Sozo: a Betrayed God

III: Sozo: a Betrayed God

(I)

Today was different than their typical walk-day, another walk around the lake with their dog Warhead. Even though they’ve been on the same walk for a long time the three of them enjoyed this intimate time together.

Today was a different day though, it would change everything. Jeremy thought to himself, as he smiled in the mirror. The reflection of the gold banded diamond ring he held in a small velvet box shining back at him. He heard Gwen call for him from downstairs;

"Are you ready Jer? War is ready to go and waiting on you!" Jeremy came down the stairs to the landing and gave Gwen a kiss on her cheek. The lake was only a brief ten-minute walk from their place. To walk around the entirety of the lake took over an hour. The sun was shining when they left and they couldn't see a cloud in the sky. Today is perfect thought Jeremy.

After arriving at the park, they un clipped War’s leash and allowed him to run about beside them. They walked together hand in hand, staring at the ducks floating on the lake. They bobbed in the water, dipping on occasion to look for snacks. A man was fishing nearby them, with the look of his bucket he hadn't caught much.

They found a spot under a large oak and set up their picnic basket. War lay down on the blanket they sat on while they ate. The tiniest drop of rain hit War’s nose. Another hit Gwen's shoulder, and Jeremy's hand. The sky began to spit, and the trees started to rustle with the sudden coming of wind. Gwen held up a hand to shield her eyes from the sudden drops of rain, she started to pack up the food. Telling Jeremy what to do:

"Everything is going to get wet Jeremy. Let’s pack up the basket and go home before it gets worse" Jeremy rolled up the blanket and grabbed War’s leash. Just as they left the park and started down the sidewalk they heard thunder rumbling in the distance. The clouds overhead swelled grey and rain continued to pour without letting up at all now. The three of them sprinted down the pavement, they were half-way home with soaked clothes.

The rain began to pool in the sidewalk gutters and run to the storm drains. The road beside them began to congest with anxious traffic as the sky appeared to crack open with a blinding flash of lightening that everyone saw. Jeremy hesitated for a moment to stare at the brief blinding light and then the empty space in the clouds it left behind. Gwen grabbed the shoulder of Jeremy’s jacket and tugged him forward. Their house was in view now but the sound of the unrelenting rain was broken by a shrill, repetitive alarm sounding over the streets. The water in the gutters was beginning to splash over onto the sidewalk, the storm drains were not taking in the rushing water quick enough.

Clutching onto the lawn the water rushed them and threatened to knock them over. They scrambled to the front door, and locked themselves inside. Thunder continued to boom and echo outside around their home. The electricity was gone in the house and nothing electrical worked. Gwen pulled out her mobile phone and played the broadcast from their local radio station:

“medical and law enforcement personnel have declared a state of emergency for the town of Longbridge. There are rain waters reaching reports high as 23 inches in some areas. Contact with other internationals has reported this phenomenon to be of universal proportions. That is- everywhere we’ve made contact is also reporting high waters. Please if you can still leave your home go to high grounds. If you’re trapped in or around your home, get onto the roof. This is not a suggestion- this is a emergency and these are the directions we’ve been given-” the broadcast went silent for a moment and then started to repeat the same message over.

“Who knows how long this has been playing for?” Gwen said sharply, grabbing her hair in frustration. Jeremy went to say something but was interrupted by the sound of shattering glass- they looked towards the source of the sound together. When they started to move towards the kitchen there was a deafening crack and several more windows shattered under the weight of the water. Cold water from outside rushed in through the windows, knocking over any furniture in its’ path. Gwen screamed as the water swirled around her knees. Jeremy picked up warhead into his arms, and guided Gwen through the water to the front door. Thunder bellowed again outside the door and Jeremy pushed through the waters into the outside.

Jeremy had a lift in his truck- the water still surpassed the 8 inches of metal but did not soak the engine yet.

“I don’t know how know far we can get in it, but maybe we can move faster in the truck” he looked at Gwen who nodded in agreement. A large splash of water surprised them. Gwen looked at Jeremy concerned;

“what the hell was that?”

“I don’t know yet” three more splashes exploded from the surface of the water until they realized it was coming from above. When they looked up they saw globs of frozen water fall from the sky.

“it’s … hail” Gwen said hesitantly. A softball sized chunk rocketed from the sky and struck Jeremy in his shoulder he bit on his tongue through the pain.

“Go to the truck now Gwen” he said breathlessly as he trudged forward, Warhead still in his arms. Gwen put her hands on his back and pushed him through. Once they were about two feet from the truck door, a large piece of hail fell. Thumping into Jeremy's truck door. The handle that would access inside the cab, snapped off completely upon impact.

"oh hell, grab the other door!" Jeremy yelled, as Gwen reached for the passenger handle another clump of hail hit her hand. Her hand twitched and pulsated red, Gwen screamed. Piercing waves of shock jolted through her arm and elbow. With the other hand, she opened the door and threw herself inside. Jeremy helped War into the truck; the water was now already up to the quarter panels of the vehicle. They tried starting the truck, it was already flooded.

