running with the squirrels in my mind by D.A.Sanford - HTML preview

Readers be advised

Warning: Contains adult content due to graphic descriptions of any or all of the following:

Battles, Language, Sexual

 

Both the cover and images in this book are not photographs or hand drawn art. They were created using AI text to graphics programs by the author.

 

Running with the squirrels in my mind © 2026 D. A. Sanford All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the author or publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

 

for permission from the author contact danielsanford@sbcglobal.net

 

When you read this, always know that these stories are the squirrels I run with in my mind. You never know where we end up. You, somewhere when you least suspect it, may even find yourself in a story or two.

 

Sanctuary destroyed?

It was a beautiful summer day as I drove to my retired part time job. Windows open, it was a leisurely drive through the country roads. I came to a section where there were dozens of cars and trucks parked. All had bike racks. There are trails throughout the woods and they were all enjoying themselves. At least some of them.

I look at them then I shake my head. They are the same as those who climb Mt.

Everest. Back in the fifties and earlier, there were only a few that were allowed to climb that mountain. Only a few made it to the top. Today they have traffic jams. Lines of people bringing their trash and waiting for their photo on the top.

The biggest thing is that they look like a trail of ants coming and going from a sugar source. These ants are just discarding their trash. That includes those who died on the way up or down. The once beautiful mountain is now like the rest of our world, trashed.

Back to those bike riders. You can see some who are mad. Those may have been the first ones. They may have talked about how nice it was. Then the ants show up.

This is our lot. There are the ones that explore and those who swarm in and spoil.

I like to talk to people but I am tight lipped on personal things. I have a place that I go to when I feel oppressed. This place is in the woods. A cool spring fed stream and a small natural meadow. It is far off the beaten path. Far away from those convenient just off the road trash trails. I own this whole area.

Around a hundred acres. I have posted it all around. No trespassing, no hunting, no fishing. I do not want the ants to show up.

After seeing, once again, the disrespect those ants have for that trail, I need to escape. I need to go to my haven. It is such a shame that those who profess that they respect nature by riding pedal bikes as they destroy that trail with the discarded trash.

To my horror, I come up to my property and there are the ants. When I come here, I do bring everything including my hunting items. I pull up and pull out my shotgun. Firing a few shots in the air, I yell, “What the hell are you doing on my property?!”

They look both perturbed and panicked. The bold one comes up to me as his others are on the phones. Some are calling the police and others are recording. This one is acting bold.

“We are going to have you arrested. What makes you think that we believe that you are the owner?”

I lower the shotgun down to his chest. “I have this posted as no trespassing. I own these one hundred acres. What part of no trespassing do you not understand. You really are going to regret being here when the police come.”

Soon there is a multitude of wailing sirens. I think that the chief had every car here. The chief gets out and I greet him. That bold one is now not feeling good. The police cars have cordoned off the bikers cars much to the dismay of those who really want to escape.

The chief asks me to lower my shot gun. “John, what is this that I hear. They said that you threatened them. They were just peacefully riding the trails.”

“Yes I threatened them but my shots were into the air. They are trespassing on my property. I want them all arrested. I am pressing charges against all of them.” I point to the trash on the side of the road. “I have not seen what they have done further on my land. I want you and this one to walk their trail with me to record the damage they have done.”

We walk that obvious trail. Now I really am pissed. The stream is now ruined. They drove through it so many times that they have stopped up the spring. They cut up the trees to make a path. The meadow is torn up so bad that it will never be the same.

“Chief, I ask you to leave this one with me. There will be a grave here. This is not respect of nature, it is destruction on an almost unrepairable scale. I want all their names and I claim their bikes and cars as surety. All these nature lovers will be sued for all they own and even that will not recover my costs of fixing this.”

The chief knows that I mean everything I said. He knows what he has seen. He hand cuffs the man and orders all to be arrested. “Call for tows. We are impounding all vehicles including the bikes. Criminal trespass with wanton destruction. Also call EPA.

They need to come over and record the conditions. That spring destruction alone will range in the hundreds of thousands.”

The bold one is now realizing that his nature respecting is going to make him the pariah, along with all those ants that think that they can destroy that nature they claimed to respect. All that said, between my law suit and the EPA, all of them are broke. All no longer have those impounded cars and bikes. They were mine.

The news people were there when I had all those expensive bikes lined up and I have a pavement roller run them over repeatedly until they were completely destroyed. This was only the start of my problems. People from both sides are at that secluded refuge of mine.

One side is trespassing trying to repair the damage but they are causing more damage.

The other side is now, at night, trashing the area. This area is now no longer mine.

There are more people here than one of those public trails.

Everest all over again. I have no other recourse. With the money I received from the settlement, I ceded the land to the town that it was in. Let them do what they want to do with it. I am so disappointed in my fellow man that I had to quit that part time job. It was only to be able to interact with the customers but they started to restrict me to the back room. They do not like the protests in front of the store. That is why I quit.

I even have my home on the market.

My life is ruined by those privileged trespassers.

Now I have a month to month rental in another state. I am using the internet maps to find somewhere in the wilderness to buy. This time, I will live there. I already had purchased an excavator. This time, there will be no police, no press, no trace.

Finding the area I want, I drove to it. I like what I see. Through a lawyer, I now own it. It has been surveyed and a tall chain link fence is in place a few hundred feet off the road.

One gate and the fence is electrified by solar panels.

I did have the local police notified that this was an area that is and will be protected by force if needed. I made sure that this area had laws that give me the right to defend myself and my property. I do have some phantom weapons that will prove that I was fired upon.

Signs are now up, including that there are no public trails.

My home is a modest log home that I had built. It has been built like a fortress. I do not want anyone here. Yes, I am antisocial. Why shouldn’t I be. That was my property where I felt comfortable. That space was violated, ruined and my life was ruined. I had to flee.

This time I do not want anyone here. Not even my relatives. They also turned on me.

Most wanted part or all of the settlement. They were in need. Yea, in need of the money.

They all hired lawyers to get me to give them my money. I won all including court cost.

There were added threats from others, that is also why I ran.

What a world.

This is why I am now so sour on my fellow man.

I now live here exclusively. Grow my own vegetables. Hunt my meat. I only go into a neighboring town for those things that I cannot grow or make myself. I do make sure that I do not go directly back. I feel the need to make myself look entirely different when I go.

You may ask why go to those lengths? The mounting number of drones I have shot down tells you why. It seems that my fence is drawing attention from those who are so nosy that they need to invade my space. It is time consuming but I have the need to patrol my fence line to make sure that no one cuts their way in.

When in town, I am almost paranoid. That person is staring at me for a long period. That car behind is following me. Thoughts like that are what constantly fill my mind. Why won’t they let me just live in peace. There are still articles being written about how evil I was for ruining those innocent rider’s lives. They are on the web saying that they may have found me.

I was the one who was wronged. Finally I had enough. The police were at my gate and using a bull horn telling me that I had to come to the gate. I was being served for destroying those drones. The police have been getting complaints.

“I own all the land around here. I protect my land. Those drones are just to find me. The trail bike community has a reward for anyone that can locate me. They will do the same thing that drove me out of my last property. You tell them that it is within my legal rights to defend myself and my property.”

I tell them more but I am on my side of the locked gate. I know that my time here is short. They have found me and now the harassment is starting. You see, this world now has only two sides to it. The majority of us that just want to live our lives as we please and that minority that wants to eliminate all those who do not think the way they do.

I am the criminal because I hate the way they respect nature. Ants rule.

I woke up one morning to the sound of chainsaws. It sounds like dozens of them. I go towards the sound and there are people on the other side of my fence doing whole sale strip clearing of the trees up to my fence. What they do not care about is that the few hundred feet beyond that fence is still my land.

My shots fired causes them to stop but now the police are here again trying to arrest me. “Why are you allowing them to destroy my trees on my property? I still own two hundred feet beyond this fence.” I take my phone out and call my lawyer.

He shows up with a cease and desist order from the court. He tells the police that this is an illegal strip cutting and against the governmental forestry regulations. He demands to see the permits. Those who were cutting have now run and drove away leaving the police holding the bag.

Investigations found that some of those police were in on the side of the riders. Now I actually am mad. If this is the route they are going to take, I will defend myself.

First, we are suing the town for collusion. The police that were enabling those ones that cut my trees down. Second the riders association. They publicly sanctioned the reward for locating me. Those ones that cut the trees were all card holders in that association.

Third is that I now own the remainder of that forest.

To escape the lawsuit that we filed against the state, I was granted my own township and the right to create my own laws, as long as they do not violate the state laws. Now the law is posted on my town’s boarders that trespassers will be shot and buried at the town’s expense. All property belonging to trespassers will be confiscated for the towns disposal.

Again the news has picked up on this. Again I am being painted as the villain but now others are saying that what I state is actually within the state law. “If you do not like it, change the law.

That is not going to happen because most of the private land owners are posting the same. They too are fed up with the so called entitled ants violating their land. This was further driven home when the news broke that the state head of that riders association now has similar signs posted on his land.

The dirt trackers and others are now angry with the bike riders because they too are cut off. It seems that both the state and federal now have banned all cross country vehicles, including the snowmobiles on government lands including state parks..

When interviewed, I told them that my attitude was caused by those ones that destroyed my first sanctuary. Destroyed a spring fed stream. Destroyed my peaceful meadow. Cut my trees to make a path. All in the name of respecting nature. “None of what has happened would have happened if those ones had obeyed the no trespassing signs.”

I gave the names of each. “If they had not done that, I would not have left that state.

Now they tried again to drive me out. Invaded my land, cut my trees, invaded my air space, invaded my privacy all because those ones could not obey a simple sign. You want someone to blame, you have their names. You want a solution, just leave me alone. It is that simple.”

Back at the gate of my now town, there were protesters on the road. As long as they are on the road, I have no problem. That was until the shot rang out and I felt the bullet graze my arm. All but the shooter were on the ground. A shot later, that shooter was on the ground.

The problem with humans, we do not learn our lessons. The phrase that says it all is

“No matter how many times I cut this board, it’s still too short.”

All over this country, people keep on cutting. Protests, riots, shootings and all the while, the politicians are arguing about removing weapons from the public. Almost all can agree that I am the cause but cannot agree on anything else.

This country is falling into civil war over a trespass law. They decided to make it illegal to claim no trespassing on private land, with the exception on a governmental official’s property. Of course. They have painted a target on themselves from all the home owners, ranch owners and such. What they forgot to include was exemption from trespasser’s injury law suits.

Soon it is really breaking down. Cities cannot get the produce and meat because those are not being released. Those big conglomerates are protesting that new law. Repeal or go hungry. Deeper and deeper we sink.

