by J. D. Laird
It is after this first mile of walking that Gabriel decides to change course, for no particular reason. He turns and starts walking to his right. What direction was he heading in? Gabriel has no idea. The sky is black. Not the kind of black of a night sky either, just pure darkness overhead. There is not even a hint of gray or weak light. Gabriel has no way of knowing where he is going or how to get his bearings. Everything looks the same to him and all of it is a maze.
Something lights up on the ground ahead of him then. It is a small slither of metal, it glitters as an arch of light shoots across the columns overhead. The glint of the metal fades immediately as the arch passes. Gabriel jobs forward to investigate the discarded on the ground. He reaches for his flashlight, now that he has a free hand, and flicks it on.
On the ground Gabriel sees a rectangular object, about two feet in length. There are indentations in the object where words have been pounded into it from one side. Gabriel flips over the object with his boot and the item makes a metallic clinking sound as it hits the ground again. Shining the flashlight downwards, Gabriel reads the sign unresponsively at first. He has to read it several more times before his brain finally processes the information. Then Gabriel feels a mixture of excitement and panic. His legs come alive and he runs off. Gabriel runs down the row of pillars with his flashlight shining wildly as he searches for something. The sign, it had read ‘Pennsylvania Avenue’, and to Gabriel that only meant one thing. Gabriel only has to run a short while before he has found what he was looking on his right-hand side.
There is a fence, a gap in the pillars where they hadn’t been placed. Within the fence is mass of people. People standing shoulder to shoulder with unblinking eyes that are wide open. All of these people are staring at Gabriel. Their faces don’t respond as he shines the light of his flashlight on them from the other side of the fence.
Beyond these people stand a structure. It is an iconic building that Gabriel had grown up seeing and knowing the name of. It was a mansion built for the rulers of ‘the free world’. The building is painted white.
Gabriel takes a few steps back away from the scene, his mouth agasp. The front lawn of the White House has been converted into a corral. It is full of people with empty gazes, all just looking out at Gabriel. At first, Gabriel response is fear, but this quickly turns to anger. Anger is the only emotion that Gabriel can identify with anymore.
What had these creatures done? Why were they doing this? Gabriel doesn’t really care about getting the answers, anymore, he just wants to make those responsible pay. Then Gabriel thinks of his daughters and his anger is momentarily masked by the veil of something Gabriel thought he could never feel again, hope.
Running up to the fence’s bars, Gabriel pierces through the wrought iron with the beam of his flashlight. He looks at and studies the faces of those that he can see. He looks for the faces of his daughters.
When Gabriel can’t find them he runs farther down the length of the fence. He continues his search. Gabriel scans every face, searching for his children with his flashlight and his remaining eye. None of the bodies respond, none of them seem to even know he is there. In that moment, Gabriel doesn’t care if someone, or something, discovers him or not. The only thing he can think of was his daughters.
Gabriel makes a right turn where the fence ends and runs farther down, following the fence where it bends. He searches and searches past the White House itself and into the South Lawn when a realization strikes him. There are no children in the fenced in portion, just adults. As the thought forms, Gabriel slows his pace and catches his breath. He places his hands on his knees and bends over trying to catch his breath. His children aren’t here. They likely were gone for good.
Gabriel wants to cry again, and knows it would probably be the healthy thing to do. But, Gabriel has no tears left. So instead, Gabriel pulls himself up straight and grips the alien device in his hand more firmly. There is another arch of light between the conduits of pillars, only this time it seems stronger. Gabriel can feel the air alive with electricity. About a half-mile away, standing over five hundred and fifty feet tall, Gabriel sees the tallest of the pillars shoot out an arch of electricity in all directions, electric currents are then carried by the pillars farther down the line.
Flicking off his flashlight and returning it to his belt loop, Gabriel dash towards the largest of these pillars. He moves as stealthily as he can as he runs. He recognizes this pillar. It is as iconic to him as the white house to his side. It was a monument built to honor someone who had fought for freedom. It had be constructed for someone who had been a warrior like Gabriel now strived to be. Yet, these invaders had turned the monument into some perverted instrument of their own design.
The Washington Monument lights up in what appears to be consistent intervals. There are flashes every ten seconds by Gabriel’s count. Running from the monuments base are large cables. They are large enough to be tunnels that he might be able to walk through. The cables run to the west, towards the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool. Gabriel creeps close to them and dared to place his hand on one of them. It feels metallic and smooth, but it doesn’t have a temperature or a shine to it. The large cable’s surface reminds Gabriel of the cyclopean triangular vessel had seen in the sky on that first day when he had awoken. This cable too is also matte black and seems to absorb beams of light.
Following the cables to their destination, Gabriel finds himself overlooking the Reflecting Pool. What he sees then fills him with what is becoming a familiar mix of horror and anger, the same that he had felt overlooking the Front Lawn.
There are bodies. The pool is filled with still bodies. All are laying their backs, staring up at the sky. They are floating towards him, towards the large cables and the monument. When they reach the cables they were sucked inside. A short while later, The Monument bursts with light.
