The Great Altruist

by Z. D. Robinson

  Inside the barrack, the beds were stacked as they were where her father slept. The women were skin over bones; many had lost their hair, their faces drenched in ennui. The stench, juxtaposed against the fresh night air, hit Jadzia like a punch in the face. She covered her mouth and nose and gathered her composure before she moved on to find her mother. The women were gathered several per bed, but her mother was nowhere to be found. Behind the rows of bunks lied a group of women gathered on the floor, stacked against each other like sardines with hardly any room to breathe. To Jadzia’s chagrin, her mother was surrounded on all sides. She cautiously approached her mother and touched her leg, stirring her awake as calmly as possible.

  Her mother awoke and carefully looked around when she saw a beautiful, familiar-looking woman standing above her. Like Jadzia’s father, her mother did not take long to recognize her. “Jadzia?” she whispered.

  Jadzia got on her knees and said: “Yes, Mama, it’s me.”

  “I thought I’d lost you.” Jadzia’s mother began to cry.

  “I’m fine,” she said as she reached out to take her mother’s hand.

  “How did you get here? You don’t look sixteen.”

  Jadzia felt a slight pinch on her breast from Genesis in her pocket, reminding her not to divulge too much. “I can’t tell you how I got here. It isn’t safe. I came to tell you that I love you.”

  “I’ve missed you so,” her mother said.

  “I’ve missed you too. And father too.”

  Her mother was aghast. “Have you seen him? Where is he?”

  “He’s in a camp like this one not far from here. He wanted me to tell you he loves you and hopes to be with you soon.”

  She knew her words would go unfulfilled and as hard she tried to contain it, a knot formed in her stomach and her emotions took over. Tears followed.

  “What’s wrong?” her mother asked, stroking her daughter’s cheek.

  “This is all my fault, Mama.” She wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

  “You don’t mean the day we were taken, do you?”

  She nodded.

  “Dear, if you had pulled that trigger, we’d all be dead right now. More guards would have come and they would have found you.”

  “You knew?”

  “I saw the gun in your hand. Right then, I prayed that God stay your hand. And he did. Now we have a chance to live – after we survive this.”

  “I should have done something. I could have saved you.”

  Her mother smiled. “Someday we’ll be together again, when all of this is over.”

  Jadzia nodded, afraid to speak.

  “This darkness has to end someday,” her mother said. “I just know it. And our life will return to normal.”

  Jadzia’s sorrow increased with every word her mother uttered. She leaned forward and hugged her mother tight. “I love you so much, Mama. Be strong.”

  Her mother held her daughter’s face in her hands and said: “You should go, my dear. I don’t want to see you get captured. I can’t bear to think of losing you.”

  Jadzia listened to her mother and turned to leave. As she walked toward the door, she stopped and turned around, hoping to see her mother one last time. Like her father the night before, Jadzia’s mother had turned away, unwilling to see her only child walk away, possibly forever.

  Genesis never stirred until they were outside the barracks and behind the truck a short distance from the gas chamber. There she flew out of Jadzia’s pocket and hovered at eye-level. Jadzia was visibly shaken by the experience and just stared at the ground, unable to move. Genesis waited and said nothing.

  “Get down!” she said suddenly. “Someone’s coming.”

  Jadzia dropped to the ground and hid in the shadows of a nearby wall. Genesis dropped out of sight too and flew off just as a guard rounded the rear of the truck. “Is someone there?” he shouted in German. Jadzia remained perfectly still.

  He circled the truck and came within inches of the shadow where Jadzia hid. The lamp from the guard shack shone directly in the guard’s face, so Jadzia was shielded from being discovered. The guard paused a moment, then looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was nearby. Jadzia held her breath as the man approached the wall and began to unzip his pants to urinate. Disgusted, she moved away from him. Then she made a mistake. Creeping from the shadow, her shoe emerged just enough to be caught in the guard’s line of sight. He blocked the light and looked into the shadow and saw Jadzia’s frightened face.

  “Please, sir,” she whispered.

  The guard quickly zipped his pants and smiled. She recoiled against the wall. The guard seized her and covered her mouth, her cries muffled against the flesh of his hand. She struggled and kicked but the guard already had the upper hand. “Dolf!” he shouted.

  Another soldier rushed to the guard’s aid and helped bind her hands. Jadzia cried out for Genesis but she was nowhere to be found. The two men forced her to her knees and drew their side-arms.

  Jadzia turned away from the men, closed her eyes, and prepared herself to die. Then, without a warning, there was silence. She opened her eyes and saw Genesis, quietly hovering over the men. She sat up and saw the petite time-traveler’s handiwork: the German guards were unconscious, with no sign of injury.

  “I’m terribly sorry for leaving you,” Genesis said. “I couldn’t be seen.”

  “Since it appears you came back before any serious damage was done, I suppose I should forgive you.”

  Genesis turned away, ashamed for disappointing Jadzia. “What can I do to help?” she asked.

