I Wish I Never Saw the Green Light

I Wish I Never Saw the Green Light

(a Blinding Legacy)

By: Jayde Bartha

An old woman adjusted her position in a teetering rocking chair. Before her sprawled out on the floor, her three loving grandchildren. Their faces were cupped in their hands as they rest on their elbows and tummies, listening to her intently.

“In the year of twenty-twenty one something strange happened that changed everybody’s life on Earth forever.”

“The world used to look a lot different than what you see now. Las Vegas was considered hell on Earth for many years.” The children’s eye widened at the thought of this

“what do you mean Nagymama?” They pleaded to her for answers

“Everyone here gambled, drank and there was a lot of crime. Large casinos used to skyline the land, with tons of con artists in between. Even the land around the city was as bitter as it is now, and the people weren’t as prepared as we are to endure it.”

“Why weren’t they?”

“Because people cared about different things back then. If I told you what they worshipped or desired in the early two thousand you’d probably lose your lunch.” The woman narrowed her eyes on them cautiously.

“When people on Earth were able to realize what was actually important and had value was when everything changed.” The woman leaned back in the rocking chair now sighing with relief.

“Do you ever miss what it was like before?”

“A lot of people were permanently harmed or killed during the process of what I assume to be cleansing. Sometimes, I wish I never saw the green light.” The woman looked longingly out the living room window behind the children now.

“What happened?” One of the children spoke up and the woman met their gaze.

In 2021 people were focused on what was called social media and a developing virus. Everyone was much too consumed in themselves or their friends to notice anything amiss in the sky unless it was loud and deafening.

Martha Lovecoy waitresses at a diner for an elderly couple most weekdays. Today was one of the regular weekdays she worked. As she scrubbed annoyingly at a dried coffee spill on an empty table, she noticed the table vibrating. She thought for a moment it was from the force of her scrubbing, so she stopped the commotion to watch. But the table continued to rock ever so slightly back and forth. Martha looked up at another table with customers and full drinks. The people chatted noisily to each other, so they didn’t see it, but Martha watched the liquid in their transparent cups shake.

There was surge through the ground like an earthquake but nothing broke. Martha looked again at the now startled guests as the power cut out in the building. While Martha tried to find her way in the dark, she heard more screaming and looked to the nearest window.

She realized now the power hadn’t just gone out in the diner, but the sky was also pitch black. The screams fell silent as people stared in awe, someone unseen from the back offered, trying hard to be reassuring

“maybe it’s an eclipse no one knew was happening” Martha looked behind her into the dark, realizing this was useless. People started to murmur among each other until the sky lit up with a blinding green light, striped across it. The light seemed to stretch further than they could physically see. No one could look away from the light, it resembled Canada’s Aurora Borealis.

Suddenly the light wavered in the sky for just a moment in a way that seemed physically incorrect, and everyone dropped to the ground, convulsing in seizures. The seizures carried across the entire Earth. Every human was knocked to the ground by the sight of this light and now shaking with their eyes closed.

As quickly as it came on the seizing stopped, and everyone opened their eyes. Other than a little disorientation and having to literally pick themselves up off the ground, everyone was alright.

A man’s glasses had fallen off during his seizure and crushed them under his shoulder. He began to panic that his glasses had broken, and everyone turned to see him, but he stopped shouting as he looked at the broken pieces on the ground. He looked up at the people around him and blinked hard a few times. Slowly, he met everyone’s gaze one at a time. His eyes flicked to the window beyond and outside he could make out the words on the diner’s sign clear as day.

“I CAN SEE WITHOUT MY GLASSES” he shouted clutching his hands to face. Another man watching him, quickly removed his glasses from his face and looked at the people in front of him. He also shouted with surprised joy.

“...I... I CAN TO” people turned to look at this man and started to gasp. Others in the room removed their glasses and began to express the same glee the first two men found. Someone broke the excited gasps with a loud question

“wait! Did the lights turn back on? Is the sun out?” That’s when everyone collectively began to look around the room at each other. They gasped, some reached out and looked closer at their own hands. Some looked outside, some ran to the window and pressed their faces against the window to confirm: the moon shone brightly in the sky.

“the lights didn’t come back on” Martha the waitress said, flipping the light switch in the corner up and down with no reaction from the bulbs above them.

“Can we see in the dark?”

“Our eyes are just adjusted” a man said half sure. Martha blinked in the darkness and noticed the tape tum glint for a moment off everyone’s eyes from the moon light. She shook her head slowly

“I can see it in your eyes, they’re shining like cat eyes in the dark” she said excitedly. People turned to each other now and started to talk among themselves again.

