God is in the Rain

by Bruce Burk

  “It truly is a one world government, “John said. He had never been to London but was saddened to see a place of such cultural significance under totalitarian control. Big Ben chimed as usual at twelve o’clock and the citizens raised their hands in salute to the One State. The OSS marched past them. They could see the red in their eyes. “The OSS are now controlled by the Universal Database,” Clark said. “I saw some strange new code implemented recently. They are no longer a force to be bargained with. They have no empathy in them. They are basically the Universal Database in the flesh,” he added. “It’s not like we really showed them any mercy before,” Gavin said.

  “It just means that we’ll have to think of different ways to corrupt them– different ways to poke holes in the power structure,” John said. The rebels boarded the Waterloo high-speed train to Salisbury and sat in one of the private cars away from the rest of the passengers. John watched the green fields of grass and trees rush passed the window. He recalled the death of his father and his overwhelming hatred for Aiden. He could feel the desire to kill him deep in his heart. Gavin was looking at the third branch and certain moral dilemmas entered his thoughts. Clark swiped a head mounted holo-screen off of a sleeping man and began hacking into the database.

  “Now, the average people out there aren’t killing each other and one of the rules on the branch is to not commit murder. So what does that mean? The One State is in line with some of the natural law?” Gavin asked. “I suppose that’s true … but the amount of other laws they have broken vastly outweigh the amount of natural law they happen to align themselves with. They don’t allow people to kill each other because that would be one less mindless slave for the One State, not because they know it is morally wrong according to natural law,” John said. “So you think the motivational premise for why someone does something changes the right and wrong status of the act or omission?” Clark asked. John paused and thought for a moment.

  “No. You’re right. People can still be doing acts that are in line with the natural law, regardless if they know they are or not. It doesn’t lessen the status of whether the act is right or wrong. In other words, you can be compliant with the natural law without knowing about it or intending to submit to it,” John said. “So in a way, the perpetual failure of someone to commit murder is a constant stream of a good moral act,” Clark said. “Yes, I would agree with that. But one can’t simply sit in a room somewhere and just fail to commit acts against the natural law because it imposes duties that must be exercised affirmatively,” John said. “The forth natural law, for example, is to preserve the earth. So failure to do so would be against the natural law,” John said. “It’s a lot different than the dogma of the church: the idea that you are placed into a category of wrongdoer just by virtue of your humanity … what a ridiculous notion,” Sophia said.

  “You see, but that’s just how one set of spiritual points of view interpreted the natural law,” John said. “So the natural law is a set of objective moral standards and the various religions are either in line or not?” Clark asked. “Yes. I would say the natural law is for the most part in line with almost every major set of old religions,” John said. “So what about the average Joe who just goes to work, takes care of his family, and doesn’t really bother anyone else. He just watches the holo-screen and the gladiator fights with not a care of what the One State is doing,” Gavin asked. “I think they aren’t in violation of any natural law by virtue of doing those things. But they may in violation of some of the affirmative duties. For instance, a scientist who has knowledge of a meteor coming to earth has an active duty to assure that it does not damage us,” John said. “An average person seeing someone’s life about to be taken has an active duty to save that person. An average person knowing that people are starving in some part of the world has a duty to preserve the lives and try to save the lives of his fellow man,” John said. He could feel the branches speaking to him. It was almost as if he understood them on a deeper level then just mental thoughts. “The average person has an active duty to assure that his rights and rights of his fellow citizens are preserved,” John said, looking at the second branch. “The very notion that the average person is only responsible for himself and his family is a societal construct, not a natural law. In terms of natural law, we are all one human family; one body. If your arm catches on fire, the rest of the body comes to save it. Is your fellow human any different?” John said.

  “It doesn’t matter what the laws of the establishment say, for they don’t determine what the natural law is. Clearly the legality of something has nothing to do with its moral status,” John said. “What about property? Gavin asked. “The second branch doesn’t mention anything about property. Are we to believe that there is no universal right to property? That sounds like some kind of communism,” Gavin said. John stopped and waited for the answer.