  “For starters, can we get out of this horrible place forever?” Jadzia answered.

  “Of course,” Genesis said.

  Before Genesis could prepare for departure, more guards rounded the corner. Just as they were about to catch a glimpse of the two women, Genesis rushed to her friend’s side, grabbed hold of her, and disappeared, unsure of where they would end up. The flash of light had hardly dissipated when the guards arrived and saw their unconscious colleagues, now awake and unaware of where they were and what had happened.

  Genesis emerged from the stream with Jadzia in tow, both of them unaware of where they were. They stood in the middle of a city street, with people bustling about everywhere, many of them aghast at the sight of a naked woman in plain sight. Jadzia, suddenly aware of their stares, came to and ran to the edge of the street and jumped behind a garbage container. Genesis hid herself behind Jadzia’s neck where her long hair obscured her. It wasn’t long before Jadzia realized what was different from where they just left: they were in a country she’d never seen before.

  “Where are we, Genesis?” she asked.

  Genesis peeked out over Jadzia’s shoulder. “I have no idea. I told you that I could get you out in a pinch, but I had no time to prepare. We could be on the far side of the world.”

  “I think you’re right.” Jadzia looked up at the signs hanging from the buildings, all of them in bold Japanese writing. “Are we in the same time as when we left?”

  “No, but I don’t know when we are. I had to get you out of there as fast as possible.” Genesis climbed atop the container and flew around the corner cautiously. Jadzia stayed where she was, inches from the garbage, but safe. A moment later, Genesis returned and said not a word. She paced back and forth along the rim of the container with her arms folded and seemingly unconcerned with her detection.

  “What is it?”

  “I sense something wrong,” Genesis answered.

  “Yeah, I know. We don’t know when we are.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  As Genesis finished her sentence, both of the women were instantly blinded. A deafening roar growled down the street as everything that stood fell to the ground. The two women’s eyesight returned as the massive flash of light subsided. Jadzia tried to discern where the sound came from and as she peered around the nearby building, a wall of fire raced down the street, tearing every building down where it stood. Genes
is raced in front of Jadzia as the fire approached and raised her arms high over her head. With a powerful scream, Genesis pushed her hands toward the debris and instantly, a wall of energy surrounded the two women. The wall changed into a bubble and encased them. Massive chunks of wood and fallen structures bounced off of the bubble like they were made of rubber. The fire rushed over the bubble and warmed the interior air. Genesis channeled more of her power into the bubble and instantly, the air cooled to normal. Jadzia remained curled into a ball.

  The fire passed a moment later, but no one standing before the explosion remained. Genesis caught her breath and picked up Jadzia and carried her back behind the container, which had toppled and been crushed, its contents vaporized. Jadzia soon came to and tried to gather her bearings.

  “What just happened?”

  “I think a bomb just went off,” Genesis said.

  “No bomb could have done that!”

  The two women looked up as the sky darkened. Towering over the city was a massive cloud, formed in the shape of a mushroom. “This must be something new,” Genesis suggested. A terrible wind blew down the city street. Jadzia, no longer worried about her nudity, walked onto the street and looked in the direction of the blast. Genesis hovered nearby.

  “How soon can we get out of here?” Jadzia asked.

  “We should leave now.” Genesis picked up a scrap of newspaper that rolled down the street like tumbleweed. She read the date aloud: “August 6th, 1945.” She grabbed Jadzia by the hand and pulled her out of view of the street. In a flash of blue light, the women vanished.

  Chapter 4

  Genesis and Jadzia arrived back in their temporary home in the forest clearing in Canada just moments after the first nuclear bomb detonated over Hiroshima, Japan. Both of them collapsed to the ground, still numb. Dazed and tapped of energy, Genesis ran to the bank of the creek and drank as much water as she could manage. Jadzia followed suit a moment later and splashed water in her face. They both collapsed to the ground and struggled to regain a sense of normalcy. In the span of an hour, Jadzia saw her mother for the last time, was nearly executed by German guards, and watched a city destroyed by fire. Now, all she wanted was to close her eyes and see nothing, to feel nothing.

  Genesis likewise was exhausted from their activities. While Jadzia experienced the brunt of the emotional drainage, Genesis felt her power rapidly fleeing. Her powers were put to their harshest and most demanding tests since she first discovered them. She hoped they would not need to be used anytime soon. She was glad she chose this particular clearing in the woods, and so far from civilization; no one would find them here; no roads led there and the brush and forest were too dense to penetrate. Genesis knew she could relax and renew her strength.

  The moon rose and the two women curled into balls on the grass and slept soundly. Neither of them said a word to each other since they arrived. During the night, Genesis awoke from a chill in the air. Her strength had returned remarkably fast. She warmed the ground with her hands, to which Jadzia rolled over in the direction of the heat and fell into a deeper sleep. Genesis lied on her back and watched Jadzia deep in sleep. She was the only human she had ever revealed herself to, with no family to protect her, completely vulnerable and naked, and with only Genesis to rely on. As she dozed off to sleep, she wished in the deepest part of her heart that her own true path might be revealed to her, that her own true potential be realized.