Sloshing through the now running pools of water outside the truck, they scanned the area for somewhere safe. War was under Jeremy's arm and Gwen's hand was in his. Trees whipped back and forth; thunder cracked above them. The sky lit up like the fourth of July.

People were waist deep in water, the flood alerts were on high. Sirens screamed in the distance. Jeremy guided Gwen through the water. A man on their left trying to regain his footing was sputtering and choking. The wind roared, snapping the man’s neck to the left as it struck. His body lifeless, floated away from them. Gwen started screaming, pieces of hail striking the water. Large gaping holes matched every car window, and bloodied head for miles. Bodies began to pile onto the water, nobody could get away from the hail. The waters continued to rise, the amount of it and rate at which it flowed seemed impossible.

A tree tore from the ground, flying past Gwen and piercing Jeremy through his ribs to a electrical box that was sputtering sparks. The impact caused the electrical box to crackle louder and the water pulsated for second as everything around it fried. The surrounding waters swallowed up the utility box and the pole it attached to as the water ascended higher into the sky.

Gwen had resurfaced, harmed but alive. Warhead and Jeremy were gone now, as was most of the town. Her legs kicked tiredly, treading the water around her. Moving her arms through the water, she pushed passed debris and bodies. Floating an arm’s length away from her she saw Jeremy’s acid washed jacket crumpled in the water. She cried out in agony as she reached for the jacket, clutching it to her chest. The jacket bore a hole where the tree had pierced him and most of the left sleeve was missing. She noticed there was something in the pocket of the jacket.

Feeling around inside the soaked pocket, she felt the unmistakable feel of velvet, even drenched. She fumbled with the jacket as she pulled out the navy blue box and opened it. Tears burned the water lines of her eyes looking inside of the box.

A woman with an empty stroller nearby was crying on top of a car. Gwen moved herself through the water as best as she could but it felt like the strongest current she had ever been pulled by. Swimming for what felt like hours, it was dark out and the rain was still coming down. A car door she had found floating she used as a shield against the hail. It seemed almost out of nowhere, a boat, paddled by two men came to her aid. Inside the boat a woman and child huddled from the rain. The men grabbed Gwen and pulled her into the boat.

"We've got to get out of the city. We're heading West to the mountains, only stopping if we see survivors, are you with us?" The first man asked her. Gwen nodded, she had no one now. They paddled on through the city, the whole place was a mess. The water was well past house's roofs. All sources of communication were down, there was only the five of them. The water seemed to get higher and as it did their boat floated higher.

"This is unreal, the water has to be going somewhere how can it all flood like this!?" Gwen said with frustration. The first man, the man with the dark hair spoke:

"I have no idea where it all came from and I got no idea where it is all going. You'd think by now the water would be flooding elsewhere." Tom looked around him at the moving water as if to cement his point.

“This isn’t just a flood, this is the flood” Mac interjected, Tom immediately shot a look at Mac and told him to shut his mouth but Mac carried on

“this is the work of an angry God.” Tom grabbed Mac by the collar of his coat and tried to wrestle him quiet but Mac shoved Tom off of him with ease.

“We’ve all READ it before, why do you pretend different Tom?!” Mac yelled into Tom’s face.

When Mac yelled into Tom’s face thunder rolled behind, almost around the entire boat. The boat suddenly dipped at the unexpected onset of choppy waters. Before anybody could make a move inside the boat it flipped over. Gwen couldn't hear the baby or the woman’s screams anymore. A cord from somewhere became entwined with her legs and it pulled her deeper into the depths. But Mac's quick hands pulled her out of the water and into the boat once more.

"Conner! Conner! No!" The woman was in the water, thrashing and kicking while Tom was trying to help her out of the water. The baby, Conner was nowhere to be seen.

“Let Him have all our first sons!” Mac pleaded to her, giving Tom a hard shove towards the boat's edge. Tom looked back at Mac with panic in his eyes as he adjusted his grasp on the woman's arm. The woman slapped Tom's hands away screaming,

"don’t touch me, let me go with my husband and child-" Tom lost his grip on her arm for moment and she plunged herself below the surface of the water.

She was gone, like everything else. They paddled on, the carnage continued. A cat, trapped on the roof of a building, too far for them to reach meowed out desperate. Gwen closed her eyes and put her face in her hands trying to stifle her own cries. It was this moment she chose to pray quickly and quietly under her breaths to herself.

"God doesn’t exist Gwen look around" Tom snapped- breaking Gwen’s train of thought inside her head. The two of them looked to Mac for mediation, Mac looked upwards towards the sky and mumbled

“oh, He exists alright To-” the boat hit something, sending them forward. The boat had reached the mountain range to the West they had been looking for but it had flooded. The top of the mountain reached into the sky, the boat neared where the water lapped the mountain’s edge.

