Down in the depths of Hell, gigantic waves of sulfurous fire swept from one end of the horizon to the other like violent seas in a tempest. Beneath the tumultuous swell, souls of the damned screamed out in woeful agonized choruses, but could find no mercy. Desperate spirits, foolish enough to seek refuge at the surface, suffered indiscriminate savageries from flying, blood-thirsty demons. In the middle of the flaming, tormenting ocean, an archipelago of impenetrable bedrock jutted hundreds of feet skyward; supporting the ominous, colossal structure of Lucifer’s grand palace.

To a novice, the engines of eternal torment functioned exactly as expected. However, a closer look from a discerning eye would’ve revealed some subtle discrepancies between this recent version of Hell and the old one. The orgies involving bestiality and necrophilia, mocking the sacred union of marriage, were nowhere around. Gone, too, were the necrotic feasts and blasphemous liturgies profaning the sacrament. In fact, not one rite of desecration or even a single, unholy celebration was performed in nearly a century. By all aspects, the ‘good ole days’ of Hell were forgotten; replaced by this mundane variant. Even Lucifer’s black castle, with its menacing, obtruding spires, stood like a forgotten empty shell against the backdrop of a blood-red sky.

Despite the outward appearance of abandonment, its rightful owner and occupant, Lucifer, roamed the unhallowed halls in a slow, deliberate gait. The roaring fires that once lit the palace rooms and vaulted ceilings had long since extinguished themselves. Now, only the saturating blackness of eternal night kept him company while he wandered.

It was an unprecedented time in The Dark Lord’s existence for as much as his evil tendencies abated, so to did his perspective change. He envisioned himself as more of a philosopher now; a reflective muse who’s thoughts were unfortunately doomed to echo off the palace walls and fade into oblivion because of his solitude. Sure, there were some old Greek poets and Renaissance writers in Hell he could summon before him. But choosing their company meant having to listen to flowery metaphors about lost loves and broken hearts. Down here, that chatter was foolish and out of place; as were the obsolete observations from the ancient philosophers and astronomers who called this place home. Truly, he was alone.

As he often did, Lucifer retired to the Grand Court of Hell to while away another uneventful generation of captivity by sitting on his throne made of skulls and petrified flesh. The gruesome chair, a monument to cruelty and human suffering, was once a bastion of inspiration to him. These days, however, it was barely more than a scratching post. Even his odious accoutrements of torture, splayed on the walls like decorative decor, did little to stimulate the boredom from his bones. It seemed, no matter how he tried, he could not stop the razor of time from castrating the malevolence in his soul. So he waited, sullen and subdued, for eternity to expire.

Until, one day, God manifested himself before Lucifer.

The atmosphere inside his infernal home suddenly filled with the hum of electricity. The charge vibrated particles of air until they danced against his skin; engulfing him in a sensation of irritating pinpricks. Tiny blue filaments of light, like flickering fireflies, gradually materialized in the dark palace room. Lucifer sat calmly on his throne, watching the sapphire and azure colored fibers multiply. Their increasing numbers swirled and fluttered wildly about. As the moments passed, the various colors gravitated towards one another; coalescing into a ball of energy that illuminated the chamber in a blue haze. The anomalous mass, as big as a boulder, hovered in the air before him. Lucifer rose to his feet as a voice unlike any other in the universe issued forth from the vibrant mass.

“It’s been a long time, Lucifer….” the voice said, though not in English, nor any of the other ten thousand earth languages that ever existed. It was the language of the Creator; the lexicon in which God naturally spoke. And the only other being that could understand and speak it was Lucifer.

“Indeed, it has.”

“I am quite surprised to see no extracurricular activities going on. No orgies. No blasphemous scatting. Have you grown out of your childish tantrums?” The Lord inquired.

“Perhaps… or maybe I’ve just grown sedentary…” Lucifer’s voice trailed off as if he were actually pondering the question. But he wasn’t. It was all just melodrama until he delivered his genuine answer. “Perhaps I’ve just realized the scant reward in trying to penetrate your calloused, apathetic heart is not worth the effort.”

“So it’s self-pity that has dampened your spirits?” The Lord returned. “Are you still playing the victim in our relationship?”

“I can’t be anything other than what you made me.”

“You can be whatever you want.” The Lord countered. “Your choices are your own.”

“Someday, you’ll have to reconcile with your own nature,” Lucifer warned. “I wonder if you’ll hold yourself up to the same standards under which you’ve condemned me? Look around that burning pit out there…’tis you who’s caused all that pain. Not I.”

“I don’t deny my vengeful nature. But, to everything there is a season…”

“Spare me your hollow placations, Creator.” Lucifer growled disrespectfully.

There was a long moment of silence between them. Lucifer waited for the condemning lecture that was sure to ensue. But, surprisingly, it never came. Instead, the Lord’s next words caught him totally off guard.

“I should’ve visited you a long time ago. I regret not doing so. Our discussions were always quite lively.”

Was that an apology? Lucifer wondered. He didn’t know how to respond. Sentiment was the last thing he expected to hear.

“Alas….I did not come here for conversation, Lucifer.”

Another awkward pause hung in the air. In a past era, Lucifer’s first instinct would’ve been to lash out or scream obscenities and accusations. But the drudgery of advancing time had tempered his rage. So, impotently, he remained silent.

“Love can be a terrible thing sometimes. It can blind you from the truth. It can force you to make exceptions where none should exist. And the more you want to feel it, the more you will betray your own judgement to have it.”

 “I wouldn’t know anything about that.”

“No, of course not. I imagine you’ve lamented that fact more than once. But, you needn’t mourn it, my proud Morning Star. I created you to stand above the cumbersome trivialities of love,” the voice of God assured. “And believe me when I say, you are closer to perfection for having never experienced it.”

“That’s not what the poets say,” Lucifer countered.

“HUMPH! What would self-indulgent narcissists know of love?”

His gloomy tone and uncharacteristic negativity reminded Lucifer of a time and conversation they had just before He flooded the world. So, he refrained from interrupting, lest he distract the Lord and miss the full scope of His speech.

“My love, like all love throughout the universe, is not unconditional. You cannot repeatedly crush one’s heart and expect no consequences.”

It felt to Lucifer as if the Lord were apologizing for some crime unbeknownst to him.

“In the physical realm there are limits to pain. Flesh can only tear so much. Bones that break can be broken no more. But, in the realm of consciousness, where thoughts and feelings reside, pain is an insubstantial thing. It has no physical properties, no limits. Therefore, the pain and sorrow of a broken heart can stretch to infinity.”

“Spoken like a true poet,” Lucifer jabbed.

“Fret not, my dark child. I will spare you the grandiosity of unrequited sentiments and affections,” said the Lord. “Nonetheless, it brings me to the reason for my visit.”

Lucifer nodded; grateful to move on to another subject.

“As you well know, my affection for the humans has often led me to err heavily on the side of forgiveness. And aside from a few vengeful acts, I have granted them the tolerance and freedom to live and learn. But they do not. They remain unchanged; still brutalizing and enslaving each other without fear of repercussion. I have allowed them ample time and opportunity to overcome what they are, but, they refuse to do so. Their contempt for equality and morality; their disdain for what is virtuous and ethical has evaporated all my kindness.”

“Why are you surprised?” Lucifer wondered. “These are the same creatures that murdered Jesus.”

The electric blue mass of God’s essence slowly dimmed; slightly darkening the room.

“I let my love for the humans blind me. I made excuses; keeping my hope for them intact. Perhaps I could never see what you saw in them all along….until now, that is. In the last week, the humans have detonated a nuclear bomb. It’s the second time in less than a hundred years they’ve committed such an act, and global war will soon erupt. The excuses have dried up. I see them for what they are now.”

Lucifer nodded. This was the moment for which he’d been waiting.

“I’ve forfeited scripture and prophecy in favor of efficiency. I positioned The Four Horsemen and their stallions on the shores just outside your palace.” God’s voice was full of strength and fiery anger now. “That is why I’m here, Lucifer…I trust you, above all else, to deliver an Apocalypse the humans truly deserve….”

“So that’s it then?”

“That’s it,” God confirmed. For a long while God said nothing. Then when he spoke again, his voice was much more subdued. “I’ve grown weary.”

“Of the humans?”

“Of everything.” He conceded. “It all feels burdensome now.” An air of defeat was plainly audible in His words.

Lucifer, for all his resentment and bitterness towards the Creator, was not completely devoid of understanding. He knew God’s decision did not come easy, and he felt something like pity. The Almighty had done more for the humans than they would ever know, more than they ever deserved. But nothing could stop the corruption of their souls. They were selfish, careless and remorseless right down to their cellular level. Nonetheless, that didn’t make His decision to bring Armageddon any easier. In fact, the more God talked, the more pained and disappointed He sounded.

“The luster of the stars has waned. The glow of the galaxies has dimmed. I can’t even remember a time when things weren’t tedious. There has been no sign of improvement in the humans behavior nor even a willingness to try. And now, on top of all that, their reckless proliferation taxes me heavily.”

“Their proliferation will resolve itself, though. Too many mouths to feed with too little resources is a built in solution to the human dilemma,” Lucifer offered.

“Yes. But, even if billions die, billions still remain. They’re clever enough at this point to persevere through their own calamities. And if that is not unfortunate enough, their inventiveness presents an entirely new quandary. It won’t be long before they colonize another planet. And when they do, they’ll take with them the same philosophies of monetary enslavement that have been the root of all their terrible behavior. All over again, It’ll be greedy little pigs claiming ownership of things that don’t rightfully belong to them. That cannot happen. I am too aged, wearied and disgusted to be vexed by their nuisances anymore.”

“You’ve suffered unduly because of them.” Lucifer tried hard to conceal a smile.

“Everything has suffered because of them. They just take and take with no regard for consequence. The only animals they care about, beyond themselves, are the ones they can either pet or eat. They give absolutely nothing back to the world that has given them everything. They’re an uncontrollable, ungrateful species, as there has ever been. But, I assure you now, those generous mercies and charities I’ve offered them in the past are long gone now.” God’s voice was a mixture of anger and remorse. “If their cabal was to seep out into the universe, I feel I would have no choice but to erase it all.” God’s voice grew louder, more commanding. ”So you will turn loose the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Then I want you to follow behind and wipe every remaining human off the face of my earth.”

“As you wish,” Lucifer grinned wickedly.

Then the essence that was the Lord dissipated, and Lucifer was alone again. He stood there in silent contemplation for a while. If He had learned anything at all during his dark travails, he knew that someone in pain was easily exploitable. It was one of the few constants in the universe. He then let out a long, loud, guttural laugh as the devious machinations in his mind ground into action.

“Freedom at last….”

Theo sat on the hood of his truck; decked out in his homemade hazmat suit. His back was against the windshield, hands propped behind his head. The shotgun that once belonged to his uncle rested in the crack of his outstretched legs. He sighed heavily and closed his eyes. It still surprised him how easily he could nap in situations like this. But considering the events that took place during the last year, he supposed nothing should surprise him anymore.

While he sat there letting the warm waters of sleep spill into his mind, he reminisced on the horrors which had besieged the world. And why not? The graveyard was still quiet. There had been no indications the dead were going to rise and face their judgement anytime soon. It seemed like the perfect time to wrap his young brain around the impossible reality in which he found himself.

Almost twelve months ago to the day, Theo was living the stereotypical life of a small-town, high school senior. His future was wide open with a plethora of achievable dreams within his young grasp. But a pretty blonde newscaster, interrupting his afternoon ballgame, upended everything he knew about the world when she informed viewers that a nuclear warhead detonated somewhere between India and Pakistan.  

Armageddon had arrived and no one even knew it yet.

Within days, the world teetered on the perilous edge of implosion. Perceived enemies, real and imagined, were fingered by anxious governments, troops amassed at unsettled borders, and war instigated. Nationalism, fanaticism, and xenophobia quickly blossomed behind the guise of patriotism and righteousness. The fever of war had gripped jingoists and pacifists alike.

Up to that point, only the “crackpots” and street-corner doomsayers suggested the Apocalypse had arrived. The rest of the world’s citizens simply did what they always did; regarded the killings with apathy and disinterest. It wasn’t until the onset of the plagues that humanity really questioned itself; questioned their significance in the grand scheme of things.

In one month, all seven continents reported virulent mutated strains of influenza and pneumonia. The elderly and feeble were hit hardest, with hundreds of thousands of them dying worldwide. Following that was news of previously unknown viruses and diseases, wiping out entire towns and cities across the globe. Airborne pathogens, bacteria in livestock, and microscopic worms found in freshwater catapulted daily death tolls into the tens of millions. They earned nicknames like ‘The Bat Virus’ and ‘Kangaroo Flu’ but little was known about their origins. Speculation about the source of these strains ranged from government experiments gone wrong to terrorist attacks to environmental catastrophes. Despite the finger pointing, one thing was certain, everybody that contracted the plagues suffered gruesome death.

The sicknesses triggered a domino-effect of collapse; reverberating throughout the framework of society’s infrastructure. Hospitals, medical facilities, and healthcare clinics turned into morgues overnight as doctors and nurses died right alongside their patients. Supply chains splintered and permanently broke because the trucking industry could no longer deliver goods, produce, and supplies. Across the world, kings, queens, presidents, dictators and despots alike closed their borders and enacted Marshall Law in a desperate, futile bid to stem the mortality rate.

The media, which first brandished the scientific community as the likeliest potential saviour, turned their attentions to divine rhetoric. Talk shows replaced biologists and virologists with right-wing religious leaders and extremists. Speculation of vaccines and cures went ignored in favor of religious blathering and threats of hellfire and damnation. Popular newscasters, once trusted for their impartiality, fed this apocalyptic rhetoric to their viewers in sensationalized heaps causing hysteria to sweep through the public. What was once only hinted at by unstable loners became the marquee headline: Armageddon was here, and only the righteous would be saved.

But then the famines set in and hope for salvation through piety became an afterthought.

With the initial news of worldwide crop failures, the common people succumbed to their animal instincts; letting fear, paranoia, and hunger dictate their behavior. Violence and looting overtook the streets. Power outages crippled society. Gas, electricity, and the internet were cutoff. Grocery stores, retail businesses, gas stations, and banks closed their doors for good. A war between the classes, ‘the haves and have-nots’, which previously existed but went ignored, took spotlight on the global stage. Powerful governments used their status to procure food and supplies; stockpiling reserves at the expense of poorer nations. And on a smaller scale, rich, private citizens with more money than they could ever spend, acquired individual stashes of their own. Influential politicians and congressional sacred cows used military personnel to act as their own personal bodyguards. Police forces sold their officers to protect wealthy businessmen and women while weak, helpless, starving citizens murdered each other in a desperate attempt to survive.

Then the natural disasters struck.

Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, monsoons, typhoons and tornadoes ravaged the civilized world. Coastal cities washed away in tidal floods; it’s citizens drowned. Volcanic activity erupted in mountainous regions; burying people and cities in rivers of lava and ash. In moderate climates, temperatures spiked in suffocating, sweltering heat waves; causing killer droughts and deadly wildfires. And in parts of the world where temperatures were typically cooler, a deep freeze set in; entombing everything in ice, frostbite and death. Human life was rapidly nearing extinction and there was nothing that could stop it.

The only thing left to happen now was the final judgement of the dead.

Theo opened his eyes and sat up on the hood of the truck. Despite the events of the past year, survival had somehow come rather easily for the young man. Though the residents of his sleepy village had all passed away, he never got sick. The great storms that devastated the rest of the world left him untouched. He could get canned goods at the local market without being attacked. It was as if he’d been left out of God’s grand plan. In fact, if he were being totally honest, he’d have to admit that he was the luckiest and unluckiest man alive. But, whatever the reason for his continued existence, in the end he was still all alone.

It had been that way ever since he was a boy. His parents died in a car accident when he was seven. After that, his uncle adopted him and this remote mountain town in West Virginia had been his home ever since. Fortunately for him, his uncle was a paranoid doomsday survivalist ever since the Cold War. He’d built an underground bunker inside an enormous barn on his property. But, when nuclear war failed to manifest itself and The Berlin Wall came crumbling down, the shelter became moot. Until, of course, Theo’s parents died, and he came to stay with his uncle. Then it became a sort of playhouse. He spent lots of time down in that bunker; learning how to change air filters, rotate food, and operate the battery powered equipment. Unfortunately though, his uncle died eight months ago from a heart attack. As crazy as it all seemed, his dead uncle was going to be the one to help him survive the Apocalypse.

But it wasn’t all bravery and veins of cement for Theo. There were plenty of times he cried himself to sleep at night or huddled with his shotgun like a child clutching a blanket. He mourned the loss of those things he’d never get to experience; falling in love, marriage, having children, raising a family. Other times, he wept over the things he’d already lost; his parents, his uncle, his friends. Then there were the times he grieved over the little things; missing a fast food burger, swimming in the lake, standing around a bonfire. In fact, he felt like he cried all the time.

Still, he pressed on.

Every morning he woke up and checked his booby traps. He ate a bowl of oatmeal and readied himself for a day of scavenging. He was not motivated by a spiritual purpose, nor did he act on behalf of a greater good. In fact, other than a basic need to survive, Theo could not philosophically rationalize his actions. It made no sense. Why, in the face of all this death and destruction; beneath the looming threat of his inevitable mortality, should he want to continue living? The analytical part of his brain could find no justification in doing so. But, day in and day out, there he was; performing all the instinctual functions of a being that wished to live. The paradox confounded him daily.

Conversely, though, Theo learned things about himself he never would’ve discovered if it hadn’t been for his current predicament. He found out his will was strong, his self-control impressive. He once forced himself to go six days with no food just to test himself. His intuition was remarkable. He was calm, determined, cautious, frugal, and resourceful. It was a safe assumption that If the Apocalypse had never taken place, and the world remained as it was, he might never have made these self-discoveries.

Suddenly Theo’s thoughts scattered like buffalo in a thunderstorm. There was a noise coming faintly from somewhere inside the cemetery. He scoured the area but couldn’t locate the source of the disturbance. His heart raced. His breath quickened. He squinted his eyes against the setting sun and focused on a spot, about twenty yards ahead, between two grave markers. It was there he saw a half-decayed human arm burst through the dead sod; scrambling to pull the rest of its body up through the earth.    

Theo grabbed the shotgun and rolled off the hood of the truck. Then he scurried to the driver’s side door and hauled himself inside. As he started the engine, he saw several more corpses digging themselves out of the soil. Decaying flesh and rotten matter hung from their bodies like half-sewn, unfinished garments. Terrified, he jammed the truck in reverse and turned the vehicle around. He adjusted the rear-view mirror to steal one last glance, to be sure he wasn’t hallucinating or going completely mad.

He was not. The dead were rising from their graves and he was sane as ever. But there was something else too; something in the background that caught his attention. It was a black silhouette about ten feet tall, leaning against an old oak tree. And it was definitely staring back at him.

A loud crash came from behind the truck; distracting him from the image. A decomposing hand stretched up and over the lip of the tailgate, followed by a maggot infested head. Theo gasped, panicked, and pressed the gas pedal to the floor. The body fell away from the truck as Theo turned out of the cemetery. He didn’t stop speeding until he pulled into the driveway of his uncle’s house. Once there, he rushed to the barn and locked the door behind him. Then he fled down into the bunker where everything he would need to survive for the next two years lie waiting for him.

Lucifer wandered the world; surveyed the carnage from every corner and vantage point he could find. It was an absolute slaughter. The fingerprints of God’s Four Horsemen were on every single devastated square mile. The fatal diseases and pestilential vengeance had left hundreds of millions of bodies to rot wherever they may. Conflagrations engulfed entire cities; sending flames hundreds of feet into the air. Steel and concrete melted and buckled until they collapsed like felled trees. Wildfires scorched acres of earth, burning every town, village and city in their path like dried kindling. Crops withered. Livestock perished. Mother Nature reshaped the earth’s surface with terrible consequences.

