Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 40274 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 201(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40274 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 201(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
I figure if I am down there, he won’t be able to authorize a bad attack. I’m putting myself among the people, a needle in a person haystack. This might be the only way to save thousands, maybe even millions of lives.
The saucer’s controls are still pretty foreign to me, but I aim the thing at the planet and put my old address into the GPS. The machine does the rest. I close my eyes once I enter the atmosphere so I don’t have to endure the terror of falling and I don’t open them until I feel the slight clunk of landing. I am on top of my old building, the same place I was when the Cupid arrived.
Cir’s going to be pissed when he works out what I’ve done, and I have to admit to myself that the prospect of an angry Cir scares me a bit. He’s usually so kind to me, but I know he has the capacity to do great damage, as do all his kind.
When I step out of the shuttle, I see that the Halo is glowing brightly, casting its ethereal glow over humanity. People are in the streets rejoicing in peace. Like moths to flames, they gather and clamor without a thought in their heads, dragged to the glow against whatever remains of their will.
But this is not a peaceful gathering like it was the first time the Halo glowed. This is a cosmic ass-whipping in progress.
“HUMANITY!” I recognize Cir’s voice. “We stand before you offering salvation, peace and prosperity, but your financial leaders have decided instead to attack the source of your redemption. Prepare yourselves for punishment.”
I hit the communications button on the shuttle. “Uh. Cir? Just so you know? I’m down here now. So whatever you do to them, you do to me. Okay, bye now.”
“JESSICA!” The sky rumbles my name furiously. I run. There’s nowhere to run really, and nowhere to hide, but I know if I stay near the shuttle he’ll probably be able to find me and rapture me up in a second. I’ve got to stay out of rapture range. I guess that means indoors? Maybe underground?
I don’t actually know how he’s able to locate or detect various humans for rapturing. I should have asked more questions. I should have learned more.
I dip down off the roof, finding myself more or less retracing my steps from the day Ricky tried to kill me.
The glow doesn’t affect me the same way it affects other people anymore. I feel the warmth, but I don’t feel absolutely glamoured by it. I guess exposure to the Cupid has given me a little in the way of immunity.
Cir
“What is the problem, Cir?”
Captain Talos is asking a reasonable question. I do not have a good and reasonable answer. “My human assistant has decided to return to earth in a misguided attempt to save her species from our wrath.”
“That is unfortunate, but they must be punished. We have tried to motivate them with kindness and plenty, but this attack is unprecedented. No single human can be spared this punishment. If one attacks us, all attack us.”
I feel uneasy about the course of action we have decided to take, but I am not the only voice in the room. I believe taking the billionaires out directly would be most effective, but the others have argued that the billionaires are an integral part of the human system, and their fault belongs to all humans. It’s hard to argue, given the history of humanity and their repeated elevation of psychopaths to vicious and glorious heights.
“They have to feel the consequences of their actions,” Captain Talos says. “That is their greatest failing, the inability to feel what it is they do, the separation of act from consequence. We will make this very immediate for them.”
Jessica
I peek my head outside the front door of the building. The Halo pulses red. The city is cast in a creepy maroon hue. An aura of doom is creeping over the world at large. I don’t know what the fuck is about to happen, but I have that gut sensation that it is going to be bad.
A pulse issues from the Halo and hits the city like a shockwave. The sound of several million people screaming all at once rends my fucking soul. All around me, people are collapsing to the ground in physical pain and writhing with terror. I feel it a second after they do, an overwhelming wave of the worst feelings people are capable of feeling.
Nothing is actually happening, but it feels as though I am witnessing some of the worst atrocities in history all at once. I gasp for air between sobs, dropping to my knees as I share in the punishment of my species. I want to think my way through this, but I can’t. Whatever the Cupid are doing is making emotion surge so completely thoughts melt in it.