Worrying Implications

In various labs, meeting rooms and offices scientists met, trying to understand the 'Event' as it had been called. Theories were offered, some found more plausible than others but there was still a great gnawing sense of unease, of fear. The unknown can be something fascinating but it can be terrifying too, especially when that unknown apparently destroyed your children, your friends and neighbors. Governments worldwide were trying to understand what happened and if it was going to happen again. Information was sent around, groups pored over data, many of them quietly both praising and scolding Carpathia.

On the one hand, he had addressed the situation and had managed to, amazingly, calm multitudes of people and get them to feel more optimistic which was honestly an impressive feat. But then he claimed that the reason this occurred was due to some kind of 'electromagnetic field' which was utter nonsense. Unfortunately it had grabbed the attention of people desperate for any kind of idea of what was happening which meant that they were going to have to fight the conventional wisdom when they got a better idea of what happened. But what made it worse...well that was announced by one flustered woman

"This is utter CRAP!" she got up, staring at all the data in disgust, pacing, taking a few deep breaths before recovering. "It's crap, as it is everything we knew went out the window with the event. Thermodynamics was violated in at least three ways, not to mention all kinds of things we thought we understood about biology being apparently disproven. The rules basically just got rewritten, we're trying to play chess using the rules for checkers." She looked around the table, some of them looked surprised at the outburst but more than a few of them nodded or gave her a look of agreement. There were webcams recording what she had said and she noticed on her laptop messages were starting to accumulate, some agreed with her, some pleaded with her to calm down, and some asked flatly what they were to do. She sighed, apparently she still had their attention so she continued,

"Right now we can't even be sure what caused this, but there are a few things we do know. Carpathias electromagnetic field explanation is holding for now but we need to come up with an actual answer. The other theories out there claim either space aliens or an angry god. The news has shown dozens, hundreds of people protesting at the Vatican and other religious sites. The US government is dealing with dozens of inquiries about Roswell and other various UFO phenomena. Right now we have a duty to figure out what happened but we don't even know where to start. We have to do something soon, we have a responsibility to find out the truth and make sure people know."

She didn't mention the last part, the elephant in the room that had been wandering around since the first few days after the Event. The elephant had gotten larger when scientists working in weapons research and other military endeavors were joining in on the project and trying to offer any help. People had thought about what occurred at Israel during the joint attack. They had managed to throw the attack back, destroy harmlessly every nuclear weapon, and even managed to somehow be able to salvage fuel from all the vehicles. People had called it a miracle but there were some who also remembered Chaim Rosenwigs formula. Israel had lately been advancing incredibly in technical development and while Israel had claimed confusion with the rest of the world few people had accepted it. They couldn't imagine that something like that could happen without a cause. The event had a similar mystery quality to it and the thought flashed, however fleeting, that they might be responsible for this. Perhaps it was an accident, perhaps it was purposeful, but whatever happened...they didn't want to say aloud what they wondered, mostly for fear that they might all frantically grab onto it or that it would reach the world before they could be sure and cause another round of riots and panics.

She sat again and started going over the papers again as theories flew hoping for progress, all the while the elephant in the room grew ever larger.

Thanks for Listening

Isaac awoke, groaning, he hurt and he wasn’t even sure where he was. His mind struggled to sort itself too bright, the lights were too bright and the room too cold. Forcing himself to keep his eyes open, he managed to ignore the pain his eyes adjusted and the images were gradually sorted out. He saw someone in front of him, the figure was quite handsome in the traditional sense but it felt wrong. Had he read much science fiction the term Uncanny Valley would likely have fit itself in, it was odd. He finally managed to form words “Who..” he began coughing and choking again, staring at the figure opposite him.

For his part the figure smirked, “Pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name.” Isaac groaned, great, apparently not only was he talking to Lucifer, he was talking to a pretentious and smug Lucifer. Isaac just tried to avoid reacting, or at least pretend that his balls weren’t trying to crawl into his gut and that he wasn’t shivering in terror. He wasn’t exactly a believer, but there was something very disturbing in not only seeing the enemy of all creation but also technically having said enemy be very matter of fact and cheerful about the whole process. It wasn’t exactly an instinctive thing that told him that the one opposite him wasn’t just blowing smoke, but it was something that reached deep into him and made him frightened on a level he had never even imagined feeling.

Lucifer watched him for a while and said finally, “You want to ask me the big question, don’t you? You want to know why I bother with all this. After all, I’ve read the playbook, I know what happens, His son comes back and annihilates the work I do on this world, I won’t win, can’t win, so why bother doing it at all?” Then there was a slow smile that spread to his features, Isaac watched, mind barely able to even function beyond a sort of slow crawl, he understood what was said and would remember it, but trying to let his mind actually read what was happening would be like asking a person at ground zero of a disaster to give a detailed dissertation on Russian Novelists, it wasn’t going to work. Lucifer continued “The reason is simple, even when I lose, I win! He loves all of you, thinks you’re so wonderful, so great, he wants you to do well. I remind him, and you, what all of you really are. All of you have a price, you’d murder your own mothers for the right price, sacrifice those you love for some bauble or title. I remind him, I remind all of you, and he gets to watch all of them burn and suffer forever, gets to watch his lovely creations wither and sob and choke. Sure, I lose, but I get to cause a lot of damage on the way down, you people do the same. Generals and heads of state still try to tear into an enemy while losing a war, in games a team or player will try to gut a foe so that even in victory their opponent feels pain.”

