Gabe was treading the water with his feet, but not touching the bottom. He got a look at the open sea and saw a ship a far off, a strange looking ship for an early civilization. Must have been an empty modern war ship that was drifting this direction. Who wouldn’t have been threatened by just the looks of it? Goodness knows there was nothing else to really harm them. …right? When his feet found the dry land, he was hustled along violently. All the joy he anticipated in what he would learn and the vision he would gain was flipped off like the switch of a light. What was this?!
Jonathan in front of him was shouting questions despite that he was practically being dragged through a very rich jungle, and in spite of their explicit threats for him to be quiet. “What year is it? Where are we going? Who’s on the ship?!”
Just shut up, Jonathan. Just shut up and do as you’re told. Gabe thought. Jonathan was that oafish kid in class who always spoke up out of turn, out of context, and always took a long time to explain what no one cared about. The one who made everyone rolled their eyes, sighed, looked at each other and became frustrated because he was interrupting their classroom. The one that teachers give a polite nod to, but have learned not to address unless they want a long monologue about random politics regarding the water fountain. He was that kid, but more arrogant.
For once, Jonathan, shut up. He couldn’t shut up before about their conditioned Adams’ and Eves’ and threw everyone in a riot about bias and equal opportunity, he should shut up now.
They didn’t know how long they were moving. Gabe felt like he was going to have a heart attack. He could barely even make any observations besides the warfare and how built and fit these men were; in a way that suggested they weren’t farmers. When the night came, they rested, someone stayed up as a watch. Gabe stayed awake all night for fear; eyes wide open, exhaling shaky breaths. Jonathan must have taken his medicine without them seeing somehow, because by some miracle he was sleeping like a log.
Every falling leaf and cracking twig had aroused him with the most uncomfortable of fears. He could feel that fear now, as he remembered it because it had been so strong and his memory took that for play time. Moving on, he remembered the first time he looked in their eyes. Blood shot. The first time he saw them smile. Yellowing. Drugs and warfare? What happened in transition? Then, he found out it had only been twenty years. In twenty years?! Twenty years, and they looked like this. And not just that, but more told Gabe why… It was a mess.
They walked into a town and at first glance it almost looked normal. Buildings of different heights lay in a relatively organized pattern, with streets wide enough for four lanes of traffic. It was as though they tried to recreate the twenty second century, but for fun had imitated vague images of fantasy worlds. Entrance into the city was a large gate which made him wonder who they were trying to keep out or what… there were no other civilizations there as far as they knew.
This protective wall they put up seemed so strange. What was it for? Anticipating all the possibilities was overwhelming and occupied him heavily when they walked through the gate. So thoroughly was he distracted, in fact, that he almost missed the rest of the bizarre scene. Another reason it almost seemed normal was the closeness of the houses. Approximately ten feet lay between them each. What was absurd was that they all looked unfinished. Some of the distances were larger between the houses, not for spacing reasons, but because the plots were defined, the foundations laid, and clearly the houses were supposed to reach to the end of the plot, but they didn’t. Open foundations filled the space or unfinished walls showing corners of a room that might someday be. At least one room of every house was finished, some had two or three.
Knowing already that they were going to restart the society - which was never planned for, but prepared for, Gabe made what seemed like the only decision. Before that, though, and what made his anticipation about the gate cease was the strange entanglement of strings going to and from the houses – not touching each other and at varying heights and lengths, one look at it gave the appearance of a giant human-eating spider’s web. He asked what they were to the man he was walking next to – a phone system of weakly made aluminum “cans”.
Gabe took the risk of sneaking out the first night to look around and take mental notes.
They were trying to imitate everything they knew before – this is why he disappeared that evening, out of curiosity to see what else they tried. Never before in his life had he felt such imminent doom as he remembered that day. A doom at his and Jonathan’s hands, thinking literally – but a necessary one – a duty to save posterity from this idiocy. Not even doom during the war felt the same as this felt. This was supposed to be the hope.
They considered it obvious that people would do what was necessary for survival, and even when they discovered the uselessness of their twenty second century habits, surely they would have been submissive to the circumstance, to nature. Now he saw, clearly not – this inspired his lack of faith each of the succeeding times they were cloned.
…
Memories like these were deplorable things to have – horrifyingly obtrusive to all the hope that his research wasn’t in vain.
Gabe looked at the faces around him now. Their gaze and countenance were mostly untarnished and non-repulsed by the world. Lifted and enlightened comparatively with their predecessors, but they were still not free. Throughout his lifetime Gabe studied the bondage of cultures and individuals. It was like he could now see it; feel it in each of them. Why were they not free?
