EARTH PLAN

by David Sloma

  “I'd like that.” Charles tipped his beer, finishing it. “Another one?”

  “What the hell? Who knows what tomorrow will bring.”

  Charles passed over another beer. They sat up drinking for a time, until the beer was gone, worrying about their futures.

  CHAPTER 36

  By the time the RV arrived a couple of days later, Charles and the professor had the gear from the lab all packed up.

  The RV pulled up to the front of the house. It was an impressive number, like a big tour bus, with a huge windshield and mirrors that hung off the sides.

  “Nice,” said Charles, walking up to the RV. “This must have cost a fortune!”

  “About that,” Lang said.

  The door opened on the side, and a local man stepped out. “Hello,” he said, with a bit of an accent.

  “Mario! Good to see you again. The trip went well?” Lang shook hands with him.

  “Yes, no problems.” Mario smiled. “It's all ready to go.”

  “Thank you. One of my men will give you a ride back to town.”

  “Thank you.”

  Lang called over one of the guards and asked him to give Mario a ride. The two of them got into the jeep and tore off.

  “Come on, let's get a look aboard,” Lang said, to Charles, the professor, Wendy, and the guard who were waiting outside. He climbed on.

  Inside the bus it was luxury all the way, with everything a high-end RV would have, including kitchen, dining area, full washroom, and a living room. One of the back double bedrooms was gutted and fitted with overhead fluorescent lights.

  “This can be your work area,” Lang said, opening the door.

  The professor stuck his head in. “It'll do. We don't need a lot of room.”

  Charles squeezed in beside him. “Yeah. Should be fine.”

  “It's only until we can get you to a better base of operations. We're hoping for Prague, as that's where our largest and best estate is, but we'll see how it goes for us with the border crossings. They may very well be looking for us, or at least, who we used to be,” Lang said. He moved off, back into the living room. He passed Wendy who was unpacking some things in one of the bedrooms.

  “What do you mean?” Charles asked, following after him. Lang went to one of the couches and pulled up the cushion. There were some small, flat items wrapped up in a black plastic bag. He unfurled the bag and fished the items out. “These.” They were passports from the European Union. He handed one to Charles and the professor.

  Charles opened his and was shocked to see his picture there and another name, not his own. The professor had a fake passport, too.

  “What the? How did you do this? How'd you get my picture?” Charles looked from the passport to Lang, truly puzzled.

  “That was the easy part,” Lang said and smiled. “We have connections in many places, let's leave it at that. He opened his passport and showed his fake one, also. “Now, if they are looking for us, well, we're not quite who we used to be. We should be able to get through most anyplace we need to go with these.”

  “I'll be,” the professor said and shook his head. “I just hope we don't get caught. They might be able to prove us innocent to those cops getting shot, but this? I dunno if we'd be able to duck this one!”

  “These are as good as they come.” Lang waved his passport. “A long paper trail was created for these, so if anyone wants to look into them, they will find that they are quite legitimate. It would take a lot of work to prove these false. I think we'll be alright.” Lang smiled and put his passport in his pocket.

  He turned to the door. “Let's get our things aboard and we'll leave as soon as the guard returns.” He stepped off the RV and went back to the house.

  Charles held his passport and looked at the professor. “I didn't know we were going to be like spies.”

  “We've jumped off the deep end here, my friend. I hope you've got your swimming trunks.”

  “Oh yeah! I've had them on for a while now!” Charles laughed, but also felt uneasy at the same time.

  The professor patted him on the back, then went to help his wife unpack. Charles wandered to the kitchen and pulled open the fridge. He was happy to see it was well stocked, and he found a bottle of cold water. He opened the bottle and took a sip. It eased his hot-running blood a little.

  He sat down at the table in the kitchen and looked around. “Home sweet home.” He was a little perturbed at being a fugitive, and at what his life was becoming, but he knew he couldn't turn his back on what he'd found in the DNA codes. The RV was quiet and he sat drinking his water for a few moments.

  Then, resolved to see things through, as he felt he was on a mission, especially with all the Guild had told him, he went back into the house to gather what few things he had and got ready for the next phase of the adventure his life had become.

  Once they were all loaded into the RV, the guard behind the wheel started up the big engine and closed the side door. Charles was standing near the front, looking out.

  “You'd better sit down,” the guard said.

  “Uh, yeah,” Charles said, and took a seat nearby, where he could still look out. “Hey, I don't even know your names, yet, you know that?” Charles chuckled and looked at the guard behind the wheel and other one in the passenger seat. “Lang never introduced us, can you imagine that! For a guy with such good manners, usually...”

  The guards looked at each other. “He's like that when he's stressed,” the driver said. “I know he appreciates us 'hired help' but someone he doesn't act like it. You just gotta give him the benefit of the doubt sometimes. And, we've all been under a lot of stress. I'm Tony.” He was the larger of the two guards and bald. He offered his hand to Charles.

  “Charles, if you didn't already know,” Charles said and shook his hand.

  “I'm Tom,” the other guard said. He turned around and offered his hand, too. He had a full head of black hair, cut very short. Both men were very muscular and in shape with imposing figures.

