In 2004 I began writing a story about a post-apocalyptic world, called “New Genesis”. The idea for the story was sparked when my roommate at Ohio State told me about his final exam in his freshmen English class. In 2.5 hours he had had to come up with and write down an entire short story. I was really impressed by the prospect, and later that year, I sat down to do just that. Of course, it really took me almost 4 hours, I think, but the spirit was the same. Of course, this resulted in some strange inconsistencies and such that I’m sure my loyal readers noticed. After returning to Alabama and becoming a waterblogger, I decided to post the story, divided up into 6 parts due to its incredible length. For some reason or another I decided not to post the last part. I recently stumbled upon, and have decided to post it and tie all the loose ends. I am sorry if the story sucks and anyone is disappointed, but I hope you all can cut me a little slack as this was a one-sitting venture done with no planning whatsoever. In case anyone wanted to brush over what they already read over two years ago, here are the links to the previous 5 installments.

NG1
NG2
NG3
NG4
NG5

Anways, without further ado, I present to you all, “New Genesis: Finale”.

“Expeditionary Log

Day 72 (continued)

We came here for a book. I had forgotten this. We all did. I had grown up being told that, when the ship begins to sink, that every rat will stomp, bite, and climb over any one on his way to the surface. The thing is, when one gives up on life, gives up on caring, you find even the most random thing like curiosity taking the wheel. I was finding this out first hand. We were here to stay, with but one man who could barely comprehend English writing. What did a book matter to us now?

Suddenly, without cause, it seemed, my perception was immediately altered. I was in a different place, surrounded by entirely different stimuli. It was if my vision, and my hearing, all of my senses really, were plotted on a piece of film, and then that film was cut and spliced directly into another piece of sensory film from a different time and place. I “woke up” somewhere else, feeling exactly the same, standing in the same way, reaching my hands out, completely alert. And that’s how I got here.”

*Cough.
“Well, that’s it. That’s the entire statement. There were a few more sentences, but the recorder ran out of disk space.”

“Do you realize what this means? It means that it’s possible. We’ve done it. We’ve proven ourselves. Those big suits in Washington can have as many hearings as they’d like, but we’ve got all the evidence right here.”

“Yes, But I don’t think you fully grasp the situation. What are we going to do about him? All attempts to stabilize the temporal planes have failed. That’s not to say we could re-open the fields anyway, even if we could stabilize them. We were lucky that all of the survey team made it back before the collapse. Somehow this one managed to follow them back. There’s no telling what else could get through. We’ve made a significant alteration to the temporal balance. We’re in way over our heads here. ”

“No, you don’t grasp the situation. Now we’ve got a way to undo everything. We can cut it all from the source. He’s already confirmed our suspicions about the Outbreak. Now the proper legislation will be issued to stop the spread before it starts. Washington won’t be able to ignore results like this! We’ve stopped a global disaster, here. Think about what else we could learn from him. And others, too! How can just forget what we’ve witnessed here?”

“What about his rights? Who’s to say that others are more an important than this man? There is nothing from where he came. In the blink of an eye, everything in his world was erased from existence. We can’t just take him back. There’s nowhere for him to go. We’ve stopped the world as he knows it from ever being created. The next time we go back, there’s no telling what we’d find. There’s something very wrong about what has happened here!”

“But what if there was another global killer? Another one we could avoid? What if we made another critical error that could be have been easily averted—all with the touch of a button? When we started this project, we went in to change the world. To make it a better place. We’ve done it! But we can’t stop here! We can always be better! We’re not always gonna get lucky like we did with the bird flu. You had a hunch, and it turns out you were right. But Some things happen all at once, with no warning. Things like terrorists and meteors may not give us the warning signs. And that’s just two things in a vast sea of ways this world can take a turn for the worst”

“This is way bigger than me and you. It’s bigger than Finity Foundation. We can’t just….re-write history! We need to destroy the gate! We need to throw away all of our logs, and forget what happened forever! I’m not letting this go any further.”

“You are a madman! I can’t…I…I won’t let you do this!”
______________________________

Expeditionary Log

Day 1

A long chain of events has greatly changed the world from what we once knew it to be. In the year 2006, a viral avian influenza pandemic hurled the population into a maniacal frenzy. Disease Control programs quarantined entire countries. After failing to neither render a vaccine nor efficiently implement anti-viral medicines, the virus managed to spread uncontrollably. Millions died within the first weeks. Continued efforts were rendered fruitless, and millions more succumbed to the pox. No one really knows where it came from. Many claim it was manufactured at Finity Research Foundation in what the old-timers refer to as “Manhattan.” Biowarfare was becoming a reality, they claim, and the US government was at the forefront of development.

But there are a few who sing a different song, that there was no Bio-weapon development at Finity. My father says that it was the best-funded facility for quantum mechanics and theoretical physics research in the world, and that weapons weren’t in their interest. No one denies that the first infections occurred at the facility, but the origins of the virus remain unknown. There was only one survivor. His purpose at the facility was unknown, but a fair bit of people seem to think he was the initial carrier of the virus. When questioned, he claimed to have come from a small commune in Antarctica, obviously false, as Antarctica had long been uninhabited. And here we are now, in Antarctica, fighting just for the opportunity to be alive, still scratching our heads over what actually destroyed our beautiful world.

…Life for us holds a brand new meaning.