Today, I want to share a short story I wrote for our American Christian Fiction Writers Louisiana Chapter collection.

You can find the book at this link. My story is a cautionary tale of a future in which our freedoms have been significantly curtailed. And so, in celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence

Self-Evident

By

Bruce Hennigan

Our helmet lights illuminated a pitch-black corridor filled with broken marble and stone. Jackson paused beside me and held up his arm to study the sensor readout on his wrist display. His ordinarily white environmental suit was covered in gray dust from the carnage around us. Although decades had passed since the last battle, the damage still appeared recent.

“Branson, I’m pretty sure we are finally in the right place.” He said over the radio.

I consulted my own readout. My name, Lieutenant Mary Branson, blinked above a tiny dot on the map of the interior of this building marking our location. We had climbed over broken stone and collapsed ceilings for almost an hour now. “I hope so. Our air is getting low, and the radiation exposure is climbing. We have about twenty five minutes. Then we have to bail.”

Jackson looked at me and for a moment, my face within my helmet reflected in his facepalte. I had cut my dark hair down to a military crew. The long hair had been too much to fool with now that I was out in the field. One could now see the signature tattoo of the Truth Squad on my forehead. Three numeral sixes swam around each other like tadpoles in a circle. Tadpoles? I had not seen tadpoles since I was a child. My grandfather and I had placed them in a jar when I was young. We watched them turn into frogs. I grimaced and squeezed my eyes shut with the pain. The memory hurt. My mandatory Erasure had taken most memories of Grandfather after he had been Incinerated. Since receiving the Mark, my memories seemed to randomly surface. I pushed the memory away and focused on the mission.

“I’m glad you got your bangs cut so we can see the Mark.” Jackson said. “How did Dan take it?”

“Not well.” I moved ahead of Jackson, stepping over broken stone and marble. “I wasn’t sure what bothered him the most, getting all my hair cut off or getting the Mark.”

“You finally told him you had been recruited to the Truth Squad?” Jackson followed me, his helmet light bouncing along the stone walls.

“He didn’t like that either, I’m afraid.”

“Is he breaking off the Mating?”

I paused and regarded a faded, dust covered painting hanging on the wall. A man’s face stared back through the grime. Dark hair framed his high forehead, and a thin beard covered his jaw but not his upper lip. “Another father figure?” I laughed.

“You didn’t answer the question.” Jackson moved past me down the corridor.

I tried to make out the name etched on the frame of the painting. All I could make out was the first three letters, “Abr”. Beneath the painting a plaque held barely visible words. 

“Fourscore and seven years ago. . .” I mumbled to myself. The pain lanced through my brain again with a surging memory. Grandfather holding a real book. Something about a place called Gettysburg? I swallowed and whispered my mantra, “In Darwin we trust, in Darwin we trust.” My mind cleared and the memory disappeared.

“Hey, Branson, what’s eating you?” Jackson’s voice echoed from my helmet radio.

“Nothing. Just a rogue memory.” The pain subsided and I blinked away tears.

“Yeah, I hate those. Hurts like a spike through the temple.” Jackson moved on ahead of me down the dark corridor.

Jackson had them too? That was somewhat comforting. He had received the Mark a year before I did. I followed after Jackson. “Yeah, so Dan is putting everything on hold. Just as well. We haven’t developed our love language yet.”

“Love?” Jackson snorted and paused. His light roved over more paintings hanging on the walls. “What’s love got to do with it? Love is for losers, Mary.”

“Hey, you used my first name. Thanks.”

“Don’t accuse me of love!” Jackson laughed. “We’re comrades, Branson. This is our tenth mission together.”

“What about you and Sara? Found out if your genes are compatible yet?”

“Well, I don’t have any significant mutations, I was told. We’ll see if she does. If not, we should have some healthy serviceable offspring for the S.U.A.”

We arrived at an arched doorway leading into a cavernous room. “I heard a rumor we were once the U.S.A.”

“I heard that, too.” Jackson tapped on his wrist readout and his helmet light brightened, filling the chamber beyond us with harsh light and stark shadows. “Wonder what it stood for?”

“Not the Secular United Americas, I guess.” I glanced at my sensors. “We have about fifteen minutes left before exfil, Jackson.” I glanced upward at the gaping hole in the domed ceiling. Lightning strobed from outside filling the chamber with momentary illumination. Rain streamed through the hole. “The hover-copter can lift us right through the hole.”