  “I think the natural law should be seen as the moral rules which societies may construct themselves around. There is no specific type of government or economic system that is right or wrong according to natural law, as long as that system upholds the principles of the other branches. So, in terms of property, there have been societies where property does not exist. It does not make that system right or wrong. The theories of government and economics and should be left to the discretion of the society, keeping in mind that the universal rights must be accounted for. Society should determine the scale and scope of the property rights,” John said.

  Gavin’s mind focused more on the things he was taught in the military: duty, honor, love of country, he had been trained to stay loyal to the United States and reject any attempts at betraying it. The psychological walls his training had given him were almost impenetrable. He had joined the military because he believed in the constitution. “Do you think America was in line with the natural law?” he asked John. “I certainly think the constitution was in line with many of the universal human rights. Perhaps one of the other branches may provide further insight into that question.” John said. Clark continued working on the holo-screen he had taken. John opened the Book of Remembering. The pages seemed to be covered in stars and stone. “The fifth natural law is at nature’s temple of the stones under the stars,” John read. “Stonehenge!” Clark said. “This train should take us right to it, if it is still there.”

  Suddenly, they heard a knock on the door. John slightly opened the blinds and saw an OSS officer waiting to come in. “This is the TSA! Open up for identity check and pat down procedures!” the officer commanded. “Why don’t we ever get a break,” Gavin said. “Uh … just a minute,” John said. Gavin hid himself on the side of the door. John grabbed the handle and opened the door. “Hello,” John said. The guard grabbed John’s arm and tried to pull him towards the machine that scanned the veins in his hand to identify who he was. His hand grazed across the machine and read an error message. “Unidentified terrorist!” the guard shouted. Gavin quickly grabbed the guard’s arm and pulled him into the room, bashing his head against the wall and knocking him out. John grabbed the other guard and stabbed through with his matter sword. Sophia took his blaster and other equipment on his belt.

  “Clark … talk to me, are we on One State’s radar?” John asked. “No. The One State has no idea we’re here and their communications have been jammed. Now we just have to deal with any guards that remain,” Clark said. Gavin looked around but none of the OSS were in sight. “Haha. Dumb government pawns. They have no idea we’re here!” Gavin laughed. Suddenly, the rebels heard a large blaster charge as if it was ready to fire. “Duck!! John yelled. The rebels dove to the ground as a barrage of blaster fire flew over their heads, shooting through the rooms from the front of the car. John looked at Gavin with a subtle look of disapproval. “What?!” Gavin yelled. “No idea we’re here huh?” John said. “Listen Shepard, don’t make me put this rebel boot up your …”

  “Boys!” Sophia said, “Whenever you’re done squabbling we have some problems up here,” She said as she shot an OSS
officer. Sophia had incredible aim with a blaster. Several more officers came and began to fire upon them. The room around them started to fall apart. “Quick, open that window,” John said. Gavin lifted upon the window in their room. These high-speed trains travelled up to 200 miles per hour. When the window opened, a large gust of wind entered their room and burst open the windows across from them. “Clark, any chance we can slow this baby down a bit,” Gavin said. Clark quickly tried to find an access point. Luckily, the engineer monitoring the train was wearing his head mounted camera and he was able to get the access ID for the train’s controls. “Got it!” Clark said as the train slowed down to 60 miles per hour. The rebels slowly inched themselves out the window. Gavin first, followed by Clark, then Sophia and John followed at the back. A guard grabbed his arm as he hung from the side of the train. John’s knuckles grazed the face of the guard before he picked him up and threw him from the window onto the grassy floor beneath them. The rebels continued to climb towards the front of the train by moving one hand over the other on the metal rods that dressed the top of the train’s side. Suddenly, several more blasts started coming their way as the OSS fired from the windows in front of them.

