Chapter 3: Judgment
Andrea and the kids were at home enjoying lunch when the base's sirens went off and the voice afterward called for an immediate and total evacuation of the base. The soldiers did their best to try and facilitate an orderly evacuation, but there is only so much you can do. There was chaos in the streets as people tried to get out of the base as fast as possible people were getting run over and trampled. Traffic was at a standstill.
Andrea took the kids and put them into the stroller and started to run off the base, knowing that they would never be able to drive. That is when the supersonic shockwave hit, it was deadly, glass shattered, trees were snapped in half like toothpicks, the air itself vanished, leaving everyone in a vacuum. People's eardrums exploded, their internal organs exploded, brains turned to mush. Thankfully, the children didn't feel a thing. As Andrea opened her eyes her tears boiled off, when she tried to cry out, her saliva boiled on her tongue, and there was no air in her lungs to make sounds.
It was silent around her, because of the vacuum and because of the damage to her eardrums. She frantically searched for her children that were taken away by the shock wave. Dazed and confused Andrea died not knowing the fate of her children as the wave of annihilation swept over the base.
John didn't know any of these details, but he could see the destruction in the images, and he could only imagine the horror and despair that his family felt because of his creation. Because of him, they died a gruesome death and so did so many more.
John wept.
What seemed like hours passed with John just kneeling on the ground sobbing as he relived his memories about what happened that day. When he finally rose from the ground, he shuffled along knowing that every image he passed would be colorless in his eyes and not important. The rest of his memories were of him attending his family's funeral with empty caskets and an empty heart. His meetings with the Secretary of Defense, the President, and many other high-ranking officials, all to discuss the development and manufacture of the AM Bomb. He read in the newspaper the day the U.S. Government dropped 22 of the bombs on strategic locations military and civilian population centers alike all over the globe. The News reporting of the suspected casualties and the atrocities that were just committed. Lastly his memory of his conversation with Mark.
At the bottom of the stairs to the Pantheon, he gathered his strength and steeled himself for what was to come next. He had no choice but to keep moving forward so he might as well be confident about it. He walked up the stairs and took a deep breath as he walked through the doorway.
Upon entering the Pantheon, he was greeted by a single chair in a grand hall filled with seats placed all around. There were three doorways into this area, the one he walked through and one on each side. The doors were guarded by what he would describe as archangels, armed with a flaming sword, and equipped with golden armor and shield each. The other seats were all occupied by different gods only one of them re-recognized, it was none other than Freyja.
"Please sit" an unknown voice sounded in his head.
He sat down on the lone chair and held his head high preparing himself for whatever was to come.
"Please wait while we review your life and your actions and thoughts on the path." Another unknown said.
A short time later all the gods looked back at the lone figure seated in the chair. With a thought, their judgments were projected into John's head. He couldn't make sense of the jumbled voices there were just too many. 101 to be exact. As he was trying to sort out all the noise another unknown voice cut through. "We have come to a preliminary conclusion about the plane, world, and nature of your reincarnation. As of now, you have 51 votes to 50 in favor of reincarnation to the demon plane where you will live out ten thousand years but always suffer. You may have the floor and ask any questions regarding the verdict, or you can defend your actions."
"I have but two questions. Why was the voting so close, and if I am to be judged on other's actions?"
"The outcome of our decision was close because some of us do not agree on the answer to your second question.
"The outcome of our decision was close because some of us do not agree on the answer to your second question. The amount of people your creations have killed has surpassed almost all records that we have had. From the ammunition to the bombs your creations have taken or worsened the lives of so many people that they cannot fathom how you shouldn't be responsible.
But on the other hand, the amount of lives your creations have saved is also astounding, they ended the war 3 generations early. Not only that but the technology derived from your creations will go on to help your world far more than you could have dreamed. Because of this, the other group has decided that the number of lives saved and helped at a minimum negate all the deaths and destruction.
Perhaps if you can explain yourself and persuade one of us to change our vote you will be reincarnated somewhere else. We do keep open minds because we can see your actions and their consequences, we cannot observe your reasoning." One of the gods said.
"You will be judged on someone else's actions if you facilitated their actions through direct interference." A stern-sounding voice stated.
"I have a follow-up question to my second question, being a scientist, I would, as they say, discover keys and unlock their doors to peek through, it is not my decision if someone else decided to enter that door and use what I have discovered or created. How am I to be judged on their actions if I have no control whether or not they use whatever I discovered?"
"Okay well, we will use your analogy for your answer. You as the key holder can hide that key and keep the existence of the door a secret."
"If I keep a door a secret but what is behind that door could destroy many lives but help countless more than how would I be judged. I cannot be fairly judged on the actions taken by others because I found a key to a door. The long-term future consequences of someone's actions cannot be truly known. If a man was to kill a single person in his life due to negligence, but his entire life was committed to helping his species prosper and grow, but that one person that was killed due to his actions, would've saved the species from extinction, will he still be sent to the demon plane because of one death?"
As soon as John was finished with his argument, the same voice said, "As you had the floor a god has conditionally changed his vote."
"We have decided 51 to 50 that you will be eligible for reincarnation somewhere else besides the demon plane. "The condition of your reincarnation is as follows; you must sign a contract with the God of demon plane. This contract will be soul binding and if you violate the terms of this contract your soul will be forfeited to the demon plane permanently upon your death. If you fulfill the terms of this contract, your soul will be eligible for further reincarnations upon death. Are these overall terms acceptable? If so, we will move on to the finer details and any requirements you or he may have and then to the signing."
"What are the conditions that you will be putting into this contract?" John asked
"Just one." The god replied.
"Damn"
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