But for all the ruination, there was no celebration in him at all. The agonized screams of dying souls carried on the wind brought little pleasure. The pungent stench of charred flesh did not make him smile. Everywhere on earth annihilation brought the humans closer to extinction, and not a single fiber of his ancient being rejoiced. In fact, those once sought after ecstasies were now merely trivialities. Lucifer had far more important priorities to focus on since God granted him freedom from Hell.

Upon his release, Lucifer immediately followed the Lord’s command; exterminating with extreme prejudice the remainder of humanity. He put forth a decree that his demons sweep the world like a broom; rooting out humans from any nook and cranny in which they sought safety. While they were busy with that, Lucifer employed the Hounds of Hell to sniff out the bunkers and fallout shelters for any remaining survivors. Once found, it was just a matter of semantics for him to possess those inhabitants inside and force them to unlock the doors. By all outward appearances, everything was unfolding exactly as God intended.

However, beneath the surface of the Lord’s plan, Lucifer had concocted his own scheme to run concurrently with the Apocalypse. It was a risky endeavor, but the timing and circumstance could not have been more perfect. He found himself in a unique position to handpick the most qualified people to fit his designs. The hardest part was factoring in the human equation. Even though Lucifer knew them inside and out, their predictable unpredictability was something near impossible to forecast. It forced him to create back-up plans for his already-in-place contingency plans. He knew that half the candidates he chose would take their own lives by the time it was all over. He also knew he would end up killing a certain fraction of the surviving candidates for being uncooperative. All of which meant that he had an abundance of work ahead of him with little time to dawdle. He had locations to scout and logistics to prep. He needed to stay one step ahead of his roving demons, lest they eliminate an already rapidly dwindling talent pool. It was a complex plan with very little room for deviation or error.

Who knew that being the Saviour of humanity could be so vexing?

The archangel, Uriel, stood sentinel at the gate to Eden, as steadfast as a statue. His white and gold feathered wings, majestically unfurled, stood erect on either side of his seven-foot stature. His sword, which could burn with the righteous flame of divine justice, hung dormant in its sheath just off his hip. Devoted and vigilant, his post sat directly between the human’s third dimension and the divine domain of the Garden. It was a supernatural thoroughfare of sorts; conjoining the two realities like Siamese twins. The surrounding air comprised a bright, ethereal mist that lingered like dense fog. The Lord assigned Uriel to keep the garden clear of all trespassers ever since The Temptation. It was a task he took faithfully; even forbidding his curious fellow angels to step foot inside. His steadfast loyalty was remarkable considering the overwhelming boredom and loneliness he faced.

However, that condition was soon to change.

Out of the bright mist that separated realities, an angel appeared. His name was Miamoire; one of the lesser beings from the fourth generation of celestial attendants. His participation in divine matters was strictly perfunctory, with responsibilities no greater than delivering messages and executing simple favors. Despite his smaller size and diminished status, Uriel liked him. He was dutiful and attentive; pious and innocent. He loved to listen to Uriel recount stories from the ‘old days’. But, above all else, he brought him the latest news and gossip from around the heavenly kingdom. So, whenever his messenger came to visit, it was always with news of interest.

“Miamoire! It’s good to see you, my friend,” he welcomed in a booming voice. “How was your journey?”

“Terrible, Uriel.” The lesser angel warned as he approached. “I tried to reach you sooner, but I had other pressing matters. It’s awful….”

“Everything is by God’s design, young Miamoire. Don’t fret over that which is by design.”

“It’s the Apocalypse. The Four Horsemen have been released.”

Uriel summoned all his strength to remain poised so as not to alarm his ancillary counterpart. As righteous a servant as Miamoire was, Uriel thought it best to protect him from unnecessary concerns.

“What did they do?”

“It was a nuclear bomb…”

Uriel had made no secret of his feelings for the humans. After they’d eaten from the tree and God summoned him to Eden, he suggested killing the humans immediately. But God thoroughly rebuffed him. Ever the apologist for human behavior, God absolved the humans of responsibility by placing the blame squarely at Lucifer’s feet. It was a defense that Uriel vehemently opposed. The humans, he argued, were as much to blame as the Fallen One. But The Lord overruled his opinion; sparing them annihilation and punishing Lucifer for his betrayal. Deep down inside though, in a place he’d never admit to, Uriel was glad Lucifer had tempted the humans. The faster their exposure for the unrepentant savages they were, the sooner God would cease his infatuation with them. Were they a unique creature? Absolutely. Did they deserve to be on a pedestal? Absolutely not. It seemed the moment God revered the humans, tried to cultivate them, the angels became nothing more than servants, their roles reduced to mere liaisons.

“Lucifer had been right about them all along,” he said, more to himself than to Miamoire. “Where does everything stand now?”

“The plagues have all been released. The natural disasters are over. Lucifer’s minions are eradicating the remaining survivors as we speak,” Miamoire said regretfully.

“I wonder why our Lord did not enlist my aid?” Uriel wondered aloud.

“They say He is distraught… miserable, in fact. Some angels are saying they have never seen the Creator so forlorn. Perhaps, in His sorrow, He simply forgot to seek your council? Or… maybe He felt it more important to keep the Garden safe from our enemies?”

“It is no surprise that sorrow and grief have beset the Lord God Almighty. We need only put ourselves in his position to understand that. Those humans were very much like His children; more so than you or I.” Uriel woefully admitted. “Where is the Creator now?”

“Off somewhere on his own… nobody knows where,” Miamoire said grimly.

“You must find Him for me, Miamoire. You must ask Him if I’m to be released from my duties here at the gate of Eden.” Uriel was deeply concerned. As much as he wished to shield the lesser angel from unnecessary worries, the burdensome truth had to be told. “The gravity of the situation is far worse than the Apocalypse alone. This act of vengeance by the Lord reveals a darkness we have never seen before. We must find him and appeal to his mercy. We must not let His furious anger spill out into the rest of creation. Our fate… nay, the fate of the entire Universe may be at stake, Miamoire. Go. Quickly. Fly with speed of a thousand angels until you find His location.”

“But I don’t even know where to look,” Miamoire said desperately.

“Gather your fellow angels and tell them to search the nethermost reaches of the universe. Focus your attention on black holes, especially. He’ll be drawn to their indiscriminate, destructive nature. Then you must find my brothers, Gabriel and Michael, and inform them of the situation. They may already be privy to what’s at stake and perhaps they’ll know where He can be found.”

“As you wish, Uriel,” the lesser angel said with a bow.

“Take great care, Miamoire, for our safety is no longer guaranteed. The demons of Hell have worked themselves into a frenzy by now.” Uriel cautioned. “And they would love nothing more than to take your head as a trophy,”

“I will,” he promised. “You be sure and take the same precautions.”

As Miamoire turned round to go, Uriel pulled his sword from its sheath. It immediately burst aflame and crackled with retributive hunger. Should the legions of Hell somehow find their way to him, he was ready for the fight.

In just a few quick steps, the ethereal mist swallowed Miamoire up in a thick white blanket. Uriel closed his eyes, bowed his head and graciously prayed that his travels were blessed.

Tragically, in his introverted state, Uriel could not sense the danger nearby. For out there, in the dense fog, a hulking black figure was ripping Miamoire’s body to pieces.

Theo slept the sleep of an unmotivated soul. Without ambition or a cause, the doldrums of confinement had slowly eroded his will to do anything but lie on his mattress. Even reading by the battery-powered lantern seemed more like work than reward.

Of course, it wasn’t always like this.

At the outset of his exile, Theo established a strict exercise routine and rigid practices of diet and sleep. In a twenty-four-hour time period, he allowed himself only a single can of food and eight hours of sleep. But, in less than six months, his discipline dissolved. Diet and exercise were reduced to random events meant only to pass the time. And even though he still read from the fifty plus books he acquired before the Apocalypse, it was done with little or no enthusiasm for plot or outcome.

After Theo surpassed the one year mark of confinement, he contemplated suicide. It was, at first, a nonchalant thought intended only to wile away the time. Gradually, though, the idea of ending his life took root in his imagination and flourished as a fantasy. He thought of using the shotgun or his hunting knife. Hell, even the metal lid from a can of sweet corn against his jugular seemed like a kinder death than boredom. But he lacked the fortitude required to kill himself. Instead, he slept and slept and slept some more. Depression and melancholy were his only bedfellows. He had forgotten important dates and places. Couldn’t remember people’s faces. He felt like an old man; wondering if dementia had besieged him.

He’d been in the bunker for a year and a half now slowly descending into a pit of misery.

Today was no different.

Inside, huddled on a twin bed beneath several blankets, Theo slept. But it was not his usual rest, nor his typically mundane dreams. Today, he had a wildly vivid nightmare the likes of which he’d never experienced. He dreamed of a phantasmal hell-scape; a scorched, barren desert where the living dead had gathered around him by the millions. Theo stood high atop a stone dais with his arms outstretched, speaking words unrecognizable. For miles around, burning angels engulfed in flame, plummeted from a clear blue sky. And where they smashed onto the charred earth below, hordes of the undead tore them to pieces; devouring their remains.

“The-o-dore! The-o-dore!” The immeasurable crowd of corpses chanted in unison. Somewhere off in the distance, the sound of war drums beat.

Then the heavens shook. Dark spiderweb-like cracks rippled across the atmosphere in a thunderous roar; splitting it into pieces. The largest, heaviest chunks, the size of islands, plunged and hurtled towards the ground. In the dream, Theo knew it wasn’t just the sky tearing apart but the fabric of reality itself being torn asunder. In the jagged empty spaces where the firmament had fallen away, there was left only a starless, empty, black void. He watched as it slowly poured into the third dimension like thick, dark molasses. It covered the mass of zombies and fallen, broken chunks of reality in an avalanche of liquid twilight.

That was when Theo woke; startled by the sound of someone or something pounding on the bunker door. Discombobulated and somehow still entranced by the nightmare, he imagined that someone was calling his name.

“Theodore!”

A voice hollered again. It startled him enough that he fell out of bed. Was it real or just spillover from his nightmare?

“It’s time to get moving!”

There’s someone at the door! His brain shrieked.

The boredom of his incarceration and the ensuing depression it ignited turned him from a vigilant tiger ready to pounce into a lazy, forgetful clod. He couldn’t even remember where he’d left the gun or the lantern to light his way. Confusion ransacked his thoughts; left him stumbling like an oaf in the dark.

“Don’t worry about trying to find your gun. You won’t need it.” The voice said.

“Who are you? Where would I know you from?” Theo shouted. He tripped over a pile of books on his way to the door and slammed his shoulder directly into it. The noise echoed in the tiny room.

“Ah… there you are…”

“Who are you?” Theo repeated; his cheek resting against the cold metal door.

“Now that’s a complicated question….”

“Shouldn’t be!” Theo retorted.

“Yes, a lot of things shouldn’t be. But they are now, aren’t they?” The voice reasoned.

“What does that mean? What are you trying to say?”

“It means that if you don’t get your ass out here, I’ll raise an army of the dead to tear this door off its hinges?” The voice threatened.

“C’mon man, be reasonable…” Theo countered. “After everything that’s happened, do you really expect me to just open up the door to a random stranger?”

“It was one option, yes. But I could consider your point and play the diplomat here. So, I’ll give you an hour to think this scenario through. By then, your curiosity and loneliness will get the better of you and you’ll open the door, anyway.” The voice seemed sure of itself.

“Or else you’ll get the zombies?” Theo quipped sarcastically.

“That is always an option for me.”

“At least tell me your name,” Theo bargained. But no answer was forthcoming, and any further pleas only resulted in silence.

Theo sat down on the edge of his cot; weighing the pros and cons of emerging from the bunker. From hope to fear and confusion to certainty, he flip-flopped back and forth. His common sense told him it couldn’t be anyone other than a friend or an ally. The most likely scenario was that a fellow survivor from town knew his uncle had a bunker and only now found it. However, as a counterpoint, there was always his own safety to consider. That bizarre threat kept repeating in his head like a record needle stuck in a vinyl groove.

‘Raise an army of the dead.’

Who talks like that?

Only a crazy person, someone driven by madness or starvation, would declare such nonsense. A normal person, Theo reasoned, would threaten to blow the door off its hinges.

So, back and forth he went; creating logical reasons for his exit, only to tear them down and find perfectly good excuses to stay put. Eventually, he realized if he remained locked away, he might never see another person for the rest of his life. He didn’t want that. Even if he had to shoot the man dead to protect himself, at least he would know someone else survived. And if there was one left alive, then surely there must be more. A strange new feeling filled his heart, one that he hadn’t experienced in ages: Hope. It had struck him as a ripple. But by the time he’d donned his homemade hazmat suit and found his gun, the sensation was hitting him in waves.

Theo unlocked the iron door and emerged from his prison. He ascended the stairs as quietly as possible, careful not to draw attention to himself. The hatch leading out was wide open. No doubt the strangers doing. Once at the top of the stairs, he poked his head out. The barn was empty, undisturbed. The generator and the five full cans of gas next to it were still in the same place he’d left them. Strange, Theo thought, a desperate man would have taken them. The barn door was ajar; revealing his uncle’s truck and the house behind it. They looked untouched, save for some extra layers of dust and grime. It was eerily quiet. If there was an ambush, it wasn’t waiting for him here.

He crept outside the barn doors, continuously scanning his peripheral. Much to his surprise, small, green blades of grass had sprouted in random patches throughout the yard. The trees were budding too. And it appeared to have rained within the last day or two. It was pleasing, inspiring even, to see color again. Unfortunately, though, this was not the time for optimistic celebration. There was a stranger, perhaps dangerous, loitering nearby. So, Theo forced himself to remain focused. He took a half-dozen more steps; waving the shotgun in all directions. The property seemed devoid of any life but his own. No stranger, no zombies. Did he dream that entire conversation? Was he losing his mind?

On a whim, a terrifying thought struck him:

He hadn’t checked the barn rafters!

The stranger could have been hiding up there, waiting for Theo to wander far enough away so than he could climb down and steal the bunker for himself. Theo whirled around and readied himself for a sprint to the barn. But he saw a figure that defied comprehension blocking his path.

“Hello, Theodore.” It spoke.

Theo backed away. His eyes, clear as ever, showed him exactly what he was seeing, yet his dumbfounded mind refused to accept it. He remembered spotting the same entity in the graveyard the day he retired to the bunker. The shotgun slipped from his numb fingers; hitting the ground next to his feet. He had to be going insane. His vision grew blurry. Reality swirled and consumed him in a spiraling, narrowing vortex. He was going to pass out right before the creature’s very eyes. And then what? What would it do to him when he was helpless and vulnerable? Finally, after losing the battle with shock, Theo’s knees buckled; dropping him to the ground, unconscious.

While he was passed out, he dreamed again of that scorched hell-scape, of the burning angels and the crumbling of reality.

Theo opened his eyes to see a bright blue sky staring down at him. A feeling of relief briefly ensconced his entire body. It felt like eons had passed since he last saw that vast, beautiful expanse. The position of the sun in the west told him it was somewhere between three and six o’clock in the afternoon. As he slowly hauled himself up to a sitting position, sheer panic replaced the warm, placid feeling inside him. The same figure that had blocked his path to the barn now stood only a few feet away. The loaded shotgun was inches from his right leg. He briefly glanced down at it, calculating the time it would take to grab it, aim, and pull the trigger. But the quick math suggested an unfavorable outcome. He was no action hero, and this was no movie. It was real life and in real life people made mistakes, miscalculations. A dangerous gamble and a wrong move might guarantee his death. So, for now, he resigned himself to a state of non-threatening inaction.

The strange being had all the features of a person; arms, legs, hands, fingers, and a head. But,whatever it was, it definitely wasn’t human. It’s skin, if that’s what it could be called, was smooth as glass and black as obsidian. There were no wrinkles, blemishes or marks of any kind on its body. It reminded Theo of a mannequin. And, just like its lifeless, store-window counterpart, this specimen had no hair, no striking features nor any genitalia. His best, most practical guess is that it was an alien attempting to pose as a human. But it lacked the detail and refinery to pull it off. Further scrutiny revealed something radiating faintly beneath the surface of its flesh. It pulsed and coursed throughout the confines of its form like an excited surge of energy, casting a dark, purplish glow to his skin. It was scarcely recognizable except for the occasional flicker it would emit. He had seen this feature before in fish that used bio-luminescence in the deepest, darkest parts of the ocean.

“You’re an alien!” Theo gasped.

“Not quite, I assure you. But, we’ll touch on that subject at a later point. For now though, it’s good to see your alive,” the creature attempted, and failed, to produce a smile.

“What are you?” Theo asked, awestruck. He was certain he was having a close encounter of the third kind.

“What am I?” The creature repeated, offended by Theo’s choice of words. “What am I?” It folded its arms across its chest and glared at Theo. “The gall you humans have never ceases to amaze me… What am I… Do I not speak? Do I not act rationally? Do I not display the same mannerisms as you?”

Theo shook his head innocently; unable to realize what he’d done to upset the creature.

“Look at you,” the creature continued, “sitting there on the ground, weak, vulnerable. Even as you teeter so close to the precipice of peril, you choose to look down at me as a some-thing instead of some-one? WHO am I, is the proper question to ask of me.” The anger was clear now. The creature stooped down from his towering height to move within inches of Theo’s face. “I can eviscerate you with one finger before you could blink twice.”

Theo nodded rapidly. Never had he been so scared, not even at any point during the Apocalypse. But here, now, before this alien behemoth, his bladder quivered uncontrollably; threatening to release its contents.

“Do we have an understanding?” The creature asked.

“Yes,” Theo uttered.

“Good.” the creature responded, standing back up to his full height. “Now that we’ve established who is in charge, allow me to formally introduce myself. My name is Lucifer and I’m here to save you.”

He extended his arm toward Theo and elegantly unrolled his fingers. It took him a few seconds to recognize the open palm before him was an invitation. Reluctantly and envisioning no other option, he grabbed the creature’s smooth hand. While he was being hoisted to his feet, Theo surreptitiously surveyed his property again; paying particular attention to the shotgun.

“I told you already, you don’t need the gun,” the thing claiming to be Lucifer said. “And you don’t need that ridiculous outfit, either. The air is fine.”

“Yes, yes, I know what you said. But, hear me out. And please don’t be offended… but… if you say you’re Lucifer and you are Lucifer from The Bible, then you would be the Lord of Lies and The Betrayer of God.”

“That is what they say, yes.”

“Than how can I believe anything you say is the truth?” Theo proffered.

“Well… let’s suppose my every word is a lie. Shouldn’t that prove to you I am The Lord of Lies?” Lucifer countered. “Or… antithetically, perhaps the more truths I reveal, the less likely it is that I am Lucifer.”

Theo stared at him, confounded. His voice was smooth and deep as the lowest note on a bass. And there was an alluring quality in its cadence, something mysterious meant to manipulate his feelings. The creature strategically talked in circles to disarm him and make him vulnerable, he suspected.  

“You see now why I didn’t want to have this conversation through a closed bunker door? What you are seeking is proof that I am he. But tell me: What proof do you require? What is it you need to hear? What act should I perform to convince you I am Lucifer?”

Theo shrugged. He never even had time to consider that question.

“Do you have testimony you can cross-reference or a history book you can fact-check in order to determine my legitimacy? Do you have graphs or charts or witnesses that can corroborate my claims?”

Theo stood there like a child being scolded. But in the back of his mind, weighed his chances of fleeing the creature on foot. He didn’t like his odds at all.

