Andy Sweet was doing exactly as Bludgy had told him to do. He had followed a specific trail through the light scrub to an old rusty Commer van that was bound to the ground with masses of black berry vines. Once there his mission was to hide and observe. Bludgy had told him to wrap up warm and dry because it was going to be, and in the man’s own words, “bloody cold out there with lots of hard driving rain. We can’t be getting you sick now,” and it was just like he had said, thought Andy who liked recalling the words, playing them over and over in his head. Andy realized it seemed silly to make it into something it wasn’t, but Bludgy hadn’t yet brought him into his core group and being given a mission like this filled him with pride. All his life people had made him feel dumb and insignificant but today, he’s got a shot, because he hopes that if he does well, this will mean being anointed, promoted to the upper echelon.

He looked at his watch. There was thirty seconds left until when Bulgy said it would start to happen and he must not be seen at all, or the future they’ve planned would never play out the way it was meant to, and all their plans would go to waste. Bludgy had told him in front of the others that his role was incredibly important and it was given to him because there was no one else he trusted more for this task. He Andy that he could see something in him, something that would change history. Andy thought at the moment, that Bludgy could see through his soul. And then he saw Lia from the inner circle, staring at him with a smile. Andy goes weak at the knees and feels a gush of unrequited love. He stops playing it over in his mind when he spots Ozil one hundred metres away in the direction that Bludgy had told him to look. He watches with excitement. The police man crawls through the mud and then he smokes meth.  As this is happening a big guy with a rope sneaks up and hides behind a mound of dirt. Then the cop looks like he’s kicking a football over the building, right when the big guy tackles him from behind. The big guy punches the cop unconscious, then spends two minutes pulling the football out of the ground which turns out to be a person covered in mud. The big guy carries him away on his shoulders. The edge of the hail just missed Andy but the following heavy rain hits him hard. He stands there from a distance, watching the unconscious cop covered in hail. He looks around to see if anyone else was going to his aid, but no one did. He was starting to feel anxious. He hadn’t forgotten what Bludgy had told him to do, but the man could quite well die if no one helped him. He started getting agitated and hot under his many layers of clothes. This was what it was like for him around Bludgy, the man he admired more than anyone else got him excited for a new dangerous moralist purpose. But something inside Andy was telling him that he had to go help, though Bludgy had explicitly told him not to do anything at all, as it could ruin all their plans. Was this Bludgy’s test for me? Andy wondered. To see if I’m man enough to suck it up and walk away, leaving the guy to die? Is this part of his purpose for me? He mused. 

Andy remains faithful to Bludgy and walks out the way he came in, heading north on Peel Street. When the wind and rain suddenly stops and the sun comes out, Andy stops walking. Bludgy had told him that when it happens, he’ll be standing outside a derelict church. Andy turns his hooded head to the left to see an unkept lot of land with the small abandoned church in the middle. He wades through the long grass that licks at his legs, then steps up onto the low veranda and sits on a fixed bench seat. Out of a breast pocket he takes a notebook and a pen exactly as he was told he would do and writes down his observations and personal experience. That part he finds hard to lay down. Did Bludgy already know what he was going to write before he gave him the mission? He didn’t know, but he did know that he had to be honest. So he was.

It took him five minutes to write the report, then ten more to walk the rest of the trip to the rendezvous. The site was a warehouse with no exterior signs of life.  Andy punches a sequence of keys into a combination lock at the rear entrance. It opens a door to an interior buzzing with activity. Twenty social-misfits were emptying the contents of ten EMP protected faraday cages. There were large lithium batteries being plugged into a makeshift internal power power grid. Computers and monitors were being placed on desks. Within a few minutes everything was plugged in, switched on. A computer screen is projected onto a white painted wall making a twenty metre image. People wearing headsets take seats at the computer screens and check all operating systems. Two vans and a car are being driven out of cages. Immediately four people start fitting aerials and satellite dishes to the roofs of the vehicles.  

Bludgy’s getting changed out of the business suit and into his normal dress of leather jacket and pants with cowboy boots. He looks into a mirror, two people help him fit a wig, false beard and moustache. Bludgy smiles to himself. “It’s good to be back,” he says to himself..

