God is in the Rain

by Bruce Burk

  “If you take away their freedom of thought, no laws are necessary. The need for society to constantly adjust itself in a reactionary propensity is removed. John became angry. He slashed the bookshelves with his matter sword. Suddenly he was in an old police station. Each desk was empty. Not a soul was there. A box of badges lay on a desolate floor. There were no guns. There was no need. “If you take away the freedom of thought, no police are necessary. The Universal Database becomes the police,” Aiden said. John slashed through the walls of the police station. Then he found himself in an old capital building sitting in the seat of the speaker of the House of Representatives. John stood up. The seats were empty. He picked up the gavel in front of him and looked at it: a symbol of government by the people. He slashed through the seats in front of him. Suddenly, he was in an office shaped like an oval. There was a large desk with a pen. He went and sat in the seat and tried to sign a paper. There was no ink in the pen. “If you take away the freedom of thought, there is no need for government. The Universal Database becomes the government. It rules the people directly,” Aiden said. John fell through the floor and found himself in a military command room. It was empty. “If you take away the freedom of thought, no military is necessary. War is a forgotten,” Aiden added.

  “You seek to create absolute tyranny! It will never happen! Face me Aiden you coward! End this charade!” John commanded. He slashed through the walls of the office and suddenly found himself in the middle of a street, alone. “Where are you Aiden?!” John asked. “When you take away freedom of thought, humanity becomes a well-organized machine,” Aiden said. Suddenly, the daily midday trumpet sounded. Everyone walked outside in single file lines. John stood at the side of people as they rushed forward in their day. He waved his hand in front of their red glowing eyes. Yet, there was no reaction. They were like human zombies. “Wake up!” John shouted pushing a man over. “Bob?” John said. The people picked Bob up and placed him back on his way.

  Then, suddenly, John fell through the floor and into the chair of an elementary school. He saw that the schools were empty. “No education is required when the Universal Database uploads all the information they need straight into their brains,” Aiden said. He looked outside and saw that there was no money. The people walked into town centers and took only what they needed. “There is no need for money when both demand and supply are controlled by the Universal Database. Everyone is told what to eat, where to go, and who to be with. An artificial instrument of value is not needed,” Aiden said. All of humanity marched in a well-organized perfectly secure society. There was peace. There was order. “Look at what a society without freedom could create!” Aiden added. “This is evil! It will never happen!” John said. His thoughts rushed through the natural laws. The tree of natural law reached out its branches and pulled his left arm. The red-eyed mind slaves pulled him from the right arm.

  “Join us, Shepard! The Universal Database is wonderful! We live in a beautiful palace on the beach! It’s so much fun!” said the red-eyed mind slaves. They were standing in a plain white prison cell where they lived. “They lie to you! It’s all an illusion,” Johns said to them. Then, the tree moved its branch forward, displaying the necessary human rights. “Come with us! The food is great,” they said. Their burgers and salads morphed into tubes running into their veins from the wall. “It’s not real! You’re a slave! Let me go!” John yelled. “It’s like heaven here. We can fly!” they said. “Come Shepard! Come with us! We will reengineer the material structure of the universe so that everywhere is heaven! Then, the tree and the mind slaves lost control of John’s arm and he continued to fall through the floor. He caught himself on a metal platform. The walls had finally returned to their normal state. John swung his left leg over the top and pulled himself up, laying on the metal floor and breathing heavily.

  CHAPTER 33 - PROVIDENCE

  John walked into a massive circular dome. Inside of the globe shape were various platforms and walkways with different kinds of holo-screens and databases. It was so massive, the floor seemed to fade into nothingness. He was in an endless set of databases. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Aiden standing at the opposite side of the walkway. “Aiden,” John said. “Hello … brother,” he replied. “Yes, I shared your vision. It seems we share some connection after all,” he added. “It’s all over! Eidolon is dead! The people have rebelled against you! You must surrender! The tyrannical universe you desire to create is a false dream! We must restore the balance of power on the planet,” John said.