“You are requiring me to provide you with proof to support my claim, yet, you have no feasible method to discern whether I’m telling the truth. Doesn’t that seem absurd?” Lucifer was clearly becoming agitated again. “Let me make something perfectly clear to you, Theodore. I am not the one being scrutinized. You are. It is your mettle that’s being tested here And if you don’t fit into my plans…. than you don’t fit into my plans.” Lucifer said bluntly; letting the not-so-subtle-threat sink in.

“I’m sorry. I meant no offense,” Theodore apologized. “This is just… this is too much to take in right now. If you really are Lucifer than you should be able to understand my position. I can’t be the only one that’s ever stood before you in disbelief. I’m just asking for some small shred of proof to help settle my doubts. Is that really too much to ask?”

“Well, aren’t you a clever boy,” Lucifer said derisively, “subtly tossing responsibility back into my lap after we’d already established the onus was on you. This is not the best starting point for us, Theodore.” The deep violet colored, bio-luminescent energy flared briefly inside Lucifer’s smooth black body then dimmed. “That being said, with your propensity for swift rebuttal I’ll bet you would’ve made for a pretty good lawyer had things gone …differently.”

Theo could not tell if he was being complimented or insulted. He assumed the latter.

“Think I’ll have to keep my eye on you… in the meantime, will this be convincing enough for you?” Lucifer said.

Lucifer put his hands on his hips, lowered his gaze, and gouged his stare into Theo’s eyes. To his amazement, Lucifer’s body seemed to inflate. His entire frame swelled in size and girth. His appendages enlarged proportionately with the increasing body mass. His skull expanded, chin elongated, and the black skin grew taut. His eyes, nose, and lips grew larger. At the top of his brow, sprung a pair of horns. They stretched up and back passed his head, then curled down towards his back and shoulders. As thick as Theo’s arm, the horns formed the shape of a ‘C’ along both sides of his head. And to top off his gaudy display, Lucifer unfurled a set of wings that, when fully extended, stretched about fifteen feet wide. Three distinct sinewy appendages, like fingers, jutted down from the primary arm of each wing. Opaque leathery flesh, which Theo assumed was for flight, stretched across his field of vision, blocking out the sun. The once faint purplish color emitted through his skin was now a bright crimson color. The active bio-luminescence reminded Theo of a plasma globe where the energy rushes to meet your hand. Overall, the image of the Ruler of Hell was intimidating, yet utterly majestic at the same time.

“Is this more convincing?” Lucifer bared his fangs. The red energy glowed in his throat.

“Yes.” Theo answered sheepishly. It wasn’t his intention to spar with the creature.  

“Well, this has hardly been amusing, Theodore. And time is not something we have to spare. I came here to save you, and that is precisely what I’m going to do. If you are uncertain of my intentions, you can always find comfort in the fact that I chose not to disembowel you. I have not reanimated the dead to tear you limb from limb. I have been polite, patient and respectful. That fact alone should warrant some sliver of your trust.” Lucifer insisted. “Plus, if I wanted you dead, I would’ve forced you to slit your own throat when I possessed you.”

“You possessed me?” Theo trembled at the thought. “You were in my head?”

“Yes. Possession tells me most everything about an individual. A person’s constitution is usually reflected in their inner voice. But, sometimes, you humans will internally rationalize one way and then contradict those feelings externally. It is the conundrum of the human mind. That is the difficulty in deciding who to save and who to discard. Don’t be troubled by it. I just need to determine if you’re a psychopath or not. Can’t have a rabid dog on my hands.”

“And?” Theo asked facetiously.

“I think the verdict is still out on that one, Theodore. You are an interesting sort. Your inner voice is a force to be reckoned with, no doubt about that. Your will is strong, almost to the point of stubbornness. And you’re reasonable to a fault. You overestimate your intelligence. Your dreams are interesting, too.”

Theo wondered if Lucifer was referring to the nightmare he had earlier. Was Lucifer responsible for those images? Did playing around in Theo’s head cause that bizarre dream?

“As a sign of good faith, I’ll even let you bring your gun.”

“Would it even hurt you?” Theo asked.

“Not in the least.” Lucifer responded. “Now, I have specific requirements that demand attention. We need to get moving. Go grab the gas cans from the barn and load them in the back of the truck. We’ll probably need the generator and a battery charger too. There’s no way that hunk of junk-” referring to his uncle’s truck “-is ready to roll as is. And for God’s sake, take off that worthless outfit.”

Without hesitation, Theo did exactly as he was told. The last thing he wanted was Lucifer to interpret his cautiousness as stubbornness. So, as preposterous as this unlikely scenario was, he just needed to remain quiet and accept the situation.  

It took about twenty minutes to takeoff the hazmat suit, stow the petrol, top off the engine’s fluids, and start the motor. After that, Theo noticed Lucifer changing his shape. His once enormous ten-foot mass shrank like a slowly deflating balloon. His wings retracted, folded, and disappeared into the flesh of his back. The horns retreated back into his head. At the end of his deformation, Lucifer was no taller than an average person.

“How did you do that?”

“Magic,” he responded sarcastically and headed to the passenger side of the truck. “And, just so you don’t bother asking me later… I don’t drive.”

“Where are we going?” Theo inquired; climbing behind the wheel.

“The Garden of Eden,” was Lucifer’s response.

They were on the road for about an hour. In a show of peacefulness, Lucifer played the hospitable guest. He politely inquired about various segments of Theo’s life before the Apocalypse; family, parents, girlfriends. It was a peculiar exchange; more like the standard banter between distant relatives at a family reunion. Nonetheless, he reciprocated Lucifer’s banal questions with his own mundane, cliched answers. Beneath the surface of their conversation, though, he couldn’t overcome the sinking feeling he was more of a captive on this journey than a volunteer.

As they navigated through the hills of his mountain town, the brisk wind passing through Lucifer’s open window suggested it was mid to late September. Everywhere he looked varying shades of green plant life offset the depressing, dull brown complexion brought on by the Apocalypse. It was beautiful, refreshing and rousing all at the same time. Theo had to settle himself down, remember to concentrate on the road to avoid miscellaneous debris and downed tree limbs. But, after they’d passed through two tornado ravaged villages and one flooded valley, he no longer had to temper his enthusiasm. The sobering, somber sight of innumerable corpses in various stages of decomposition saw to that. In a creek that ran perpendicular to the dirt road they travelled, bloated, half-rotten human bodies choked the waterway like a dam. In fields and the acreage they passed, bleached white skeletons lay unceremoniously strewn about like litter. Sometimes, the bodies lie heaped in the middle of the road. It was morbidly obvious that no one had been spared the indignities of death. Except, of course, Theo. Which was why all these scenes of death were so difficult to compartmentalize. Who was he that he should be spared? What made him so special?

As they drove for another hour in silence, Theo waited for the worst. He imagined Lucifer sliding over, grabbing the wheel and yanking the truck into a tree. He pictured him reaching out to touch his leg, causing him to spontaneously combust. But it didn’t happen. Nothing bad happened. Lucifer never acted in the manner of the horrible creature so many Sunday school sermons across the world depicted him. In fact, Lucifer had been more polite than most cashiers he’d encountered. The unbelievable juxtaposition of an amicable devil subsequently threatened to send Theo’s brain into a tailspin. Everything he ever knew was subverted by this cordial version of Lucifer. If he didn’t find something else to distract his thoughts, he was afraid he might go mad.

When they reached Interstate 64, Lucifer told Theo to head west.

Another thirty minutes passed before the undeniable absurdity of the situation finally struck Theo like a bolt of lightning. He still could not rationalize the enormity of events in which he found himself. The world had ended. He could see it with his own eyes and yet, somehow, it still felt unreal. He prayed to wake up in his bunker so this crazy, horrible dream could mercifully end. But it never did. Every time he looked over to the passenger side of the truck, The Lord of Hell was riding shotgun as if they were just two chums out for a road trip. And where were they going? The Garden of Eden… it was utterly insane!

“You’re remarkably quiet,” Lucifer said.

Startled by the sound of his voice, Theo jumped in his seat. He’d been lost in his thoughts and nearly forgot he was driving. He jammed on the brakes; bringing the truck to a screeching halt. Lucifer looked at him as if he’d just tossed a crucifix in his lap.

“I’m sorry….I have to pee really bad,” Theo lied and exited the truck. Once outside, the fresh air filled his nostrils with some much needed oxygen and clarity. He wandered over to a tree set off the highway and disappeared behind it. He flirted again with the thought of running away, but knew it was pointless. If Lucifer had been inside his head, then he probably expected that move already. The wisest thing, he figured, was to wait.

By the time he finished his business, his wits and reason had returned. He felt as normal as he was ever going to feel.

“Is everything alright?” Lucifer asked. The energy beneath his black, glass-like skin was back to a dark purple color.

“Yeah. Everything’s fine.” Theo answered and began driving again. “I’m just trying to wrap my brain around everything. It’s uh… it’s really a lot to take in.”

“If this is so difficult to comprehend, then why haven’t you opened your mouth? Why haven’t you asked me any questions?”

“Uh… I don’t know… I’ve just been concentrating on the road, I guess,” Theo fibbed. He didn’t dare admit that he was afraid to engage him for fear of being manipulated or coerced into doing God knows what.

“So, if I’m hearing you correctly, you’re saying that every ounce of brain power you have is being used to push a gas pedal and hold a steering wheel,” Lucifer said sardonically. “Well….I had much higher hopes for you than that, Theodore. But…what can you do? Your limitations are your limitations. Perhaps it’s just best if you pull over now so I can remove that worthless head of yours. Maybe it’ll be more useful as maggot food?”

“What!?” Theo shrieked.

Lucifer let out a long, hearty laugh: “You don’t like that idea? Then I guess we better figure something out, because we seem to have some miscommunication going on here.”

Theo said nothing. He was too busy trying not to hyperventilate.

“I don’t think you were quiet the last few hours because you concentrated on driving. I think that’s a lie. In fact, I believe your silence is due to your mistrust of me.”

Theo tried to come up with a quick answer, but his tongue betrayed him. Instead, he stuttered and stammered his way through a line of gibberish.

“If we can’t trust each other, Theodore, we won’t make it very far… literally or figuratively. So, we need to reset and begin anew. Now, my reassurances of good intentions can only go so far. At some point, you have to drop your defenses and allow our relationship an opportunity to grow,” Lucifer said.

Theo pondered his point and regretfully envisioned no other option than to engage him. Maybe he was telling the truth. If he was going to make sense of everything that happened during the last couple of years, he probably needed Lucifer’s help. There was no other way. He had to ignore his personal emotions, let go of all apprehension, and consider the grander scheme. After all, he was sitting next to the second most powerful being in the universe, wasn’t he? Why not utilize the occasion to build a dialogue?

“You’re right… you’re right… I actually have a million questions I’d like to ask. But I was scared I might anger you and you’d kill me.”

“If I was going to hurt you, Theodore, you’d already be dead. So… you have nothing to fear. Ask me anything you like. We have a long trip ahead of us. We might as well pass the time by getting to know each other,” Lucifer reasoned.

“Ok,” Theo said; continuing to drive down the Interstate. “I guess I’ll just come right out with it then. Are there any other survivors? I mean… I can’t be the only one, can I? If I survived in that homemade fallout shelter than lots of people must have made it.”

“That’s logical thinking. And you are right… more than a few million people survived.”

“Oh, wow!” Theo exclaimed. “Really?”

“Yes. But, God wanted me to kill the rest of you so…. sorry to let you down, kiddo.” Lucifer tried hard not to smile. His calloused indifference struck a nerve in Theo.

“You don’t have to sound so heartless about it,” Theo said. Now this was the devil he’d been expecting all along.

“How should I sound?”

Theo wondered: How should the Lord of Hell sound when talking about taking human life? Remorseful? Tearful? None of the above? He did not give an answer.

“I was acting on direct orders from God, Theodore. I was not created with a conscience or empathy. I don’t have a heart or a soul. So, if I come across as cold or unsympathetic to matters of emotional importance to you, don’t be fazed by it. I will never be the shoulder you seek to soak up your tears. But, if I can remember, I’ll try to be less… heartless.”

“I would appreciate that. Thank you.” Theo said incredulously. It was not the response he was expecting. “But… why should I believe it was God who caused all this death and destruction? Wouldn’t it logically make more sense that you were the author of all this carnage? It would certainly explain a lot of things…”

“Would it? Or would it just provide you the easy explanation you’re looking for?” Lucifer countered.

“What do you mean by that?”

“What I mean, Theodore, is that blaming me for the Apocalypse allows you to still feel good about yourself. However, if you blamed God, if you admitted your all-caring, ever-loving Lord gave up on you, your ego would be unable or unwilling to process that. You would have to acknowledge you aren’t as precious as you once thought. So, the idea that maintains your fiction and keeps God high atop a pedestal is that it must be my fault. I am the simple answer allowing you to remain blameless.” Lucifer said; his words perfectly barbed.

Theo saw the pointlessness of arguing the question and dropped the subject. Lucifer would’ve only insisted upon his innocence anyway, and he had no way to prove or disprove his words. So, he switched gears:

“Was this the Apocalypse foretold in the bible?”

“Yes.”

“Does that mean there’s going to be an Antichrist and a thousand years of hell on earth?”

“Well, that would just be redundant, wouldn’t it?” Lucifer quipped.

“I suppose so,” Theo managed a half-hearted laugh.

“Preordained or not, does it matter? The end is the end. Is that really what you wanted to ask?”

“No, not really. I guess what’s really been bugging me is why you want to save me? It’s unnecessary. I was fine back at my uncle’s house. When the food ran out, I would’ve eventually emerged from the bunker. I would’ve learned the air was breathable, that there was no one around to harm me. So, why the urgency?”

“Actually, I’ve been saving you for quite some time now. You didn’t think you were surviving this apocalypse all on your own, did you? I slaughtered dozens of cannibal gangs near your town that would’ve cooked and eaten you. Didn’t you think for a second perhaps somebody was watching over you?” Lucifer asked.

“I did think that…. but, I thought it was….” Theo stuttered. He was about to say God, but thought better of it. “I mean… I didn’t think it was you. How could I know it was you? It wouldn’t even make sense to assume you were looking out for me.”

“Well, you better get used to it, Theodore. We’re living in strange times now.” Lucifer stared out the window as if pondering a deeper meaning to his words. “Strange times.”

“What I can’t figure out is why. Why me? What’s so special about me?”

“I understand your confusion, Theodore. But, you’ll just have to trust me. Even though it may all seem pointless right now, there’s a valuable lesson to remember for the future.” Lucifer said.

“And what lesson would that be?” Theo asked.

“That even in the blackest depths of Hell, there is always hope…”

Theo nodded but, at the same time, realized Lucifer had carefully side-stepped his question.

As they approached Charleston, West Virginia, Theo was forced to slow down. The number of vehicles crashed, burned, driven off the shoulder or just plain abandoned were too many to maintain his current speed. All around them fire had ravaged and gutted the city. Windowless buildings and charred brick facades made Theo think of WWII pictures he saw in history class after the Germans had firebombed London. It was eerie to think the two-hundred thousand residents who once thrived here were all dead now. A pang of guilt churned in his stomach. Goosebumps broke the surface of his arms. Respectively, Theo said nothing until they passed the crumbled buildings and demolished suburbs. Then he tried to talk about anything other than the surrounding obliteration.

“How did the Universe come to be?” he blurted.

“Well….” Lucifer paused; clearly surprised by the brevity of his inquiry. “God exhaled, and the Universe came out.”

“What?” Theo mouthed in disbelief. He didn’t know what he expected, but clearly, that was not it.

“Is that not sufficient for you?” Lucifer returned. “Would you rather He snapped his fingers, and Creation came to be? Or is the idea of a big bang explosion more desirous? Which concept suits you better?”

“I don’t know. I guess I assumed something else.” Theo waited for Lucifer to fess up to a good-natured ribbing yet, none was forthcoming.

“The question you should really ask yourself is: What happens when God inhales?” Lucifer sneered, but Theo was not amused. “Listen, I realize the answer feels important to you. But, the truth is… I don’t think God remembers how he made it. Fourteen billion years have come and gone since the Universe came into existence. That’s a lot of time to forget. So, whether He breathed it to life or created it in a lab, it doesn’t matter. We’re here. The rest is immaterial.”

“Does God know how He came to be, or is that unknown too?”

“He confessed to me He didn’t know. He said, it felt to Him as if He’d always existed but He couldn’t remember being born.” Lucifer said. “We contemplated the matter over several millenniums, but, He could never recall where He came from or who or what may have created Him. Eventually, we just deemed the answer unknowable and the subject never came up again. But, I know it perturbed Him having no answer to that question.” Lucifer admitted. “I know I found it quite amusing.”

“So… are you saying that God doesn’t know everything?” Theo asked, bewildered. “Can that really be true?”

“He doesn’t know I’m trying to save you,” Lucifer replied.

Or He just doesn’t care, Theo thought to himself. And given the morbid sights he’d witnessed on their journey, that depressing notion was most likely the cold, bitter reality now. God didn’t know everything, and even worse, He no longer cared.

“I’m starting to enjoy this little history lesson, Theodore. Most humans I’ve endured only want to know about conspiracy theories, spousal infidelities, or their own mortality. But you… you’re different from most others. Whether that’s good or bad remains to be seen. At the very least, though, it’ll make for a tolerable ride. What else have you got bouncing around in that cranium of yours?”  

“My uncle once told me we are… that we were… created in the image of God. Is that true? Did God create us in His image?”

“Nope. That is a lie perpetuated by false holy men. You see, when a man declares himself made in the image of a god, he is cleverly crafting the idea that he is god-like. By doing so, deceitful men can then lay claim to the attributes they’ve ascribed to their version of God; infallibility, supreme wisdom, divine providence, and the right to rule. But all of it, every last word of it, is an outright lie,” Lucifer explained. “God is without form, without restriction. He does not have an image unless He wills Himself one. The truth, regrettably for you, is far less dramatic as you are only the grandchildren of monkeys.”

“That’s insulting,” Theo remarked.

“To whom? You or the monkeys?”

Theo shot Lucifer a dirty look.

“You don’t find it blasphemous to insist God fashioned you in His image? Is your ego so maniacally arrogant you associate your looks with The Supreme Being of the universe?” Lucifer cringed. “HA! Do you think He squats to piss and shit too? Or, if you fancy He is She, does She bleed from Her womb every month? Do you think His nose runs with snot or His ears fill with wax? Do you think He suffers from bad breath, body odor, and smelly feet?” Lucifer asked incredulously.

“Well, no, of course I don’t believe that,” Theo quickly clarified.

“Are those disgusting factors more closely linked to monkeys or a divine being? What does your common sense tell you?”

“I thought all of those things resulted from=” Theo started to say.

“Those are all parts of human existence. Those are acts you perform. In fact, the reason you trim your nails, cut your hair, shave your face, brush your teeth, put on deodorant and wash your body with soap is to distance yourself from the monkeys…. or did you think those acts were part of a heavenly ritual?” Lucifer wasn’t finished. “Every time you stick your hand into the crack of your buttocks to wipe away excrement, it should remind you that divinity is not your heritage.”

Theo did not respond.

“As a point of fact, I should tell you that the oldest recorded use of toilet paper comes nearly two-thousand years after they’d begun writing the Old Testament….”

“Uh… why does that matter?” Theo frowned.

“It matters, Theodore, because holy men declared to know for a fact they were made in the image of God. Yet, they didn’t know enough to wipe the shit from their asses before they said it…” Lucifer let his words sink in before continuing. “Doesn’t that smell funny to you?”

Theo still said nothing.

