The Vultures of Virtue

Ivan Arashukov enjoyed life as a successful vintner and family man. Everything changed when the global economy came crashing down, leaving prosperity only within the reach of the oligarchy. The next cataclysmic event was a coronal mass ejection—a solar storm that laid waste to Earth’s electrical grids and communication networks. By the time it ended there wasn’t much for people to fall back on. Everybody decided it just wasn’t worth it to go back to worrying about their bills again and became accustomed to a life with which only the Amish were familiar. The result, in this world without a government and law was that people were free to do anything they wanted, and in their desperation to obtain their basic needs, many went to extremes, up to and including violence. Ivan was forced to do what he would have considered at one time to be unthinkable: he betrayed his moral code to provide for his family. This was but a gateway to life in the so-called “New World”. The vultures of virtue pecked away at his moral sensibility as he resorted to doing what was considered immoral in the “Old World”.