  “Quick, get on the roof,” John ordered. Gavin, Clark quickly pulled themselves up to stand on top the train. Gavin reached to help John up but the bar he was holding onto was shot. It detached itself form the train and John hung from it several feet out. “John!” Gavin yelled. The blaster shots flew past John as they came to a tunnel. The OSS laughed as the train quickly came up to the tunnel. “Duck!” Gavin yelled as they hit the surface of the top the train sliding right under the top of the tunnel. Simultaneously, John took his hover board from his belt, dropped from the steel pipe and flew around the structure of the tunnel. The rebels looked around for John but couldn’t see him anywhere. John flew and grabbed ahold of the back of the train. Several OSS officers crawled onto the roof and started blasting towards the rebels. Gavin took out his matter sword and returned several of the shots towards them. However, the meandering motion of the train made it difficult for him to connect any of his shots. Clark and Sophia Jumped down through glass into the car below. An OSS officer grabbed Gavin’s ankle and his matter sword flew behind him onto the roof of the train. He punched Gavin in the face and he flew down onto the roof. The guard took a knife out and stabbed it right towards Gavin’s face. Gavin caught his arm, staring at the tip of the knife as it inched towards him. Meanwhile, John climbed up the side of the right side of the train while floating on his hover board. Clark and Sophia picked themselves up off the glassy floor of the car. They found themselves in a car with strange blankets covering electronic equipment. Clark removed some of the blankets and saw what seemed to be satellite pieces and blueprints. “What is it?” Sophia asked. “It looks like some sort of satellite device that’s somehow linked to the Universal Database,” Clark said. Suddenly, the train picked up speed again, increasing to 200 miles per hour. John was pushed forcefully by the wind as he held on for dear life. Clark tried to slow down the train again as the OSS started firing upon him and Sophia. John held on with only one hand as his skin was stretching from his body. Suddenly the train came to a screeching halt. John shot like a bat out of ell towards the front of the train.

  “Oops,” Clark said, “Come on, come on,” he said as he waited for the engineer to turn on his headset again. Finally, the engineer put down his cup of coffee and turned on his headset. Clark turned the train on again heading at a normal speed and John caught a hold of the very front of the train. “Terrorist scum!” the OSS officer said as he pushed the knife towards Gavin’s eye. He could see the red of his eyes while the struggled. Gavin grabbed ahold of the knife and flipped it around point it as his face. The guard kicked the knife away and began to choke Gavin as he laid on his back. “I shall cleanse you from the earth you terrorist little snake,” the officer said. “I think you forgot, this snake bites,” Gavin said as he kicked the guard down. Clark threw Gavin his matter sword and Gavin threw it right through the guard’s chest. He fell limp onto the roof’s surface. “Don’t tread on me!” Gavin yelled. John blasted the remaining guards still attacking the others. Finally, the rebels had rid the train of hostiles and the large steel transport came to a screeching stop at Salisbury Station.

  “Let’s put on their clothes so we don’t have to worry about sneaking around,” John said. The rebels put on the uniforms of the OSS over their robes. They were much alike to Nazi uniforms from back two world wars ago: black pants and shirt with a One State flag wrapped around their left arm with a blaster on their side, a head mounted camera, and small energy cell on their belt. The fabric of the stomach and right elbow were always more worn then the rest, which spoke to the quantity of saluting and bowing the One State pawns were accustomed to. Night had fallen, and the rebels left the station, walking around in the shadows in plain sight. The rebels walked passed the large Heel Stone near the path to Stone Hedge.

  “I wonder what this stone is doing here all by itself,” Gavin said. The rebels finally came to the location of Stonehenge. It had been draped over by the authorities and was inaccessible to the common person. They removed the covers from the magnificent stone structures. They looked up to see a beautiful bouquet of stars. John was feeling his connection to them grow stronger. The things his father had said to him about the stars stood still in his heart. He hoped that one of those stars was heaven and that his father was there, waiting for him. The stars seem to grow brighter in their location and they observed the strange pattern of circles around the stone structures.

  “I wonder why the One State didn’t just destroy this,” Sophia said. “It’s clearly symbolic of some sort of spiritual or significant event,” she added. “It must be significant to them as well,” John said. He grazed his hands across the dense texture of the bluestones. It was as if he could feel thousands of years of history in the microscopic makeup of the stone.

