Ch. 1: Recognition
"The calendar says Saturday June 14, 2060," a man on Fox News says, ", and the day of resurrection is upon us!"
Jason Woods, a young 25 years old, looking old and haggard for his young age because lack of shaving and improper hygiene; watching the news program, didn't believed in god.
"What a load of shit!" he said with a disbelieving look of disgust on his face. Jason had a strong, handsome face, despite the current rugged, hobo-looking face he wore now. He had stern, navy blue eyes; also medium length, dirty blond, mop-top hair. He had a lean, semi-fit body and about 5'10" in height. He was a few pounds under weight for his age.
"Tomorrow around 4:15 P.M. Jesus will return once again to this world and claim all of his followers and take them to heaven!" The man said as he raised his arms.
"And there it is folks from the Baptist of The First Church himself!" the news women interviewing the Baptist said. "We'll hear more on this top story tonight at eleven. Back to you --," the news broadcast was halted when Jason had used the remote to turn off the TV.
"If there is a god, then he's forgotten all about me." He said as he stood up and walked to the bathroom. After taking a shower, shaving, and putting on clothes to sleep in, he walked over by his bed and sat down in the middle of it with a plop. He sighed as he looked around in his messy, one bed room apartment.
"If he cares so much about humanity why did he go and stick me in this hell whole?" His head sunk and his eyes met the floor between his feet. His eyes drooped and lost their luster, they became a dim, midnight blue; his heart sank a bit in disappointment. He shook his head as if to bring his mind back from another world. He scoffed as he lay without so little as a jacket to cover up with. He curled into a snug ball and, with a frown, went to sleep at nine ten P.M.
He unintentionally woke up early the next morning at 4:15 A.M. and couldn't go back to sleep. "Ah! C'mon body you got at least another two hours before the big interview, you need to be well rested!" He said to himself, as he often did to keep loneliness from setting in. He tossed and turned in his naked bed. Finally he gave in. He looked at his watch on a cardboard box by the bed. "Its 4:17! The interview starts at eight O'clock! I had another three full hours to sleep, son of a bitch…" He reluctantly got freshened up for his interview. He put on his best outfit which, unfortunately, was a pair of light, Levi's brand jeans, a white Polo shirt with a light blue emblem, and a pair of blue and white slip-on shoes. He sighed as he thought to himself "If I get this job I can finally afford a tux or suit for occasions like this…'
Jason sat down on his couch to watch some TV It was still on the same channel from last night, a news woman on camera said,
"And the Baptist was right! We all woke up on the time he predicted last night at eleven," this caught Jason's interest so he leaned toward his television set to pay closer attention, ", 4:15 was the time I woke up." said the news lady.
"What a load of crap! I swear that Baptist is so damn full of himself! Fuck you mister preacher man!" he said with all the anger and frustration in his body as he shook a finger at the TV screen.
"Just to prove this is not a hoax," the news woman started again, ", we have several people from the street who also say they woke up at 4:15 A.M. Sir what do you have to say about this strange phenomenon?"
The news woman pointed her microphone in the direction of a bald, middle aged, man with a long beard wearing thin, rectangular, glasses.
"I ain't thinkin' it would be possible for ever body ta' wake up at the same time, but it did. And ta' tell ya'll the truth, I dun think such a large coincidence is possible." The man said with a scratchy, flam-filled voice. Jason looked at the man grotesquely. The old man's accent and grammar were atrocious.
"To me t'is most definitely a sign from gawd." The old man said.
"So, Bishop, do you have any more input on this marvelous prediction?" started the news woman, pointing her mike in the Bishops direction.
"Yes, you see, we all woke up at this time because it was a reminder that the time of resurrection is upon us." The Bishop explained.
"How exactly was he reminding us?" The news woman looked a bit puzzled and doubtful. She was looking as though she had asked the Baptist a question he couldn't answer.
"Well, my daughter, you see in the Bible, Thessalonians 4:15-17, these sections explain the rapture and shed a little light on the subject. The fact that we woke up at 4:15 marks the beginning of the rapture. I knew all this and told you, the people, because god came to me in a dream about three days ago. He told me to share my story last night, and said to wake up without resistance. He also wanted the rest of his followers to do the same. And he left me with a quote as well, 'to deny the word of god is to deny the gates of heaven' and I won't soon forget that." The Baptist replied. He adjusted his glasses and put his hands behind his back.
"And what exactly determines who stays and who goes?" The news women asked. She suddenly got serious as if she was waiting for a doctors diagnosis to see if a mole had been benign or not.
