Agents of the Demiurge

by Brian Blose

  “I don't want to hear any more about me participating,” Hess said.

  “This is not the time for jokes. Handle him.”

  “What exactly do you expect me to do? He's an Observer!”

  Elza clenched her jaw, but didn't say anything further. Her man folded his arms and fixed a steady gaze on Erik. “What kind of Observer are you?”

  An interesting question. “You tell first, Hess.”

  “I'm not the one who goes from village to village setting fires and cutting people into pieces. I want an explanation, Erik.”

  He smiled. “Do you think the Creator wants to see the same things happen all the time? How many times have I seen men work a field and women pound Taro into dough? It is tedious. You ask me, I think the Creator appreciates a little novelty, even if I have to manufacture the circumstances.”

  “You think killing the people serves the Creator?”

  “Not the killing. That's just how I clean up once I finish my work.” Erik's brows shot up. “Do you want to hear about my discoveries?”

  “Probably not. But go on and tell us.”

  “They hate themselves.” Erik enunciated each word. “These creatures don't want to live. They despise the Creator.”

  Tension grew in Hess' shoulders. “They don't know the Creator.”

  “Oh, I let them in on the big secret when things get started. I tell them about the Great One who made the world and sent me into it. Then I start with the cutting.”

  “You can't believe the Creator wants you to do that.”

  “Why not? What I do is just a more aggressive way to chit-chat with the locals. They beg for their lives, they offer to give me things, they threaten me, they tell me people are coming to find them, they tell me sad stories and happy ones in the hope that I will start to like them. But in the end, they all break. They beg me to kill them.”

  Hess shook his head. “What you're doing is wrong.”

  Erik laughed. “Wrong? You think their rules about right and wrong apply to us? These creatures know nothing. They're not even real. They exist for the Creator's amusement. They don't even value their lives. Why is it so wrong for me to cut the truth from their flesh?”

  “Why did the Creator make people if He doesn't value them?”

  “He? You think the Creator has a giant body somewhere, complete with a third leg? The Creator is no more similar to the people than It is to a turtle or a tree. As an Observer, you should be able to appreciate that fact. We serve something far greater than the pathetic creatures of this world.”

  “You are participating. That violates the Divine Command,” Elza said.

  Erik waved a hand dismissively at the woman. “I decide my own limits. And I have never done anything to undermine my service.”

  “You disrupt lives in a drastic fashion,” Elza began.

  Erik spoke over her. “You think I do wrong, Hess?”

  “I do.”

  “Then I say you are in the wrong. We serve only the Creator. The people are nothing. Even we are nothing compared to the Creator.”

  “The Creator doesn't want you hurting people.”

  “Now, Hess, be realistic. You don't got a clue what the Creator wants. Could be that painful deaths are the best thing ever. Or maybe we're sent here to collect jokes about chamber pots. We each have to use our best judgment.”

  For a moment, tension hung between them. Elza faded into the background until there was just the two of them. Then Hess turned away and the spell broke. “I don't approve,” he said.

  Erik shrugged. “Well, good for you.”

  “I don't have anything else to say to you.”

  “Are you telling me to leave?” He squeezed the haft of his walking stick.

  “I'm telling you that we are leaving. I can't forbid you from doing what you think right, so I am going to put a lot of distance between us and do my best to forget about you.”

  “You'll remember me. We don't forget anything, Hess.”

  “Do you have any questions before I go?”

  Erik glanced at Elza. “What's happening with you two?”

  “That's not your concern. Last chance to ask questions.”

  “Is there a particular question you think I should be asking?”

  Hess turned to face him again. “Aren't you curious how many Observers there are? That is the first question from everyone else.”

  “There can't be many of us or I would have found another before now,” Erik said.

  “Well, in case you want to know, you are the sixth I know of. Elza, Hess, Mel, San, Drake, and Erik. The Observers of the Creator.”

  Hess and Elza didn't speak to him again. They packed up their camp while he watched, then strode away as dawn broke. They looked back a few times, furtive glances to make sure they were not followed.

  They didn't like him. But they knew he existed. No matter how much Hess might wish it, he would not be able to forget their meeting. Elza, Hess, Mel, San, Drake, and Erik. The Creator's Observers.

  Chapter 30 – Hess / Iteration 145

  They packed a car with the essentials. Food, water, fuel, weapons, clothing. Not that they truly needed any of it. They could survive anything the world decided to throw at them – starvation, dehydration, injury, exposure. The only true threat was the inevitable outcome of the vote they conducted.

  Once Jerome opened her mouth to say something, but then she opted to maintain the silence instead. When their vehicle was prepped, Hess poured the remainder of the fuel throughout the garage that had served as a home to their group the past several months. The place went up in flames as he drove away.

  They went along the outer rim of damage from the explosion, periodically passing through black smoke rising from the smoldering remains of buildings or vehicles. Neither Hess nor Jerome spoke as they found an intact expressway and joined a line of vehicles evacuating the city.

  After an hour of stop and go driving, they reached the front of the line, where figures in paramilitary uniforms searched each vehicle in turn. Jerome stared at him for a moment with her too large eyes before hunching down into her seat. Hess rolled to a stop when a soldier stepped in front of his vehicle, rifle slung from his shoulders to hang in his hands at the ready.