At least the focus is finally off me. I now declare my town sovereign. I am a country unto my own self. Problem is, now people are at the gate requesting asylum. Some have made wooden ladders and are climbing over my fence. Trying to blend in with the woods as not to draw my attention.

They do. The ones that have brought bikes are thrown out with the warning that they will be shot if found here again. A few are now fertilizer because they told me that I had no right to shoot them. They were wrong.

I cannot and will not leave my property. The few I have allowed to settle all know that anymore must be met with hostile force. “Shoot the buggers. We can only support so many.”

I have, unfortunately, a greater portion of those who try to settle on my land have no idea what is required on their part to survive. It may seem callous of me but when they come complaining that they don’t have this or that. Where are my stores? They need to shop for food. My answer to them is that they need to grow and hunt for themselves.

This is getting ridiculous. I now see that the ants are here. There is no avoiding them.

Another sanctuary lost. This time though, there is a mountain towards the back of my land. I have found a very large cave system. When the start of this was happening, I decided to wall up the opening. This is going to be my last resort. There is now a very

thick metal door on the opening with a remote lock system. Almost all my food is stored there. There is an underground stream for my water. Many hidden ventilation pipes.

Enough wood to make it through the worst winter.

How far have I had to go to just be allowed to be left alone. I now have completely moved everything in here and shut the door. Now the ants want in. Fortunately, I did not make my living area anywhere near the entrance. There are several lockable doors between the outside door and my living area.

I have now lived in here for quite a few months. What the ants have not found is the cameras that are set up around the area. They have small solar panels to charge them and wifi. I have been able to monitor the area around the outside door.

After many tried to break down the door and failed, I now have seen the mob being reduced down to a trickle then none. There has now been no one for a few months. The cameras have fallen victim to fires that has swept through my land.

Winter has passed. Spring is starting to show but only through the snow melting. I have not seen any sign of life that would herald spring’s arrival. There has been no evidence of people here. With the outside temperature rising, I decide to come out of my hide.

The weird thought went through my mind. “Am I now the groundhog?”

Outside air is nice but there is a strange smell in the air. I go back in and get the emergency gas mask I have. Just in case there is an agent in the air that killed all life. I find the source of the foul smell. There are human bodies that must have died during the winter and now have thawed.

I roam and find that my fence, for the most part, has been destroyed. Camps were set up but the same. People are dead and rotting. Most show no sign of injuries. I now feel the need to retreat back to the hide. I need my gear.

On the way back, panic is setting in. Over and over, in my mind, it is almost a chant, “I should have suited up. I should have brought that testing gear I had. I should have… I’m going to die.”

I again seal myself in and wait to die from whatever is out there. I don’t die. After a few weeks, just to make sure that I didn’t catch whatever killed them, I reemerged but this time I do look like those who work in those bio labs. Full suit with a back pack air purifier.

Getting to the road, more dead. Some have very faded signs that basically say bikers rule death to all others death to me. It hits me. Some of the ants are fanatics.

Before I went into lock down, there were reports of our governments busting bio labs in our country that were actually being run by one of our enemies. Could this be a release from one of them before they were found?

Now I am driving towards the local town. There is no one, or I should say, no one alive.

Bodies are everywhere. That does include animals. Whatever it is, all wildlife is also dead. It did its job too well.

After coming to the conclusion that the brief time I spent without the mask and protective gear on it must have been a short time virulent agent because of the fact that I am still alive. I now feel that I do need to drive to a larger town. For now, I will not go into a city.

Everywhere is the same. Dead, no living thing with the exception of the plant life. Now I feel that I may be the only one alive. At least in this country. I have decided to take off this suit. Let it take me if it is still around. I do say, out loud, that even the ants are gone.

It has now been a few weeks without the suit and I am alive. There are newspapers still within the supermarkets that are dated back in the late fall. The world was falling apart.

Countries that have gone silent. Reports of mass die offs of wildlife. With all that, there is a story that the culprit of all this was holed up in a bunker on his property. ME!

Isn’t that something. With what was their dying breaths, they pinned this all on me. Not on the disrespect those ants showed no trespassing signs. I now have what I sought out, peace. Now I am back at my original home.

That was burnt down. I went to my original sanctuary. That was completely destroyed by off roaders, bikes and such. It appears that as people were dying, they knew I was going to survive, so they wanted to leave me a parting shot. Not trying to make amends.

I had read a fictional story about a man who was on a road that everyone on that road was just walking mindlessly in one direction. That direction was a very long loop.

Shuffling along, on that road, with the only thought being they had to blend in. On one side of the road, down a bank was a dirt path with a lone person on it. He would sing off key and call out to those walking on that road to come on down. He had a few but most just did not hear him.

I now can see that those who did this are on that road. That road is the one that the lost ones, the ones that only think of themselves, are on. That is me. I am also on that road.

We are just like those sheep circles that were in those videos shown on the web.

Following the one in front of them endlessly.

Why do I hear someone singing off key and inviting me down to that path?

The next thing that I realize is that I am tumbling down the embankment. I do not even know how this happened. How did I get on that road in the first place?

“You got there because you took that road in life.” The man casually said to me. “You ran away. You were not driven away by those ants as you called them. You never tried to come to terms with what you saw. You mindlessly pursued the vengeance course. I’ll get back at them! You crushed their bikes. You stole from them just like they stole from you. That fence in my woods was the cause of them finding you. Those signs said keep out. You posted signs that said ‘here I am.”

I look at him as he talks and realize that it was exactly as he said. I never tried to mitigate a solution. I fired my shotgun. I had them arrested. I ruined their lives in revenge. As he is talking it is hitting me in my very soul. The ‘I should haves’ are filling my now empty clear mind.

This whole thing really was my fault. If only I walked them through the area and showed them that they needed to fix what they ruined. Show them an area far away from where I held as a sanctuary. Told them that, if they respected that land. If they set up a system for the regular trash pickup. If I had them gain respect for those trails, this whole world die off may have been avoided.

I see that the man had stopped talking and is just smiling at me. “You have found what you needed. Time for you to wake up from your nightmare.”

It was a beautiful summer day as I drove to my retired part time job. Windows open, it was a leisurely drive through the country roads. I came to a section where there were dozens of cars and trucks parked. All had bike racks. There are trails throughout the woods and they were all enjoying themselves. At least some of them.

I now know exactly what I am going to do. Today, I am going to skip work. Driving to the local box hardware store, I bought all the large metal wire trash cans they had. I drove back to that trail and talked to the ones that looked mad. I recognize that group. They are the ones that were at my sanctuary.

Pulling out the trash cans, I tell them, “I could see that you must be the ones that cleared this trail. I saw your disgust at all the trash. I bought these trash baskets for you. Set up a few here and along the trail. Talk to those who are riding today about keeping the trail clean so all can enjoy the trail as nature intended it to be enjoyed. Have volunteers who will empty these. Talk to the town. I’m sure that they will be willing to let you dump the trash at their transfer station.”

I see the one that confronted me start to smile. “We started the trail then showed it to a few others. This has gotten out of hand. I thank you. A simple solution for the complex problem we were having.”

They do just that. Talk with all. I now see that they have a schedule for riders. Only a certain metered number of riders rather that a mob. No traffic jams. They now wave at me as I pass them. I stop and talk. They thank me for what I have done for them.

“I do wish we had a larger area.” Their leader said to me. ”People now enjoy this place but it is small. We need to find a larger area. We found one but is has no trespassing signs all over. It would be nice for multiple trails. I wish we could contact the owner.”

These are not the arrogant group I pulled up on. I am going to put the olive branch out to them.

“if it is the property that I think you mean, you found him.”

Sure enough he tells me the area and it is my land. I ask his core group to come with me. As we go, I tell them that the reason it is posted is because of that small trail they had. I told them of my feelings on Mt. Everest. On the ants and such. Much to my amusement, the leader tells me that he has seen documentaries on how they even leave the dead there. I could tell that they all were disgusted at the thought.

I stop were I usually stop. “I’m going to trust your group. I own one hundred acres here.

I am going to show you my sanctuary portion of this forest. I ask you to respect it.”

They marveled at the spring fed stream and the meadow. “I want you to imagine those Mt. Everest ants swarming all over this. Picture it in your minds, what would it look like?

All of you have taken a drink from that stream. This meadow is paradise to me. I come here to unburden myself. Think of how you would feel, if you owned this land, if the ants destroyed your paradise. I show you this because I am going to trust you. These ten acres will be a no trails zone. Your people must respect that because, if they do not, I will take back the access I am going to give you to the upper fifty acres. These lower fifty acres are hiking only.”

We go to the end of my property. “I will clear an area that will hold let’s say one hundred vehicles. You are the trusties, the controllers of this area. I will provide one hundred of those trash bins. There will be a dumpster that you will place the trash in. I will pay but that company will have your group as custodians. You will call to have an empty delivered and the full taken away. I expect that you will institute a sticker admission program. Those who want to ride here need to read and sign the rules that you set up.

Charge an admission, per person, so you can pay for the porta potties. Those will be yours to hire. I don’t need to say how it will make for unpleasant odors with everybody defecating along the trail.”

They are besides themselves. This is more than they could have dreamed of. They go on to form an official board to govern over the trails they made. The land is very well

taken care of. They have their rules and actually have stripped some of their stickers for violating the rules. I now allow walkers to enter my paradise. They all are almost reverent. When they see me there, all they do is nod to me. I wave back and most times I invite them to sit while I tell them a tale of anger verses anger. Lands destroyed.

This has reached those organizations in the rider communities. It is held up as the true way of showing the respect of the land. Those organizations are now condemning those who do not follow this example.

As a side note, I do hear occasional off key singing of an individual who happens to have his own path through this land. I am quite sure that the road that those ants are constantly walking on to blend in is also here.

Every so often, there is a bewildered stranger that will walk into my meadow. I offer them a drink and tell them of my tale. Then I tell them that they need to follow that man’s advice. “I did!” then I smile as I hear him sing louder. You would think that someone of his stature would be able to sing on key.

Then I will hear his voice say loud and clear that it is to show that even he is not perfect.

 

Wanderers

All babies born are held by the seer. That seer is able to tell what the baby’s future is in regards to their profession. Parents anticipate and dread this moment. Hero, politician, hunter, assassin, farmer and so on. The seer will not hold back what she sees. There is only one that will make the parents abandon that baby. Some parents have even killed that one. It is considered merciful, even by the governing bodies of the worlds.

The birth room becomes one of great despair when she pronounces the baby a wanderer.

To be born a wanderer is a doomed life. You are normal. Right up to the age of twenty, you are normal. Any time after that age, the person will just stop, like the soul has departed and just wander. Never to speak, eat or drink, they will live for years this way.

