The Gods and the Builders

by Brandon Hale

  Everyone stared at her in silence.

  The Shadow Over the Planet

  “How are we going to do this?” Jerry asked as he stepped into the living room.

  “I don’t know,” Lauren said. “Should we just stay here, and keep each other company until it happens? Or should we go outside and watch it come?”

  “It’s very dark out there,” Jerry said. His voice was quiet and gentle. His usual sarcastic tone had completely vanished. “I’d say we have minutes, Lauren.”

  Lauren looked at him and tried to speak, but couldn’t.

  “We don’t have to do anything,” Jerry said. “Let’s just sit on the couch, close our eyes, and think about better days.”

  Lauren reached up and wiped the tears from her cheek. “I miss Arthur,” she whispered, trying to catch her breath.

  “I didn’t expect that,” Jerry said.

  “Me either,” Lauren said, chuckling through the tears. “But he was my husband for a long time. And I miss him.”

  Jerry walked across the room and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her to close to him. “Surprisingly,” he whispered, “I could use a shot of Alice’s strength about right now.”

  Lauren laid her head on his shoulder and looked at the empty house. “We should have gone with them, Jerry,” she whispered. “We should have gone.”

  “Yeah,” Jerry said, looking at the living room window and the darkness beyond it. “But we didn’t.”

  “It was stupid,” Lauren said. “I don’t even remember why I stayed now. All I can think about is how all of us could have been happy together on our new home. What were we thinking?”

  “Stop it,” Jerry said, pushing her back far enough to be able to look into her eyes. “I won’t let it end like this. We made a pact last night that we wouldn’t do this. We’re going to face this thing with dignity. We could have gone but we didn’t. And I’m not going to stand here and cry until the end comes.”

  “You’re right,” Lauren said, taking a deep breath. “I know you’re right. Sorry about that. Moment of weakness. So what do you… Jerry, are you even listening to me?”

  Jerry wasn’t looking at Lauren. He was looking behind her. “I saw a light pass by,” he said. “From the sky.”

  “What?”

  Jerry walked to the door. “I saw a God damn light fly by. Out there.” He stepped outside.

  “What do you mean?” Lauren said as she followed him. “Like one of the ship’s lights?”

  Jerry walked onto the street and looked up. “Holy fuck,” he said.

  Lauren ran outside. “Jerry, what’s--” she looked up and fell silent.

  The sky was completely obscured by flying pyramids.

  “My God,” Lauren said. “How many are there?”

  “Millions,” Jerry said. “Maybe billions.”

  The ships weren’t all side by side. The closest layer flew over the surface, shining lights on the ground. Above them was another layer of ships, and above that was another. The ships layered themselves into the atmosphere, too many to count. There were more ships in the sky than stars on a clear night. Other than an occasion pocket of sunlight streaming through, the ships completely obscured the sun.

  “What is going on?” Lauren said. “Are they bringing people back? Did they stop the asteroid?”

  “I don’t know,” Jerry said. “But I think we’d better get inside.”

  “Look,” Lauren whispered.

  They saw a ship hovering over the town in the general direction of the grocery store. A white light beamed from the ship down onto the ground. They couldn’t see exactly where because the houses blocked their view. Two tiny black figures were inside the light, floating toward the ship.

  “What the hell,” Jerry said.

  “I think you’re right,” Lauren said. “We need to get inside.”

  “What was that floating up from the ground?” Jerry said.

  “I think it was Mr. and Mrs. Salyers,” Lauren said. “Come on Jerry. Inside.”

  They ran into the house and shut the door behind them. “Turn off the lights,” Lauren said.

  They turned off every light in the house and met again in the living room. “Do you have a basement?” Jerry asked.

  Lauren nodded. “It’s small and it just has a dirt floor, but yeah. Let’s go. The entrance is outside, beside the back porch. We have to move fast.”

  As they left the living room, Lauren grabbed the portable radio.

  “Is it bigger?” Roger asked, looking at the giant rock in the sky. “I think it’s bigger.”

  “It’s not bigger,” Arthur said. “Even if it’s moving toward us incredibly fast, you wouldn’t be able to tell a difference yet.”

