Curve Day

By L.R. Currell

Would you survive a day where killing was legal?
Do you know someone that for whatever reason you wouldn't be particularly bothered if they were no longer with us?
Welcome to Curve Day.
In the near future, desperate times call for desperate measures.
The Earth's population is now so problematic that the Government has enforced one day of the year where murder acts as a form of population control.
Sure, it wasn't always that easy to get people to accept this idea and in truth
there is still an element of resistance to it. As time ticks on though, with
each passing Curve Day the American people gradually accept and adapt
to the notion of citizen on citizen killing.
Our story takes us to the eve of the eleventh Curve Day following an eclectic bunch of individuals as they each prepare and carry out a literal fight of their lives.
Several characters from different social and economic backgrounds are followed in the lead up and execution of the event. Read as they each prepare their own journey and establish different strategies for dealing with the day.
Who will survive the annual slaughter?

Approx 63000 words in length

• Language: English
• Publisher: L.R. Currell
• Release date: Oct 6, 2013
• ISBN: 9781489504166

L.R. Currell

L.R. Currell is an Australian author who currently has around fifty works in progress. His writing spreads over a variety of genres including but not limited to crime fiction, historical fiction, dystopia, horror, paranormal, action, post apocalyptic, science fiction and fantasy. Currell served in the Australian Army for five years deploying twice during that time. He enjoys street art, good food, reading, film, krav maga and of course his main passion, writing. He is an avid traveler having spent time in more than 60 countries. It is L.R's dream to one day see at least one of his books on the screen.

Book preview

A NOVEL BY L.R. CURRELL

Curve Day

Would you survive?

