“And …?” Sarge leaned forward with his hands open.

“I think it boils down to whether you see Jesus as a man or as God.” Wiley swallowed and rubbed his throat. “If you see Jesus as God, then that places a different perspective on things. You want to be on his right side. If Jesus was a man, well, you can still do your own thing. God has nothing over you.”

“Good points, Wiley,” Bruce said. “But it’s all just religion, isn’t it? I find all religions the same, anyway.”

Wiley let out a sigh and nodded. “My dad says Christians believe Jesus is God. Other religions believe He was just a good, noble man.”

“Well, can’t those religions ask their god for forgiveness or whatever, like the Christians do?” Bruce asked.

“I’ve asked that question. Jesus says He’s the only way to God. He’s fixing the problem caused by Adam. Other religions don’t have the Adam problem, the sin problem. If you don’t believe you need a saviour, you don’t need Jesus. They can believe in their gods and still sin. I think that’s what society sees … saw. People being religious and continuing to sin, even so-called Christians.” Wiley shrugged.  

“Anyway, we’re all atheists. Our creed stated there is no credible scientific or factually reliable evidence for the existence of a god or the supernatural …” Bruce paused. “I’m confused.” He pointed to the sky and shook his head. “They must be aliens.”

Sarge’s tone was edgy. “God or aliens. Not good choices for atheists when there is factual evidence of the supernatural floating above the earth.”

“Anyway …”  Bruce was clearly frustrated. “What do we do now?”

“I have no idea what’s coming next.” Wiley took a quick glance towards the back yard. Was that movement out there? Or shadows? “I think we’ve made our choice, and that was to not believe in God. Now we face the consequences.”  

“So we decided our opinion was more important than God’s opinion. We told the so-called creator of all things that we know best.” Sarge pressed his lips together and shook his head. “I think the alien option is better.”

“This is all too deep.” Bruce rubbed his chin. “What could I add?”

They waited for some response.

“You know I don’t consider myself a bad person. I mean, I haven’t killed anyone.” Bruce’s eyes watering up. “Society seems generally good.”

“So we’re staying on the God path?” Sarge asked.

“I think it’s more about what goes on behind closed doors—domestic violence, drug use and the like. We were victims and maybe perpetrators,” Wiley said. “We don’t see behind the walls, and I think it’s a lot worse than we realise. The church is full of those who have suffered. Suicide rates off the charts. We know, don’t we? Look at the amber people we encountered and how many of them were from broken families. Look at ourselves. If we’re willing to look, we can see how screwed up society is. And we took advantage of that to feed our own screwiness.”

Bruce looked hard at Wiley. “You’re right, Wiley. You seemed to have changed.” He sniffled. “But it’s a bit late to change our philosophy on life now.”

What had held them back? Why hadn’t he followed the same path as Sheila and his dad? Stubborn ’til the end. He was about to speak but sensed something. A chill in the air. An unusual chill. A different vibe. He looked around. Had someone or something entered their space? A heavy atmosphere pressing down. Sarge and Bruce were looking strange. They’d noticed the heaviness as well.

“What is it?” Sarge asked.

Darkness had encroached. Evil. Dad had warned him about this. Where there is no light, there is darkness. The light had gone. Darkness had come.

Bruce was on his feet, the pistol in his hand. He was crying and put the pistol to the side of his head. Wiley jumped at him, and they crashed onto the deck.

Bang.

Ears ringing, Wiley pushed himself up and looked for the pistol. It had fallen out of Bruce’s hand and was out of reach. Bruce lay on his back, blood trickling near his head. Wiley leaned over to see what damage had been done.

Bruce opened his eyes and gave him a nod. “I’m okay.” He placed his hand on the side of his head and checked it for blood. “Just a graze.”

There was a sharp unpleasant smell. Gunpowder? He covered his nose and looked around to find something to put on the wound. Sarge threw him a small towel. He raised Bruce’s head and placed the towel underneath. It was a deep surface cut.

“What was that all about?” Wiley helped him sit up. The smell no longer overwhelmed him.

“Uh … could I have a drink?” Bruce said. “Uh … uh … I don’t know what that was about. Something took control of me.” The pistol was near his foot. He kicked it away, and it tipped over the deck and fell to the shrubbery below. He rubbed his ear. “Pretty loud, hey?”

Wiley helped him up while holding the towel against his head. “Yep.” His ears were still ringing. Sarge passed him some water. They all looked at each other, atmosphere heavy as the smell retreated into the sea breeze.

Wiley let out a sigh. “We best look out for each other. I think darkness is rolling in like we’ve never seen it before.”

47 - The audience

Wiley had one last look out towards the backyard before they retreated inside to get an update on how the world was coping with the vanishings. No moving shadows. Just a gentle breeze, but not enough to carry away the lingering heaviness. There was a pool of blood drying on the deck, but he sensed no urgency to clean it. Not out of laziness but changed priorities in this abandoned world.  

Wiley and the Sarge sat Bruce down on the sofa.

“I’m ok,” Bruce said. “I don’t know what came over me, but it’s gone. It’s weird—I’ve never experienced anything like it.”

A voice droned from the TV. The person being interviewed looked like a scientist. They were debating whether long-range ballistic missiles had the capacity to destroy Adventus.

“We could possibly destroy the ‘engine room’ but I doubt we could completely destroy it, it’s too big. Laser technology is another possibility, but I’m not sure how advanced that technology was,” the scientist lookalike said.

“But what impact would parts falling to earth have and the consequences of an atomic explosion going off in our atmosphere?” the interviewer asked.

Wiley shook his head. This was going to be bad. He glanced at the others; both had downcast expressions. Bruce removed the towel from his head and used his phone as a mirror to inspect the damage.

“Hopefully our alien friends will leave and take their cargo back to wherever they came from,” Sarge said.

Bruce appeared to be in a semi-comatose state. Sarge had checked and cleaned the wound—only superficial—and he wasn’t concerned, although Bruce was drifting in and out consciousness. Maybe mild concussion.

Bruce was muttering. “Nuclear bombs. Radiation wiping out the world.”

Sarge looked at Bruce then turned back to the TV. “Yes, it would be best if Adventus departed and left us to sort this world out.”

The TV news broadcast zoomed in on a file image of the picturesque Valley of Jezreel, which was soon replaced by a scene filled with variations of camouflage colour patterns as the military build-up continued.

“The sooner Adventus leaves, the better,” Sarge said. “Why are they there? Why so much military?”

“The nations want to obliterate Israel. They see the instability in the region and the world as an opportunity to do something they have longed to do,” Bruce said. “They have a lot of reasons, but I think it’s mainly a religious reason relating to the ownership of land.”

“Well, it looks like it will be sorted out soon,” Sarge said.

Bright red letters flashed on the screen, which changed to a different scene, a satellite picture.

Adventus was descending. The valley was being drowned in darkness—a deep-blue shadow swept out across all the land. The sky was vanishing as Adventus’s massive form filled the sky.

“Parts of Adventus are falling off like onion skin and disintegrating in the atmosphere.” The tone of the newsreader became urgent. “A cube shape is being revealed. The massive cube is descending at an incredible speed. If this hits the Earth, we will all be dead soon, very soon.”

Flares lit up the descending structure. Missiles were being fired from various locations in the valley, now illuminated with battlefield artificial lighting, but the missiles all fell from the sky before they reached their target.

“Scientists speculate Adventus is surrounded by an invisible force field,” the newsreader said.