“That gives us more time.” Jackson said.

We made our way carefully across the wet, debris strewn chamber. We had to circle a pile of collapsed stone and dodge waterfalls of rain cascading from the broken ceiling. “Speaking of time, do you have plans for the three hundredth?” I asked.

“Yeah, if Sara matches and then says yes.” 

We paused at a marble dais sitting at the top of a sloping ramp. A faint yellowish glow issued from within the dais. Jackson swore and I whistled at the same time. 

“Do you think we found it?” I said.

Jackson bounded over a chunk of marble, and I followed him up the ramp. “Your heart rate is accelerating, Branson.”

“And you’re not breathing faster?” I laughed. “This is the find of a century.”

“If it is what we are looking for.”

We paused before the dais and faint yellow light filtered through chunks of broken stone and dust. Jackson carefully brushed it away. “I’m turning on the camera feed, all wavelengths.”

“I have mine on, too. Can’t be too sure.”

I leaned forward into the pale light. The surface of the dais was transparent composed of some kind of thick, clear material. It must have been stronger than glass as the falling debris had not scratched it. There, just a foot beneath, lay a document illuminated by the faint light.

“It is said the illumination is supplied by a power source that will last for a thousand years. Think it is still sealed?” Jackson said.

“Must be or the document would have dissolved by now. According to historical data inert gas preserves the contents of the chamber.” I squinted and tried to read the words. I adjusted the filters in my faceplate to magnify the image so my cameras would pick up clearly the words on the document.

“Imagine, Branson,” Jackson said. “We are the first to look upon the founding document of the S.U.A. in almost fifty years! Let me start the official recording.” He cleared his throat. “Lieutenant Maurice Jackson recording with audio and video the presumed Declaration of Freedom from Religion.” He began reading. 

“In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America.” Jackson’s voice echoed through my helmet speaker. He glanced at me. “I guess we figured out what U.S.A. stood for.”

“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature,” Jackson paused and glanced at me with excitement. “Ah, the Laws of Nature be praised!”

“Yes, may they be praised.” I said with growing discomfort. I had seen the next words and already a gnawing memory was returning.

Jackson paused. “What? Look at what comes next!” He pointed a gloved finger toward the document. “To which the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

A shiver passed over me at the sight of the word, “God”. What heresy was this? God had been outlawed throughout the S.U.A.! Religion was dead! My grandfather’s face surfaced in my memory, his wrinkled eyes filled with mirth and his smile stretching across the years.

“The preamble, Mary.” He said. “It’s the most important statement.” The pain throbbed in my temple, and I pushed his face out of my memory.

Jackson sighed. “Oh, I get it! Nature’s god. Nature’s god is chance, random processes, pure luck, Branson! Phew! I was getting worried there for a moment.”

I focused on the document and was not as relieved as Jackson. I studied the next few words and reluctantly I read them out loud for the recording. “We hold these truths . . .” I paused and glanced at Jackson. 

“Truth, Mary. It’s all about what is True.” I heard my grandfather’s whispery voice.

“Truths? Is this where the Truth Squad came from?” Jackson growled. “After all, WE hold truth and determine what is true and what is false. Right?”

“Absolutely.” I replied quietly hiding the growing pain in my head. 

I continued to read. “We hold these truths to be self-evident. . .” I paused and l straightened. A translucent image of my grandfather stood before me in the middle of the ramp. What was happening? An echo of my erased memories?

“Self-evident?” Jackson said. “This can’t be right! No one can determine truth on their own. Only the government can determine truth. All else is bias.”

“It’s okay, Mary. Read the preamble.” My grandfather smiled at me. I shook my head to clear him from my memory and returned to the document. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . .” I froze and almost choked. 

“Created?” Jackson shouted. He slammed his gloved hand against the unbreakable glass. “What kind of blasphemy is this? We are NOT created! We evolved!” He straightened and looked into my faceplate. His eyes widened with fear. “We have a problem, Mary.”

“I’ll say.” My grandfather’s image had moved closer, now holding a book. I tried to ignore him. 

“Should we stop recording?” I said through tight lips.

“Not yet.” Branson said. “Let’s be sure. Read on.”