The earth cannot sustain its population; desperate times call for desperate measures

~~~

Smashwords Edition

ISBN: 9781489504166

Copyright © 2013 by L.R. Currell.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. L.R. Currell asserts to be the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All characters and events appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. The characters, incidents and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. First Printing, 2013, First Edition

Cover by Melody Simmons

Author page: http://Fb.me/LRCurrell

Twitter: @LR_Currell

This author is on Goodreads, look him up there!

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedicated to Tracey

Table of Contents

Foreword

Also by the same author:

A brief history of Curve Day

One month before Curve Day

Three weeks until Curve Day

Two weeks until Curve Day

One week until Curve Day

One day before Curve Day

The early hours of Curve Day

Curve Day first light

Curve Day mid-morning

Curve Day Lunch Time

Curve Day Early Afternoon

Curve Day Late Afternoon

Curve Day Evening & the end of Curve Day

Foreword

This book utilizes American spelling and grammar.

Curve Day has several characters that reference events and certain periods of time in their perspective.

Large spaces are used to indicate when the plot has changed to another character’s story.

As you will see, certain aspects of the story intertwine while others stay independent.

I hope you like this book and check out my other work.

Thank you for supporting Indie Authors.

L.R. Currell

Also by the same author:

THE KILLER FROM MANILLA

CONFESSIONS OF A RED NECK ZOMBIE KILLING PSYCHO

THE RANKS OF THE DISENCHANTED

In order to stabilize world population, we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. It is a horrible thing to say, but it is just as bad not to say it.

Jacques Costeau

A brief history of Curve Day

In the not too distant future with the population spiraling out of control, mankind’s resources are being stretched to the limit. The one child policy in China was examined by the United States Congress as an option but was dismissed because it simply did not work. Many Chinese families wanting to continue on the tradition of maintaining their family name would put girls up for adoption or worse as boys were preferred. Other families would have several children in close proximity and then claim that they had twins, triplets or more. They did this so they could keep all of their children; it was a commonly exploited legal loophole. The Chinese government imposed fines and utilized education to try to stem the problem but the population there alone was now fast approaching five billion. The government of the United States knew that this policy would not work in their own country in the current climate.

The population of the United States has reached over two and a half billion people. Immigration has helped the increase along steadily, but many people are still having more children than they can afford for varying reasons. Advances in medical technology have also slowed the death rate significantly allowing people to live longer than ever. Weather conditions, such as frequent mega storms and long lasting droughts, do not help the situation as crops are wiped off the face of the earth or simply wither and die. The United States and many other nations around the world are struggling to feed the billions of hungry mouths. The earth cannot support the more than twenty billion souls now living on our planet.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. With the population now at record levels and the gap between rich and poor widening further, hard decisions had to be made. Congress debated long and hard to determine the best course of action to deal with the problems at hand. A climate of fear was gripping the ordinary citizens of the nation. Violence was escalating out of control. More laws were passed to allow government additional influence. Yet this was not enough, supermarkets were raided on a regular basis, bank robberies were up and a rebellious coup seemed imminent. People were not happy because of a wide variety of issues. Some of these included high unemployment rates, high crime, lack of food on the table, the high cost of living and severe overcrowding in the cities. This created an atmosphere of hatred against big business, government and the rich elite. This underlying tide of resentment threatened to overthrow those in power. The people were not the ones with the money or the political influence, but they possessed vastly superior numbers.

In order to stem this rebellious attitude and backlash against big business, the government did what it thought was best. It passed harsher laws for a wide variety of crimes and became tougher on criminals. The prisons quickly became overcrowded, even more so than they are now. More prisons were built, but this did not alleviate the problem. The prisons ended up filling faster than government and private enterprise could effectively build them.

With a Big Brother atmosphere firmly in place, most major cities now had thousands of CCTV cameras throughout. Technology also allowed governments to easily track citizens. Citizen’s civil rights were being infringed upon on an almost daily basis. Capital punishment was now legal in every single state of the continental United States and used freely. There were now many more crimes that carried the death penalty.

Instead of inmates sitting on death row for ten years, the average time was now just six months. One politician even bragged on public record that his district on average had executions conducted within six weeks of the judge announcing the sentence. Most of the crimes were either now committed on camera due to the amount of surveillance or at least more easily solved due to facial recognition software. It was also mandatory for citizens to carry ID cards at all times. Rumor had it that these cards contained GPS chips that allowed government agencies to track and monitor individuals as they saw fit. The government needed to make a dent in the population and capital punishment was one way that they managed to do so effectively.

While this did make an impact and cut down the crime rate, it wasn’t enough, the population was still climbing steadily. When the youngest president in United States history came to power, the charismatic thirty-five-year-old Thomas Harrison from Tennessee, drastic changes were on the horizon. What he proposed initially was seen as absolutely preposterous, but his party had the numbers and managed to push through the contentious new law.

The most controversial piece of legislation in United States history, and arguably the world, was subsequently passed.

Curve Day was instituted, the one day of the year when citizens could legally kill whomever they wanted without fear of criminal prosecution or legal repercussions. The powers that be had to find a way to drastically reduce the population. Curve Day was seen by market researchers as a non-threatening and acceptable name to sell the idea to the public.

The only other law was that children could not be killed except in self-defense. The Government realizing that this would be difficult to prove if it did occur instituted a new system. The government organized drop off points where parents could drop their kids off the day before to be guarded by the military. Still, some parents decided to keep their families together for Curve Day because of the strength in numbers principal or because they didn’t trust the government. This unfortunately often proved to be disastrous as entire families were killed. In instances like this, the Government didn’t really bother with investigations as they had offered an alternative. If average citizens didn’t want to take advantage of the military guarding their children, then the government wasn’t going to waste time and money conducting an investigation.

The government put on an extensive advertising campaign before the first Curve Day, informing the general population of what to expect. By the time of the first Curve Day, many citizens were informed and the majority had accepted the inevitable. Most people locked themselves in their homes, barricading themselves in. The general consensus was one of cautious acceptance, the vast majority of people didn’t like the idea of Curve Day but some saw it as a necessity. Others were against it all together but thought it was futile to protest, so they went about the business of hiding or barricading their families away.

There were still huge cries of outrage from the public and the first Curve Day didn’t go down without what the President referred to as, teething problems. Several politicians were assassinated although President Harrison and his most trusted survivors were safely locked down at Camp David without incident. A peace protest was held in Washington in which hundreds of thousands of people turned out to protest on Curve Day and express their solidarity. Thousands were killed when bombs went off and in the ensuing stampede. Conspiracy theorists blamed the government, a claim the government vigorously denied.

