The Schrödinger Enigma

by Greg Krojac

  DAY SIXTEEN

  9 May

  The roar of the motorcycles cut through the silence of the night, heralding their arrival at the Amish farm like a fanfare for the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. Jacob leaped out of bed and grabbed his hunting shotgun, which was stashed away in the kitchen. Visitors were normally welcomed, but nobody who comes calling unannounced at two o’clock in the morning has good intentions. Not these days.

  He opened the door to find four Harley Davidson motorcycles lined up facing the door of the house, their exhausts belching smoke like war-horses exhaling warm breath on a cold winter’s day. Astride the bikes, which had been stolen from a showroom in Indianapolis the previous day, sat four figures, all dressed black leather motorcycle gear. They looked fearsome, and the pump action shotguns they held increased that emotion. Jacob stood his ground.

  “What do you gentlemen want at this time of the morning?”

  The group’s leader answered.

  “Amish ain’t ya? A man of religion?”

  Jacob responded, not taking his eye off the man, his hunting rifle pointing at the motorcyclist’s chest.

  “That I am, praise the Lord. What about it?”

  “Well, me and my friends, we’re mighty pissed at your god[a25]. We wanna know why he saw fit to send this mighty plague to kill our families. You have a family, Mister Amish man? I had a family, I had a wife, Carol. I had a daughter, Lynette. I had my best friend, Nolan. Now I ain’t got nothing. ‘Cept my boy and my new friends here, ‘course.”

  Triggs failed to mention that Nolan hadn’t died from the plague but that he himself had killed him. And Nolan would never have called Triggs his best friend – as far as he had been concerned, they were just two guys doing a shitty job that nobody else wanted to do. Jacob wasn’t interested in Triggs’s sob story.

  “We’ve all lost families and friends, sir. And I’ll thank you kindly to get off my land and go back to whence you came.”

  The biker mimicked the farmer.

  “Go back to whence I came? Well ain’t you the fancy Dan, Mister Amish man.”

  Jacob repeated his demand.

  “Get off my land.”

  “Or what old man?”

  “Or I won’t be responsible for my actions.”

  The commotion outside had woken Jason, Enak and Sitara, who had been sleeping in the barn. They peeked through a gap in the wood cladding and saw Jacob facing off against four bikers. Jason whispered to Enak,

  “Fetch the guns from the car. Old man Jacob’s got unwanted company.”

  Enak took the shotgun and the semi-automatic rifle from the back seat of the vehicle and joined Jason.

  Nobody noticed as one of the motorcyclists slipped around the back of the house and entered by the back door. All eyes were on the motorbike group’s leader and the Amish farmer. Triggs laughed.

  “You’re a man of God, old man. You’re Amish. It’s against your religion to hurt another human being. Y’all ain’t gonna hurt me.”

  The man was right. Jacob used his gun for hunting. He didn’t know if he could shoot another human being.

  Suddenly the missing biker appeared behind Jacob, holding Ruth and Miriam tightly by their arms.

  “Hey Triggs. Look at what I found. There was a young dude in there too. Took exception to me comin’ into the house, but he’s sleepin’ now.”

  Triggs took a hard look at the two women and wolf-whistled.

  “Say Mister Amish man. That’s a pair of mighty fine ladies you were hidin’ in your house. Mind if we play around a little with ‘em? Naw, course you don’t. There’s only one of y’all and there’s four of us. Y’all can watch though. Share the experience.”

  Jacob was doing his best not to stray from the Lord’s teachings, but he wasn’t about to let these men rape his wife and daughter either. He glanced up towards the heavens as his trigger finger started to squeeze the shotgun’s trigger, slowly, very slowly, as if to give him the chance to change his mind and avoid killing a fellow man.

  A shot rang out.

  The man-mountain that held Ruth and Miriam prisoner lost his grip on the two women and collapsed like a sack of potatoes, as a mix of flesh, bone, and brain matter gave the two women an unwelcome and nauseating shower.

  Panic ensued. The women, covered in remnants of Pete’s head, stood gasping in shock as Jacob pushed them back inside the house, bolting the door shut. Ruth’s motherly instincts came to the fore, and she went to find Samuel and see if he was alright, ignoring the bloody mess that was splattered over her clothing. He was groggy, having been knocked clean unconscious with one punch[a26] to the head, but he wasn’t seriously hurt. Miriam locked and bolted the back door and returned to her father’s side.

  Jason was pleased that his shot had turned the situation. He’d picked up a telescopic sight with the rifle when he had raided that sporting goods shop back in Bethesda, and the scope had ensured a clean shot.

  Triggs and the two remaining bikers had quickly taken cover behind a large rain barrel beside the house. It didn’t afford much protection, and they were forced to huddle together, but it was better than nothing. Triggs called out.

  “I don’t know who y’all are mister, but as far as I can see there’s still three of us and probably only two of y’all. There’s no need for none of us to get hurt. Me and my buddies will just get on our bikes and ride away into the sunset.”

  Triggs had no intention of leaving quietly. The bikers still outgunned the Amish farmer and whoever was in the barn, even though they were a man down.

