Entry Point

Desolate red dunes came to an abrupt end against a towering off-white wall stretching out to my left and right further than I could see. Amazing how they kept it white as it was. My dune buggy needed to cool off. The solar batteries were humming under the hood letting me know overheating was a real possibility. The gauges barely worked reliably so I had to watch it like a child, I didn’t mind. The Kevlar canopy was worn but kept the sun off me while I drove. I stopped rolling and sat studying the wall with an antique monocular.  

The wall was at best guess 60 feet tall with guards walking across the top. I decided to approach at dusk and reclined my seat all the way. I laid back horizontal and closed my eyes to nap. Visions of a world I knew little about visited. Father’s books and tales had drawn pictures as vivid as his own memories across mine. The dream took me to a city park with picnic blankets, pets running around leisurely with no fear of being eaten. There were children playing, a fountain simulating rain within its circumference and me as a child sitting at the table with my father, older half sibling twins, and the mother I’d only heard about.

There were delicious dishes I’d seen in print only laid out on our blanket. The scene became suddenly dark and the child that was me became aware that the horizon had been replaced by a tidal wave. It advanced in rolling sheets of blue green that ate away at the serene park as it progressed. I was the only one who could see it, and I was mute, the warnings I screamed to my family went unheard. I forced myself awake so fast my head hurt. I dismounted and drank from my canteen and retrieved some dried meat to eat.

After my snack I decided to push on, and a few mins later I was back in motion, silent, running through the red sand drifts beside the wall. I spotted a cluster of activity at the base of the wall ahead of me, perhaps a gate. I’d heard about the city of White Wall. Perhaps today I’d get to see the place that dubbed itself the “new beginning for a proper world.” I didn’t know what that meant but I wanted to see. I swerved away from the wall and turned back, hard left so I could approach the cluster of activity head on. There was indeed a gate and a temporary camp between me and the gate, it looked like the occupants were lined up at the gate in the wall for entry. The gate was as white as the wall but had seams on each side hiding the hinges it opened on. There were guards clustered along the top of the wall nearby. I could see their whitish uniforms and some sort of long black weapons in their hands. I parked outside the camp and walked towards it bringing only my canteen and shoulder bag. I fought back a nervous feeling by inhaling deep and letting it out slow while I played with the gold heart shaped locket dangling from my neck beneath my hooded cloak.

As I walked through the empty camp a man coming out of a tattered tent looked at me from beneath his own hood. He was wiry and over tanned with a face as lean as you could get without being skeletal. He shuffled towards the line looming ahead of us carrying a makeshift doll. I spoke up “what’s going on up there.” I fell into stride with him as he said “Once a week they hold evaluations, to see if any are worthy for citizenship. I forgot my daughters’ doll; she and my wife are in line. It’s my prayer they at least accept one or both.”

“I see…so they’d separate a family.” He continued… “it’d be worth it to get them out of this hell, I care not for self.” I studied the line as we approached and asked, “May I stand with you in line Brother?” He nodded affirmative and I passed him a wad of dried meat from my satchel saying, “For your daughter…tell me more of this evaluation.”

He looked at me curiously through tired yellowed eyes but continued “The City Minister in the flesh, he takes everyone’s hand and does a read.” I questioned “A read?” “Yes, he’s godly and has a godly sight, those who are skilled or worthy enough may gain entry and trial citizenship.” I thought to myself, a psychic like me, well not like me…there were none like me. I continued “Brother you know so much of this test, what might lead one to fail?”

He spoke as we traversed the line walking up to where his wife and daughter were holding the place “Any disease, cannibalism, laziness, savagery would mean no entry.” His thoughts told me he knew more, he’d been here before as a boy or rather young man, with his family. His father fought through the desert with a boy and girl child to gain entry 20 years before. They had taken the girl and left him and his father to their own devices, even though his father was a viral man with knowledge of seed sprouting. I saw the image of the City Minister in his memories; a tall pale man in a true white gown, barefoot and bald with silvery nails on both hands and feet that matched the mirror spectacles he wore.

We joined the man’s family in line. He may have introduced me to them I don’t remember as I was mulling over what I’d seen in his memories. A small unseen door beside the huge gate opened and a dry female voice broadcast over electronics blared out “Welcome to the wall, if you enter with weapon you will die, when you hear the bell, enter one party at a time.” The message repeated for ten minutes in various languages. She went silent, the bell rang, and the process began. The line shortened as families or individuals disappeared into the portal.

