Mother of All the Gods

by R. P. Wolff

  As they led Lance, he worried about what they had planned for him. It was usually never a good sign when guards took prisoners away. They almost reached the front, where the huge white screen was already down. That was odd. It was usually up. Just as he noticed it, three other guards came from the side and two of them grabbed him.

  “What the hell did I do?” Lance exclaimed.

  “Shut up,” said one of the guards.

  They dragged Lance to the dreaded whipping chair. It was sturdy wooden chair bolted to the floor. It looked like an electric chair because it had arm and leg straps, but no electrical devise for the head.

  Oh my God, Lance thought. What are they going to do to me? “What did I do?” Lance asked again.

  “Shut up and you’ll see,” snapped the same guard. They secured Lance to the chair.

  A video camera lit up and shined on Lance. They were taping him.

  “Come on, man,” Lance continued his pleas. “I didn’t do anything.”

  The same guard held a wireless microphone, and shouted to the rest of the prisons, “Okay, everyone sit up and watch the TVs.”

  The other TV screens lowered. Lance could hear muffled sounds from the prisoners. No doubt they were wondering what was up.

  After a moment, the guard said, “Okay, you all know what will happen if you try to escape, right?”

  Prisoners nodded, and some muttered “yes.”

  “But I didn’t try to escape,” Lance said. “I could have escaped, but I tried to save Officer Osborne.”

  “We know you didn’t try to escape, 88715, but here is what happens if your kids try to escape.”

  Lance panted. Oh no, did Becca tried to escape? he feared.

  The screen blinked and showed his daughter in a similar chair with kids standing near cots in the background.

  “Dad, is that you?” Becca asked in shock.

  Lance eyes watered at the sight of his daughter strapped to a chair and in fear. Why couldn’t he save her? “Yes, it’s me, honey. Are you okay?”

  “No, they’re going to brand me. I tried to escape.”

  A guard showed the viewers a metal rod with a glowing red-hot “C” at the end.

  “Don’t you dare do anything to my daughter. I will fucking kill you.”

  The guard at the other end chuckled.

  “Dad, I’m at Harmon,” Becca sputtered. “The Freedom Chips have GPS trackers in them.”

  “Shut up,” a guard to the side of her said as he slapped her.

  “No! Leave her alone.”

  The guard by Becca said, “Here’s what happens when you try to escape.”

  Without warning, a guard to Lance’s left zapped Lance with a whip. Lance screamed.

  “Daddy!” Becca cried. “No, please leave him alone.”

  They whipped Lance again.

  At the same time, they branded Becca’s forehead. She screamed and cried.

  Lance turned and could see the guard winding up for another blow, but he suddenly dropped the whip and rubbed his face. Bees had converged on his face and body.

  Where did they come from? Lance wondered. How did they get inside? He didn’t think bees could survive inside.

  Lance turned to the screen and could see his daughter frantically crying and jerking violently in her seat, but the guards restrained her hands and arms behind her. Lance started crying to himself. He couldn’t bear to see his daughter in pain, and the guards torturing her.

  “I’m sorry, honey. I’m so sorry. I let you down.”

  “Daddy, get me out of here.”

  The screen went blank.

  The other guards rushed over to their fellow guard and tried to swat the bees away. The guard rolled around on the ground screaming in pain.

  Another guard ran from the back, and said to Lance, “What did you do to him?”

  Lance sniffled. “What do you mean, what did I do to him? I’m fucking tied up here. How could I do anything?”

  The guard grabbed his whip and let it dangle to the ground. He backed up, getting ready to whip Lance.

  Lance cringed, and said, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Look what happened to your friend.”

  The man stopped and pondered the situation.

  “Come over and help us,” one of the guards who was working on the fallen guard, said.

  The guard facing Lance jerked his head quickly, dropped the whip, and scurried over to the other guards.

  Whew, Lance thought. He couldn’t take another whipping. His back stung, but his shirt had protected him from the worse. Nonetheless, it still hurt like hell.

  Within seconds reinforcements surrounded the room. There were about fifty guards, all with their rifles pointed at the prisoners. The prisoners moved forward but then quickly backed up.

  “My poor baby,” Lance whimpered out loud. “She’s only a kid. How can you do this to a child?”

  The guards ignored him and were only concerned with the fallen guard.

  The bees left as suddenly as they appeared.

  The guards were able to revive the fallen guard. The injured guard climbed to his knees, coughed, and vomited.

  Lance was glad that the bees attacked the guard who whipped him. Again, he wondered what triggered the bees. There weren’t nearly as many as when he was outside but enough to knock a grown man down and make him plea for his life. If the guards weren’t there to save him, the bees would have suffocated him like they did Ronnie. But what triggered them? Was it the guards whipping him? No, because when he got in the fight when he was younger, there was no whip. Was it when someone was attacking him? Yes, probably. Maybe it was when Lance screamed. He thought back and couldn’t remember if he screamed when he was in that fight. Maybe it was when he was in danger.

  Regardless, he had a weapon, and it worked inside and outside. He just needed to know how to control it.

