Lovers of Babel (6 page)

“No. It was a forest from the book Tarzan that my father used to read to me at night. It was a source of security that I remember from my childhood,” he said looking nostalgic.

“My father used to read me the Cinderella story. I’d always imagine I’d be as beautiful as her someday. I used to draw pictures of myself as a dazzling princess,” she said joining the nostalgia.

“So are you…is this the face of one of your drawings?” The Australian asked with a mouth full of orange slices.

“Actually, yes!
Yes it is. Hold on let me get something.” Cameron briskly walked out of the living room and after a few minutes, entered again carrying a wooden shoe box.

“My dad was always building something with his hands. He hated the idea of robots and machines taking over our humanity. This shoe box was one of his first creations underground. Anyway, I kept lots of pictures from the past inside here.” She sat next to George again.

She began looking through the collection of photographs in search of one particular picture. George was studying her childhood through happy snapshots from her past. One particular snapshot that caught his attention was of her and her young father laughing while kneeling on a small plot of soil planting turnips.

“So, where exactly is your father?” George asked.

“He’s dead,” she said flatly still searching for the picture. “Ah! Here it is!” She lifted it up to the light. “It’s a little faded, but you can see where I drew squiggly lines for the hair.” She handed it to George.

“Wow this does look like you.” He gave it to the Australian.

“Do you think this proves that there is some correlation between the imagination and our abilities?” The Australian asked George.

“
Our
abilities? You guys can transform too!?”

“Well not exactly. Why don’t we give her a little demonstration?” George asked the Australian.

George flipped her old drawing over to the back and placed it on the table along with a pen from his pocket.

“
Here. Draw a picture of your first pet.”

“My first pet was a hybrid poodle-gerbil that we got from the stem cell and animal cloning lab. I’ll see if I can remember how she looked.” She began to draw the face then the ears until all that was left was a fluffy tail. “Ok this looks about right.”

“And what color was she?”

“Baby pink with white in her inner ears.”

George studied the picture for a few seconds then closed his eyes and began to concentrate. Then he opened them and stared out into a void. Suddenly, a tiny pink poodle the size of a rat appeared in the middle of the floor. It was squeaking and jumping around in a circle.

Cameron gasped.
“Cuddles! How in the world!? Did you…how did you?”

“I have the power to create things and make them appear out of nowhere. I discovered I had this ability just a week ago when I went up to the surface.”

“That’s amazing! And do you have the same power?” She asked the Australian.

“No. I can travel fast.”

“What do you mean travel fa-?“

Suddenly the Australian was gone.

“Where in the world did he go?” Cameron asked looking around the room.

“Over here guys!”
The Australian was yelling from outside the house. “I’m up here!”

George and Cameron walked outside looking all around and then up. The Australian was waving at them from the roof of Cameron’s house. Cameron was overwhelmed and put both of her hands on her head.  

“This is…I can’t believe this can be! How is this possible? We are human right? Or are we aliens from outer space who think we’re human?” Cameron asked sincerely wanting an answer.

“No we aren’t aliens, but we are
more
than human. Much more. You see after the apocalypse when the earth moved into alignment with the Milky Way there was an abundance of energy that was released from inside the black hole. This energy caused a cosmic boom and all of the universe shifted and transformed. The earth is now close to the other planets and nature has become almost celestial. The biggest change that occurred is the change within human consciousness. My theory is that every child who was born
after
the apocalypse has some sort of super-human power.”

“So only those born after the apocalypse have powers? That means my mom should be completely normal right?”

“Well we haven’t exactly tested our theory yet,” the Australian said then looked at George. “Maybe we should…”

“Oh no.
We are
not
bringing Cameron’s mother into this. It’s much too dangerous.”

“Well as long as you don’t hurt her I think she’ll be fine. I have to know if this is something that I inherited.”

“But how can we find out for sure if she has powers without hooking her up to a bunch of medical equipment?” George brainstormed.

“Didn’t you both say that fear and the innate need to protect yourselves brought out your ability? I remember feeling the same way. Maybe we should scare her so badly that she has to use her power to save herself,” the Australian suggested.

George looked at Cameron.

“Let’s not give her a heart attack in the process,” she said.

“Okay let’s see. What can we do to scare her?”

“George why don’t you create something terrifying and show it to her,” the Australian suggested.

“I know she always talks about how lions scare her. Her worst fear is to be killed by one.”

“You want me to put a lion in your mother’s kitchen?” George asked skeptically.

“Just for a second or two. Long enough for her to get good and scared,” Cameron said.

“Well this is a conversation you don’t have every day. Shall we?” The Australian motioned for the door.

The trio entered the home and watched Cameron’s mother as she washed the dishes with her back toward them. The Australian and Cameron looked at George who was closing his eyes. He took a deep breath and opened them. Suddenly a large cluster of fur appeared in the center of the room and hovered there spinning. Then a tail sprouted from the cluster, then a leg, another leg, a head. In a minutes time there was a ferocious lion standing in front of them barely able to fit inside the condensed room. They were frozen in fear. Cameron looked over at George.

“Quick! Tell him to turn around!” She whispered sharply.

“T-turn around. P-please!” He pathetically commanded the animal while making a turn signal with his index finger. The beast just looked at him.

“He won’t listen to me!”

