Real

© Copyright 1999 by Joseph McShane

David walked through the utter emptiness of this place, this place with no name. The silence fed his ever-increasing fear. His noiseless footfall was accompanied by a total absence of wind. Even his forward motion did not cause the air to play across his ears. He walked with purpose and rhythm, as if hard wired to do so. In this noiseless place the voice of his soul, his rambling mind shouted and barked commands to his body with an apparent volume. A discernable voice that had only ever been a whisper in the mundane and normal world he had left behind now provided his only hope of freedom. David fixed his eyes to horizon and repeated to himself 'forward... forward, must remember, I am real, remember'. Stumbling across the plain, he begged of himself 'forward, I exist, I am here, forward.... forward, remember, remember'. A chant for sanity, a mantra to reconnect his mind to his body seemingly echoed through the landscape. He walked and battled. A battle for self-conquest rather than any external prize. The battle waged on until he fell exhausted to the ground. David knew when he awoke he would be a passenger again. He would again be a silent witness to the force that brought his physical being here. How far from his destination would he be dragged this time? How long must he watch until he claws back control of his very limbs.

At every punctuation of this endless journey, these were the questions he posed. It was only when his body was totally exhausted that he could have any real thoughts. When the lactic acid in his legs shot him with waves of intense pain, he knew he could stop the battle and take stock. He knew his exhaustion precluded the emptiness from taking him. The searing pain in his legs was tempered by a sublime sense of calm. He smiled, faced the Northwest and drifted into unconsciousness. A temporary paradise in an unknown land.

It was now 8 years since history was both made and marked. The 16th day of April 2012 at precisely 20:45 GMT, the future came to visit. It was the day the second wave of humanity ensured its own birth with the promise of salvation.

In the chaotic closing days of the 20th Century the East-West alliance had decided that an invitation should be provided to the future. An invitation to whomever or whatever was going to exist after the madness of rabid nationalism had destroyed 10 thousand years of civilisation. In the West God was dead, forgotten, and replaced by the pop culture sanctioned worship of the human mind.

The paradigms of the new humanist religions had gained unprecedented political influence and popular support. The major premise of such religious movements being "virtual omnipotence" that is a state that mankind was predestined to reach as a result of technological advancement.

The devotees of "virtual omnipotence" had reasoned it was logical to expect that exponential increase in technology would allow humanity to approach omnipotence, if provided with a society stable enough not to implode. This omnipotence would allow mastery of time itself, and so, if logic is followed, humanity in a time of need can ask for help from the future and receive in the present.

The people who lived in the volatile times at the end of the second millennium simply had to record, inscribe, and indicate via any means available a statement. This statement would be pre-emptive but only for such time as it took to become reality. If it were recorded that on a particular day, at a certain time, and at a particular place that the future generations of man visited us, then the self-fulfilling prophesies of the Virtual Omnipotents would be set into motion. The recorded history that indicated this date would be available to all future generations of man. If omnipotence is eventually achieved by humanity, and the situation faced by modern society warrants intervention, they (the future) would, either overtly or subtly, make an appearance to rectify the turmoil.HH If the early 21st Century really was the end for mankind then they would come, with the advantage of hindsight the future would come.

Come it did, to the rapture of the Virtual Omnipotents (virtual Omni's). Twenty million men women and children gathered in the hills of Northern N.S.W. They faced the Northwest before sunrise on the morning of the 16th of April and awaited the meeting of future and past. They did as was done, as what was recorded before it happened. Their prediction became reality and humanity became one on all timelines and all ages.

It began, for all that were gathered, on a personal level. The first sign of connection was a subtle ripple that raced across both the mountainside and early morning sky. It was as if all that could be seen were painted on a curtain blowing in the breeze. People became aware of a presence, an unfamiliar sentient strangeness that enveloped the landscape. With a subtle play of light and movement it passed. It was for the people a feeling that had physical form. It gave rocks, trees, grass, and dirt the appearance of being the outward form of an unnamed intelligence. Nature looked back at man with recognition and intent, like a precocious child full of arrogance returning to disinterested parents.