The wanderer will be looking at everything and everyone. It is a common thing to have your door open and have a wanderer just walk in, spot something and just stand and watch.

The meal can be cooking and the wanderer will just stand there until the dishes are cleaned, then just walk out. If an activity catches their eye, they will watch until it is finished. Yes even the sex act between lovers.

At a certain time, they will walk to the magistrate’s office. Usually at night. When the office is opened, there on the steps is a book and a recording. You see, the wanderer records all that they see and hear. Once full of those observations, they just seem to turn into a leather bound book and a narration of what is written in the book.

Not even their name is in that record.

The birth parents never know when or where it happens. This is why some kill those babies. It is considered mercy. Especially for the parents. Even in the act, there may be a wanderer watching. That one’s parents held out the hope that their child will be the one that never becomes an active wanderer. No one that has been declared at birth to be a wanderer, has not transformed into that walking thing.

The world, because of these unfortunates, does not have very much faith in the gods.

How could a god allow this to happen? What the world doesn’t know is that the book and recording is not what the wanderer is. That is only what that one leaves behind.

They all go bodily to the gods and give their complete, unbiased reports. The book and recording are the transcripts.

In the god’s realm, what they saw is also now visually recorded and stored for the final evaluation of that world.

Once reports are done, that person is placed on another world. They are given the knowledge of what they saw and heard as a wanderer. Also the memories of their life before their birth as a wanderer but their life before they turned. They become the sage of that world. Respected, revered but they will never allow themselves to be worshiped.

From rebirth until they take their final breath, they know. They just know.

How do I know this? I too was a wanderer in my old life. At age twenty, I was helping in the field when I heard in my head the voice tell me that it was time for me to start my observations. The voice told me of my special duty and what the final outcome of this would be. I was told that I was one of many that were asked if we would accept this as atonement for a previous life where we were rotten people.

I remember being totally evil. I robbed, stole, and killed. I was shot and killed during one of my robberies. My wanderer role would be to watch and record happy. What the people do not know is that we willingly accept this task.

These tasks are to record life in all its natural acts. Even to record the horrors. I am sure that my previous life had to be recorded by a few watchers. That may be how I was tasked to record happy. I had caused so much sadness.

There are those who were greedy that record poverty. A glutton will record starvation. All these were accepted fates by the person. Again to atone for a previous life’s misconduct.

It did take me years to accumulate all that I needed to learn what I had missed. My cruelty made me miss some of the simplest things that really would have made me happy. My life had been one of always looking over my shoulder. Always avoiding my enemy, the light.

You see, a wonderer is only filled up when they finally realize the error of that past life.

Mine took me almost two years on that world to figure that out.

Before I go into my life after my report, I first must go into my life before I turned at the age of twenty in that field.

After the initial shock and despair my parents felt upon the condemning news that their new born son was doomed, they did take care of me. Obvious because I grew up but there was not the same love that my older brothers and younger sisters had. They loved me but it was also a sadness. There also was some undertone of how could I do this to our family. My siblings picked up on this and they, when my parents were not looking would bully me.

As a wanderer, it was allowable for the parents or the pre wanderer to leave that family.

When I turned twelve, I left to be on my own. I just walked out the door, like I usually did and never went home.

I mostly did those odd jobs that no one really liked to do. I would work for mostly room and board. My clothes were always the cast offs that others had. Slop the hogs. Empty the outhouse or dig another then filling the old one in.

I worked in the fields. I never really questioned why. I knew that the vital jobs were for those who would not become wandering dead. I would see them and they always would come over to me and watch.

My mind would always come to the same conclusion when I saw one watching. Since I was not killed as an infant, they may be the only comfort I have. The conditions that the simple pronunciation of the curse of being declared a wanderer caused when you realize you receive before you turn is worse than what you receive after.

The difference between almost scorned to being tolerated. Un molested and just accepted as a wandering corpse. The strange thing is, you never saw the same wanderer a second time but I have heard that the books they leave are on one type of activity or person.

The other thing that I noticed was that even their clothes and shoes are no longer hand me downs. They always are clean and the clothes are never worn out. Too hot or too cold, it does not affect them. Being a future wanderer, that is a comfort.

At the very least, I will not be walking around in torn rags or even naked. Not that I would even notice when I change.

As I said, I only did the menial tasks. Those tasks that did not require brains, just brawn.

I was used to being just an expendable. It was not a bother to be used. I will say that we are not abused as labor.

That was when I heard the voice and was changed,

Contrary to the popular belief, we wanderers were not just blank walking dead books, we are still aware of everything. How do you think we choose what we watch. We do not speak. We do not have the human emotions of avaricious, envy, and all those overpowered emotions.

True, we are recorders but as I said earlier, we are still living, thinking beings. The exception is that we have a predisposition to not have any internal emotions when we became wanderers. That way we could objectively record the activity we were

observing. If we did not have that, how could we watch the misery, the events of killing a just born because it was declared a wanderer.

I realized what I missed in that evil life. I saw all the enjoyment I could have had. I realized that I was such an idiot. Family was the riches I had never noticed. I wanted but never saw those riches no one could take from me.

I had let that world confuse me. Divisions pushed by those who pulled the strings. They told you why you were inferior, why you were lacking and who else was the blame. They gave you the people who put you in the situation you are in, who you needed to get back at.

I fell for it all. I was the one that listened. I, of my own free will, became that evil I was. I knew that I deserved that death I had. Presented with oblivion, I chose the wanderers life.

When I realized that, I went to the magistrate’s office and dropped my book and transcript. The second it was set on that step, I was in front of those who sent me. They were now smiling. In an instant they had all that I saw and heard. Why are they smiling at me?

They told me that it was my task to find my real self. Not that one that was controlled by puppeteers. My realization that all those enjoyments that I thought money would solve were falsehoods. Friends and families are those riches, love of all people are those riches.

Racism, envy and all that went with it were the evil. I was told that I had come to understand that on my own. That is why the wanderers are impersonal. Each has to come to a nonemotional realization of what was wrong with their own previous life. Most took longer than I did.

Then I was told that I was one of the quickest to come to the point of the watcher. I was going to be the one to change a world. I was needed urgently there. I was instructed that I was to only tell the truth. I was to correct something that was a curse.

I was going to be returned to the world I grew up on. The greatest thing that was needed is the explanation of the wanderers.

This threw me but they continued to tell me that I was going back as I was when I first left that field. I was to return to my parents and siblings. This will shock them. They will be the first I will relate my full tale to. Then they are to start to gather the list they gave me.

That list was mainly all the seers. They will be required to go to all those parents of new born and those yet to be born. They will relate what you will tell them. I was told that I will personally go to those who are living and, in front of all that will gather, tell my tale.

Being a wanderer is doing penitence for a previous life of evil. To kill one of those babies is to rob that soul of that chance. That soul would have to go through another birth to have its chance to see just what it missed.

I was given some more instructions but then they came over to me and touched me. I felt power coming into me. I now knew that I had received the gift of no one being able to hurt me to silence me for disrupting the natural course of the world i.e. giving relevance to wanderers.

That is also for the seers to be able to divine that I am telling only what was told to me by the gods. In that way, they know that this is a revelation from the gods themselves.

Not blasphemy.

Now I am back on the world that I left. I know that it is only a few hours after I left the books. My old family home is in the next village so I start walking in that direction. I should be there by sunrise.

On the way, I see a house lit up in the dark. I feel that I need to enter that home. There is wailing of a baby and of the parents. The seer has pronounced that the baby is a wanderer. They all come to a halt when I enter that room.

The seer takes one look at me and takes to the knee. The people in the room are looking at her and then to me.

“Seer, get up off your knees. Only the gods are to be worshiped. You know who I am so please tell these people as to whether what I will say is truth or a falsehood.”

The seer is visibly shaken. “He is of the gods. He is a messenger to our world. He is a wanderer.”

“She is correct in telling you that I am a wanderer. I had completed my task but instead of sending me to another world, they sent me back to tell the truth of the wanderers.”

I tell them that they are the first and need to spread the word. I told them everything including the murder of an infant was denying some lost soul a chance to atone for a previous life. By the time I was done, the seer along with the parents were crying tears of joy.

They now had my truth confirmed by that seer. They now realized that it was not a curse to have a child deemed a wanderer. It really was a blessing to the parents to help a lost one to find the right path.

I tell them, especially to the seer, that they are the first. “You have an obligation to all wanderers, to tell everyone what you have been told.” I touch the seer and she has now fainted. To the parents I tell them to tell the seer that she now has the mark. Any of her practice will know that she has the mark of the gods and that mark is a sign that she will only tell the truth.

I tell them that I need to be on my way. “Isn’t this what a normal wanderer does? The only difference is that I talk.”

With that, I leave and continue my walk.

It is a little after dawn when that home was before me. The house that I was born in.

That house that my presence had such a sad effect on them that I had to leave. I bear no ill towards them but, as the gods said, they need to hear what has to be told to them.

Knowing what I needed to do, I just stood there at the gate and watched the house. I gave the impression that I was still the same emotionless being.

Soon there was stirring and my mother came out to feed the chickens and gather the eggs. One look at me and she dropped the basket then covered her face with her apron and screamed. She knew exactly who I was. She started to run back into the house.

“Mother, please do not be afraid. I am your son.”

That stops her in her tracks as my father came out to see what she was screaming about.

“Father it is I, your wanderer son.”

Another thing that the gods gave me is the glow. I start to glow and then, in a calming voice, I tell them that I do bring them good news that will drive any sorrow away. I open the gate and walk towards the door. All this time, they were backing up away from me.

I tell them to sit but now the two youngest girls have come down from their rooms. They also gasp at the sight of me. No wanderer has ever shown up at the parents door. This is a portent of doom to them.

When they do not die from the occurrence, I start to tell them of what I did when I left them. How I was in the field when I turned. The details of my observations. Then the thing that they were struck dumb when they heard.

“Wanderers are still aware of themselves while they observe but they know of their past life. You see, we must be silent and emotionless to watch what we are required to watch. We do not age, we do not hunger or thirst. We have no emotions. That is so our observations are totally unbiased.”

I go on to tell them that the books left are not the wanderer. That is why there is no name in that book. That person is finished only when they realize the folly of that past life and see what they missed.

“That soul is reborn to another world to lead a very happy productive life. I am the first and only one so far to be returned to their birth world. Our world has sanctioned murder of babies as mercy. I am here to tell you that it is a crime against the gods and against that soul. You have robbed that soul of their chance to atone.”

The door had been left open and the seer of the village, that seer that pronounced me a wanderer, is here and she is just crying. She knows everything. She knows that I have been sent as a messenger.

She tells my parents that I have stood before the gods and have been judged pure. I was chosen by them to right a egregious wrong done to those souls that were killed.

