The God Killers

by David Simpson

  Natalie grimaced slightly as she continued to attempt a simplified explanation. “Yes and no. It depends what you think of as the universe. If you consider the place where God is—Heaven, for lack of a better term—as part of this universe, then the answer is yes. If you consider Heaven to be another dimension, the answer is no.”

  “You’re saying that God is from another dimension?” Han asked.

  “I think so,” Natalie affirmed. “I mean, if my theory is correct, that would mean there are endless dimensions of space and time that coexist. They occupy the same space, only in another dimension. So the universe would sort of look like this,” she said, crumpling the paper into a ball.

  “A big mess?” Han responded, narrowing his eyes.

  “That’s one way of looking at it,” Natalie replied, “or perhaps just too complex for human beings to fully comprehend.” She shook her head suddenly and sighed again. “Of course, I had absolutely no support for my theory. I was starting to doubt myself and—”

  “But it makes perfect sense,” Cipher interjected, as the eureka moment Natalie had experienced earlier had now spread to him.

  “It does? How?” Father Hurley asked.

  “Just think about it. We know ghosts exist, but very few people can see them. They must exist in one of the dimensions Natalie is talking about—in the same space, but in another dimension—the Third Plane. It explains Heaven too. It must be another one of the dimensions, folded over on top of us, yet we can’t reach it on the mortal plane.”

  “But why not?” Han asked.

  “Our bodies likely keep us here,” Natalie offered. “If our souls are pure energy, it’s possible that they can traverse between the dimensions, whereas something physical would require a hole to be punctured in space time.”

  “Is God a physical being?” Cipher asked Natalie.

  “There’s no way I can know for sure, but my guess is that He’s at least partially physical in His own dimension. Otherwise, He’d be able to come down to Earth and destroy us at His leisure.”

  “That explains a lot,” Father Hurley observed. “We know He can’t traverse the link between Heaven and Earth. That’s why He needs agents working for Him down here so He can know what’s going on.”

  “Yet He somehow feeds off the energy of our souls when we enter His dimension,” Cipher concluded, almost breathlessly.

  “He must have found Earth somehow,” Father Hurley speculated, “and been attracted to the energy that comes from it when people die and souls were freed.”

  “How did Satan know you’d figure all of this out?” Han asked Natalie.

  “I have no idea,” she replied, truly baffled. “I mean, I did post my theories on the Internet?” she offered.

  “That would explain it,” Cipher confirmed. “Satan has figured out how to monitor what’s happening online. That’s how she found me and Father Hurley originally.”

  “Okay,” Han began as he lit yet another cancer stick and spoke to Natalie, “so, if you’re right, God is from another dimension on top of Earth, and He’s sucking souls up like a vacuum cleaner. Don’t get me wrong, as it’s great to have a scientific explanation and everything, but we actually knew all this shit already—kind of. Satan said you’d know how to kill God. So, what I’m asking you is, how the fuck do we finally, once and for all, kill this motherfucker?”

  “Well…that’s the tricky part,” Natalie replied as she shrugged her shoulders, “I wrote about one possibility that would, in theory, accomplish that but…it’s impossible.”

  “What is it?” Cipher asked.

  Natalie sighed again as she prepared to deliver the answer to the three pairs of earnest eyes that were regarding her. “It would take the detonation of a 2,012-megaton thermonuclear device.”

  There was a long silence as the revelation sank in.

  “Natalie,” Cipher finally began, “a thermonuclear bomb that large is so powerful that one has never actually ever been detonated. It’s powerful enough to wipe out an entire hemisphere.”

  “Well, I don’t think so,” Natalie replied. “It’s ironic—Einstein’s letter to Roosevelt during World War II is the reason the American government even knew to start developing the bomb, and it couldn’t have been developed without his theories, yet scientists are still thinking like Newton when they conjecture about its explosive capability.”

  “Are you saying they’re wrong?” Father Hurley asked.