They are feeding it, Gabriel realizes. These people are somehow generating the electricity that shoots out of the Washington Monument that is then was fed to the surrounding pillars.
Peering farther down the pool Gabriel saw that the Lincoln Monument has been removed. In its place is a ramp. Body after motionless body is being slide down the ramp and into the water of the Reflecting Pool. The bodies then float in a current that is being generated by a small motor at the base of the ramp. Gabriel crouches down. He suddenly notices that he is not alone in observing the horror before him. There are shapes, beings on the far side of the pool. These figures seem to be monitoring and overseeing everything as it occurs.
Using the cover of the darkness, Gabriel creeps along the edge of the pool. He is careful to hide every few seconds when the sky is lit up from the arches of light. The closer Gabriel gets to the beings on the other side of the Reflecting Pool, the more he comes to realize that his suspicions are correct. These things on the platform aren’t human.
Yet, these new beings aren’t like the creature Gabriel had encountered earlier either. There are about a half-dozen of them. They are smaller beings, about five feet tall. Each is dressed uniformly and to Gabriel they look identical. There are no distinctive features between them. Each is wearing a jumpsuit, like Gabriel’s old maintenance overalls, but more form fitting and made of a matted fabric that Gabriel can’t place. Their bodies are slender and they have thin arms and legs that have no identifiable muscle tone. Their most distinguishable feature are their heads.
The beings’ heads are large and oblong. They thinned at the chin, but grow larger as they near the top of their skulls. Their eyes are two large portals, black and unblinking. There are no signs of noses or ears, and yet they have mouths, though they never open. Their skin is gray.
They are focused and attentive to their tasks. The small beings have electronic tablets where they are presumably making calculations and jotting down notes, Gabriel can only guess. None of them seemed to be communicating with one another, at least not that Gabriel can notice, and yet of them appeared to get in one another’s way.
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nbsp; These are the masterminds, Gabriel concludes. The overseers. Whereas the creature that Gabriel had faced had been sheer animalistic rage, these beings were detached, emotionless and task-oriented. They are the ones who orchestrated it all. And in that moment, Gabriel wants nothing more than for them to find him so that he can make them all dead.
These beings are small and weak, and Gabriel is full of rage. He won’t bother trying to communicate with them or ask them any questions. All Gabriel wants is to make them suffer and to know that he is the one to bring that suffering to them.
Gabriel holds the strange device that he had recovered from the monster before and places his finger around the trigger. He debates using the device to blow all of the creatures off the platform, but decides against it for fear that using the weapon would merely transport him somewhere else again. No, Gabriel will use his hands this time. He will use his knuckles, shins and teeth to exact his revenge.
It was just as Gabriel steps out into view from behind a tree that he hears a gunshot. The beings on the platform don’t flinch. Gabriel wonders if these strange beings had the ability to hear at all. They didn’t have ears. The sound of the gunshot had been distant but unmistakable. Gabriel turns in its direction.
38 Madison
Ever since passing through Cincinnati Madison could feel a sense of anticipation building as she and Tobias approached Washington D.C. She knew that Tobias felt it too, though it seemed to be affecting him differently. The changes in Tobias that Madison had started to notice was more pronounced now. Tobias sat in the passenger’s seat next to her with his shoulders pressed against the seatback and his head erect. He had even found some twine and used it to tie his long hair into a ponytail behind his head. Madison couldn’t be sure, but it looked like the young man had been losing weight as well. His face seemed slimmer and less full of pox. When they had stopped by a drug store to stock up on supplies, Tobias had even found a razor and used it to cut away the stray hairs on his face. He almost looked handsome.
Yet all of this might have been missed because Madison was so focused on what was waiting for her when they reached their destination. She didn’t know for sure what she would find in D.C., but Madison is quite certain it will be the end of her journey.
Madison and Tobias are still miles out the city limits when they start noticing the tall rows of towering pillars. Even though it is late afternoon and the sun should still be up high overhead, the sky above the pillars is pitch black. Something is blotting out the sky entirely. Madison drives on, the beat-up truck passing through the columns of pillars. Any sense of the world beyond fades as they enter into this new and foreign territory.
Madison flicks on the headlights of the truck as the darkness descends around them. Only one headlight is functioning, the other having been shot out by Private Hillman days ago. Fortunately additional light comes in spurts in the form of what Madison at first thinks is lightning. That is, until she sees the arches of electricity shooting between the pillars. The further on Madison drives the more and more she feels like she is in a dream. She is descending deeper into a strange void beyond reality or reason.
“Did you know that this was here?” Madison is uneasy. The bizarre nature of the scene causes a growing sense of anxiety in her chest, that builds the longer they drive. Any evidence of what had once been D.C. has now either been covered in darkness or has been demolished. Only the pillars with electrify shooting across them remain.
Tobias nods timidly in response to Madison’s question. He seems frightened. It disturbs Madison to see him so afraid. He had been their guide and so sure of himself up until that moment. The young man’s own uneasiness does nothing to help Madison as she herself is doing everything in her power to maintain her composure.