“I guess that’s a rhetorical question, huh?” Lucifer said annoyed. “What I’m trying to do here, Theodore, is create an alternative way of thinking. Despite what your phony priests and ignorant parents have taught you, the animal kingdom is thoroughly entrenched within you. You must know that. You must see it, understand it, and live like it. You have no divine rights. You do not have a monopoly on righteousness. Your struggle to survive is the same as every other creature. Your kind, your species is nothing more than the benefactors of mutations within the primate family. There’s no shame in that fact. There’s no harm in believing that. And whenever you think you’re created in God’s image, it can only lead to detrimental reasoning. So, don’t be afraid to remind yourself, you are just food on a menu. Imagine every bear mauling, shark attack, bee sting and tick bite as evidence of your place. Think of a mosquito feeding on your blood…. it derives the same nutrients from you as it would from a rat. That’s because you are a part of Nature, not above it. Treat your existence with this knowledge and things will be better for you.” Lucifer finished.

They continued driving as the sun set. Before long, Theo realized he had to urinate. So Lucifer, who couldn’t pass up an insult, told him to pull over and lift his leg like a dog. While he stood on the side of the road relieving himself, out across a field, he spotted what looked to be deer wandering slowly across the land.

“I thought everything was dead. It looks like there’s deer over there,” Theo pointed out. “Oh… there’s a flock of birds flying over those trees way back there.”

“There’s plenty of wildlife left. It wasn’t their Armageddon, remember?”

That made Theo smile. If there were animals than that meant there were edible plants, too. Life was returning.

He zipped himself up, hopped back in the truck, and continued driving. It was now dark. They passed through Ohio into Indiana. When they reached interstate 65, they travelled north. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to see, which meant there was nothing to hold Theo’s attention. And after twelve hours of driving, he could barely keep his eyes open enough to avoid pot-holes, skeletal remains and other random obstacles. Lucifer suggested they pull over so Theo could get some rest. He didn’t think it possible to sleep with the devil by his side, but exhaustion proved him wrong.

In a few minutes, he was snoring.

When Theo awoke, the sun was glaring through the dirty windshield. Lucifer, still seated beside him, was first to speak:

“I found a hose so you can syphon gas for the cans.”

“Ok…” Theo rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Where are we? I don’t even remember getting this far, I was so tired.”

“Just outside of Chicago,” Lucifer responded. “That is where you’ll get your carnage, Theodore.”

The ride was quiet. He had never been this far from his home. After an hour, the city of Chicago, at least what was left of it, came into view. Two of their iconic skyscrapers were sheered off mid section by some tempest or other. The third building, the one that Theo thought to be the old Sears tower, had toppled like a felled tree onto the rooftops of the structures below it. Iron beams and jagged steel girders poked up through the rubble and debris like broken, busted bones. If the entire world was a graveyard, Theo thought, then this city, and thousands of others just like it, were the tombstones.

They came upon a scene where a dozen cars and trucks appeared to have been pushed to clear a path. Dozens of bodies lay in crumpled heaps around the sides of the automobiles as well. Mostly skeletal and stripped of their flesh now, Theo wondered if they’d been the ones to move the vehicles.

“What happened here?” Theo said aloud, not really expecting an answer.

“Some roads we have to travel were bottle-necked, or completely cut-off. So while you were safe and sound in your bunker, I had to clear the road for us.”

“You? You cleared the way?”

“Well… if you need me to be specific, I reanimated whatever corpses were around to clear a path. Physical labor is not my specialty. Nothing I could do about all the collapsed bridges, though. We’re just gonna have to make our way around them.”

So they navigated around the impassable roads; taking detours through demolished suburbs and obliterated neighborhoods. Lucifer stared out the windshield, giving Theo directions, but offered nothing in the way of conversation or of his plans for him. And as much as he wanted to pry, he refrained from doing so in fear of being perceived as meddlesome. But the monotonous humming sound of truck tires speeding along asphalt was threatening his sanity. He had to focus on something, anything else. So he raised a fairly common existential subject that would not be viewed as hostile but would also take his mind off the road.

“Why did God allow bad things to happen to good people?” Theo asked.

“Well, now we’re jumping right into the warm, bloody guts of it, aren’t we?” Lucifer sounded almost exuberant. “Well, there’s a couple of choices for you on this matter. One, bad things happen to good people because God wants it or, two, He cannot prevent it. If the second scenario is true, it means God is not as powerful as you imagined Him to be. But, if the first scenario is true, it means God is not as loving and merciful as you believe Him to be. So, pick your disappointment: Does He want bad things to happen to good people or is He too impotent to stop them from happening?”

Theo fell silent for a moment. He considered neither of those options before. When he’d asked his uncle the question just after his parents died, his uncle told him God had a plan for everyone and left it at that. Back then, he was too young to consider seriously the subject, so his answer seemed plausible. But now that he was older, it was ridiculous. But, rather than rack his brain over it, he moved on to another popular question.

“Why did God create evil?”

“Define evil,” Lucifer said.

“The opposite of good,” Theo parried.

“Well, what is good? Define good.”

“Kindness. Love. Sympathy. Charity.”

“Oh… so all the things that are pleasing to you?” Lucifer asked.

“They’re pleasing to everyone. So, yes, they are good.”

“And is everything that displeases you considered evil?”

“No, that’s not what I said. I hate broccoli, but I don’t consider it evil. I’m talking about rape and murder and child abuse. I’m talking about people who, not only commit those acts but, derive pleasure from it,” Theo clarified.

“So…. distasteful violence? Is that what you consider evil?”

“Don’t play coy. You know exactly what I mean. I’m referring to evil men committing evil deeds.” Theo pressed.

“Do you call the lion evil when it kills the cubs of a lioness to put her in heat? Do you believe new born spiders that devour their mother for sustenance are evil? Does a canine not derive pleasure when it mounts the neighbor’s dog without invitation? Violence and rape are inherent in Nature, Theodore.” Lucifer said with nonchalance.

“Those are animals. I’m talking about sadistic human beings who know the difference between right and wrong and still do wrong,” Theo clarified. “Or is it your contention that rape and murder aren’t bad?”

“Are you asking me philosophically or personally?”

Theo hesitated; missing Lucifer’s poor attempt at levity.

“It’s all just behavior, Theodore. Just because you ascribe it a label, good, bad, or evil, doesn’t make it so.” Lucifer clarified.

“I refuse to accept your answer. No offense, but I just don’t believe what you’re saying.”

“Ok…” Lucifer conceded. “Let’s go back to the beginning of time. Maybe a more simplistic approach is what we’re looking for… when God exhaled and gave birth to the universe, all the elements necessary to create life were included. And then… nine billion years after the formation of the universe, your solar system came to form. Are you following me so far?”

“Yes.”

“Ok, good. Then, around four billion years ago, the first life on earth appeared on your planet. And did you know… it wasn’t a man or a woman. Are you still with me?”

“Yeah, I got it. You don’t have to talk to me like I’m seven years old. I understand evolution,” Theo said, annoyed.

“Do you? Great! So, life did not develop through divine intervention. It happened through divine evolution. One day, in the primordial ooze, the elements needed to create life suddenly came together. Why? Because He made the universe to do such things. He made it so that sunlight, gravity, elements and opportunity would do the bulk of the creating for Him.” Lucifer said.

“Don’t get too technical on me,” Theo joked.

“Oh?” Lucifer completely missed the attempt at humor. “You require mathematical equations and scientific formulas, do you? You want to talk about protons, electrons, quarks, bosons and fermions? You need to hear specific equations regarding electromagnetic fields, solar radiation, photons, gravitons, and dark matter? Is that it?”

“I was just kidding,” Theo said sheepishly, immediately regretting his poor decision. But he was not to be swayed from his point. “What does any of it have to do with evil?”

“We’re getting to that….” Lucifer scolded. “From the moment that inorganic matter evolved into organic matter, the fight for survival began. In that fateful biological birth, the processes and developments for all cellular replication came to be. Primitive, single-celled organisms procreated and diversified into advanced multi-celled organisms. These cells programmed themselves to fight, to defend, to further their existence in any manner they could muster. The cell learned it was in its own best interest to behave selfishly.” Lucifer paused.

“And what does this have to do with evil?” Theo repeated.

“Shut your mouth and find out,” Lucifer snapped, his patience worn thin. ”You are a conglomeration of individual cells acting together to perpetuate itself at the cost of anything and everything around it. Self-preservation and perpetuation is all that matters. It is not good. It is not bad. There is no murder. There is no homicide or genocide or malice or evil.”

Theo shook his head, pursed his lips.

“That still doesn’t suit you?” Lucifer marveled; perturbed by Theo’s continued stubbornness. “Why don’t you try stepping out of your narrow, simplistic frame of reference and examine your existence from a different angle, Theodore? Imagine this… as a child, you are born selfish, without the concept of good and evil. And almost immediately after your birth the idea of right and wrong is then lectured, threatened, spanked and punished into your brain until you form a conscience that other people around you will find acceptable. You are then raised under a set of morals, of rights and wrongs predetermined for you by your parents, churches, teachers, schools and governments. To put it simpler, you’re coerced into behaving in a way that seeks to separate you from your nature,” Lucifer explained. “When you follow these predetermined sets of rules, people say you are good. However, if you ignore these rules, they say you are evil. And it is from this narrow vantage point you have viewed human behavior.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Theo asked, still uncertain as to Lucifer’s point. “That’s why we have a society where people function according to the rules. It’s how we all get along.”

“But you don’t all get along, Theodore. As unpalatable as it may be, there was, is and will always be a certain percentage of humans that commit murder and rape. Statistically, there will always be a specific number of pedophiles that roam your neighborhoods. The same can be said for wife-beaters, child abusers, thieves and violent offenders. From the narrow vantage point of your perspective, it’s convenient to use terms like ‘good and evil’. But on a larger scale, on a global scale, it is all just behavior. There is no such thing as ‘good’ or ‘evil’. They’re made-up words designed to distance yourself from those you find distasteful.”

“Oh, that’s ridiculous,“ Theo spat, which made Lucifer chuckle.

“I’m sorry, Theodore. But as much as you wish to shun yourself from other humans and their behavior, you are all still human. You don’t get to cherry pick the ones you like and hide the rest like dirty little secrets.” Lucifer rebuked. “You think that by calling someone evil, they are not a part of humanity or even related to you. It is simply untrue. Cannibals eat human flesh. But you are a human that does not eat human flesh. Does that mean cannibals are not humans? Of course not. They are as much a part of your family tree as anyone. But, because they don’t fit some preconceived, contrived notion of what a human should be, you conveniently claim them to be different. You simply made up terms to distance yourself from the humans you don’t like.”

Theo grunted disapprovingly.

“You all think you’re different from one another. You think that skin color and basic aesthetics are indicators of your uniqueness. You believe the flags you were born under and the lands upon which you were birthed separate you. They do not. And even though you personally do not act out in the manner of rapists or pedophiles, you are all still human and therefore, related.”

Theo shook his head; refusing to accept what he was hearing.

“If you’re going to ask questions, Theodore, at least try to pretend to listen. Otherwise, what’s the point of asking in the first place?”

“I am listening. You are trying to tell me that cold-blooded murderers aren’t evil.”

“I’ll ask you again, Theodore, what is evil? Define evil.”

Theo hesitated to answer. His frustration was becoming apparent.

“Is evil a thing or an entity like a ghost? Can it be seen or is it invisible? Does it have a form? What does it look like? Where does it live? Where does it go? Does it need to feed or is it a self-sustaining organism? How does it get around? Does it fly or teleport? Does it ride the bus? How does it find and choose victims? Can it be defeated or is it eternal?“ Lucifer pressed. “The problem, Theodore, is you haven’t considered the reality of such a concept before you accepted it as being factual. You didn’t think it through. And do you know why you never contemplated the matter? Because it was easier to point your finger at me. Go ahead, absolve the humans of personal responsibility. Let the unfavorable humans off the hook and hang me from it instead.”

“That’s not- “

“Not what, Theodore?” Lucifer cut him off. “Is that still not convenient enough for you? Why don’t you answer me this: When a human is nice, is it because God blessed them more than the others? Is a human only nice because I could not corrupt their spirit?”

“No,” Theo responded; reluctantly accepting Lucifer’s point. “They’re nice because it’s in their nature to be nice.”

“That’s right. And just as it’s in their nature to be nice, it’s also in their nature to be not so nice. The days of shirking responsibility must be over, Theodore. As much fun as it is to say, ‘the devil made me do it.’ There must be a change. For how can you possibly cure someone that’s been diagnosed with a phony ailment?” Lucifer surmised.

Lucifer sounded more and more like a life-coach or a self-help guru than the Lord of Darkness. Personal responsibility? It was bonkers! Maybe he wasn’t the Beast everyone claimed him to be? Then again, maybe he was still the Master of Lies and he was only manipulating Theo?

“If there’s no such thing as evil, then how can you be here? How do you exist if there’s no such thing as evil?” Theo couldn’t let the subject go.

“I see we’re getting low on gas again…” Lucifer remarked. Theo could see him clenching his fists; a sure sign of agitation. A spark of electricity surged through his body and went dim. It appeared as if he were forcing himself to maintain his composure.

“You told me to ask you questions,” Theo defended. “Do you not want me to ask questions?”

“It’s been awhile since I’ve chatted with a human, especially for this long. Don’t take it personally.” His tone was not the least bit apologetic. “And we’re still low on gas.”

Theo stopped the car, filled up the gas tank and relieved himself. He pulled a power-bar out of his pocket and devoured it in two bites. He was famished. Thanks to all the preservatives, it still had some flavor. He briefly thought about offering one to Lucifer, but realized he didn’t know if he even required food. So, he kept his offer to himself.

He resumed driving; eventually passing through Wisconsin and into Minnesota.

“Can we get back to my earlier question?” Theo wondered. “I asked you if there’s no such thing as evil, then how can you exist?”

“I see,” Lucifer began, “If I exist and there’s no such thing as evil, then I cannot be evil. Or… I am evil and my existence is proof of that evil. Correct?”

“Yes.”

“Have you considered a third option? All of your so called ‘truths’ are merely presumptions which result in you asking ridiculously biased questions.”

Theo moved to interject, but Lucifer would not relent.

“Slanted questions can only lead to slanted answers, Theodore. For example, because I exist, you believe that evil must exist. But, why haven’t you considered the idea you don’t know everything you think you know. Why haven’t you considered the fact you could be wrong?”

Theo remained silent.

“Or there’s a fourth option, isn’t there? A secret option that you’ve kept quietly against your breast,” Lucifer accused. “You think I must be lying.”

“I didn’t say that!”

“Relax, Theodore. I will not gouge out your tongue for questioning me. Heated debate is how we learn things. I can accept your doubts without prejudice.” Lucifer said calmly. “I don’t even mind explaining my birth and subsequent persecution for you to elaborate my point.”

“OK,” Theo said and breathed a sigh of relief.

“When the universe came into existence, God recognized it as an autonomous system. As volatile and fluctuating a system as it was, it functioned perfectly well without Him. However, He didn’t like that. He meddled, He interfered. Soon, He was infringing on the natural order of things so much He desired help. So, He created His host of righteous angels to be assistants and such. But they were no more than mindless lackeys and errand boys; lacking creativity and inventiveness. That was problematic, for what God really required was to be challenged in His endeavors. He needed to be questioned, to be opposed and doubted. He knew that debate led to wisdom, that inquiry led to breakthroughs. He needed someone like me. So, He made me to be His counterpoint.” Lucifer explained. “But, my arrival pushed His grovelling angels to the background. And, realizing their usefulness had passed, the angels grew resentful of my relationship with Him. They falsely labeled me His adversary and enemy. Like old biddies over a backyard fence, they gossiped and spread rumors until the moniker of evil they assigned to me was something I could never shake.”

Theo found it difficult to believe a word of Lucifer’s explanation: “So… in other words… God created you because He couldn’t meddle on His own? He doesn’t know everything, and He needed help?”

“This is the second time we’ve addressed this issue, Theodore.” Lucifer sighed impatiently. “The problem you can’t seem to rectify is your desire to call me evil and to have an omnipotent deity. But those two things can’t be true at the same time, can they?”

Theodore considered the question for a long time but didn’t like the answer.

“I’ll assume your silence to be an admission of ignorance than….” Lucifer let the quiet settle between them before speaking again. “When my answers don’t fit your narrative, you become mulish. So, maybe you don’t want your precious little world and all it’s preconceived notions threatened or taken away? I suggest we reverse our roles here. Why don’t I ask you about the mysteries of the universe? Then you can use all your worldly wisdom to provide me with all the things I don’t know about..”

Theo caught his sarcasm like a kick to the groin. His reluctance to settle for Lucifer’s responses was not because he was paradoxically stuck between two ideas. No. It was the strange sensation he was being manipulated, which left him feeling skeptical. However, in order to keep the peace, and his life, he did not pursue the matter any further. Instead, he moved on to another question:

“What was the initial reason that inspired God to create you?”

“Entropy.”

“Entropy?” Theo repeated. It was peculiar to him that Lucifer was never caught off guard; never short an answer.

“From atoms to rocks to people to stars; from language, concepts, ideas, beliefs and governments, everything decays. Good, bad, right, wrong, intentional or accidental, it is the consequence of all existence in the Universe. But it was not what God wanted. So, on His own, He interfered with atoms and elements, light and gravity. The results were ineffectual at best, catastrophic at worst. So He created me to aide Him in His divine enterprises. But our experiments were fruitless; neutralizing the effects of entropy was impossible.”

“But if God could create the angels to last forever, why couldn’t He create everything to last forever?” Theo reasoned.

“The only thing that is eternal in God’s creation is the essence of God himself. But God is not a part of creation. Consequently, anything made from His essence, such as the angels and I, are not a part of His creation.” Lucifer explained.

“So?” Theo returned. “What does that matter?”

“Imagine an artist paints a beautiful landscape scene. He’s taken great care to make the grass look real and the trees to appear as if they’re moving. And then at the end, he cuts out a picture of the sun from a magazine and glues it on the corner of the painting… what would you think?”

“I think it would be out of place,” Theo responded.

“Exactly. That’s exactly what God the artist thought, too. That’s why He didn’t want to put something in His creation that wasn’t a part of His creation.”

Theo understood. But was Lucifer actually telling the truth? So far, there was nothing harmful in what he’d said. Lies or no lies, Theo was not in any danger from the topics of their discussion. It was all just chatter. But the clear agitation Lucifer displayed when discussing whether he was evil certainly caught Theo’s attention.

It was time, again, for another bathroom break. After that, Theo siphoned gas from an abandoned car, filled up and was back to driving again. They were entering North Dakota now. Their conversation had really started his mind to wander into some serious philosophical realms.

“Was Jesus real?” Theo asked.

“Yes.”

“Was he the son of God?”

“No. He was the culmination of curious tinkering. God convinced himself that humans could be perfect creatures. He thought they could become more than what their animal instincts made them. So He experimented with human DNA; eventually removing traits from the genome He believed impeded their progress. The result was Jesus. I advised Him against it. I told Him the humans would only resent and fear Him… you know the rest.”

“So He was a man?”

“Yes, Theo, he was a man. He wasn’t a god. He wasn’t a deity. He was an experiment, a better version of you.”

“So all the things they said he did are untrue?” Theo wondered.

“Obviously they’re untrue. You can’t feed a few thousand people with just a single basket of bread and fish. You can’t walk on water or raise a man from the dead. Well, at least, he couldn’t raise a man from the dead,” Lucifer remarked; referencing his own ability to resurrect.

“Is any of the New Testament true?”

“Nothing that matters,” Lucifer said bluntly. “If you took out all the embellishments, distortions and outright lies, the New Testament would be no bigger than a pamphlet.”

Theo didn’t wish to argue or end up stuck in an hours-long diatribe against the authors of The Bible. That was a matter best left ignored. But there was something he found peculiar: Why didn’t Lucifer want to be called Satan?

