Ascension: Invocation (18 page)

He was so proud his new normalcy that, today, as the yellow fog engulfed the sky, he was angry. While others envied Graham's rich and ridiculous life experiences, he wanted nothing more than a regular life. Friends loved to hear him tell stories about his life among the rock stars and his riches to rags ride. Graham was always happy to oblige but always added the post-script that he was never happier than he was now in this little town in Alabama. The people were friendly and forgiving of his past. He had a chance to start anew. Then the fucking aliens started talking to him.

In less than a month, Graham went from being a perfectly happy nobody to becoming the most sought after celebrity in the world. He didn't want this. In fact, as he sat on the couch with Kelly and Haley, he wanted nothing more than to wake up from this terrible dream. Outside on his perfectly manicured, modest lawn sat a military Humvee. Soldiers stood armed in his driveway next to Haley's tricycle. Reporters stood in the road outside his house. There was a sniper on his roof, for Christ's sake.

Being the first human to make contact with an alien life-form was quite an enormous responsibility, it turns out. More than once, Graham had considered stopping by the liquor store. He credited Kelly with stopping him. She hadn't said a word; her presence was enough. He thought for certain that he would lose her if he made that stop.

The entire debacle was beginning to take its toll on Graham. Milan had especially freaked him out. For whatever reason, he had not put two and two together about the voice addressing him directly. When it first appeared, Graham had assumed it was a kid with a low power transmitter playing a joke. Everything had happened so quickly, he actually forgot about the second message implying that he was being summoned in some way. Now, it was all that he could think about.

He and Kelly had already decided to take in the rain. It was obviously the meeting he had crashed at the station that made him at ease with this decision. He understood the confusion that the rest of the world was feeling. He also understood better than most the ratings play that many radio and TV talk show hosts were undertaking in light of the circumstances. Graham thought that this was an absolute low. Throughout his career, he had drug the waters quite deeply in search of a ratings spike but taking something so serious and turning it into something for sweeps week, this was unfathomable to him. Some even went so far to make this a political thing. It was a liberal or conservative conspiracy depending upon who you watched.

It was truly bizarre, he thought. Why hadn't everything collapsed? Shouldn't the media just go away? Why were the networks airing alien invasion blocks of programming? As he surfed through the channels, it was either news coverage of the fog and China, commercials for doomsday supplies or
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
,
Contact
, or
Independence Day
. Everything just felt wrong. Somewhere someone was in a meeting at this very moment making programming decisions. Someone is placing an advertising buy. They were sensationalizing something genuinely sensational, he thought.

At least Haley thought it was cool. In fact, she was more at ease with being transported to another dimension than anyone Graham knew. Of course, she didn't really understand what was happening. Still, Graham was relieved that she wasn't frightened. Kelly, on the other hand, was quite nervous. While Graham attended church at her behest, Kelly was actually quite a devout Christian. She said her prayers nightly with Haley and read scripture when something troubled her. Her small-town Southern girl demeanor was something Graham found most endearing but, under the circumstances, he worried that the outcome of this contact might disappoint her. Despite what Milan had said Graham didn't believe that he was really talking to God.

He really wanted to call Stephanie and Riley in Florida but the hum in the air was impacting cell service somehow. The internet was the only real form of communication available. He sent them an email but hadn't heard back. Stephanie wasn't much for the internet but Riley was a typical high school senior. Surely, she would at least get the message, he thought. He just wanted them to know that he was okay. Graham advised them to take in the rain and he relayed what had been discussed in the meeting with the scientists. He guessed that would be all right. In fact, he was a bit shocked that no one was monitoring his communication. He supposed that, at this point, the government had concluded that all bets were off regarding secrets.

For the moment, Graham sat on the couch with Kelly and Haley, eating a store bought pizza, watching the war unfold. The team at the station wanted him back in another hour. They had allowed him and other members of the staff to return home to see their families, shower, and sleep – with the understanding that they might be called back on a moment's notice. Graham was especially vital as it appeared that the voice would only speak to him and no one knew when the next contact would occur. Kelly and Haley would be allowed to accompany him to the station when the rain began to fall. The soldiers at the house would rush them to the station, he was told, so that if they were to be exterminated by aliens, they could at least share their final moments together. He shuddered at the thought.

Kelly hated that she couldn't be at the hospital, assisting in the emergency room. While she knew that her time with Haley was most precious, she still felt guilty that she was at home while her fellow nurses were busier than ever assisting rednecks with the ramifications of their doomsday festivities. There's something about the South. Whether it be a hurricane, a flood or an alien encounter, the first and most requested answer to adversity is always alcohol. If a Southerner is going to meet his maker, he'll do so with a damn good buzz. And probably wreck his car or shoot his buddy in the foot in the process.