  “It seems like this was never finished– like there are stones missing,” John said. The Stonehenge structure had a horseshoe shape with five sets of pillars. On each set of pillars, there were two stones with another stone sitting horizontally on top of them. Then, there was a circular ring around the give groups of standing stones. John walked up into the very middle of the five stone pillars. The stones towered above his head. He caught a particular group of stars out of the corner of his eye that appeared as he looked through one set of the standing pillars. He then looked through another special set of stars through the other. “I think I know what this is,” John said. “It’s an ancient astrological observatory.” The rebels all gathered in the center of monument. “See these five pillars … I think each one was an ancient window for a person to observe a particular astrological event.” John opened the Book of Remembering and turned through some of the pages. “Look! This set of pillars would have been able to observe the summer solstice. This set would have observed the moonset of the winter solstice moonset,” he said then he walked to where the center pillars would have been. “Here you could view the sunset of the winter solstice and if you turned around you would have seen the sunrise of the summer solstice. On the other side, you would have seen the summer solstice moonrise and the winter solstice sunrise,” John said.

  “I think this structure is much older than most people believe,” he said as he searched through the Book of Remembering, “I think it was built by the tribe of Iam a very long time ago.” “Where’s the branch?” Sophia asked. “The book says that we have to ask nature for it.” “This is just getting too weird for me,” Gavin said. “All this talk about aliens and space, everything, it’s just too much. And now we’re asking nature for things as if it’s some sort of person,” Gavin added sarcastically. “You have to believe there is something more at work here Gavin. Something is going on that transcends our understanding. We just need to do whatever we can to find the rest of the branches and we’ll sort everything out later,” John said.

  “Alright then,
you ask nature for the branch,” Gavin said. John knelt down by where the middle pillar would have been. “Ask nature for the branch using the language of souls,” John read. “Everyone get on your knees and close your eyes,” John said. Gavin reluctantly sat on the ground. “Tell Santa Clause I want a fire truck while you’re there too,” Gavin said. “Shh,” the others said to him. John closed his eyes and searched deep within him. He felt the oneness of the universe around him. He felt his presence within the natural framework of nature and the earth. He turned off his thoughts and became conscious – he allowed his soul to speak to the universe itself. “Iam John Shepard. I request the fifth branch of natural law,” John said in soul speak. The other could understand him but he was speaking in a strange mysterious language, unrecognizable to the mind. And then there was silence. They waited for thirty seconds. The rest of the rebel’s eyes cracked open as if nothing was going to happen. Faith is still faith even if interrupted by tiny impulses of disbelief. Suddenly, the Stonehenge started to shake. A light opened up from the heavens and showed on the observatory. It was a beautiful blue beam covering the monument in the darkness. Three strange figures emerged from the blue light. John’s eyes were still closed, but he could see clearer then he’d ever seen before. The world transformed around him into a grid of stars and space. He walked towards the three figures illuminated up ahead.

  “Hello! My name is John Shepard. I need the fifth branch. I’ve asked for it just like you wanted,” he said to them. But he did not say that in words. He said it in soul speak. “John! John! Wake up!” The others shouted to him. The finally came to and looked around him. The light was gone and a small hole had opened on one of the stone pillars. “Where’d they go?” John asked. “Who’s they? You just sat down started mumbling and then that hole in the rock fell out,” Gavin said. John rushed to his feet and ran to the hole in the rock. He pulled several stones out of the way and reached far into the stone. “Yes!” He exclaimed as he pulled the fifth branch from the stone. “Well I’ll be damned,” Gavin said. When he saw that branch, his doubts of the supernatural left him. He had always hated the idea of believing in God, but he felt as though he simply just didn’t understand what was going on, or that no one could. Soul speak, the existence of the branches, the tribe of Iam, the coincidences and everything they had been doing pushed him off the cliff of skepticism and he was ready to embrace the mysteries of the universe. Clark took the newly found branch and translated it to display on the stone pillars in front of them: