The girl’s voice called out twice before Finn realized she was speaking to him. “He was wrong,” she said.
The woman next to her settled a hand on her shoulder. “Hush, Nikki. That’s none of your business.”
“But he said that man didn’t remember a thing, and that’s not true.”
“Excuse me,” Finn said. They were no more than 15 feet away, but for some reason the distance seemed so much greater. “Do I know you?”
“She didn’t mean to bother you. I’m Carole. This is my daughter, Nikki.”
“Pleasure,” Finn replied. His hand pointed to the spot where Bob had just been sitting. “You said he was wrong, what did you mean by that?”
Nikki raised herself up on one elbow. She and Carole had squeezed themselves onto a bottom bunk, and now that Finn could see her for the first time he knew she couldn’t have been older than 16. Long tattered brown hair. Streaks of dirt on her face. “That meadow in your head,” Nikki said. “The one with the long grass and the sun and all that. It might be one of the most beautiful memories I’ve ever seen. That man said you didn’t remember a goddamned thing, but that wasn’t true.”
Carole admonished her daughter for cussing, but didn’t seem fazed one bit by the incredibly strange thing she’d just said.
For a moment, Finn was stunned into silence. She was absolutely right. There was only a single memory floating around the echoing halls of Finn’s brain, and that enigmatic field was it. No, he wasn’t just amazed. He was staggered and frankly a little creeped out.
Finn was about to ask this girl Nikki how she was able to see what was in his head when Lou came charging into the tent in a white-hot panic. Right behind him was Ethan, and the look on both of their faces made it clear something was terribly wrong.
“My wife,” Lou said, his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. “She’s gone.”
Larry Nowak
Rainbowland, UT
The wind rattled a loose door on one of the trailers, and the shrill sound of metal on metal drove jolts of electricity up Larry’s spine. Strolling through the compound, he couldn’t help thinking about his chat with Dana last night. He’d decided rather quickly to draw up a list of changes he felt needed addressing. Back when Nutrilife was still a thriving company, reorganizing, it turned out, was Larry’s specialty. Profits were low? Cut a thousand jobs. Vendors complaining they’d been taken by a pyramid scheme? Run their names through the mud. There was always a solution if someone had the balls to make it happen and more importantly, the guts to live with the consequences. This love your neighbor shit he’d been hearing from all these New Age drones in Rainbowland was starting to make him sick. You don’t stop a bullet with prayer and meditation. You stop bullets by shooting first.
“His father used to always say, ‘Pray in one hand and piss in the other and see which one fills up first.’”
Fact of life: People will always be out to steal what others have. That certainly wasn’t going to change once the world ended. Hell, if anything, it was only gonna get worse. A smart and determined thief would always get what he wanted. Larry knew this because he was one himself. Takes one to know one, right? His grandiose plans for Rainbowland ran on the same principle as a house alarm or one of those locks guys put on the steering wheels of fancy cars. Do they guarantee some junkie won’t crack the window and break in? ‘Course not. But they do something much more important. They encourage bad guys to go somewhere else. Hey, asshole, why risk this here alarm signaling the cops when you can go next door, where they don’t have anything more frightening than a 5-pound Chihuahua? Deterrents weren’t about stopping crime, they were about pointing a finger at your less protected neighbor. Simon had already said the head honcho, Peter, aka All Father, wouldn’t listen to reason, but if Larry could spin it just the right way, he had a shot. Hell, he’d convinced the board of directors to triple his stock options during the greatest economic meltdown in recent history. Surely, this would be a cake walk.
Larry was still running through some of the finer details in his head when he spotted All Father coming toward him, flanked by another man Larry hadn’t seen yet. They were heading to one of the trailers behind him, the one with the annoying door that wouldn’t shut up.
“All Father, I need a quick word with you.”
Peter raised a hand in a rather dismissive gesture that Larry didn’t like one bit. “I’m afraid I don’t have time at the moment.” The old guy looked preoccupied and quite frankly a little pissed.