Nevertheless, the military felt it was too dangerous for Kelly to be in public. She was the girlfriend of the man who talked to God, after all. To some he was a hero while others still felt he was a heretic. Everyone wanted a piece of him and Kelly and Haley were to be protected with the same veracity as the first lady and her children. A few nut jobs had already tried to storm their house, hoping to touch Graham or talk to him or something. The soldiers quickly took them into custody and rushed them away to who-knows-where. It was all unnerving and the world was getting weirder by the minute.

On the news, Graham and his family watched as the reporters frantically covered the events unfolding in China. Masses of immigrants were attempting to flee the country to India, Vietnam and North Korea. The Chinese military was overwhelmed and India, especially, had lost control of their borders. To the north, in Russia, there was nowhere to run but it appeared that, for the moment, their government had no intention of stopping the rainfall. The Chinese, at least, were making an attempt to do so. How was another question entirely.

Scientists on TV theorized that the Chinese had previously developed some sort of cloud busting technology in an attempt at climate control for their country. Diagrams were shown and debates were vigorous. The United States was clear on its position. The American president immediately addressed the issue:

"We respect the Chinese people's wishes to not partake in the elemental rain. However, we condemn any effort by the Chinese government to prevent its people from escaping to nations that will allow the rain. To do so is clearly a violation of fundamental human rights. In Russia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan, while these nations have advised their people to avoid the rain despite encouragement to the contrary by many of the world's finest scientific minds, we appreciate that they will make no effort to prevent the clouds from forming in their airspace."

Pundits on the news networks pondered whether the Chinese really had the ability to suck up the clouds with a giant vacuum. What if human survival really is dependent on the elemental rain? Would there soon be a world without Chinese people? Perhaps there would be a world of only Chinese people. How would that impact the world's economy? Wall Street responded accordingly, selling massive amounts of stock, leaving world finance precarious at best. To those without investments, like Graham, this was somewhat irrelevant and he wondered why this would cause a panic. After all, so many people had abandoned their fully stocked shops, at this point; most people were just walking in to supermarkets, taking what they needed and leaving. Money wasn't really an issue. Then, again, he never really understood economics.

"When do you think the rain will happen?" Kelly asked Graham.

"I suppose when this fog settles over the rest of the world. We don't know."

"What if we're wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

"What if it's just the opposite of what we think?" she said. "What if the only people who survive are the ones that stay inside?"

"Well, then there'll be a lot less traffic," Graham smiled. Kelly didn't return the favor. He held her hand. "Kelly, I don't think anyone really knows what will happen. I don't know why but I don't feel like the voice is misleading us. It's like one of the guys at the station said. If they were trying to exterminate us, this is a lame way of doing it. Wouldn't they just blast us with some sort of laser ray or something? Why would they spray us with something we can easily hide from? It doesn't make sense."

"But what if that's exactly what they want us to think? Then, we're all standing outside naked with no weapons and they just eradicate us on the spot?"

"Wait. You're getting naked?"

"Graham, be serious," Kelly laughed.

"I am serious. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with those jar heads outside seeing you buck nekkid."

"I think one of them already took a peek at me getting out of the shower yesterday."

"Seriously? Bastards." Graham kissed her. "I think it's all going to be okay. Don't worry. Just take care of Haley. We'll be fine."

“You don't think the world is ending, do you?"

"No. I think it's like they said. It's evolving. Into what, I don't know."

CHAPTER FIVE

Alicia woke up
the following morning with a severe hangover. She was sore. Every bone, every muscle in her body ached. For a brief moment, she had forgotten about the events of the night before. She sensed a presence next to her in the bed. Alicia turned her head and saw Sariana, still sleeping. It all came back to her. She must have been sore thanks to the soul evacuation Sariana had done as a parlor trick the night before.

A hangover was nothing new for Alicia and she knew the drill. Coffee, a few pills and a little time; she'd be right as rain. She turned and sat up on the corner of the bed, holding her head. The morning light, glaring through the hotel curtains hurt her eyes. She stood and slowly made her way to the bathroom to begin her morning ritual. Sariana's clothes were still on the floor. Alicia began picking them up and something fell out of one of the pockets with a clink. It was the knife Sariana had used the day before to silence the triclopod. She had a thought. Alicia carefully picked up the blade with a shower cap and wrapped it tight. Maybe one of the scientists at ground zero could run some tests and try to uncover what this thing was made of. DNA? She suspected that this was where Milan had disappeared to. Perhaps he would geek out on this.

Her other thought was to have Sariana perform mass soul removals. That would work, right? Alicia imagined the girl standing at a pulpit like a faith healer, ripping souls out one by one and converting the masses. She said it didn’t do any harm, after all. Alicia could broadcast this on television and surely that would sway more than a few to her cause.