She is crying as she states that some souls have had to be reborn numerous times.

Some actually still are being reborn for the fifth or sixth time. That is tearing her apart.

I walk over to her and comfort her by letting her cry on my shoulder. I stroke her hair and just tell her that she did not know. “No one knew. That is why you are here. You are now to spread the news. They are not cursed by no means. Those parents are blessed because they give that soul a new life for the purpose of healing an old life.”

I tell the others that I want the whole village to gather. “I will tell them exactly what I told you. There will be one that is very offended and will shoot me. I want you all to stand and watch. I will be shot through but will heal instantly. I will compel that one to come forward and I will forgive that one.

That one will also be special. To live a long life and proclaim that he has seen the error of his way without the need to be reborn as a wanderer. He will go on to be a champion of the wanderers. He, as you all now need to do, will greet a wanderer as one in need of comfort. Let them into our life when they choose to pay attention to you. What you do is what is recorded in the gods books.

They are still alive.”

This revelation is mind blowing for them. They see that I am genuine. I am that son whom they felt remorse in letting him live knowing his fate. Now they know that it was

the only choice. To their horror, they also realize that it was only comfort to those misguided parents, not mercy to that soul who they denied that chance to heal.

They now have forgotten all they intended to do. The morning chores could wait. They had a mission. They had to gather the people. With that drive, each went in different directions. All were able to gather all in that village, including my older brothers.

I stand in front of them and tell them about the true identity, the true purpose of the wanderers. Everything that happened to me. The seer at intervals told the gathered that what I was saying came directly from the gods through their messenger.

We heard the oldest of my brothers start to yell at me, “This is total blasphemy. You are an abomination. Die you devil from hell!”

He fires his hand gun and the bullet punctures through my mid chest. A clear heart shot but I stood there and in an instant, I healed. People grabbed him and were going to kill him. They knew that I was telling them the truth. What they did not know was that he still had the hatred of what he and his parents went through having a wanderer for a brother.

I stop them from hurting him. “He has baggage from my birth. He was tormented by the other children about having a walking dead as a brother. Those left him scarred. That is why he did what he did.”

They brought him to me. As I reach out for him, I say to him but for the benefit of those gathered. “I forgive you for shooting me. I am so sorry for what you endured and ask for your forgiveness. As a wanderer I now take those hurts and emotions unto myself in the gods name.”

I hug him. He is shivering and then he breaks down. The emotions that have been removed are having the effect of seeing this new world through new eyes. He straightens up, a new man, First he goes to those in the crowd that were those children who taunted him. Each, he extended his hand and asked forgiveness for the resentment he felt that they did not have to suffer his families fate.

He does not need to have them ask for his forgiveness because he can see now that he was actually the lucky one. His brother is the only wanderer to return to this world. He had stood before the gods and was blessed. He now was passing that blessing on to others.

The rest of his life, he always went out of his way to greet each wanderer that he met.

Knowing what he knows, wanderers were a common occurrence at his home. He knew that he was going to be a lesson. He knew that they were being directed to him. Each time, after a warm greeting, he made sure that he told the tale of how he shot the messenger but was forgiven.

He would always end with the same advice and wish.

“May you soon realize that your past life’s errors are in the past. Choose not to follow that path. Learn from what you witness.”

Each wanderer would always not leave until he finished his wish.

When it was his time to stand before the gods, he was greeted with large smiles as they opened the door to the final life.

My world changed. Slowly at first but now they see it as a celebration when a seer proclaims a baby a wanderer. There is a soul to heal. They nurture those children with the knowledge that they will meet them in the final life. It is a tradition now to throw a large party a week before the twentieth birthday. A kind of going away party.

All now are greeted when they turn. Each mother knows that they are still alive inside. A lot of mothers give a kiss on the cheek of a wanderer and will say the name of their wanderer. Fathers have been known to shake the hand of the wanderer in lieu of their own.

They now are seen, by parents of a wanderer as proxy parents for that one while they are in that village.

The gods now see that the amount of time that the wanderers stay on this world is going down to no more than a year. They have started to ask those who have completed their task if they would like to be reborn on another world or return to this world as they were when they completed their quest.

Almost all ask to return.

This world is now held up, by the gods, as an example of how sometimes things can, on face value, seem to be a curse but when you dig down you will see the blessing instead.

 

Stolen glory

There was a child that, even at a young age, saw an old man in his neighborhood that was alone. At first it was all those questions that a young child of eight had. This man had a garden and a small green house. That green house was attached to the rather large barn.

He watched that old man tend to the garden and the plants in the greenhouse. Now the old man started to tell the boy what each plant is and what it needed to thrive. Flowers to vegetables, the boy was absorbing it all.

You see, his own parents were absorbed in themselves. They each had their own inner turmoil. He would lay in his bed while they verbally fought with each other, mostly over the finances. The father worked all the time while his mother spent. The local finance company was always there to lend them money.

The old man knew of their almost disinterest in the boy. Now he treated the boy with a sympathetic interest. He started a secret bank account and told the boy not to mention it to his parents.

The reason for that was that the boy had his first love. In that barn, covered with almost fifty years of dust, was a car that the old man owned but put away one day. He never touched it until the boy asked him about it. It was a muscle car called Road Runner. A faded yellow convertible with small rust pimples in the paint.

The old man started to pay the now eleven year old for his help around his house.

Weeding, mowing but also helping others on that street. He did this because he gave the boy the car. Told him that he could work on it in his spare time.

The boy grew. He helped, he watched and studied the manuals that the old man had. At first it was watching the old man. Listening to everything he instructed him on. Then he would be tasked of different things but especially respect for all safety things. Jack stands before working underneath. Using the right tool for the job. Not what was handy at the time.

The boy learned that a few times by skinning his knuckles. Blood, sweat, he worked on it in that barn. He was determined that he was going to make a survivor rather than a restoration.

Even though he told his parents about the car, sometime to the point that they told him to shut up, they really did not believe that it was going to be his. His father saw it as free labor to the old man. He went to the old man and confronted him about just that.

The father was stunned when he was shown the title. It already had been signed over to the boy. The only thing was that the boy needed a driver’s license to officially register it.

The only comment the father had was that it was a piece of shit and walked away.

The old man had friends that had been trying to get him to sell the Road Runner to them or have him restore it. Seeing that their friend again had life in him, they showed up one day while the boy was doing the task with the old man as observer. They were amazed at the dedication and pride that the old man and the boy had for each other. Soon that yard had cars of all ages parked there. Those people would show up with a part here, a set of new rubber bushings, and such.

The biggest was when the boy was shown how to fix those paint pimples without having to strip the whole car. Hard careful work but it kept the overall original paint that really polished up nice. There was no shortage of help and advice but all knew that they did not step over the relationship that those two had developed. Like grandson and grandfather.

The boy’s father would sometimes drop by. He did not let on that he was amazed at the progress being made. He started to plan. He knew that there was really good money for the car once it was done. There was a plan in his mind forming. After all, he was his father and the boy was a minor.

By the time he finished, he actually got his license. The now sixteen year old was really surprised when his father signed the papers to allow him to get his license. The old man went with him and he passed the test. The same day, they registered the car in the boy’s name.

They went home and now, with the new antique plates, drove around for a while in that restored car. The boy driving and the old man beaming with pride as he instructed him how to respect the power. They both had a wonderful day, There was going to be a show in the next town. He was excited because some of his car people were going to make a caravan with his car in the lead. The people were going to follow him to the car show. He was devastated when they saw the open barn door. The car was gone.

The police came and took all the peoples statements. The throng of those there made sure the police knew all the work this boy put into it. They still want the two to ride with them to the show. It seemed that all those had been talking about what the two did.

They made sure that they did not tell anyone about what type of car it was. That was to be the big surprise.

It turned out that his disinterested in him father took the car for a ride without asking. At the car show, there was his father taking all the credit for the restoration. There he was

and much to the horror of all those who had just arrived, there was a for sale sign on it that said one hundred thousand firm.

The group go up to him and the boy just confronts his father. The boy, to the crowd’s attention, just stands there and asks his father a stinging group of questions about the build that he could not answer. He could not even show that he even knew what most of the official names of integral parts were. Someone that did a major restoration would know at least the proper part names.

The final thing was he asked the crowd to do a license plate check on who the owner was as the boy showed them his identification. It only took a few seconds to see who the actual owner was and that it was reported stolen that morning. By this time, the police were here.

They were going to arrest him but the boy said that he would drop the charges if the father would grant the sixteen year old emancipation. The courts did grant him just that but the old man became what the boy always thought him to be. The old man was now his official grandfather.

His parents split when his mother found out about what he did. It was rumored that she was mad that he did not go further out to sell it. Not the local show where he could be caught. They both moved away from that town.

The now adult is living still at his grandfather’s home with his wife and two children.

Those children are shown that they are loved. They play and help grandpa around the home. When they are old enough, we will show them the barn finds that we have bought for each of them. All they need is a lot of dust and then some TLC.

They have a father that knows what his own treasure is. He has four pieces of worth beyond evaluation. A wife, two children and his grandfather.

 

It was only a simple door

It came as a surprise that there was life on another world in our solar system. Each star has its habitable zone. Too far out and life as we know it cannot exist. To close to the star and it is too hot for life. Our star system has four worlds. We live on the third world.

The last world out is a very cold world. Barren of life. Now the evolution of stars is that they are the largest and hottest when they first form. Then they start to cool over millennium. That outer world would have been like ours at the birth of this star.

Now older, our star has cooled to the point that it is too cold to support life.

We have always looked at it as being inhabited. It wasn’t until we were able to send probes to it that we learned of it’s desolate condition. Thin air, no surface water just a dust bowl of lifelessness. Mobile probes were sent to it and explored the surface of that dead planet. Pictures were being sent to us.

Hills and craters. The surface shows all the signs that there once was liquid flowing.

There are great channels carved by water. Extremely large areas that could only be made by lakes and oceans. Water flowed where now only dust devils march across the landscape.

Strange things started to show in the pictures sent back from the surface probes. Most of those were imagination, wishful thinking or outright manipulated images. It was not until a month ago that the surface probe took pictures of a hill from what is now understood as a large lake bottom.

There, on the hill was a large square shape that is tall and made of stone. On the side that faces the lake. Is a perfect rectangle. The walls are a dim bright since the sun is no longer bright there. More towards the start of our dusk. That rectangle shows depth. No one can dispute the fact that this is a door to the house.

But some try to debunk it. The next day’s pictures were downloaded. There was another picture in the same general area at the same general level. Another perfect black rectangle but this one had what looks like a pure white pillar, a door post. Below this door, almost to the lake floor, is what looks like a stone door that appears to fit that opening.

