Total Amnesia: Forgotten Lives

by J. W. Northrup

“Until recently, if you wanted to view a scene through a remote RV viewer, you had to first know the original position of the RV, and then you had to rely on very complex calculations to track the thing as it moved through the universe in order to find it again. Thus RV’s could be placed but they had to be continuously tracked.

  “With the invention and development of the RV locator, there is no longer a need to ‘track’ an RV. One merely ‘scans’ an area for the nearest RV and picks up the signal. Of course there are RV blockers positioned in areas of confidentiality. In such a case you need a code to access the viewer. For example residential homes of universal citizens who are ‘in the know’ always include RV restrictions; governmental offices also are restricted and of course military areas. In fact anyone can buy a RV blocker, they simply need to register it and confirm that they are not on probation or a sex offender or otherwise unqualified for restricted access.”

  She turns back to the computer.

  “First let me show you a few things. Let me give you a brief synopsis of earth’s history.” She enters some information on the keyboard. “You think your Internet is amazing. Try a universal Internet―with a transfer rate that is virtually instantaneous. That means you can download data from a systems twenty trillion light years distant instantaneously.”

  The speed of light comes to my mind.

  Twenty trillion light years instantaneously? That’s impossible.

  “Now I suppose you’re going to tell me that the speed of light is not a fact.”

  She chuckles. “You better believe my lectures on Einstein and Newton were tongue-and-cheek Tim. Yes, there is a ‘speed of light’―although it is not nearly as constant as your silly ‘math-happy’ scientists think it is. But the speed of light is only true for those types of wavelengths and energy forms you folks here on Earth are aware of—and let me tell you, they’ve stuck you with the slow, monotonous stuff. It makes it easy to keep you folks apathetic and under control.”

  “Yeah, 186,000 miles per second is really crawling.”

  “Try tracing a ‘slither’ ultralight-energy wave Tim. You can clock them at about 100 million light years a milli-second. Actually, this viewer uses ‘space transference’ which makes the transfer rate instantaneous once you’ve set up a space exchange, but this is a technology that does not exist on Earth.

  “The energy utilized by this computer is a different kind. You people don’t even know about it because of course, your silly bodies can’t perceive it and your current instruments can’t measure it. It is just one of many different forms of energy and space. Humans on earth have been indoctrinated with the ‘physics’ type energy because it is very slow, consistent, obedient and orderly―which is the mind-set they want you to be in.

  “Who’s ‘they’?”

  Espree smiles, “Another lesson Tim. Suffice it to say the people who put you in that body and put you here on this planet. I will show you these things, but again, we have got to take it a step at a time.” She turns back to the viewer leaving me staring at her with my mouth open.

  The screen brings up a display with data about planet Earth.

  “Planet P6211-A3987-RG93,” Espree reads out loud, “It says here this planet was originally and exclusively used for experimental creatures. You know the dinosaurs? They were bred by the now famous Zuell and Crock traveling circus.

  “They transferred them 75 million years ago to the Colomb system because they had better genetic breeding facilities there. See what I mean? Virtually all this ‘scientific data’ you get on this silly planet is tongue-and-cheek.

  “You, my friend, have a typical ‘3B’, ‘humanoid’ body style. You have been put here on Earth―apparently mistakenly put here―to breed and become indoctrinated with specific kinds of technology. Generally they will let you go until the population achieves at least a trillion―although I don’t believe this planet can comfortably hold much more than a 50 billion and that would probably require importing food from outside. This planet is relatively small with a large percentage of ocean. It is definitely not a mass breeding planet; it is obviously a genetic research planet, ill-suited for a large population of humanoids.

  “Humanoids are usually bred on planets with a capacity of at least 5 trillion. I honestly don’t know what you humans are doing here on Earth. It doesn’t make sense, but apparently they are now moving you out. I think you’re messing up the genetic R&D work that is, or was, being done here.”

  I’m dumbfounded.

  “So you’re saying we are being bred, like dogs?”

  “Exactly.”

  She can see I’m getting irritated.

  “I apologize,” she says, “I did not consider how hard this must be for you. “

  “This population has not been as thoroughly programmed as most populations. They have let you be for about 10 thousand years. I believe the trainers have only been here for the last hundred years―thus you see your recent technology boom.

  “I’m assuming this was some kind of contract problem with the breeders; or maybe a bankruptcy suspended their work. I don’t really know.

  “I chose Earth because I thought I had time to interact and develop a science of the spirit, but they had to spring this Harvest on me and force me to move ahead before I have had a chance to do any research.” She smiles and shrugs, “So here we are.”

  “But you’re not one of us? You look human.”

  “I do,” she says looking down at her body, “this is actually my first 3B body. Can you believe that? Up until recently, I simply refused to be a party to this terrible practice of trapping spiritual beings in bodies. I would have nothing to do with them. She looks herself over. “But then there is an aesthetic quality―particularly to the female body―that is kinda nice. And some of the sensations it generates are rather interesting.”

  Was that embarrassment I saw on her face?