A lot of corporations and mansions were looted by gangs of citizens who saw the confusion of Curve Day as the ideal time to profit or create mayhem. Some of the most rich and powerful people in the land took the biggest hits in their financial history on the first Curve Day. Many were not prepared for the angry mobs that came from the rank and file. This was seen by some as a time to take the initiative and exact revenge against the elite, to act on their resentment. The anger towards the upper class from the average Joe had increased due to the widening financial gap and the huge amount of people now living in poverty.

There was worldwide condemnation from other countries, the United Nations and Amnesty International. The United States President responded by telling them to mind their own business. He couldn’t feed all the American people, and it was evident that the UN didn’t have any food to spare. There was barely a country in the world that was not struggling due to the effects of global over-population. None were brave enough to stand up forcibly against the United States government despite the international diplomatic backlash that had occurred. Many nations didn’t like this idea of what America had inflicted on her own citizens however they could at least empathize with the reasons behind it.

Not all the publicity was bad though, several smaller Latin American countries as well as one or two in Asia also bought into the Curve Day idea. Many of the countries that bought into Curve Day had appalling human rights records which were duly noted by the watching global public. Critics argued that this was a way for the governments in those countries to legally kill people. The leaders of those nations stated that this was not in fact the case. They assured the world that they were adopting Curve Day for the exact same reasons as the United States. They also promised that the government would not be involved in any systematic killing, that the military and police would stay out of it. Outside journalists and NGO’s monitored the Curve Day situation overseas and reported that this was not always the case.

It was estimated that over twenty million people lost their lives in the first United States Curve Day. The government had expected the toll to be higher but many people had been reluctant to kill each other. Critics used this as an arguing point that Curve Day had not been effective and was a waste of time. Most of them were against Curve Day from a humanitarian standpoint but chose to argue in language they thought the government would acknowledge. The government ignored the Curve Day opposition and instead increased the advertising campaigns.

The second Curve Day ran a lot smoother; as smooth as a day that encouraged massacring fellow human beings could run, anyway. Citizens were better prepared for Curve Day both in their abilities to defend themselves and hunt each other. The government was also better organized. A week before the second Curve Day, any politician who was a state-wide representative or above could request to be moved into safe houses with their families. The rich were in a much higher state of alert; they were ready to adequately defend their families and property by investing in security and other measures. Vital assets were protected by the police and army who were only allowed to kill in self-defense, to stop a crime that was a felony or to protect their detail. Anyone who killed a cop or a member of the armed forces on Curve Day would most likely not get away with it. They normally moved or guarded in large groups and most times were able to effectively defend themselves when required. Private security firms had sprung up in much higher numbers by the second Curve Day, business in this sector was booming. Private security companies were not required to follow the same laws as the police or the military and most of them operated on very loose rules. There were organizations in this industry that became known as cowboys and did whatever was necessary for the almighty dollar. The ruler elite and mega rich definitely fared a lot better during the second Curve Day then they had on the first.

There were pockets of government that spoke out angrily against Curve Day. Some politicians even resigned over the issue, but the overwhelming majority touted it as a success. One well-liked retired General openly called for former veterans and serving soldiers to take up arms and stop the madness. He basically called for open revolution. He had seen enough and started arranging groups to rebel against President Harrison and his government. For a few tense months it looked as though there might be a coup, no one was surprised when the General’s body was found in a ditch with a bullet through his brain. It was believed that supporters of his movement were still around but operated secretly out of fear of retribution.

The astonishing thing was that by the third Curve Day, the murder rate for the rest of the year had fallen drastically. People now understood that there was no need to murder someone the other three hundred sixty-four or three hundred sixty-five (depending on the year) days and receive the guaranteed death penalty. They would just wait until Curve Day and kill freely with no legal ramifications.

Early on many citizens tried to sue or take legal action against the government or other people for the death of their family members. Lawmakers had foreseen this situation, however, and had put laws into effect which made it fruitless for people to pursue any legal avenues.

By the time the fifth Curve Day came around, the population had taken a noticeable decline in its former extravagant rise. People were starting to have more children so their families had more members to protect themselves. Despite this being seen by some government officials as being counterproductive, the Day had become so successful that despite an increased birth rate the population that remained slowly started to decline.

What few people predicted or bothered to investigate initially was the sociological effect Curve Day had on American society. By the time the tenth Curve Day came around, President Harrison was out of office having served his two terms. Yet, Curve Day was now engrained firmly in the psyche of the American public. They had grown to accept it and even if there was still some opposition, the new president showed no desire to change the policy when he came into office. It was working and a decade after its introduction, the population was falling steadily each Curve Day. It was believed that in the next few years because of Curve Day, unemployment would go down, the cost of living would decrease and the standard of living would go up.

Curve Day affected every single member of society in a different way. As shocking as it sounds some people even looked forward to Curve Day. One combat veteran said in a television interview that when he had got back from active duty in the Middle East, he could not get a job. During Curve Day he could make more in twenty-four hours of work than he previously made in an entire year.

Society changed dramatically because of Curve Day, obesity dropped by over fifty percent as people got off the couch to get fit. Overweight people were easy targets on Curve Day, they couldn’t run fast and most of them didn’t have enough cardio to put up much of a fight. Families trained after work in martial arts, weapons and tactics. Society was still comprised of workers of all occupations, but almost everyone was at the very least a part time warrior. The family unit was strengthened due to Curve Day developing more cohesion than it had in thousands of years. Larger groups called clans comprising of several families started to take shape as people relied on each other to survive. Whole suburbs or barrios appointed chiefs to take charge in preparing for Curve Day. Communities pitched in to strengthen their areas and to make sure that their citizens were safe. Many people were happy to stay home and ride out the Curve Day storm before continuing on with their everyday lives. If they were attacked they would defend their houses, families and their streets but if they were left alone at home most didn’t engage in predatory behavior. Other people who owned small businesses locked up and sat inside guarding their merchandise. Insurance was now so high that most small store owners had no choice but to go without it. The vast majority of citizens did not target small businesses though; they saw them as an extension of themselves and so smaller businesses did not receive the same disdain as big business did.

It was widely known that trouble was easy to find on Curve Day. Instead of locking the front door, some gangs formed and went out looking for an adrenaline-fueled day of killing. There was something primal about the prospect of hunting humans on Curve Day that a certain segment of the population enjoyed.

People roamed the streets with everything from sledge hammers