  As the sun raised, its beams struggling to reach deep inside the forest and gently kiss the skin of the two women asleep on the dew-soaked grass, a brisk wind rustled the thin branches of the forest’s thickets. More and more harmless creatures rose to greet the day and the song of birds returned to the forest; the squirrels scurried to and fro, frolicking in the brook. Genesis and Jadzia awoke at the same time, the stiff wind rushed along their bare backs as the sun’s light warmed their faces. As they sat up and looked about, the cold and gray forest was displaced overnight by the sudden appearance of small green buds darted along the trees’ branches. Spring had arrived.

  Genesis flew into the air at great speed; the dew wicked from her skin by the friction. Once she passed the tree-line, she picked up a powerful burst of speed. A sonic boom was left in her wake as she sailed across the atmosphere. Back on the ground, Jadzia remained on the grass, rolling over into the warm grass in full view of the sun. As she bathed herself in its warmth, she raised her arms high above her head and yawned. A few minutes later, Genesis returned, and at full strength again.

  “I hesitate to say ‘good morning,’” she said, “but I’m glad yesterday is over.”

  Jadzia arose, stretched and yawned, and quickly sought out the fallen tree behind a patch of bushes. “I’m glad too,” she called out from her makeshift lavatory. “Promise me I never have to see another person die.”

  “Do you see now why I’m opposed to killing anything?” Genesis asked rhetorically.

  Jadzia emerged from the bushes and said: “Yes, but that poses a bit of a problem.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Who’s going to make our breakfast?”

  Genesis laughed heartily. “I suppose this means I’ll need to find some more vegetables.” She disappeared into the woods and scoured the ground for something to eat.

  Jadzia slowly stepped into the creek. The water was still cold, but Jadzia didn’t care. She sat on the bank and dangled her feet in the creek and then slid her body under the water when she realized it was just deep enough to cover her body. She floated atop the icy water for as long as she could tolerate before climbing onto the warm grass where she dried off in the sun.

  “So what next?” Genesis asked as she entered the clearing with a trove of mushrooms and herbs in tow. She couldn’t carry much in her hands, but she gathered the vegetables into a ball and pushed it through the air as though its own gravity held it together. When she reached the banks of the creek, she set the ball on the ground and separated the food.

  Jadzia yawned again and stretched. “Can I just stay here forever?”

  “You can. You’re far from the war. There’s no one around.”

  “I’d sure love to,” she said. “But the feeling I had last night when I went to sleep hasn’t gone away.”

  “What feeling is that?” Genesis asked.

  “I know you said your power needs to be used responsibly, and I agree. In fact, I’m glad the power you possess is in the hands of someone so wise and considerate – even if you do brag too much.” Genesis frowned.

  Shaking off her barb, Genesis sat beside her on a boulder. “Tell me truthfully,” she said, “if you could do anything with the power I have, what would you do?”

  Jadzia sat up and mused aloud: “I know saving my parents would be a selfish act, but I must admit, I’d still save them if I could. On a larger scale, I’d do anything I could to stop that bomb from going off. I’d probably prevent the whole war.”

  Genesis didn’t say a word in reply for several minutes. She merely acknowledged the words of her friend and nodded as she weighed their larger implications. “I have to be honest with you,” she said finally. “When I flew off earlier this morning, I made a special trip into the future. I had a few questions of my own. I wanted to learn more of the bomb, who made it and why. It wasn’t pleasant. I travelled as far into the future as I could and the fear of that thing still dominates humanity. The terror of it has never gone away. It ended the war, however, but the Americans had to drop a second one to do it. A new war simply replaced the one that just ended.”

  Jadzia’s hopes of life returning to normal diminished. “No matter what happens I want you to know that I am eternally grateful for giving me hope, however short-lived it may have been. And I saw my parents before they died. I can’t thank you enough.”

  “You’re very welcome,” she said.

  Jadzia began to fidget with a clump of grass and threw pieces of it into the water as she said: “Have you ever considered doing what I suggested? Preventing the war?”


  “No I never have,” Genesis said, “until yesterday. I know what I said about using my powers responsibly, but after learning how many people died from that one horrible thing, the responsible thing is to prevent it.”

  “What should we do?” Jadzia asked.

  Genesis leapt off the rock and began hovering back and forth across the clearing as though pacing. “Preventing something as complex as a world war isn’t going to be easy. I don’t even know if it can be done.”

  “Why not?”

  “A war isn’t started by just one event or person; it’s a composite of grudges, disagreements, even old wars left unsettled that set the stage for the next one.”

  “Then we need to find out how and where the war started.”

  Genesis shrugged her shoulders and snorted. “Hah!” she said. “That could take ages.” The she said: “I have it! I’ll be right back.” She disappeared suddenly, and just as quickly, returned out of breath.