"Well, daughter; I might misinterpret, but I think the early rise was the gates of heaven – so to speak – and to resist that early rise… well the rest speaks for itself." He said with an unmoving seriousness.
Suddenly Jason found himself fill with an unfathomable amount of fury and rage! It was almost too great for him and he thought he might explode for a moment. "THAT'S THE STUPIDEST LOAD OF BULL SHIT I'VE EVER HEARD IN MY ENTIRE FUCKING LIFE!!" He screamed at the top of his lungs! He stormed over to his TV set, picked it up, high over his head and at the same time ripping the cords out of the wall. His TV was relatively small so it wasn't hard to lift at all. He aimed to throw it though his only and already opened window, but he stopped himself. He felt a presence in his room that sent chills down his spine. Some odd – other worldly – force, its presence seemed to freeze time itself. He felt it standing behind him. He turned around slowly, with his arms still high in the air – TV on top – only to see nothing… but it was still there looking at him, piercing his soul. He could feel it. He went and set his TV back where he originally had it, before he threw a fit. He was scared now. Because he had sensed that the "being", he now referred to it as, was evil. An evil spirit – which he did believe in – good and evil spirits both, existed to him. This and other experiences were proof of that.
He then sat on his couch to wait out the next two hours and twenty five minutes, thinking about how much in common his life had with shit. He laughed at the thought of this because, despite his effort to do well in life, no matter what the circumstances, he always came out on the bad end of things.
He now had realized that he needed to get going so he can catch his interview. And on the way he was starting to think that maybe the preacher was right.
"No, damn it, no! That preacher's bull shit words are getting to me. I don't believe. He's just as real as ol' saint fuck! Sure has enough in common with the bastard…" he thought to himself as he boarded a subway train.
But he was wondering how he woke up at the time the news woman claimed "everyone" else did. Was it coincidence? No too big to be one. Then what was it? Then he started to question who "everyone" was. Is it some bull shit scheme to try to con more money into church funds? What the hell does god need money for any way?
He sat on the train for the next half hour; the job he was applying for was all the way across town. If he had been hired, he would need to get up every day at six-thirty, the reason being because it took him an hour to get there and thirty minutes to get ready in the morning. He didn't have much to wake up to, so it didn't take him long to get ready. Then again maybe he can work out some reasonable hours with his boss. He was applying for a job as an engineer. His salary would be quite a handsome load. It was the third best paying job in the city. He really wanted this job it would help him go places and get out of what he called his "hell hole".
After another ten minutes on the train, he over heard a couple having a conversation a few seats away about the recent news announcements. He shifted his eyes without moving his head, attempting to eaves drop less conspicuously.
"Do you think that preacher was right?" The young woman said. She was considerably young looking, a teen ager, so the young man she was with must have not been too much older.
"I don't know sounds a bit fishy to me. Even though the two of us did wake up at the time he said we would, I think it's a big coincidence." The male teen said.
"Too big a coincidence if you ask me. I think he might be telling the truth." The female teen replied. She rested her head on the shoulder of the male, who was obviously her boyfriend.
The male teen sighed and said, "Well, we'll see which is truth and fiction at 4:15 this afternoon." He wrapped his arm around his girl friend and rested his eyes.
As Jason watched them, he began to envy them. They both knew love and didn't seem to have a care in the world when they got close, despite the recent preacher-preach announcement. Jason had been in love and on dates before, but he never recalled having a girl friend – which was odd – or anything more than that. He had begun to think; since he was getting a job he would be out around town a lot more, meeting people and making friends. There was also the strong possibility that he could be dating as well. The thought of this lit a tiny spark in Jason's body, it excited him. He thought he should start searching right now, begin "scoping" – as he called it – for potential dates. Sadly, though, he would have to restrain himself until he knew for sure he would get the job.
The sub way train came to a halt. He was only half way to his destination. He lived on the 22nd century part of town, where everything had not caught up with the recent technologies, because of financial and economical problems. The train he was waiting to board now was a bullet train capable of going speeds up to three hundred and thirty-three miles an hour, but the train was energy efficient and held only enough electricity to make eighteen round trips across the massive city over a span of two days. That's nine trips a day, which is decent, but at top speed the train would run out of conserved electricity in a matter of seconds; not to mention the risks that came with moving at a speed like that. It and most other machines ran on a rich completely natural source of energy. A whole that was drilled throughout the entire length of the first link of the train, it funneled in wind generated from the movement of the train, spinning a turbine that generated electricity that powered the core which moved the train along the tracks. Also the revolution of the spinning wheels themselves generated electricity as well and redirected it to the power core.