The satellite in orbit had picked up on more perfect squares but mysteriously, when it went behind the planet, it was working perfectly. When it was scheduled to come out from behind the world, it didn’t. No matter what they tried, they could not even get a reflective ping back from the orbiter. It just was not there.

We humans are not a peaceful lot. Many nations feel that they are the chosen ones.

Many wars have been started because of that attitude. That is why, when there were more images, more evidence of there having been life on that world, all governments scrambled to make ships that could get there.

They figured that there must be treasures beyond belief just lying there waiting for the first ones to claim them. It was a quick, down and dirty race to be first. The ship needed to carry the people. Materials for a habitat along with supplies to live there indefinitely.

It was thought that this, for the crews, would be one way. All the return space would be needed for the bounty. The treasures, the new weapons needed to make their country rulers of this world. The thoughts that they can have peace only with those weapons.

They can send more of the population once that world is totally theirs.

They are delusional because only our country will claim rightful ownership of that world.

Launches were starting. Some were failing. We however have had success. We are on our way to that world but we know something. We studied and thought about those last inhabitants on that failing world.

Soon all were arriving at the world and crashes were occurring. You see everyone went for the obvious landing site. The lake bed where the doors are. We were the only ones that went where the last surface water was. The polar region. We built in extra fuel to be able to orbit and scan the surface.

There were features there that definitely were man made. They had all the features of a large underground complex. We landed on what looked to be a launch landing site. It still was a solid rock like pad. We suited up then gained access to the inner area.

Once we got inside, we were startled. Upon closing the door to the entry room, the lights suddenly came on. Each of us had our weapons drawn. No one was there. It must have been an automatic system. Millenia of being off and restarting when entered, we have to have this power.

In a short time, our scan showed that not only was there breathable air, the pressure was within our living range. Temperature was almost at our comfort level. The slow steady rise in all the readings showed that very soon, we will be able to take off our suits.

I had opened my helmet valve and closed it after a second or so. I’m not dead so I opened the helmet valve again. Pressure and oxygen levels were that of a few hundred feet above sea level on our world. When I took off my helmet and did not die, the remainder of my crew did the same.

It must be said that we are superior in our analyses. Other countries were not as bright as their planners were made out to be. All those other nations went for the lake. Our planners looked at the use of our lake homes. The majority were vacation homes. A place to get away, a place to relax. A place that would not have anything more than this worlds equivalent of lawn games and fishing equipment.

That is why we are superior. We went for the day to day living and working areas We were hearing those others communicating with their nations that all that is here is what would be the equivalent of the metal frames of lawn chairs. The rest of the buildings are devoid of anything. They are dwellings, this world once had life but now is dead. All say that they need to return to our world because they are at the point that they would be on short rations on the way back.

All were told by their governments to tough it out but all said that they were returning.

Most never made it back. We never heard from any of the ones that made it back.

We only made a brief message to our government saying that we were staying. That was the signal that we had found something. Our government would later tell the world that we found a city. That is the reason the others were commanded to stay. The other nations knew for a fact that we never made it here. What our nation was issuing was propaganda. Just trying to say all other’s failed. We did not want to admit failure.

The was one other factor that made the other nations believe that our nation was lying.

The trip out to this world was a long period of zero gravity. Muscles atrophy, bones lose calcium, the body does not need to support weight. This world only has a fraction of the gravity our world has. The body adjusts to this gravity.

Those who returned and landed on the world were literally crushed to death by their own weight. Most died shortly after landing.

There is a warehouse that we can see through but the door is locked. It appears to be either voice or keypad operated. There are all over, examples of their writing but our government, in its infinite wisdom, did not think a linguist or at least a code breaker was needed on this simple journey.

We have to wing it ourselves. I command that we search for a library. We need the children’s section. That should have books on learning to read and write. One of the crew stumbled upon a children’s book. It is one of those “This is your body” books.

Much to our surprise, they were just a little taller and thinner but they are us in all the other ways. I guess that odd theory is true, life looks just like us. There was an anatomy drawing that had their spelling and an arrow pointing to the organ.

Inputting that page into the computer and telling it to compare it to our anatomy, it was able to roughly translate that page.

The kitchen here has what would be a replicator but it spoke. You would key in the item and it would ask something back. With that we can at least hear their pronunciation of the word. It was during that interaction that one of the crew came by. He heard words that he recognized.

He came in and told us that it was asking if you really wanted a heart to eat.

I look at him and we all just stare. He tells us that is a very early form of Aramaic. Older than any he studied but he understood what it was asking. I ask him if he knew the word for open. He did so I took him over to the store room and had him speak to it.

WTF “open sesame.” That is not what he said but it might as well have been. The door slid open. I told him that he now was an officer in charge of teaching us the words to operate each of these things and yes it does have a few of what is their space ships.

Our country will rule the world.

Maybe I just might rule it. Who knows. After all, we are here and I am in charge. You could make the point that I own this world. I call my crew together and tell them of just that.

“With the wealth in that storeroom, we can defend against anything that is sent against us. We have a basic grasp of what the language is. Weapons need to be figured out by trial and error on the surface. The ship will need to be studied but initial examination, they do have weapons also. We can no longer return to that world.

The people of this world were like us but we now are adjusting to this world. By the time they send an armed response, we will have the advantage. I am declaring that we, this crew, now owns this world and will defend it from invaders.”

The crew liked that, so I sent a message back to our old world. I was on an unsecured channel. That whole world will receive it. I told them not to come here. This was our world and we will defend it.

By the time they made new ships and sent them to us, we now can fly those ships. The invaders never had a chance. All were destroyed. All of ours landed safely. I broadcasted to that world that all they sent to us are destroyed. “Send any more and we will come to that world and destroy it.”

All of us were very satisfied with our victory. All know that we were going to enslave that world. After all we are the superior beings in this universe. We could be gods.

Everyone of us now are grabbing our heads. There is an extremely loud voice yelling at us in our minds.

“WHAT PART OF NOT LEAVING THAT WORLD DID YOU NOT UNDERSTAND!”

Now there are people here and all look very angry. A pair step forward and instantly we knew that the man was the one that almost fried our heads.

“Your lot, your species are very destructive, very vile and very self inflated. We told you to stay on that other world when you ruined this world. We were the ones that shrunk that sun so you could not survive here. But no, you just could not help yourselves. A simple photograph of a door and you just had to dig for gold.

He just looks at us and shakes his head.

“Those weapons are now destroyed. Your first ship no longer functions. That library has been taken by us so you cannot make others.” The female said. “Your home world now is devoid of any sentient life. It will be allowed to rest for quite a few years before we settle it with a good species. This world was uninhabitable and soon you will find it the same. Soon you will perish. Your group does not deserve to have that quick death. You could have had a new start but that space battle said you need a slow death.”

They leave. Running to the hanger, it was empty. The store room was the same. The replicator was showing that it was low on material. Some where there seemed to be an air leak.

All we feel is total anger that someone would interfere in our victory. There had to be other storerooms, other areas left behind. We would find them and then challenge those who tried to kill us, the rightful rulers.

I sent teams out to search, one by one they never returned. More were sent out until it was only me left. Whether they just gave up or found their own secret city, good for them. I will do the same. There has to be more cities out there.

All the while I can remember what those ones said to us “You just have a need to spread your disease over the universe.” I have had a long hard fight with myself. At first I was pissed that they were interfering with my grand plan for an empire. The thing is that they dropped hints. This world is our first world. We destroyed it, moved to the second world and were on the verge of destroying that one.

They are right, we are no better than vermin. A virus that would have spread. Even now I still have some resentment for their interference. Isn’t that our base fault of our species. Upset when others interfere with our righteous causes yet they feel it is their

righteous duty to thwart ours. Neither are right, neither are wrong but both really are delusional.

What exactly is happening to me? Is this guilt? Remorse? Is it just the realization that I was the major reason that our world that we came from was destroyed. Is it my fault for attacking those ships?

The one selfish thing that I did, well I should say one of the many selfish things I did was that everything in storage was not destroyed. There was a box in the far corner that was still intact. Before I leave this city, I need to make sure I take everything that I may need. When I opened the box, it had what I could only describe as a quad bike. I was able to pack most of what I needed then set off.

One of their oxygen extractors was built in to the quad.

I traveled for days in the opposite direction that the crew went in. I did not want any conflict . They owned what they found. No I went my way. It turned out to be the correct direction. I found an outpost of sorts. An enclosed area that had a simple underground structure with a small hanger. There was one of their ships there.

I open the hatch and the ship powered up.

A quick search of the area found some things I wanted to take but I knew that I needed to get off this world as fast as I could. What the others did not know is that these ships are capable of going for millennia. They draw their power from the stars themselves. I am heading outward to find another system that has a viable world.

Hopefully a peaceful world. I have seen what our old ways brought us. Greed, envy and a false sense of superiority. That twice got the attention of what only could be described as the gods. I no longer feel that urge to attract their attention. I just want out.

Maybe I will find a world that will listen to my tale of these two worlds. Maybe just maybe I can prevent what we did to two worlds. We used them like disposable diapers. Shit in them, throw them away and put on another one.

I hope that this change in me is just not skin deep. I hope it is to the marrow. Otherwise, they will strike me down as soon as I lift off. I held my breath and lifted off. There was no response. I started to fly out of our system but came to a halt. There on the edge of our system is a shell of fire. It appears to completely enclose this system in a globe. A force field like sphere that reads as hot as the sun.

There is no way I can fly through that. I am really disappointed. I feel that I have changed. I talk to the air. “I guess that my change, my wish to spread the tale of a

foolish world that had another chance to live a good life, spoiled that and when we found that another world had at one time had life, we fucked that up.”

I turn back and land on that desolate world that I thought I owned. I land at the out post and resign myself to the fact that I will perish like the filth I am, deserves.”

I put my hand on the handle of the hatch. I do not have my suit on. I intend on opening it and die the grotesque way I should die. My fluids will boil and kill me but not quickly. My body, however will not move. Those people are back.

“You are the only one of your crew who returned here. The others tried to breach the barrier we placed on this system to prevent you from leaving. All the others perished.

You alone have realized what your species has done.” The woman says.

The male now addresses me but in a very formal manner. “You were correct, we are gods. The two of us are the god of all. Your returning here and trying to open the hatch without your suit showed us that you have had a change of heart. Know this, we did not change you. You changed. Your eyes were finally opened. We will be monitoring you but now the barrier is gone. Your ship has the coordinance for worlds we need you to visit.

You need to relate your story to the people of those worlds. Those worlds have sage groups on them. Those groups are ours. Your task is to tell the people, not the rulers, your story. Your ship will land in full view next to the sage fortress. That will signal the people that you are associated with them.”