  “Good to officially meet you both. So you guys are hires? You're not part of his Guild?”

  “We're part of it, but we're also on the payroll, too. Lang wouldn't have anyone working for him that was not an initiate, due to the secrets he deals with and talks about,” Tom said.

  “Doesn't mean we are fully in his inner circle, though, if you know what I mean?” Tony put the RV into gear and slowly pulled away from the house. “There's a lot of things we've got no idea about. But, maybe someday we will.”

  “I think that's what keeps us hanging out. This is no easy job at times, that's for sure!” Tom said.

  “I can see that,” Charles said. “I certainly wouldn't want to be in this situation if I could avoid it.”

  Lang came up to the cockpit. “Ah, we're underway! Good job!” He looked at the house going by. “I wonder if we'll ever see that place again.”

  “What do you mean, boss? Afraid you won't be coming back from this one? I fully intended to!” Tom said.

  Lang laughed. “Oh, I intend to come back. I just don't know if we'll still have the house to use. I sold it to pay for this RV, in part.”

  “Oh. And I liked that place,” Tony said and mock-pouted.

  “Don't worry. We'll buy it back or get a much better vacation house. How about one near of the big beaches in Rio?” Lang raised his eyebrows.

  Tony and Tom both brightened. “Now you're talking!” Tony said and smiled.

  Lang ginned and went into the back. Charles followed him.

  “Where are we heading?” Charles asked. He sat down on one of the couches in the living room. The professor and Wendy were on the other couch.

  Lang got himself a bottle of orange juice out of the fridge and sat down in the easy chair.

  “The plan is to avoid airports if we can, for as long as possible, even though we have the passports; they tend to scrutinize them more. It should take a week to get to Mexico, if we don't run into too many snags. We've got a lot of mountainous ter
rain to get through,” Lang said. “You'll need the time to get your work finished, anyhow. Hopefully by then it will be alright to catch a flight to Prague. We'll have a private jet waiting in Mexico.”

  “Do you think they'll be many?” Wendy asked.

  “Snags? I hope not.” Lang looked to the professor and Charles. “Are you able to get back to work, now? This RV has a mobile Internet hookup with a satellite dish. We've got an encrypted channel with Prague. You can share data with them as we move. That should allow you to catch up with each other and make the preparations for when we arrive.”

  “What happens when we arrive?” Charles asked. “Is there something you haven't told me?”

  “Yes, sorry...I forgot in all the excitement,” Lang said and rubbed his forehead. His usually pristine black clothes were rumpled. “Our astrologers have determined that there's a very good time coming up to launch our counter-attack, our cure to the corrupted DNA, in a few weeks time. If we can have our technologies ready, we should be able to produce a type of healing virus that we can then release. It's not really a virus, but that's the best way I can think to explain it...it's purpose is to change any DNA it comes in contact with back to its original form. It will take out the changes made by the Dark One's servants and realign the DNA the way it was meant to be by the Creator.”

  “Wow!” Charles said. “I thought you had something wild in mind, but this...! This takes the cake, man!” He looked at the professor. “Did you know about this?”

  The professor nodded. “I did, but I gave my word not to mention it, until now.”

  “And I thank you gratefully for holding to that—the world thanks you gratefully! There has been a lot of secrecy around this plan for decades, if not hundreds of years. Now, we have a chance to put it into motion,” Lang said.

  “But how, exactly?” Charles asked.

  The RV bumped along the small road, making Lang almost spill his drink on himself. “We'll take what you and our scientists have come up with and transform it into a nanobot formula that we can deliver many ways. We're not sure, yet, but it could be a liquid, probably, that we'll put into water or perhaps spray into the air. We still need to get the final data and do some testing, but that's the rough plan.”

  “So, you're planning on dosing the world with this compound? Whatever it is that we come up with?” Charles asked.

  “That's exactly what we're going to do,” Lang said. He sat forward on the edge of his seat. “I believe this is the most important thing we can do for the future of humanity and for all life on this planet—to win back our DNA that was tampered with a long, long time ago.”

  “I'm with you,” the professor said. He squeezed his wife's hand and she smiled at him. “You're onboard with this too, honey?”

  “Yes,” she said and nodded. “I don't understand all the deep scientific aspects of it all, of course, it not being my field, but I think you are doing something good. It took me a while to grasp that this stuff was even real, but I know it is; I've seen the code on our DNA with my own eyes. Stan showed me.” She blushed.

  “Good,” Lang said, smiling. “I wanted him to.” He turned to Charles.

  “I'm not backing out now, not after all we've been through. This is not exactly what I thought was going to happen when I started following this path, but what can you do, huh? I'm in,” Charles said.

  “Excellent! I'm sorry this has been so hard on you Charles, on all of us. This is the battle of our lives, of many, many generations that is resting on our shoulders. I know we must do this, and I know we must succeed!”

  The RV moved along the small, two-lane highway as fast as was safe to do so, which wasn't very fast, as there were always slow cars to pass and people by the side of the road.

  Soon, they went by the small town where they used to shop, and then onto a larger road that opened up into the countryside.