“It’s about security, Your Eminence.” Larry was laying it on thick, treating the guy like the goddamned Pope or something, but he was the big cheese right now, and Larry was ready to massage a few egos to get what he wanted.
Peter and the other man stopped.
Hands clasped together in almost mock prayer, Larry spoke: “I made it here from New York City, least what was left of it, and I can tell you without a word of a lie those people out there, if you can even call them that anymore, are evil. They aren’t very well organized yet, but they will be, and when they are, the first thing they’re gonna do is trash this paradise of yours by the river and probably kill everyone living here. You aren’t a gambling man, Your Eminence, I can see that. You prolly think casinos bring bad karma, and I wouldn’t argue there, I once lost 50 grand playing craps. But here’s the thing, Your Popeship. By not lifting a finger to protect this place, you’re gambling with the lives of hundreds of people under your protection.”
The expression on Peter’s gaunt face looked about as open as a brick wall. “Is that all, Mr. Nowak?”
“Not even close. I got a whole plan for strengthening and reinforcing this place. I know you’re probably not crazy about guns, so we wouldn’t arm everyone, especially not the children ... ”
“All right, I’ve heard enough. Thank you. We’ll be in touch.”
All Father and the man next to him turned and headed for the trailer, leaving Larry feeling like he’d just blown a huge business deal. Was this guy an idiot? How could they not see the risks they were failing to manage?
But Larry wasn’t about to turn tits up just yet. He’d dealt with people like this before. Back in the early ‘90s, when they tried shutting down his strip joint, Larry hired a private dick to get as much dirt on Giuliani and the police commissioner as he could find. He discovered that Giuliani’s crusade against crime was really a crusade against the underprivileged. Case in point was a trader by the name of Richard Wigton, accused in ‘87 of insider trading. Poor bastard was marched through the trading room floor in tears, wearing a pair of handcuffs, only to be released shortly thereafter. It was all for show. Larry leaked the story to the press, who had a field day. Yeah, Larry had learned a thing or two about playing dirty to get what you want, but he’d also learned another important lesson: There was such a thing as “above the law” in this country, and most of it had to do with the number of zeros in your bank account.
Larry was heading back to Tent City, as some of the newcomers had started calling it, when the sound of a commotion snapped him out of his reverie. A large-bellied man wearing a baseball cap was running in his direction, screaming to high heaven. Something about his wife, that’s what it sounded like. In tow were a teenage boy and the man in overalls Larry had met earlier. They were racing toward the river, and all Larry could think was that someone must have drowned.
Larry, Carole, Dana, Finn
Town hall meeting, Rainbowland, UT
The next morning, All Father asked everyone to assemble inside the compound’s gymnasium: an impressively large room with a high ceiling that would immediately be recognized by any high school kid across the country. Chairs were lined up in neat rows.
In the middle row was Finn, and seated next to him, a thoroughly distraught Lou and Ethan. Nearby were Carole and Nikki. They’d spent hours searching the river in vain last night for Lou’s wife, Patty Mae. The only sign they found was the improvised straight jacket she’d been wearing, caught on a branc
h near the bridge. All of them knew the current was strong, and Finn was sure the image of Lou’s wife falling into the swimming pool and sinking straight to the bottom right after The Shift was replaying over and over in the man’s head. In an act of desperation, Lou had jumped into the Green River at one point himself during the search and needed to be fished out with the help of a long branch.
The others around them were also somber, but not due to the loss of Lou’s wife. Most of them were wearing torn, dirty clothes, sporting improvised bandages over bloody wounds. Many of those wounds were deeper, nearly invisible, borne of the loss of loved ones in the cataclysm.
Up near the front sat Larry and Dana, waiting anxiously for All Father to arrive. Some of his followers were already on the improvised stage and podium. The construction was simple, but showed an advanced level of carpentry that impressed Finn. An image on the facing edge of the podium caught his eye. A fiery bird soaring into the sky from a sea of flames. It looked like a phoenix.