  “Everything was going fine until you tainted them with your foolish rhetoric! You see, the weak masses need a strong leader who will tell them what to do. Deep down, they long to be controlled. You would seek to take that away from them!” “This is the end for you my brother,” John said, extending his matter sword towards the ground in his right hand. “Hahaha! It is only the beginning!” Aiden said with an evil look, revealing his matter sword. “After I kill you, I will send the mind drones into the brains of all of mankind. Everyone will bow to my will! They shall declare me as their God and I rule forever! The Universal Database will make me immortal. First the Earth … then the Universe,” Aiden said. “Aiden, you don’t have to do this! I know what happened to us at birth! It doesn’t have to end this way!” John replied. “Fool! It ends the way I say it ends,” Aiden said as he ran towards John.

  They clashed matter swords together. Aiden’s sword was a bright purple color. The black and white kings swirled around together on the chessboard in Atlantis. Aiden looked John in the eyes angrily and quickly slashed from the side. John quickly jumped out of the way. Their swords clashed on the left, then on the right. John blocked Aiden’s cut from the right and kicked him in the stomach, sending him back. But it only seemed to send him back even angrier. John spun around slashing at Aiden’s leg, but it was blocked. Aiden leaped over John and their swords clashed in midair. Aiden went for the killing strike but John leaped onto a nearby platform. Aiden jumped towards him. Then, John knocked Aiden’s sword onto the ground. But Aiden punched John in the face and John dropped his sword as well. Aiden, who also had wrist mounted blasters, shot towards John. John somersaulted back to his sword, absorbing the last few shots and sending them straight back to Aiden. Aiden slid across the floor picking up his sword. The two looked at each other from across the platform.

  “You seek a world of chaos, John. I will not let you give the people the power to destroy themselves,” Aiden said. “If you hate to create absolute tyranny, than what’s the point of living? The people long to be free. They can be saved! They can be taught not to destroy themselves!” John replied. “You would roll the dice with the Earth! How foolish of you to play games with the planet!” Aiden replied. John charged Aiden again. Their swords clashed by John’s shoulder then by his leg. Aiden shrieked in evil laughter smashing forcefully into John’s matter sword. John retreated to another platform and Aiden followed soon after. “You can’t run anymore,” Aiden said.

  Aiden fired a laser blast towards John. John slashed the red laser blast, it registered within his matter sword and he sent it flying back at Aiden. Aiden too, caught the blast and so fired it back at his enemy. This repeated several more times. They played catch with lasers, hoping the other would slip up. John fired a second blast towards Aiden and now they were sending two lasers back and forth. This continued for a third and fourth laser blast. Aiden waited for the perfect timing and sent four shots towards John. However, John sensed this before it happened and leaped onto a floating platform nearby. “Goodbye Shepard,” Aiden said reaching for his wrist. The platform fell out from underneath John. But he leaped forward and grabbed onto a different steal platform. Aiden shot laser blasts at him while he was hanging and John sent them back with one hand. John leaped back onto the platform and the two faced each other again. Their swords clashed. The two chess pieces in Atlantis were floating and the chessboard seemed to shake. Aiden gave an evil look and then slashed through the metal textur
e of the platform they stood on. It fell from beneath them. John held onto it, grabbing onto some nearby pipes. The walls and the pipes seem to shape shift back into just a wall. John cut deep into the wall to stop himself from falling and leaped onto another platform.

  “Very good brother,” Aiden said launching himself to clash with John’s sword again. John reached out with one hand and blasted past Aiden’s head, but Aiden kicked John in the stomach. The ground suddenly began to shape shift! John and Aiden found themselves on the judge’s bench of the old Supreme Court. John blasted towards Aiden, narrowly missing him. “Hahaha!” Aiden threw his matter sword towards John, missing him. His sword flew into a giant set of the scales of justice, breaking them and shattering them to the floor. The ground shifted again. John and Aiden now stood on the middle of the bench between the seats of the representatives of Congress on the left and the right. John swung his sword high up into the air and Aiden knocked it down. John spun around, swinging the sword behind his back and clashing against Aiden’s sword. Aiden continued his evil laugh. The walls around them continued to morph. Suddenly, they found themselves standing on the altar of a large church. They swung their swords at each other. “You want the world to be free to choose false ideologies … to be free to live their lives in a lie!” Aiden shouted. “They should decide who they believe God is!” John responded. “I am God!” Aiden said blasting Aiden in the leg. He fell onto his back on the altar. Aiden swung his sword high up into the air, jamming it towards John’s face. The ground shifted again. John found himself back in the circular dome. He looked around and could not find Aiden. Suddenly, he came flying at him from the ceiling, hitting the platform and sending shockwaves across it. Aiden fired several blasts at John. However, John deflected them away and the blasts hit the machine on the wall generating the artificial gravity within the station. Suddenly, John leaped towards Aiden and floated off into the dome. Aiden grabbed a hold the platform. The both scattered to find the emergency, anti-gravity belts behind glass containers. They each put on the belts and leaped onto a nearby platform.