  There were two more soldiers performing over-watch from the sidelines, though one was drinking from his canteen and the other was rummaging through his pockets. It was many hours into what probably felt like an unending shift for those men. The leader of the group approached the driver side door.

  Hess found himself looking into the face of Inspector Monterey.

  The Inspector's only reaction upon recognizing Hess was to seize the pistol holstered at his side. In a flash, Hess surged through the open window to seize the Inspector. He pulled the man half into the car's cab, moving the half-pointed handgun past him before it could fire. Then Hess hooked an arm around the man's neck.

  Inspector Monterey froze, panting. The soldiers outside exchanged horrified looks. “There are days,” Hess said, “when I wonder if you people are worth the effort.”

  He slammed his foot down on the gas pedal, steering his car into the soldier blocking the lane. That man dove to the side in time to save his life. Monterey's feet skidded along the ground and he slipped back out the window. As the man's head began to pass the border of the window, Hess slammed his elbow down savagely into the back of his head, then watched him flop awkwardly in the rear view mirror. Judging by the way the body failed to curl to protect its head, Inspector Monterey was dead. Shots rang out behind them.

  Hess switched roads at the first interchange and continued to put distance behind them. At his side, Jerome slowly untensed as evidence of pursuit failed to appear. Finally, she cleared her throat. “Hess?”

  “What?”

  “I need to know what happened last Iteration. After I left.”

  Hess grunted. “The usual. Maybe that's the problem.”

  “I'm sorry.”

  “Every love story ends in trag
edy. Why should mine be any different?”

  Chapter 31 – Elza / Iteration 145

  The driver's door of the pickup opened with a squeal to admit San. “Elz, you look worse than the time I made you try a fermented egg.”

  Elza forced a smile. “Your food always disappoints.”

  San sighed. “Don't do this, Elz. He's miserable. You're miserable. Hell of a way to spend your final days.”

  “You know,” Elza said, “all of us stalled in our development. Fixated on things. Fetishes. Cognitive biases. As much experience as we have, we still missed things. Obvious things.”

  San shook her head. “You know this isn't right.”

  “Tell me the truth of something.”

  “Course, hon. I'm a fan of the truth.”

  “Did you befriend me just to annoy Hess?”

  “No.” San placed a hand on Elza's cheek. “I only ever picked on Hess because it was so easy. The truth of our friendship is far sadder. We are kindred spirits, you and I, sad saps doing our best to forget the pain of lives that refuse to end.”

  Elza squeezed her eyes shut. “The only thing that made it tolerable was knowing I served something greater than myself. But that was a lie. We are the Creator. The endless Iterations of creation and destruction are the cosmic equivalent of masturbation . . . .” A bitter laugh bubbled free of Elza. “My entire life, I prided myself on being the most impartial of the Observers. Even after I stopped following the rules, I was impartial, San. I watched the people without the slightest judgment. But none of that really mattered. I've been a passionless servant of an amoral Creator. An Agent of the Demiurge in truth.”

  “Hon, just go back to him.”

  “No, San. He's realizing the woman he loved all that time only existed in his mind. He cares so much for the people, San. We watched a world kill itself with nuclear weapons. Every moment was torture for him. It hurt me to see his pain. He noticed when I winced at bad news. And you know what he thought, San? He thought the grand tragedy of Iteration one four four bothered me. That I cared about the people. Maybe I should have. Maybe I'm as much of a monster as Erik.”

  Elza grimaced. “After all this time, Hess still has no idea who I am. He thinks I've joined his causes out of some altruistic impulse when in truth I've been humoring him. I'm not who he thinks I am. And we are one serious conversation away from him realizing the fact. If I leave, we lose our future. But if I stay, we lose our past. So I leave.” She tossed the key to San. “Could you drive the first shift?”

  San remained silent until they were free of the shattered city. “Last Iteration, they had these coffee beans that had been swallowed and passed by an elephant. Supposedly the digestion process brought out interesting flavors. The sky opened before I could get my hands on some, but I think if we head south, we might be able to find coffee beans and some willing elephants. You in?”

  Chapter 32 - Erik / Iteration 2

  He took the name Rex as he entered the village. Rex. A false name to wear while he posed as one of the pathetic creatures. As usual, he'd taken the name from someone he had encountered in the past. This time, from a man he met once in passing. There was no significance to it. It was only a label he would wear while in this particular village. He was not Rex. He was the Creator’s Observer, one of several, and his name was Erik.

  ###

  You have reached the end of Agents of the Demiurge. Look for part III of the Participants Trilogy, Full Vessels, in late 2014. If you would like to support the work of this author, please consider leaving a review at your favorite online retailer. Thanks for reading.

  About The Author

  Brian Blose is an immortal Observer currently on the run from a group of zealous coworkers intent on punishing him for crimes commited in a previous Iteration of the world. Or maybe he’s an Army Veteran, husband, father, software developer, and writer. Take your pick.

  Either way, you should visit his author website at www.brianblose.com.