“The pillars, what are they?” It isn’t a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question. Madison had gotten good about phrasing her sentences with Tobias in this way. But Madison aks it anyway, more aloud to herself than expecting Tobias to answer.
She is even more surprised when he does.
“It is why they have come.”
Madison slams on the brakes and the truck jerks from the force. She bounds on Tobias. “What did you just say?”
The young man’s expression reflects that of a scared child. Tobias turns to Madison and she marvels that the person she is looking at had been the same man she had met only a few days earlier in New Mexico. He was so different now, more grown-up, and yet even more timid now then she had ever seen him.
“It is why they have come.” Tobias repeats. His voice is weak. He stares at Madison with wide eyes.
“You can talk?” Madison exclaims excitedly, though Tobias seems not as thrilled at the revelation. Madison wonders if this change is for better or worse. The uneasy feeling inside of he continues to grow. Maybe Madison should have never agreed to come here with Tobias afterall. This well may all have been a big mistake.
“I’m sorry.” Tobias says as he pulls his gaze away from Madison. He buries his hands in his face. “I should have never brought you here.”
Madison tries to put a comforting hand on the young man’s broad shoulders, but she bats her hands away with his arm.
“This is a mistake.” Tobias is on the verge of tears. “I thought I could control it. I thought I could trick them, make them think that I was bringing you to them. I just wanted you to see.”
Madison suddenly feels very isolated and alone. The truck idles in the darkness, its sole headlight out of place amongst the darkness. Madison realizes she is in enemy territory. Her search for answers, for healing, has led her down a dark path and she fears what lay ahead.
Tobias then says, “We should drive farther.” His voice is different now. It does not waver. He is staring at the floor. “We have much to see.”
Madison shifts her foot from the brake to the accelerator and she pushes down on it lightly letting the car roll forward. Tobias’s words seem dark, perhaps foreshadowing the doom ahead of them. Despite this, Madison fears what would happen should she try and turn back. Turning back would be a return to true loneliness. All that she would have would be an endless lists questions and sleepless nights. She couldn’t turn around now. Madison would continue forward, if only for a while longer.
The truck rolled onwards down the rows of pillars that bursted with light. Madison squirmed uncomfortably in her seat. The bizarre nature of everything that was occurring was coming to her in spurts. She is lost in a world she does not know. When Madison had set out she had been destined for Washington, D.C., but this new city was nothing like the one she had visited before.
“Tobias.” Madison says the young man’s name in a whisper. It feels in that moment as if to say the name is to summon a dark spirit that had previously been hidden. A spirit that had only shown its true self back on the mesa when Tobias had struck her. “These pillars, what are they for?”
“They are conduits.” Tobias doesn’t even look at her as he speaks. His gaze is fixated straight ahead now, down the long rows of electrified towers that seem to never end. “They are collecting the energy that they came here for.”
“Collecting energy?” Madison furrows her brow. She tries to get a better understanding the cryptic statement. “Like oil or gas?”
“No.” It is the same flat tone, blunt and mechanical. “The universe is filled with such things. No, they collect the only thing that is unique to this world.” Madison doesn’t even have time to ask her next question before Tobias delivers the answer. “Us.”
Madison turns to Tobias. She is trying to read his expression. She wants some validation for what she her mind was telling her was an obscene notion. She pulls her eyes away from the roadway created by the fence of columns and confronts Tobias. “You mean humans! They are collecting humans?”
It all comes to her then. The circular impressions Madison had seen in all the major cities and roadways they had crossed. The way the cars in the highways had been gutted in the areas of driver’s and passenger’s seats,
where travelers had once been. How the only evidence of people Madison had seen were those that were already dead. Madison studies Tobias looking for confirmation. She studies him for some sense of what he is thinking. Her only data to draw from, however, is his blank staring ahead of them.
“They are farmers.” His voice is like a metronome, each syllable falling in-time. “Seeding this world, watching us grow. They then manipulated us in just the right ways. They controlled our leaders and nudged our societies in subtle ways. All to ensure that we reached our max potential as a species. That we reached maturation. We are the fruit of their labors.”
“We are not plants to be harvested!” Madison yells back before turning angrily to stare back down the rows of towers. She can’t look at Tobias. His blank expression only made his lies more painful. “We are human beings!” She hollers, gripping the wheel of the truck more tightly. Madison’s foot grows heavier on the accelerator pedal without her realizing it.
“To be human is to be naïve.” Tobias speaks but Madison feels someone else’s mind behind the words. “To be human is to be ignorant, to live blindly. To live with a purpose derived from what one is told to do by others. Humans are not the free thinking beings they claim to be. Even this is an illusion they have fabricated for us. No, rather, humans obey what they think is true, and all truth is merely what they have fed to us. Humans were designed to be obedient.”
“Designed?” Madison says the word softly under her breath. She feels angry and confused, but can’t tell if one isn’t causing the other. It is too much. It is too much truth all at once. Madison resists it, perhaps just like she was programmed to do. Or is this what Tobias, or whoever is speaking through him, wants her to think?
“You’re wrong.” She says abstinently.