Legacy

It’s April 2014, and I’m Garvin Wilson.  But before I tell you my story let me interject some suggestive conjecture that will help frame understanding of things later on.

Alternate realities, alternate universes, other dimensions, do they exist?  Are they fanciful figments of our imaginations?  Are they merely the stuff dreams are made of, or nightmares?  Could it be there are such things?  Could it be that among other things, dreams are frequently in actuality, memories that the awakened person cannot recollect, but the sleeping one can.  Can the asleep and awake merge?  They may have at one time and may again.  Ponder those ideas as I begin my story.

At this point in time and place, I’m seventy five years old, married and one of the ten percent surviving remnants of humanity globally.  Its now April 2014, the great cataclysm that destroyed ninety percent of life on earth occurred 12-21-2012.  It had been recorded by many cultures around the earth that this happened or happens every thirteen thousand years.  It was recorded to be the result of planetary alignments, solar magnetic reversals, and huge solar flare directed towards the earth.

Even scientists agreed that that was the cycle.  They added that solar flare-ups occur every five to seven years and may temporarily cause power grid electrical disruptions of a minor nature.  They disagreed however with what the old cultures recorded and felt the cataclysm of thirteen thousand years ago was not a solar flare disaster, but a swarm of comets.  I always thought they might both be right, because who really knows what matter other than invisible particles was thrown off from the sun thirteen thousand years ago.

Then it hit 12-21-2012 a massive solar flare up that continued for several days.  No generated comets, no direct particle damages, but power grid disruption would be an understatement.

Chaos of unbelievable magnitude occurred to the power grid, electricity went wild.  Many explosions occurred, gas lines exploded in the process, major fire broke out.  Electricity did many strange things.  It exploded missiles in their silos; it exploded airplanes in midair, exploded cars and trains that were running.  Those not running were unaffected.  But the biggest damage factor of all to the infra structure and human life was the global massive lightening storms that went on for days.

Now, here we are April 2014 and the story continues.  There were massive efforts made by the survivors to bury the dead.  Many efforts made to salvage what was left of the infra structure, restoring some power, making use of remaining portions of buildings that were structurally sound, even though half of some buildings no longer existed, except for   their pieces scattered in  debris fields some times a half a mile wide.

Other parts of the world no doubt had similar thing going on, but here in what was left of Fort Wayne, Indiana, my wife and I tried our best to cope and survive.  Our house had survived, but running water was not safe to drink and had to be boiled before using.  Gas lines were gone and a usable furnace went with them.  We had to heat the house best we could with just the fireplace.  Most of the wood was coming from nearby abandoned house slowly being dismantled for wood as fuel.

Our car had survived, but gasoline was scarcer than hen’s teeth. Walking was the only way to get around, and at my age that was no picnic.

Sometimes the distance to be covered round trip to a distribution point for such necessities as medicine, would require an overnight stop at some shell of a building used for that and other things.

Society had somewhat detracted to a feudal system like existed centuries ago.  What resembled a controlling system of government was mostly a joke.  It was military style and heavy handed, freedom to get drunk or engage in debauchery ran rampant, while all forms of religious expression or practice was prohibited.

The goons in uniform, supposedly representing law and order would steal everything not nailed down and shoot on sight anyone they thought even looked religious.  For some reason, not a surprising one, they demanded anyone with a gun, except themselves, surrender same.  They came door to door to search and make sure you gave yours up.

Of course I knew they were coming and why, after all they had made a big to do in announcing their intentions.  So seeing how I had a fairly large collection of guns, mostly antique, they made quite a haul and were very pleased with themselves.  They even shook my hand and thanked me for the contribution.  I was so elated that they had done that.

For some mysterious reason I had a nickel plated pearl handled automatic pistol I was very fond of that without my knowing it secreted itself above the drop ceiling in my basement.  Fancy that.  It also mysteriously placed itself in my pocket when I went out after that, fancy that.

It took awhile to get the approximate numbers, but from our fairly large church, now forbidden, about seventy people had survived the cataclysm.  Despite the ban on religion we still cautiously met in groups of ten to twelve, but never in the same home twice in a row.  Each mini group kept in touch with other mini groups through a very discreet method of communication. So the survivors from our church stayed cohesive as a body of worshippers.

Now I’d been out on another long walk so to speak, to a distribution center run by the previously mentioned goons to pay through the nose for medicine my wife needed.  On the way back I stopped at one of those shell of a building for a nights rest before the rest of the long walk home.

In addition to the sleeping rooms available, the shell of a building was also a gathering point for the drunken carousers of all stripe. They caroused from dark till dawn, making sleep difficult.

In the morning shortly after dawn, I was moving around the building trying to find a place to get a bite to eat.  I was on the back side  where the walls no longer existed and the view of a debris field was easy to see.