  “Well, time’s different here,” Roger said.

  “No, it’s not,” Arthur said. He looked at his watch. “Time was different on the ship. During the journey. Here, my watch is moving normally again.”

  “I can’t believe this shit,” Jim said. He looked at his son. “You said the asteroid was coming to Earth. That’s what you said, son.”

  “Huh uh,” Tim said. “I did not!”

  “Timothy,” Jim said, “you told the doctor that rocks were going to destroy the Earth.”

  “I did not!” Tim said again. “I said they were going to break the world! They said we have to leave because they’re going to break the world. So I told you what they said.”

  “He’s right,” Arthur said. “I watched that tape a hundred times, sir. He never mentioned Earth. None of the children did. We all just assumed.”

  “That’s absurd,” Jim said. “Those bastards tricked us! And we fell right into their goddamn trap!”

  “Respectfully,” Alice said, “it’s not like that.” She looked at Arthur. “Sentience, Art.”

  “Holy hell,” Arthur said, rubbing his forehead.

  “What are you people talking about?” Jim said. “And I don’t think this is something you can tell me about later!”

  “They didn’t deceive us, exactly,” Alice said. “They couldn’t communicate with us enough to deceive us. They just needed to get enough information to us to get us to leave.”

  “By lying,” Jim said. “Bastards.”

  “No, sir,” Alice said. “It’s like talking to a dog. If a dog is standing in the street, are you going to explain the dangers it poses to the cars and to itself? Or are you just going to whistle and call for it to come to you. That’s all they did with us. They blew a dog whistle.”

  “What she’s trying to say, sir,” Arthur added, “is that they don’t see us as an intelligent life form. So they didn’t think they were doing anything wrong by transplanting us.”

  “Why the hell did they build these cities?” Jim said. “Why the hell did they…” his gaze fell on the exiting ships. “Son of a bitch.”

  Arthur nodded. “This is their home,” he said. “They’re moving.”

  “To Earth,” Hope said. “Oh my God.”

  “We have to stop them!” Linda said. “We have to make them understand that we’re not just dumb animals!”

  “But we are,” Arthur said. “We are just dumb animals.”

  “We’re not! They can’t do this to us!” Jim yelled. “It’s evil.”

  “It’s not evil, sir,” Arthur said. “And we would do the same thing.”

  “No,” Jim said. “We wouldn’t.”

  “We do it all the time,” Alice said. “If we need room for a shopping mall, we kill every ounce of life in that area. And we put up the shopping mall.”

  “That’s different,” Jim said. “That’s mostly trees.”

  “Trees are life, Jim,” Alice said. “And so are all the bugs and lizards and snakes and lions and tigers and bears.”

  “Oh, my,” Linda said. “This is terrible.”

  “So we deserve this,” Jim said. “We deserved what happened.”

  “I don’t think so,” Alice said. “And I think we have to stop them. But we can’t do that if we consider
them our enemy.”

  “Think of it like this,” Arthur said. “If we discovered that Earth’s atmosphere was toxic and was going to kill us all, we would look for ways to escape that. Using your metaphor about bees, what if we discovered that a bee hive was the one thing on Earth that could keep out those fumes. And what if we also discovered a way to shrink ourselves down until we were small enough to move into those bee hives. We wouldn‘t just say, ’Oh well, the bees built those hives. They belong to them. I guess all of humanity will have to die.’ Hell no, sir. We’d clear those hives of every living bee, and we’d move in. You know we‘d do that.”

  Jim nodded. “So we’re screwed, and we can’t even hate the people that did it, because we‘re just as bad.”

  “But,” Alice added, “what if, while we were removing the bees, they flew onto a computer keyboard and typed, ‘Please don’t do this to us. We hurt, just like you.’ If you were president, would you still exterminate them?”

  “No,” Jim said. “You might not believe that, but no. I wouldn’t. I couldn’t kill something that was self-aware.”

  “Exactly!” Alice said. “We just have to find a way to show them that we’re self-aware. But if we go to them with hate, they won‘t listen. We must let go of that, or we have no chance.”