“I think I can also smell something from the kitchen that was cooked hours ago from here.” People turned towards a woman who was sniffing the air, while people talked loudly among themselves about if they could smell the kitchen. A man silently, pulled out the pin from a patch on his sleeve. He listened to the endless commotion around him and raised his hand in the air. Opening his hand he watched the pin fall through the air, it neared the floor, but he didn’t have to watch it after all. When it struck the floor and recoiled off, he heard the tinkling of the pin echo through his ear drums. The pin struck the floor again as it came to rest, his ears twitched at the sound as he heard it again.

“Holy shit” he whispered to himself. A man fifteen away, on the same side of the room asked suddenly staring right at him

“what is it?”

In short time after the people left the diner it was found that everyone human on Earth had contracted the same superhuman abilities. Each ability seemed to be related either directly to one of the five senses or something to do with the limb related to the sense. Because of this, it became hard to supersede anyone in anything. Over time people began to accept this state of true equality, as ailments no longer existed among them. There were no more political leaders, law enforcers, or correctional officers. Celebrities weren’t anything special anymore once anybody could have anything they wanted by shear force. The concept of using money and counting it became obsolete. People traded what they had for what they wanted.

People built their own dwellings and sustained their own lifestyles, never needing export or import. It was fine for awhile as everyone abides by the simple fact that virtually anybody, could do anything they wanted to. And everyone is matched with the same level of abilities.

Years went by but it no longer bothered anyone because the entire process of aging seemed to slow down as well now once a human peaked at a certain age in their late twenties.

Until someone’s abilities evolved one day, and others evolved to. But not everyone evolved, and when they evolved it wasn’t always the same abilities they honed. Because of this, there were others more powerful than some again now. Chaos ensued shortly over people. Las Vegas Nevada had become even worse than it was before when regarding crime. People clamored to this city because it was the iconic party city everyone knew. Here is where a hierarchy-like system developed among the more able beings here. They started to either worship or fight each other. There were kings and queens, but anybody could be one if they fought for it. Once considered elite they’d lived among these other highly sought-after beings in Las Vegas forever, they presumed.

The Mojave Desert was the center for this chaotic battleground as it hosted one of the most vast and deadliest landscapes. Firstly, just being able to survive the biting frost or the scalding rays from the sun was a challenge. To make it to the arena was the next channel and many were weeded out by this process.

In a way of quickening the system and creating an Earth filled with demigods some even carted lesser beings who wouldn’t make it on their own through the desert to the arena. Where they’d be dumped into the fighting cages like chickens in a fight. Everyone would clamor around the outside of the cages, screaming at the participants, throwing things at them if they could get stuff through the chain-link. Anything to egg them on, the winner of each cage would be placed into an advancing cage. Until they were siphoned out and declared worthy to live in luxury in Las Vegas with the rest of the elites. Where they’d be pampered with riches and spoils beyond their dreams.

Martha didn’t live very far from the desert to begin with, but she wasn’t going to go to the center to fight either. She was further ahead than some other beings, but she didn’t believe in the bloodshed it caused. She raised two children alone and was thankful not to struggle to get by anymore with her own sustainability for the children. She hadn’t even thought about the diner, never mind worked for them in ages. She did aspire to move far from the desert where they wouldn’t seek her or her children out, but it wasn’t any use. When the others came for her, she tried closing the door on them. Barricading it with the furniture inside her home and ushering her children to get ready to run. Before she could get inside the trap door to their cellar though, the front door and everything in its’ way was vaporized with a hot red beam and pulverized within seconds. The beings came through the still smoking doorway, their eyes fading from bright red and transitioning to their usual humanistic form. Immediately they spotted Martha struggling with her body in the hatchway and ran towards her. When she tried to close the hatch over her head one of the beings raised his hand in protest and the trap door resisted her pull for a second and then flung from its’ hinges across the room, exposing herself and children underneath. Martha told her children to hide behind and she flicked her arm out in front of them. An unseen force pushed back over the floor, dust rose as the other men flew back from them and landed on their backs. She started to push the children further down the steps of the cellar.

“Get to the tunnel and run do not stop for any reason until you see the lights from the street on the other side. Get out of the tunnel and go as far away from this place” she was interrupted by the eldest, only seven at this time cried to her

“but what about you mama?” Martha hugged her children in her arms tightly for a moment and whispered

“just get out of here alive and I will find you” she pushed the children forward into the cellar again and her eldest grabbed her brother by the hand. When Martha turned back the men were at her throat again. They literally had her choking by an unseen force as one held his hand in the air. Slowly he dragged her from the cellar, across the floor until he laid behind them in a heap. He looked at the other man and said calmly

“go get the children” the man nodded and ran towards the hatch. Martha screamed at the sight of this but was silenced as a blow from the original man’s fist struck her across the face.