At last, All Father entered the gymnasium, wearing his typical white robe, but this time with a gold-colored trim. In tow were the other Rainbowites, dozens of them, and they took up position around the podium. The smiles on their faces were beaming, as though today were the happiest day of their lives. Then they started to sing, and Finn couldn’t help but roll his eyes. The song was something about a new age and rebirth and the fourth dimension. Then the song stopped, and All Father spoke.
“Bless you all.”
The audience was silent, many glancing at one another, unsure how to respond. This wasn’t like any church they’d ever seen before. They didn’t know what the rules were. Did they reply with a “Bless you,” too? Or were they expected to stay silent? The whole thing was awkward and surreal.
“I understand that many of you have a number of questions,” All Father said, his lips formed into a warm smile that revealed teeth that weren’t nearly as white as the robe he was wearing. “I’m hoping I can put your minds at ease as we embrace this new paradigm. But first, we lost a beloved soul today.” He was looking directly at Lou, whose gaze was locked on his own hands as they fidgeted in his lap.
“Just know that my people are sending healing energy your way as we speak.” The Rainbowites closed their eyes and brought their index finger to their thumbs.
“Thank God for that,” Lou replied not even trying to hide his sarcasm.
Finn stood up to ask a question: “Since arriving, I’ve heard talk about a shift ... ”
“Yes,” Peter said, cutting in. “Each and every one of you here needs to understand what happened on July 4th was no accident.”
“It sure as hell wasn’t the Rapture, I can tell you that much.” Came the sudden response from one man in the audience.
A smattering of mild laughter erupted in response.
Peter put his hands together. “I can assure you it wasn’t the Rapture. Nineteen years ago, I was a simple wheat farmer, trying to make a living, when my daughter, Abigail, took a spill and fell into the river, much like Lou’s wife, Patty Mae. We struggled to pull her out in time and nurse her back to life. She lived, but soon Abigail’s life took a wondrous turn we couldn’t have imagined. She began receiving messages from what we know now as a spirit named Aletheia.” Murmurs erupted throughout the gymnasium, but Peter carried on. “They communicated through a process called automatic writing, where Aletheia guided Abigail’s hand to record her messages. I was truly ignorant back then and ready to call Dr. Sanders and have her committed. The whole idea frightened me, much as I imagine hearing it has frightened some of you.”
Finn scanned the room, and the reactions were all over the place. A handful was snickering, others shaking their heads in disbelief, and a few looked downright angry.
“That’s fine,” All Father said. “It is a lot to take in all at once, I know, but this is the only way I know how to explain the changes that occurred.” He took a deep breath. “When my daughter came to me in the spring ‘99, claiming Aletheia told her our crops would fail, I felt like I’d had just about enough. Dr. Sanders came the next day and said he couldn’t find a darn thing wrong with my little girl, apart from an overactive imagination. By then, a few scribbled notes on scraps of paper had turned into half a dozen booklets filled with messages and prophecies. Then came the summer and the drought, which stayed with us for three full years. Wiped us out. That was when I began to consider that Abigail might be telling the truth.” The cult members burst into polite laughter, probably because they knew how the story went, maybe they’d even heard it a million times; to them, denying Aletheia’s wisdom was like denying the very air you breathe.
“It was only then, when I began flipping through all those pages Abigail had jotted down, that I understood what was coming. A shift so powerful it would change the way men thought. A shift that would begin with a reversal of the magnetic poles.”
A woman in a tattered yellow blouse stood up. “I’m sorry, I was raised a good Christian, and I refuse to believe any of this hogwash.”
Finn didn’t know if he was a Christian or not, but he agreed with the woman. At least, the logical side of his brain was sure there must be some other explanation.
Someone else in the crowd said. “I can’t speak to the truth of what he says, but as a man of science, I do know the magnetic fields have reversed many times, but that process takes thousands of years.”
Peter cleared his throat. “So imagine then if one occurred in a split second instead of over thousands or millions of years. How would Mother Earth react with that kind of strain? Earthquakes? Unusual weather patterns? Those strange lights in the sky you see are the magnetic field, our planetary protector, struggling to hold on in its weakened state.”