Alicia placed Sariana's clothes on the vanity and began to remove her robe. She stopped, though, and went through the girl's pockets. Nothing. "Where's that PDA-looking thing?" she wondered. The lunacy of the night before began to creep back into Alicia's memory completely. Was she really doing this? Alicia let her robe fall and stood sideways in the mirror. "This isn't the body of a grandmother," she thought. Still, she had committed to the girl and Alicia wasn't one for breaking promises. She couldn't deny the prior day's events. Alicia knew that her life had changed dramatically but she was still unsure of the consequences.

She emerged from the bathroom to select her outfit for the day and found Sariana awake. She looked a little green as she sat in bed, still wrapped in the sheets.

“I was unconscious,” she told Alicia.

“You were exhausted. You needed your sleep.”

“We have to go.”

“We will. You have to get dressed first.”

"I don't feel well," she told Alicia.

"Give it time. You'll be all right. You're not going to puke are you?"

"Puke?"

"Vomit."

"I know what it means," Sariana said. "I just didn't know that was a possibility."

"Let's hope it's not. Why don't you get up and get dressed? You'll feel better once you're up and around."

“How many hours have we wasted sleeping? How widespread is the fog?”

“It’s now covered North America. It’s moving slow. We have time.”

“They know I’m here. I don’t know what they have planned. It’s only a matter of time before they try to remove us from the time-line completely. If they do this, all is lost.”

“Get dressed. As you said, we have a lot of work to do.”

Sariana reluctantly did as she was told. She stood up and dragged her feet all the way to the bathroom. "We'll have to get you some new clothes," Alicia said as she dressed in the other room. "There’s blood all over your clothes. Was that from the bug? When you killed it? We should probably get it tested.” The toilet flushed. "Are you hungry?"

"Not really," Sariana said from the bathroom.

"Well, you should eat something. Maybe we can skip breakfast and have an early lunch." Alicia finished dressing and Sariana came out of the bathroom wearing her dirty, blood-stained clothes. Alicia took over in the bathroom and began applying her makeup. "I have kind of a plan for us today," Alicia announced.

"Yes?"

"Yeah. We need to get the military on our side. The easiest way to keep people out of the rain is to get the U.S. government to reverse their opinion on the matter. I thought we could start by getting one of those scientists at the radio station to test your knife for DNA samples."

"Why?"

"Well, if what they find is confusing enough, we might be able to solicit their help; the military too. If we have them on our side, we'll be able to make a much more compelling case to keep people out of the rain."

"Okay."

"I've been thinking about that too; the rain. What is it for? What does it do?"

"We don't know. We believe it does nothing."

"What is the point of the whole exercise then? Why compel people to stand in the rain? Why not just force us all into the next dimension."

"Everyone must make a conscious decision to ascend. Standing in the rain represents this decision. Your scriptures talk about having faith. This is an act of faith. The Humans are aware that not everyone will have faith."

"The souls that participate in the Exodus... where will they go?"

"To the fifth dimension."

"Why not the fourth?"

"The fourth dimension is time. It is a neutral dimension and cannot be visited."

"All right, I'm still a little hazy from last night. Tell me again why we don't want the Humans to advance to the eleventh dimension?"

"Because it's futile. Going beyond the tenth dimension would be impossible because just thinking of an object in the tenth dimension makes it an object in one of the dimensions below. This is how they are able to manipulate all time-lines at will. Your philosopher said 'Cogito ergo sum', 'I think therefore I am'. The eleventh dimension is something alternate that defies everything we know, so everything that we think of cannot be because it "becomes" once we begin to think about it. This is the realm of God and our kind was not meant to tread there."

"Okay. You're going to have to work on explaining this stuff a little better. Most people won't be able to make heads or tails out of that."

"What do you mean?"

"Our attention spans here are stupid-small. Just say something like 'the eleventh dimension is the realm of God'. Religious people will go ape-shit over that. It's all about sound bytes, kid."

"I did not know this."

"Well, that's why you found me," Alicia smiled. "I might not be able to make snakes talk but I can help you spin the shit out of this." Alicia and Sariana collected their things and left the room to the maid. "First stop," Alicia said in the truck, "is to find a new outfit for you. We need to make you look pretty."

"Why is that necessary? We don’t have time to waste."

"Again, it goes back to getting your message heard. No one is going to take an ugly girl seriously. You're cute. You need to work it. 'Little lost girl from another dimension'. That'll play well. You need to trust me on this. I know this dimension better than you."

Alicia took the highway around the small town to avoid the crowds and found an outlet mall on the outskirts. They drove into the parking lot and Alicia grimaced at the choices. "Well, no Versace here. Fashion Bug it is, I guess. Uggh."

“Anyone here could be Human,” Sariana said. The girl was visibly nervous.

“How will we know?”

“We won’t know. This is what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

“Well, if that’s the case, we can’t go anywhere, can we? Should we just hide in the hotel?”

“No. That would be the worst thing we could do. We have to keep moving. I think.”