“You shut up” he clenched his hand in the air harder and Martha gasped for breath.

Inside the tunnel, Lilian and Denver ran through the dark. They inherited the green light abilities as did most children born after it did. They could see fine and were quick but not faster than the full-grown man pursuing them. He closed the distance between them within seconds and yelled out to them, his voice bouncing off the walls and bellowing into their tiny ears.

“Stop running now and I won’t put you in a cage. I promise” his footfalls thumped loudly on the ground below him as he ran after them. When they didn’t falter at his words he roared with fury. His eyes burned red with hatred as beams blasted from his sockets, skillfully striking each child just enough in the ankle to stop their motion. They fell hard into the dirt floor beneath them and slid to a skinning stop. They could hear the man laughing maniacally five or so feet from them now. Stopping dead in his tracks, the dirt from the ground around his shoes flicked onto the children in the ground. He grabbed a child in each hand by the back of their shirts. Turning on his heavy heel, he thumped his way back to the other man in the home above with the children hanging limply in his hands.

Martha screamed at the sight of her kids, but it was to no avail as she was struck again and could no longer see anything at all because she had gone unconscious.

When she woke up, she started to sob immediately. She was shackled to the canvassed floor of the arena. As soon as she started to sob, bright lights turned on overhead with a hum of mercury vapor. The light was blinding, and she couldn’t see past the caged walls. Ominous cheering erupted from beyond the caged walls. One side of the cage rose suddenly and in walked one man in a black and white striped shirt. Another burly man strode along beside him.

“Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the trials of the elite” more cheering ensued. The burly man lifted his arms in the air above his head and shook them as the crowds roared with anticipation.

“The first trial tonight is one of physical resiliency and healing. The winner of tonight’s trial will move on to the next trial, the loser probably won’t survive the initial trial.” He smiled as the crowed quieted in curious gasps, raising his hands and flicking his wrists a section of the floor opened.

As part of the floor slid back across itself, two platforms were revealed. They rose out of the plywood slowly, brandishing a large metal shipping barrel each. Inside each barrel a vat of bubbling purple liquid sizzled and popped. The platforms rose till they filled the gap in the floor and locked themselves into place.

“First up an anticipated contestant to the trials” stripe-shirted man slapped the burly man on the back as people cheered excitedly. The man stepped up to the first barrel without hesitation and gave the crowd one last beat of his chest with his fists. Lifting one leg, he stepped into the barrel easily. As his leg descended into the purple ooze, steam rose, and the sizzling became louder. The man started to wince and ground his teeth together, forcing his other leg into the barrel with a loud roar.

People watching exploded in a fit of awe and adrenaline. As the purple liquid ate up the man’s skin, new skin cells replaced them almost instantly. At the sight of this the man gritted his teeth and lifted his arms into the air triumphantly. People rapped on the plastic of their seats. The man with the stripe shirt came towards Martha now with a smile on his face. Drawing a key from his pocket, he unlocked the padlock trapping Martha. Before she could do anything, she held out his hand over her. Straightening his fingers outwards, electricity jolted over Martha’s body, and she was powerless. She screamed, as tears rolled out of her eyes. The man linked his arm around Martha’s and lifted her to her feet. He walked forward, forcing her to do the same all the way to the barrel. Screaming she tried anything to fight against him, already fully aware of her own abilities. The fighting was useless though as she couldn’t move with the electric currents rippling over her skin. Once she was at the edge of the barrel, the man ceased the electricity and Martha collapsed into his arms. He spoke into the microphone with his free hand

“now folks are you ready to watch our unknown contender face the trial?” The crowed whooped with excitement, glass bottles broke against the fencing. Pieces of glass sprinkled over Martha and the man. He lifted her horizontally and then lowered her feet into the barrel. The purple liquid zapped and popped again. Steam rising from the disappearing skin on her bone. Martha shrieked in agony as the acidic liquid worked its way through her skin. The referee continued to lower her into the barrel as she screamed, trying to flail her arms away from him. When she did this, he grabbed both of her wrists with one hand and forced them into the barrel with the lower half of her body as well. Even corroding a bit of his own skin in the process. He let go of Martha as she tried to move but it was too late, her body disappeared into the bubbling liquid once her head dipped below the surface. The man flexed his hand as his skin regrew itself over his bones.