  “So,” Arthur said, “how do we do that? How do we show them?”

  “For starters,” Alice said, “we have to get off this damn pyramid!”

  “The one thing I don’t get,” Roger said, “is why they didn’t just kill us back on Earth. Wouldn’t that have been easier?”

  “Going back to the bee metaphor,” Arthur said, “we could very easily just poison every hive until it killed the bees. But we wouldn’t do that, because it would make it impossible for us to move in.”

  “It was all about the real estate,” Jim said. “I’ll be damned. We built them a whole goddamn world, and now they just have to go back and move in.”

  “We are builders,” Alice said.

  “Focus, people,” Arthur said. “How the hell are we going to reach them? And when we reach them, how the hell are we going to show them that we are self aware?”

  “I have my doubts that we are,” Alice said.

  “Okay,” Arthur said. “How the hell are we going to trick them into believing we’re self aware?”

  Jim looked over the edge of the roof. “It’s about twenty feet or so to the next level,” he said. “Surely we can find a way to make it that far.”

  “Sir,” the man beside him said, “you might survive the jump, but you’ll break something. I’m sure of it. And there’s no way you could do that on every level, all the way to the ground.”

  “There’s got to be a way,” Jim said.

  “The evelaters work on this one,” Ivey said.

  “Elevators honey,” Hope said. “You say the L-sound first, then the V-sound.”

  Arthur looked at Hope for a moment, then said, “Are you mental?” He turned to Ivey. “The elevators work?”

  “Yep.”

  “She’s right,” Alice said, her eyes wide. She had a hand on the surface of the pyramid. “We didn’t check the damn thing when we got here. This one’s connected to the shipyard.”

  “What’s this mean?” Jim asked.

  “It means,” Arthur said, “That we can get down there. We can talk to them.”

  “We have to hurry,” Alice said. “They’re almost done at this shipyard. We have to go now.”

  Jerry and Lauren sat on the dirt floor of the darkened basement. Lauren was holding the radio.

  “Turn it down before you turn it on,” Jerry whispered.

  Lauren turned the volume to the minimum setting, switched on the radio, then turned up the volume until they could barely hear Donald’s voice.

  “He’s still on,” Lauren whispered.

  “Folks,” Donald said, “I promised I’d be with you to the end. Just because the ending is playing out a little differently doesn’t mean I can break my promise. I’m currently looking out the window at thousands of those damn ships. They’re everywhere, and I’ll tell you now, they aren’t back to say hi. I’ve personally witnessed them snatch up at least a dozen people from the streets. So if you’re listening to this broadcast, and if you don’t want to go with them, stay indoors! I’ve yet to see them take someone from inside a structure.”

  “When you were abducted,” Lauren whispered, “were you inside or outside?”

  “Outside,” Jerry said.

  “Have you ever met another person that was abducted?”

  Jerry nodded. “One. Well, I met the husband of a woman that was abducted. And before you ask, she was outside as well.”

  “Okay,” Lauren said. “Then we can assume the Salyers were outside, looking at the lights when they took them up. Until we have other information, we can assume we’re safe here until they come to get us.”

  “Maybe we should consider letting them,” Jerry said. “Ten minutes ago, you were regretting the decision to stay.”

  “No,” Lauren said. “Things have changed. And I’m starting to doubt any asteroid is coming.”

  “Maybe they decided they can’t sit by and let us choose to die,” Jerry said. “Maybe they’re still trying to help us.”

  “Do you really think so?”

  Jerry shook his head. “No,” he said. “I don’t think so.”

  “From the start,” Lauren whispered, “I think I’ve known what was going on. But I couldn’t face it. My faith prevented me from seeing it.” She chuckled. “Ironic, since it turns out my faith was exactly right.”

  “Your faith was right?” Jerry asked.

  “Yeah,” Lauren said. “I think it was. The day before I met you, I was at a church picnic, when somebody asked me if I believed God has a plan. I went into this long speech about how I was absolutely sure of it. And I was right. We were put here for a reason. But the reason wasn’t quite as wonderful as I’d hoped it would be.”