It was every effort to be thorough and unbiased to teach the people they were leaving behind what they would need to know – they did enough background checks for sanity and stability. Test after test could not erase habits, addictions, and desires. Even though they could test for it; it would have been useless to hold out for a person who had not given in to getting everything with immediacy; who had some miraculous way avoided unhealthy physical, emotional and mental addiction. It just wasn’t possible…
The memories still seeped through…
…
When Jonathan popped his medication that first time of cloning, Gabe knew he was anxious – when he took a second, Gabe knew very well how his compulsion was rendering him incapable of dealing with all of this. Gabe wouldn’t claim that it made him nervous to watch Jonathan slip downward. More so, it was a verification of their expected mental dissolution. The ultimate loss of self.
His anxiety felt like a balloon on a vacuum. Before long he would be helplessly sucked into the system. Memories became choppy, dark, and stoic. Fire lit streets. Thick fog. A prostitution house… or five... Rows and rows of cotton plants in the back ground where many people had been at work earlier that day. A large wooden cage filled with hundreds of chickens. People attending to their social life walked about him.
A girl was holding her stomach and looked wary. She gave a polite nod and wave to a friend, who took a second glance, waved with a smile, then kept walking. Into a half-finished building she went, where a few other women were. There were no windows and only one door. The poor construction of the house left a gap between two pieces of wood. Gabe was intrigued, stopped, and crouched down to watch openly what he knew should have made him squirm. An abortion. A homemade concoction was drunk, leaving the ex-mother in such agony, she seemed to be paralyzed. What was in that stuff she just used? Chances are it was nearly strong enough to kill the woman. Though it wouldn’t kill her, only punish her for the rest of her life. This incident was not isolated either. Gabe and Jonathan managed to stay alive for two weeks and in that time he witnessed similar scenes, with different devices. Anyway they did it – drugs, beating, chemicals, there was no way to hurt the baby, without also hurting the mother. It made him wonder what the population was… in a world where sex wasn’t the crime, abortion wasn’t the shame, but, rather, the pregnancy was.
He kept moving and saw a courthouse, which was actually finished and in the town center, suggesting it was one of the first buildings. Undoubted
ly this meant that they still thought that law and order existed in a building. Not only that, but they assumed early on that there needed to be a third party to solve problems. And, that there would be problems to solve. Had they given no consideration to peace and prosperity?
When he got back, he shared his findings with Jonathan. Together they made a plan to start over. Youth were going to be a key in starting over. Youth that either had miraculously survived mother’s attempts to abort, or children of the few who decided they wanted children… or were paid by the government to have them. That’s who they would need. They kept the poison to a condensed area, discovered those who might be traveling and when to anticipate their return so as to include everyone. They took only about a hundred of the original group, and thirty of their posterity (that’s all there was) to begin again. They discovered that sixty of the original group had committed suicide within the first year, and since then, another twenty or so. As Gabe had not anticipated, the population had decreased.
He felt cheated to realize that humans didn’t really know how to survive.
At any rate, survival was not the goal; freedom was, which was about one million steps of intellect above survival.
…
One day later they packed up and started toward Dane’s home town. As they were packing up Miek looked at them both not doing anything and inquired whether or not they had any possessions. Jonathan and Gabe looked at each other. Knowing that they had friends was key before they started disposing of their survival kit or making it visible. Be that as it may, Gabe once pulled out beef jerky at night. He did so at the risk of May seeing because she seemed to sleep less than he did, amazingly. Jonathan, he was sure, had been through several bags, not that others knew what he was taking out of his pockets. Only Jonathan’s pills made definitive appearances, and as they had explained that part, the group seemed somewhat content. Jonathan was trying his best (which was not much of an improvement) to spread his dosage further, so this morning he had not taken the medication and he snapped in reply,
“What do you care?”
Gabe rolled his eyes and they all looked at him with wide eyes of bewilderment in silent conversation, then turned back to the direction of their destination and moved forward. A thought struck Gabe as they were walking. What if they made them change clothes? The shoes were kind of a giveaway. Until now, every item of clothing passed as strange, but reasonable enough. The clothes this crew wears look nothing like what he and Jonathan had ever worn, or would ever want to wear. May wore a thin white cotton top and a leaf-woven bottom that wrapped around like a lava-lava. It also looked like she was using the same hemp material as a half-corset. The boys had hemp bottoms with no top.
All the stuff in their pockets would have to come out if they changed, and he didn’t know their thoughts on privacy. But, did he really expect to never share what they had? Really it was more of a survival kit… and some small connection to their world. What, was he sentimental? No, just needy.
That was better than sentimental at any rate.
The jungle slowly faded out and they were no longer trekking over thick, wet, pillowy dirt and old leaves now part of the ground. The ground was rising and Gabe was beginning to wheeze. The land was stretching before them over a sunlit hill of bright wheat colored grass. As thick as the air was here, breathing still didn’t come easy.
Gabe was trying to speed up. Jonathan was such a bastard. Gunna leave an old man in back by himself, huh? If he had to use the gun again there was going to be trouble. Miek hollered back good-naturedly, “Catch up grandpa!”