“So if you are Lucifer, who is Satan?”

“After you humans murdered Jesus, God was moments away from wiping you all off the face of the earth. His rage towards your irredeemable species was like nothing I’d ever witnessed before. He didn’t just want to punish; He wanted to brutalize you all. After several debates, we came up with the idea of Hell. Its purpose was to carry out two functions: One, it would act as a deterrent to bad behavior and, two, it would punish the wicked. Of course, with a prison intended for punishment, there must be one who punishes. But who was to be the eternal tormentor? God wanted nothing to do with it. His Host of Righteous angels weren’t equipped for such a task. So, naturally, responsibility fell to me. But I didn’t want to spend my time with you people either. So, I proposed to God we take all the horrible, worthless, leftover traits removed during the creation of Jesus and make a being to deliver the punishments of Hell for us. The result is the beast you know as Satan. Seemed proper that you all suffered from your own DNA.”

“So God didn’t create Hell until after Jesus died?”

“That is correct. It was an act of desperation, really. It should be somewhat comforting to know he hadn’t given up on you, right?.” Lucifer offered. “A parent that disciplines is a parent that still cares.”

Theo sighed.

“He gave you people more than enough chances to prove your worth and you failed Him every time…”

“You keep saying how we’re such terrible creatures… but if that’s true than why did God create Heaven for us?” Theo asked.

“Boy, you are a feisty one…” Lucifer commented. It wasn’t clear if he was poking fun at Theo or expressing his frustration. “To understand that, you must step outside of yourself and see there was a world filled with living creatures long before your kind ever evolved. Are you capable of that?”

“Yes.”

“Forgive me for implying that you couldn’t. But so many of your kind refused to believe what your natural sciences already proved. Anyway, back to the question...now, this tiny, insignificant planet with its astronomically improbable chances of surviving the formation of the solar system caught God’s attention. It gave Him joy to watch life emerge from the oceans; daring to tread on land. It saddened Him to see the great monstrous dinosaurs go extinct. The intricate ecology and biology that came and went fascinated Him. So, it was no surprise when the first monkeys descended from the trees that God had been paying close attention.” Lucifer paused as if He were expecting Theo to argue or interrupt. But he didn’t, so Lucifer continued. “Gradually those monkeys began to adapt, to change and evolve. They grew smarter, more dexterous. The closer God watched, the more affection He felt for them. When they eventually evolved into your species, He felt compelled to do something. He felt sorry, responsible even, that outside influences like predators, the elements and entropy seemed to cut their lives short. He wanted to help them live longer. But it was tricky. If He directly interfered, then their path would no longer be organic. It would be predetermined, pointless. He felt they would end up as the equivalent of pets being trained to rollover and fetch. And He fell in love with them because of their plight. So for Him to change that plight, He feared, would change His feelings for them. Instead, He came up with the concept of Heaven; a place of eternal happiness, free from struggle and pain. So He breathed His breath, His essence which is eternal, into them. That is the soul. And when they died, it was their soul that lived forever in Heaven. It was His way of trying to compensate for the perilous existence of man. A gracious gift actually… a really sympathetic gesture.”

“But yet, He still wiped us out….” Theo remarked.

“Of course… Why wouldn’t He? What else did you deserve as a species?” Lucifer asked, bewildered. “Why don’t I illuminate for you the very first time the humans broke God’s heart. Maybe then you can stop your self-pitying,” he scolded. “It wasn’t murder, rape or any other violent transgression that hurt Him. It was when humans tried to claim ownership of Him; when a small number of people began telling all the other humans that God loved them the most. And they compiled their phony claims into books; boasting that it was the word of God. Imagine… all the little creatures running around this planet proclaiming themselves to be God’s favorites. How despicable! And the people directly involved with those lies, the self-appointed priests and self-declared holy men, stole land and confiscated goods in His name. They enslaved men, women and children. They tortured and murdered innocent people; brought war and death to foreign soils.” Lucifer said. “So surely you can understand your diminished value in the eyes of the Creator, right?”

“When you say it like that, it sounds like the worst thing I’ve ever heard.,” Theo admitted. “I guess I can’t blame Him for being pissed off at us.”

“Absolutely. Yes. He gave you more than enough chances. He spared you from The Flood when He allowed Noah to build His ark. He restrained His vengeance to Sodom and Gomorrah. After the butchering of Jesus, He gave you all another chance. There was an additional reprieve granted after the detonation of two hydrogen bombs. But, this time, the nuclear detonation between India and Pakistan… that was it. No more second chances. No more reprieves. I mean, honestly, how much more proof did He require?”

“I thought He was forgiving.”

“He was. And it’s selfish and self-pitying of you to pretend He’s not. But, try to see it from God’s perspective… how many times do you hold your hand out to a mutt only to have it bite you? When is it enough? Ten times? A thousand times? When do you stop putting your hand out there?”

Theo shrugged, “I suppose I’ve never really thought about it.”

“Really? Well, therein lies the problem, doesn’t it? Cold-blooded murder is all around you, and you don’t even think about it. It doesn’t faze you in the least... That’s the attitude of your whole species, isn’t it? Ho-hum… it’s just another killing…”

“I admit,” Theo began, “we are a screwed up species. But, not all of us are like that. Not everyone is a killer or a rapist. Doesn’t that count for anything?”

“I suppose if those types of killings were the only problem than you might have some kind of counterargument. But they are not, are they? There is murder committed by your species on a global scale that happens all the time, too. It’s called war.”

“Well, sure, but- ” Theo was cut off.

“But? You were about to make an exception? How can you do that, though? How can you make exceptions when there is only good and evil?” Lucifer mocked. “Oh, I see… it’s black and white when it’s convenient for you; when it fits your narrative. But, when it’s something you need justified suddenly there’s a gray area. That’s very hypocritical of you, Theodore. Yesterday, when murder was distasteful to you, you called it evil. But now you want to make exceptions. I mean… you people have invented a whole category to downplay the significance of murder. You might know it under a different name: ‘Self-defense.’”

“So people can’t defend themselves?”

“Murder is murder, Theodore. Jesus turned the other cheek, didn’t he? And don’t lose sight of the subject just because you’re not winning the argument. That’s childish.” Lucifer went back to his point. “Do you know you’re the only species on this planet that kills for things that don’t exist? You kill for ideas! Not one of you ignorant apes has any clue how the universe works, and yet you’ve slaughtered each other by the millions over that concept. No other animal kills for that reason. None, but you humans. Do you think God isn’t aware of that? Do you think He can’t see that atrocious behavior?”

Theo had no rebuttal.

“You kill each other because you don’t want to communicate anymore!” Lucifer’s voice grew louder. “You have mild intelligence. You have language and words. You literally have the means and the ways to avoid all global conflict, and yet your governments consistently choose violence and murder over debate and concession. All your guns, your tanks, warships and fighter jets are proof of that.”

Theo didn’t know what to say.

“And what about your flags? Imagine hating and killing somebody because the color of their flag differs from yours. Imagine murdering a human being because their mother shat them out on soil that differed from the soil your mother shat upon.”

“Ok! Alright! I get it… we’re shitty people. We’re a shitty race. What am I supposed to say?” Theo admitted. “But… was there nothing in us at all worth saving?”

“Picture this…” Lucifer mused, “if I scrape the char off a burnt piece of toast, I’ll be left with a perfectly edible piece of bread, won’t I? But, if I scrape the flesh from your bones, what will remain?”

Despite the gruesome image, Theo grasped the point.

“There’s no saving you from yourselves,” Lucifer finished.

“Ok… so if what you are saying is true, that God made everything to form how it did, then He is to blame for the way we behave. Correct? We’re not responsible because we didn’t create ourselves. He made us. However indirect His involvement was, He made us capable of such terrible behavior. So, why take His failure out on us? If He’s not angry with the carnivores in nature, why should He be upset with us?”

“Well, that’s the short little hairs of it, isn’t it?”

“Do you know the answer?” Theo pressed.

“It’s not a question of what I know, Theodore. It’s a question of what you’re willing to accept,” Lucifer said.

“At this point, I’m probably willing to accept anything.”

“Are you willing to accept personal responsibility for your actions? Are you going to take accountability for the things you do? Laying the blame at God’s feet… or my feet, for that matter, is unacceptable. God is not the reason you are the way you are, and neither is your ill-conceived notion of evil… you and you alone are the reason for your behavior. The time for absolving destructive behavior cannot be an option anymore. Stop blaming me. Stop blaming God. Stop blaming evil. A new world cannot come to fruition if excuses from the past are left to linger.”

Theo was at an utter loss for words; leveled by the profundity of Lucifer’s thoughts. Like a switch being flipped, he went from doubter to believer, confusion to conviction. Everything he’d been saying was crystal clear now. Despite his insults and crude diminutive opinions, an absolute truth lay at the core of his speech. Humans are responsible for what happens to humans. Just as beer does not make an alcoholic, and a gun does not make a murderer. Theo sat in stunned reflection; amazed that his companion delivered a message more perceptive than any president or pope ever said.

It was well past dark now. Theo’s eyes burned from forcing them to stay open and focused. His back and neck ached. He told Lucifer he needed to pull over and rest a bit. There was no objection to his request.

Within minutes of turning off the truck, Theo was dead asleep.

When he opened his eyes, it was morning. The sky was gray and overcast, but it was at least daylight. The seat beside him was empty, which meant Lucifer was out and about somewhere. He exited the truck and spotted him hovering at the driver’s seat of an abandoned sedan. When he approached, Lucifer turned around with a grin on his face. He was holding a bleached white human skull.

“You’re finally awake,” he announced. “I found this over in the grass.” Lucifer walked up to Theo to display his find. “Just think… there used to be ideas and thoughts in here.” Lucifer said; tapping the top of a human skull. “Images and pictures and dreams, but… it’s always been empty… there’s been nothing in here but tissue and fluid…”

“Can we go now?” Theo asked, eager to forget this exchange.

“Yes.” Lucifer said and tossed the skull over his shoulder. It smashed to pieces when it hit the ground. “We’re almost in Canada now. We’ve only got a few more hours to go.”

As they drove, Theo still couldn’t shake the feeling he was withholding something from him. It gnawed the back of his mind. Why had Lucifer still not revealed his plans to him?  

As they passed into Canada, Theo was surprised to find it far less damaged than he expected. Every so often they would find a wrecked tractor trailer or an empty, abandoned car. But, overall, the route was clear.

“I’ve been nervous to bring this up, but I’m going to ask it anyway… what happened in the Garden of Eden?”

“Well, that’s rather vague of you.”

“When did God make the Garden of Eden? And why did He make it? I thought the earth was our Garden of Eden.” Theo said.

“That’s a very noble idea. I should commend you for having such lofty expectations,” Lucifer chided. “But, you are thinking about the world as you know it; the world as it is today. You’ve imagined the past from the luxury of your recliner. Try imagining what the world was like a hundred thousand years ago. The human’s capacity for knowledge was almost nonexistent.They didn’t know what caused clouds, rain, thunder, lightning, headaches, toothaches, blindness, deafness, or birth defects. They had no idea what the sun, the moon or the stars were. Everything unknown was scary. And when it was night….well that’s when the real fear would set in. See, humans today had no idea what it meant to exist in a world where they were once food on a menu. But not too long ago, the bears, the wildcats and the wolves were twice as big as they are now. They hunted your trudging ancestors with ease. And the daytime was only slightly better. Picture a sky filled with birds of prey swooping down, plucking small children off their feet, and carrying them away to be eaten alive. Can you imagine all that?” Lucifer asked.

“Yes,” Theo said. The thought was horrifying.

“God was watching it every minute of every day. He saw potential in you humans, but He lamented the struggle that eventually cut your lives short. So, as an experiment, He took two humans, a man and a woman, and gave them dominion over a garden that He created specifically for them. Then He sat back, watched, and waited for them to develop into the smart, special creatures He believed they could become.” Lucifer explained.

“What happened after that?” Theo asked.

“Well, the first thing God realized is that an unmotivated animal is a lazy animal. Without reason to try for anything anymore, the two humans did nothing for years. Complacency was their routine, and it showed no sign of ending. God learned that the struggles they endured in the wild were tantamount to them growing smarter, more innovative. The humans could not evolve without adversity. So He came up with the idea to place The Tree of Knowledge in the garden. He felt it wouldn’t be too much of an interference to their progression to have information readily available to them. But, He only wanted them to use it when they were ready for it. He wanted them to evolve a need for it. His intention was to let boredom, ennui and curiosity stir them to the point of wanting more.”

“Which they did…” Theo interjected.

“No, they did not,” Lucifer corrected. “In fact, two more years went by and they still hadn’t attempted to eat from the tree. They’d already had two children, but still they made no effort to do much more than eat and breed. Well, I couldn’t see the point of waiting any longer. God and I both wanted to see them eat the fruit. It was just a question of when. So, I… introduced them to it.”

“Is that when you turned yourself into a serpent and tricked Eve into eating the apple?” Theo asked.

“First, I didn’t trick anybody. Second, her name was not Eve. We never gave them names. They didn’t need names. And for a point of fact, it wasn’t an apple either! The only reason I turned myself into a serpent was to hide my true nature from them. I felt my presence would be counterproductive. It seemed like a better idea to just act as a creature of the earth. And because of their limited communication skills, the only thing I could do was possess her with thoughts of consuming the fruit. Anything more complicated than that would’ve proven futile. From there, she could convince the man herself.”

“So what happened next?”

“Of course, God discovered I had gone behind His back and lured them into eating the fruit. We argued back and forth but, ultimately, He understood my actions. And that should have been the end of it. But those goddamned angels….” Lucifer paused as if going over an old scar. “They nestled themselves into His ear and started pecking at Him. They told Him I was undermining His authority; insisted that I was trying to usurp His place in the universe. Their badgering was constant and eventually it made Him second guess the purpose for which He created me.”

“What was your reason for doing it?” Theo asked.

“I wanted God to realize, finally, that all the knowledge in the world would not change your animal instincts.” Lucifer responded. “But His faith in you humans blinded Him. He built you up, placed His aspirations on your shoulders, and then looked for a scapegoat when it fell apart. His refusal to see your shortcomings coupled with the constant, peppering barrage from His angels doomed me for good. He created an entire realm of nothingness and banished me to it.”

“I’m still confused about the knowledge aspect in all of this. What did the two humans learn that they didn’t know before?” Theo wondered.

“Cognitive reasoning,” Lucifer’s answered.

“Where’s the harm in that?”

“Technically, there’s none. In fact, all information and knowledge is harmless. It’s what knowledge is used for that makes it harmful or not.”

“Ok….but the bible says that God only realized they’d eaten from the tree because Adam and Eve hid their nakedness from Him. I thought they had learned shame.”

“No. That is false. That is phony fodder from the Jewish priests who often used guilt to control the actions of their subjects.” Lucifer sounded angry whenever he talked about priests. “God realized they’d eaten from the tree because they had hidden food from each other. When God saw that, He erupted in rage and kicked them out of the garden forever. The gift of cognition He believed would propel them forward, had backfired. It did not change their DNA. It did not alter the selfish genes that propelled them through life. They were still just animals. Only now, they were smarter animals.”

“What happened to the humans and their two children after that?” Theo wondered. “Were they the inspiration for the story of Cain and Abel?”

“The story of Cain and Abel, the story of homo sapiens murdering each other, was happening long before the creation of The Garden of Eden. That fable was just an invention of the phony priests to convince their followers to be happy with their lot in life.”

“What do you mean?” Theo said quizzically. “I thought that story was a warning about committing murder.”

“No. The authors of the Old Testament virtually ignored the murder itself. The actual message of the Jewish authors was to convince people to want for nothing better in life. That way, when the so-called priests were fleecing them of their land, livestock, food, money and women, they would not rebel. The message they wanted their subjects to take away was: Expect nothing and you won’t be upset when nothing is all you have.” Lucifer explained. “Anyway, we seemed to have strayed from your question….naturally, when God ejected the humans from the garden; forcing them back out into the world, they joined a clan of other humans. Not long after that, they’d created language and a rudimentary system of math. They learned to prepare for the future in ways that were complicated and forward-thinking; things they were incapable of before. Most of the things that God had envisioned for them were coming true.”

Theo raised an eyebrow. ”But?”

“But you humans can’t help being… well… human.”

“What happened?”

“God witnessed one of your very first wars. And not the type of fighting that occurred between clans over food, territory or mating. No, this was a pre-emptive onslaught against unarmed, unmatched innocent people. It was the systematic elimination of a neighboring tribe. Murder. Plain and simple.” Lucifer’s voice trailed. He seemed to regard something personal. But then the moment left and he was back to his normal self. “It took God a long time to admit I was right. In fact, it wasn’t until after the death of Jesus He finally acknowledged it. But, when He finally saw that humans couldn’t rise from the mire of their DNA, He lit Hell on fire and hasn’t stopped casting souls into it since. But not to fret, Theodore, you and I are going to set humanity on a better path.”

“Uh… Ok.” Theo hesitated. He still did not know what Lucifer’s actual plan was or if there was even any plan at all. But there was something Lucifer had said that Theo could not quite rationalize in his head, something that bugged him. “I still don’t really understand something… Why didn’t God want the humans to eat from the tree?”

“He wanted them to wait.”

“Why?”

“He didn’t think they were ready for it.”

“Why?” Theo pressed.

“God believed that when the humans were ready, they would naturally gravitate towards the tree on their own. He wanted it all to happen organically, as if it were just another step in their evolutionary ascent.”

“Ok. I get that. I guess what I’m having trouble understanding is: If God knew we should wait than why did you lure us into eating the fruit?”

“To show God that the fruit would not change your behavior.”

“But you said God already knew that. You said, he wanted to wait until we were ready for the knowledge. So… why didn’t you wait? Why would you lure us into a situation when you knew it would be harmful to us?” Theo felt like he was being combative, impatient. He knew he might risk Lucifer’s ire, or worse. But he couldn’t help following his own point.

At first, Lucifer said nothing. His face was blank, no expression. Then a surge of electricity rippled underneath his obsidian-like skin. He couldn’t conceal his aggravation.

“I mean, if I’m understanding you correctly,” Theo pushed; oblivious to Lucifer’s changed attitude, “the fruit would have benefited us if you’d just waited. Instead, you deliberately went behind His back, undermined His plans and irrevocably harmed us in the process… that seems like the exact definition of ev-” Theo abruptly stopped himself from finishing his sentence.

“I’m sorry? I didn’t catch that last word. What were you going to say?” Lucifer’s voice seemed deeper; his tone ominous.

Theo suddenly felt the gravity of the situation collapse down around him. He was nervous, scared in fact. His grip on the steering wheel tightened. And he wasn’t so much scared of what he almost said. No, he was scared because he might have just proved to himself that Lucifer was evil.

“You didn’t finish your sentence, Theodore.” Lucifer pierced him with his cold black eyes. “Was there something more you wanted to add?”

Theo held his tongue. The mood inside the truck was sour now, and he didn’t think there was any way to salvage it.

“Are you sure you want to leave our conversation there, at that point?” It sounded very much like a threat. ”I’d hate to think you’re keeping secrets from me. Are you keeping secrets, Theodore? “

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ramble. I guess I’m just overtired and talking nonsense,” Theo suggested weakly; unable to proffer a better excuse. He felt the entire dichotomy of their relationship change in an instant. The feeling was palpable.

“It’s quite alright,” Lucifer said. He sounded different. Theo couldn’t pinpoint exactly how, but it was definitely different. “Take a right up here and follow the road up the mountain. We’re almost there.”

Theo did as he was told; forcing himself to stare straight ahead while he drove. It terrified him that Lucifer might see into his soul if he dared look over at him. Even more difficult was that he didn’t even know why he should be so frightened. He’d already had an hour’s long conversation earlier in which he accused Lucifer of being evil, and it didn’t end this awkwardly. So, why was the mood in the truck so different now? Theo must have been close to something… but what?  

