“You could have broken it,” he
said, in order to explain the scrapes he had earned.
Neil shrugged. “It's already
broken.” He took the device back and examined the black screen, as
if he needed to confirm the truth of the statement for himself.
“We can repair it. Unless you smash
it.”
“I don't know,” Neil said, “but
I'd rather have a working air conditioner.”
Neil turned from the shore toward the
offices and docks, dropping the device into the sand. He was looking
for any semblance of activity. Stephen carefully, stealthily scooped
the phone and placed it into a pocket of his torn jeans. He looked
where Neil looked. There was no one.
“At least we have your fishing
equipment,” Stephen said finally. “I've even become quite
proficient this past year.”
“Right,” Neil said, rolling his
eyes. “If it wasn't for me, you'd have starved to death by now.”
They became silent, avoiding each
others eyes as they contemplated Neil's words. When did such a
casual joke become deadly serious? In quiet reflection they watched
the crash of the waves, and fished for their supper.
…
“Do you see that?”
Far down the darkened beach,
a collection of lights shone.
“Oh, thank god,” said
Stephen, “Some electrical equipment still functions!”
He climbed out of his
sleeping bag, and began to move toward the lights, but Neil placed a
hand on his shoulder.
“Hold on, they'll be here
soon enough, and we need to hide the fishing equipment. It's all
that's keeping the skin on our bones. And I don't think that's
electrical lighting.”
Five minutes later they
could see that the source of the light was flame, and after an equal
interval of time they could make out a crowd of people holding
torches.
“Should we run?” said
Stephen, already with their meager possessions in a small sled, and
hand grasping the draw cord.
“I thought you wanted to
meet them?”
“When I thought they were
civilized. Didn't you want to hide?”
“You've convinced me
otherwise. I'm a trusting individual. After all I rescued a unknown
person from starvation by teaching them to fish. But let's hide the
gear.”
…
Neil had expected the
torchbearers to be their first guests, but suddenly out of the
darkness a woman and man approached them. It was dark enough that
the man tripped over the sled, and the woman helped him to his feet.
Neil saw her eyes darting everywhere, but the man only frowned at the
ground.
“We were going to meet the
light,” said the woman, “We didn't see you.”
“The light is coming this
way. Why not wait with us?” said Neil.
The woman assented, and Neil
took a moment to examine the man's face. Though he seemed tall, he
stood with body scrunched together, as if to avoid a blow or carrying
a great weight. Stephen tried to draw them into conversation, but
the woman replied distractedly and the man refused to speak.
Just then the crowd passed
the darkened lighthouse, and Neil could hear one voice raised and
exhorting the crowd. He listened carefully, hoping to recognize the
voice of a friend, but the land breeze swept both word and tone out
to sea. The edge of light crept forward, forming a perceptible
bubble, yet those on the outside were still surprised when they found
themselves surrounded by seventy flames.
“Sinners,” a harsh,
languid voice spoke its opinion of them.
They saw the speaker as the
nuclei of the light moved to meet them. Neil noticed that he was
five foot seven, wearing a t-shirt and hiking pants, but with a
deformity of the mouth that caused his speech to be both garbled and
rasping.
“Join John, for I lead the
humble to paradise, if only you will repent.” The four targets of
his speech had to lean forward to decipher the words from the noise
that the voice made.
“I'm not sure what we have
to repent of,” said Neil.
“Of the love of technology
that draws us away from the reality of living, and turns our eyes
away from the face of God.”
“And where is the paradise
that you are leading these people to?”
John appeared distracted for
he did not answer, but a follower who stood nearby said, “To the
land of milk and honey, 'Frisco.”
Neil opened his mouth to
reply, but John pounced upon Stephen, shrieking, “What foulness do
you carry!”
The bubble of light
condensed as the crowd moved to watch, as the two men wrestled in the
sand. Stephen had been fingering the phone in his pocket, and now he
clutched it like it was his only child, as John scrabbled and
scratched at the defending hands.
In triumph the prophet stood
with the phone raised, and as his followers cheered he dashed it upon
a rock. While Stephen collected the broken pieces and wept, John
said “Let the vile be destroyed, for it was this that brought the
act of God upon us.”
“Hey! Who do you think
you are, that you can act so crazy” said Neil.
John looked at him with the
fire glinting off his eyes. “Our greatest error was assuming that
we were sane to begin with.”
Neil clenched and unclenched
his fists, unsure whether to act.
“Hey I know you!”
someone said, grabbing the silent man and trying to draw him closer
into the light. The speaker fell to the ground, knocked down by a
blow from the woman, but all eyes had been drawn to the pair.
“It's the president,” a
voice said, and the rest took up the words, so that it rolled back
and forth, competing the waves. This time, as John grappled the
president, his followers blocked the woman from intervening.
“It's a reckoning,” said
John. “God acted to prevent a terrible evil, and it is upon you
that the evil falls. You and others like you.”
“God didn't do anything,”
said Thomas, the ex-president, “The sun released a massive solar
flare. The news announced it minutes before it reached earth. You
must have seen the story.”
He looked around for
confirmation, and Neil nodded.
“There is no guilt on my
head, for a solar flare.” Thomas said.
Then John's frothing,
misshapen face, transformed and for the first time he seemed lucid.
“I had a dream that
night,” he began, “and I saw humanity, great and terrible,
devouring the earth and each other. Worse, I saw the hour of mankind
approaching, for the appeal of abominable weapons was too much to be
resisted by those who hold them. Framed in light, God waited for the
moment, and it came. As desire and hate grew, the knowledge to love
your brother as yourself failed, and men in high castles began a
process by which fire would engulf the world. I saw the tears of
God, shining like the torches in the night. I saw him cry light into
the darkness. For though he loved the liberty he gave to us, he
loved our joy more. And the agony that he suffered to condemn to
death so many, that he might rescue a remnant, was immeasurable. To
sacrifice many that a few might carry on. He prevented a nuclear
war.”
“You're saying that God
caused the solar flare,” said Neil.
“I am.”
“That's crazy.”
“What did I already say
about insanity?"
Neil observed a subtle
change in John's speech as the topic changed.
“We won't follow you,”
Neil said, pointing at himself and Stephen. “We are content here.”
Thomas and the woman also
declined, and some of the crowd made to abuse them, but John said.
“Let the sinners wallow
and not follow. Let them decry their sins or let them lie. We
leave them to God.”
The light moved on as the
four sat watching, and listening to the waves.
Neil said, “We're better
than John claimed. The world has changed, but it hasn't ended.
Humanity will continue on as it always has; loving, suffering,
believing, and searching. No better or worse than before.”
Then he noticed that Thomas
was weeping and he said to him.
“What is wrong, sir?”
With hunched shoulders and
tears falling, gleaming with the pale moon light, Thomas said,
“It wasn't in the news
yet. They had just began to bombard the city, and the armor was soon
to follow. They had their finger hovering over the trigger, as did I.
Then the solar flare hit. Had I already pressed the button? Am I
guilty or was I saved?”
Neil and Stephen stood with
eyes wide open, drinking in the light in the dark.
And the sea lapped
ceaselessly at the shore.
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