  “According to my theory, yes they’re wrong,” Natalie answered, beginning another explanation. “Conventional nuclear bombs weren’t big enough to tear a hole through the fabric of space, but according to the calculations I worked through, a thermonuclear device that is big enough wouldn’t have an explosive force in this reality. It would tear a hole right through our dimension, and its energy would radiate into God’s dimension.”

  Again, there was a moment of silence as the group imagined the force of such a weapon being trained on an enemy they’d once felt was invincible.

  “And would it have enough force to kill God?” Cipher asked.

  “I can’t know for sure,” Natalie replied. “I don’t know anything about God’s physical structure in His dimension, but I can tell you it is very unlikely that anything exposed to the kind of energy that a 2,012-megaton thermonuclear device would unleash could possibly maintain its structural integrity.”

  “So...can we take that as a yes?” Han asked.

  “More like a probably,” Natalie answered.

  “Probably? Fuck! I’ll take probably!” Han shouted as he stood to his feet and excitedly clapped his hands together. “We’re gonna light that motherfucker up! This beats the shit out of all the stupid plans we’ve had before! Let’s shove a thermonuclear bomb up His ass!”

  “I don’t know why you’re getting excited,” Natalie said in response to Han’s enthusiasm. “Satan told you I’d know how to kill God, and I suppose I do, but knowing how to do something and actually doing it are completely different things. As I said, you’d need a thermonuclear device. Where are you going to pick up one of those? The mall? eBay? Terrorists have been trying for decades to get their hands on one and they’re a heck of a lot better equipped for the task than the four of us!”

  Natalie’s cold dose of reality damped down on Han’s energy until Cipher interjected, “Don’t be so sure about that, Natalie. I know how to get us one.”

  6

  “You know how to procure a thermonuclear bomb?” Natalie asked, amazed.

  Cipher didn’t answer the question right away; rather, he snatched the laptop Father Hurley had sitting in front of him and did a quick search online. Within just a few seconds, he smiled and turned the laptop around so the group could see what was on the screen: a news story accompanied by a picture of the USS Dominance aircraft carrier. “The Dominance is coming into harbor tomorrow night. It’s supposed to arrive at one fifteen a.m. It’s perfect.”

  Han pumped his fist in the air and reached across the table to shake Cipher’s hand before he pointed in Natalie’s face and shouted, “See that? My boy’s got wicked skills! Take that right in your ass!”

  “Han, stop it!” Father Hurley shouted, red-faced.

  “Just because you know where to find a thermonuclear weapon doesn’t mean you have a hope in hell—uh, pardon the pun—of possibly getting your hands on it. It’s aboard an American aircraft carrier—a really big, militarily secured, modern warship! You have no chance,” Natalie protested.

  “How she underestimates us. We’ve done some pretty crazy shit before, lady,” Han replied with a smile as he lit another cigarette. “Where there’s a will, Cipher will find a way.”

  “Admittedly, this will be the most difficult security breach we’ve done yet, but it can be done,” Cipher answered, having turned the computer around and already begun more research. He typed furiously as he elaborated. “Thanks to the movies, we always assume the hyper-competence of the U.S. military. That’s part of why they agree to partially finance H
ollywood films. Movies build up the myth of their invincibility. But remember 9/11? Nineteen hijackers took down four planes, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.”

  “I’m not sure I believe the official story. Wasn’t that an inside job?” Natalie replied.

  “There are holes all over that story,” Cipher agreed, “but it wasn’t to hide the fact that it was an inside job. It was to hide the incompetence of the American government and military at almost every level. Think about it. Four planes were hijacked, two full hours of high-altitude drama, and not until the last plane was finally brought down in Pennsylvania were there finally any Air Force jets scrambled. No one knew what to do or who was in charge. The government wasn’t even prepared for that kind of attack. They’d simply never anticipated an attack from within.”

  “They must anticipate them now though,” Natalie retorted, “and I’m sure that’s what you’re suggesting.”

  “We’re not gonna attack them,” Cipher explained, “We’re gonna steal from them, and we’re going to do it in a way they’ve never anticipated before. We’re gonna board the ship and remove a thermonuclear warhead.”