The boat dived and jumped against the rocky cliffs, they exchanged looks. “What now?”

“We climb that mountain and wait for helicopter rescue” Tom said, more to assure himself than anyone else in the boat. Before they could come to a decision the black clouds in the sky lit up for a few seconds as a blinding bolt of lightening touched the top of the mountain.

When the bright beam struck the soil the whole mountain shook, sending vibrations all the way to the waters below. The boat swayed in the water against the pulse. For a moment nothing happened- at first it was quiet. But a distant indistinguishable sound ruptured somewhere around them. No one dared said a word to each other. The sound grew louder, as the water around the boat began to pulsate and ripple once more.

“Oh no” Tom said defeated as he pointed upwards to the top of the mountain. The sound had been produced by the rock and soil giving way to the rumbles. Letting loose lethal sized amounts of earth, tumbling down to the waters below.

The force didn’t stop when several rocks tumbled though, the entire top of the mountain seemed to give way and crumble. Bit by bit, pieces rolled down and sailed passed their boat into the water. They all stared in disbelief at what was unfolding- unable to move anywhere. The boat thumped violently into the stagnant flooded mountain tops, Mac lost his footing and fell in front of the boat. Mac broke the surface of the water and gasped for air, Tom scrambled across the boat lengthwise.

A tumbling piece of earth rolled over the edge of the cliff side, crushing Mac between boat and rock. The boat rose, and dipped low into the water as the movement from the strong winds forced it forward. Tom stabilized himself as he stared at the water;

"he was my brother" Tom said gazing. Gwen felt her head hit something, what looked like the last lob of earth rolling by. She turned towards the water, around them it surged all at once. Rose towards the sky at a alarming speed. The oxygen in the air was beginning to deplete and they could feel it. Tom struggled between raspy breaths

“we must be at least twenty thousand feet above ground. I don-” he coughed sharply and wheezed.

“I don’t know how this is possible” his eyes closed as he sucked in more breathless air.

Gwen and Tom were now up to their necks in water. But the rushing water at their throats, all though never ending, was the least of their concerns now. The water level had risen well over forty thousand feet above sea level upwards towards the sky. Tom and Gwen were long passed unconscious, their lifeless bodies afloat in the violent water.

With their bodies devoid of oxygen from ascension into the air; in a minute’s time they lost consciousness. Within four minutes their brains were irreversibly damaged. After fifteen full minutes when the waters surpassed the highest mountains, when there was no movement left anywhere on Earth from anything living. Only then did the rain stop abruptly as it had started. When the last droplet broke the rippling surface, the water descended a surge. The water began to dissipate into the ground finally, clearing away the destruction it caused.

(II)

Over eight thousand miles away, in the northern area of Tanzania. The water evaporated over the rain forests at Kilimanjaro’s feet. In the thickest part of the jungle it was always humid and warm. It was still humid and warm when the water cleared but there was nothing to make a sound there. The only sound that broke the silence was the last of the water drying up into the soil. The water left behind a mound in the shaken Earth.

A naked, confused man emerged from the top of the dirt mound, gasping for breath. Scared, he quickly looked around him. A searing pain in the left side of his torso made him clutch his rib cage crying out in agony. His voice echoed through the empty jungle, highlighting to him that he was alone here. Before he could finish the thought though a voice behind him, soft and assuring broke the air;

"don’t be afraid you are not alone here.” He turned to see a small figured being like himself but a woman. The being’s hair was dark, curly and hung loosely at her sides. Her body was also naked like he is, but she was not afraid to be naked in front of him.

“Who are you? Where am I?” He asked, pulling himself from the crumpled mound of dirt and approaching her cautiously.

“I am Edem and you are Amari, we were created b-”

Edem was interrupted by the harsh hissing of snake that seemed to appear out of nowhere. It stood on its’ haunches and seemed to make eye contact with them. Slowly the snake's jaw opened revealing a slithery tongue. Before the creature could make another move- Edem pushed passed Amari knocking him to the ground.

Amari stared as she grabbed the snake by the neck, turning its’ head instantly and sinking venomous teeth into her skin. The skin around the snake’s teeth began to blacken but Edem did not hesitate. Her clutch on the snake’s neck strengthened, tiny frail bones breaking under the strength of her palm.

Edem spoke to the snake, her eyes narrowing in on it;

“I was warned a talking demon-serpent would come during the time where there is no other living creature here. I promised I would kill it on sight before he spoke a word to me.”

With her other hand, she covered the snake’s squirming head and crushed it by balling her fist around it. When the serpent stopped wriggling it set itself ablaze in her hands till it was nothing but a pile of soot. Edem’s hands were not burnt, the skin around her bites began to turn back to match her regular tone again. The puncture holes completely disappearing as she watched.

Edem and Amari shared expressions of wonder, standing from the ground and dusting himself off, Amari took Edem by the hand.

THE END