  “You desire a world where people are free to murder, rape, or start a nuclear war. You would let them destroy the world,” Aiden. “There is good in people! They are compassionate, not prone to violence. You can’t destroy everyone’s freedom for the actions of the morally weakest of us,” John responded. “Yes I can. Watch me,” Aiden replied. He held his hand to his ear, commanding the Universal Database, “Send the mind drones!” The holo-screens on the wall started a countdown. “Nooo!” John shouted.

  They leaped into high into the air, feeling the force of gravity by only a third of what is felt on earth. The smashed their swords together in mid-air. Aiden started to laugh, throwing his matter swords straight for John’s head. But John knocked it away. “Hahaha,” Aiden said, growing a new matter sword out of thin air. “I control fabric of the universe!” Aiden said, throwing another sword at John. He jumped forward, hanging onto a nearby platform for dear life. “Mind Drones releasing in 3, 2, 1,” the database said.

  Suddenly, the doors of the space station opened and billions of mind drones flew towards earth. This processes was repeated at thousands of other satellites across the atmosphere that had been strategically placed for this event. The population of the world stood outside, still revolting in the streets. John leaped back onto his platform. “You’re too late, Shepard! Your sheep shall become slaves,” Aiden said. John clashed swords with Aiden. Aiden kicked John onto a platform below. He basted John in the shoulder. “Ahhhh!” John said as he leaped high into the air spinning in circles smashing into Aiden’s sword. He swirled his blade in a circle leaping into the air and their swords clashed again. The two danced in fury of clashing matter and light. Then, they simultaneously spun their swords in a magnificent array of movement. John rushed to grab Aiden’s wrists. Each of their swords pointed high into the air. Aiden jumped, sending them high up into the air. John kicked Aiden in the stomach and they each flew to opposite sides of the grey platform. Then, they each leaped high into the air; gravity only barely held onto them. Aiden cut a hole in Gavin’s robe, laughing as he did. Their swords looked like quick moving beams of light swirling in circles. They clashed their swords again. Aiden looked deep into John’s eyes. The reds of his eyes looked of pure evil. He knocked John in the head, spun around and stabbed John through the shoulder. “Ahhhh!” John cried in pain, falling to the ground.

  “Hahaha, only minutes now before the enslavement of the human race. You have failed your God, you failed your father, and you failed humanity. Now … you will die,” Aiden said. Aiden grabbed hold of John’s neck, “I will become God as soon as the light leaves your soul!” John’s world slowed down. He could feel the tight grip Aiden had around his neck. His eyes barely opened to see the holo-screens show the innocent people standing in the streets. The mind drones entered Earth’s atmosphere: thousands of tiny drones. There were enough of them to block out the sun. The dark clouds around the Earth enlarged themselves. The sunlight on the Earth became nearly completely blocked out because of the clouds combining with the mind drones. John saw visions of his mother. She was with his grandfather and then his father walked up behind them and put their arms around him. “We believe in you John,” they said. The clouds swirled even more around earth. John saw himself become one with the cosmos. He saw the light. There was the tree. He reached out for it. He was so happy he would finally know the true God. “God?” John said as he saw the entire cosmos before him. He could see flashes of everything in his life. He could see the natural law and the fabric of the universe in a beautiful painting. Only nothing was separated. All the colors became one. There were no lines, only truth. The lines between love, beauty, justice, and virtue disappeared. Then, a voice spoke out to him.

