After about ten days, Linda was happy she had left when she did. She had been able to pick up pieces of information, here and there. She had found a newspaper one time. Another, she had to hide from some armed men that had set up a road block right over her head as she had been sleeping under a bridge. She had listened intently to both their radio and their conversation.
From what she had learned, things were not going well for the women that had failed to make it to the various landing ships on time. Director Ives had actually sent out trucks with armed men on them or following behind them. Any woman or girl that couldn't prove that they were either married already, to old, or to young were loaded onto the trucks, and taken away. Any men foolish enough to try to stop the wide spread kidnappings were executed on the spot. It didn't take long before all resistance stopped, and the suicides began.
Many women wouldn't be forced into some kind of relationship with a creature from another planet. No matter how much they looked like regular men. But Director Ives had been ready for that one as well. A new directive had been issued. One that stated the family of any woman or girl, so unpatriotic as to kill themselves, would also be killed. Unless the husbands, brothers, or fathers had needed skills for rebuilding the country. It that case they would be used as slave labor for the rest of their lives. However long that might be, under the circumstances.
Linda wondered about her parents, and younger brother. Her father had been wounded in the war, and couldn't really do anything anymore. Her brother was too young to be of much use either. She was fearful for her mother. She might be in her forties, but she was still able to have a child. If they killed her father because of Linda's disappearance, who knew what would happen to her? Then again, her mother had been all in favor of baring 'star children' from the start. So she might even volunteer to take Linda's' place.
She could make a good guess about how her father would react to that. He had been married, with children, when the fighting had first broken out. Like his wife, he was in his forties as well. He didn't have to go to war. But he was the sort of man who would do whatever he had to do, to protect his loved ones. It was protecting the men he was serving with that had gotten him first, wounded, and then out of the war. He wouldn't stand for his wife to do something like that, for any reason.
The more she thought about it, the more she became convinced that her father was most likely dead. Her mother was by now being a host mother, and it didn't matter if it was by choice, or by force, she was by now pregnant. And her brother? He was all of twelve years old. She didn't know about him. Would they force him into some kind of labor camp, or did they just kill him? She couldn't guess. Things had changed so much in such a short period of time, even for her.
She remembered things that used to be so common, that now were rationed, or nonexistent. She had loved going to the mall with her friends. She loved having friends for that matter. Now, everyone was out for themselves. Nobody trusted anyone anymore. People turned on each other merely for a few scrapes of food. She missed the grocery stores with shelves lined with so much food and other stuff, that you had to spend an hour in there deciding what to buy. Very few stores were open anymore. The ones the government kept, at least, partially supplied were guarded by armed men, who had cold eyes.
It was because of men like those that she had decided to not go into any town. Twice in the first day she had to move quickly to avoid men like those. Once she had been just at the edge of town, and had just put on her snowshoes when a couple of men came by in a car. She'd run into the nearby woods as they came closer. She'd heard the car stop, and listened for a moment to see if they were going to follow her. She heard one of them speak.
"Oh hell no. I'm not getting out in this to go chasing someone off into the woods. You do it."
She didn't hear the other man, but the car started up again and pulled away. She breathed a sigh of relief, and then thought to say a small prayer of thanks to the God she had been reading about.
Now she was sitting in a shed used by farmers as an emergency shelter, that is before the farmers had lost most of the animals to the war effort. She felt safe here for the time being. The snow had kept coming and going for the past week, her tracks were not to be found. And this far out in the country, it was unlikely that anyone else would be out this far, in this weather.
She adjusted the wick on the old fashioned oil lamp she'd found, and settled back to read some more of the Bible. Some of the things she read, at first glance, didn't seem to apply to her. This book had promises of help and protection when you needed them. If that was true, why was she here in this shed in the middle of nowhere.
Then she thought about the men in the car, and realized protection could come in many forms. As she thought about it, the wind started picking up. She looked out the window, and could tell the snow was getting heavier. She thought about how lucky she had been to find this shed before the storm had started to get worse. Suddenly she remembered how she had just had a feeling that she needed to go uphill just before she found this place. Perhaps it had something to do with the promised help. She had to know. She turned down the lamp, crawled into her sleeping bag, and began to pray.
"Oh God, I mean Jesus, Oh I don't know what I mean. God, if you are really there, and if you really care about me, I need to know it. I mean I've been pretty lucky so far. But was it luck? It seems like it. Did you do it? Why didn't I go done into the valley before this storm? I'm sure there are places I could have made or found shelter. So why did I come up here to this shed? I know that the wind is worse on the hill top. Unless you find a place like this. So which is it? Are You there? Do you care about me? Please God, Jesus, show me the truth. Thank you. Oh, I mean Amen."
Director Ives never failed to be amazed at not only how stupid these people could be, but how gullible. He still couldn't believe how the people, especially the women, could get so caught up in trying to be better than the person next to them. After some, expected, resistance to the order to report for impregnation, some of the first women that had volunteered gave glowing reports of their treatment. Their families were also quick to report on the generosity of the space brothers. Large amounts of food were delivered to their homes, along with promises of good medical care for the entire family.
The women themselves were questioned, discreetly, about their 'encounters' with the space brothers they'd had 'relations' with. They reported the encounters were much like those they had with normal men. It was just that things with the 'brothers' were better. When asked how it was better, they would usually answer with something like 'you had to be there' and a very satisfied smile.
After that, women from every country in the world became jealous. They began demanding their own chance to become they parents of 'star children'. It was unfair that only the American women got this chance.
The 'space brothers' waited a whole week before the announcement came.
To Our Children of Planet Earth
After due consideration, and consultation with our home planet, it has been decided that the opportunity to bare the offspring of mating with our kind, will be given to all the women of Earth.
We ask that the women of Earth have some patience. We had not expected this kind of a reaction from our children. We had hoped that everyone would have been more understanding. However, we are willing to provide the same service for all the women of Earth. We will need some small amount of time to prepare everything to help you.
Director Ives even smiled as he saw how it was becoming something of a badge of honor to be a host mother. Those who refused, or fought against the idea, were looked down on. It was amussing to watch the masters' plan take shape. Not only were these women standing in line for impregnation, some of them were even fighting over who got in line first.
One generation, perhaps two, and the human genome would be totally corrupted. There wouldn't be a chance of stopping the masters plan. Especially since the Nazarenes Father had promised to never flood out the planet ever again. This time it would work. He knew it would work.
The snow was getting deeper, and the wind wasn't letting up at all, when Linda woke in the morning. She didn't know how long she could last in the shed. She didn't have much left in the way of food, and no way to heat the shed, except by the oil lamp. But she wasn't worried. She still wasn't sure about the dream she'd had.
It was the most wonderful dream she could remember. She was in a field of tall green grass. It was warm, and nothing in the world troubled her. Then she met Him. He was a beautiful man. Unlike any she had ever known. Together they walked through the field, and talked. She never did ask His name, it didn't seem important. He seemed to think that she knew who he was, and didn't talk about it. As the dream was ending, He assured her that all would be well with her. If she only believed in Him and what He said.
When she awoke, she couldn't shake the dream, nor did she want to. She wanted to hold on to every last word, sight, and smell. She wanted to believe in Him. Later she came to believe that is why she wasn't frightened when the door handle rattled, and then turned.
BW, Vietnam Vet