Suddenly a glass dropped to the floor and shattered. There was a gasp. Then a shriek. The lion turned around and roared thunderously at Cameron’s terrified mother. She was unable to move. The lion walked over to her coolly and she closed her eyes in fear. The trio looked at each other. Here was the moment where she would use her power. Then she opened her eyes and nothing happened. The lion’s breath was blowing her hair back. He began to open his gigantic mouth. Cameron looked at George.

“Hurry!
Make him disappear!”

“Um, I’ve never done this before. I’m not sure if it’s possible!”

“What!!? You brought a 500 pound lion to my house and wasn’t sure how to remove it!?”

“I thought I could control it better. I just assumed-“

“You
assumed!?
My mother is about to get eaten!”

George was panicking. He closed his eyes tightly and clinched is fists. Her mother could see the lion’s molars from where she was.

“Get out! I command you! GET OUT!” George yelled. The lion immediately disappeared. Cameron’s mother fainted on the tile floor. Cameron ran to her aid. She placed a warm towel on her forehead. The Australian and George were standing there watching her.

“Help me move her to the bed.”

The Australian lifted her torso while George lifted her legs. They waddled to her bedroom and placed her gently on the bed and tucked her in.

“We’ll tell her that we were trying out the latest 4D technology and she thought the lion was real and fainted.” Cameron told them.

“She would believe that?”

She shrugged. “It’s worth a try. Plus it’s much easier to explain right now.”

They left the room.

“Well now we know that our power isn’t inherited,” the Australian said.

“We have the power to create, to transform and to teleport…do you think there are any more powers beyond the three?” Cameron asked.

“I believe in the power of three. The best things come in threes. It’s a symbol of complete wholeness. If I had to guess I’d say this is it.” George said.

“So the new human race is composed of three types of super-humans who can create objects out of nowhere, transform themselves into anything, and teleport to any destination. Also, the old world has even changed. Nothing on earth is the same. How do we tell everyone?” The Australian asked George.

“We’ll need Mr. Riley and a video camera.”

Amias
was meeting with robot manufacturers in the leader’s headquarters to discuss a new line of humanoid androids, when the secretary interrupted them with important news.

“I’m so sorry for interrupting Mr. Riley, but you have some people here from the cosmology institute here to see you. One of them says he’s been to the surface, and it’s habitable.”

Amias turned to address his guests.

“Sorry about this, but do you mind if we reschedule our meeting? This seems to be of the utmost importance,” He asked the two men.

“Of course. We can reschedule for the same time next week?” One of them suggested.

“Sounds great.
Rachel can you please put that on the schedule?”

As they were walking out of the room,
Amias whispered in the secretary’s ear.

“And next time try not to announce sensitive information in front of my guests.”   

She nodded shamefully and walked away toward her office. Amias entered a yellow office and after greeting his young guests offered them a seat.

“Now, my secretary interrupted a very important meeting to announce that you were here. I take it you all have something very serious regarding your trip to the surface that you’d like to share with me.” He looked at George who was preparing to greet
Amias.

“Yes Mr. Riley we have something of the upmost importance to tell you. First, let me say that on my trip to the surface I discovered that many things have changed. Of course, I was born here, underground five years after the equinox, but I had seen pictures of earth and I know that what I saw a few weeks ago was very different. The poles have shifted. The atmosphere has changed. The earth’s position in the solar system has moved closer to the Milky Way. It’s as if the earth has transformed into another planet altogether.”

“Well you and I both weren’t born on the surface, but I imagine those things are shockingly different from the old earth. However, I, along with every scientist in the underground, knew this would happen. It was inevitable. I imagine this isn’t the pressing topic you want to discuss, now is it?”

George looked at the Australian and Cameron.

“No sir. Actually, there is one more shocking change that I haven’t mentioned.”

“Well please go on,”
Amias insisted.

“Mr. Riley
have you ever heard of the Mayan prophecy for 2012?”

“Of course I have. The apocalypse they predicted was almost identical to what happened in 2112. I think the entire underground has heard of this.”

“Well you are right about that part of the prophecy. The tri-lunar equinox did happen as predicted, however; there is a very important part of the prophecy that continues to be ignored. You see, the Mayans never thought our world would come to a complete end. Yes they predicted widespread devastation and death, but they believed civilization would continue. 2012 didn’t mark the end of the world; it represented the end of an age in human consciousness. The Mayan researchers of the old age were 100 years off when they interpreted the Mayan calendar. The end of the age was actually predicted for 2112. Mr. President, we are here to tell you that the former age has passed away and we are now living in the age of superior human conscious awareness.”

Amias
looked at George like he had grown three heads. Then he raised his eyebrows curiously and smiled slightly waiting for George to start laughing. When he didn’t laugh, Amias stood up.

“Look you can’t just come into the Leader’s office and start spouting off a bunch of ancient new age nonsense. I have many other pressing matters to deal with right now. The last thing I need is to be played for a fool. Who let you all in here by the way!? That person needs to be fired immediately. Please leave now.”
Amias demanded.

“The secretary let us in after I showed her this…” Cameron walked over to
Amias who was standing with his hand on the door knob. She stood looking at him only a few inches from his face. Then she slowly slid her hands up over her face then through her hair and she had transformed herself into Mr. Riley.