I am not God [WRC]

An idea I had a long time ago. My first Short Story EVER!

And fairly long...

"I walk among you. The righteous should not fear me. The wicked must."

I placed my coffee next to a large envelope on the desk, smiling, and turned to address the speaker. I was mildly surprised that any other engineers had shown up to the office so early on a Sunday.

"I didn't even hear you come in." My voice faded into the soft ambient hum of the office machines. From my desk to the door and wall to wall, the large cubicled room stood silent and vacant of life, save myself. "What the..."

"I'm not there in the room, with you." The voice, soft and commanding, seemed to have no point of origin. I felt a small pang of adrenaline coupled with nervous tension in my stomach. "I am not in your vehicle, or on your radio. My voice is coming from within you." With narrowed eyes, I began scanned the room intensely, searching for any sign of a prank. "For many of you, this is the first time you've had the pleasure of hearing anything at all. I mourn for the lost years you have bourne. To have never heard the complexities of Rachmaninov, the pure laughter of a child, or the sound of a breeze through the fields. You are no longer deaf. The blind can now see. The sick are made well, and the cripple made whole.

Just as I was about to call out for the culprit to reveal himself, the ailments of life vanished. Sinus pressure regulated, the small tension headache that had been developing simply vanished. The unknown pain in my right knee disappeared. I stood in shock for a moment, realizing that a miracle had just occurred. Knowing, without doubt, that the stress of life, and the results of that life, had just disappeared. In wonder, I realized just how much I'd grown accustomed to the wear of the years. I felt emotion begin to churn inside me. What was this?

"I am not God," the voice continued. I sat in my chair, overcome with the awesome revelation that I was the recipient of a miracle. I closed my eyes to take in the voice. "I am but a man, tired of the petty squabbles of our race. The decision to do what I have done was not an easy one. The gift of health and longevity are yours. But there is a price to be paid for it." A tone of warning reverberated through the lilting voice and sent a shock of electric fear up my spine. "While I am not God, I have given myself the power to judge and sentance Mankind itself. Within each of you is a mutation in your genetic structure. All life on this planet has been modified. This process took the course of years to fulfill, but it is complete. The design was simple in the extreme and the virus that changed you was harmless, undetectable, and readily transmitted through the atmosphere. The purpose was simple: To repair a human through the basest of means, by rewriting our DNA to force the body to rejuvenate and repair itself, to activate certain switches which would allow the body to regrow teeth, eyes, arms, legs, anything which life has deprived you of. Even now, lost limbs are regrowing in amputees. I have taken the liberty of blocking the pain of the process to make this as easy as possible."

I was braced for what came next, but it still hammered into me like a blow to the gut. Nothing in this world comes without a price. "I can give you perfect health, but can end your life in the span of a moment. The mutation in your genetic structure also gives me the ability to play God. I have a small electronic device of my own design, which allows me to vaporize any organic material on the planet at will. Simply stated, it disolves the link that holds hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen together. Unfortunately, a demonstration is needed to prove this ability. I apologize to all of Mankind."

Hell itself was then unleashed inside my body. Every nerve ending flared with raw pain. Such was the force of convulsion, my spasming muscles snapped rigid, foring my body to arc against the chair. When I hit the the floor after clearing the five foot cubicle wall before me, I saw smoke, or fine dust rush away from me in a cloud. The pain was maddening.

I sank to the mat carpeting as the pain vanished. I could FEEL my body repairing itself.

"No further proof is needed. Again, I apologize to my race." My heart hammered in my chest. This couldn't be happening! "What you just felt was the exposure of your nerves to air as the skin on your body decomposed. This was only a minor display. There is no immunity. I experienced exactly what you did. No one man should have this power, and so I have chosen fifty men and women around the globe to hold hands as we wade forth into a new world, to share this responsiblity with. You do not know who these people are, and they are forbidden to reveal themselves. These people were chosen with great care. They do not know who they are, yet, and they have no way to identify each other. Only I will ever know them." My mind spun with the possiblities. A small army of unidenfied individuals associated with this Voice would be able to end life at will, inflict pain and suffering on a level beyond imagining.

"I lead the new world. My laws are simple. If you deliver death, it will be delivered to you. War, as you know it, ends now. Murder ends now. Any military on the planet which fires a single shot from this point forward will be destroyed. I, and those under my command, cannot be perfect. We will perform acts of God, but we are not Him. Mistakes will be made, but I know that this is necessary. Crimes will be tried in a court system of my choosing. Those found guilty of the act of murder will be summarily executed. Any person found guilty of rape will lose all Human Rights and become property of their victim. All theft will indebt the theif into the service of the one robbed." I was in a daze as this information sank in. These were not the demands of a would-be tyrant. The Voice warned that it would not identifiy it's owner. There was no desire for fame and the power that most people desired resided, in it's entirety, with a single man.

"Each of my chosen will have absolute dominion over their respective province. They will be able to communicate with you in the exact same manner I am communicating with you now. I will communicate with them in this manner to answer any questions they may have. They will modify or instute whatever legal system they see fit, provided it meets my approval. If this person betrays the people, I will eliminate them and chose another to take their place."