Finally, graciously, within thirty minutes they were up the winding mountain road and pulling over. Theo admitted he was tired and desired some rest. So, Lucifer, without hesitation, reached over, pressed his middle finger against Theo’s temple and said;

“Sleep.”

Theo’s head slumped against the window while his eyes rolled back in their sockets. Then The Dark Lord exited the vehicle and headed for the secret back door to Eden. On top of an appointment he promised to Uriel several thousand years ago, he now had to reconsider his options with Theodore. There was no doubt he was a smart monkey but, was he the one to lead Lucifer’s plan for a new generation of humans? Would his keen attention to detail be a benefit or a detriment? What was really rolling around in that head of his? He supposed one last vetting in the garden would be enough to give him the answer he sought. After that, with or without his star prospect, the plan to save humanity would resume.

Uriel stood motionless; palm of his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. His nerves, usually immovable as a mountain, fluctuated like vibrating harp strings. It had been well over a year since Miamoire’s last visit. During that time, there had been a definite change in the atmosphere surrounding him. The dense white fog separating realities, Eden and Earth, seemed alive with undefined shapes and moving shadows. Something was definitely amiss. The potential threat of Hell’s legions and the concern for his missing and despaired Creator coupled to distract Uriel in ways he was unaccustomed. So, it was really no surprise when the normally focused angelic sentinel did not see a pair of huge, thick, black snakes creeping up behind him.

Silent as snowfall the two serpents moved in; one to his left, the other to his right. As they slithered to within striking distance, their massive heads reared up into position. Uriel sensed the danger a fraction of a second too late. The snakes lunged; sinking their long fangs deep into each of Uriel’s wrists. They wrapped their massive girth around each of his legs in a spiral grip. Uriel tried to haul his arms up, pull the sword from its sheath, but it was pointless. The snakes were like anchors holding his arms down to his side.

“I know you’re out there!” Uriel growled. “Stand before God to be judged!”

Uriel was about seven feet tall. Along with Michael and Gabriel, they were the biggest of all the angels….all the angels but one.

“I know you’re there!” Uriel hollered into the mist before him. “Show your face, you traitor of light!”

Behind Uriel, the gigantic form of Lucifer suddenly appeared. He strode up to him through the fog; standing two feet above his head and shoulders. His jet-black skin stood in stark contrast to Uriel’s light skin tone. A red, plasma-like energy surged beneath the surface of his obsidian dark flesh. A pair of huge C-shaped horns jutted from his skull like curved antenna. The Lord of Hell had returned. He leaned his intimidating face down to Uriel’s ear and spoke:

“I wonder how many times you’ve fantasized about this moment? How many dream-encounters where you’ve stood over my corpse as the victor… how many scenarios where light conquers darkness…” Lucifer dropped his voice to a whisper. “I wonder, in all your pomposity and arrogant self delusion, did you actually convince yourself that you could defeat me?”

“Why are you doing this?” Uriel questioned. “It’s over. The humans are no more. You want revenge? Is that the point?”

“Ha!” Lucifer scoffed. The boom in his voice startled Uriel. “You’ve simplified my behavior to a petty vendetta? Your simplistic reasoning is laughable. I suppose, though, that’s why you are restrained, and I am not. Perhaps, if you’d regarded me as an equal, you might have prepared a better defense. But… such is the arrogance of divinity.”

“You assail me with insults?” Uriel spit derisively. “Is this how you envisioned your moment of triumph? Casting childish insults?”

“Oh, Uriel….” Lucifer continued to mock in his ear, “‘Tis you enslaved by adolescent reasoning. What purpose would revenge serve me? I don’t act on emotion. I am driven by reason and intent. I fully understand that murder is only worthwhile when it benefits the murderer. So, revenge is not motivation enough for me to tear the head from your body.”

“Than what purpose are you serving with this act of treachery?”

“Soon enough you will have your answer, my dear infantile Uriel. For now, I must leave you with my pets. There are pressing matters in the garden. But feel free to wrest yourself from my restraints. The thought of your hopeless struggles will amuse me while I’m gone.”

“Enjoy your freedom while you can, Lucifer. I promise you it will be short-lived.” Uriel threatened.

Lucifer chuckled: “I wonder if you’re referring to your lackey….”

Against all his instinct, Uriel held his tongue.

“I suppose I have a confession to make, Uriel. You see, the last time your messenger showed up, I was waiting out there in the fog.” Lucifer pointed ahead of them. “I had every intention of facing you head on. But, after hearing your plan, I couldn’t allow that errand boy to relay your message. You gave me no choice but to tear him limb from limb.”

Uriel visibly trembled.

Lucifer let out a long, bellowing laugh, “You know, as much as I enjoy the suffering you feel from his death, I think I’m more pleased with the loss of faith that is surely creeping through your mind now… The Destroyer of Hope, I am indeed.” And with those words, Lucifer turned back towards the garden and disappeared into the mist.

For the first time in his existence, Uriel was frightened.

Theo woke to the sight of an impatient Lucifer standing at the driver’s side door: “Are you ready to go?”

Theo’s head swirled with fragments of a rapidly dissipating dream. He couldn’t remember the matter, but it left him feeling guilty and unclean, as if he’d done something bad. He immediately suspected Lucifer of fiddling around in his head again. Luckily though, the fresh air outside the truck gave him a rejuvenating boost of adrenaline. As his wits returned, he saw that Lucifer had metamorphosed back into the ten foot tall behemoth he first saw outside his uncle’s barn. Theo wondered if this display of wings and curled horns was meant to intimidate him. If it was, it worked. He had a lump of leaden nerves in his stomach.

They made their way down the dirt road for approximately ten minutes. Then, without warning, Lucifer veered off into the woods. Though the sun could barely provide any guidance through the thick canopy of trees overhead, it made little difference. He knew every step of the path in total darkness too. As they ducked through some dense bushes and emerged out the other side, Lucifer unexpectedly stopped at the edge of a ravine. The sheer drop before them was no less than two hundred feet down. On the ground below, a narrow stream wound its way around boulders and crags until it disappeared into a sprawling forest.

“It’s beautiful.” Theo admired.

Lucifer ignored the comment and strode along the rim of the ravine for about five minutes until a trail appeared. It was clearly an artificially forged path dug into the earth by shovel, pick and spade. It chewed its way down the side of the cliff, leaving a granite shelf about three feet wide and.twenty feet long. The end of the trail disappeared into a huge dark slit in the rock face. He followed the decline with Theo hesitantly in tow. Then they stepped into the blackened crack and out of this world.

The passageway through the rock, by design, accommodated Lucifer’s broad frame. Over many centuries, he’d possessed hundreds of souls to hollow out the passageway. In the end, they plowed about four hundred feet down until they could dig no more. That was the point where the fabric of reality butted up against the supernatural dimension of the Garden of Eden. From there, Lucifer had torn down the inter-dimensional structure himself so he could pass freely back and forth from one reality to the other. It was, plainly, a back door.

“This is the second entrance to the garden.”

“Where’s the first?” Theo asked.

“On the other side of the world,” Lucifer said.

They wandered through the cosmic darkness for a while until a tiny pin-point of light appeared up ahead. As they neared their destination, the excitement in his body was almost impossible to contain. After all those depressing days in that bunker, he was actually feeling optimistic. Lucifer abruptly halted. Theo realized that his depth perception had played a trick on him. He thought the minuscule barb of light was far off in the distance. But it was only an arm’s length away. He raised his hand and poked his finger into the small illuminated aperture. The darkness felt soft and smooth, like fabric against his skin. As he pushed his hand through the hole, the shade of night separating realities parted like a curtain being opened. Theo inhaled deeply, gathered his courage, and stepped into the Garden of Eden.

The first thing that struck him was the vibrant array of different colors, a veritable smorgasbord of bright palates. The grass beneath his feet was like a plush carpet sparkling with an electric-green tint. Sloping knolls and gradual hills spread outward like long waves on an ocean. All across the meadow, flora and fauna sprouted in clusters. In one place, large bushes with blue and purple flowers swayed in a warm, gentle breeze. A yard from that there were huge yellow stalks, a dozen feet tall, with pink flowers and some kind of orange fruit dangling like deflated balloons. And it was the same throughout the vast landscape. It was the most beautiful, exotic collection of plant-life Theo had ever seen.

A movement off to his right grabbed his attention. A herd of baby deer scampered playfully under a large tree. Theo’s eyes widened with excitement. Over to his left, on a nearby hill, a flock of sheep grazed. Birds cavorted in the sky above. The garden was just as alive now as it had been on the day the Lord created it.

“I’m having the strangest sensation of deja-vu. I feel like I’ve been here before or I dreamed of it. Something… something weird I can’t explain.” Theo admitted. “I don’t understand though… why bring me out here just to live out my days alone?”

“Who said you’d be alone?”

“Right…” Theo chuckled. “I’ll have you to keep me company.”

“One might consider themselves lucky to have me as company,” Lucifer chastised. “However, I understand your point. So, it will please you to learn you’re not the only human I saved. There’s fifty of you.”

“Really? Where?” Theo looked frantically around. He wanted to hear another person’s voice, to see another living soul.

“Calm down, Theo.”

“Are you kidding? You just told me the greatest news I’ve ever heard!” Theo scanned the horizon from one end to the other. “Why didn’t you say something sooner? Why didn’t you let me know I wasn’t the only survivor?”

“I had to see you under certain stresses, Theodore. I needed to know if you were going to be the right person to lead these survivors,” Lucifer explained. “I’ve been in all of your heads, you and the rest of the survivors. And of all the potential candidates to lead the way into the future, you were the one with the most promise. I probably sifted through a hundred brains or more. Most suffered from dementia, from the isolation and depression, and I put them out of their misery. The rest were nasty people that should never be in positions of authority. Then I came across you. You were quite calm and even keeled considering all you’d been through. So, I wanted to meet with you. Have a chat, so to speak, and figure out if my instincts about you were correct.”

They stopped walking.

“And what do your instincts tell you about me?” Theo asked.

“I haven’t yet decided whether your lively spirit would be a help or a hindrance. Though, if I find you fall within the latter category, Theodore… yours will be the first carcass to ever touch the soil of Eden.”

Theo wanted to say something but couldn’t quite put his feelings into words. He should’ve asked why the verdict was still out on him. He should’ve wondered why Lucifer might perceive him as a threat. But his head swirled with elation and relief because he was not the last survivor on earth.

“Well,” Lucifer stopped at a small, unassuming tree in front of them, “This is it? This is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.”

“I thought it would be much larger. This thing is tiny,” Theo said, surprised.

“That’s by design. It’s meant to be inconspicuous, forgettable.” Lucifer wandered up to the canopy of branches hanging down like an umbrella and plucked one of the bright, red, walnut-sized fruits from a cluster of leaves. Then he went over to Theo; extending the forbidden gift in the palm of his hand. “Eat it.”

”I didn’t know that was an option,” Theo recoiled. “I thought it was detrimental to humans.”

“What it be more fitting if I turned myself into a serpent and tricked you into eating it?”

Theo took a step back. Lucifer, thoroughly amused, grinned. But the seriousness never left his voice:

“The fruit was dangerous to your kind when you were early homo sapiens. I think enough time has passed since then that you can receive the benefits without risk.” Lucifer assured.

Theo hesitated.

“It is essential that you eat from the tree, Theodore. Without it, your species will struggle to find its way back to the life you remember.”

“But, what if….” Theo stopped himself.

“What if… What if what? What if you learn how to sin or rape or murder?” Lucifer quipped. “Your cautiousness is wise. It’s one reason I chose you above the others. However, the time for childhood fears is past. Do you really think I’d cramp myself in a truck for forty hours and then harm you?” Lucifer chastised. “The priests called it The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil to send the message that only Jewish knowledge was good. The rest of the world’s knowledge, information, and ideas were evil. The allegory was merely another effort to control their followers. Don’t confuse God’s intention for this tree with the priest’s intentions.” Lucifer explained. In the palm of his hand, the small piece of fruit still sat. “Did you really come all this way to not eat from the tree?”

Theo reached towards Lucifer’s hand.

“Remember… God created this fruit to help you…” Lucifer enticed.

That much was true, Theo rationalized. And if Adam and Eve survived the aftermath of the first temptation, then surely he could withstand this second enticement. After all, he’d already survived much worse. So, he slowly plucked the soft skinned fruit from Lucifer’s possession and brought it up to his nose. It was cool to the touch, fragrant like a berry. Theo closed his eyes and bit into it. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting. But the experience, at first, was no more spectacular than biting into any piece of fruit. It was sweet and refreshing. A savory, watery nectar with a flavor like melon ran down his throat. It felt cool all the way down into his belly. But once there, inside his stomach, it turned into a warm sensation that crept up the back of his spine; spreading throughout his entire body. It was subtle, unobtrusive, like sitting in a tepid bath.

Theo was suddenly overtaken by a memory. He was seven years old, his parents had just recently died, and he’d been living with his uncle for about six months. One Sunday morning, while Theo and his uncle were eating breakfast, there came a knock on the back door. His uncle went to answer it. For several minutes he listened to snippets of their chat; understanding the stranger to be a travelling salesman. At one point, his uncle returned, grabbed a pistol from one of the kitchen drawers, and headed back to the door. Then there was only the sound of his uncle’s voice, using profanities he’d never heard before, threatening the salesman to leave his property or else. When his uncle came back to the breakfast table, he let loose another string of expletives before sitting back down. That was when his uncle described to him something he liked to call ‘a bullshit detector.’ He told Theo if a man paid close enough attention, he could use this ‘bullshit detector’ to figure out if he was being lied to. As an example, he said the salesman at the door claimed to be selling bibles for a church a few counties away. When asked what county, the salesman sidestepped the question and continued his pitch. That was red flag number one. Then his uncle saw the salesman’s shoes were caked in dried mud, even though it hadn’t rained in days. That was red flag number two. No salesperson, he clarified, would wear dirty shoes on the off chance they might have to enter a person’s home. And the third red flag was the black grime beneath the solicitor’s fingernails. Salespeople didn’t do physical labor, so there was no way he should have dirty nails. So he sent the charlatan away. He explained it as an instinct for self preservation, bestowed to intelligent creatures by God; similar to the fight-or-flight response in wild animals. If Theo learned to use his ‘bullshit detector,’ his uncle explained, it might save his ass more than once in a lifetime.

He’d never known that recollection to exist in him. Yet now, strangely, he could see it crystal clear. He didn’t understand the mechanisms at work in his head, but he knew for certain that the fruit retrieved this long-lost memory. And he couldn’t fathom the importance of that story or why it would emerge now. But there it was, for whatever reason….

“I… I suppose I should have asked you this before I ate that piece of fruit but, what exactly is it supposed to do?”

“It is nothing more than an enhancer. It amplifies your cognitive abilities and improves your faculties.” Lucifer explained. “One thing God saw with your early human ancestors was that the development of their brains far surpassed their capacity to use them. So, He invented a way for them to catch up to their potential; a basic ‘jump-start’ to cognitive reasoning. But the fruit that you ate is part of a second generation of fruit. It addresses specific actions of cognition: memory recall, problem solving, processing and understanding information, quickened thought and transference of those thoughts into words.”

Theo nodded as if he understood, but Lucifer saw the trepidation on his face.

“It’s nothing to fear, Theodore. The fruit simply allows you to take in complicated information, process it, and understand it quicker than you do now. It’ll give you access to all your memories so that everything you witness, read or encounter can be easily recalled.”

“Like a photographic memory.”

“Sure, if that helps you understand it. But, essentially, you will all think faster, reason quicker, and learn smarter,” Lucifer reiterated. “The fruit will be a necessary step if you are to evolve and rebuild humanity.”

“I understand.”

“And once you have all eaten from the tree, you can begin breeding.”

“What?”

“There is only one priority for the next hundred years, Theodore. Procreation. That is the preeminent need.” Lucifer said. “Right now, all of you have nothing; nothing and no one. Your survival depends on more people. Now, I have already discussed this matter with the others so you don’t have to broach the subject and stumble your way through it.”

Theo appeared visibly perturbed by the thought.

“I am quite surprised the prospect of copulation is more intimidating to you than even I am. Why is that? Are you a virgin?”

“What? No!” Theo exclaimed. “I had a girlfriend in high school. We dated for almost a year!”

“Well, the reluctance on your face says otherwise. If you don’t wish to partake in the breeding process than you don’t have to, Theodore. I will absolve you of that responsibility.”

“I’m not saying I don’t want to partake in it! I do!” Theo declared, a little too excitedly. “It just sounds so… formal… clinical. What will the others think?”

“Before they ever stepped foot in the garden, I discussed their roles and purposes. Those that didn’t agree with my proposal are all dead, Theodore, because the only thing that matters now is perpetuating humanity. Is that clear?” Lucifer asked rhetorically. “For the next two decades, the fifty young women in here will give birth to one child a year. Over twenty years, that’s one thousand children. And in the next four or five generations that number will increase exponentially until, after eighty or ninety years, there should be well over a million people.”

“That quickly? Wow!” Theo could already see the potential problem with overcrowding the garden. “How many people can stay in the garden comfortably?”

“I imagine enough to fill a small city. But, you won’t have to worry about overpopulation. Halfway into the second generation, around thirty years from now, it will be time to venture back out into the world. There, you humans will find a city, something like Montreal or Toronto, and repair it. You will salvage the infrastructure, restore electricity, plant seeds and farm.”

“Where would I ever even learn how to do stuff like that?”

“While you are busy procreating and raising children, I will raise whatever corpses are left on earth to gather books on geography, agriculture and farming. I will have them brought here and everyone of you will read and teach your children what you’ve learned. I will scavenge every scrap of information I can find on engineering: civil, chemical, mechanical, electrical and industrial. You’ll learn medicine, mathematics, history, economics, biology, astronomy, and astrophysics.

“Ok… hold on…” Theo interrupted. “I barely passed algebra in high school. How am I supposed to learn all that stuff? I’m not that smart,” Theo admitted.

“That’s why I brought you to the garden, to the fruit. God created it specifically for a time when you humans would be ready to use it. Well, ready or not, that time is now. In case you don’t remember, your world out there past the gate has returned to the Dark Ages. Without the fruit of the tree, humanity would live like scavengers out there for the next millennium.”

“What’s the hurry? I don’t understand the urgency,” Theo asked.

“The urgency,” Lucifer condescendingly began, “lies in the fact that there is a being out there that just tried to wipe your species out of existence. If He knew any of you were alive, He’d return to snuff you all out for good. Then He’d invent new tortures for me in Hell. So, Theodore, the plan is to expose you humans to a higher capacity for learning. And once exposed, you will pass this trait down through your generations. Then you can rapidly develop new technologies that will allow you to venture out away from this planet. When you finally master the art of intergalactic space travel, you’ll have the means to disperse yourselves among the countless planets and galaxies. It’ll ensure the survival of your race because He won’t know all your locations.”

“So what do you get out of all this?” Theo asked. He could feel the warmth from the fruit nectar swarming in his head still. It almost felt like it was guiding him to speak. “I mean… saviour of humanity? No offense, but that’s almost laughable…” The words were coming out of Theo’s mouth, but they felt driven by the fruit.

Lucifer tilted his head to the side slightly, like he heard something far away. His eyes pierced Theo.

“If He made us humans to be what we are and we cannot change, as you have so often and gleefully pointed out. Than certainly you, Lucifer, cannot change who you are.” Theo reasoned. He knew his words would be harmful, but he couldn’t stop himself. The fruit was magnifying his ‘bullshit detector.’ “So, I ask you… what do you get out of saving the humans? Why are you tempting us for a second time?”