  Chapter 13

  Bruce Wade, the Secretary of the Treasury, sat in a cushioned chair outside the Oval Office, waiting patiently for President Zelda Mater. She had summoned him to the Oval office—once again. But this time, he knew she would demand results. It had been about three months since she gave him the assignment, and she was growing impatient with his progress. He feared that she would unleash her mysterious powers and cause extreme pain to him. He couldn’t handle that again.

  It had been a confusing two months for Bruce. He was torn. The mother of all the Gods was not what she seemed. He had worshiped her his whole life. His religious beliefs centered on her being the virgin Mother who had given birth to the three Gods of the Sun, Land, and Sea.

  Well, he found out that she wasn’t a virgin—far from it. She forced him to have sex with her at least once a week and sometimes twice. He was always attracted to her. So were most men. After all, she was beautiful, sexy, and exotic with the long black hair, olive skin, and brown eyes. But she was his mother or everyone’s mother. She was supposed to be pure. Although she was attractive, he had never fantasized about having sex with her. That would just be wrong.

  He felt extremely guilty for having sex with Zelda Mater. He loved his wife and kids, but now the affair, if that is what it could be called, jeopardized his marriage. After the initial shock, he hated to admit it to himself, but he loved the sex with Zelda. She was an enthusiastic lover, and she had a great body. Even the fear that she could inflict pain on him at any moment made it even more exciting. He was always on edge that she might do that to him, which added to the excitement.

  He was further conflicted because he now had severe doubts about Materism. Was it a made-up religion? Was his whole life based on a big lie? He still held out hope that the Gods did indeed send the virgin Zelda down to earth. He hoped to find out today with a little help from Zelda. Someone needed some persuading, and Zelda could easily do that with her special powers.

  His investigation was at a standstill, but there was still one loose end. He had interviewed as many founders, the original people who witnessed the Awakening, as he could locate o
r were still alive. Many of them had passed away. The Awakeners, the surviving founders, who had come forward were famous. Other founders chose anonymity.

  Bruce had studied the best quality Awakening Day photos. With the help of face-recognition software synced with the Freedom Chip’s massive database, he was able to locate all the surviving founders except for three people, whose faces were not visible in any pictures.

  His theory was that one of the founders was the person who put the baby by Max Tillman’s car or might have seen someone do it. Most of the Awakeners were Maters, but a few were infidels. How could an Awakener be an infidel? he wondered. But here he was toying with whether he still believed.

  Most of the Awakeners were over seventy years old. He focused on the younger people, who were of birthing ages, under forty, during the Awakening to see if anyone of them could have been the one to drop off the baby. Bruce searched for someone who was poor and couldn’t afford a baby, but all the people he studied were either upper middle class or very wealthy as of the Awakening Day.

  Several of them remembered a younger lady who was one the first ones to suggest that the Gods sent the baby. She was the first one to kneel, and everyone joined her. Bruce asked the Awakeners who she was, and they all pointed to the same one of the three unidentified people. The young woman had a hoodie on with her head bowed down, so her face was not visible. The only description he could get from the other founders was that she was petite with a high-pitched voice like she was in high school. One founder detected a Mexican accent.

  Bruce’s only hope was if there was a video of the scene, but none had ever showed up, which was odd because there were security cameras in the garage. Maybe a video would reveal who, if anyone, planted the baby. Max Tillman, Zelda’s adoptive father, owned the opera house and the garage, so he should have had easy access to security footage. Bruce suspected that Max purposely hid the video or destroyed it. Zelda was supposed to talk with her father about it, and she was supposed to have an update. Nevertheless, Bruce had another idea if it didn’t pan out with Zelda’s father. It was his last hope.

  Zelda’s secretary stood up, and said, “Mr. Secretary, the President is ready to see you.”

  Bruce sighed. He hoped she wasn’t going to punish him.

  He came in the Oval Office, walked to her desk, did the sign of the Z, bowed. She gestured him to sit in one of the chairs.

  Zelda asked, “Well, what do you have for me?”

  He knew her question had nothing to do with the economy or the conversion in general. Her only concern or obsession was her true origins.

  Bruce responded, “Madam President, I was wondering if you could tell me what you’ve learned from your father first.”

  “Is that right? You want me to tell you what I learned first. What the hell have you been doing for the past two months?”

  Bruce gulped. “Please, Madam President, I need to learn what your father knows before I tell you about my plan.”

  “Plan? I don’t need a plan. I need results. You should have had a plan two months ago.”

  Her badgering exasperated Bruce, but he had to be polite. “Madam President, please.”

  She shook her head, but said, “Okay. He claims that the security cameras didn’t work, and there was no video. They had never been turned on. They were just there for show. Most of the cameras in the garage didn’t work.”

  “Do you believe him?”

  She snarled, “Who are you to doubt my father?”

  Bruce gulped, and said, “I’m not saying I doubt him. I’m asking if you believe him.”

  She glared at him for a few seconds. “Yes, I’m pretty sure he’s telling the truth because I have my ways as you already know.”

  Bruce nodded. “Oh, okay.”

  “So I told you what I know from my father. What do you have?”