While he was waiting for the train to arrive, he took the opportunity to take a look at the other advancements in the technology since the last he had visited. Nothing much had changed from the assist robots, accommodating about seven or more peoples shoulders out of every twelve or so, to the floating orbs that generated light near the ceiling. He hated most of the technology, but only the type that made people not do the things necessary for them to stay healthy. One such thing being the Segway™ XG320 models, they floated, carrying people that increased in obesity everyday due to lack of exercise. He thought the assist robots were stupid too; they did everything their mobile phones did except for calling people. They did do chores and other things around the house, but what's the use of that if it hovers at your shoulder every where you went.
Jason didn't know how much time he had left to make it to the interview, but he knew it was plenty. The train he had just got on would arrive at his destination in about ten minutes or so. He spent this very short time socializing with a beautiful female who had asked for directions to an Italian restaurant, in which she was supposed to meet a group of friends. It turns out that the restaurant she was looking for was right across the street from where Jason had his interview. As they talked more he began to steadily learn more about the young woman. She was short around 5'4", she had long black hair, and leaf green eyes so luminescent, they almost radiated enough to engulf her pupils. Her name was Arie Benson; she had even, soft looking, cashew-toned, skin that was so wonderfully resonating with beauty. She wore black, skinny jeans. Also and pair of Converse, red canvas, and a red vest, on top of a white button up, long sleeve dress shirt, with folded up cuffs. She looked as if she had just recently reached her twenties.
They talked and found that they had more in common than they both originally thought, especially when it came to the recent news. Arie did believe in a higher power but she didn't believe in any particular religion existing now. He also found that she had a wonderful sense of humor and she was good with words. He started asking more and more questions.
"So then what is you religion?" Jason asked.
"I guess you can say I have one all my own." She said with a half smile on her face. There was also a shine in her eye that seemed to illuminate her entire body. Jason had a crush.
"That's pretty unique, Arie." He said smiling back. He leaned forward resting his palm on his chin and his elbow on his knee. If he did get this job he hoped to see a lot more of her around the city.
"I like different better." She said raising her left eyebrow a little.
"Why? I don't see the difference." Jason said with a questioning look on his face. There was no difference between the two words. No apparent reason Anyway.
"Yes and no one ever does. That's why it's better. You see, people always see the unique in something and never the difference. If people are always seeing the unique in everything, can it really be called unique if it's unique like everything else?" Arie said. She was ranting now, but Jason didn't care because he understood it all.
"Cause all the unique is leaving no room for difference. I get it! If they're all unique then they are the same and not unique at all!" Jason said, as he became more intrigued at this amazing philosophy.
"Exactly, you got it! That is why I prefer different over unique." Arie said with a smile. "It's an epiphany I stumbled across with my dad a while back."
"You philosophize with you dad? You two must be… close." He looked down with a face as he paused a bit at the end of recognizing Arie's closeness with her dad. It reminded him of what he didn't have with his father. Or mother… Jason's hands fell between his knees while his elbows rested on his thighs. He brought the tips of his shoes together to form the top two ends of a triangle. He slouched over hanging his head low allowing his hair to drape over his face. This was his screw my life body language.
Seeing that Jason seem a bit upset, Arie got up from her seat across from Jason and took a new one in the unoccupied seat to the right of him. She gave him a friendly little bump, shoulder to shoulder, as she asked,
"Hey, you, are you ok?" There was no answer from Jason. So in an attempt to get his attention faster, Arie nudged him three more times all while saying his name,
"Jason…" she had to drag out his name in order to spread it evenly over the shoulder nudges. The way she said his name in this manner perked him up some how. It was as if she had some kind of mystical power over him. He compared this to a magician saying his magic words. Jason pulled his head up a bit and shifted his eyes toward Arie. She saw she had succeeded in her attempt to get his attention; this made her involuntarily grab his hand and hold it tight. "You're ok, right?" she said while still holding his hand.
"I am now." He replied with a smile. Arie smiled back. Their eyes met, though, it was only for two seconds. It felt like two hours to Jason. And in this time, all things around him seemed to go quiet, and all reality itself seemed to melt and drip away like wet paint off a wall. He felt like nothing else mattered for just those two seconds.
This dream, however, came to a screeching halt when some jack ass "hee-hawed" it's cry in his ear. "Hey! Arie! Who's the tool sitting next to you?" the voice said as it approached. Who ever this jack ass was he was upsetting Jason. For starters he interrupted, what could have been the best moment in Jason's life – or maybe Jason was just desperate, he hadn't got out much. Secondly, for what ever reason, Arie took her hand away from Jason's and her face turned red as she scooted back in her seat. Jason hadn't turned his head toward the voice yet, but he knew he was there, he could feel it breathing down his neck.
