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Paradeisia: The Complete Trilogy: Origin of Paradise, Violation of Paradise, Fall of Paradise

Page 32

by B. C. CHASE


  “It was a worthy stop,” Doctor Katz said as he rose to his feet, smiling.

  “Aha!” Bertrand exclaimed, slapping him on the back.

  Layla wanted to remove her headscarf. It was soaking wet, continuously dripping into her face. But she would feel extremely self-conscious and guilty to do so in the presence of the men. She glanced up at Doctor Kamil, who had ventured further into the downpour, her back to the rest of them. Layla was relieved to see that she had already pulled her headscarf down to her neck. She turned around and smiled at Layla.

  Doctor Katz called, “Layla, maybe this will help!” He tossed her a baseball cap.

  She caught it with a, “Thanks!” Slipping off her headscarf, she replaced it with the cap, letting her hair fall freely out the hole in the back. This would be much cooler, she thought. When she looked up at Doctor Kamil, she was frozen in place, staring in sheer terror.

  SaiLine Paradise

  “Please, let’s go to the theater instead,” Li Ming-Zhen suggested to her mother, Bao. “It’s too crowded here.”

  The ice skating rink was indeed jam-packed. Finding seats would be struggle. Her true motivation for leaving, however, she would keep to herself. She was delighted to see how quickly her mother acquiesced, “All right.” Bao didn’t like crowds.

  The theater had a seating capacity of nearly 1,500. It was opulently decorated with a round balcony above. The entire place was bustling with people. Bao exclaimed in dismay, “It’s full here, too!”

  “Don’t worry, mom. I’ll find seats,” Li said confidently.

  Her mother raised a skeptical eyebrow, “You will?” As Li took her mother’s hand and led her down the main floor center aisle, Bao protested, “This is more crowded than the ice skating rink.” She stopped to stare at the two extraordinarily vacant seats that Li had found. Bao followed Li into the row and sat beside her, eyeing her with suspicion. But Li didn’t notice because she was speaking to a teenage male beside her. In English, she said, “My momma doesn’t speak English.”

  A woman seated beside the teenager exclaimed, “Are you Li? Donte’s been telling me about you!” She extended a hand, which Li happily shook. “I’m his momma.”

  Li introduced her mother, “This is my momma, Bao.”

  Donte’s mother greeted Bao enthusiastically, who appeared to be bewildered about how to respond. In Mandarin she said to Li, “This is the boy you’ve been telling us about, isn’t it?”

  Li smiled, nodding.

  “Your father will not be happy.”

  Li made a perfect presentation of her most innocently pleading look.

  Bao sighed in resignation.

  The curtains on the stage suddenly withdrew to reveal a man. He spoke enthusiastically with an Australian accent, “I am your cruise director, Mitch, and I’d like to welcome you to our direct-from-Broadway performance of the hit show Static! Are you excited?”

  The crowd cheered.

  “Of course you’re excited, you cheapskates. You didn’t have to pay the ninety dollars you would have on Broadway. Bargain-hunters, the lot of you.

  “Now before the show I’d just like to go over the rules. Please don’t film the show using any means; it is a copyrighted performance.” He paused to watch the crowd. “Yeah that’s right, put your cameras down. Well done.” He again watched, then said, “And you, sir, with the iPad above your face. Yes, you. Really? We’re not fooled and worse than that you’re embarrassing your children. Kindly put that thing down. Thank you.

  “And just another reminder that we will be hosting another exciting round of Bingo here in the theatre after the conclusion of our show. Don’t miss your chance to win five thousand dollars cash money in your hand! Who doesn’t love free money? So be sure to stick around for your chance at five thousand dollars cash.”

  “But now we are pleased to present the Broadway musical sensation, Static, right here onboard the SaiLine Paradise!”

  There was a sudden commotion from the second tier balcony. People stood and were diverging for a family who were making a quick exit. There were gasps and cries.

  Li felt a jarring pain in her stomach. She turned to her mother, holding her belly, “I don’t feel well, mommy. I need to go to a bathroom.”

