A small amount of playground equipment stood behind Eli, the tops of swings and monkey bars peeking out amongst the thousands and thousands of people who watched with a mix of curiosity, fear, and hatred as a small version of Orb hovered above Eli. Eli, wearing a bright yellow tunic and faded blue jeans, snuck a glance back at the crowd. Their hair was uniformly long, though many of the men and women had pulled their hair back into a ponytail. They wore rough, brown tunics that made Eli feel itchy even to look at them, and sandals with soles made from tires. The only real variable in the clothing was their choice of belts, which was anything from an actual belt to a piece of rope or even a seatbelt from a car.
Orb’s voice boomed over the area and everyone, including Eli, took a half-step back.
“Do you remember what your city planners were going to do with this space?”
His question was met with a lot of murmuring, but no one stepped forward or raised their hand.
Orb, not concerned about audience participation, continued, “That’s right. This ‘park space’ you stand upon was temporary. It was here to appease the masses while they finished preparation to put in still more high-rises that none of you could afford.”
The murmuring grew louder. It sounded like there was at least some agreement with Orb’s outrage within the crowd. Districts 113 through 121, in the area formerly known as Vancouver, represented some of the most expensive real estate on the planet. Most of this area was covered in high-rises as the ground had become too expensive for single-family homes. Even small condos in one of the many high-rises were, before Orb, worth several million dollars apiece.
Eli looked at the collection of spheres clustered in front of him. From his position it was impossible to see how far they stretched, but he guessed that the spheres of various sizes covered an area at least a mile wide that extended several times that distance to the mountains beyond.
He looked back to the crowd and saw that most of the people within it were still frowning, unhappy. That makes sense. Orb had Matt crush all these high-rises. Some of the people wearing rags here owned the five-million-dollar penthouses, decked out with the latest technology and fanciest furnishings—all of which are now just a portion of one of these giant spheres. That, and the fact that Orb abolished all governments, jobs, and religions—except the worship of Orb.
“Look to the water beside you. The once plentiful fish had long-since been harvested, or poisoned, but your leaders were going to fill in much of this beautiful inlet with rocks so they could have more room for even more high-rises.”
Eli watched as the crowd digested this news and found it bitter. The crowded shoreline was filled with children turning over rocks and playing in the shallow waters. It looked to Eli like Orb’s anger at what he presented as the excess—the waste of the wealthy—was shared by at least some part of the crowd.
Orb, who at times reminded Eli of the ringleader of the circus that used to come to their town, grew in size, deep red pulses crackling as they crossed his surface. The crowd murmured again, this time in fear, as Orb continued to grow in size until he blocked the view of the scores of spheres below. He was now a fiery eyeball that covered the horizon, and he hovered over the crowd until many of them fell to their knees and covered their eyes.
“Would you like to see the people who made these decisions?”
There was a short pause as the crowd appeared to wonder whether it was safe to answer, followed by a cry of “Yes!”
With their response a group of eleven people sprang into existence between Eli and the crowd. They were mixed in race, and gender, but what really made them stand out was the fact that they were all wearing suits.
Eli watched, fascinated, at the sight of these businesspeople cringing in front of a crowd of unkempt, tunic-wearing thousands. One of the businessmen tried to push his way behind the woman next to him, as if that would protect him. She shoved him back to his spot and he instead held his briefcase before him like a shield.
Orb grew in size again until he hovered just above the heads of the crowd. “Would you like to say anything to your former mayor and city council?”
Again, there was a pause as the crowd tried to guess what was expected of it, then a single rock flew from the crowd and struck the briefcase of the former council member who had tried to hide behind his colleague. Eli had read about mobs, and how people in groups can, through peer pressure, be persuaded to do things they would never otherwise do. As more and more rocks flew at the now ducking group of former city officials, he saw just how thin the line was between civilization and chaos.
As the volume of rocks grew, some began to find their intended target. The cries of “please” and “stop” on the part of the victims only made the crowd more feverish. Eli was about to act—he was not sure what exactly he was going to do but he could watch no more—when Orb’s voice boomed loudly enough to make everyone put down their rocks and use their hands to shield their ears.
“That’s enough, I think. Though well done, Children.”
The former city officials continued to cower and shield themselves the best they could. A line of blood ran down the side of one man’s face.
“You were not born perfect. You will never achieve perfection, but all deserve a chance at redemption. One chance, I think.”
The small group of businessmen and women flickered, then disappeared. The crowd groaned, a little disappointed that the newfound object of their hatred had escaped.
Orb slowly shrank until he was the size of a large house. “Your former leaders have been sent to a place you used to call Czechoslovakia.”
There was a long pause, then Orb added, “I very much like the sound of that name.”
His whimsical tone shifted back to the task at hand. “Their days of troubling you are over. They will now grow wheat or, more likely, end up banished.”
Eli cringed at the laughter he heard coming from the crowd. Some of it might have come from an effort to appease Orb and stay alive, but much of it sounded genuine. At least a portion of this crowd found humor in the idea of their former councilmen failing as farmers in a strange land, and meeting their fate by being banished from what was left of society.