"While I can change genetics, I cannot change human nature. I know that there are those who are born to violence, those who cannot and will not put away their desire for battle and glory. If you are such a person, you have a single opportunity to venture forth. You will be given dominion of a single location and encouraged to utilize your ingenuity and abilities. You will be sterilized or made barren. Your lives can be viewed by all who chose to view, but you will never return to the general populace. You will live apart with no Chosen to supervise you. This will be the only exception to the Law of Death." My mind reeled at this. The implications were staggering. This Voice had just given the human race the opportunity to excise the violent caste... peacefully.

"Moving on. I live in Europe. I have taken the liberty of devising my first act of world-governance. The British Parlaiment is hereby disolved. All debt on planet Earth is erased, from personal debt to national debt. There will be no argument concerning this. All men will begin with what they have. THe United States of America has become far too populated and diverse to be governed by a single body, and the government is therby disolved. No sitting politician in either country will be allowed to participate in politics from this point forward. All members of the European Union are now solitary governing states. All States within the United States of America are now self-sufficient governments, answerable to no other government. Live your lives as you will. You will answer for your own decisions from this point forward. The planetary medical system is no longer necessary. Study is permitted but any intervention in the genetic structure will be met with severe retaliation from me. Financial institutions will no longer be necessary. Decide for yourself what you will do."

"I leave you with a final thought. Our life on this planet is finite. I can give you youth, near immortality, but we are finite beings and will all die, eventually. Along the same lines, our star is not infinite. The fuel of the sun burns further every day, and eventually, not in our lifetimes, it will die. The future of this race depends on extrasolar travel. Those of you who wish to participate in making this a reality will report to NASA, the ESA, or the respective space program for your province. All travel on the planet will be unrestricted from this point forward, allowing the facilitation of humanity's relocation. You will all be informed shortly of certain divisions and areas that will be set aside for specific use. I leave you, now, to contemplate your future. You have the ability to move into the future with perfect clarity and purpose. This opportunity will be given only once. Use it wisely."

I felt the connection with the voice sever, as if a thought of incredible power had simply been removed from my brain. I realized I had been sweating, that I still lay on the floor, and that the awesome scope of humanity's future seemed to balance on the scales of fifty-one unknown people. From an engineering standpoint, the viability of such a system could only be judged by the passage of time. There was potential for greatness on a scale unimaginable. But the potential for devestation was equal. I reveled for a moment in the perfect health of my restored body, the clarity of my thoughts and the speed of my mind. I felt as if I'd been born again.

My cel phone rang from the next cubicle. After a moment of disorientation, I focused in on the mundane sound, walked around the wall, moved aside the manilla envelope to reveal the ringing device underneath. Answering, I could hear my own voice and was struck by how alien it sounded. "Hello?" the word was forced out, shaking.

"Congratulations!" came an unfamilliar voice. "You have won a free trip to the Bahamas! Don't hang up," came the cheery voice, "this is not a scam. Your name has been entered in our database to receive this once in a lifetime opportunity and if you'll hold just a moment, I'll connect you with our next available representative!" I stared blankly at the phone for a moment, my mind trying to connect this telephone call with reality. The absurdity of it caused a hysteric giggle, followed by a laugh, a snort, and an all out-guffaw that brought wetness to my eyes. I was still laughing when I heard the hold-music abruptly stop. WIth an unbelievable act of will, I brought my hysterics to a giggling halt.

"Hello?" I squeeked. "How can you still be taking your job seriously?" After a moment of silence on the other end, a shaky female voice answered me.

"So... mass delusions are off the table, then...", and with that, the line went dead. I sat the phone beside the envelope, took a deep breath and decided to busy myself with some mundane task, to give my subconcsious brain a moment to adjust.

I picked up the envelope and opened it without thought, turned it upside down onto my desk. I thought for a moment about reporting to NASA, the ramifications of the elimination of my government. A metal 'tink' sounded from my desk. Curious, I picked up the quarter-sized disk. It was silver with the letters "JJE" engraved elegantly on one face. On the flip side were four small prongs. I turned it over and over. As an engineer, I got to see some pretty interesting things, but this one wasn't registering. Perhaps a mis-sent gift? I tried to think of anyone in the office with those initials. Looking, back at the envelope, I could find no markings. Interoffice mail had delivered the wrong communicae before. I picked up the disk and envelope and took them to the office administrator's desk. A post-it note affixed to the envelope instructed the secretary to try and identify the sender and recipient the next day. Not like anyone was going to come in. As I opened the envelope to return the disc, I saw a scrap of paper inside. It was a sillouhette profile of a man with a small circle above the bicep and an arrow pointing to the circle. I looked at the disc. Simple instructions, it seemed. My curiosity was elevated. I placed the disc to my bicep. Through my shirt I felt the prongs snap through and affix itself to my skin. I started in surprise. It didn't hurt, but I could feel the prongs had extended well into my shoulder. A voice reverberated through my mind.

"Welcome to the ranks of the Chosen."

reply to post by Arrowmancer
Cool story bro. Interesting read

I think humans will screw it up anyway. That's just the way we do things.

Too bad I don't have one of those fancy arm gadgets. Guess I'm out of the loop. I do like how you left it open-ended, the sort of ending that says "write more, dangit!", and leaves you wondering.

So of course, you get another flag. Good job. First try? Well done.

reply to post by Arrowmancer


This was a great read. Your words are well crafting without seeming contrived, and the sense of doom interspersed with hope is a very cool juxtaposition.