Gabe didn’t know how to respond and didn’t want to be bothered. What a juvenile, jeering comment. He kept on keeping on and the ground leveled out eventually, but he didn’t feel it was any easier. The others were starting to disappear, though, which was something he didn’t like in the least. He could still see the top of Jonathan’s head and followed it the best he could. A few more minutes there was another dark-haired head that was getting closer. Gabe didn’t know what really happened that made Dane stop and wait. But there he was at the back of the line. He didn’t say anything, and didn’t look worse for the wear; not even frustrated.
Gabe wanted to grumble that he didn’t need pity, but that was no way to make friends. They didn’t say anything to each other, but Dane walked behind him for several more miles when they finally took a break at a spring.
Miek looked at Gabe and jested, “What’s wrong old man?”
Gabe glared at him then looked back at the ground.
No apology was made by anyone, though Miek looked slightly abashed and knew it was a stupid thing to say. Still, they just all went about their business to get water. How he missed modern conveniences. All of his water purifying tablets were gone (He’d brought a lot, but they weren’t planning on doing this five time.) This water was going to make him sick unless they boiled it, which he doubted they could or would do.
Thirty-minutes later, Gabe had caught his breath and May finally took pity on him. “Gabe, can I help you somehow?” Almost bored, his eyes met hers. Thick mucus was cleared from his throat and spit to the ground before he said no, then continued to ignore them. Well, May certainly isn’t the nurturing motherly type because she didn’t push the matter.
Jonathan was arguing with them about purifying the water. He still apparently had some iodine left and wanted to pour some in all of their water. The others were thinking it was likely poison. His long explanation of the chemicals and processes involved were enough to convince them to drink the poison voluntarily, and sounded like such bogus to them they assumed it must be fabricated nonsense. Jonathan put a few drops in his canteen and while he waited for it to dissolve, tried to convince the others. None of the others wanted to let them use their bottles (which were actually carved out coconuts, but they called them bottles) so he could prove to them it wasn’t poison, and might actually help them. After an hour of this Jonathan was becoming enraged as the group started making it a funny joke, seeing as he was insisting for so long and not drinking water without it. They managed to be sarcastic with him for some time before they started even laughing or smirking at each other about it. Gabe was even starting to find it funny.
Finally realizing what their laughter was, Jonathan was fuming and now trying to take the water from them by force which caused no small riot. They were running around and tossing the bottles to each other over his head. By the sound of a muffled yelp and a thud, Gabe assumed Jonathan was tackling someone, and then there was raucous laughter that was not supported by air, suggesting Jonathan had done nothing to truly hurt the child, and they were still evading him.
Gabe was very thirsty but didn’t care to try to argue and knew at some point they’d have to move on and drink the water, so he waited until the joke got old and then someone brought him water. Little did they know it was more than just the exhaustion that was keeping him preoccupied and irritable. During the last few miles of grasses he was fearful and paranoid and trying not to let it bother him. It almost physically hurt to deny his panic and truly physically hurt to accept it. He was frustrated with himself and pitied that old man sitting on the ground. This kind of fear was the worst… irrational, almost, but not enough to escape. Stupid.
Dane called for order and the water was purified. Miek brought Gabe some of the now purified water. What a difference it made to Gabe and his countenance. He felt a lifting of spirits. Left with nothing else to your name, it was amazing what water could do. Though, he always took a second glance at it… thinking…
…
Death after the second time was painless, physically. But… it was suicide; a completely different kind of agony that never left him alone. He pinpoints that day as the day when he began to lose his mind. That day when he sat and stared for hours, swirling the water in a clay cup, willing himself to drink it. He sat alone, then, in an abandon house, trying to forget the dead bodies lying outside. The living people had moved on to the east for clean water. They didn
’t realize that in a day the water would be safe. For now, he and Jonathan were the last living people in this city.
Gabe looked at the water. If he waited long enough, the effects would wear off…
…
They picked up and started moving again, all of them intentionally surrounding him – equal in front and behind. That was pretty thoughtful, he supposed. Again, everyone was silent. How long was this walk going to take, and were they going to be quiet the whole time? It was almost more than Gabe could bear. Just as he thought that, a distant female voice asked a question.
Dane’s voice responded. That was comforting. The voices were facing away from him and he couldn’t make out distinct words. He listened to the tone of their voices, though. By the sound of it, it was the type conversation he’d long longed for. First, when she asked the question, her voice was curious, but slow. The response was well thought out… then given with experience, but openness for thoughts Dane had never had before. May came back at his comment a little quicker, suggesting that something he said really sparked her interest and perhaps a disagreement. His response was quick again, but considerate and then they both were quiet. Dane then asked a question and this continued back and forth.
They would never quite realize what a rare discussion that was. Not even rare… extinct; something Gabe had only heard of – philosophized about. Emotional, and yet, rational, they tapped into instinctive depths that men had once studied for ages. This reminded Gabe about a group of people who tried to do this intentionally.
The GOD Box Page 8