"Beat it, Lloyd…" Arie said while stressing his name as it exited her mouth.
"Is this goon your boy friend?" Jack ass said. Jason finally turned his head toward the ass to see who it was that was being so terribly rude. It was a tall, biker-looking, grease monkey. He had short dark brown hair, cut Cesar-style, brown eyes, and white skin. He was noticeably taller than Jason, between 5'11" and 6'2". He was muscular, Jason guessed he could be anywhere between 190 to over 200 pounds. He wore a black leather jacket; collar popped, sleeves ripped up to the top of the shoulder, a light grey, short sleeve under shirt. His hands sported leather gloves, with holes around all five knuckles and the back of the hand, and there were no finger sleeves. His pants were, black, snug around the thighs, with a chain on his left side that connected to one of the belt loops. It wrapped around his hip and went into his back pocket; Jason guessed this chain was connected to a wallet. He wore the original Converse.
"No. He's just a friend." Arie answered.
The annoying man scoffed and said, "He better be, because you belong to me." He glared at Jason as he said this in an attempt to frighten him. Jason wasn't worried in the slightest. If it was a fight the guy was looking for, that was one thing Jason certainly knew how to deliver. It was something he had to acquire growing up as he did – no one to care for or protect him, but himself. Jason analyzed the jack ass a bit more before trying to scare him off with words. He would always try to use his sober mouth before violence came into play. Fighting was always a last resort for him.
"Listen, Lloyd," Arie began trying as hard as possible to keep a big voice, "I'm not your girl and I don't belong to any one!" her voice grew louder the more she went on. "So why don't you just shove it and move on with your life!" this time she grabbed the attention of a few passengers on the train. No one would bother to do anything, though, because they're all cowards who don't like to interfere with business that isn't theirs.
"Whoa! Look at you now, trying to be all big and bad because your little friend is here." Lloyd said as he smirked and stroked his chin. "Well just like the rest of the pussies on this train he won't do shit!" he dropped his hand away from his chin and advanced closer.
Then Jason intercepted. He stood up between Arie sitting down and Lloyd stand right in front of him. He broke no eye contact.
"Sit down pussy! If you know what's good for you." Lloyd said as he jumped at his face a little. Jason didn't flinch.
"I think I got a theory on why you're such a dick." Jason started. The calmness in his voice must have surprised Lloyd a bit, because he stopped talking, and listened.
"You're insecure about you life enough to where you start working out every day to get that Schwarzenegger body most men can only dream of. You have no control of most or all of your life so when you do get this rock hard body; you figure you can pick on random females in a subway station to get some sense of control so no one questions your masculinity, only to get the cold shoulder from all of them. Leaving you with one option; to sit at home every night with you thumb up your ass and masturbate to your beat up poster of Britney Spears, crying yourself to sleep because the realization that you have no one, but your hand, is too much for you. Only to wake up and repeat the process the next day…" These words poetically fumigated out of Jason's mouth, killing the roach that was Lloyd the Jack Ass.
Lloyd was left speechless. With his mouth wide open Lloyd took two steps back. He then put on an anger face as he looked down at Arie who was peering out from behind Jason. He opened his mouth again, to form words or insults to throw at Arie. Before he could even wisp out a breath of air, Arie said, "Now who's the pussy?"
Jason then crossed his arms and stepped over to block Lloyd's glare toward Arie, he said, "Am I in the right ball park there, flap jack?"
"Listen here, tool—" Lloyd started, but was interrupted.
"No you listen, amigo!" Jason began, poking Lloyd's chest as he went, "I'm gonna' be on this train every day from here on out. If you so much as look at her wrong, not only will I hunt you down and make you regret the day you met me, I'll see to it you won't be able to wipe your own ass when I'm through! Got that, butterball?!" The whole train was silent. Some were looking, some minded their business. Lloyd straightened up, and pulled up his collar. The train came to a stop. Lloyd left with a final four words, "Watch your back, padre…" he said, pointing at Jason, as he exited through the doors.
"That was amazing!" Arie exclaimed. "It was also the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me. Thank you so much." She said. She had a big smile on her face. Her teeth were whiter than pearls. After giving Jason's arm a death squeeze, Jason said,
"Yeah it was no problem, but we're not out of the woods yet. This is our stop too."
"But even still," Arie said as she pulled Jason out of the train by his arm, "I think he'll think twice before coming near me with you around. I've been trying to get rid of him for weeks! He's always bothering me. I'm too small to fight him off myself, but now I have a good luck charm!" she was speaking so enthusiastically now. That was the most sentences Arie threw at Jason at one time.