The female finishes. “You are now like the sage group. You are immortal. You really do not need to eat or sleep but you can do both. Nothing can kill you but you can be hurt.

You will heal almost immediately. Meet those who hurt you with compassion and forgiveness. Tell them that their action is the reason that you are the last survivor of two worlds that were given a second chance and blew both of those worlds up.”

While I am just standing there, not frozen by them but by what I just heard, I see them vanish.

My ship is back at the area that the barrier was at but now I see nothing but lumps of solidified metal that I know were the ships that my crew perished in. That is the last thing I needed to see. Futile, thick headed to the point of destruction. I took a video of those blobs. I need to show future people this proof.

“I am so very sorry for you, my crew.” I said to those blobs. “Each had to make their own decision but I take the blame for each of you. I spouted the same filth that got all life extinguished on both of those worlds. I will show you that I have learned a lesson and will honor each by helping others to not follow our folly.”

It is strange but I constantly am reminded of my races folly. All the events of the last years are vivid in my mind. They are like a movie that has been installed in my mind so I can accurately relate just what I was. I no longer will say we. As Captain of that crew, I need to take full responsibility for what happened.

That is why the movie. My conscious will not allow me to even try to pass the blame to others. I do have the permanent ‘if only’ reminder in the forefront of my mind. All my actions on that world boil down to ‘if only I did this instead of that.’

On my journey, I found that this ship has a way on retrieving my minds memories in video form. All I saw, said and did now can be shown to others as a video. I can show them the world that I lived on. That greed and false superiority. What happened on that baren world we invaded. All my greedy motives and their resulting in me being the last of both those worlds.

I need to paint myself as the villain that I am. Even though I had changed, that was after all my actions had destroyed two worlds. Yes, I was not alive when the first world was made uninhabitable but I killed both. This task that I have taken is not for my glory. It is penitence for what I did. It is the apology for all those I condemned to death by my greed.

Many worlds have heard and seen my foolishness. All have tried to console but I tell them that this is what I must bear. “Hopefully, when I have heard from those I have contributed to their death that I have done enough, I will be sent to oblivion that I so richly deserve,”

Losing track of the number of worlds I have told and shown my folly, I can only hope that I have at least helped a few to not follow my despicable path. Those two gods are here with me.

 

Worlds master mind

I was sitting there in my back room, when I heard the high pitch tone in my inner ear that almost sounds like old morse code. Those odd sounds happen every so often. I am used to noises because I have Tinnitus from years in a noisy works environments. It seems that the odd sounds have set something in motion in my brain. There are things going on in my mind that are happening but I also have a peace that these changes are something that is for my good. Also a gut feeling that this world will be protected.

Why, I do not know but again I feel that the strange signals are what triggered what is happening in my mind. It is not the signals doing the change. It is those signals that triggered my new thoughts and I know that I am now able to control access to my mind.

I can now manipulate those external signals.

Of late though, I have gotten the urge to write what my feelings are. I feel that it will be needed for the world’s records.

There is a good side effect, I now can think to my computer, especially in my dreams and waking state. That was always the sketchy part of my mind. Before my powers, I would dream but forget the second I would start to wake. Now the video is recorded and I still get my written observations.

This has helped me in my writing but who broadcasted that original and continuing signal? I do think that they feel like they are monitoring me and possibly others but I have my old dreams. You see, those old dreams are still in your subconscious.

Everyone has them but I can tap into them. Those are what they grab.

I make sure that, whoever is behind this is manipulating those of us who have been targeted, only have access to that area of my mind. I do feel that all these horrible, irritating dreams are causing all these senseless acts of violence from those good people who lived next door who would not hurt a fly.

All those who drive their cars through those crowds, stabbings and other destructive acts of terror. Someone somewhere is trapping puppets that can pass off as harmless until they get into their position. I now can see that some of my tormented dreams are those sent to manipulate my unconscious mind.

Those dreams are very subtle. They always have me the victim. My cars have been stolen. Wife appears and then vanishes. I am placed in many situations that I am really oppressed. Those I also let them see that I have gotten it but now my mind is compartmented.

You see, we humans only use about ten percent of our brain. I do know that my brain is now expanding my access to new areas of the mind. I now have the ability to localize their access. In the meantime, my attributes are growing.

Telekinesis, clairvoyance, and all those other fictional powers are real. These powers were never to be awakened until we, as a species, grow more mature and stop all these games of killing. Those games are all scripted to keep those manipulators in power.

They did not know what I now know. Each generation has one person who will safe guard the world from this meddling with others minds. They have not awakened because there was no foreign outside signal trying to access their minds. What they did not ever realize is that my family has been the ones to lay in wait for just this moment.

It is time for me to awaken and hunt. My mind just needs to get to ninety percent use and then I will be ready. The needed knowledge is being uploaded into my brain from those who foresaw this happening.

The first thing that I knew was that I had the power to discern where my new abilities are coming from and the free will to use them. The manipulation for evil is from the present. My powers are from that future that I am creating.

That future has a recording of what this world would become if the evil was allowed to rule our minds. That world, in the future, no longer has sentient life. The manipulation caused our race just to kill and not reproduce. Population shrank beyond the point of no return. The last two humans alive sought each other out. A man and a woman. They killed each other.

For just that reason, some outside power set up my ancestors line as guardians but they were not aware of their role. That was to ensure that they did not suffer a constant worry from being on watch for the mind invaders. It was not until the modern era that we live in that the actual group of circumstances occurred.

Advances in technology have come to the point that a researcher had figured out a way to converse with those who, for whatever reason, were trapped in their body but with no way of communicating with the outside world.

That person figured that, in the dream state, there are really no limitations as to what you can do. That one was finally successful in communicating with his wife who was in what we call a permanent vegetative state.

He presented his results and promptly vanished along with his research. That is when the mind probing started. Targeted at first, they succeeded with some of those in power but found that those were too self centered, too strong willed and broke from what the manipulators needed.

That is when they started the random invasions. They have been operating for a long time. Always searching for the ones that needed a cause. Ones that are susceptible to suggestions. Ones that could be controlled.

I just happened to be one of those random people. Too bad for them because, even though I was dreaming, they triggered my powers. The first was to let them in but hide what they had started. I needed to remain anonymous, for now.

My upgrade is only at fifty percent. The only thing missing is that computer warning to not turn off the power. I make sure that I do not let them get a hint of my awakening. I have the power to search for the origin but lack the necessary skills, knowledge and sufficient powers to stop an attack on me without hurting those puppets they would send at me.

In primitive times, those who wanted to be leader challenged the current leader directly.

Beat the leader and you became leader. The muscle brains always led until someone with a thinking brain and a strong need to survive. Promising a muscle brain that if he fought the leader and then let the thinker be leader that one would get a great reward.

That was usually the nighttime death while sleeping.

Now it is not uncommon for that one to openly say that they are mad. “I hate that person! I’ll hold your coat while you fight him for me.” That only works when you convince the populace that you are right. Now with the dream invasion, all they need is subtle manipulations.

A skilled hunter could be convinced, in his dream, that someone in power needs to be killed because it is for the good. “They’re going to take my guns away.” That one will sit in that hidden position and take their shot then just walk away.

A closet anarchist will be convinced, through dreams, that they need to start their campaign to free the world of those who do not think like they think. Bombing, burning and utter chaos, these puppets create a need for some savior to come to the rescue.

That will be the manipulators.

They are creating a force, a mob, that will yearn for a leader. That one person will be puppet for the real people in charge. Those are the ones that I need to hunt down and shut down. I know that they will not go quietly unless I work on them secretly in the background.

My mind is around sixty percent. I can teleport and use telepathy. I can now at least start to mess with them. First I must die.

Let me clarify that statement. Since they have been trying to invade my mind, they only upload and download only what I allow in the special area I created for them. As long as that connection exists, they will keep on trying. If I make that area fake a signal that I have died, they will see me as a failure and move on.

I will be free to start the tracing of those threads in the sky that it seems that only I can now see. I somehow knew that when I saw those threads that it was time for me to start my research. Start to casually follow them. Once I see the direction, I can mentally trace them back.

I can do that by watching what happens to my thread.

So now I have that mental fatal heart attack. A night dream death. The thread breaks and it is like a fishing line that has broken and the fisher is reeling the remainder of the line back. It is too fast for me to follow but I now have a general direction. It went in a north east direction.

Now I wait. I still have another thirty percent in my upgrade. I also need to see if they cast back trying to catch me again. They may try to see if I’m really dead or have I found a way to cut them off. That would make me a person of interest. Dead, I am just dead.

They do try but now I know I am able to mask my being. After that try I never feel them try again because their search for me ends in what it would if I was dead and buried.

Nothing to latch on, no resistance just nothing.

I will lay low for a while. I need to go out and try some of my new talents. You see those dreams of those writers about magic, if you get the use of your brain to the point I am now at, you will find that magic does exist.

We all have the capability to use it. There is a built in block because now at seventy percent use, I realize that I could actually destroy this world without harming myself.

This is why it is locked away. Our species is not capable of controlling such power.

Maybe in a few tens of thousands of years.

The down side of my upgrade is that I will always need to operate in the background for a while. That will be until I am certain that the threat is gone with that knowledge locked away until we finally evolve.

I know that I will only peak at ninety percent use. Why only ninety? What is that last ten percent? With what I am capable of with the usage I have access to, I know that I do not want to know. I shiver at the thought of ninety percent.

Outside I try something. Teleporting to an area far from where I live, I cast my own mental line over one of their lines. I want to see if I can tap into what they are sending.

Let’s see just what will happen. If they detect my tap, I will project a counter dream that has that one dreaming about the old hard wired telephone party lines.

Fortunately, they do not detect my tapping their line. The dream that one is having is about having to deal with a world that has almost died off due to a virus. This has the dreamer hiding and fighting for their survival. All the dreamer is thinking is that if only he could go back in time and burn down the lab that created it. Then he sees a federal building as a lab.

Searching my mental connection to the web, I am able to see that the building is the local headquarters of the government’s investigation office. Time to see what happens. I add my thoughts that simulate the dreamers and make it like the dreamer is fighting the thought and I trigger the dream response to suddenly awake. This was successful but I notice that the thread is still attached.

I watch people walking around that have the string. It is not a solid connection rather a mental projection. That does have me wondering. This is something that I know that we are not capable of doing with our current knowledge.

Could this be an outside of our world invasion? Now I know that I need all my upgrade. I must find the source. I need to find a way to ride one of those threads. Since the thread stays with the waking person, they can be traced, ridden, from the person to the source.

I need to come up with a solution. Let me think. Part of my upgrade is the fact that I do have a part that will analyze the parameters and give me suggestions. Another compartment of thinking. Now I can truly multi task. I really can now walk and chew gum at the same time.

