for resources in order to maintain the system.Quantum Fever is a disease that affects people who jump the weird reaches of quantum space. Was Tahsin Roeg suffering from Quantum Fever or were the Consortium seeking to control her?What of the alien planet she discovers?Were the Primitives going to achieve their dream?

Schizoid: Amazon.co.uk: Forsythe, Ron: 9798630523839: Books

The sequel to Quantum Fever. Three hundred years have passed. The aliens are ruining the planet Terra and are on the brink of war. Children of the Primitives on planet Hope are rebelling. President Woud of The System is angered. The Consortium is stirring up trouble………

Green: Amazon.co.uk: Forsythe, Ron: 9798648134003: Books

A Sci-fi novel set in the distant future.Elspin is born without a nervous system; a brain with no connection to the world. She is locked within her dreams. She should have withered into nothing but against all the odds she prospered.Politicians and Business-people are at each others throats. The world is in crisis. The Greens are split into factions. Passions are explosive.They find a way of contacting Elspin. What happens when universes clash?

Will the world survive?

The Gordian Fetish: Amazon.co.uk: Forsythe, Ron: 9781981947973: Books

How important is consciousness? How rare is it in the universe? It is incredibly rare but not many people here on Earth seem to care about that. But the Gordian’s do – they value it – they seek it out and look to protect it. They have an institute funded by their government that is geared to the conservation of endangered alien sentient beings.Unfortunately a new Gordian leader has come along who believes in austerity. He is threatening to close the institute.Humans are sentient and have a modicum of intelligence. They can hardly be termed endangered though. There are 4000 billion of them. But they are incredibly interesting. They have sex. They also have politics and religion. They pretend to be clever and civilised but they are nowhere near as clever and civilised as they think they are.Most Gordian’s are intrigued by humans. They find sex astounding and humans cute.

Being cute and having sex might just be their saving graces.

Conexion: Amazon.co.uk: Forsythe, Ron: 9781729561782: Books

In the future it is still all about power.General Secretary Rheen holds the reins but does he hold the power?What about the shadowy Consortium who supply the money to get him elected?The separatists who are prepared to use violence?The Unification Movement who would bring the opposition together?Or the people who democratically vote?What of the stranded Starship?And what of the new drug Conexion that opens genetic memories to unlock an unexpected past?The new Gaia religion?Or the three massive spherical objects heading for earth?

How will it all come to a conclusion?

The Pornography Wars: Amazon.co.uk: Forsythe, Ron: 9798814934413: Books

The Pornography Wars takes political satire and social comment (with a liberal dash of humour) into a new dimension.
Sex is the essence of everything.
Is human history contrived by aliens?
Are we in a film set for an alien pornographic soap opera?
Is all human culture nothing more than an alien psych-master’s program?
What happens when the aliens argue over the future of pornography on their tridee sets?
What is going to happen to the future of human beings?

Farm 703 – The Human Project: Amazon.co.uk: Forsythe, Ron: 9798634914367: Books

Farm 703 where humans are controlled by bacteria.

Farm 703 where we are a project created by the Farm Manager.

Farm 703 where there is a move to terminate the human project.

Farm 703 where Head Office will decide on the fate of humanity.

They are allowing me to write this story. They do not think you will believe it.