Suddenly I heard shots ringing out, I saw people running in a scattered fashion down the debris field, uniformed goons hot after them.  I surmised a group of worshippers had been uncovered and were fleeing for their lives.  I watched many fall.  Then I saw a woman with a nine year old girl in tow running trying to get in the shadow of a huge piece of tilted concrete that had once been part of a building.

She was hoping that in the shadow of that huge piece of debris she wouldn’t be noticed.  I gasped for even at that distance I recognized her.  She and the little girl were among the roughly seventy survivors from our now forbidden church.  A goon however had spotted them and was headed towards them; he was about the same distance from them as I was. Let me inject this fact, many years ago I’d told my wife the day may come when Christians are led like lambs to the slaughter, but I would not be led, I’d go down fighting.

With what I was about to witness, I flipped out as some might say, I figured without one second of hesitation that the day had come. I took off running towards that huge piece of debris for all I was worth. Faster than my normal ability would have allowed, but the adrenaline was flowing well.  I reached there at the same time the goon did.

Somehow my forbidden gun found its way into my hand and it was one swiftly killed goon.  I drug his body under the overhanging debris to conceal it along with myself and the woman and her child. There were so many shots being fired that no one paid attention to mine.  That was good.

After the mess had gone on down the debris field for some distance, it was safe to come out of hiding.  I escorted the woman and her child back to the safety of my house.  I explained things to my wife who was very upset.  I then told her to put out the word through the communication grapevine for all to gather at a particular open field, but to wait in the woods at its edge until they saw me.

My wife gave me the old over the top of her glasses look and I knew she meant what?  I told her what and she thought I was crazier than a cage full of loons.  I told her that I was going home, home to my second home, Gabar.  It is not of this earth; I’m not sure whether it’s in an alternated reality, another universe, or another dimension. It was part of something larger however.  Something’s I didn’t learn.

I went onto say that I had ruled there in effect from the time I was twenty six until the time I was seventy five.  I’d married there and when my wife there passed away from an illness, I returned to earth, where by reasons I never quite understood was twenty six again,  Then I met you and the rest is history.  I first stumbled into Gabar in a hedge line in an open field. A door or tear in the fabric of places and realities. That was one of two ways to go back and forth, the other was by incantation.

I could never find that door tear again if I tried, it was an accident when I stumbled through it the first time.  So it has to be by incantation.  That too I’d forgotten.  I’d remembered Gabar only in my dreams.  Very real memories, but only a dream I thought, a vivid one to say the least. But when my heart cried out loudly, it was heard across the expanse and the response was in my head but it was loud and clear.  My dream was more than a dream, it was a memory my conscious self didn’t have. But know I do.

The incantation was repeated to me and now I know it once again. I can return to Gabar alone or with as many as are linked to my hand.  Therefore I’m calling for the gathering.

My wife was standing there in utter disbelief at the crazy nonsense she had just heard me spout, or at least at that point is what she would have called it.  Somehow I must have had an aura of commanding presence about me; because she became calm agreeable and what seemed to me to be somewhat mesmerized.

Nevertheless the gathering occurred, the hands were linked simply because I’d asked that they be.  No one knew what was up but me and my wife, the woman and her child.

Then I uttered the word of the incantation that I’d long forgotten but now remembered, “Gabar, coma brig mi hom agar.”

And in a blink there we were back on Gabar.  The entry point exactly as I remembered it in each detail.  It was a bit crowded until we dispersed the people with us to the outside of the rather small building we arrived in.  It had been a grade school on Gabar at one point and had a combination office meeting room area, two small classrooms, and a small play ground outside. It was surrounded by impenetrable hedges to protect the three surviving adult Gabarians and about twenty two small children.

One section of hedges no longer existed, in fact had been eliminated by me while I ruled Gabar.  That history I will cover shortly.  But, first things first.  Of the three original surviving Garbarian adults one being my good friend Jingar, the other two females, one of whom married Jingar and the other Suloo, whom had been Garbarian  wife  until  she died of illness.  As a side note let me say the life span on Gabar is an average of one hundred and fifty years unless shortened by illness or calamity. So that is why Jingar was there smiling and happy as can be to see me again.

He said you don’t look a day older than when you left.  That elicited some laughter between us, because my now earth age was the same as my Garbarian age when I went back to the earth reality and was twenty six again.  Never did figure out how that worked, but figured why knock it.

Of course the people we brought with us were confused and would require much explanation for them to accept things for what they now were.  Those would be very good things.

One of the basic things I explained was that to me Gabar was a place, part of a greater whole in terms of mass.  And everyone was greatly relieved when I announced that Gabarians worshiped the same God and same Christ as did earth Christians.

As to my earlier history on or in Gabar, it’s as follows.

Having arrived at Gabar by accident in the first place, I first learned that the tiny bit of ground then held by three adults and twenty two children, was just a teensie weensie sliver of what had been Garbarian lands.  That most of them had been wiped out and their lands sized by evil godless barbaric tribes of gigantic beings that were ninety percent human and ten percent other things, a variety of other things that is.