  Bruce braced himself because the news he had was not that great. “Madam President, I only see one possible loose end, and it’s a longshot.”

  Zelda’s eyebrows narrowed.

  Bruce cringed. Here it comes, he worried. Please don’t clench your fists. After feeling no pain, Bruce continued, “There have been three of the Awakeners that have not been identified because their faces were not visible. I’m sure that two of them were men and the other one was a woman. I believe one of two things: One of these three unidentified founders is your parent, or maybe saw someone who planted the baby, or knew the person who planted the baby. I don’t know, but we need to try a way to discover their faces. What I’m getting at is that I don’t believe that the video didn’t work. I think there’s a video out there that shows the person who planted the baby.”

  “Really, you think my father was lying?” Zelda asked curtly.

  Bruce sighed. He felt like he was walking on thin ice. “No, this is why I wanted you to go first. I know that you have ways of getting through to people, so I wanted to make sure about your father. I think we should check with Victor Cook, who was the security guard on duty at the opera house and who used to serve as a Secret Service agent for your father until a few years ago when Mr. Cook retired.”

  “Interesting. I didn’t realize that. I wonder why my father never told me about this?”

  “Why don’t you have a talk with Mr. Cook and see what you can get out of him.”

  “What are you saying?” she asked suspiciously. “You think he has a video and has never showed my father?”

  Bruce shrugged. “It’s a longshot.”

  Zelda sighed and glanced up into the ceiling, thinking. She turned back, faced Bruce, and said, “Well, if he did that, why wouldn’t he bring it forward? He’s a loyal Mater.”

  “Maybe he was planning on using it against you or your father.”

  “He hasn’t though.”

  “Maybe he’s waiting for the opportune time. It’s something he’s holding.”

  “You make it sound as if it is a forgone conclusion.” Zelda paused then continued. “Like you said, this is a longshot. I doubt it, but it’s worth a try.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Where is he?” she asked.

  “He lives in Dallas, Texas.”

  “Well, I don’t want to speak to him over the phone. I will have Linda arrange for him to come to D.C.”

  “Okay, sounds great to me.”

  She pressed a button on her phone system and said, “Linda, there is a former Secret Service agent called Victor Cook that used to serve for my father. It is my understanding that he lives in Dallas, Texas. Can you contact him and have him come to D.C. right away? I need to meet with him.”

  “Yes, Madam President,” Linda replied.

  Zelda released her finger from the control, and said, “Mr. Secretary, you stick around.” She grinned. “Come over here.”

  Bruce strolled over and stood to her side. She glanced up at him and licked her lips. “It’s time for me to reward you for your hard work,” she said. She undid his belt, pulled down his pants, and rewarded him.

  Chapter 14

  Zelda straightened herself up after having sex with Bruce. She had dismissed him and summoned Colin Grant, her Secretary of Defense. She was not happy with the progress of the conversion. There were still many people at large, and they were certainly mounting a rebellion. Colin, and his arsenal, needed to crush this potential uprising.

  Colin entered her office, made the sign of the Z, bowed, and sat down in a chair across from her desk.

  Zelda exchanged no pleasantries, and abruptly said, “Okay, so where are we at?”

  “We’re at about ninety-three percent,” Colin said. “We have about twenty-two million people unaccounted for.”

  “I can’t believe that it’s been over three months, and there are still millions of people that we can’t find. Where are they?”

  “Well, we’re closing in on them. Every day we catch thousands. We think that the ones that are missing are in one of three places. One, they’re hiding in the various woods throughout our country. Two, they’re sprea
d out across rural areas, hiding amongst farmers who are sympathetic to them. You know, there’s a lot of land in the United States, so it’s hard to round them all up. And, three, they’re hiding in urban areas right under our noses. The bottom line is that there are so-called Maters protecting a lot of these infidels.”

  Zelda felt like zapping Colin with some pain because she hated these reports, but maybe a little threat would suffice. “Colin, do I have to make my position on this issue clear to you?”

  He shivered. “No, Madam President, I have it under control.”

  “All right, if you have it under control, what’s your plan? It better be something better than your last plan.”

  “We have a specific plan for all three areas. We’re going to smoke them out of the wooded areas. We’re going to use hundreds of drones and helicopters to locate them, then we’ll send in troops to round them up.”

  “Okay, that sounds good for the ones hiding in the woods, but what about the others?” she asked.

  “For the urban areas, we’re going to use spies and do random spot checking. For the rural areas, we’re going to use spies as well but will have to search each area, which is going to take years.”

  “Years, my ass!” Zelda exclaimed. She resisted the urge to clench her fists.

  He cringed in his seat. “Madam President, please, we’re going to get the bulk of them from the woods and urban areas. They can’t do much harm to us in the rural areas anyway. They would have to travel to the cities to attack, which I seriously doubt they will. They’re just going to keep hiding.”

  “You seem optimistic that they’re going to keep hiding.”

  “No, I don’t, but we have other problems.”

  “What’s that?”

  “We are using a lot of resources in maintaining order in the prisons. We’re having to increase the number of guards in many of the prisons. We can’t afford to lose control over the infidels.”