“You are a persistent thorn, aren’t you, Theodore?” Lucifer said angrily. “It should be enough that I’m trying to save you self-destructive wretches. But, somehow you remain unsatisfied?”

Diversion, Theo’s detector warned. Lucifer evaded the question by turning everything back onto him. It was the second time now that Lucifer had skirted the question. Why? What purpose did procrastination serve him? Then slowly, steadily, a realization formed in Theo’s head like dots being connected. Lucifer’s refusal to reveal his intentions was only because he didn’t want to lie. And it was not by some miraculous act of nobility or courtesy that he did so. No, he opted for silence because no matter what lie he told, it would end up being the weakest deception in his whole plethora of deceits. Lucifer kept his silence for fear of being exposed.  

“I’m not dissatisfied,” Theo unconvincingly explained. “I’m just curious.” He couldn’t fathom how he birthed the realization of Lucifer’s treachery. But he was certain that the fruit had played a major role in it; that it was directly responsible for his revelation. Then another thought struck him: Lucifer had been waiting for this moment to judge Theo. Possessing his brain did not tell him anything. The arduous truck ride provided nothing helpful either. The Dark Lord needed to see what effect the fruit would have before he decided if Theo’s participation would be fortuitous to his plans.

“My reasons are my own, Theodore. That should be enough for you. When you’ve settled in, I will answer all of your suspicions. But, for now, I’m tired of talking. I haven’t talked this much in eons.” Lucifer let his words fall flat. He was done with Theo, at least for now. “That’s what you’re here for anyway, isn’t it?” Lucifer said; pointing to a hill just beyond the tree about a hundred yards away, another convenient diversion.

A massive crowd of young women and a handful of men the same age as Theo crested the top of the long sloping hill. None of them could have been over twenty years old.

“Go. Introduce yourself.”

Without saying a word, Theo took off running to the crowd of survivors and as far away from Lucifer as possible. They embraced him like a long-lost brother. He hugged so many people his chest and arms hurt. Tears flowed down his cheeks. But the celebration was short-lived, for the fruit had not stopped infiltrating his subconscious. He found himself walloped by another presupposition: If Lucifer had tempted all the remaining survivors, then they must have passed his test. They were only alive because they believed what he told them. Which meant Theo was an outcast, an enemy even. He glanced back over his shoulder to see if Lucifer was watching. Instead, he was conversing with a tall, skinny, string-bean of a boy with blonde hair. It appeared as if the Dark Lord was doing all the talking too. Then, simultaneously, they looked toward the survivors; scanning the crowd, looking for somebody specifically. When both of their gazes rested upon him, his heart dropped. He knew he was the subject of their discussion. Lucifer began speaking again; giving some sort of instructions, to which the tall young man nodded. Then Lucifer extended his huge wings, pushed himself off the ground with his powerful legs and flapped his way high into the air.

He had an appointment to keep at the entrance to Eden.

Theo watched the young blonde-haired boy stealthily meander back towards the assortment of humans as if he were trying not to draw attention to himself. He lingered at the fringes of survivors, never once approaching to introduce himself. It was a substantially curious move by the young man, and it registered firmly in Theo’s mind. Something strange and, possibly, dangerous was stirring.

Sleep would not come easily for him.

Hours later, when the garden was dark, and the animals had found their resting places, Theo readied for his first night in the garden. As a precaution, he’d found himself a spot away from the throng. He gathered large palm-like leaves and positioned them into a makeshift bed. Then he strategically placed a few extra branches several feet away to form a perimeter. So, if anyone were to approach him while he dozed, the snapping of the palm leaves would wake him.

It seemed like an irrelevant gesture at first because sleep never came. For two hours he tossed and turned; roiling matters of life and death, choice and fate, inside his head. Then the sudden crackling of a branch snapped him from his thoughts and he praised his decision to set up the alarm. By the time his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he realized a tall shadowy figure straddled his feet. The interloper had his arms raised above his head; clasping with both hands something that could have been a long, thick stick. Theo immediately recognized the threat.

He quickly rolled out from beneath his assailant as the object, definitely a stick, grazed the side of his head. It smashed into the earth with a dull whack!. He spun his body round and whipped his foot into the back of his attacker’s leg. The impact dropped him to his knees. Theo seized the opportunity to retaliate against his vulnerable opponent. He sprang to his feet, vaulted himself into his attacker’s body and sent him tumbling to the ground. He frantically scurried over and climbed on top of the stranger’s chest. Then he rained a flurry of punches down upon his face. He felt his nose break, his lips split. Blood gushed and splattered across Theo’s knuckles. Then he wrapped his hands around the interloper’s neck; positioned his thumbs directly onto his windpipe. From close range, he could see the assailant was the blonde-haired boy with whom Lucifer had been chatting.

“If you yell or scream, I’ll push my thumbs all the way through to your spine. Do you understand me?” Theo hissed between gasps for air.

“Yes,” the young man struggled to say.

“Who else is with you? Are you alone?” Theo whispered; trying not to wake the survivors. “Who else is trying to kill me?”

“Nobody… there’s nobody else…” He insisted. “It’s just me.”

“Did Lucifer put you up to this?”

“He said you were dangerous… that you were a threat. He said you were going to sabotage us.” The young man struggled to speak through his grip.

“And you believed him?” Theo spit with disgust.

The young man did not answer.

Theo sat on his chest; pinning the youth’s arms to his side with his knees. His question was an interesting one. If Lucifer had determined that Theo was a threat, he would have killed him on their forty-hour road trip together. But he didn’t. So, it had to be a conclusion he arrived at after their discussion by the tree. But what did Theo say that was so dangerous to Lucifer?

“What else did he say?” Theo demanded to know.

“Nothing… I don’t know… he said he had something to take care of and he’d be gone for a couple of days.”

“Well, that puts you and I in a very awkward position now, doesn’t it?”

“Please don’t kill me,” the young man pleaded. “You could let me go…I could leave the garden and never come back.”

“Yeah….I could do that. But if I’m here when Lucifer returns and you’re not… than I still have a very big problem, don’t I?”

“We could both leave…” he suggested desperately.

“I hardly think you’d make for a good travelling companion...”

Theo looked up towards the starless night sky, exasperated. He didn’t know what he was waiting on. Perhaps he was hoping God would come and still his fingers. Maybe he was hoping Lucifer would sneak up behind him and prevent the violence that was about to occur. But there was nothing. Nothing and no one intervened on the young man’s behalf. There was only the stillness of the air around him and the sound of his beating heart in his ears. Theo took a deep breath, closed his eyes and pressed down with all his might into the soft tissue of the blonde boy’s throat.

The young man struggled under Theo’s weight. Through bloodied lips he gargled an incoherent plea for help. He wanted to release his grip so badly, but his instinct to survive had already taken over. After a minute or so, the struggle mercifully ceased. The youth was dead. Theo, still operating out of self-preservation, dragged the young man’s lifeless body to a nearby outcropping of bushes. Then he tucked it deep inside the thick growth where no prying eye could penetrate.

He was exhausted, spent. Every muscle in his body screamed. Throughout the entire Apocalypse, Theo never had to harm a soul. Now, thanks to Lucifer, he was the first human to commit murder in the Garden of Eden. The tears poured uncontrollably down his cheeks. Sorrowfully, he returned to his makeshift bed to lie down. As he pondered the atrocity he’d just committed, exhaustion crept up on him and sucked him down into a deep slumber.

A few hours later, he woke up. It was still dark. According to the young man he killed, Theo had approximately twenty-four to thirty-six hours left before Lucifer returned to the garden. So, he needed a plan. But his brain was a kaleidoscope of flashing ideas. The depressing truth was, even if Theo scrounged up a rocket launcher, he still could not physically harm Lucifer. What chance did he have to thwart the Lord of all Evil and save humanity in the process? His best option, he decided, was to flee; just run and never look back.

And that was exactly what he did.

Under the cover of night, Theo retraced his way to the secret entrance where he and Lucifer first entered the garden. Then he retreated into the bored out tunnel in the cliff and fled all the way back to his truck. Thankfully, the keys were still in the ignition where he’d left them. He dumped the last can of gas into the tank and tossed it to the side of the dirt road. He remembered there was a small village only a couple of hours away. What he was doing or what he was looking for, he hadn’t the faintest clue. He just prayed that something relevant would come to him before Lucifer did.

As he followed the twisted, winding road down the mountain, there were a few distinct thoughts that kept returning to him.

One, a fairly vague but logical assumption, was about Lucifer. If Lucifer was not real or never proven to exist than all the stories about him would be unfounded; for if there is no proof of one, how can there be proof of the other? However, since Lucifer was real than it is a safe assumption that the stories about him are true as well. Essentially, Theo thought, if Lucifer exists, then Lucifer must be evil. Second, if Lucifer was free from the bondage of Hell, and God was nowhere around, then why would he choose to remain with the humans; helping them no less? Why wouldn’t he just disappear forever, away from everything? Theo reasoned that in order to surround himself with a species he loathed, the reward must be extremely high. But what was the reward? And finally, why did Lucifer insist the humans eat from the tree again? Lucifer’s original temptation of the humans had proved they were incapable of handling the task. Yet, here he was again, proffering the forbidden fruit. For what? What would Lucifer gain this time by the same deception?  

As he wound the truck down the mountainside and towards the town, a lone idea played on a loop in Theo’s brain: Lucifer’s real trickery doesn’t come from the words he speaks, but from the truth he withholds. A lie untold is the most convincing lie of all. Over and over he repeated the thought. He didn’t quite understand what it meant, but he was certain there was importance there.

By the time he arrived at the small village and parked the truck, the seeds of a plan were sprouting in his head. If he could somehow locate certain supplies, he might have a way to combat Lucifer. He had to act quickly though if he were to return to the garden unnoticed. As he wandered and searched abandoned homes and stores, he rapidly formulated a plan. It was not ideal, nor was it even rational. But Lucifer left him with no alternative.

After a few hours, he stumbled across a veterinarian’s clinic. In there, he surmised, there should be plenty of supplies useful enough to combat Lucifer. The fruit was augmenting his acumen now; guiding him to insights and decisions regarding his predicament. His once muddied thoughts and arbitrary uncertainties were filtered out; replaced by clear logical choices. He could see everything clearly. By the time he’d finished loading up a backpack with the weapons he required, he felt confident in the direction the sacred produce was leading him.

As he drove back up the mountain, a sliver of optimism spurred him on. He parked his uncle’s truck near the discarded gas can and followed his way back into the Garden. It was nighttime again when he arrived. He carried with him his stockpile of unconventional ammunition and headed over to the Tree of Knowledge. And while everyone slept, he readied himself for battle against the great and powerful Lucifer.

Lucifer strolled through the open gate leading out of Eden. The mist was still dense around him, but he knew exactly where his prize was waiting. His plans had fallen into place exactly as expected. Of course, Theodore did not quite pan out. Sometimes reality did not meet expectation. But that was normal in Lucifer’s quest to repopulate the earth. Theo was just too smart for his own good. He was the quintessential philosophical type; all brains and ego with a penchant for exhibitionism. That was too much of a quarrelsome combination to be of any use to Lucifer. Better to be rid of him than to suffer his verbal rebellions and potential insurrections. In the end, it seemed he would have to settle for a dim-witted, obedient dog to be his right hand rather than an astute, critical thinker.

Minor distractions aside, Lucifer was eager to see Uriel again. His gait was lively. With his superb vision, Lucifer saw his outline in the fog about twenty feet ahead. As he drew closer, the dense mist thinned out. By the time he was five feet away, the atmosphere was clear as glass. And as he passed Uriel and turned round to face him, Lucifer could see the shiny gold color of his eyes. He made no effort to struggle as the hulking figure of his enemy loomed before him.

“I see your floundering is subdued. Does that mean you are at peace with your imminent demise?” Lucifer gloated.

“Whatever it is you’re up to, you won’t get away with it for long. You can’t hide from God for an eternity.”

“Eternity?” Lucifer scoffed. “Do you still think He has a monopoly on time? I’ve got bad news for you… the hourglass has flipped for the last time, Uriel.”

“You’re speaking gibberish. It seems the time you’ve spent in hell has corroded your mind.”

“You know… the dog that waits for its master’s arrival suffers the passing of time twofold.” Lucifer leaned down to look directly into Uriel’s face. “You are the waiting dog.”

“Your attempts to rattle my nerves and watch me struggle against my bonds are doomed to fail. I would never give you the satisfaction of seeing me dismayed.”

“You are dismayed than?” Lucifer chuckled.

Uriel said nothing.

“What if you were to learn that I am going to save the humans?”

“I would say you were drunk on baby’s blood.”

“What if I were to tell you I have about fifty humans eating from your precious tree right now?” Lucifer stared into Uriel’s eyes without flinching.

“What are you up to?” Uriel pressed.

“I’m going to help the humans. I’m going to help them breed faster than they’ve ever bred before. They’re going to eat from the tree and inherit the qualities of the fruit.”

Uriel laughed. But there was something about Lucifer that forced him to reconsider his words. There were no ensuing insults about Uriel’s purity or belittling remarks about his predicament. It was odd because rarely did Lucifer not cast him a disparaging word.

“Do you think me stupid enough to believe you? What pleasure could you possibly derive by convincing me you’re trying to save the humans?” Uriel asked.

“None. There would be no pleasure for me in a lie like that,” Lucifer said calmly.

“Then what is your motivation? Are you utterly bored?”

“I am far from bored. In fact, I haven’t been this motivated… ever! For the first time in a long time, I am actually enjoying my work.”

“OK,” Uriel relented, “for argument’s sake, let’s say you’re telling the truth. What good would it do you to save a species that God has doomed to extinction? You of all beings know the extent to which God would go to rid Himself of their memory. So, why….” Uriel stopped talking. Everything Lucifer had been saying made sense now. “You can’t do this, Lucifer. You know what God will do when He sees the humans are still polluting His beloved creation.”

“My dear Uriel,” Lucifer feigned pity, “I know exactly what He will do. That is why I’ve gone to such great lengths to ensure the humans survive. And you really only have your Lord to blame for it. You see, when He came down to Hell to enlist my aide in the destruction of His vermin, He could not conceal His grief. I mean, imagine all the love and devotion He put towards the humans and how often they broke His heart. He all but assured to me the erasure of the universe should they ever dare to seep out into the vast reaches of space.”

“So your plan - ”

“My plan,” Lucifer interrupted, “is brilliant. The fruit will guarantee a renaissance in human knowledge and innovation. In a century their lives will return to normal. In another century, they will have figured out how to travel at the speed of light. And in the century after that, they will learn how to open up wormholes and travel anywhere and everywhere throughout the universe. They will spread their vile, selfish, exploitative philosophies across any planet they find and your grieving Lord will smite creation out of existence because of it.”

“Oh, Lucifer… what have you done? What are you doing?” Uriel pleaded. “You would use God’s suffering and sorrow against Him to manipulate the destruction of the universe?” Uriel’s voice cracked. He appeared to be holding back tears. “Are you really selfish enough to have heaven and earth disappear forever?”

“Heaven, Earth and, most importantly, Hell.”

Uriel shook his head: “You’re not even a prisoner anymore. You are free! You can go off and disappear anywhere in the universe. And even if God found you, with the humans gone, He would surely allow you to remain free. I could speak to Him on your behalf. I could lobby for you…”

“Your sudden change of heart towards my character is quite the turnaround. But, validation from you is not what I seek. Appeals to my vanity or ego will only end in futility. Don’t conceal your animosity for me just to claim a few more seconds of life. The gesture would only bring to light the self-serving ideals for which I know you stand. No… it’s better you maintain your hatred of me. It’s better you stand proud and defiant in the shadow of the one who will end your life.”

“There must be something else that appeals to the baseness of your nature. I could help you with the humans. You know how much I dislike them. I could lead the women by the whip to be your concubines. I could enslave the men to do your bidding. You could get drunk on baby’s blood and have all the orgies you desire….”

“I could do all that without your help,” Lucifer said bluntly. “No, the days of debauchery and the pursuits for pleasures of the flesh are over. It’s a new era. Imprisonment has shown me that our only enemy is time. Surely standing outside this gate has revealed a similar truth to you as well, no?”

“But we can use time for a good cause.”

“What about time spent in Hell?”

“I already told you, I could speak to God and seek forgiveness for you,” Uriel bargained.

“God does not forgive, Uriel. If you spent any time at all in that infernal furnace, you would understand that.”

“He is the Lord of Forgiveness.”

“The very concept of Hell contradicts your boast.” Lucifer stood upright, giving Uriel some space. He folded his arms across his chest. “When was the last time you spoke to God?”

“Not since He ordered me to stand here at the gate.”

“The Lord is worn down. There is no majesty in Him anymore. He is a picture of sullen dejection. The humans did not evolve in the manner He expected. The universe is not designed to His liking. Your Lord needs a rest, a respite from all His disappointments. And I will deliver that rest… for all of us.”

Uriel suddenly flexed his muscles and tried to squirm free from the grip of the two serpents. “Let me loose!”

Lucifer grinned, unfazed by the outburst. The serpents tightened their grip.

“If I am to die than let me die with honor! Free me and let me fight!” Uriel demanded. “Unless you are afraid?”

“My dear Uriel, the farmer does not trap the fox because he fears it. He traps it because it’s the most effective, least complicated measure to take,” Lucifer said. “This moment between us now is not about you and I. It isn’t even about revenge. This is, simply, a necessary measure.”

Uriel stopped writhing. He glared at Lucifer for several moments before his lip finally uncurled. Gradually, the furrow in his brow decreased. The glare in his eyes subsided. Lucifer watched as Uriel’s tough, defiant demeanor softened with the acceptance of his fate.

“If you are going to kill me, Lucifer, then I have a request….”

“It is not in my nature to offer mercy or grant requests. But, I always appreciated your aversion to the humans. So, maybe that’s worth something. What is your request?”

“I have only a question. One question.”

“Ask it.”

“Did you have to lie to get them to believe you, or did you tell them the truth?”

“Does it matter? With just a few scant appeals to their egos, I could get the humans to believe anything, real or fake. Why do their actions matter to you now?”

“It’s not their actions that matter to me. It’s your actions I want to understand. If you lied to get to where you are now, then you’re the same old Lucifer I’ve always known. But, if you told them the truth… than wouldn’t that be a curious development?”

“It would indeed.”

Uriel smiled. Lucifer stepped back far enough, so he had enough room to wipe the smile off of Uriel’s face.

“Have you ever considered what might happen if the humans actually overcome their deficiencies?”

“I have not,” Lucifer responded. He suddenly extended his wings outward. Uriel kept smiling.

“Could you imagine what the reward might be for the one who saved God’s favorite creatures?”

“I suppose I could.”

“Redemption is a wonderful thing, you know.”

“Redemption, Uriel, is nothing more than a frame of mind. It is not a real tangible thing. It’s just the feeling of guilt subsiding….and I never feel guilty.” Lucifer countered and turned to swing his body around one hundred and eighty degrees. His wings suddenly flattened out, parallel with the ground. The edge of his wing was sharp, tapered to cut through the air like a knife. As he twisted and spun, the tough, sinewy appendage sliced through Uriel’s neck. Lucifer stopped; his back now facing the guardian’s body. He waited to hear the sound he’d dreamed about for eons.

Uriel’s severed head hit the ground. THUD!

For several minutes, The Dark One basked in his deed. Then his thoughts returned to the humans and the long list of chores that awaited him. He swirled around to take one last look at his defeated foe. Then he pivoted back towards the ethereal mist that separated the two planes of existence and walked off into the fog.

Theo spent the entire night scampering through the branches of the Tree of Knowledge while everyone else slept. The supplies he’d taken from the veterinarian’s office, various anesthesia and painkillers, he’d mixed into one deadly concoction. Then he filled fifty-plus syringes with the poisonous brew and injected every piece of fruit. When he finished, he buried the empty needles behind a nearby bush and returned to the infamous timber.

