| abstract
| - The story takes place in a somewhat different version of 1991, in the real world. A massive economic downturn and stock market crash occurs one day, but it appears that things are safe once a company is able to buy off excess shares. This company is the Pencil Corporation, a company dedicated to processing and developing pencils. While they saved the World Economy, they are somewhat ruthless in enforcing world-wide use of pencils. The general public is too focused on Operation Desert Storm to worry about the Pencil Corporation. Out of the shadows emerges a terrorist group, "A World With No Pencils". The group launches an operation, attacking the Pencil Corporation's headquarters in Columbia Maryland. Although defeated in battle, the terrorists have flooded and destroyed much of the town, and have retreated to barricade themselves in a local high school. A third group is also attempting to deal with the ongoing violence. The local Police and the US government. The government is unable to handle the situation, because most of the National Guard is deployed in Saudi Arabia. The police can do little but try to guide civilians out of the violence. The government searches various files, and determines that a local youth is the person who they feel would make the best descision to deal with the crisis. President Bush soon mails off a cheap letter on a half-used sheet of paper to the youth, hoping that he'll somehow be the one to deal with the situation. That youth is you.
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