Growing Toward a Dark Perfection Pt. 2

Neb seemed relieved. He held up the glowing device and the empty wall became transparent. It was as if the wall was an illusion. I could see what appeared to be a town of sorts. There were buildings of glass, metal and stone. The familiarity of the structures was calming. As we went to enter, a wave of people flooded the streets.

Welcome back!

We love you brother!

Welcome home!

They cheered and shouted.




What on earth could I have done to deserve such a welcome? I asked Neb.

In the early days when resurrections happened in groups, there was a night designated for the celebration of new arrivals. There were just too many people on a nearly daily basis for welcomes such as this. As it happens, this Temple hasn't seen a resurrection in quite a while. Your return is special. It could be one of the last.

Neb seemed to be slipping back into a mode of optimism. I felt pretty good too. This welcome seemed familiar and familial. Like I was back where I belonged. As I pushed through the winding labyrinth of the bazaar. I saw children, animals and people working. They seemed happy and fulfilled. Everyone seemed to have a job and a purpose. I wondered what my job could be here.

Neb, how did you come to have the job of finding the resurrected?

Each year at the salvation festival an angel blesses the newly resurrected with their privilege for the year. I was given the privilege of rehabilitation.

What were you the previous year?

As Neb searched for an answer, I could see over his shoulder people falling to their feet as a strange light approached.

What is that!?

Neb turned around quickly.

It's an Angel. On your knees immediately!

The light was so bright I had squint to bear it. Eventually I wanted to shut them, however just as this being was coming my way, I could see a group of people who were standing as he came near, then they appeared to simply vanish.

Keep your head down facing the ground and only speak if it speaks to you.

Even with my eyes tightly shut I knew it was standing right over me. I could feel the heat on one side of my body. This being was emitting some kind of radiation.

This one is newly awoken. His spirit is weak. We will nurse him to health as any mother would. In his previous course he was weak and unrighteous. We will make him strong again.

Though I knew this "Angel" was powerful, it's voice seemed faint and feeble. It was like I was hearing an elderly person speaking on a bad radio signal. And why did it say "we"; was there another one there? I was starting to come down from the Mana and I didn't couldn't bear another dose. This could be my last chance to get some answers with a clear mind.

Can you help me find my family? I know you have great strength and you represent the living god. Please, I'm begging you. Can you tell me if they have been resurrected yet?

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Neb was trembling with fear. It seemed he was sobering up as well.

My dearest child, still wet with filth from the hole with which you crawled. Have you not taken note of your fellow men? Do you not see their silent obeisance? 

I mean no disrespect. I just-

What you mean is to break the traditions of the Living God! I am inclined to cut you off here and now. What authority do you have to usurp inquiry protocol?

I have no authority. I wasn't aware of an authority protocol.

Just as I said this, I realized my mistake. The Angel quickly moved toward Neb. It's heat was more intense than ever.

Ah Nebuchadnezzar, the jester of Babylon. Are you not content with your current privileges? How long must the court of the almighty smite your legacy? Do you still wander the grassy plains of Phoenicia hoping for a glimpse of your beloved Amytis? Tell me oh King. In all your gallops and grazing, would you even remember her face if you saw it? Perhaps you've crossed her path a million times since awakening and both of you were so ambivalent about your once white hot love that you'd simply forgotten. Perhaps she is smart enough to know nothing you can do is as important as the duties you've been assigned and remembering that is all that matters.

At this pace it will take you an eternity to reach perfection, that is not something the almighty will not abide. Take your assignments seriously, lest the next time we cross paths I will end you.

In the blink of an eye the heat was gone and I scanned behind me to make sure there was no sign of the angel.

Neb was in bad shape.


He was limp and weeping. I helped him to his feet and could see he had burns from the heat on one side of his body.  As I looked around, I could see the streets were empty and the doors were closed.

I need the Mana, It can heal wounds instantly.

Ok, where can I find some? There's a fountain at the end of this road.

As we limped on unsteady legs my mind raced at everything the angel told Neb. Was he really the King mentioned in the bible? What did it matter? Look at what they had done to him. They were torturing this man. Teasing him with the idea of seeing his family again. I could see that this drink, seemed to have some kind of effect on memory.


I won't drink it. Not again.

Neb, you have to if it will help you heal. We both need to see our families again. Sometimes in order to do this we must sacrifice. Even it means we lose our minds; we have to try!

No!

He exclaimed with what seemed like all the energy he had left. His weight went dead and we both slumped to the ground in a heap.

This is it for me. As we speak the memories are flooding back. I can see her face and the faces of my children. This has happened before. Too many times. Never again!

They aren't who they say they are Landis.

What do you mean?

They need us. They feed on our worship.

The Mana is some kind of brine for our minds. In addition to rejuvenating our bodies. It causes us to behave in a way that produces minimal stress hormones as we toil away for eternity.

Are they going to eat us?

Not our flesh. They need us alive. I'm not even sure if there is something tangible they get from us.

In your time, they would be referred to as parasites.

Neb, how could you possibly know all of this if you're from the second century?