“While we are on the topic of portals…” Orb said and, instantly, a giant portal twenty times as large as the biggest sphere appeared about five hundred meters to Eli’s right. The crowd murmured its approval and Orb bathed in their love, or fear (it seemed like either was acceptable to him).
After an acceptable period of viewing and praising, Orb added, “My Disciple, Eli, will now remove the remnants of this failed society and, within weeks, this former sea of concrete, plastic and metal will begin its journey to return to a land of prairies and forests.”
There was another long pause. Eli squirmed under the gaze of the expectant crowd.
“Eli,” Orb whispered in his head, “it’s time to do your part.”
I don’t know how to do it!
“Concentrate on the spheres immediately behind you and I will show you.”
Eli nervously turned from the crowd and stared at the group of spheres directly in front of him. Nothing happened. He squinted his eyes nearly shut, extended his left arm and opened his hand to cover the portion of the spheres he wanted to move.
“Your hand will not help you, Eli.”
It’s helping me concentrate!
“Matt said the same. Very well. Stop squinting and open yourself to me.”
What do you mean? Open myself?
Eli remembered Big Ed’s hearty laughter during a movie their family watched when their mother was sick. Sitting around their slowly shriveling, cancer-stricken mother watching TV was the only group activity they could do—and one of the rare times Big Ed allowed himself to be still, unproductive. The scene in the movie that inspired the laughter involved a yoga teacher asking her class to ‘breathe in through their necks.’ Big Ed thought that was the silliest thing he had ever heard, and Eli thought the same when it came to ‘opening
himself.’
“Stop struggling and picture a pyramid made of the spheres in front of you. The largest spheres will of course go on the bottom, with each subsequent layer made up of spheres at least a third smaller. Repeat this exercise, making sure to shrink the width of each of the three walls as they rise, until you have just enough room for a final sphere at the top. You’ll then take the top three rows and send them into the portal, Then the next three, and so on.
Eli tried to slow his breathing. He opened his eyes wider and suddenly felt a jolt go through him. The effect was so strong that he leapt several feet in the air.
“What was that!” Eli screamed, forgetting about the crowd.
“That was me. Relax and we’ll try again.”
Eli used his right hand to wipe his face, slowed his breathing, closed his eyes and pictured the various spheres bumping into one another as they assembled into the pyramid structures that Orb had described.
“Good, now another.”
Eli, eyes still closed, did as he was instructed.
“And again. Again.”
The spheres whirled and flew as they assembled themselves into pyramids, the largest spheres on the bottom row a full ten sizes larger than those on the top. Sweat ran freely down Eli’s back as Orb’s power surged through him. Eli no longer felt connected with the ground. He opened his eyes and saw that his tennis shoe-clad feet hovered six inches from the dirt below. His eyes widened as he looked up and saw the entire area in front of him covered by large, perfectly symmetrical pyramids.
There was little time to enjoy his work, however, as Orb commanded, “And now, Eli, send the pieces into the portal. Begin with the top three layers of each pyramid and continue until all of the spheres are gone.”
Eli’s hand trembled as he closed his eyes and tried to envision the impossible task of moving the hundreds of spheres on the top three rows of fifty-plus pyramids without missing or breaking one or more of them, ruining the delicate balance which held each pyramid together and sending spheres crashing in every direction.
“I can’t,” Eli mumbled as he tried, and failed to grip the spheres on the top rows.
“You can, and you will. Open your eyes, Eli.”
Eli opened his eyes and tried to stretch them to their fullest, most open position. Orb then sent another wave of power through him, which caused his eyes to open a third again bigger, the whites of his eyes visible all the way around. The spheres atop the pyramid closest to Eli trembled, and then flew off into the portal as if they had been shot from a large gun.
The crowd made pleasing ‘oooh’ and ‘aw’ sounds. Eli responded by sending the top few rows of the other close-by pyramids into the portal. The crowd loved it even more.
“That’s it, Eli. Keep going and remember to breathe.”
With fire flowing through his veins, Eli sent the top rows of all remaining pyramids into the portal, spheres banging and scraping as they formed a loose cloud that was then directed into the shimmering screen of destruction. He paused, then repeated the exercise with the next three rows of spheres for each pyramid, the collisions between these even larger spheres even louder than before. The crowd continued to cheer as they closed the gap between them and Eli. Several members of the crowd put their hands on Eli’s head and shoulders. He did not notice, or care, as he sent still more rows of spheres into the portal, wincing as one of the larger spheres hit the support on the side even as it was deconstructed and dissolved.
“Slowly, Eli. Take them in batches.”
Eli grinned at the direction, ignored it and held both of his arms up. Moments later, every single piece of every remaining pyramid lifted off the ground and began to circle in a clockwise motion. There were several loud cracks and booms as pieces collided but, slowly, the spheres settled into the shape of a funnel cloud which tapered to a swirling point just in front of the portal.
“Do it!” someone screamed from the crowd.
“Yeah!” someone else added. “Send it in!”