  She continues, “After considering a number of different races, I decided to go with 3B humanoids. I figured it would be best to work with a relatively new model.

  She shakes her head. “I was so damn arrogant, thinking I understood you when I hadn’t a clue. I never realized how heavy your emotions are; how they can pull you down and absorb your energy. I never experienced the restrictions imposed upon you by their limited perceptions. But most of all, I did not realize how incredibly distracting it is as a spirit to be confined to a body.

  She turns back to the computer. “The reason I showed you this Universal viewer is because you need to actually see what I am describing. I must show you rather than explain. My words only filter through your Mechanical Mind and come out in an over-complicated mishmash of strange computations. But observations can bypass the circuitry! Until now, because of technological and physical restrictions, I have never been able to actually show a person what I am trying to explain.” She nods at the view. “Now I can.

  “In order to do that, I must first convince you that what you are seeing on this viewer is a genuine view of what is actually happening.”

  She looks out the window and I follow her gaze. We can see the intersection of Campus Drive and Panama Street from here. As in most of the intersections there is a wreck. A car is on fire.

  I figure I’ll put her little viewer to an impromptu the test.

  “Show me that from a viewer,” I say.

  “OK.”

  She turns back to the viewer and picks up an RV somewhere high above campus. Show in the hologram is the intersection and the car on fire.

  I can’t deny this is indeed the view and that I picked it.

  “Okay, show me an area of the planet where the gas has taken effect.”

  She motions me to take the controls of the viewer. I pick up her thoughts and feel a lump in my chest. She nods sympathetically as I struggle to fight back the tears. I take hold of the joystick and she helps me move the indicator to a view of North America from somewhere high above the planet. I awkwardly move the indicator light to a position where my hometown wou
ld be. I take a deep breath, and push the red button.

  I have picked up an RV somewhere south of Springfield. She shows me how to adjust the direction. I zoom in.

  There it is, Cassville, my home. Through a cloud of tears, I can see that my hometown is dead. Bodies are strewn everywhere―on the sidewalk, on the grass, in the streets. Cars are just parked all along the roads―as if everybody just stopped and got out. A dog is sniffing a motionless body, then moves on to the next one. With a shaking hand I turn the view toward my house on Oakhill Drive.

  I can see my house and my old familiar neighborhood. Through a flood of emotion I smile at the scene as the crusty façade of what I have become crumbles around me and I realize I am not the rugged individual I thought had become, I am homesick, I miss my family and my home. In this instant the cold cruel reality of exactly what has just taken place crashes in and I realize that doesn’t matter now.

  There is no RV near enough to see my home close up, but I can make out three bodies on the front lawn and I know they are the bodies of my mom, my dad and my sister Sally.

  I feel a sudden rage at these cruel invaders. How could they do this to us? My mother has devoted her life to her kids. My father has worked hard to provide a good life this family and here I am in California, helpless, as they lay paralyzed on the ground. I feel as though I have abandoned them.

  These aliens―whoever they are―have invaded our world. Emotionlessly, thoughtlessly, they have smashed the culture we have all so diligently worked to create, and for what, for some business transaction?

  For the first time, it hits me. I am overwhelmed with emotion. I will never see my family again; never see my home, never walk down the main street of my hometown and say “Hi” to the familiar people that have made my life what it is. My entire existence has died and I realize that much of me has inevitably died with them. I have taken everyone I have known utterly for granted—never realizing that they are an integral, essential part of me.

  I sense Espree’s compassion.

  “Tim, I am truly sorry”, she says putting a hand on my shoulder. Then she gently turns me directly toward her and looks earnestly into my eyes.

  “You should never have to ‘lose’ someone Tim! Death should not come to an immortal spirit and those things that we bring into being and those whom we love should never be destroyed by others who have no understanding of what we have created.”

  I turn to the viewer and look at my family laying there looking so lifeless. I feel an intense desire to stop whatever this thing is that has created this pain and somehow I know now that whoever is invading earth now is not the target.

  Espree is smiling compassionately. “Yes indeed,” she says, “I have chosen you wisely.” She nods and smiles like a proud parent, then turns to the viewer. “I have much to show you Tim….”

  She stops and glances out the window. I follow her gaze.

  The campus grounds have become packed with people!

  I walk over to the window and look out over the courtyard. Hundreds of people are standing there, looking upward as if they are looking for something. Then, as if on cue, they go to their knees and lay down on the ground. It looks like some kind of mass suicide.

  Espree has joined me at the window.

  “They are alive, their bodies function, the heart beats, but they have collapsed into an unaware trance so they may be easily picked up and transported to the ship.

  “How are they collected?”

  “They will be here soon. I would estimate before noon tomorrow. With a small population such as this, I would assume it takes 24 to 36 hours to collect everyone.

  “Seven billion people in 24 hours?”

  She smiles. “Wait until you see them you will be impressed!”

  I look over the grounds at the surreal scene before me and recognize some of the students, just lying there. I feel like a soldier looking over a battlefield at my friends lying dead only it wasn’t a battle, they never had a chance.