Finally, our turn. I let the man and his family enter and I waited to go next. Ten mins passed and my bell toned. I entered dropping my hood revealing my long sun-bleached locks braided back and flowing down my back. The passage was pleasingly cool and lit by an illuminated ceiling with walls white from top to bottom. An arrow symbol lit in the floor directing me forward. I heard machinery in the wall scanning me. The end of the passage came quick and the brightness of outside poured through the opening at the end. I stepped through the back outside into a paved courtyard. The courtyard was beautiful, a fountain, something I’d only read about was at the center. There were plants growing from raised pots. What caught my attention most was a large open round portal on the courtyard wall opposite me. The portal was easily three times my height and beyond it was what appeared to be a full city much like those I’d seen in the books father had. Infront of the fountain was a man standing; the man I’d seen in my informant’s memories.

He was almost an exact copy of the memory; draped in white, barefoot with mirror spectacles and gleaming nails. He stood alone, confident, plenty of guards nearby though, at least thirty scattered in the courtyard and ten more on catwalks mounted above the open-air courtyard’s walls. His face was cheery and warm, his cheeks were rosy in contrast to his pale skin. The sun bounced off his shiny bald head and he opened his arms to me, fingers spread wide and spoke “Advance my child, I am the City Minister, ruler and judge of this place.” He was speaking directly into my mind with thoughts in my language. His lips moved but he wasn’t vocalizing, I doubt anyone but me would have noticed.

I recognized him now, I’d seen him in a photo my father had from the previous world, they had been colleagues at the facility where I was born. I drew close just outside his arm’s length and lowered my head and went down on one knee. I heard him step forward and say, “Your hand my child.” I gave it to him and instantly detected the touch of his tactile telepathy…child’s play. I allowed him to connect but trapped him at the surface of my mind while I dived into his effortlessly. It was nothing to divine what I wanted from his thoughts. He was indeed the ruler here and founder. They hadn’t accepted a male for citizenship in ten years but kept every single healthy female that came. Moms and daughters were separated. The moms young enough to breed became one the wives of a Lord, the non-breeders became servants, the daughters were groomed at wife camps to be subservient for whatever Lord claimed them when they came of age. Of the men who came, the healthy were slaved outside the city maintaining the walls among other things. The unhealthy males were repurposed into food for the worker males.

Minister hadn’t realized he was seeing only what I allowed of my thoughts through his probing telepathic touch. I continued to read him. I was a little dark for his taste, but he wanted to have sex with me before sending me to the priming camps. I stood up still holding his hand and he spoke “Yes child stand you are welcome here, you will make a great addition to our proper society as we rebuild mankind.” I spoke in the same way he had with thoughts “I think you should meet my family first, ask my fathers permission to enslave me.” Shocked he withdrew his hand and his spectacles slid down landing on the tip of his nose, his eyes were piercing blue and filled with concern. I opened my heart shaped four face locket up revealing the faded pictures of my mother, father and brothers exposed on my chest. Instantly the spirits of my father and brothers appeared as smokey translucent forms beside me. They were as I remembered them…my brother Ty in fatigues holding his katana, his twin Sy in hooded cloak and bdu pants holding his long bow, and father with his spiked bat in what he called safari gear. I charged their spirits with energy from my mind’s limitless will, effectively weaponizing them. The smokey forms solidified into glowing semi transparency the color of lightening. I used the same will to forge a bubble of energy (reword?) around myself for protection as guards moved in and the Minister backpedaled.

I spoke “You won’t be restarting “man-kind” here Minister, no room for slavers, pedophiles, or greed, in this new world. This new world as broken as it is will be for “humankind” or no kind at all. You’re a man, but you’re not human, you’re everything that can go wrong with a human.” My family was already moving through the guards at the speed of thought, it looked as if they fell almost all at once. I sat within the safety of my bubble as my family moved out into the city at blinding speed, a few seconds later I heard shots, shouts, and commotion. The volume of the sounds of terror continued to increase as time passed and my relatives fanned out further into the city. Nothing would stand in their way, they were unstoppable and as merciless as death itself; I’d seen to it with my gifts. The Minister was alive cowering before me outside my bubble, he would have a little more time to ponder failing my evaluation before my family returned for him ...