The fragment of Gabarians retreated to a very small area and put up impenetrable high hedge with a force field extending twenty feet above that.  Safety for that small number of survivors was secured. That is why the Gabarians welcomed survivors with such ease.  But back to my history.

I was aghast at what I heard the first time I accidentally arrived at Gabar.  I immediately was inclined to get in the bad guys face so to speak, which would have been suicidal.  And anyway, I couldn’t get through the hedge anymore than the bad guys could.

Upon inquiry I found out the roots of the hedge were only about five feet deep. Aha! I could tunnel under them.  That’s something the bad guys while being fierce fighters weren’t smart enough to think of.  That problem being solved still left no solution as to how one of me could defeat thousands of them.

After much discussion and probing of the Gabarian mind it was learned about the only thing in nature these mostly men beasts were susceptible to was a naturally growing moss that was like a powerful narcotic that gave them a tremendous euphoric sensation. They were very addicted to it and probably by now had consumed ever bit they could find.  Its continued heavy use for a couple of years by an individual would cause death.  However supply was such that the individual hardly ever got enough to be lethal.  Another side effect of it, while it gave a sense of euphoria it also made the user hostile and cranky.  As a result many fights broke out and they frequently killed each other.  A large brute might while under the influence kill several smaller brutes and not even be aware of what happened after the last dose of that narcotic like moss wore off.  Also only a wee bit needed to be ingested for that effect.

I said that very interesting, is there any of that stuff around here?   Jinga said there was some growing naturally in a few patches outside.  Gabarians had never had any interest in it because it had no effect on them.

I looked and said, well it’s a start maybe, is it hard to propagate?  Jinga said it was very easy to propagate.  In better times we used it in a decorative manner to fill in bare places in flower gardens, to add texture to stone edging walls and so on.

It’s so easy to propagate. All it takes is any kind of vinegar, a few drops to a gallon of water and then water the moss and overnight a one foot square patch a half inch thick will become a ten foot square patch two inches thick.  I thanked Jinga for the information, and said lets get busy and start mass production.

In a few weeks we should have enough to dry out, put in canisters or just bail the stuff.  And then we can give those terrible creatures a free gift they will just love.  Jinga said and how do you plan to deliver it to them?  I said I don’t think I’ll just walk up and say good morning I have a gift for you. Okay, Jinga got the point.  But still he said how?

I told him that I’d build a catapult, take it out through the under the hedge tunnel, reassemble it on the other side, then wheel it to within eyesight of one of their camps.  Like a wisp of smoke from a cook fire would tell me I was near.  I’d stop at that point and come back here and while it might take three or four trips, haul all one hundred bales moss which was almost as light as air, to the catapult.  Then one by one which would probably take a few hours, fire the bales of moss toward that camp.

Having accomplished that, I’ll then set fire to the catapult making a column of smoke they will notice and come to investigate. As soon as I set fire to the catapult I’ll make a hasty retreat right back to here.  Then we will set a wait to see what happens.

Now I also figured that if a few of them got control of that huge supply of narcotic moss, they would use much of it as trade goods for more of the plunder they had stolen in the first place, being greedy and wanting more of it.  They would spread the stuff for us.

It was only about four days before we started hearing the sounds of success in the distance.  Sounds like cannon fire, rifle fire, explosions, and the alike. Visually the sky in the distance looked like it was on fire.  It was obvious the enemy was killing himself off for us.  No one objected, in fact every one cheered.

In about two weeks the sky ceased to glow with fire and everything became quiet. So Jinga and I ventured forth armed only with knives because that’s all we had.  We came across thousands of enemy bodies.  They had butchered each other exponentially well.  We picked up a couple of now abandoned rifles and some bandoliers of ammo.

We eventually found some of them still alive, mostly lying prone in such a stupor from overdosing on the moss; that they didn’t even twitch when we slit their throat.  We kept running into more like that.  Silly as it may sound; slitting throats is hard work and tires one out.  There were thousands of square miles to cover and it took us going from enemy camp to enemy camp almost five months before we had the total job done.

When we returned the children and two women went wild with joy.  They had been sure we were goners.  We joked and said, only goners gone for a little while.  I don’t exactly know why to this day but the ladies weren’t amused by that.

Anyway, that’s how I became the leader of the Gabarians and why that statue of me is over there near the original entry point. My earth wife died from illness and I remarried and spent the next 49 years as leader before returning to earth. In that time I and the other three adults spent much time nurturing the twenty two children into adulthood.  Needless to say there was a good effort of repopulation going on by the time I left.

I spent some time back on earth and determined things were starting to recover, but still had a long way to go

I Have since returned to Gabar and am pleased to see that the  population in my absence has grown considerably, new villages have been built and rebuilt in some case.  Even if Gabar is home number two, I’m glad to be home and I think the influx of people I brought with me will be an asset to Gabar.

I think it is safe to say, that the word “Infinity” encompasses way more than man ever dreamt of.