  They stood and moved to the aisle, but as she started to walk toward the exit, the pain stabbed her excruciatingly and she doubled over involuntarily, letting loose a cry.

  “Li,” Bao exclaimed, bending to her aide.

  The pain was so intense that Li dropped to her knees and then fell to her side, squeezing her legs up to her chest in the fetal position. The air around her suddenly felt incredibly cold and her head began to spin. Her mother was just above her on her knees crying out, but she couldn’t comprehend the words. Donte’s face appeared along with Donte’s mother, their heads silhouetted by bright theater lights in the ceiling above. She started to shake violently, a reflexive reaction to the cold she felt. The world was spinning around her, darkness closing in until she suddenly saw a bright stage light. So bright, blinding. All she could see was the light. Then this washed away to a strange vision.

  A teenage girl was laying on her side on the carpeted floor, the stage lights illuminating her pale skin. She was shaking from head to toe. Her eyes were wide open as if in death, and yellow. Her mouth was ajar, but she was sputtering and saliva dripped from her lips. Her veins were huge and protruding, but her entire face was going blue from lack of oxygen.

  A strange feeling washed over with the sudden realization that she was seeing herself. Herself on the carpeted theater floor. Her mother was there, wailing animatedly. Donte’s mother was watching in helpless distress.

  She watched as the shuddering of her body stopped and her eyes stared in apparent death.

  “Li! Li! Li!” Bao was crying. Donte knelt down and held her face, felt for breath. He checked for a pulse in her neck, then screamed, “WE NEED A DOCTOR!” But he called in vain because chaos was all around them, with people vomiting and keeling over everywhere, mostly women and the young.

  But something was pulling her back, the vision distancing. The bright light was taking over and the scene was quickly fleeing. The blinding white light washed over everything and she felt herself being drawn away. She knew this was the end and was seized by awesome terror when she saw a tall, white figure with brilliantly shining eyes staring at her.

  Donte felt strangely like a child in a man’s body as he helped Bao to her feet. She clung to his embrace, violently wailing. A hush came over the theater as there was a click over the loudspeakers and a voice spoke:

  “This is your Captain. We have been made aware of an emergency on-board the vessel and, for your safety, we must ask that all passengers proceed calmly to your cabins at this time.” He had a European accent, perhaps Danish. “Again, for your safety, proceed directly to your cabins at this time. This is not a request. This is an order from the captain. Do not be alarmed, but proceed calmly to your cabins. Once the decks are cleared, you will receive further information from myself, but, again, for your safety all passengers must proceed immediately to … to—“the message was interrupted with a far-away shout and a click.

  Towering over Li’s body, holding onto her weeping mother with the pandemonium surrounding them, Donte felt a tear he did not even know he had shed stream down his cheek. Panic had set in, with people thronging at the exits. The cruise director had vanished from the stage.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Donte said to his mother and Bao.

  “Li! Li!” Bao cried, kneeling at her daughter’s body’s side once more.

  Someone was shouting, “Move back. Move away from the doors, please! People are being crushed!”

  “We need to get out of here,” Donte said. “Come,” he extended a hand to Bao. His mother joined him and Bao reluctantly acquiesced. He led them toward the exit, but as they approached the back of the mob, gunshots rang out. “CLEAR THE DOORWAY!” a voice shouted. “GET BACK FROM THE DOORS!” Then there were loud ba
ngs as the giant theater doors slammed shut in front of the crowd. The doors at the other two side exits also slammed at the same time, followed quickly by the second tier balcony doors.

  “They shut us in here? Oh heck no!” Donte’s mother exclaimed.

  A voice blared over the theater speaker system. “May I have your attention, please? We ask that you please stay calm. In order to facilitate the quick delivery of those not well to the medical center, we have sealed the theater. Please allow those who are not well to make their way to the theater doors where they will immediately be assisted to the medical center. When the sick have all been processed, those not sick will be given masks and will return to their own cabins. Please stay calm. If you are well, we ask that you take a seat. Those who are not well should proceed to the central doors where they will be quickly delivered to the medical center. Please help us prevent a stampede.”

