by Gillian Zane
“I believe so, which produces the pollen, which changes into the virus. Pieces of herself are being replicated and mutated and becoming more.”
“Could this make her more powerful? Is that what this is about she becomes part of everything?”
“If this is what she is doing she is extending herself within beings that have finite lifespans much greater than our own. Even the Earth has a finite time of existence which is much shorter than the universe which we believe constitutes our lifespans. No matter what it is not a smart move,” he dropped his head.
“But once she spreads herself throughout the Earth could she become more?”
“I do not know; it has not been done before. I do know she has some end game that will wrap this up for her. I was hoping for a peaceful resolution, but I am afraid this will lead to an all-out war that might have dire consequences. I do not know why she would have done this, why she would have extended herself like this unless she has some kind of back-up plan, and that is what worries me. My kind can only become more powerful by amassing more substance, adding to our being, not taking away.”
“And how do you do that?”
“In the beginning, in the first wars, my kind would absorb each other, but the result was a merging of the two consciousnesses. One being would never come out on top, a new being emerged. Then they learned if you weakened us down to nothing and then absorbed, the weaker being would be gone.”
“She is putting herself in a vulnerable position by doing this, then why would she do that?”
“Again, I do not know the answer. It is why I’ve recruited humans. Do you think I enjoy putting myself in this predicament?” He splayed his hands in my direction.
“I can honestly say I have no idea what your motivations are, or what we’re dealing with,” I sighed and looked up when I heard Zeke moving around upstairs.
“My motivations are to stop her from destroying the humans on this planet.” This time there was a little anger in his voice.
“Doesn’t your kind have some kind of protocol for this?”
“Others put no value on the life we create. It is up to the creators to solve our own problems. If she had tried to destroy one of my kind, then they would get involved.”
“Wonderful to feel appreciated.”
Zeke came down the stairs, apprehension clear on his face by the thin set of his lips.
“You’ll be appreciated when this thing is behind us. Your idea about the plants is a good one. Destroy them. I will also be sending recruits your way. Did Liam make it here? You have enough room to house them, right?” His voice patterns were becoming more modern the more he spoke, as if he was learning. As if he was evolving. It was captivating and unnerving.
“Yeah, but Liam was a hard sell, and he only came when he was attacked by one of the mother’s people. Will they all be like this?”
“I didn’t personally recruit Liam, I apologize for that oversight. I saw that you two had set the ground work, so I let that play out as it may. There are others that I will reveal myself to, but I would like you two to recruit as many as you can I have apprehensions about too much involvement, even this sits badly within me. You can even convert them, if you find any of mother’s followers receptive or regretting their choice.” He smiled, and I saw the gleam of white and straight teeth.
“I don’t know about that, the one we encountered was very—” Zeke interrupted.
“Converted,” I finished. The man who could move rocks had been like a religious zealot from what Zeke had explained.
“An idea looks good until it is implemented, and then the ramifications of one’s actions start hitting home. Not all of her followers are as single-minded as the one you dispatched the other day, keep that in mind when you come in contact with them.”
“How many recruits are you sending my way?” I asked when it seemed he was pulling away to leave.
“As many as it takes,” he responded.
“But all these strangers, here? Miley has to house and feed them?”
“They won’t be strangers when you meet them, you have a common goal and a sameness that will resonate throughout your beings.” He stood from the stool and walked from the room. I didn’t hear a door open or close. He was just gone.
35
After Miley’s encounter with the father, Liam and Lily added to the conversation with ideas and takes on what was going on as we sat down to our late afternoon breakfast. I found myself missing the peace and quiet of life alone with Miley, especially as their ideas diverged from mine. It was the downfall of working in academia, where most of my colleagues had similar backgrounds and education. Neither Liam nor Lily, or even Miley had college degrees, which wasn’t a negative, just different, and it made me work harder to get my ideas across since I couldn't just state an already proven thesis and roll with it. I think it also had something to do with the fact that I liked having Miley to myself. If it was just us, after we ate we could have a repeat of what had happened in the bedroom this morning, except this time I would incorporate this amazing maple syrup…
Miley’s head shot up, and she shot me a look that said stop it, then she shook her head and rolled her eyes. She mouthed the word “later” and all the blood went to my dick, not that it hadn’t already started to coalesce there already when I had thought of the syrup. Sure, I was an academic, such higher thoughts.
“All of this came up this morning? Right here in the kitchen?” Lily asked. Both were amazed at the story Miley had told us over coffee and pastries.
“He likes to tell stories,” Miley said, popping a strawberry we had picked from the garden, into her mouth.
“This is all so hard to believe,” Liam stated, frowning and pushing the rest of his pastry and a strip of bacon around his plate.
“If you break it down into what makes sense, in essence, we’ve all believed pieces and parts of this creation story. It’s just we’ve filled in a lot of the blanks with more human interpretations and feelings to make it more real to us as a species,” Miley tried to explain.