The upgrade is now complete. I will not need to reboot like a computer. Each area of my active brain is like a complete factory, a complete think tank, a internet unto itself. For me in my old ten percent use, I would not have been even able to conceive of that let alone be able to retain my sanity.

It is like I have a whole cast of background supporters giving me input on their research.

Then I will see the most profitable path I need to follow. You would think that it would be the most logical but you would be wrong.

The most logical would be ride a thread back to the source and just make it to not exist.

What about all those who have been programed. They need to be calmed down. They need to be placed in a very calming set of dreams. Puppies and kittens playing in a field of flowers while that one is one of the puppies.

Sounds bazar doesn’t it but that type of dream lets you just feel like you are free to play and enjoy life. You let that one wake with a deep remembrance of how it felt and that they can enjoy life.

If I was just to destroy the source, those would still fulfill those dreams of destruction.

Dealing with them first, while taking over that thread if the way to go. That is not to say that I won’t seek out the originator of the threads.

Those are where I now see perfectly. Those, I have seen that they also have a different color thread that goes into space. Those threads are too long for me to follow and still be able to save this world.

That will come later. My research department is working on a solution. They will let me know when I am ready to sever that thread. All I know for a fact is that the controllers here are not the real source. Those are the ones that I need to go after.

Only trouble with that is I will be stepping on someone else’s toes. Ninety percent is actually more than they use. Unfortunately. I’ll deal with that soon. First I need to solve my worlds problem.

My research team has come up with a plan. When I strike this source on my world, I will put a destroyed bubble around it until I can eliminate the real source. Like my faking my death, I will fake the worlds death. I find it is now very simple.

Multitasking is wonderful. My threads have taken over the world’s threads, erased the dream suggestions in all and now have hijacked the threads. They have been cut after I have taken control of them.

This is why we only use ten percent of our brains. Without my capacity of ninety, this would be addictive. I would want to control. This is why I know that I can eliminate the universes threat because I can sense an addiction in the main off world thread.

That one is not more than sixty percent.

Time to strike. The puppy dreams go out and I sever all the threads at once. I ride the threads to their source. Before I enter that humble cottage, I deploy the barrier around the world. I can now feel the off world thread.

I will deal with that later.

Entering the house, I find what I sensed. There are two people that, for the lack of a better term, are puppets themselves. They are the dead living. As soon as I cut the off world thread, they died. All the threads on this world just vanished.

My world, at least, is saved. Now to throw a wrench into the current regime’s works. I appear in the gods of all’s realm. No mortal has ever done that. All present in that realm have come to a halt. They are looking at me in disbelief.

“WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!” they demand.

“Who the hell am I? I’m the one that had to clean up a mess that you five and all these imps should have taken care of. My world is once again on its own no thanks to you.”

They notice one important thing, the imps are quiet and on their knees. They sense that I am not natural. I am of a higher status than even the current gods themselves. It is just that the current gods can’t feel it.

“I find that you imps are blameless. You do a wonderful service for the universe. You gods, however.” I make the threads in space visible to them. There is even a thread trying to invade their realm.

“These threads are coming from somewhere in this universe. They took over my world and were causing death and destruction. Invading my worlds dreams for control. I woke from my slumber and was elevated to this status. I am now using ninety percent of my brain. This universe is infected.

You are gods, You did not see the chaos. I know because I can see in your faces that you never saw these threads.”

I reach out and grab that thread that was trying to invade their realm. I tell them to watch this.

As I hold the thread, I speak to it. “Now is the time for you to know, I’m coming for you. I will find you. I will torment you until the Ultimate Supreme himself takes you.”

All this time that thread is yanking and writhing, trying to free itself from my grasp. I cause the thread end to disintegrate and it vanishes.

“That sent a pain back to the origin. The thread will never return here.”

Now the Supreme is here and he too is looking at me. It is time to tell them just who I do work for.

“Supreme Creator, What did you just do? That new born universe, where did it come from? I know that you just trained that universes Supreme and he is now shaping it.

There are many universes. Each has its own Supreme Creator. Who started all of these universes? Who created you?”

I now address them. “Those imps knew. There is only one Ultimate Supreme God. That one creates universes trying to get one to live in peace. He will never reveal himself even to me although I work for him. He is the one that planted the gene in my family line. He is the one that has expanded my mind to ninety percent. That last ten percent is his domain and his alone.

I am here to just let you know, do not interfere with my investigation. I will warn you that this infection will not be allowed to spread to other universes. Just like your different crews do, if necessary, I will terminate this universe.”

I turn to the imps. While talking with them, I let the others hear.

“The Ultimate Supreme loves you. Just know, there was a world that did not have laughter. A baby was born and found to be the humor savior. He grew and started to cause laughter. His favorite thing was having eggs and beans for breakfast and disruption the ethics class with his ass notes and smell. He grew and infected that whole world with laughter. That world’s population was six inches tall. You are descendants of that imp. Each universe has your relatives in them.

If this universe is to be destroyed, you will come with me and live in another universe.

The rest, including this universes final life will just cease to exist. To stop a cancer, good tissue must be sacrificed.”

I was asked why would the final life be terminated. It is for eternity. I ask that god, “How long is eternity?”

I am told that eternity exist until the end of time.

“It will be that realm’s end of time.”

Now all here are shocked. This universes Supreme tells them that he just trained the new universes Supreme. He had to go through quite a few lives and deaths to have an actual knowledge of what life is. “I had the same training. We all knew that there was someone over us. This man, I know, I feel his connection to that ultimate entity. What he has said and shown must be taken to heart. Our very existence depends on it.”

I thank him then say. “I am not trying to show you that I am superior. I was, until recently just human. If I had not been awakened by the invasion, I would have died but I now know that there is no such thing as coincidence. I was here at the time I was needed.

I have a job to do. A task that I cannot afford not to do. I am not superior, I am just a janitor that needs to clean up a mess but on a universal scale. I only ask that you do not walk on the floors that I just mopped. You will track dirt back on it.”

They are shaken by what they now understand. This is not the only universe, eternity is not infinite. Eternity, by their own definition, was until time itself ran out. It can end when it is needed to end. They realize that I am saying that the entity that is causing the necessity of me being in existence could get into the final life.

To prevent it from escaping that way, all of this universe, including the final life, may need to be erased. They know and have been told to let me do what I feel is necessary.

As I get ready to leave, they see, once again, the imps take to the knee. They do the same.

Now that the entity knows that I am coming for it, I see threads lashing out trying to attach to me. They cannot. It even goes as far as to change the color of the threads. I know that this is an entity that is both immortal and could be partially mechanical. It’s using logic. It changes the main thread to black and world threads to green. I can tell that it knows that space is black. It surmises that I won’t be able to see the main black threads.

I go world by world freeing them. I now know exactly where it is but I need to free those dreamers. My researchers have shown me how to contain the entity while freeing the worlds.

The entity cannot see the thread I have placed on it. That thread is tethered to the world it is on. It has caused all life on that world to cease to exist. It wanted the whole universe to destroy itself. Now it cannot even leave the world it is on. I can tell that it is starting to suspect something. It is planning an escape.

Now I can hear it’s thoughts. I know exactly what I need to do. I will give this universe a chance to intervene because, with the power I have, I must always remind myself that what I told those gods was true, I am only a janitor for the universes. I only clean up their messes.

There is now a containment field around that world. Unlike what a normal force field is, this is a containment field. I have set it so that only someone or something that has the mind use capacity equal to me can pass through. Not even what this universe calls a door will let it out. I know that it only uses a little less than the sixty percent it started out with.

It is trapped.

This time I appear in this universe’s Supreme’s realm. It is that field that he mows to think things out. He notices that I am here and starts to bow. Stopping him,

“As your people have told others, please don’t bow to me. That is for The Supreme, our boss. I have come for your help. The entity causing all this chaos in your universe. I now

have it tethered to the baren world it has for its home base. You see, you are the reason it is trying to destroy this universe. It is the Supreme that trained you. He trained you in the way that he ruled his universe. All by himself. You realized that it was a path to destruction.”

This Supreme remembers that training. It is the reason he created the lower god system. Doing it all was the wrong path.

“So his universe is gone.” This Supreme comments, “I had asked about just that and he said that it was the Supreme’s role to rule over everything. That is when I decided to make the lower roles.”

I remind him that the new Supreme he trained was told to form the same. “The one that trained the failed Supreme told him the same thing. Make the lower god system but he did not listen. He envies you and feels that he needs to knock you down for mocking him. You disobeyed him in his mind.

He has found out that he cannot open the door to the final life here or in his universe’s final life. He knows that he is caught but he now figures he will take you with him. I feel that you need to be there with me to confront him. I will be as your new trainee. You take the credit for the tether. I will be there to back you up. I will tell you that if you cannot convince him that he is wrong in his thinking and he goes to lash out, I can and will step in. I already have the solution and permission.”

This Supreme knows what I mean but I explain to him that, if he cannot convince that failed Supreme of the error in his logic, I will expel this universes Supreme and erase all within that containment field. The atomic level bonds will be broken. That world and everything on it will be no more. Those particles will stay in that containment field until this universe dies and itself is erased.

He realizes what I said. Only he would be expelled from that containment field. Only him.

Seeing the look on his face.

“Isn’t that what my job is?” I ask. “Our job is to tend to the universe. Yours is to nurture it. Mine is to clean it even if it costs me my life. All Supremes have their own final life realm but unlike the normals final life, Supremes of all the universes can visit all the universes final life’s. I told you that to eradicate a cancer you need to sacrifice some good tissue, I am also sacrificial good tissue.”

That is a revelation that he never expected. He knows that I would also cease to exist.

Not even my soul would exist. He knows exactly what I mean. I will sacrifice myself to save this universe but also to save all of the universes.

“There are others out in all the universes, peacefully living their lives without knowing if or when they will receive that trigger for their time to evolve to my status. They also are going to be expendable. They also will gladly do just the same to save their universe. If we are successful, then I will travel to another universe and save that universes one from my fate.

Once awakened, we will continue until we too are erased.”

This Supreme is actually horrified at that concept. Here is a sentient being that knows it will never go to the final life. To exist knowing that the only rest they will get is true oblivion. Not the mindless walk that mortals oblivion is. True erasure.

He now knows that there is a true multi universe assassin. One that knows they fight and will die eventually. The goblins have a philosophy that in total war, they are dead already. That way, there is no fear of dying in battle. They are dead anyways.

This man before him is just that, a truly walking dead man. This one is on a universal scale.

This Supreme tells me that he will make sure that I am remembered. Held up as an example of true self sacrifice.

I know that he means what he says but I must burst that bubble. “No you won’t. You will not be able to. If I need to do that, all memory of me and that failed Supreme will vanish from all memories. You yourself, in that instant, will remember that you were trained, not by this one, but by the one that trained him. You see, that is what I am. That is what I was created to be.