  Donte said, “I guess that means we’re not leaving the theater anytime soon.”

  United Nations Security Council

  The former Canadian Minister of National Defense, Paul Hager, continued, “The only time I saw one of these beings was during a visit to the White House with the Prime Minister. We were meeting with President Lyndon Johnson and some of his officials at night. At one point during the meeting, one of the secret service men standing behind the President stepped forward and whispered something in his ear. Then, later, I happened to glance up and look at the secret service man and saw him staring off to the right. He was in shadow so I could not make out his features, but a kind of a tingle went up my spine, because it was very obvious that his face was no longer the right shape. The jaw was too strong and the chin too pointed. The face had flattened, the eyes darkened.

  “I was so afraid that my legs started knocking together. President Johnson asked, 'What's wrong, Paul?'

  I didn’t respond to him.

  “Without a blink, President Lyndon Johnson smiled and said, ‘Don't worry: they come to show us the way.'

  “And then, I was overcome with the most horrible terror as I witnessed the agent's face transform again, his skin seeming to shine as he blatantly stared at me with black eyes.

  “No sooner had this happened than he returned to normal, the Prime Minister winked at me, like one winks at a little boy, and the meeting resumed.

  “This was my first and only encounter with what I believe to be the so-called 'reptilian' or shape-shifting species. They are known for their ability to meld into human society without being recognized, functioning like normal people.

  “Then came my introduction to what are called the 'tall whites.' An airman within RCAF, Royal Canadian Air Force, stationed at the base in Winnipeg, wrote an anonymous letter to me detailing his contact with the creatures. Of course we regularly received reports of UFO's and other anomalies, but since this letter was addressed specifically to myself and I had already experienced the strange episode at the White House, I returned his correspondence and he eventually gave me his name: Charles Hall. He was a range weather observer and he said that many of the guards at the base had frequently been overcome by a terror of the mind with no explicable cause. He interviewed the guards and found that the common theme between them was the appearance, or projection, in their minds, of angry faces with giant black eyes and pale, white skin. He stayed out on watch with the guards for several nights, and finally he also experienced the terror. When the faces appeared to him, he called out to them, and several six to seven foot-tall, thin, long-necked humanoids stepped out from the darkness. They explained to him that they were from the Orion star system. They did not explain their purpose, but would only say that they did not trust mankind and could sense evil in us. They boasted of having been involved in an Eisenhower treaty in which they exchanged technological know-how for freedom to pursue their experiments on people. According to Hall, they were very wise and had advanced tactical knowledge. They communicated telepathically and considered humans to be weak-minded on all counts. They told him that they had killed humans before, without hesitation.

  “I spoke with the Prime Minister of these things in the strictest confidence. He said that he was well aware that the United States had been in contact with extra-terrestrials, but that he did not wish for Canada to pursue such a liaison. In his mind, ignorance was bliss. Therefore, I thanked Hall for his information, and the case was closed.

  “This concludes the complete disclosure of my personal experience with extra-terrestrial life-forms, but my collective knowledge of the subject leads me to the following conclusions:

  “We have been taking the world on a journey toward self-destruction. While civilization grows and productivity increases, we rape the planet of resources. We pillage and pollute, threatening to destroy the entire planet with carbon gases, nuclear waste and other dangers.

  “Indeed, thanks to mankind, the earth is in an unholy mess. The fact is that these beings and their various agendas might be able to teach us something. If we are prepared to acknowledge their existence and transcendence and show a willingness to learn, they could possibly be willing to educate us. In fact, even more mortifying is the opposite: that if we do not change, some of these beings might be interested in stamping out a bad seed in the same way that a gardener eliminates a destructive weed.