“But the entire basis of the religion I’ve practiced my entire life, was that, you know —that Jesus thing. Was He based on a fantasy? That fiction he referenced?” Liam’s eyes had taken on an almost manic quality. They darted back and forth, glassy with a hint of tears from frustration. My blood had slowly returned to my brain, and certain keywords from Miley’s story began coalescing into an idea. The way Miley had described the father. The persona he had mentioned.
“Liam, I don’t think your Christian beliefs are all made up. Miley describe what the father looked like today,” I urged her.
“He was a plain man, sun-tanned like he spent a lot of time outside. Dark brown hair to his shoulders, a beard, brown eyes. I don’t remember what type of clothing he wore.”
“Do you think he had an ethnicity?”
“I don’t know, Italian, Middle Eastern? Olive skinned,” she shrugged. “I was never good with that.”
“Think about that description, Liam, and think about what he said, that he can take the form of man by placing parts of himself into the world. What if he used that persona at other points in time? Because this is intrinsic to you, personal, you are stepping too close and seeing it as a human thing, but he is the creator of life on this world, the father god, and he comes to Earth by taking parts of his being and creating a human visage where he can interact with humans. He created everything and pieces of himself are in everything, how is that not your basic beliefs? You already knew parts of your Bible were human stories, right? And now you are actually seeing the curtain lifted and realizing that our creator god is a lot closer to us than any of us realized. How is that a bad thing?” Liam looked stunned. I, myself, was kind of stunned from my own thoughts and breakdown. I had never been even the slightest bit religious, yet I had studied religion in depth, fascinated by the act of having faith. Which I never had. This made sense. It made too much sense. Did I think this god, this father, was telling us everythi
ng? No, he could probably be making up the majority of what he told Miley, but this felt true, especially with my scientific mind. This was psychics. Basic, thermodynamics actually, Einstein’s E=mc2 that stated mass and energy were basically the same thing. These gods were nothing but energy, the energy born from the creation of the universe. It was mind-blowing if you broke it down.
“You’re saying this father guy, he came to you as Jesus?” Liam asked Miley, and I tried to keep a reign on my patience. We couldn’t all be A students. Miley shook her head; it’s not like she could identify Jesus in a line-up. Half the representations of Jesus in art were most likely wrong.
“I’m saying that the god we call the Father has a persona that looks strikingly like the image we attribute to Jesus. Could it be a coincidence? Maybe. Or do you think these gods who have taken a very hands-on approach to their roles as creators wouldn’t decide to come to Earth to teach a lesson or two about morals?” I didn’t know if I was getting through to him.
“But there is no Heaven or Hell? What is the point of all of this if there isn’t a reward or punishment in the end?”
“That I can’t answer, because honestly, there could be a heaven and a hell, thermodynamics, matter and energy. Who is to say that when we shed our matter that our energy doesn’t have a conscious, quite like these gods we are so wrapped up with,” I laughed because it made sense. And depending on one’s frame of mind at death, their frame of consciousness could constitute what kind of existence they could achieve when they did transition into energy. I stood, full of excitement, wanting to write this down, or do something, but the looks on everyone’s faces had me going silent. They weren’t getting the implications. I tried launching into an explanation of the principals of matter and energy. This should be basic physics, but none of them had gone to college, and physics was only a basic course taught in some high schools. They nodded, Miley more so, but she still looked a little overwhelmed.
“I think we need a subject change,” Lilly offered, and I sat back down. “Miley, I wanted to ask you what you would like us to do while we are staying here. We can’t just take and take, we have to contribute.”
“What was your job before this?” Miley looked at Lily and Liam.
“I wasn’t much, I worked in a grocery store.” Lily looked down and away, her submissiveness taking over.
“Okay, do you like to cook, or anything like that?” Miley asked.
“She’s a really good cook, and don’t let her fool you, she worked in a grocery store, but she was in charge of purchasing and inventory. She was really good at her job,” her brother bragged.
“We’re going to need a lot of sustainables as this goes on, and honestly, I don’t know if I’ll be able to sustain everything, so I do need someone to stock what we have and keep close tabs on things. As our numbers increase, we won’t be able to just grab snacks when we want. I have a good bit of money, but it’s not enough to feed an army.”
“I can do that, and with Zeke’s skills, I can figure out what kind of plants we should be growing, possibly add some to the mix that we should be growing to keep us balanced. We should be getting our hands on some livestock as well, at least chickens and a milk producer.” She smiled, the submissiveness from earlier all but gone.
“That is a really good idea, Lily, you’ll be in charge of our food.” Miley looked relieved to have that task off of her.
“What did you do, Liam?” I asked the man who was beaming at his sister.
“Shoot a gun, dig a hole, typical Army stuff, a grunt,” he sighed.
“Defense, that’s great. We were actually talking about this before we met you. We need someone with your experience,” Miley said. “We are going to need protection. If they came to your property and set it on fire, they can do it here. We need to protect ourselves from an attack like that. Can you do that?”
“I can,” he nodded with confidence.
“Powers.” The word popped out of my mouth and everyone looked at me.
“Huh?” Liam asked.
“Have you noticed if you have any kind of powers? Like Miley here, when she gave someone an order, they followed it. I noticed that I could feel the plants around me. Have you noticed any kind of new awareness like that?”