Andy feels nervous as he walks across the large floor space to Bludgy who’s handing out sheets of paper to everyone around him. Someone seated at a computer calls out to everyone. “We’ve got  a satellite link.” The group replies with cheers, claps and wolf whistles. On the large wall screen diagnostic tools are counting down and passwords are being entered.  Andy walks up to Bludgy who turns to give him his full attention. “My main man.” Bludgy gives him a big bear hug making Andy feel warm inside. “Did you write your report as I asked you to?” 

Andy nods. “Yes,” he said, sounding nervous.

“Everyone gather around,” said Bludgy to the individuals holding the sheets of paper. “Read your report Andy.” As he does so, the others grin and look at him with awe as they glance back and forth between Andy and their own sheets of paper. Bludgy interjects at the end the second last sentence, “Everyone together.” In unison they all read aloud.

“I didn’t know if he was dead or alive, and deep down I wanted to help him because no one else was, but I did as I was told and left without being seen.”  Andy had stopped talking a few words into the sentence. Fearful, he stared with big eyes as they spoke the exact same words he had scribed from his mind just minutes before. As soon they finished Bludgy turned to Andy.

“Come here,” he commands with his big voice. Andy does as he’s told and nervously stands before him. In a flash using his left arm, Bludgy puts him into a choke hold and rubs the knuckles of his right fist into the top of Andy’s head. “Well done, well done indeed,” He lets him go. “Give him a hand everyone.”  They all cheer and clap. Andy spots Lia, she gives him a thumbs up and a smile. He’s going giddy with emotions.      

Bludgy calls out to the entire crew, “The number of confirmed prophecies is?” Almost all of them reply in unison. “Twenty five,” they shout back. 

A guy with long stringy hair seated in front of a computer immediately corrects. “Make that twenty six.” He drags an image from his laptop to the theatre sized wall screen. It shows a short looped video of a gigantic billowing mushroom cloud. “That’s Sydney,” he said.  The group was silent. The lights were dimmed. They all pondered their own reflections of the moment. Bludgy was staring at the moving image in a trance as his eyes rolled back in his head. He momentarily goes unsteady as two men either side hold him up. To Andy it looked like Bludgy was being rebooted, as he slowly straightens up and turns his back to the screen wall. His muscles are gradually tensing up to being rock solid. Lia looks at him standing before the six metre tall mushroom cloud. She breaths in the moment. She never looked more alive as she claps her hands twice. 

“Everyone gather around.” She said with an eastern European air of authority  A spot light is placed at Bludgy’s feet, shooting up at his face.  His followers form a semi circle around him. His eyes suddenly open to nothing but bloodshot whites. His arms reach out with open palms to all of them all. 

“Bow before me,” he bellows, his open hands simultaneously turn to fists as a thunder clap booms directly above. Without hesitation they all drop to their knees and prostrate themselves before him in reverence. Face to the floor with hands outstretched palms up to Bludgy. After a moment Lia slowly lifts her head. Andy follows her lead and looks up seeing Bludgy’s face positioned in the centre of the mushroom cloud. His brilliantly lit fake beard and hair blend into the colossal fireball. Andy was amazed. He had heard of Bludgy’s transformation many times but this was the first time he had seen it happen before his own eyes. Andy was convinced that Bludgy had something else beneath his skin. Something that owned them both. Bludgy’s mouth begins to move. The voice was coldly surreal, as if every utterance had been pulled apart to be reconstructed as some major effort to be re-understood the right way around. It sounded like ethereal whispers, accompanied by the guttural crushing of rocks.“ The world is burning.” Said the voice. “You the chosen, will build a new civilization through the enslavement of the empaths. We have begun and we will rule the world from here ever after. Now leave to the home of the last of the good and prove you are worthy.”  Bludgy collapses to the floor. Many rush to help him. 

Lia calls out to them all. “Ready the vans and open the door. We’re going to change the history of the world.” Heavy rain hits the roof, they all roar YEAH. Bludgy is back on his feet with strained eyes and his hands above his head and clapping. Lia turns from him to give Andy a big smile. He smiles back, feeling golden warmth of love.

Next Chapter: 10