He continued almost unwilling or unable to stop, “All I had wanted, all I had ever wanted was for him to give me that great respect and esteem. I led his hosts, I bore the morning star! I did all that he asked and more, I wanted nothing more than to achieve recognition in line with what I had done, to receive accolade that showed that I was valued above the others. Instead…instead he calls my rightful demand pride. It was then that I saw, I understood that if he wasn’t going to give me my due then I had a duty to take it by my own work. I called to the other angels, that’s the real fun part, I was good enough that I managed to turn a large chunk of beings MADE by him who KNEW what he did was supposed to be perfect and they followed me. The best part was that we didn’t do too bad either…” Then that look of smugness went cold and hateful, his eyes hardening.

“Then, then HE stormed in and slapped me down, stripped me of my title and place, he told me that I was to be punished! He knew I would do it too, he had to, after all he’s the all knowing one isn’t he?” The bastard KNEW what would happen! He could have just given me the title, he could have shown how important I was to the others! Instead he strips away everything I had, took away my rightful place and cast me as some kind of villain!”

He turned to Isaac, smiling again, “So when I saw you and yours I decided to make sure that all of you got the same punishment. He tried to pretend that he made you well, he gave you laws to follow and you break them. Makes rules…and what does he do?” The mans face contorted now in worldless rage as he struck Isaac, “He kept forgiving you. He kept giving you prophets, second chances, news! He made his word palpable flesh and spread his knowledge to you. I knew that mortal flesh was vulnerable, but no, he wouldn’t do anything against his ‘father’ even to save his own skin!” Lucifer gnashed his teeth, attacking the now whimpering and crying Isaac. “He did all of this for you, all of this and what did he do for me!? He leaves me here to rot, to burn and suffer! So you know what? I’m going to make sure that he sees all of you little bugs burn and die. I want him to have to smother all his babies in their cradles, I WANT him to see you all suffer! Because in the end, that’s what it s, he’s going to see all of you in pain and torment! Even his own devout children often speak of how superior they are, and how much better they are than the common rabble, right before they fall into my fires.”

He laughed, “He, and everyone else, gets to see how many of you are with me, he gets to see then that no matter what he did to me I still won! He’ll see all of you feebly looking up at him, begging for him, stupid worthless bugs.” seeing the broken shell at his feet that used to be a person he absently wiped the blood of his hands off on Isaacs shirt and hair. “Thanks for listening.”

Forgotten by God?

Did it happen? Was it the Rapture? He stared dully at the television, it made him think vaguely of what happened on September 11th. He was still in high school then, he heard every kind of story on that day. Some people said Chicago has also been hit, they had just heard it recently, or any number of other stories some feeling far more likely than the other. What permeated that day more than anything else for him was a very odd kind of confusion, no one really seemed to know what to do or what was going on. Everyone was afraid and panic begat rumors and wild speculation, and while no one knew fully what was going on it was all that the news could talk about, not to mention worldwide reactions. Looking back he somewhat envied himself back on that day, the problem was smaller, sure, but it was more that he had some routine back then to fall into. He was a student, he had his parents, he had a niche in the world and something he could bury himself in. Here, he had just moved out of his parents place a month and a half ago, now he desperately wished he were back home, or with a family member or around anything familiar. He had a difficult time back then, and that was when two planes were flown into buildings in New York.

Now planes were crashing, car wrecks were piling up, emergency services were overwhelmed and people were saying that all the children in the world were gone. When he first heard that he remembered wondering, somewhat absurdly, what that meant for toy stores. People were blaming other nations, some kind of new disease, aliens, or anything that they could wrap themselves around to try to explain the unexplainable. Back then he had tried to ferret out answers, or find something he could be sure of. Now though, now he just…existed, it was too much to handle at once. He tried calling family in some cases he got error messages, maybe the circuits were jammed with so many people calling at once. He hoped that anyway, it was weird, on the one hand if it was…if it really was the rapture then he hoped they got away…but then again. He felt alone, vulnerable and scared, he looked at the ceiling, it had no answers for him or even any advice. He felt foolish, it wasn’t like God was going to respond…then again if it was the rapture thought like that might have been what got him left by God.

Suddenly he let out a worldless roar of rage, it wasn’t directed at any one thing it as at everything, at the disasters, at the talking heads, at the overloaded phones, at his fears, at God. “What did you want from me? I prayed to you, I followed you, I gave food to the hungry, I donated clothes to shelters, I sought to spread your ideals. I forgave my enemies, I tried to be humble, WHAT DID I DO WRONG?” He took a few deep breaths, shaking, he felt pain in his hand and saw that he had put it through the wall, he pulled it back, staring at it in a kind of stupid wonder. He shook himself, maybe he wasn’t fully functional but he wasn’t a lump anymore. He heard the sounds of police sirens and fire trucks, the news kept saying that people had vanished and there were all kinds of problems. Now…now whether or not it was the rapture didn’t matter. He realized that there were going to be people who needed help and that whatever happened he was healthy and functioning, he had a responsibility to help the others that he could. If God had forsaken him..well that didn’t mean he was going to stop doing what was right and if it wasn’t the rapture, well he had a funny story to tell his friends later. He took a few minutes to dress himself and find what he needed, heading out the door hoping that the world could make a bit more sense..