The memory of my grandfather’s voice echoed with mine as I continued to read. “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator . . .” I choked on that word and stumbled back from the dais. Jackson caught me before I tumbled off the ramp.

“Mary, what is this? I know we are in the right location! History records our country began here long before the Fundamentalist Wars.” Jackson’s voice trembled with anxiety. 

Over his shoulder I saw the image of my grandfather closing the book. The title on the cover read, “Holy Bible”. I caught my breath and glanced at the readout on my wrist. “We only have five minutes. We have to get out of here!”

“I’ll call for exfil.” Jackson tapped his wrist readout.

The memory of my grandfather’s warm smile and twinkling eyes filled my vision. He motioned toward the dais. “You have to read the entire preamble, Mary.”

I stood up and stumbled to the dais as my eyes filled with tears from the pain. No turning back, now. I had to read the rest. “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and our endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.”

Rights? What were they thinking? No one had rights! We were but tools in the hand of chance, servant to our selfish genes, forever perpetuating the continuation of the human race until it reached perfection! If individuals had rights, they could refuse to . . . what? Have unprescribed children? Choose their own Mates? What lay before me would completely unravel our culture! This was the beginning of suicide for the Secular United Americas.

My eyes were drawn to the final words in the “Preamble to the Declaration of Independence”. 

“That among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Lights swirled from above us as the hover-copter arrived. Ropes uncoiled from the hole in the ceiling. Jackson tugged on my arm. “Mary!”

I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the document. What if it was true? Was that even possible?

“Come on, Branson. We have to leave. Now! Our radiation exposure has reached critical.” He pulled me reluctantly away from the dais and the Declaration of Independence. He attached the rope to my backpack, and we were pulled upward into the swirling rain filled wind and into the hover-copter. Below me, the fleeting image of my grandfather disappeared in a flash of bright light, the memory of his Incineration.

“This is Lieutenant Jackson with the Truth Squad. We need a strike on this location.” Jackson said shakily over his radio as he grabbed a restraint.

“What level of destruction?” A voice echoed over our speakers.

“Ten out of ten. Heresy and blasphemy discovered. As a representative of the Truth Squad, I recommend total annihilation.”

“Copy that. Clear the area. Missiles should arrive in five minutes.” 

Jackson tapped his wrist control panel. “Branson, destroy the recording.”

“Copy that.” I collapsed into a seat and buckled in. We flew toward the offshore carrier where I could finally remove my helmet after decontamination. But how could I get those words out of my mind? No decontamination process for that. At least not one that would leave me anything but a babbling vegetable. Another Erasure and I would be sent to the mines. Now that the memory of Grandfather had waned, my head cleared.

I glanced out the open door of the hover-copter into the dark, rain filled night. Five missiles streaked through the air and converged on what was once Washington, D. C. The remnants of the “Archive” building exploded in bright, promising light. The future had been saved.

I sat in silence as the hover-copter flew toward the ocean. For now, I touched a finger to my wrist readout. My finger poised over the ‘delete’ button. “Don’t do it, Mary.” My Grandfather’s voice whispered in the back of my mind. “The only thing worse than nostalgia is amnesia.”

I glanced at Jackson settled into the co-pilot’s seat beside the android that had flown us here. Before Jackson could see, I duplicated the recording and tucked it away in my private storage. Why had I done this?

Darkness swallowed us as we soared through churning rain clouds. The hover-copter bucked and lurched until we cleared the clouds. The sky cleared and I looked out through the open sliding door at the stars spread out like diamonds along the horizon. I read somewhere that once upon a time, the light pollution on the east coast was so bad, you couldn’t see the stars. No lights below us now. Only a soft radioactive glow.

As the hover-copter flew towards our carrier, the moon came into view. I marveled at the bright face pocked with craters. Man had once walked on the moon. Somewhere in the back of my mind I recalled my grandfather talking about astronauts reading from the heretical outlawed Bible during their orbit around the moon. Something about “in the beginning”. Why were these memories returning? If the Truth Squad found out, I would be in trouble. I glanced at my wrist pad where I had just stored an illegal copy of the Declaration of Independence!

We cleared the eastern edge of the S.U.A. and flew out over the ocean. The moon’s reflection cast slivers of silver over the waves. In the distance, the far horizon glowed with the coming sun. Orange and red and pale blue crept upward from the horizon. I gazed out over the ocean to the rising sun. The sky filled with fire and something happened. How to describe it? The hair on my arms stood on end. My eyes filled with moisture. I gasped in wonder and awe. Why was I feeling this way? It was just the sun. 