  “Ha-ha! Nice! What you got to say about that?” Han taunted Natalie.

  She glared at him momentarily, then continued trying to reason with Cipher. “Even if you could somehow get into the ship and remove a warhead from a missile, it wouldn’t be big enough. The largest thermonuclear weapon ever detonated was a fifty-megaton bomb that was set off by the Russians. It temporarily blew a hole in the atmosphere. After that, countries were aware that they’d pushed the size of the bombs to the limit of their understanding and none were ever designed to be that big again.”

  “But theoretically, by chaining together numerous stages with increasing amounts of fusion fuel, thermonuclear weapons can be made to an almost arbitrary yield, right?” Cipher replied.

  Natalie was dumbfounded. “Yes, but how could you possibly know that?”

  “Wikipedia,” Cipher replied. “I just read it. So, if we manage to grab one of these warheads, we’ll need you to chain more stages together to increase its size.”

  “And how am I going to do that?” Natalie asked.

  “It says here that the warheads have this feature imbedded in them,” Cipher explained. “It’s some top-secret last resort, in case an enemy overwhelms the country. One of these warheads could be set to a doomsday size just by completing the chain so that America can pull down the temple’s walls, so to speak.”

  “It says that on Wikipedia?” Natalie responded, flabbergasted.

  “No, of course not,” Cipher said. “I’m hacking the Pentagon.”

  “I told you my boy’s got mad skills,” Han reiterated as he winked at Natalie and leaned back in his chair, taking another drag on his cigarette. “So Cipher, what’s the scoop then? Are we gonna board the ship in the morning after it docks? Are you gonna make up some fake IDs and put us on the list of the ship’s official complement?”

  “Sorry, buddy, but it’s gonna be a bit more complicated than that,” Cipher replied. “That’s the sort of approach they’re prepared for. I can make the IDs and put us on the ship’s list, but our photos would be recognized now by face recognition software.” Cipher grinned. “Don’t forget, we’re the most wanted men in the city.”

  “So...what are we going to do?” Han asked, a look of dubious concern creeping across his face. “Please don’t say more Indiana Jones shit.”

  Cipher smiled and turned the computer around once again, revealing a picture of thrill-seekers who were bungee jumping from a bridge.

  “You’re shittin’ me,” Han replied as his face went white.

  “It’s the only way to get onboard the ship without being seen,” Cipher revealed, “It’ll sail right under the bridge at twelve fifty a.m. on a midweek night. We’ll have the bridge to ourselves. We can set up in less than a minute, and then we can jump onto the ship.”

  “You people really are insane,” Natalie whispered.

  “Cipher, you need to think of another plan. There’s no way I’m doing that,” Han replied, now leaning forward and pleading as he pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and quickly stubbed it into the remnants of his last one.

  “I’m sorry, buddy. You’re a young male, just the right age for service. Father Hurley can’t do it because of his heart. Natalie is a woman, and even though there a few women on those ships, she’d be conspicuous. Besides that, we’re almost certainly going to have to fight. I need someone with me who has some hand-to-hand combat skills.”

  Han remained silent for a moment before grimacing, as though he’d been stabbed. He jerked to his feet in frustration. “I take it all back! This plan is fucked! I hate you, Dr. Jones!”

  “There’s another problem,” Natalie interrupted. “Just because we can set the explosive to be large enough, that doesn’t mean we know where to set it off. We can’t just randomly set it off anywhere and expect it to open a hole into God’s dimension. According to my theory, there are countless dimensions intersecting one another. The odds of us getting the right one and succeeding are almost...well, zero.”

  “Yeah,” Han said, pointing to Natalie but looking at Cipher. “Listen to her. She’s right. This plan won’t work. We’ve gotta come up with something else.”

  “We’d need a conduit,” Cipher said, agreeing with Natalie’s assessment.

  “Is there such a thing as a conduit to Heaven?” Natalie asked.

