WITHOUT WARNING

by Michael Marzicola

Excerpt

Anyplace? Call it your place. An officer is walking his beat amidst a magnitude of causes for arrest and potential incarceration. He hears a lady scream and looks up at an apartment building window to see a man assaulting a woman. Shes trying desperately to allude her attacker; about to jump from the second-story window. Without concern, the officer smiles cordially at a passerby and stops to chat.

Help! Please help me! screams the woman as her attacker converges upon his anticipated conquest: intent on stripping her of her virtues!

Though her pleading screams become ever increasing, the officer continues his idle chatter until he sees her undergarments being torn to shreds exposing her breasts. He hurries to reach this distraught figure as she cries out again and again. Seeing her savior, the police officer, she flings herself into his arms only to be told:

Youre under arrest for indecent exposure!

Across town: it could be your town. Two police officers sit, looking out the window of their favorite donut shop. As they sip their coffee, they watch a bank robbery in progress across the street. One officer beckons to the over endowed waitress for a refill as shots are heard! Then both observe the nonchalant bank robbers enter their getaway car with bags of the banks deposits, and make their escape! In spite of all: the security guard clutching his chest, gasping for breath, bank officials and patrons screaming to high heaven for help, the police officers in the window contemplate a major decision:

Another doughnut or Danish?

Obviously, a changed world is becoming encapsulated by tantamount increases in crime. Penal institutions release prisoners prematurely! Local legal establishments release arrested felons without bail. Others fail to incarcerate at all. Crime is on a rampage! Everyone is fair game! A disoriented new world government becomes the target of a blossoming crime syndicate: La Cosa Nostra! From little acorns great trees grow. From a small European country to an incomparable dynamic dynasty: now a worldwide crime syndicate intent on taking over the world!

Year 2009, a newly elected worldwide president introduces a preposterous plan to control global parasites. A plan, so bizarre, convicted felons commit suicide rather than serve time! The new system is a sensation immediately. The president, along with those in charge of incarceration, Zach, Erik, Doc, and Adolph, receive plaudits from around the world. And thats the good news! On the flip side: crime is dwindling at such a fast pace police stations, jails, courthouses, and major penal institutions are shut down on a daily basis. Policemen, lawyers and judges, are holding hands at the unemployment office! Theyre mad enough to kill! Incarceration is no longer a Sunday picnic: a gathering place where incorrigibles met only to be set free under the basic umbrella: Money talks and Bull S . . . walks! A criminals fate, controlled by electronic devices, now hung in the balance. Prisoners, upon arrival on Devil Moon, would be greeted by Adolph Wolfe, Warden, who would clearly state: Get outta line, and Without Warning youre an astronaut!

In an attempt to thwart the presidents plan, the Mafia crime bosses concoct a conspiracy: framing the prison systems chief global incarcerator, Zach Williams. The plaintiff, Rebecca Holland, under duress, is forced to file fabricated rape charges against two of her best friends, the Williams brothers, predicated upon death threats to her mother and father held in captivity. Meanwhile, Louella Cruickshank, crime reporter for the Daily World Globe newspaper, accepts the assignment. Her research leads her to a longtime, big time, second-story burglar, Frankie Navarro! Now she knows who, but where? Finding Frankie is one thing, getting to him is like meeting the Pope at the Vatican. She hits the bricks and runs into a small time hooker, Jamie Lee Courtney, who is now working the Manhattan district in a big time way. After bantering back and forth, Jamie Lee tells Louella where to find Frankie. Frankie, in turn, hinted to Louella where to find the Hollands who are being held prisoners until the Williams brothers are convicted. But, Louella is riding a dead horse as the Williams trial begins.

Meanwhile, Devil Moon continues to cater to prisoners from all walks of life: professionals and the ordinary: from dishonest doctors, lawyers, and politicians to corrupt police officers, bank robbers, petty thieves, pimps, and prostitutes. All are treated equally. Since its virtually impossible to get in trouble, prisoners live out their sentences returning to earth. Those on Death Row are destined to become astronauts: Without Warning! In the meantime, all will be for naught if the La Cosa Nostra can keep Louella from finding the Hollands, thereby prevailing and recinding the Devil Moon project in its entirety.