“The Son, Mary. He is risen.” I heard my Grandfather’s whisper. “Because you remember. The rising sun reminds us of the risen Son. God in man form conquering death. He was the inspiration for that preamble, Mary.” I waited for the pain and it did not come. “The heavens declare the glory of God.”

I blinked away tears as those words resonated through my memory. I had been taught my entire life the Declaration of Independence developed by the Founding Fathers was to declare our independence from belief in a non-existent deity. After all, religion had almost destroyed humanity. Finding this Declaration had been the goal of our government for decades. And now I realized someone had lied!

“We are ten minutes out from the carrier.” Jackson said. “Branson, I’m filing a report with headquarters.”

“Copy that.” 

“Remember the cabin?” Grandfather whispered and I waited for the pain, regarded the price I would pay if the memories came. Erasure awaited and this time, little of me would be left. But the lure of my grandfather’s words and his smile pulled me down into those lost memories.

“Mary!”

I turned away from the pond as Grandfather hurried from the trees. “Everyone is looking for you!” He squatted before me and took my face in his dry, wrinkled hands. “I knew where you would be.”

“I wanted to go fishing. Even though Daddy said the fish are poison.” I pointed toward the waters. A glowing fish broke the surface and its mouth opened and closed as it gasped for oxygen.

“I know, Mary. I know.” He pulled me in for a hug, and I smelled his old man odor tainted with the aroma of garlic and pepper. He had been cooking again, even though preparing anything wild was illegal.

“Grandfather, you’re cooking again!” I pushed away from him and looked up into his rheumy eyes. Gray hair curled around his head like Saint Einstein.

“Mary, we have lost so much. Freshly cooked peas and cornbread. Corn meal fish fry.” He smacked his lips. “Our processed, recycled mush is nothing like real food.” He smiled and wiped a tear from his eyes. “Ah, the good old days.” He smiled at me. “Mary, the only thing worse than nostalgia is amnesia.” He sat back on the wet earth and the first drops of rain fell. “It’s starting to rain. We don’t have long.”

“I know. It’s the acid.” I sat before him. A tiny drop sizzled on the back of my hand. “Can we go to the cabin?”

Grandfather raised a bushy, gray eyebrow. “You’re not supposed to go there.”

“Neither are you.” I stood up and helped him to his feet. “But you’re one hundred and seven and I’m only ten. Daddy says we’re both children. And children disobey.” Another drop of rain sizzled on my nose, and I swiped it away.

At the end of a long, weed choked path through the trees we found the log cabin. Before the Fundamentalist Wars, Grandfather and his father had built the cabin out of real logs so they could go “camping”, whatever that was and fish in the pond.

The door creaked open, and Grandfather led me into the dark cabin. Musty and moldy air hung around us. The interior was simple with a dark box in one corner and one table with two chairs. A cot with tattered cloth hugged the back wall. Grandfather motioned to a chair.

“Sit.”

The chair moaned under my meager weight, weak and insubstantial, as old as my Grandfather. Grandfather went to a cupboard next to the cot and took out a candle. “Now, let’s have some light and we’ll just wait out the rain.” He struck a real match from a tiny box and lit the wick. The candle illuminated the shabby interior.

“Is that a real candle?”

Grandfather sat carefully in the other chair. “Okay, Mary, I’ll let you in on a secret. I come here often.”

“Why? The fish will kill you.”

“Oh, not for the fish. For the memories.” He looked around the cabin. “We have lost so much.”

I thought about Mother. “I miss Mom.” A griping nausea filled my stomach.

Grandfather put his leathery hand on mine. “I know. But there is so much more, Mary.”

“You just said something about amnesia.”

“Yeah, and nostalgia can kill you in today’s world.” He leaned away and crossed his arms. “A time was we could say anything we wanted. Freedom of speech, it was called.”

My heart rate quickened in fear. “Grandfather, don’t say anything like that! The Truth Squad will hear, and the Liberators will come!” I reached into my shirt and touched the amulet hanging on a golden chain. It was my link to the Truth.

Grandfather looked around the cabin. “Not here, Mary. Here we are free from surveillance. Here there is no amnesia. Here I can think about what we have lost. I can talk to God.”

