Nefron the terrorist

	Nefron checked his watch, just as he had done every few minutes for 
the last three hours.  Still ten more minutes to go.  Even though as a 
vampire he had existed for several centuries, these last few hours seemed 
to last an eternity.  But soon... soon now, all the planning and hard work 
would pay off, and handsomely at that.
	The television in the corner of his luxouriously furnished office 
continued to play some old movie.  Nefron had only been half watching it 
from his large velvet covered chair.  He had seen it about a hundred times.  
The Day of the Triffids, a rather cheesy Briitsh science fiction film, in which 
all humanity lost their eyesight and became helpless.  What a fitting final 
film for the last show ever to be seen on television, he thought. For soon 
television would be just a memory, as would radio, blenders, computers, 
microwaves, coffee pots...
	Coffee.  Now there was something he would miss in the years ahead.  
He had picked up some bad habits from the mortal humans, living among 
them for as long as he had.  He took another gulp from his cup, the coffee 
was warm on his lips. A very good blend of Kona, with no sugar or 
saccharine.  It was wise that he had stored up a large amount of his 
favorite blend in the back, but soon he would have to learn to make it over 
a fire. 
	Nefron turned away from the television and looked out the window.  
It would soon be winter here in Denver, he thought to himself.  It was 
starting to get cold.  The clouds were already low in the sky, heavy with 
snow.  They hung silent and motionless, almost evil in appearance.  They 
would be releasing their load of snow in the weeks ahead.  He could just 
make out their shapes from the lights of the city. 
        The lights!  Those inescapable lights!  How he loathed them.  They 
were everywhere.  They chased away the dark corners in which he lived, 
and closed his hunting grounds to him!  The lights drove the darkness 
further and further away.  There were precious few places left to find his 
prey where he could get to them safely.  The lights were covering 
everything, from downtown to the slums.
	And where the lights burned, the humans gathered.
	It was almost impossible to snatch up a human now without being 
seen by another human, as they tended to group under the infernal lights.  
Even when he caught someone alone, there was always the risk of being 
seen from a distance, or cornered in some alley.  
	Or filmed.  It hadn't been long ago that some shutterbug had 
recorded one of Nefron's meals on videotape.  He had been living in 
Chicago at that time, and foolishly he got caught out in the open.  The 
images wound up on every television across the state...  His likeness was 
known and sought everywhere.  They called him a monster...
	Oddly it was a child who pointed him out at the busstop.  The child 
hadn't even known what he'd done.  The brat simply pointed and said 
,"Momma, is that the man on TV?"  He had barely escaped that encounter 
with his skin.  He then fled to Denver, but the threat of discovery remained 
and grew more cold in his soul with each night.  And each day, more 
camcorders were sold.
	But soon all of the humans' tricks would be done with.  Soon, he 
would again roam the night freely.  Once again, he would rule the night, 
and prey on those unfortunate enough to catch his attention.  Once more 
would men fear and women weep.  How long it had been since man last 
feared the darkness.  But soon, it shall return.
	For soon, there would be no electrivity for any of man's toys to run 
on.
	It had taken a great deal of time to bring an end to his nemisis.  The 
idea came to him after hearing an interview with Stephen King.  An 
unimaginative bore and long winded, Nefron thought.  But the author had 
said something about the electric lights bringing an end to man's fears and 
superstitions.  It struck a chord in Nefron's dark imagination.  And soon, a 
malicious plan took form.  He would eliminate all of America's electricity.  
And it would be surprisingly easy.
	There were always those small groups which were dissatisfied with 
the status quo.  Some merely desired power over others.  Others were 
more vicious in their goals and means to acheive them.  They were all 
around the country, but not in any form of organization.  The 
dissenfranchised ran the widest spectrum of humanity, from genius to 
madman.
	To bring them all together took a little time, as he had to be 
physically present for all of them.  Bringing the groups together was in 
itself no small task.  For one thing, while some people puffed up some kind 
of idealogy, they did not truly believe, and would not risk much for their 
cause.  Others would risk all, but were hard to find and were small in 
number.  And each of them had two factors in common...  They didn't take 
discipline well, and they didn't follow just anyone.
	Establishing leadership involved a few broken heads, and some 
shortterm gratification for his people.  The latter usually took the form of 
robbing banks or weapons depots.  At first, there were considerable losses 
until their confidence and experience built up.  But after a few successes 
here and there, they would do anything he said.  They built him up in their 
minds as something of a savior.  Naturally he could not disappoint his 
audience.  He began to preach a form of religious/political dogma that was 
calculated to lead to his end. 
	All the world's ills, he explained, could be traced directly to 
technology.  Children didn't learn because they were too busy playing 
video games.  Families broke up because no-one talked, they just sat in 
front of the TV.  He espoused the idea that the information age had 
brought heresy and the Devil's word to the four corners of the world, and 
that mankind was damned for twisting God's world in such a way!
	And they believed him.  