  “So they’re just going to be picked up and taken to some other world?”

  “Yes.”

  “What will happen when they wake up?”

  “They will not remember Earth but they will know what they have learned here on Earth. They will have the skills they acquired, but their memories of Earth will be gone.”

  “How they do that?”

  “That is what I am about to show you.” She turns to the viewer.

  Suddenly the hologram disappears and the lights go out.

  “Oh, well”, say Espree shrugging, “that will be all for today. In my haste I have neglected to prepare for the Sheet Wire that has just passed over us.

  “The Harvesters of this planet have begun the ‘dis-infecting’ stage of the Harvest. They are sweeping the planet in preparation for the collection phase of the Harvest. I will need to acquire some non-electrical batteries.

  I think about asking how “they” do that, but I’ve had enough for now.

  I realize how tired I feel. This day has been too much for me. Since waking up this morning I have gone from being a college student to one of two survivors on planet earth in a universe that is apparently full of beings with superior technology who used it to suppress and manipulate ignorant populations on planets such as earth.

  I look through the window and see the sun setting in the west, signaling the end of this unbelievable day, knowing there will be no more days of life as we know it on planet Earth. The sun is setting on the planet, on our lives and on every person out there. They are all dead or paralyzed. According to Espree we are the only ones left. Those people lying out on the grass, on the sidewalks, on the street, have seen their last sunset.

  “You don’t know where they will be taken?”

  “No, but when I have the computer working again I will try to locate the Purchase Order and determine what their destination will be.

  Espree is looking at me compassionately. “You look tired Tim. I think this is enough for today.”

  I think she’s right; too much information, too fast to process. I am overwhelmed and tired. I just need to sleep. I slowly stand up and look around, disoriented in this new world.

  “What is it Tim?”

  “Where do I go? Do I go back to my dorm? I have some things…”

  She motions for me to follow her. We go through a door into an adjacent room. There is a single bed against the wall, a table and a small kitchenette.

  “Pleasant dreams,” she says motioning me to the bed.

  I lie down and fall asleep, but my dreams are anything but pleasant.

  “The day science begins to study

  non-physical phenomena, it will make

  more progress in one decade

  than in all the previous centuries

  of its existence.”

  Nicola Tesla

  CHAPTER 7

  When I awake the following morning, for a brief moment, I am a college student and I have class in an hour. I hopefully open my eyes, but to my disappointment I see the studio that I retired to last night when the sun set upon mankind and all the bodies collapsed into paralysis.

  “It really did happen?” I whisper, looking around the small room.

  I don’t even want to open the door. I don’t want to walk out and see that strange viewer or look out the window and see all those bodies that will confirm the reality I know is there.

  The door opens. Espree is standing silhouetted in the doorway. The sun is shining through the window giving a false impression of a beautiful day.

  “Good morning Tim,” Espree says in what I feel is an inappropriately cheery voice, “How are you?”

  “Did yesterday really happen. Has the planet been invaded?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I feel lousy.”

  “How about some breakfast?”

  “McDonalds still open?”

  “No.”

  “Damn, I feel like an egg muffin.”

  She chuckles and turns on the overhead li
ght. She walks over to the small refrigerator and retrieves some eggs, milk, bacon, bread and butter.”

  “I thought you said the electricity was turned off.”

  “It was, but I set up my own power system last night.”

  “How did you do that?”

  Espree explains as she prepares breakfast. Apparently the invasion―or Harvest as Espree calls it―has rendered all electrical power inert. Batteries drain immediately when they sweep the planet with the “Sheet Wire” that grounds on the planet and simply sucks all electricity out into a terminal at the top of the sheet high in the atmosphere. She was able to acquire some new specialized batteries last night to supply power to the immediate area.

  “And where did you get the batteries?”

  “They have a few, let us say, supply offices on the planet. The nearest office is in downtown Los Angeles.”

  “And you just drove there and picked them up last night?”

  She smiles. “We have a lot to cover Tim. There are many methods of ‘getting around’ that you will understand as we learn more.”

  “Oh come on Espree; just give me the short version.”

  She hesitates, and then she shrugs her shoulders.

  “Okay, I left my body here, moved to the office in LA and located the batteries. I enclosed them in a force field; I put a tractor beam around them and brought them here. Okay?”

  “Okay, thanks, that’s exactly what I would have done.”

  Espree laughs. “I love your dry wit Tim, it’s rather funny.”

  I chuckle, hiding my bewilderment

  Force fields? Tractor beams?

  “I suppose that’s what you did with the palm tree.”

  “Essentially, yes.”

  Once again I am compelled to ask, who are you? And again I feel the subtle, yet powerful intention that this is not something for me to know at this time. A sideways glance from Espree confirms it.

  As she begins to fix breakfast I have to look out the window and see if they are still out there. I cautiously approach the window and look outside. Sure enough, the bodies are still strewn about, in the same macabre scene I saw yesterday evening. Nothing has moved with the exception of the sun.