I stood up abruptly and the chair toppled behind me. “Don’t say that name!” My hands covered my ears.

Grandfather froze. He stood up and righted my chair. “Mary, sit down. I have something to show you.”

I sat in the chair, my heart racing. I looked toward the one window with its grimy glass. Were they just outside? Would the Truth Squad bring a Judge and its Adjudicator like they had for Mom?

Grandfather crossed to the dark box thing. “This is how we stayed warm during the winter, a wood burning stove.”

“It’s made out of wood?”

Grandfather glanced over his shoulder. “No, it burns wood. You can cook on the surface or use the heat to keep everyone warm.”

He opened a metal door on the front of the stove and the grating sound filled the cabin. He reached in and took out a metal box. “A fireproof safe.” He set the box on the top of the stove. “Inside are precious memories.” Grandfather opened the lid and took something out. He returned to the table holding a book! A real book!

I tried to slide my chair away from the table, but it wouldn’t budge on the wooden floor. “Grandfather, those things are outlawed!”

He nodded. He sat slowly and placed the large book on the table. “Mary, I am old. When they come, I will die. I know where my soul will spend eternity. But you have a chance for a better future, only if I share some truths with you.”

“Only the Truth Squad knows truth!” I recited clutching the amulet. “Teacher Dawkins told us so.”

Grandfather shook his head. “This is your mother’s Bible. She marked her favorite verses and wrote her life’s story. It’s called a journaling Bible. It has a column for writing down your thoughts and prayers as you read each chapter.” He opened the book, and the fragrance of old pages filled the air. 

I sneezed and shut my eyes tightly. “No! Grandfather, don’t do this.”

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. That’s from Psalms.”

I squeezed the amulet ever tighter while I grit my teeth. “Please, Grandfather, stop!”

“Since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them.” He continued to read. “For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools . . .”

“Stop!” I screamed and pushed the tiny panic button on my amulet. My eyes filled with tears. “They will hear. They will come!”

Grandfather’s eyes flaired with anger. “Let them come! You are but a child. You will not be held responsible. And I know you love me. So, listen. Our time is short. Our country is no longer what it was supposed to be. We were once ruled by a tyrant, a king, who controlled every facet of our lives, just as now.”

He leafed through the book and pulled out a single folded sheet of paper. He unfolded it and showed it to me. “Your mother kept a copy of the Declaration of Independence! July 4, 1776. The fathers of our freedom wrote this to reveal the truth to that tyrant. Your mother kept it so we would never forget.”

“No!” I closed my eyes and put my hands over my ears. “No, Grandfather!”

Grandfather stood up, cradling the book in his hands. “There is little time so you must listen to the preamble. It echoes those scriptures from the Bible. These men believed in God, Mary. Now, listen!”

In the far distance I heard the whine of engines. The Liberators were coming! Grandfather looked at the window. “Not long, now. We hold! Take these words and hold them in your mind! We hold these truths! Truth, Mary. It’s not created. It’s not invented by the Squad. It is discovered. It is the very fabric of the universe created by God, Mary. We hold these truths to be self-evident. Get it! Self-evident. The heavens declare. The sun, the moon, the stars, the universe, Mary. They all scream the name of a Designer, a Creator.” His eyes leaked tears now and his wrinkled face reddened with emotion. “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men. All mankind, Mary. Every person. All people are created equal.” He stepped toward me, and I hopped out of the chair and backed toward the door. Outside, the approaching engines of a hover-copter filled the forest with its echoes.

“Grandfather, please stop!”

“I can’t, Mary. If I were to remain silent, the very rocks would cry out. You and I are created. We are designed in God’s image! We didn’t evolve! We aren’t just sacks of meat! We are special. Every living, breathing person is special, sacred, unique with a purpose and a future designed by God. You are, Mary. God has something special planned for you. It is why I am telling you all of this.” He tapped the paper with his finger.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Endowed, Mary. God has given us value, rights, worth. That word unalienable means something that can never be taken away by human agency. You have those rights within you. That among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” He slid the paper back into the Bible and closed the book. He squatted before me, his eyes level with mine.