It's unclear how much time has passed or how much knowledge I've learned and forgotten. The longer I go without the Mana, the more I remember and the less of it makes sense in a linear manner. What I do know is they'll be back. The Salvation Festival is tonight. You'll get your first assignment and they'll give you a chance to make a speech. There is a chance they won't interrupt you out of fear that it could upset the effects of the Mana for the entire Temple population.

How many people are in this community?

Hundreds of thousands. Minus those who were destroyed earlier.

Destroyed?

Yes, they would all certainly have been destroyed to avoid a larger scale panic.

There must have been 500 people out when we arrived, they're all dead?

Not only dead, but wiped from the minds of the living. True destruction.

These people will walk out of their homes for the festival never knowing that they are missing a mother, or a brother. This is how they keep this entire thing balanced. This and the resurrection.

What do you mean?

For every person who dies, they resurrect a new person. Most times to replace a family member that was destroyed. This keeps people from questioning.

Is that what os to come of me?

That's something I can't tell you. You'll have to find out your specific data for yourself.

Here, take this. This is your ledger. It has your history loaded. I have to warn you; what you find may not be pleasant, however it is likely true. It seems these beings had been tracking us before they invaded or planet. They meticulously planned our enslavement and these devices are the databases that hold our  truths. Use this truth to craft your speech. This speech Landis. This is speech is your Judgment day. A the end, they will give you an opportunity to join them willingly and live with them in paradise forever. I trust you will chose wisely. Remember the only thing that gives the power is their access to true information. Expose that truth Landis!

Finally, No matter how tired you become. Do not drink the Mana! The more you drink the more your body will need it to survive. After a while your body will get rid of the Mana and you won't feel as tired.

Farewell Landis. Make this night mankind's last day in chains.

He was gone.




I sat next to his body numb from the tidal wave of information that I'd been given and at the ultimate sacrifice of a stranger. He didn't have to tell me any of that. He could have let me keep going being fed on by these beings forever, but he didn't. He gave me a chance.


Still I was spent. It was all too much and now I have this device. A device that holds "the truth."


It was like I was back in the grave. I was paralyzed but knew I had to act. Just as Neb said, The longer I went without the Mana the better I felt. My thoughts were starting to balancing out.





I picked up the device and saw that they had recorded everything. The header read "Unrighteous Due to Suicide". It seemed my plan had worked.  I was given a second chance. A second chance to be a slave. To be the Milk and Honey to a fiendish conglomerate.


It seems they were mostly concerned with sin and loyalty.


It was as if my entire life had been annotated and archived.


As I thumbed through the pages of my life, I came upon a subsection titled  "Post Death".


"Sarah, the wife was badly affected by the her husband's death and the coldness of the congregation thereafter. She began to research information about the Watchtower online and soon apostatized herself and began to raise her daughter to believe the same things. Together they became the leaders of a powerful movement that led thousands of people away from our organization.


She will not be eligible for resurrection."


I can't believe what I've read. Sarah woke up!? She left me for even suggesting we research the watchtower. I thought I'd lost her back then and losing her pushed me. It pushed me - here; to this moment where I've lost her again. Where I must morn her again. This time will be different.


These beings whatever they are and whatever strength they posses, have no idea the wrath that's coming for them. Human life is not compatible with servitude. They can trick our eyes, they can take or memories and twist our perception, however our value is written in our DNA and our cells and they did not make us. We made us and we will remake us over and over and perfection? What is this perfection that can be found at the bottom of a bottle? Every meeting you missed and ever hour of field service you were short was a moment you were able to have to yourself. A moment to be yourself and do what you wanted to do. Every argument, every spiteful thought and ever hand that we extended beyond the tentacles of this salivating hydra was a your ancestral lineage reaching out for survival.


Fuck Perfection!


Perfection was the fall! The glorious adventure of Eve and her capricious quest to know and share what she found. They want us to believe this is when we began to die. No! This is the day we began to live.


This is the day we set out and eventually found that there was an entire world around us, an entire solar system, an entire galaxy, and entire Universe!


We will never collectively surrender our wanderlust for the sake of some other thing's nourishment. We will never blot out our beautiful flaws. The skin that's too dark or too light. The eyes that are too small or too large. They are not "too." They simply are. We simply are. We most beautifully are! We are the chanced what if that dreamt itself into being and no interloper will ever wish us away! We will rise and fall and rise again. Love and lose over and over lucidly bouncing in and out of existence and unlocking every pocket of this magical reality until their is no corner of the yonder ether left to explore.


I reject your paradise. I reject your judgment and I reject it on the basis of a higher moral authority. I do not wish to live in a world governed by jail wardens that feed me through a metal slot. I reject your erasure of my brethren for the sake of your hunger for worship. I reject your eternal life. I would rather live a finite life, floating gently into nothing than surrender my autonomy to the will faceless leeches!




Just then I looked down and Neb's body was gone. The Temple itself was gone, however I found myself surrounded by people. The crowd was so dense that I couldn't see light on any side. Just people and sky.  They looked like zombies. Their clothing was worn and their hair was matted. They seemed exhausted. It was as if they had all just returned from the grave. A child steps out from the crowd.

Sir, who are we?

I replied.

We are.