  “Tell you what, Amish man in the barn…”

  Jason called out from his hiding place.

  “I’m no Amish man and I won’t hesitate to put the next bullet through your head, just like I did your friend’s.”

  Triggs whispered to his colleagues.

  “One of you go ‘round the back of the house and outflank the dude in the barn. From his accent, I reckon he’s a Limey. Probably just a lucky shot that knocked down old Pete. They don’t usually have guns over there. Probably never shot a gun in his life before today.”

  Shane, the youngest of the group, started to move. He was enjoying the adventure. School had closed indefinitely, and since he’d joined up with his father, the sixteen year old’s life had become much more exciting. He silently crept around the back of the building and approached the side of the barn. Suddenly he was looking down the business end of a double-barrelled shotgun, at the other end of which was a dark-skinned young woman. His hormones pointed out to him that she was a fine-looking woman, but his brain reminded him that he was in danger. He began to calculate the odds of success if he primed his own pump-action weapon, but was stopped in his tracks by a male voice behind him.

  “Don’t even think about it.”

  He slowly turned his head to see a short but very stocky man. Enak was unarmed but Shane looked at the size and the strength in the man’s forearms and imagined that the man could easily overcome him. He could shoot the man, but then he’d probably be killed by the woman. He was only sixteen and far too young to die. He slowly put his gun on the ground, before being marched inside the barn.

  Now Jason’s little group had an ace up its sleeve - a hostage. Enak looked over Wayne’s pump-action shotgun that he had picked up off the ground.

  “Primitive but effective, I imagine. Not my weapon of choice though.”

  Jason called out to the house.

  “Jacob? Are you alright in there?”

  Jacob watched as his wife put a cold compress to the back of their son’s head. He shouted back.

  “We’re all fine. Samuel will have a headache for a few hours, but he’ll live.”

  Jason turned his attention to the two men concealed behind the rain barrel.

  “We outnumber you, and now we have a hostage. This scenario can play out one of two ways; we can negotiate your surrender and get on with our business, or we can shoot it out right here and now. While you’re considering your options, think
on this. We have four guns against your two. You’re hiding behind a water butt. You’re alive because I’m letting you live. I don’t really want to kill you, but I will if I have to. And, don’t forget, we have a hostage.”

  He turned to Shane.

  “Say something, lad.”

  Shane knew what he wanted his father to do.

  “Pa[a27], give up. He’s not joking. Let’s just get out of here, while we can.”

  Triggs knew that he had no choice. He’d lost his wife and daughter; he didn’t want to lose his son too.

  “OK. We surrender.”

  Jason nodded to his friends, before shouting out his terms for Triggs’ peaceful withdrawal.

  “Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re both going to unload your weapons and throw the ammunition forward. Then you’re going to throw your guns behind you. Then you’re going to stand up and walk to the centre of the courtyard, hands in the air. Do you understand?”

  Triggs called out that he did.

  “Then you’ll turn around and start walking back down the approach road. Your bikes will stay here.”

  “What about my boy?”

  Jason turned to Shane.

  “What’s your dad’s name?”

  “James Trigger. But everybody calls him Triggs.”

  The instructions continued.

  “You’ll wait for us two hundred yards before the track meets the main road, wearing mothing but your underwear.”

  Sitara whispered softly.

  “Why have they got to be in their underwear?”

  “Because it makes them vulnerable.”

  “Oh, I see. Good idea.”

  Jason gave the last of his conditions.

  “We’ll be leaving here early tomorrow[a28]. You’ll make yourselves visible when we approach you, we’ll pass you, and then - a mile down the road - we’ll let your son out of the car. Do you agree?”

  Triggs reluctantly agreed, although he would have preferred to make a rescue attempt to get his son back.

  “Will y’all be turnin’ left or right at the main road?”

  “That’s for us to know and you to find out. Do we have a deal?”

  Triggs had no choice.

  “We have a deal.”

  The group in the barn watched as the two men followed the instructions to the letter, before setting off along the side road in the direction of the highway.

  Enak kept watch on the dirt road that led away from the farmstead, in case Triggs and his friend decided to do something stupid. When the coast was clear, Jacob let his rescuers back in the house. Jason touched Jacob’s shoulder.

  “I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to come with us. We’ve got plenty of room.”

  Jacob protested, echoing Burt Prentice’s sentiments, saying that he’d been born in that house and so had his children - it was their home, and it was part of them. Jason understood how he felt, but it was too dangerous for them to stay on their own.

  “You’re not safe here. What’s going to happen next time some low-life decides to invade your property? You could get killed. Your wife and daughter could be raped. Think of your family.”

  Ruth intervened, she and Miriam more comfortable now that they had washed the mess off themselves.

  “Jacob. The Lord Almighty knows that I want to stay here, but we were lucky tonight. Who knows what might happen next time, when Jason and his friends aren’t here. We can’t stay here. There’s nothing here for us now. Only memories. And we can take our memories with us. And the Lord will be with us, wherever we might go. We know that.”