  “The celebrated Harvard psychiatrist John E. Mack, MD, published the results of his extensive study of those who have had encounters with ET's, or 'experiencers' as he called them, and he arrived at what I believe to be a correct conclusion. In his book, Passport to the Cosmos, he wrote, 'Although the aliens are not themselves gods—their behavior is sometimes anything but godlike—abductees consistently report that the beings seem closer to the Godhead than we are, acting as messengers, guardian spirits, or angels, intermediaries between us and the Divine Source.'

  “What this Divine Source is, I am not certain, although my suspicion is that it has something to do with the very fabric of life. Regardless, the inescapable truth of the matter is that for humanity to advance toward the best that life has to offer, for us to rid ourselves of the scourge of hunger, the dangers of climate change, for true peace to reign, we must adopt a paradigm shift in our attitudes. Young people everywhere must be challenged by this noble cause: we must address our problems with humility, and we must toss our ridiculous notions of solitude aside and ask these beings for help. I am sure that, if we collectively do this, they will bring us new and amazing truth and civilization. They will aid us in creating a banking system that is just and sustainable, they will teach us how to create sustainable energy, and our young people will see the kind of world that man never has, except perhaps in the paradise that was lost, that is the Garden of Eden. We must open our minds and accept the new reality; that we have to live in harmony with our celestial neighbors and seek peace on Earth.

  “I suspect that these beings hold the very keys to life itself. Indeed, they are likely the originators of life that we so desperately need.”

  CDC

  Doctor Karen Harigold, Secretary of Health and Human Services, was in utter disbelief. The President lay dead before her.

  Guy Giordano quickly knelt to examine the corpse. He looked up at Karen, said, “This is the work of a sick mind.”

  “How is this possible?”

  He rose, “I read a study in Nature a while ago. Some lab had used a viral vector to give trichromatic vision to squirrel monkeys who did not have it.[12] A few years later, another experiment came up: they had given the squirrel monkeys infrared sensing organs like snakes. It doesn’t take a genius to follow the natural evolution of experimentation along those lines. This,” he pointed to the President’s body, “is the ultimate power of gene replacement. A viral vector was actively altering his biology, at an incredible rate. He has been unnaturally, prematurely aged.” He looked at all of them with an expression of foreboding, “Someone is sending us a message. They are telling us, ‘We have the power of God.’ Nothing is impossible for people with such power.”


  Facility AII-B

  They hurtled through the forest. In the branches above, dark forms pursued them easily, screaming in wild fury. The ground dropped below them and they tumbled down a steep slope, landing in a moist ditch at the bottom. They jumped to their feet and splashed through several large puddles. A giant, dark structure loomed in front of them. They ran for it, and as they reached it they could see that it was a concrete, windowless building, with no clearance between it and the trees, the branches crumpled up against it as if it has been dropped out of the sky. It was at least fifty feet tall. A long road led straight up to the building, a pair of giant steel doors blocking the entrance.

  The dark forms clattered through the trees directly above them, howling in a lustful frenzy. Wesley and Kelle began running along the wall where the low foliage had been cleared until a long, thin stick ricocheted off the wall in front of them. Kelle quickly picked it up, puzzled. The stick had been sharpened to a point at the front.

  It was not a stick. It was a spear.

  Wesley and Kelle turned to stare at the trees above them. Crouching among the branches were countless black-haired ape-forms with glinting eyes.

  “What are they?” Kelle asked.

  “They look like chimpanzees.”

  Another lance hurled from the treetops and impaled itself in the ground at their feet.

  Kelle said, “Those are not chimpanzees.”

  They ran as fast as they could along the wall, spears smashing into the concrete behind them and whooshing by their heads. They rounded a corner of the structure and continued to race through a growth of giant ferns, still hugging the wall.

  They heard the creatures leaping from the trees and dropping to the ground with loud thumps, their whoops coming from everywhere. Wesley skidded to a stop when several excited screams and hoots came from in front of them. They crouched low and looked through the leaves for any sign of movement. The screaming stopped and all they heard was the hum of insects. Wesley spotted an upright form striding across a gap in the foliage, illuminated by moonlight. Then, to the left, another scrambled by on its knuckles.

 

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