Next, amongst the people, shapes and curves began to take on human form. They seemed to walk out of the sides of hills, out of the air, out of people themselves. At the same time a low-pitched noise like the grind of an ancient mechanism heralded the meld of two worlds. It had happened. The landscape was shared, with different ages of humanity walking the same earth, but now at the same time.

The shapes and curves completed their formation. They became many variations of a recognisable human element. Some had large eyes and a slit for a mouth, some had slender limbs and seemed to float rather then walk, others were very normal looking but gave there identity away by their lack of expression. People looked back with an equally vacant stare. The realization that their world of mundane ritual and new age religious dogma had now spawned an event as important to humanity as the second coming of Christ overwhelmed many.

Here before the Virtual Omni's, for the entire world to see, was the future. It offered not only a path through the wilderness for modern man but also vindication for all who believed, all who had faith in humanity's resilience, and all who had endured ridicule and abuse for being a 'cyber hippy'. This was their triumph, their time of glory. Omnipotent humanity would eventually exist because omnipotent humanity would intervene. This intervention before them now was not the first, for the last 200 million years it had occurred. From deciding an evolutionary battle for dominance between and the Homo-sapiens and the Neanderthals to giving ancient cultures language and knowledge beyond their experience, they had come before. This intervention that occurred before the crowds of Northern NSW was the first intervention that was asked for, the first time mankind recognised their Gods for what they were. The first time Gods were called by name, and their faces seen. A good God knows the future, has a plan, and provides meaning. All of these prerequisites were met by man, for man.

In 8 years since the original connection, David had spent most of his time, like most of the other students, learning the new knowledge and history of the future. He was only 17 at the time of intervention, a stage in his life where meaning and purpose were sort with youthful enthusiasm.

The void in is life was filled by the future teachings with little or no resistance. When the chemical highs he used intermittently to assess his status in life's journey were not as profound or extensive anymore, he found that the teachings of the Virtual Omni's filled the gaps.

David walked to his lessons as he did every day, stopping briefly to look back at the outer door of his apartment, as it slammed shut. The place of his residence cut through the sky with right-angled arrogance, like a sentinel to the folly of achievement. The structure and implied permanence of such a construction was not noted by most, David however considered the validity of every sight, sound, and sensation that he encountered. He questioned all because all of his answers were previously provided by the existence of a God, after the intervention they were only provided by man.

The autonomy of human nature was an unknown quantity to many, and to David after an initial period of acceptance was a terrifying concept. David was in a constant state of obsessive self-assessment. Were his motivations born out of greed, or an innate genetic want to succeed? It was the greatest and noblest achievement to die with glory, but a death with no afterlife or reward was futile. Should he devote his pain, love and experience to the survival of his species or was his existence chosen by the future as a messier like an outpost of understanding. These musings were of little influence, he had begun many years ago to inadvertently ask for direct intervention. On the first occasion he was at Linda Rock south of Woodford N.S.W. At the summit, he sat looking at the distant lumps on the horizon created by the skyline of Sydney. This was the place he went to relax, as his mind was always clear here.

He was studying a small rock that lay half buried in the dirt. As he stared, the rock started to quiver. It shook and seemed to buzz. He saw the rock rise up and throw itself over the edge. What he saw was like a memory and new event happening at the same time. With an overwhelming deja vu like daze, he knew he had somehow willed the rock to rise up and fly. For the first time a random thought had spawned a physical response. The future had deemed this point in time to make personal intervention. The intervention was for no obvious reason but David had to reconcile why it was so. They had chosen him as a means to achieve permanent influence in the world, as opposed to their previous fleeting visits. They were after his mind in order to take his body.

After a period denial the random intervention continued. David could look at a cup on his kitchen shelf and will it to move. From then on David had to control what before had been harmless, but was now like a coiled spring. He became aware of a period before thinking, before personal statement of intent. It was here his control lay. He became adept at choosing in real time what his conciseness would consider. When the future had a means to make real whatever David saw in his mind, David had an obligation to mediate what was envisioned. Such an obligation entailed unwanted responsibilities. David himself now had to deal with being virtually omnipotent, but this God like nature was only due to hands of the faceless disturbingly human sentience that pulled the strings of his puppet like life.