With hands of his new fans smacking his arms and even his head, Eli swiped left with his right hand and the twisting, swirling funnel spun itself into the portal, the widest part of the whirling cloud of debris barely fitting within the portal, and disappeared.
Eli dropped to his knees, sweat pouring down his grinning face. There was no time for sadness when Orb’s power left as the people in the crowd encircled him and lifted him on their shoulders.
“Well done, Eli.”
Eli bounced on the hands and shoulders of the crowd below.
Can I do it again?
“Tomorrow, Eli. Tomorrow.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Home
Peter appeared at the bank of the river near his family home. He listened as the water burbled over the rocks. It was the welcome sound of home—something he had not heard in weeks.
Did this all really happen? Is there really an Orb, or did I imagine it?
The river, if it had an opinion, did not choose to answer.
Peter bent down and, making noises that belonged to someone quite a bit older, sat heavily in the grass with his legs dangling out over the riverbank. He looked up at the blue sky and thought about the contrails that had crisscrossed it in the first days of Orb’s rule. The nearby military base had sent a troop carrier, and a young lieutenant with a clipboard had jumped out at various spots to personally call up those who had previously served to serve again. The almost-full troop carrier had left town with little fanfare and even less optimism on the faces of those in the back. While the phones and TVs had stopped working almost immediately, news about the success of the military campaign came from what attorneys on TV shows called anecdotal evidence. There were no more jets streaking across the sky, and none of the men and women shipped off to the base were ever seen again.
When Peter thought about the poor reservists strapped into their gray fighter jets, he imagined them closing in on a giant version of Orb hovering over Washington, D.C. What did they think when they received word to engage the massive, mini-sun? When their missiles streaked towards their target, did they even have time to think their attack would work, or did Orb swat them from the sky before they even had the chance to arm their weapons? Did Orb create large portals around himself so that the missiles and the planes simply vaporized upon contact?
“Tough trip?” asked Eli, who startled Peter with his stealthy approach from the house.
Peter turned halfway and shaded his eyes from the strong afternoon sun to better see his brother, who was still five meters away walking to close the gap. Peter groaned again as he got back to his feet.
“Yes. Long. I don’t even remember half of it.”
“You were gone over three weeks.”
Peter pondered that statement. Has it really been three weeks?
The two brothers stood just a few feet apart but the gap between them seemed quite a bit larger. The initial euphoria they had all felt when they won the Game had quickly faded—primarily because of the reality that they now lived in a world controlled by Orb, but also because Orb had driven a wedge between them by whisking Peter away while leaving the rest of them to twiddle their thumbs.
“Uh-huh,” Eli replied aloud to Peter’s thought with all the usual warmth associated with that expression.
Peter focused on the noise of the river for a moment, knowing that the words spoken in the next few minutes needed to be selected carefully, and used wisely.
I tried connecting with you several times.
Peter nodded, then replied, I know. I was with Orb almost all the time. When he left me, it was so I could sleep. I kept waking up in strange houses all over the world without knowing how I had gotten there.
If Eli was impressed by Peter’s workload, it did not show. He replied, “Orb came here a few times while you were gone. He was tiny, about the size you said he was when you found him in the river bed, and never stayed for more than a couple of minutes. We asked him about you, and when we would see you, and he said you w
ere in training for ‘dispute resolution’—whatever that is.”
Peter rubbed his palms against his jeans. “Basically, every area of the planet is now part of a district. When enough people in a district complain to Orb, he goes there to sort it out. I’m now doing that for him so he can do other stuff.”
“I know about the districts. What other stuff?”
“I don’t know. He wouldn’t say.”
Eli pondered this news for a moment, then asked, “How does Orb get complaints? It’s not like you can send him a letter.”
Peter looked a little sad when he answered, “Prayers. People now pray to Orb.”
Eli’s expression was a mixture of puzzlement and concern.
“Praying to Orb,” Eli repeated.
“That’s part of the message Orb gives wherever he goes. If you pray to him, and do what he asks, he’ll answer your prayers—but only if it’s about the amount of food available, or how the district is being run.”
“And now you’re the one who comes in and fixes things?”
Peter nodded. “Mainly I have to change what Orb calls the ‘constable’ for the district. They deal with all the problems that come up with food, water, and shelter. And they get to live in a house as a reward. In the areas where Orb has cleared the buildings, the constable is the only one with a house as the rest of the homes have all been squished and then sent into portals.”
Eli looked back towards their house. “That sounds like a good way to make people unhappy.”
Orb seems to like it when people fight, Peter replied inside Eli’s head, but said aloud, “There are definitely a lot of unhappy people. No cars, no phones, no computers, living in tents, being bossed around by someone who used to be their neighbor…”
Eli smirked. “Have you heard about our little town? It’s worse.”
“What do you mean, worse?”
“All of us ‘Disciples’ got to keep our houses, and, unlike the rest of the world, Orb left all the other houses and buildings in the area. The Disciples are the only ones who can enter them; everyone else hits an invisible wall. If a non-Disciple tries to enter more than once they’re vaporized.”
The Disciples of the Orb Page 3