The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) (108 page)

             
“Tell me about yourself.”

             
It was the only point to jump off from. He looked at me now and behind the fear in his eyes, I saw great defiance.

             
“Your name is Christian.”

             
“How do y
ou...”

             
I touched my forehead.

             
“I can read your mind. I do not wish to do that, as it can sometimes be very painful.”

             
“Painful for you or painful for me?” He asked softly.

             
“For both of us.” I answered, “My boyfriend here,” He was understandably shocked
to learn that James and I were a couple, “He is very, very strong. Any answers that we need desperately will be retrieved, either through my ability to read your heart and mind or through brute force. I do not wish to use either method. I would much prefer
talking civilly.”

             
“Are you two Don's lapdogs? Are you his muscle?” He asked in a voice of condescension that  required more bravery than he actually felt.

             
“No. We are unappreciative of your attack on us. Three of our number were killed. They stood very
little chance against your guns.”

             
“And we stand very little chance against your powers, or whatever you call them.”
             
“By powers, do you mean the two I have just described?” I asked.

             
“What the fuck do you think I mean?!” He bellowed at me and I will admit
, I jumped slightly.

             
“Hey!” James lunged forward and grabbed the front of Christian's shirt. The young boy looked up at him, into his blazing red eyes, and his terror could not be masked anymore. He stammered out a few indiscernible words as he heaved bac
k and forth in his chair with each tight breath he struggled to draw in.

             
“James...” I stood up, grasped his hands and pulled him away from the boy. Very gently, I sat him back down in his chair.

             
“I highly suggest you watch your mouth, you understand me?”

             
Now that the threat of immediate bodily harm had dissipated, the boy was beginning to regain some of his earlier steel. His eyes narrowed as he looked between the two of us, clearly trying to determine what we were going to ask him next. To keep him fro
m straining himself in his attempts to guess my question, I asked one.

             
“What do they tell you about what's happening to us here?”

             
After barely a pause, he answered.

             
“They're calling it 'Satan's Gift' where I'm from.”

             
“What else do they say?” I asked.

             
“They say that you all have aligned with the devils that roam this land.”
             

             
“The city-dwelling natives, you mean.”

             
“The man who attacked our campsite is who I mean.”

             
“Well, I would like to reassure you, for your own mind, that we were evolving for days b
efore we came here. In some cases, people had been evolving for weeks.” I explained, “You all would, too, if you just...”

             
“We don't want to evolve!” The boy exclaimed hysterically. His eyes were ablaze with self-righteous anger. “We are humans, created in
God's image! We will stay the same because it's what God intended!”

             
Oh, we had us a devout believer. This was bound to be interesting...

             
“The only reason why we're even still alive is because God wants us to be. You all take these powers and allow this
'evolution,' as you call it, to happen. We will never do that.”

             
“No one is asking you to.” James snapped at him.

             
“That's what the man who attacked the campsite said. He told us we had to accept the change or we'd all die. We'd rather die than be freaks l
ike you! It's wrong! It's...” He stammered for a moment in
his fury before settling on an appropriate adjective that would make his point strongly, “It's
unnatural
.”

             
I countered his best effort easily.

             
“Actually, my dear, it is the most natural thing in
the world. Our changes happened through no pact with the devil nor through any requests of our own. They just happened.”
             

             
“You're lying! You aligned yourself with
him!
He gave you these powers. If you're with him, then you're against God!”

             
“Listen, we ar
e not fans of Adam, either. But as far as we know, your leaders are not the most Godly of people, either. You have aligned with the other natives, haven't you? The ones from the cave?” I inquired, only to be met with quiet on his end. “Come on, Christian,
you were so eager to talk only a moment ago. I was enjoying our conversation. Let us continue it nicely.”

             
The silence continued.

             
“Don't make me hit you.” James warned him airily.

             
Still, he did not speak. James stood up quickly and grabbed the front of
his shirt again.

             
“Yes! Yes!” Christian exclaimed, “They believe in the same things we believe! They don't have any powers! They can fight, but that's it! They don't follow what the other man says!”
             
“See? Was that so hard?” James asked calmly as he sat
back down.

             
The boy was trembling and trying to decide between James and I whose power could cause the most pain. I gave him just a short minute to gather himself together before asking my next question.

             
“What goes on in your camp? Is it as uptight as we
have heard?”

             
“No. There is nothing wrong with the way we live our lives.”

             
“Tell me about it.” I put my head on my hand and observed him closely.