“It’s weird,” Liam said, looking down in the same kind of submissive pose as his sister. I wondered who had done a number on them, a parent maybe? The fact that I was noticing these things, which I usually was oblivious to, kind of amazed me. Miley’s perceptiveness was rubbing off on me.
“Only at first.” Miley said as she placed her hand on his to reassure him. I expected to be jealous, but I wasn’t. I felt his anxiety through her and knew he needed this. “You’ll get used to it. What do you feel?”
“I can feel, electronics, like if a tv is on in the other room, or where a camera is located, that sort of thing. Like, I know that Zeke’s laptop is in the garage, and Miley’s ring doorbell at her gate is not getting a good Wi-Fi signal.”
“That’s amazing, Liam,” Miley beamed at him, and his face lit up with the appreciation.
“That is — I mean it can come in handy, especially with a focus on defense,” I added. “Have you worked with surveillance systems before? Any kind of tech?”
“A little bit, in the military. They were going to start training me after this last tour, IT stuff, but then the coup happened. I was discharged, went home, but then I was notified that I had been reactivated. I got called in two days ago to assist in Washington D.C., but then when this happened, I guess I’m officially AWOL.” He hung his head again, and I felt sorry for the guy. He had just had his fundamental religious beliefs shattered, and now he had his patriotic duty blown to smithereens. Talk about an existential crisis in the making.
“Well, now you don’t have to learn about it, you are going to live it,” I said. “We should probably start training immediately.”
36
“I don’t understand what you were saying about physics and thermo…” I trailed off. I couldn’t even remember the word Zeke had used. His explanation of the gods was so confusing to me. I rarely felt like I was dumb. I could grasp regular things, but when Zeke shared his explanation of the gods, it had been way over my head. He probably had girls back at his college who would understand what he was saying, they would probably get it and be able to add to his ideas.
“Thermodynamics. That’s from Einstein. He theorized that the amount of matter in the universe is fixed, that you can’t create or destroy energy. So, if the Creator story is truth, this Creator was who initially created the energy within a fixed ratio, and it can neither be added to or subtracted from.”
“That’s why the gods have to give a part of themselves to create life, because you can’t create something from nothing.” I thought I was getting it.
“Exactly.” Zeke looked up from the hole he dug. A new garden was going in for planting crops I hadn’t already had in the gardens, an assortment of legumes, soybeans, and peas. Lily had given us a list and Zeke had managed to round up seeds which was a miracle in itself.
“The story the Father told you actually goes hand in hand with the basic laws of physics. It makes much more sense than the traditionally story that God created woman from a man's rib and on the seventh day rested.” He looked over at me as if checking on my well-being. He had been doing that a lot lately, since my breakdown in the SUV. I was intent on showing him that I was okay, that I was accepting my role in all of this. And he was a large part of that.
“But that story, the story about an all-powerful God, gives humans more reassurance than bumbling entities experimenting and fighting amongst each other.” I pulled a tray of seeds over to Zeke’s side, and he began putting them into the holes he had dug. Once he placed the seed in the hole, I watered it, and then he coaxed the seed to expand, take root, grow and stretch out. He didn’t want to force too much growth because he was unsure about the long-term effects on the plants if he forced it.
“Are you feel
ing a lack of confidence in the powers that be?” Zeke stood and took the work gloves off that he wore. He pulled me to him and hugged me. We both were sweaty and covered in mud, but it didn’t matter, he felt so good against me. The heat didn’t bother me, the smell of our bodies didn’t bother me. This was Zeke. This was good.
“Kinda,” I slipped my hands into his back pockets and hugged him closer.
I knew the moment the hug turned from comforting to Zeke realizing my boobs were pressed against his chest. I pushed back with a laugh, looking up at him exasperated. We had been together, sexually together, for a week, and we were averaging at least a few times a day. I should be sore, worn out, and just plain tired of him, but I wasn’t. My body recuperated in moments after we came together, and it actually seemed like the joining of our bodies quickened the healing, quickened our powers. It made me stronger, like it was meant to be. It also helped with the garden’s growth. I felt sorry for Liam and Lily.
“We should help these new plants grow a bit.” Zeke’s lips were on my neck, his clever fingers slipping under my sports bra and pulling it up, exposing my heated nipples to the air. The wind whipped around us, a storm churning in the air and in my body.
“Did you pick that thought out of my head?” I asked, moaning as he pinched my nipple, hard.
“I think I did. We grow stronger and help things grow every time we come together. I should be fucking you non-stop so we can feed the masses. Save the world, you know,” His mouth moved to mine and kissed me, while I pulled at his waistband, reaching inside his loose shorts and finding his thick length. I wanted it in my mouth. I wanted to swallow him down, and he let me, helping me drop to my knees in front of him and swallow him down as far as I could. I used my hands to work him, cupping his balls and sucking his tip as I stroked hard, my hand barely fitting around him. It was like he was getting bigger, more massive as my attentions urged him on. I licked his tip, tasting the precum that formed there.