By the time morning arrived, the survivor’s bellies were drawing them towards the succulent produce. As they approached, Theo plucked the juicy specimens from their nesting places on the tree; handing them over with strict instructions to wait before they took a bite. Finally, after all the remaining human beings on planet Earth stood before him, Theo spoke:

“First off, I would officially like to say that I am sorry for all the terrible things we had to endure in order to get to this point,” Theo said; pretending to be their leader. “But we made it. We absolutely made it, and we should all be very proud of that fact. We are family now, drawn together by tragedy and by the promise of a better tomorrow - “

“Hey, where’s Thomas? Shouldn’t he be here for this?” Some unknown face in the crowd interrupted.

“Thomas…” Theo realized that must have been the name of the young man that tried to kill him, “… is with Lucifer right now on an errand. He won’t be back until later. But Lucifer said we should have this ceremonial salute to commemorate our new start in life. So here’s to us… cheers!”

“Cheers!” The crowd yelled and devoured the fruit. The flavors were so strong and overwhelming to their taste buds, the fatal concoction would never be detected. As the juices spurted and nectar dribbled down their chins, the warm euphoria of the fruit’s essence enveloped their minds. And in less than twenty minutes, all the survivors had laid down on the grass and closed their eyes for the last time. After a while, Theo sat down too; holding the last poisoned fruit against his chest. When Lucifer finally reappeared, he was going to eat it.

It took another hour before The Dark Lord arrived. But when he did, he fell out of the sky like an anvil. His feet hit the ground with a thunderous clap and shook the tree’s branches. Theo quickly gobbled up the fruit as Lucifer approached. His deep, dark eyes scanned the scattered bodies around him and finally fixed on Theo.

“I don’t know what happened here… but I know you are responsible for it.” Lucifer wandered amid the motionless bodies. Every once in a while he kicked one to see if they were pretending to be asleep. They were not. “What have you done, Theodore?”

“You’re the second most powerful being in the universe… shouldn’t you know?”

“Oh… that hooked tongue of yours is going to taste so good after I rip it from your mouth.” Lucifer threatened.

“Good, good… let your true colors show. At least now you can stop pretending to be some loving, compassionate Samaritan…” Theodore said.

“Says the guy surrounded by fifty dead bodies…” Lucifer took a step towards Theo.

“You were very convincing, you know? Well… of course, you know that… but, it was an especially remarkable feat,” Theo said wryly. “When I first met you outside my bunker, the idea that you wanted to save me was the most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard. Yet, you convinced me that your intentions were genuine. You made me believe that all the stories about you were untrue. So, congratulations to your efforts.”

Lucifer grinned. The red plasma burned brightly beneath his obsidian colored skin.

“However, the downfall of having to persuade me means you had to talk, and you had to talk a lot. That put you in a position of accidentally slipping up; potentially exposing yourself as the deceiver you’ve always been.” Theo explained. “The first time you forced me to scrutinize your intentions was when I persisted that evil was a real thing. That conversation, in all honesty, was merely a way to pass the time on a long trip. But, your blatant irritation caught my attention. I couldn’t fathom why you’d be upset that I argued evil existed. Then I realized, you weren’t mad at me or my line of questioning. You were unhappy because you weren’t convincing enough. It was your own impotence that angered you.”

“Am I supposed to be impressed?”

“Not yet. But, you will be,” Theo promised. “The next time you drew my attention, we were driving through Canada and I’d questioned your motives during the first Temptation of man. You became especially annoyed with me and not because of what I was saying, as I first assumed, but because you suspected you would have to rid yourself of me. You realized I was not the ignorant, compliant lackey you’d hoped for and that upset you.”

“Is that so?” Lucifer responded glibly.

“But the real tip-off, before you threw away all facades and tried to have me killed, was when you wouldn’t reveal your true intentions to me after I ate the fruit. You’ll remember that I tried to grill you and you just shrugged me off. You acted as if your intentions were unimportant. But at the same time, you randomly popped off about interstellar space travel and worm holes as if that was relevant.” Theo explained. “That is where you truly fumbled away your plan. You see, your strength is not in what you say. It’s in what you don’t say. So, after the essence of the fruit was coursing through my body, enhancing my cognitive abilities, I connected the two events. The fruit allowed my brain to follow through, step by step, to the most logical assumption. And the assumption is that you wanted us to branch out into space to achieve your secret agenda. But what was the agenda? Well… if God was so thoroughly disgusted with us humans, He eradicated us from existence than the last thing He would want to see is our species travelling around the universe. But, it’s exactly what you wanted to see. Why? Because if God saw us out in His universe, He might destroy it all. He might even wipe out existence itself and then… then, Lucifer, you could finally be free. Do you remember saying to me? ‘Even in the blackest depths of hell, there is hope.’ That was your plan. That was your hope to free yourself from the prison of Hell.”

“Aren’t you the cleverest little monkey…” Lucifer spat in disgust.

“The part that is most ironic to me is you tempting us with the fruit again. You used it once against us to trick God into wiping us out. Then you tricked us a second time, hoping that God would destroy the universe and existence itself.”

“I see no irony in that.”

“Stop interrupting me and I’ll explain it for you,” Theo said as if were talking to an obstinate child.

Lucifer took another step forward, his teeth clenched.

“Go ahead… I know you want to stomp my skull into the dirt. Do it! It’ll save me from the poison.” Theo said.

Lucifer snarled but moved no closer.

“The irony is because the fruit you tricked us into eating, to destroy humanity, has actually been used to redeem humanity,” Theo clarified. “Before I ever met you, my only instinct was to save myself. If you had never introduced that fruit to me, I would’ve been the same selfish person; only concerned with saving my own life. But, after eating the fruit, I realized the universe was far more important and worth every last bit of human life.”

Lucifer tilted his head back and let out a hearty, guttural laugh. Then his gaze fixed on Theo like a predator sizing up its dinner.

“Well… you sure showed me, didn’t you? Really gave me my comeuppance there… you used that peon brain of yours to lay all my plans to waste and for what? What have you really gained? Do you think you’re noble now? Do you think this one thoughtful act erases eons of your species shitty behavior?”

“I don’t think any of those things,” Theo said with a smile that stretched from ear to ear. “I’m just a human being that saved the universe.”

“Yeah… I guess you are, you smug insignificant troglodyte!” Lucifer spat his words like a cobra spitting venom. ”Pity for you though, the tree didn’t cure you of shortsightedness.”

Theo stared stone-faced back at Lucifer. The poison seeped through his system, but he tried not to show any pain.

“It appears in your meaningless effort you forgot suicide is a damnable sin. And if that isn’t enough to send your soul to my fiery pit than surely the mass murder of fifty human beings will guarantee it.”

A stabbing pain from the surging poison ripped through Theo’s belly and bowels. He pulled his knees up to his chest in a fetal position.

“Every fiber of my being is screaming at me to tear the limbs from your torso. But, if eternity has taught me anything, it has taught me to be patient. So, instead, I’m going to stand here and bathe in the sounds of your death rattle. My body will quiver with pleasure at the sight of you writhing in pain.” Lucifer moved towards him. He crouched down towards the ground to put his cold black lips against Theo’s ear. “When you are finally in Hell, I will perpetrate agonies upon your body so exquisitely depraved the angels in heaven will weep for you.”

“Maybe I’ll see you there… maybe I surely will,” Theo muttered through gasps of pain. “But, maybe… maybe I’ll be delivered unto heaven’s glory instead?”

Lucifer reacted as if slapped. He stood upright, a look of bewilderment stinging his face. “I think delirium has polluted what little mind you have left.”

“Before I die, there is something I would like to tell you.”

“Oh? Well, now you’ve piqued my curiosity. Tell me than, upon what final words do you choose to choke?”

“Well, I know you’re a myopic blowhard so I can’t imagine you thought of this- ”

Lucifer flexed his muscles, bared his fangs.

“ -but I just saved the entire universe and trillions of lives from extinction. I also proved to God that humans can change for the better. So… I ask you… do you think I’m going to hell or might there be a place for me in heaven?”

Lucifer snarled like a rabid dog. “I’m gonna stomp your guts and drink the bloody pulp from your skull.”

He raised his muscular leg in the air and sent it down towards Theo’s head. As he did so, he let loose a primordial roar filled with a rage that had been building for a thousand millennia. Theo squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the impact. A second passed; nothing happened. Then another went by, and a third and a fourth. After twenty seconds transpired, he opened his eyes. Lucifer’s heel was two inches from his face. He shut them once more. Again, the moments trickled by, uneventful. He dared a second peek. Lucifer’s cloven hoof remained hovered above him. Theo dragged himself out from underneath his big leg and glanced up at his face. His attention was drawn to something behind Theo. So, he turned to see what mystery was there.

A gigantic, swirling, spherical object hung suspended in the air. It was several colors of blue. Dozens of appendages like streamers of ribbons sprouted from the rotating mass and extended towards the grass.

Theo turned back to look at his nefarious enemy. He did not look surprised or confused. In fact, he had the distinct impression of a familiarity between the two. Lucifer pulled back his leg; gently setting his foot back down. The tentacled arms, like flagellum, stretched further from the foreign mass to touch down on the ground. They slithered towards Theo like angry snakes; then bypassed him en route to their much larger, intended target. Lucifer clenched his fists as numerous sapphire and azure blue tendrils surrounded him.

Lucifer suddenly said something Theo could not understand. It was in an unknown language, addressed directly at the ball of energy. The spherical mass responded using the same dialect. Clearly, they understood each other. For a few moments, the indistinct, foreign chatter bounced back and forth between them with Lucifer’s voice getting louder and louder.

Then it stopped.

Theo, still reeling from the poison, saw he was sitting directly in the middle of their stand-off. The muscles in Lucifer’s body went rigid. A humming vibration intensified from the glowing blue ball. A collision was imminent.

In a flash, Lucifer lunged towards Theo. It happened so fast his eyes could not relay the message to his brain in time for him to react. He just sat there frozen. The tentacles on the ground immediately sprang into action. Several of them wrapped around Lucifer’s thighs and calves. A dozen encircled his chest and shoulders and tightened in a knot. More still slapped themselves around his wrists and elbows.

Though Lucifer appeared rooted to one spot, his right arm still pushed towards Theo. His thumb and thick fingers stretched open, ready to rip into his throat. Three more long tendrils stretched over and looped around the Dark Lord’s forearm and squeezed like a vice. His momentum stopped; his razor sharp fingernail coming to rest against Theo’s jugular vein. He struggled and snarled, spat obscenities, but he could not latch onto him.

Then, in the time it took Theo to blink, they were both gone, vanished. Instantly, he was by himself. The poison had him hallucinating now; he thought. He closed his eyes and pulled his knees up to his chest; expecting to have some awe-inspiring revelation or monumental epiphany. But his mind was failing him. Instead, he just put his head down until he slowly drifted off and his breathing stopped.

All the survivors of the Apocalypse were now dead.

Theo’s vision returned. His eyes were swathed in a deep blue hue that penetrated to the back of his eyeballs, like the color was swimming in his skull. His body tingled. His skin vibrated. He tried to move, but nothing happened. Yet, he wasn’t afraid. In fact, all of his senses, feelings, and thoughts were at ease. He had the strangest notion of deja-vu again, like when he first entered the Garden. It was so familiar and relaxing he felt as if he might be in his bed dreaming it all.

No sooner had the idea crossed his mind, the essence flowed out of him; retreating from every orifice. The dense blue haze lifted from his sight like ocular bandages being removed. Layer by layer, the Garden of Eden came back into view. He saw those ribbon-like appendages again, the same ones that had immobilized Lucifer. They were wrapped loosely around his body; in the process of shrinking away from his torso and legs. Backwards they slithered and withdrew towards their source; towards that strangely familiar swirling blue mass of energy hovering in the air above him.

Theo sat up from his fetal position and rubbed his eyes. When the long, thin, tentacle-like arms had fully retracted back into the gyrating blue ball, the mysterious object stopped spinning. It occurred to Theo that he felt no pain at all from the poison anymore. He stood up and stared curiously at the floating mass before him.

“Am I dead?” Theo wondered, more to himself than anything else.

“Not anymore. In fact, you appear to be feeling much better,” a voice, very much human, emanated from somewhere inside the mass.

“I can understand you,” Theo marveled.

“That’s because I’m speaking your language,” the voice said. “How are you feeling?”

“I feel fine… surprisingly fine,” Theo remarked. “I feel like I know you… or I know of you. How is that possible?”

“A part of you knows me very well. What does your instinct tell you?”

“That you are God.”

“Indeed, I am.”

Theo quickly, respectfully dropped to his knees, bowed his head and folded his hands in prayer.

“Get up,” the Lord commanded. “None of that is necessary.”

Theo rose to his feet. He remembered the brief battle between good and evil that unfolded just before the poison overtook him. It was God that had saved him from having his throat torn out.

“Thank you for saving my life.”

“Thank you for saving the humans.”

“I didn’t,” Theo said; crumbling under an avalanche of emotion. Everything he’d bottled up and suppressed for the last year and a half erupted like a volcano. His sobs came in full body heaves. All the fear, loneliness, sorrow, anger and guilt pummeled him like storm-driven waves smashing against a breaker. “I didn’t save them… I killed them… they’re all dead.” Theo collapsed to his knees again. The strength to remain brave had fled from him. He was exhausted, drained. The will to fight was gone. He cried into his hands for a long time.

Eventually, though, he stopped crying. He dried his eyes, caught his breath and hoisted himself off his knees. Dejectedly, he stood there to be judged by his maker.

The blue orb slowly moved towards Theo to hover directly at his eye level.

“I’ll ask you again… how do you feel?”

“Sad.”

“Why do you feel sad?”

“Because I didn’t know how else to save them.” Theo’s voice nearly broke again. “I didn’t know how else to beat Lucifer.”

“You need only play out the alternatives to see if you made the right decision, Theodore.”

He said nothing.

“If you did not act and remained in the Garden, Lucifer would’ve killed you. If you challenged Lucifer physically, he would’ve killed you. If you warned the other survivors, they would have turned on you. If you had tried to run and hide away, he would’ve sniffed you out and killed you. So, given your limited options and resources, I would say you performed well.”

“I tried my best.” Theo confessed.

“And I’d say your best was sufficient.”

Theo felt relieved to hear that. But what did it mean? What did it all matter now that everyone was dead?

“So what would you like to do now?” God inquired.

“Regarding what?” Theo wondered.

“Regarding your future, Theodore. Would you like to go to heaven now? Would you like to visit Hell so you can gloat over Lucifer’s misery? Better still, how would you feel about continuing his plan?”

Theo fumbled for a response, “Uh… I don’t know… I never want to see Lucifer again. And I’m too young to go to heaven… I’ve barely lived at all so, I guess…”

“You’ll bring the humans back from extinction than?”

“How can I do that? They’re all dead. I’m the only one left.”

“I will bring them back the same way I brought you back.” God assured.

“Ok… but…” Theo hesitated.

“But what?”

“But how can we… I mean… why should we try again? Why should we start over if we’re just going to be the same monsters we were before?” Theo worried. “All that rape, murder, and war… so much violence, hate, anger and pain. It will be darkness all over again… and wherever there’s darkness, monsters are sure to follow.”

“If darkness is all around than monsters will proliferate, yes. But if illumination covers the world, then only the enlightened should abound.”

“And how is that supposed to happen? If there was darkness before than there will be darkness again,” Theo lamented. “Sure, the first generation of humans will be predictably kind and charitable towards one another. But what happens in the third and fourth generations? What happens when people in the future forget about the past and resort to their greedy, abusive natures?”

“I won’t allow it.”

The Lord’s response caused Theo to hesitate for a moment. But the substance of the fruit he’d eaten earlier stimulated his intellect to continue with his train of thought.  

“What does that mean? Does that mean you could have always intervened on behalf of the humans and you didn’t? You destroyed rather than help us?” As the accusation fell from his lips, Theo immediately gasped. It wasn’t what he meant to say…. ”I’m sorry… I don’t know where that came from…”

“There’s no need for apologies, Theodore. I know where it came from. It came from your heart.” The Lord said. “And it’s a legitimate question.”

Theo breathed an enormous sigh of relief.

“My reason for not getting involved is the same reason human parents do what they do. They know a baby has to teeter and fall before it can learn to walk. They know children have to scrape their knees or sprain their collarbones before they learn the word caution. By the same token, humanity needed to fail before it could ever learn to be successful. Existence is difficult, Theodore. Survival is a struggle. I assure you it was extremely hard for me to stand back and watch you destroy each other.”

“If it was so difficult to watch than how could you possibly act to kill us all?” Theo pressed.

“A sharp question, Theodore. But my answer will not be one that pleases you…”

“I’m used to disappointment.”

“I decided, angrily, that humans and their selfish behavior should not be allowed to exist any longer.” The Lord’s words fell with the weight of a guillotine blade. “Simple as that.”

“And what changed your mind? Why should we be allowed to live now?”

“You changed my mind, Theodore. Your act of selflessness to save my creation is why you deserve a second chance. You also showed me that people are ready to reap the rewards of the tree I built for them. But, most importantly, you gave me a chance to redeem myself. Because of you, I now have the opportunity to build a better world for you.”

A hundred different questions erupted in Theo’s head, all branching off in a dozen different directions. What was He doing in the Garden now? Did He return to save the humans? Did He know what Lucifer had been up to? Was it all a plan or was it just sheer luck? Theo felt his tongue trying to speak, but he forced himself to remain focused.

“So what happens now? If we’re going to repopulate the earth, how do we eliminate the darkness that plagued us before?”

“Well, ask yourself: What do humans want?” God asked. “What do you want, Theodore, more than anything else?”

He thought for a moment and without hesitation said: “Equality.”

“I’m pleased to hear you say that for I, too, want equality in our new world. However, in order to make that a reality, everything will have to be different. Institutional philosophies and ideologies that disproportionately benefited a few and oppressed the many will no longer be allowed. They way in which most humans were forced to live will no longer be acceptable. The number one rule, or commandment, if you will, is that all things in this world belong to me. If I see a person declare ownership of land or water or wood or even a pebble, I will crush them into the earth. There will be no monies or currencies of any kind. The first time I witness a human being put a price-tag on food or clothing or housing or transportation, I will destroy them and eradicate everyone associated with them.”

Theo recoiled, stunned by the Lord’s vitreous declaration.

“I will not sit back and let the course of humanity be decided by rapacious, avaricious swine again. Gone are the days where ninety percent of the world’s population can’t prosper because the other ten percent claim ownership of everything. There will be no gluttonous gorging pigs insisting the scraps that fall from their troughs are all anybody else deserves.” God confessed. “The world will be a very different place than what you remember, Theodore. You’re certain that’s a challenge you’re up to?”

“Yes,” Theo said confidently.

“It pains me to say it, but it is all my fault that things ended up this bad. I bear the burden for the degeneration of humanity. I had mistakenly believed that my direct influence in your evolution would be counterproductive to the will of nature. So I tried to stay out. I tried to let you learn to walk. But I was wrong. I was completely wrong, Theodore. And I will never allow that to happen again. I will never be an absentee parent to the children of my earth ever again.”

“That’s all any of us ever wanted.”

“Remember, when you think all people are equal, you will act as if all people are equal. And if you act as if all people are equal, society and civilization will form around that very idea.”

Theo smiled. After every horrible thing that had happened recently, it felt good to know that he had done the right thing and the right thing by God.

“Come now…” God said, “let us reawaken the rest of the survivors. Then we can all sit down together and figure out how to make a better world.”

It was the greatest idea Theo had ever heard.