  “Iam was always there for you … all you had to do was reach out,” the voice said. Then, the white light blurred and John’s eyes opened. He had reached out his hand. In it was a tiny mind drone. With his last breath, John shoved the mind drone into Aiden’s ear. Suddenly, Aiden let go of him. He stumbled back and grabbed his head in pain. The red in his eyes increased in vividness. “Ahhhhh,” he screamed. “YES! I CAN SEE EVERYTHING! I KNOW EVERYTHING! I AM GOD!” Aiden’s said as his eyes became even redder. “YES!!! BOW BEFORE ME!!!! I AM THE UNIVERSAL DATABASE. I AM THE ALPHA AND OMEGA!!!! Aiden shook violently. “YESS!!!! YESS!!!! HAHAHAHAHHAA!!!!! Aiden’s eyes turned to bright red flame. “I AM TRUTH ITSELF!!!!” The walls seemed to suck into him. Streams of information funneling through him and from him. He grabbed his head in pain and moaning. “AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” Aiden screamed as his head exploded. The red lights of his eyes faded. His body became limp and he fell to the ground. From his pocket, a small arrowhead fell onto the ground in front of him.

  John quickly got up and ran to the top of the space station. And there it was: the Universal Database. The true tyrant. His true enemy. The mind drones flew down through the top of the black clouds. Mothers held their children in fear. Humanity stood helpless. The database was a pyramid shape, floating in the air. John rushed towards it. Inside of it was an all seeing eye: all of human knowledge, all of human data stored in one place. However, now, the information inside of it had been so manipulated and tainted that it had become a tool of evil. To him, it was beyond saving. John searched deep inside of him. He knew what he had to do. “The Universal Database has become an instrument of power, for tyrants to manipulate the minds of men. Its very existence threatens the natural laws and the balance of the planet.” The mind drones pierced the bottoms of the black clouds. The people saw them. They stared slavery straight in the face. Then, John Shepard solemnly said, “Without Freedom, there is only darkness.” John Shepard extended his weapon behind him, swirled it around and with all his all his might he ran his sword through the Universal Database. It cracked through the middle and started to short circuit. All the computers around it also seemed to shut down violently.

  The walls around him began to shake. The lig
hts began to go out and shutter. Suddenly, the billions of mind drones exploded in firework-like display in the sky. The remaining OSS officer’s eyes returned to their normal color. One OSS officer, who had been attacking his daughter, hugged her in joy for the first time. Bob looked down at his tablet. It shut off. Everyone’s electronic devices shut off. The ground fell out from underneath John. He fell back down into the deeper parts of the space station. Information all around him fell into the database like a black hole. He got onto a platform and took off running. It began to fall out behind him. He raced across it towards his ship. The airlock began to close. John barely kept his footing. With all his might he leaped for the airlock. But it was too high. He reached out with all his might. He opened his hand. Suddenly, Fysi grabbed John’s hand. “Quickly, we must leave this dreadful place,” Fysi said as he pulled John from the crumbling space station. The ship took off and headed back towards Earth. The space station fell into itself in a miraculous display of light. Suddenly, it imploded into itself and then exploded. The black clouds disappeared from the skies. The citizens saw a pure beautiful blue sky again.

  The barriers that held the people away from nature were removed. The people rejoiced in the streets. John and the others reunited at the capitol building. There was music. There was dancing. One State flags were burned and all their statues were removed. John saw Gavin. “There he is!” Gavin said, hugging John tightly. “I knew you’d pull it off.” Kaslov greeted John as well, “Good friends are hard to come by. But you … you’re alright comrade.” Aiyana held Fysi who was smiling at everyone. John shook Bob’s hand. “You are the bravest among us Bob. We couldn’t have done it without you,” John said. Clark hugged John as well, “Good to see you in one piece,” he said. “It’s strange … I haven’t been able to log in to a holo-screen for a day now and I just don’t know what to do with myself,” he added. “I can think of some things!” Fysi said. “Rebuilding my house!” Fysi said. Everyone laughed with Joy. Although, John thought Fysi might have been talking about more than just his hut on the island. John saw Sophia. She rushed into his arms. He swept her off her feet and kissed her. Everyone awed. Humanity began a new renaissance that day. They had put down all of the electronic devices and was no longer subject to a constant stream of propaganda and mind numbing information. They spent more time with their families. They went outside. They learned to make art. They spent time in nature. Humanity was closer that day, like a family.