“Well, it appears, we have, OUR WINNER” he yipped with glee and turned to the burly man, lifting one of his arms above his head.

“For a bonus tonight before we move onto the next trial. We have two surprise contestants. Call them fun-sized if you will” he teased as the people erupted with laughter around him. The burly man had crawled out of the barrel and looked at man in stripes with curiosity.

“Don’t worry big guy- you don’t have to do a thing right now. Just watch” he patted him on the shoulder again and looked to the opening wall of the cage. A man dressed in all black, wearing a mask came in carrying two wriggling hemp sacks with him. He opened the sacks and poured the two children Lilian, and Denver onto the floor. The referee grabbed one in each arm and began tugging them towards the barrel. The crowd had mixed noise, some cheered even harder, and some fell silent.

“Mine as well see if the kids are any good seeing as their mother was useless” the burly man’s head snapped in the direction of the man in stripes. He whispered sharply to him

“you just orphaned those children?” The man looked at him, narrowing his eyes and spoke.

“Natural selection orphaned these children” he lifted the boy, Denver into the air. Clenching him by the shoulder and shirt tightly. The crowd screamed and Lilian tried to hit the suited man. Tiny fists fell against the man with almost no impact or at least it didn’t phase him.

Much like Martha, he enacted the same trial upon Denver.

Lilian stared at the surface of the bubbling liquid, watching her brother disappear forever as she screamed helplessly.

At that time the ground shook so hard it pulsated and in one violent ripple everything in radius was re positioned about the arena. The barrels lost balance and tipped over, spilling their contents onto the floor. Immediately it burned through the plywood and the liquid disappeared into the floors below them. Everything around them went dark, all the lights went out and nothing with power worked.

A deafening hum carried across the sky, as it lit up with that green blinding light once more. Nothing could be seen for miles, everyone looked to the light instinctively.

As soon as the arbitrator’s gaze fell upon the light, his eyes started to burn with great intensity. He yelped out in slight pain as his eyes started to steam, he tried to close his eyes to protect them from the smoldering light, but it was no use- his eyes popped water balloons that had been filled too much.

The burly man’s eyes began to burn, the pain searing through his skull. He grabbed at his eyes just as they to popped and exploded with heat. Both men fell to the ground, eye sockets steaming, and their bodies began to convulse.

All around the world, everyone that had become corrupted with power in the same way became blinded by the green light and then their eyes would explode from their skulls moments after. They dropped after like flies one by one and started to shake on the ground.

Lilian and anyone else that hadn’t been corrupted or changed by the power simply fell to the ground with heavy heads and convulsed alongside the others.

The green light dissolved into the air; the sun shone brightly over everyone. The once corrupted people awoke to find themselves completely free of harm, except for their cauterized, empty eye sockets. Literal blind-panic spread among them quickly as they called out for anyone that could hear and started to move towards each other cautiously.

The man with the striped shirt on his hands and knees now, feeling around in the dirt as he crawled. He coughed and sputtered through the dust

“where is everyone? I can’t feel my eyes, please HELP ME” he screamed into the ground, tears brimming his eyes. He stopped screaming when he heard a shuffling foot in the dirt next to him.

“who is there? Who is that?”

“Just know I can see you, I can see your eyes have been removed from your head.”

“WHAT are you talking about” he yelled, slapping his own face as he felt for his eyes again. He steadied himself on the ground, one hand sprawled flat out in the dirt.

“You just murdered my mom and brother” Lilian said beside him. His ears twitched at the sound of her voice

“get away from me kid! I’ll still kill y- “he was interrupted as pain broke through his finger bones with the weight of her foot. The man screamed as she twisted his hand into the dirt like she was stamping out a cigarette. Lilian stepped off the man’s hand and he immediately covered his head, shaking now

“please I need your help I’m so sorry” he sobbed inconsolably into his arms.

The children surrounding the old woman eye’s lit up with delight at this. They interrupted each other with their finishing questions. The woman chuckled softly as she tried to answer each of them

“what happened to the girl and the man?”

“did she kill him?”

“What was the little girl’s name?”

“The girl got away from the man is what happened, she never killed him- “

“why didn’t she kill him?”

“Why do you know so much about what happened?” They interjected

“The little girl’s name was Lilian and I know the details- “she went quiet as she noticed the eldest staring at her in bewilderment.

He spoke over his siblings to quiet them down. The gears in his brain spun with wonder, his younger siblings silenced as they stared at him curious

“Grandma your name is Lilian” the other two children gasped quietly as they shot looks from their older brother back to their grandmother repeatedly.

Lilian smiled as she met bright Denver’s eyes with hers.

THE END