  Later that same morning, at the crack of dawn, the overladen SUV left the farm, but not before Enak had disabled each of the Harleys, having spent the rest of the night keeping watch in case the two bikers tried to rescue Shane. As the car rumbled along the dirt-track, they could see that Triggs and his accomplice were waiting a couple of hundred yards before the road junction, just as they had been told to do, wearing nothing but their underwear. The SUV turned right and stopped a little over one mile further down the road, when they left their prisoner by the roadside. Free of the extra passenger, the Chevy continued along the road towards Washington D.C.

  About ten miles before the capital city, Enak suggested that they stop. The SUV pulled into the next motel, and disgorged its passengers. Enak didn’t want to say what he had to say out in the parking lot. It would be better if they were all sitting down.

  “We should go inside. I have more to tell you about what lies [a29]ahead.”

  The motel reception area was pleasantly furnished and surprisingly clean, with the furniture perfectly arranged in groups of four chairs around a low-level coffee table. Enak fetched three more chairs over to one of the tables so they could all sit down. Then he went over to a vending machine, ripped the door open, and returned with several bars of chocolate which he tossed into the middle of the table, and seven cans of Dr Pepper which he placed in front of each member of the group. Jason passed around the snacks.

  “So, Enak. What do you want to talk to us about?”

  Enak took a sip of his drink, enjoying the new taste, but then a serious look came over his face.

  “There is something you need to know before we get to the city. You need to be prepared for what you may face in the days to come.”

  They had an idea of what they would probably see - hundreds of bodies, in varying states of decay. But there would also be signs of civilisation; it may be mostly empty of living people, but the basic physical infrastructure would probably still be there. They might even find other Immunes, hopefully more agreeable than the four that had confronted them at the Amish farm. Enak continued.

  “I have already told you something of my background, but I am not sure that you really appreciated the enormity of the situation.”

  Miriam unwrapped a Mars Bar, took a bite and spoke with her mouth a little full.

  “You mean that you’re from another planet? And that mother called you a demon?”

  Ruth blushed, realising that she had misjudged the stranger. He had more than acquitted himself from that charge during the early morning’s attack. She felt embarrassed.

  “I’m sorry, Enak. I was shocked and startled. It just came out.”

  Enak smiled.

  “You are forgiven, Ruth.”

  “Thank you, Enak. Your forgiveness is very important to me. And to our Lord.”

  Enak’s nodded his acceptance of the apology.

  “What I am going to say to you will seem incredible. In fact, you will not want to believe it. It may make you frightened. It should make you frightened. But please do not be scared of me. I am different. It is a long story, but it is important that you know all the facts.

  “You can see that I am obviously physically different to you, but yet there are similarities. I am human, but not human like you are. There is a very good reason for this, a reason that will seem both absurd and bizarre to you. You will find it hard to believe, but I assure you that it is true.”

  Enak looked around the table. His colleagues’ eyes were all fixed upon the Argon, like cub-scouts gathered around a camp-fire about to hear a ghost story. Enak took a sip of Dr Pepper and continued.

  “About forty thousand years ago, you and we - what you like to call Neanderthals - lived side by side. We were subjects of an experiment performed by a far more advanced extra-terrestrial race of beings, the Jah, that involved the manipulation of primate DNA in an effort to create a creature of higher intelligence.”

  Samuel was hungry and had already started eating a second bar of chocolate.

  “When you say ‘we’ do you mean just your people or ours too?”

  “Both species were part of the same experiment.”

  Ruth felt that she was beginning to understand.

  “So these extra-terrestrials were, in fact, the Lord our God.”

  “Your people gave them various names, I believe.”

  Sitara interjected.

  “Like my go
d, Allah, who is actually the same god that you worship. Or the Hindu gods, or Zeus, Apollo, Wodin, and so on.”

  Enak didn’t want the conversation to drift into a discussion of what god was the best god, or even the true god, or even if gods existed at all.

  “Anyway, we Argon were taken off the planet and placed on a different planet many light years away from here. Both humans and Argon continued to develop on their own planets, but we did not fall prey to superstitious beliefs and suffer periods of stagnation. Our technological progress was uninterrupted.”

  Sitara was surprised.

  “I thought that Neanderthals were supposed to be less intelligent than us, us humans I mean.”

  “Yes. I notice that your species has this misconception. When we left the planet, we were probably at a similar level of development. But we are far more advanced than you are now - as you will see. Sitara, you are a scientist, yes?”

  Sitara nodded.

  “Then I think that you will find what I am about to tell you both fascinating and frightening. Please remember that I am not a threat to you and I could do nothing about what has happened. Sitara, you were one of the first people to encounter the spacecraft that you call Voyager One, yes?”

  She responded guardedly.

  “Yes, I was.”

  “Did it seem odd to you that, at the same time as Voyager One was on Earth, it was also outside your solar system?”

  “Of course it did. It’s impossible. We don’t have the technology.”

  “But we do.”

  “How? How did you do it?”

  Jason was more interested in getting to the end of the briefing and didn’t want to get side-tracked by a scientific discussion that would leave him and the other four floundering.

  “Perhaps Enak can explain the details to you at another time, Sitara. He has more important things to tell us first.”