David decided today he would not go to class; today he would just keep on walking. The lyrics of a song swung in and out of his wandering mind, Jimmy Cliff and Mick Jaggar asked of David 'yer gunna walk and don't look back ...don't look back'. David walked. He was sure they knew now. People knew. They looked. They knew. They knew why he was walking. They could read his mind. David trusted no one. He was alone and all were against him. His mind raced, he was losing it.

"How are you this morning David?' echoed a disembodied voice. 'Did you wake with coherence and full function?' The words were clear to David but made no sense, David answered with a questioning yawn. He did not know where he was but he knew he was safe in this place, safe enough for arrogance to return. 'So you want a piece of me too' David shouted. 'Line up with the others you steaming pile of shit' David continued. Silence followed, David was strapped to a padded table in a well-lit room. He could see a wire mesh surrounding him in all directions. Above this mesh he could see shadows moving back and forth, as each two passed they emanated mumbled discussion. In this place the future could not touch him. His captors must of determined the mechanism being using to reach him. David considered the irony of something as simple as a Stevenson Screen being able to stop a race of omnipotents. He laughed out load when he considered the wire mesh around him worked on the same principle as the inside of a microwave oven. 'So I have to stick my head in the oven to save my soul' he shouted to the shadows. David was ecstatic to be here, this was the happiest he had been for many years. Here David had control, and with no unwanted consequences David could show anger. Before when he had looked upon someone in anger their bones would break inside their skin. Here David could feel anger, rage, and fear with free reign. Nothing bad would happen here, not while he had control.

David woke suddenly to find two men standing over the padded table. He was gestured towards a descended ladder in the middle of the room. He climbed to the top finding himself in a small room full of medical equipment. Before he could react David had an anaesthetic mask thrust over his mouth. David pushed his fingers under the plastic and flung it to the ground. He was then punched to the floor and kicked from all directions. David felt the anger build and knew he was not under the protection of the screen anymore. In a last ditch effort to avoid his brain being examined by his captors, David gave up his resistance to the constant external will that lived inside his mind. David since the first event on Linda Rock had never given up control totally. This now was all he could do. The precise moment David gave up resisting he felt his body being physically pulled away from him. His surroundings seemed to merge and split and then disappear altogether. David was now somewhere else, running through a landscape, pulled by a mind not his own. He had been taken physically from the world he knew, to a semi-real place stuck in between worlds. A place that contained himself, the force that took him there, and something else, something above humanity. There was no sense of time here just two different directions to walk. To the Southwest pulled the future, to the Northwest lay a horizon that beckoned David. When he looked at this horizon he saw his own existence, when he gave in to the force David saw himself disappear. A battle was about to occur in a place with no name, a battle of self.

He walked and chanted dragging his body with more control than he had ever had. There was some thing else here with him, something beyond the force from the future. This extra something had a tactile quality, it rose up with one thousand times the realness and solidity that David had ever seen. Like a warm winter breeze or cooling summer wind, the closer he got to the glow on the horizon, the stronger the feeling became, and the less influence the future had. In a dream like way, when he thought the feeling could get no better it would become more intense. David was no longer struggling, he took giant-like steps with ten yard strides towards the glow, he raced across the landscape with twenty yard strides, he lifted of the ground and was now flying towards the light. The joy David felt was complete, it had reached its limit. This level of contentment was unimagined before.

David felt the force pull him towards the light. Gentle movement in peaceful place took him down the tunnel. He was close to the end now. Words were not in his head, only feelings were. He felt hands bellow his arms pulling him, he felt pressure all around his body. He opened his eyes to a world where his personality had disappeared. His mind was now like a blank canvas. David was no more, but all his emotion and all his essence were born into the world again. An untainted human spirit had come to life. A child was born and like all others had come straight from a place of purity.

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