The GOD Box Read Free

try. Another prodding on his back. Stop it . Not knowing what time it was, or what year it was, Gabe was extremely apprehensive. Socially and economically clueless, and this part was his work. “Stop it! Jonathan!” … The situation made them both feel rather… naked. Whoever said vulnerability is the first step to creation was an idiot.
    In about five minutes they would enter the threshold of a wide and wet cave to meet people who weren’t in existence the last time Gabe and Jonathan were alive. They would have to make friends with them, then, convince them they were from the chronological past, but the technological future. Next, they would make all their mental notes about the civilization, and, following the pattern since this started, would most likely begin the world over again.
    It wasn’t quite like amnesia… but, it was like playing a football game where you came in at the end just to watch the team lose and then go into the locker room and come out years later and being able to pl ay the game with different teammates, different shaped ball and different rules as fifty and sixty-seven year old men. Every time, as silly as it was, you hoped to win, but you didn’t. And the game was completely changed every time except that people still played it and it was on the same field. Then again, Gabe didn’t know much, nor care much about football.
    Panting now on an uphill climb, Gabe was trying to find things to look forward to as he slid and sometimes pinched his way through the darkness. Maybe this time … that was a hopeful thought and far too positive for the cynic he was. Jonathan was still pushing at him. Gabe ranted curse words under his breath. What a child! Gabe first turned a corner and saw the tiny hint of firelight. Already he knew a few things about the people he was about to meet. They were still in the age of early civilization… and they were unprepared.
    Jonathan was now seeing the light , too, and pressed more firmly on Gabe’s back. Gabe looked back, “stop it”. Jonathan didn’t say anything and he didn’t stop. Gabe went slower on purpose. That ticked Jonathan off. Finally, they stepped into air that was a little less dense. What a relief. There were two silhouettes. Only two? Maybe they wouldn’t die, then.
    No one said a word to each other.
    Keeping eyes locked on the two strangers, t hey stretched long and hard as if having a brand new body were the hardest kind of work. All the while, two young strangers waited for them looking wary, puzzled, and vaguely surprised. A plaque behind Gabe on the right side of the cave opening reflected the firelight. What it said was this:
    Welcome to the birth site. This plaque is in commemoration of a special project designed to help humanity start anew, re-experience the natural man, and follow a better pattern of living than our predecessors. To activate, p lease type this code in the keypad to the left: 337465. Please wait.
    Not very informative, Gabe would admit, and not even entirely honest. More information than that might have been too much, though. Jonathan had eagerly tried to persuade the committee to let him write it, but when he tried, it sounded like a lab write up, with words normal people wouldn’t understand, let alone a new society of people.  One of the women on their team suggested to just have a big red button with a sign that said DO NOT PUSH next to it.
    Two live old men were the exhibition of ‘the birth site’. Admittedly, that was the strangest thing imaginable, and, admittedly, Gabe didn’t care. That was the way it was, and they can stuff it.
    Gabe finished stretching, feeling dry and heavy. A slouch and suspicious grimace returned. There was no escaping his doubtful look and the weight of the stress by the way his neck stuck out like a starving bird searching for food scraps. Sure, he was supposed to be the friendly one. He just didn’t particularly feel like it at the moment.
    Looking up and down the pair methodically