The room grew silent. No one could deny the lights in the sky, nor the earthquakes. People had come from all parts of the country, and those were two characteristics that were consistent throughout. But if only the whole thing had been wrapped in a nice scientific package, the explanation would have been easier to swallow. Instead, all they had to hold onto was more spirit and fourth-dimension mumbo jumbo. Finn might not remember his own name or his parent’s faces, but some things he did know. People who wanted to believe in the supernatural will see it as the operating force behind all change. Others who are more analytical will seek other schools of thought as they struggle to define their world. Neither was wholly right, Finn knew that much. Each had a tiny piece of a much larger picture. The trick was picking through the useless bits to get to the truth.
But the religious view, New Age or otherwise, had one glamorous thing going for it that the science nerds could never match: destiny. All Father was convinced all the death and destruction had been a step toward some greater purpose. Any response from the logic department would state that the universe was a cold place, governed by random chance. It all came down to which world view got you out of bed in the morning.
To this point, the mood in the room was undergoing its own shift. From derision and polite heckling, to a rather stunned silence.
Larry stood up. “All Father, I respect your beliefs, really I do. But there are down-to-Earth matters we need to address. Namely, security.” Larry turned to the crowd. “How many among you were threatened or attacked as you made your way here? A show of hands, please.”
Hands went up all around. A large man with a crew cut who looked like he drove a rig, stood up. “I’m telling you those assholes out there don’t have a stitch of common sense or morality left in ‘em. Kansas City was a slaughterhouse by the time I finally made it out.”
Those plastic smiles stamped onto the cult member’s faces were beginning to waver.
Others stood and told similar stories of losing loved ones to acts of cannibalism and a long list of other acts of barbarity.
Larry turned to All Father with a politician’s humility. “I think I can speak for most of us when I thank you for allowing us to take shelter on your land and for the tents and beds you’ve provided. We can’t tha
nk you enough, but we’re not safe here.” Dana rose up and nodded agreement before adding: “You’ve got at least a half dozen points of vulnerability. If we all worked together ... ”
Larry knew none of what he was saying was news to All Father. He’d stopped the man earlier today to run the idea of strengthening the compound’s defenses by him, and the skinny bastard flicked him away as though he were little more than a pesky mosquito. Larry gave him a chance to settle things man to man, and Peter had decided against the easy approach. Far from the idiot Peter took him for, Larry knew all he needed was to fan the flames a bit and then let the fear in the room heat the place up, much like the picture of that fiery bird that Peter had on his podium.
All Father and his congregation looked markedly uncomfortable. “I spoke to our friend Larry earlier today and heard his ideas. Rainbowland stands for peace and respect for all life, human or otherwise. These are the principles that were transmitted down to us from Aletheia, via my late daughter, Abigail, and I intend to protect them until my dying breath.”
The truck driver and a dozen others were on their feet now. “Defend them with what?”
Another voice joined in. “What’s stopping anyone from just coming in here and killing us all?”
More questions came, each of them shades of that same fear. Before long, deep lines of tension began to form on All Father’s brow. He’d never been questioned before, that much was clear. His normal world was one of absolute obedience, and here he was, in the middle of a rowdy town hall. True democracy was at work, and it reminded Larry of those ancient Greeks squawking madly in the Agora. No doubt, if Larry had been in Peter’s position, he would have gone about things quite differently. Right now the crowd was on his side, shouting his message, but he knew perfectly well that if the tables were turned, he would crush those voices into dust.
Then Peter did something that didn’t surprise Larry one bit. He walked off the stage, looking furious, followed by his entire flock, who seemed equally puzzled and disoriented by the crowd’s reaction and their leader’s retreat. Clearly, they’d never seen anything like this before. They’d never seen the all-knowing, all-powerful All Father take a good old-fashioned ass whooping, and although Larry’s point had been made, part of him was left to wonder if he had gone too far.
Primal Shift: Volume 1 (A Post Apocalyptic Thriller) Page 25