  Cipher’s eyes suddenly widened. “I’m not sure, but what do you think of this, Natalie? Something just happened to Han and me outside ten minutes ago. When we touched the old redwood behind the cabin, both Han’s sister and my Father came through.”

  “What?” Father Hurley exclaimed, astonished.

  “Yeah, it was fucked up,” Han replied. “When we touched the tree, the ghosts could get through, but as soon as we let go, they vanished.”

  “It was like the link was broken,” Cipher added.

  Natalie sat back in her chair and looked outside the window behind Han into the pitch-black forest. “It would be arrogant to assume that only humans have souls. Those trees are the largest, most ancient living creatures on Earth. It’s possible that they’re somehow of both dimensions.”

  “What if they function like antennas?” Cipher suggested. “They’re so tall and they point straight up, presumably toward Heaven. What if the trees channel living energy into God’s dimension?”

  “If that were the case, we’d just have to find the biggest, most ancient tree in the forest and set the device off there,” Natalie agreed.

  “Wait,” Father Hurley said, “I have a better idea. If the tree works because it points toward Heaven, perhaps a better conduit would be an arch.”

  “An arch? Like in a church?” Cipher asked.

  “Exactly,” Father Hurley replied. “Those old churches are built with everything arching upward. The architecture was literally constructed to channel prayers up to God. If the trees can act as channels because they point upward, then perhaps the architecture of a cathedral isn’t balderdash after all. Perhaps it’s just the conduit we’re looking for.”

  “So we set the bomb off in the cathedral downtown,” Cipher affirmed.

  “Holy shit,” Han reacted. “So, let me summarize this, just so we’re all clear on how crazy this plan is. We’re gonna steal a thermonuclear warhead tomorrow night and set it off at the biggest cathedral in the middle of the city?”

  “That’s about it,” Cipher confirmed, “and we’ve only got one day to prepare, so we’d better get our asses in gear and get ready.”

  7

  “Bless you, my sons,” Father Hurley said to himself as he hit the brakes of the old truck he’d been keeping at the cabin and pulled over to the side of the road. As soon as the truck halted, Cipher and Han, dressed in baggy jogging suits, jumped out of the back of the truck and began running through the darkness toward the bridge. Father Hurley sped away and waved as he did so, but neither Han nor
Cipher saw it as they made their way through the darkness.

  “I hate many things about this plan, the running first and foremost. Why couldn’t he have just dropped us off on the bridge?” Han complained.

  “It’s illegal to stop on the bridge. It’s too narrow. The causeway is dark, and we have to be inconspicuous about this,” Cipher answered.

  “Well why couldn’t our cover be just two dudes walking then? Why do I have to be a midnight runner? You know I don’t have the lung capacity for this!” Han protested, already huffing and puffing as he did so.

  “We don’t want to be out in the open for long and risk getting the attention of the police. They’d recognize us right away,” Cipher explained. “Now stop complaining, man. You’re getting on my fucking nerves, and I need to know I can count on you.”

  “What? You’re mad at me? Why? I’m not the one making you go for a run, then bungee jump in the dark off of an extremely high bridge onto a battleship. Fuck you!”

  “Han, you’d better keep up. If you fuck this up, I promise I’ll kill you myself.”

  “Anytime you wanna go at it, just ask, white boy.”

  Cipher turned and met Han’s threatening gaze. “If we weren’t on an extremely tight timeline and every second didn’t count, I’d take you up on that. Next time. Now keep up,” he said as he slapped Han hard on the back, then accelerated, knowing Han wouldn’t be able to catch him.

  “I’m gonna get you for that, you fucker!” Han called out to Cipher, who was already several meters ahead of him.

  All was forgotten, though, as soon as they made it to the crest of the hill directly before the bridge and the massive, gothic structure came into view. It was not what either of them had been expecting.

  “Oh fuck,” Han whispered to himself when he saw the spectacle unfolding in front of him.

  Cipher had slowed almost to a halt, and Han caught up to him. For a moment, they both stopped and stared. The bridge was literally swarming with thousands of ghosts.