  The guards kept their guns in holsters under their arms and made sure that no one was following them. While one guard drove, the other would make patrols around the RV, checking the back window, and also looking out the side windows.

  When night fell, the roving guard donned night vision goggles and continued his patrols while the others slept and the other guard drove. The guard on patrol took a small nap after each of his patrols. In this way, they were able to still get a little sleep while working around the clock, switching drivers.

  CHAPTER 37

  The RV moved through the darkness on the nearly empty roads, passing through the South American countryside. They had been going for days, and several countries, and had just passed into Mexico.

  Lang awoke in the middle of the night. He'd set his alarm to wake him, because it was when someone in Prague would be awake that he wanted to talk to, or at least chat to, via messaging.

  He opened up the laptop and connected to the secure channel they had setup in the RV communications system. Within moments, the satellite Internet had connected, and he was able to open the chat program. He checked the time and waited, yawning. John should be up by now, he thought. Minutes later, John came on the chat line, and they got caught up on their business.

  After, Lang went to the kitchen where Charles, Wendy, and the professor were getting breakfast, with the RV still moving.

  “Good news?” Charles asked, seeing Lang’s smile.

  “Yes. I’ve just got word from Prague that the plans are coming together nicely for the distribution of the antidote, as we’re now calling it. All we need is to get the final pieces of the puzzle together, with your help. How's your work going?” Lang said, looking at Charles and the professor.

  “Quite well,” the professor said. “The new equipment we’ve got here is really helping us make headway. We’ve managed to find several ways of reversing the DNA damage, by altering the ways in which the antidote is delivered, which your team in Prague discovered—I want to give them immense credit for that.”

  “Very good,” Lang said. “As soon as you both feel things are ready, we’ll make the big push to release the antidote world wide.”

  “How are you going to do that? In pills? Injections?” Wendy asked.

  “No, far too slow and hard to get people to take. We don’t have the time to educate the masses to what’s going on. If we did, then we’d lose the battle for sure. We’re going to use a multi-pronged approach. We feel that’s best,” Lang said.

  “Well, I don’t want to be a stick in the mud, and you’ve probably thought this out already, but what if people don’t want their DNA changed?” Wendy asked. The others looked at her.

  “Fair question,” Lang said as he tapped his finger on the side of his mouth. “And, yes, we’ve discussed this issue extensively. What right do we have to play God and do this to people without their knowledge or consent?”

  She nodded.

  “That's how it looks on the surface. But when you realize what’s really going on here, on this planet at this time, it’s a lot different.” Lang poured himself a large coffee and sat down at the table with them.

  “Eons ago, maybe millions of years ago, this planet was a paradise—the Garden of Eden, as is spoken about in many ancient texts, not just the Bible. Early humans were here, and they were pure in their DNA. The plants and the animals, too. All of this was made by the Creator, the Nameless One.” He waved his hand. “I’m not going to debate if there is a Creator or not, as the evidence is there for those with eyes to see, if they wish. I’m convinced, and those of my Guild are convinced, and have been for thousands of years.”

  Those around the table listened, not interrupting, as they sensed they were going to hear something juicy.

  Lang continued, “Some of you have heard this, some not. But, I’ll be brief, as you have work to do. The early humans were visited by an evil entity, or rather workers for this entity. They took the humans and other life forms that were here and changed their DNA for their own selfish ends. Why? To make us, in general, dumber and easier to control, better work animals to serve them. And s
erve them humanity has. But this is not who we are, who we were meant to be. We were tampered with and not allowed to live our full potential. What we, us around this table, and my Guild are doing, is righting the balance.” Lang took a long sip of his coffee.

  “I see,” Wendy said. “But, how do you know all of this is true? I mean, what if you’re wrong and everyone is going to have their DNA changed…just because?”

  “We’re not wrong,” Lang said calmly. “We’ve been studying this for thousands of years. Just ask your own husband. He’s verified our work.”

  The professor turned to his wife. “It’s true, as far as I can tell. Charles found the same thing on his own, that’s why he joined me in my work; that’s why they’ve been after us, trying to stop us. I couldn’t tell you all the details before, because I had to keep it a secret, but now it can be known. I wish I could have told you sooner.”

  She smiled and touched his arm, “That’s alright. Thank you. I understand why you couldn’t say anything.”

  Charles looked on, witnessing the love between them, hoping he’d find the same thing with a woman someday, a wife, a partner of his own. Maybe if I get out of this mess in one piece, and the world is still there, he thought.

  “You should check this out!” Tom the guard called from the living room. He was sitting there watching a news report on TV.

  Curiosity leading them, those around the kitchen table went into the living room.

  “What is it?” Lang asked, getting in front of the TV and squinting at the bright screen and sunlight coming in through the window. He put down the shade on the window, and it got a bit easier to see.

  On the screen was a picture of a UFO flying in the sky over a major city, then another picture, and another…from several large cities of the world came reports of UFOs.

  “Is this for real?” Charles asked. “It’s a major network.”

  “See what the other’s say,” Lang said to Tony. The guard switched the stations around, and they were saying much the same thing.

  “I don’t believe this! Someone must be playing a joke. Remote controlled drones or something,” Wendy said.