  “Lauren,” Jerry said, “they’re not God. They’re just a bunch of fucked up aliens.”

  “You’re wrong,” Lauren said. “I always used evolution as a tool to justify my religion. I thought I was so smart. I guess I was smart, because I think I my theory was spot on.”

  “Stop it,” Jerry said. “If you start worshiping these things, we’re dead. Do you hear me? We’re dead.”

  “Don’t worry,” Lauren said. “I’m not about to start worshiping them. Think about what they said, Jerry. They are God. We’re builders. Think about that. I think they were being literal.”

  “They didn’t make us, Lauren,” Jerry said. “Now shut up so we can hear Donald.”

  Lauren turned off the radio. “No,” she said. “I have to say this out loud. I have to face this. If we’re going to survive, I have to get this out and behind me.”

  “Go ahead,” Jerry said with a sigh. “I guess we have nothing else to do down here.”

  “I’ve always claimed that man’s evolution was what made me believe in God,” Lauren said. “Because we evolved too fast. And now I know why. They did it, Jerry. They pushed us forward. They came here, found some apes that were standing upright to see over the tall grass, and they manipulated their DNA or something. I don’t know how, but they directed our evolution.

  “And they kept doing it, throughout the centuries. They would come back to make sure we were moving in the right direction. Think about it. From cavemen, to Aztecs, to the ancient Greeks and Romans. They all have stories of the gods coming down from the heavens. Hell, Arthur showed me pictures of Aztec drawings that looked almost spot on to the guys out there right now. There‘s a painting that was done in the dark ages. Maybe the Renaissance, I’m not sure. It is a picture of Mary. In the background, there’s this guy, looking at the sky. In the sky, there’s a UFO. A UFO, Jerry. I stumbled across it when I was researching religion and UFOs during those first few days of the arrival. I immediately pushed it out of my mind because I didn’t like what it suggested.”

/>   “Why would they do that?” Jerry said. “Why would they push us to become more than what nature intended? Because they’re curious?”

  “Maybe they did it for this,” Lauren said, pointing outside. “We’re builders. That’s the purpose. I always knew we had a purpose, well there it is. We’re builders. We build shit.”

  “Not much of a purpose,” Jerry said.

  “That depends,” Lauren said, “on who we’re building this stuff for.”

  “You think they’re moving in,” Jerry said.

  “Yeah,” Lauren said. “But first, they had to clear us out. They came in and asked us to leave, and most of us blindly obeyed. Now, they’re cleaning up the leftovers, without bringing any harm to the damn cities we built for them. We had a purpose, Jerry, and now that purpose is fulfilled. So they don‘t need us anymore. I bet if there is an asteroid, it‘s going to their home, not ours. And I‘d be willing to bet that‘s exactly where they took the others.”

  “I can’t believe that,” Jerry said.

  “Really,” Lauren said, “you’re the reason I’m sure. That feeling you always claimed to have. The feeling that they didn’t give a shit about us, one way or another. I’ve experienced that before.”

  “Where?”

  “My uncle’s farm,” Lauren said. “He raised pigs. He took good care of them. He kept them fed, and he built them shelter. If they were sick, he called a vet. More or less, he gave them a good life. But eventually, when they were old enough, he took them to a butcher, had them cut into a hundred pieces, and he ate them. That was their purpose. It was why they lived on his farm, and when the time came, he felt no guilt about eating them. They had their purpose, and now we know ours.”

  “That’s a nice story,” Jerry said. “But I’m not just accepting that this is my fate. I think it’s time we got all Animal Farm on their asses.”

  Lauren laughed quietly. “You’re cute,” she said. “I’m turning Donald back on.” She switched the radio on.

  “--right, folks. They are in the building. And they’re coming this way. I guess I should’ve turned out the lights. I don‘t care what their reasons are, we have a right to decide our own fate. I recommend you find somewhere to hide. And when you run out of places to hide, you fight! Do not let these pricks take you away from your home! We know they lied to us once already, and it cost most of us our families. There ain‘t no damn reason to believe they‘re up to anything good now.”