"Hey, you aren't using me now are you?" said Jason in a cautious yet confident, braggadocios way. He usually didn't like to speak this way, because then it would make him no better than that meat head Lloyd the Jack Ass, who was now officially dubbed: L.J.A. – which was just a shorter version of his insult name. Jason was actually a very honest and modest person.
"Hey Arie," Jason began as they walked up the stairs to exit the subway station, ", there's no chance Lloyd knows how to use all that muscle right?" Jason asked nervously. Even though Jason could hold his own, when it came to it, he was still unsure of some one Lloyds size.
"Not a chance. He's all bark and no bite." Arie scoffed. After hitting the street surface they walked a little ways down the side walk and turned right on the corner. It was all tall buildings, city buses, taxi cabs, and crowded traffic from here. Jason looked to his Left across the street and saw a wide building. It was about one and a half foot ball fields. Also a stub compared to the rest of the buildings. It looked as though it was just a giant block of glass with its all reflective, mirror-like windows. Arie's lead came to a stop. She pointed at the building to the right and said,
"There's the Italian place! It's on the first floor of this building." She looked puzzled. Probably because she wasn't used to seeing a restaurant be apart of another, larger building. Well besides a McDonalds in a Wal-Mart; which happened every where now. So now in addition to McWal-Marts all over the place more and more buildings followed the money making team up, therefore, as part of the future it's an extreme rarity to see a stand-alone restaurant; unless you lived in a very small, quiet, little town – which also, slowly, was becoming rare.
"And that must be the building you're looking for, right?" Arie asked, as she pointed across the busy street to Jason's left.
"Yeah, I guess so." He responded with a raised eye brow.
"So I guess this is good-bye?" She said, but also half asked, with big puppy eyes.
"That'll be a 'see ya later' actually." Jason replied.
"Ok then," she smiled as she continued, "see ya later then. Oh, and good luck on your interview. I think you'll be just fine without my luck, though." She let go of his arm, which Jason just realized she was still holding since the subway departure, and went inside; she hadn't broke eye contact with him until the doors closed slowly behind her. She sat down at a table with a group of three other people, who had waved her down first, all female. Jason – not wanting to be a stalker – turned around and crossed the crosswalk, with other city goers, opened the huge double doors, and faded into the giant, mirrored building.
He found himself in the main room of the building, which was clean with a shiny marbled tiled floor, but also surprisingly empty with the exception of a man walking in the back holding a cup of coffee and a briefcase. He walked up to the front desk located in the center of the room facing the huge double doors. There was a very professional-looking lady, with glasses, and bun-style hair, sitting on the chair, writing on a piece of document. Jason stood there not wanting to interrupt, but wanted to be noticed by the woman. She broke no concentration and continued to stare at the paper as she wrote. After Jason stood there for about 10 seconds, he tried to be noticed more by clearing his throat a soft at first making it grow louder until he was given some acknowledgment. The lady silenced him with a hand and used the pencil she was using to point at something on the desk between them. He traced the pencils direction to a bell sitting on the desk. He looked at the lady with squinted eyes as she went back to writing on the document. Jason dinged the bell without breaking his glare toward the lady. She immediately stopped what she was doing and looked up at Jason with a smile as if she didn't just ignore him before.
"Yes, sir, may I help you?" She said in an overly happy tone.
"Uhm, yeah," Jason paused to look down at the name tag on the woman's vest, "Paige, I applied for a job her last week and was told to show up today at eight." Jason replied in a polite voice.
"Ok, let me see here," Paige rolled her office chair to the far end of the desk on Jason's right and looked on the monitor of her computer, "It's 8:01, you're a minute late and you haven't even brought any application documents to prove your request." She said looking above the top rim of her glasses.
"You friggin' idiot! You forgot your damn application at the house!!" Jason scolded himself through thought.
"I believe that was you across the street socializing with that female, was it not?" Paige went on to say, "We run a very, respectable business on a very, tight schedule, sir. If you want to work here you must abide to the rules and respect our work ethic." She said in a quick, harsh, yet light manner. Jason, thinking he wasn't getting the job, unraveled and broke down.
"Ah, I'm so sorry! I-I just came from all the way across town to get this job; I'm tired because I-I've been up since a quarter after four! Then that-the girl across the street was being harassed by this guy on the train, and I helped and we-I just couldn't… I-I just really need this job." Jason stumbled and over the words he said so spastically and sharp. He had never been unnerved like that before, he was always so calm, collective and easy going, but his built up stress was like a kid shaking a soda can. He was bound to explode somewhere.