	His plan was to get his teams to acquire wealth and weapons.  Each 
success built strength for the group, and contributed firepower to future 
missions.  And as their deeds became more widely known, more and more 
outsiders flocked to his organization.  He set aside different groups with 
different specialties, to pervent any one group from being found out by 
authorities and bringing down his entire organization.  It turned out to be 
a wise decision, as the FBI captured one of his groups that was trying to 
raid a missle storage depot.  
	He also spread the most faithful of his followers out into the other 
groups, where he hoped their enthusiasm and energy would be contagious.  
His peoples' wish for a better world empowered them to do anything, and 
they would do anything he said.  They elevated him to Savior of Humanity.
	Soon, however, finances became a problem for so large a group.  
Crimes here and there were no longer paying the bills, such as bribing 
officials and purchasing weapons.  The amount of firepower needed to 
knock out all the power plants in the US was large, and expensive.  Not to 
mention the cost of maintaining such an organization of people.  Food, 
housing, and transportation were getting too expensive to keep.  It became 
necessary to find another venue to exploit.
	So he set up his own church.
	Nefron's Church of the Modern Restoration required only modest 
capital to set up, and became profit generating in under a year.  He set up 
the church with a strong anti-industrial, anti-crime, and anti-pollution 
ideal.  He instilled a militant fundamentalism.  Frequently he had sent his 
followers out into drug-infested areas, to root out the pushers and addicts  
in the neighborhood.  Once a drugdealer had been identified, his faithful 
would go out in numbers and deal with the criminal.  To say there had 
been violence would be an understatement.  There were almost always 
fights, and his faithful, long since fed up, gave better than they got.  One 
notable night a pusher on crack killed 4 of his followers with an automatic 
weapon.  
	They cut him open from chin to crotch, and nailed him upside down 
on top of a telephone pole.  He took hours to die, his intestines wrapped 
around his neck.  Newscameras from around the country recorded his 
demise.
	Mainstream America loved it!  They poured money into the church.  
They loved that someone was actually getting things done.  They did not 
seem to care about the increasingly violent tactics used but the church, 
such as burning the homes and cars of drugusers.  Dealers fared much 
worse.  Soon the drug problem was nearly gone.  Americans thought the 
church was a miracle.  They joined by the millions, and contributed more 
and more.  Nefron, meanwhile, stayed silently behind the scenes, waiting 
for his act to come.
	At long last the time was right.  His teams were numerous now, 
having been quietly selected out of the churches and shown the "bigger 
picture", which of course was the elimination of the powerplants.  His 
teams had amassed the firepower equal to that of a recent full war, and 
the weapons were placed near each power plant in the US.  All that 
remained was to say the word, and his teams would eliminate the plants.  
They then would disappear into the church fold again, and explain to the 
congregations that it was all part of the master plan,  and that the plants 
should be kept off for good.  Nefron had no doubts his popular uprising 
would keep the people in the post-electric world, showing them how 
wonderful it would be to once again "walk with God".  An ocassional 
weekend barbecue and social, and everyone would be satisfied.  Not to 
mention the firepower available to his teams to keep the plants destroyed 
should certain areas turn against him.
	He didn't need to fear the military taking command of the country, 
for he long ago brought the ultra-conservative military under his wing.  In 
fact. those leaving the services frequently made the best people in his 
teams.  Being soldiers, they were used to following orders, and not 
questioning authority.  The also had skills useful in plotting a revolution.
	The politicians were not a concern any longer, since they bowed to 
the will of the people; and the people bowed to him...  A number of the 
more popular Senators were themselves members of his "inner circle" of 
the church, and had been more than convinced that America had been 
much better off in the 1800's.  This inner circle was supposed to make 
preparations for the fall the age  of technology, and lead the people back 
into the age of enlightenment.  
	Actually, there was no "inner circle" of the church.  It was just a 
convenient facade put up to feed the egos of these who saw themselves as 
better than others in  order to better use them. 
	The hour was nigh.  In moments, every power plant would be 
severely damaged.  Damaged so badly that repairs, even if not forbidden, 
would take months.  For nuclear plants, if was a simple process of 
destroying the generators, and the cooling towers.  Without cooling, the 
reactor would automatically shut down.  Then the control center could be 
safely destroyed.  Coal fired plants were even simpler.  Just blow lots of 
holes in the boiler, and rip up the tracks the coal cars used to fuel the 
plant.
	Oh sure, he could not get rid of every little Honda generator out 
there, but those were of little concern to him.  They would soon run out of 
fuel.  The  entire country would be dark again, and he would once again be 
invisible within it.  His 'age of enlightenment' would also be a 'dark age'.
Nefron smiled to himself for that last nugget of irony.  Soon it would end.
	And he had his prey to thank for cooperating so fully.
	Nefron checked his watch again, just as he had a few minutes ago.  
Time marched slowly, as if to a funeral dirge.  But that was alright.  Nefron 
had time, to wait.