             
“We pray a lot. We pray for good fortune and for victory against all of you.” On the last part, he grimaced
in disgust. “I'm not going to apologize for having faith. If that's what you want from me, don't hold your breath! I'll never renounce God or Mary and Rich!”

             
Interesting!

             
“We want to know about your way of life up there. That is all.” I assured him. I ev
en held up my hands to signal surrender.

             
“We live the way we're supposed to live. The Bachums protect us because God protects them.”

             
“That's what they say?” James raised a skeptical eyebrow, “Seriously?”

             
“It's true! Your ability to fight didn't save you
r people, did it? They've been touched by God. That's the only reason why more of our people survived.”

             
“Sure.” James replied, “You must be their most pious follower. I'm sure not everyone feels as strongly about this nonsense as you do.”

             
“Believe me, th
ey do!” The boy snapped indignantly, “We know that we're living the right way.”

             
“You believe that you can decide what the right way to live is?” James's anger was growing again.

             
“No, your master decided that! He decided that the way you freaks live is ri
ght when he said that only one of our sides will walk out of this!”

             
“You are referring to the war for our place here?”

             
“What else would I be referring to?! God, they said that you're so smart! You ask the stupidest questions!” He shouted at me again. “Ju
st like a woman, isn't it?! Just like a c...”

             
His foul word was cut off just after the first sound of it could alert us to what he was about to say. Every muscle in my body had tensed in preparation for it and my eyes had shut by their own accord. When I
opened them, I discovered that James had grabbed him again.

             
“I dare you.” He snarled at him, “I dare you to say it. I dare you to call her that!”

             
“Look at you. Her big protector. You're going to die defending her. No bitch is worth that. I have a wife t
hat they gave me.”

             
I had gently sat James back down in his seat.

             
“If it came down between me and her, I'd hold her in front of me just so I could run away. I'm
not ashamed of that, and I don't have to be. No bitch is worth my life.”

             
“What a big man yo
u are, Christian.” I hissed in dangerous, venomous rage. “God or Gods, you are no older than my younger sister and you have been forced to get married. You have been convinced that you are allowed to speak and feel this way about women. Do you have a mothe
r, Christian? Do you have sisters?”

             
“No. My mother is dead. It's just me and my wife now.”

             
“Well, I weep for her, believe me.” I continued angrily.

             
“Yeah, that's just like a bitch, too. Weeping, I mean. I make mine weep everyday...”

             
“You need to drop
those people and come to the right side.” James told him before turning to me, “Shit, even Adam is better than what he is dealing with, baby.”

             
“We'll never bow down to that disgusting man the way you all have! We'll always stay true to our God. It will be
you that is smited in fire!”

             
“Is smited a word?” James asked me, simply to aggravate Christian. I could not suppress a small smirk now that such intense dislike for that boy had grown inside of me.

             
“The world has already been 'smited.'” I told Christian
sarcastically, “Rather, it was smote. Whatever the correct grammatical usage of the term, our world is gone, destroyed by man.”

             
“No. It was God's reckoning and it will follow us here! You all think you're safe. You think with your powers, you are out of
His reach. He will destroy you for aligning with that man! He will cast you into the deepest layer of hell!”
             
“Desperation and fear yield such interesting results.” I mused out loud incredulously, “Were you this devout on earth?”

             
“No,” He growled, “I was
bad. I was selfish and evil. I stole from people and hurt my family. I went to jail twice. The Bachums have made me see how wrong I was. I have received my lashings and been born again.”
             
“Lashings?” James and I asked, in equal shock.

             
“We have all paid th
e price for what we did on Earth. We are as pure as the Lamb now.”

             
“I sincerely doubt that.” I rolled my eyes. He lunged forward.

             
“Stupid girl! You think you know everything! You think you know what you're doing! You think you've got a handle on everythi
ng, don't you?!”

             
“That was very repetitive...”

             
“Where I'm from, you wouldn't even be allowed to speak!”

             
“So, would you call your camp a patriarchal society?” I asked calmly. My cavalier apathy to his anger only fanned the flames.

             
“Women do what they're
told. That's how it should have been on Earth. That is in the good Book. Women are submissive to their husbands.”

             
“Gross...” I whispered, making a face to convey my disgust. I looked over at James. “Honey, do you want me to be submissive to you?”

             
“No. H
ow very boring that would be.” James replied with his head rested against his hand.

             
“You can poke fun at us. You can chide us for what we believe. But we're right. There will come a time when you all are grasping for the holy light and it will go dark on
you! God will not pull you from the black abyss and...”