Don’t you realize that I cannot be allowed to exist. Why are you at sixty percent not ninety like I am? That last ten percent is his realm and his alone. There is the capacity for me to attain that last ten percent. I do not want to ascend to that power.”

Now we are just outside the barrier. The failed Supreme knows it.

“He is ready to take you on. He wants a fight but know this, you are the vital one here.

You will be the only one that will survive if that happens. You are to talk to him. I will restrain him. Again, if he cannot be convinced to stand down, I will cast you out. If you can calm him, I will take him to the Ultimate Supreme for his judgment. Are you ready?

If you are not, I will leave you out here and then execute the final outcome.”

He says that he wants to try so I envelope him in my consciousness so he can pass through the barrier. What he sees is a horrible sight. The failed Supreme has thrown what only could be a tantrum. The world is beyond being able to be saved. Only one piece is large enough for it to be even called an asteroid.

There he sits on a throne made of the bones of each species that lived on that world.

“Finally you had the balls to confront me.” He says to his student.

For whatever reason he is actually ignoring me. I can tell that he really does not want to acknowledge my existence. If he did, he would have to surrender. He is filled with rage so I figure a change of plans.

With a force that shakes him to his core, I bellow, “YOU WILL ACKNOWLEDGE ME! I WORK FOR THE ULTIMATE SUPREME, YOUR BOSS!”

Now he acknowledges me.

“I have brough your trainee with me. He is just here as witness to what I have to say, You obviously have forgotten what your role in your universe was. You caused your universe to die, not this one. What made you think that you would be allowed to destroy another universe?”

This universes Supreme can see where exactly I am going. He comes in on the side of peace. “I need to tell you that he,” he points to me, “is ready to make this world and all in it, including himself, to be totally erased. He has told me that I would be cast out to be able to tell our boss that the threat has been eliminated. Please calm down and let’s talk.”

“Why should I care?” the failed says. “I’m going to cease to exist anyways.”

“No, I will go with you to plead your case before the Ultimate Supreme. There can be a solution found.”

The back and forth goes on for a while. I can see that it is starting to work but now I know that I will need to do what was agreed upon by the Ultimate. I cast out this Supreme.

“Finally,” the failed says to me. ”Just do what you need to do. Erase me but know this, I will at least have a very brief moment before I cease to exist that I will know I will take you with me.”

“Fool. You cannot figure, in your tiny little mind, that you triggered my change. I now am willing to die rather than become a threat like you.”

I put him in a box that suspends his existence but he is still alive.

I am now in the court of the Ultimate. My universes Supreme is here but has prostrated himself. He does not even care that I had him brought here to testify on how I handled this. Then, after the final decision is made, I will ask the Ultimate to erase me.

The Ultimate has me release the failed and orders this universes Supreme to rise and bear witness to the proceedings.

The Ultimate’s realm is a very calming ocean front beach cottage. Nothing grand. A humble scene that has people on the beach having fun. A typical scene but this one does not have the sharks. All are peaceful.

He invites the three of us to sit but he has the failed sit next to him on the bench seat.

He puts his arms around him then says, “I’m very sorry. I should have helped you but I did not. I now will take all that anger, all the frustration, all that remorse out of you.”

In an instant, you could see that the failed has just changed. He truly is a totally change person. The ultimate has also put him in a swim suit. A woman comes up to him and invites him to swim and play.

That one does and now is one of the ones on the beach. He is playing volley ball with a group.

This universes Supreme is dumb struck. He is told that this was the plan all along. “I do not like to see any of my children be eliminated. All the destruction he has caused, including his universe has been reversed. He has had his mind brought back down to a normal ten percent. He does not remember being a Supreme. A new Supreme for his universe has been trained by you. That is the one that your motorcycle trainee went to.

That universe was recreated.”

My universes Supreme is smiling. He has seen that true power of that last ten percent.

Total forgiveness. The ability to turn back the destruction and start all over again. To be able to take that failed one, forgive but eliminate the threat by just making that one a normal.

Even I am smiling but there is a buzzing feeling in my brain. I feel the last ten percent coming into focus. I know what exactly is happening. The Ultimate just runs off and now is playing with the others.

“He has resigned as the Ultimate.” I casually tell my now lower Supreme. “Because I did not kill myself and that one. Because I brought all to him, he now has transferred the position to me. You see, I now know that this was needed. He has been Ultimate since all time began. There is no comprehensible measure that anyone can conceive that can explain how long he has existed.

This world is one of the ones in that recreated universe. These ones playing are now all mortal. They are all old Supremes. The Supreme final life’s occupants are now on this world. When they die they will go to the final life as they are. No recollection of being a Supreme. You and all others will join this beach world when your universe finally perishes.

All that being able to go from one universes final life to the next by retired Supremes has been eliminated. With out that past me even knowing it, the old Ultimate had made that decision. I did not know that he was training me to take over. I now realize that he only needed me at sixty one percent to be able to sacrifice myself. He blocked me from knowing that I was his replacement.”

I just smile at him. We now are at his universes gods of all’s realm. Those imps, I love them. They kneel but then swarm me as I shrink down to their level. We hug and then I go back to my normal size.

The five gods are in awe. They now know. They just know and kneel. I go over to each and individually tell them to rise.

Now to warp their minds even further. I tell them that I am now the Ultimate, of the change in the final life of the Supremes final life and that there will never be a necessity to terminate a final life again.

“That is only if my boss does not change his mind. After all, who created my position?”

 

The simple made complicated

The public was fed a story about a medical emergency aboard the international space station (ISS). It was of an unknown origin but we were told not to worry. Meanwhile they are accelerating that deorbiting of the station. It was five years before it was scheduled but now it seemed urgent.

All I could do is speculate and prepare. Could it be that it was in danger of disintegrating? That would cause a cascade effect on all satellites. Could it be that there is a mutated virus aboard? If it is, we are already in trouble. They brought back our people. That may not be a reason otherwise they would have been left in space, while the station accidently reentered the atmosphere. No there is other factors that must be behind the evacuation. Actually the station is a cobbled up jigsaw puzzle from numerous modules made by numerous nations. Most of which are not friendly to each other. The funding is shrinking.

Regardless of the reason, I think it is time to go underground.

I started making a hide when they started all that talk of economic collapse. I live on a hill so I started by punching through the hill side wall. Slowly I excavated and fortified the walls. When I had a goodly chamber, it was cinder block walled. By the time I was done, the threat was over.

The only thing was, I enjoyed myself. I continued to dig. Now I had different floors. This eventually turned into a home underground. I use propane for my above ground house.

I had a large tank installed. I wanted a year’s supply. The reason I gave was that I have gone to all propane. Stove, oven, water and heat.

They did not need to know that I now have those but they are underground with a propane generator, Those I only use when I retreat down there. Hot or cold outside, those rooms are always a constant temp.

Today, it is totally self sufficient. Its own air purification system that filters the air to the micron. The water is deep well but filtered, then run through charcoal, sand and ultraviolet. The door is rated to withstand a direct blast. Food for a year. Once I saw those four astronauts taken out of that capsule without precaution, I went into the cellar with my two cats and sealed ourselves in.

Both cats have been in here before so they made themselves at home. The litter box has been christened. I put down the food and we waited.

Every time I go into the hide, I remember when I was digging it. It was not the action of my neighbors with the amount of dirt I was bringing out of my house. It is not like the old

days when you knew everybody on the street. My neighbors are strangers to me. They never said a thing.

No it was my two cats. They would come into the room while it was rough dirt. They would have a ball chasing this, batting at that. Rolling in the dirt but both would dash out and I would hear them run up the stairs and into the room that had their litter box in. All this dirt, they needed to use the stuff I bought. Not the plentiful dirt floor.

After a period, nothing has happened. I emerge from my hide. The cats are grateful and head straight to the litter box. It needs to be rechristened because their scent has worn off. It really is a simple life for them.

The papers are stacked on my porch as I go out to get more supplies. I need to replenish those I used in the hide. I stop at the mail and there is a note for me to check with the desk. My box had reached max and the other mail now had to be stored.

I got a lecture from them that I needed to file an on vacation notice with them with dates otherwise the excess will be sent back to sender.

All this while he is showing that he has a slight dry throat cough. I hear others in the back room doing the same. I noticed the same in the supermarket but I did not recognize it.

I panicked and pulled my scarf over my mouth and nose. I ran out leaving all the mail there on the counter as the clerk yells at me to take my mail. I hesitate on taking the supplies out of the car but they are needed.

Both cats hear me open the cellar door and come running. All supplies and cats are with me in lock down again. I did spend almost an hour in a steamy shower washing and inhaling deeply the steam. This was the only thing I could think of doing.

The media was starting to say that something is wrong. Most try to play it down as a new strain of the flu but there are some that are saying the die off rate is worse than the 1917 1918 Spanish flu epidemic.

Blame game is in full swing but a growing group are saying that the ISS crew are all dead. No survivors, just floating corpses. The world is blaming our country for bringing those sick astronauts back.

It does not matter because “if only” does nothing. What’s done is done. I personally have been flooding this hide with steam. Call it illogical, call it quack thinking but I figure that since this developed in space, space is cold, steam is hot, it may just kill off what I must have inhaled.

Now a few more weeks have passed. There are very few stations on. It is official, the world is tanking. All of the efforts of science have failed. They said that from dry cough to death is a matter of a day or two. My steam must be the answer.

I call that station and tell them that I had people cough around me. I have been in my lockdown ever since. I have been flooding my hide with steam now for a few weeks. I feel fine.

They put it on the air as a side story from a listener. Soon after, they were getting calls from people who started the dry coughing and inhaled steam the cough went away and they have survived.

Scientists were able to confirm what I figured out. The warmer than normal body temperature produced along with the water vapor was the answer. As long as you did four hours of the steam when you first notice the dry cough, you will live.

I now think about it and found where I learned my answer from. When we got colds, as little children, my mother would set up a low tent over our beds and plug in the vaporizer. We would steam overnight and in the morning we would be much better.

Science tried to make the simple complicated. They hit dead ends and the public were the dead ends. Mom was the answer. When I ran low on food, the cats also needed more, I came out and got my supplies.

On the news, there were all sorts claiming to be the steam guy. I did not care, I still had to face that post office clerk telling me that most of my mail was returned to sender. I looked directly at him and said. “Most of those senders are dead.”

I put the supplies in the hide. Much to the relief of my cats, I closed the door and went upstairs. Each knew I forgot how to get there and had to be in the lead. All I saw was tails up and a pucker as they lead me to their now empty bowls.

They do have the responsibility of making sure I know who is in charge.