“Well, then. Come on. Let’s move.”

The girls made their way into the store and found a single clerk in the shadows of the fluorescent light trying to clean up the wreckage in the room. The woman carried a stack of empty boxes to the counter. "Y'all are gonna pay for whatever you take." The woman pulled a gun from the small of her back and placed it on the counter and Sariana jumped. "We understand each other?"

"We do," Alicia said. "My friend here just needs a couple of new outfits. I have money."

The young woman looked Alicia and Sariana over. Alicia flashed her credit card. "Credit card machines are down," the clerk said. "Cash only." Alicia opened her purse and displayed a handful of cash. "That'll work," she said. "Ain't much left, though." A look of recognition came over her face. "Hey, I seen y'all on TV, ain't I?"

"Yes. Hi. I'm Alicia Parker. Triton News Network," she reached out to shake the woman's hand as Sariana watched cautiously from a safe distance. The clerk didn’t appear to be a threat. Sariana slowly began exploring the store.

"Nice to meet you, ‘Lesha. Ain't that girl the 'princess' from last night's news?"

"Yes, she is."

"Bless her heart," the woman whispered. "Is she okay?"

"She's a sweet girl. She's lost her parents; can't find her family. She's a little confused."

"Poor thing," the woman frowned. "You reckon some new clothes might make her feel better?"

"I think so, yes."

"Well," she smiled. "It always gets me out of a funk! Let's see what we can do for her."

The clerk and Alicia caught up with Sariana and found her browsing the remaining sun dresses on an overturned rack. "You like those, baby?" the clerk asked. Sariana nodded and smiled. "I wonder what size are you? I'm thinkin' eight or ten, am I right?"

"I think that's about right," Alicia answered for her.

The girls picked out several dresses and other outfits and made their way to the changing rooms. The clerk kicked boxes and stray clothing out of the way, making a path for Alicia and Sariana. "Damn animals," she muttered. "World ain't ended yet." Sariana began trying on the clothes as Alicia waited and the clerk went back to her clean up duty.

A few moments passed and Alicia heard yelling from the front of the store. She peeked her head around the corner and saw the clerk holding a man at gun point. He was holding goods from the store and was apparently trying to leave without paying. "Drop it, motherfucker!" the clerk shouted. "You gonna pay for that or I'll take your fucking head off."

"What do you care?!" the man shouted back. "Ain't nobody holding you responsible for this shit!"

"It's the principle, asshole!! Thou shalt not steal!!"

"Oh, really? Murder's a'ight wit' you, though?"

"Drop... the... tankini."

"You fuckin' crazy, you know that, bitch?"

"I'm gonna count to three...”

"It's for my wife...”

"One...”

"Aw, hell. You crazy! You crazy as shit!!"

"Two...” The man dropped the clothes. The clerk still held the gun on him and the two continued their stare-down. "You just walk out the store, ya hear?" said the clerk. "And don't you never come back."

The man began laughing. "You fuckin' crazy, bitch. You fuckin' crazy."

Alicia noticed Sariana behind her, also watching. She had seen the entire stand-off. Defeated, the man left and the clerk let out a deep breath. She reset the safety and wiggled the gun back into the rear of her jeans and began walking toward the changing rooms. Alicia scattered Sariana back to the mirrors. "This looks nice," Alicia said about Sariana's latest choice.

"Oh! It sure does," the clerk beamed, coming around the corner. "Don't you just look precious?! I love that color on you!"

"Well, I think we've made our choices," Alicia said.

"Good! Let's go get you rung up!"

The girls followed the clerk to the front of the store, with Sariana wearing one of her new dresses. Alicia was running late getting to the studio this morning. She needed to stay in the good graces of the network if it were to be Sariana’s pulpit. She knew it would be in her best interest to arrive with something for air, especially following yesterday's incident. This woman would be ideal, she thought.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name," Alicia said to the clerk.

"I don't believe I threw it, baby. My name is Amber."

"Amber, I'm sure you know that we overheard your confrontation with that man. Would you mind if I interviewed you for the network? It might help to keep some of the vagrants out of your store."

"Me? On TV? Oh, I don't know...”

"It really is something that people should hear from you about. You're standing up for what's right and I think that's fantastic."

"Well, it's a matter of principle. It just ain't right to be stealin' things that ain't yours."

"I agree. So, what do you say? Can I get the camera?"

"Oh my. Okay. You gotta let me fix my face, though."

"Deal."

Alicia told Sariana to stay put and ran outside to the truck. She grabbed a remote bag and unloaded the gear inside. "Think you can hold this and film us?" Alicia asked Sariana. "It's easy."

"What do I do?"

"Just make sure that you get Amber and I in that view finder. Press this button and try to hold it steady. Don't worry about doing anything fancy. No close-ups or anything like that. We'll take care of all of that in editing."