“Mary, you have life, and no one can take your life from you. You have freedom to think and love and yes, even reject God. He wants you to love Him freely. Not coerced like the Truth Squad or the Judges say. And you have the right to pursue your purpose and find joy for your life. They cannot take it away. Ever! Now, I have prayed for you the entirety of your life. One day, this memory will come back. No Erasure can remove what God wants you to remember. And when it does, change the world, Mary. One person can change the world!”

He stood up and opened the door. Outside, the rain fell even harder. “Now, run! Go back through the woods to home, Mary. Run and don’t look back. They must not know you were here!”

I grabbed him around the waist and hugged him, and the hover-copter blades swirled rain through the door as they landed. I cast one last look up into his eyes and ran from the house. The rain burned and blistered my skin, and I looked back once to see two Liberators in their bright red armored suits unfurling their electro-prods as they descended on lines to the house. From the hover-copter the deadly cylinder, the arbiter of death, the Adjudicator descended along with them. Grandfather was gone. He would be Incinerated for his crimes. I had to forget those words. I had to embrace amnesia. For if what my Grandfather said was true, then this life in this world was not worth living!

I ran headlong into a tall figure in a black robe. The rain sizzled in drops against the black fabric. His bright, green eyes gleamed from within his faceless mask. “You must be Mary.” His gloved hand wiped the stinging rain from my cheek. “You have done well exposing a traitor to the Truth.”

“He’s my Grandfather!” I said, my heart churning with emotion. What had I done?

The Judge’s reptilian gaze bored into mine. “Don’t worry. With the Erasure you will forget, and it will trouble you no more. You will know the truth and the truth will make you free.”

I gasped as the memory returned strong and clear as if awakened by some primal divine force. In the east, the sun appeared on the horizon chasing away the indigo night sky filled with the fading light of stars now slumbering in their night clothing. Something happened in that moment. A feeling, an impression, a powerful wave of otherness, a touch of a Being far greater and more powerful than any human being or any Truth Squad or any Judge! A Presence that was the source of truth and life and the open doorway beyond death. Tears filled my eyes and for a fleeting moment, I saw my Grandfather’s face in the night sky, his smile and his clear young eyes beaming with love.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident.” I repeated to myself.

“What did you say?” Jackson’s voice came over the speaker.

“Nothing.” I swallowed away the emotion.

“Hey, don’t let that blasphemy linger in your mind, Mary. Expunge it. Erase it. Use your Truth Squad training to be rid of it or Command will do a memory wipe when we land.” He said. “Another Erasure and you’re headed for the mines.”

“I’m fine, Jackson.” I said quietly. “I know what I have to do.”

I looked down at the control panel on my wrist pad. What had Grandfather said? The only thing worse than nostalgia is amnesia? I couldn’t afford to lose the memory of the Declaration of Independence. On my storage device, I had created a private storage space for my thoughts about Dan. It was against all regulations with the Truth Squad, but they had taught me well on how to hide the truth. I swiped the screen aside revealing my private storage compartment and pressed the storage button. The Declaration of Independence footage was copied and tucked away for the future.

Jackson appeared at my side, the morning sun glinting off his faceplate. “Branson?”

I held up my wrist pad and touched the delete button. “Just making sure it was deleted, Jackson.” I looked into his eyes seemingly mesmerized by the “truth” we upheld. Would he one day see the real Truth? “I did what I was supposed to do.”

“Good. Let’s land on the carrier and get decon done so we can have a brew.” He slapped me on the back and glanced out the door. “Some sunrise, eh?”

“Yeah, it is.” I watched the sun throw light and color across the ocean. “Some Son-rise.”

Epilogue

Twenty years had passed since the day I had triggered the amulet and the rain no longer carried acid. Trees and vines choked the path I had walked when I was ten. Jackson and I had earned a two-week vacation after being heralded as heroes for the mission. I wore a simple jumpsuit and the wrist panel from the mission with the stored treasure of the Declaration of Independence. I used the interactive map on the readout to find my way through the mountains of what used to be southeastern Tennessee to the pond. I found the pool of clear water surrounded by lush vines and wildflowers. Fish swam beneath the surface no longer gasping for oxygen. The earth was healing.

The old path to the cabin still cut its way, though barely visible, through the tall pines. The cabin had been devoured by vines, but they could not hide the old wooden logs. The door had fallen away from the hinges. Tiny, furry animals scurried out of the cabin as I neared. I remember Grandfather calling them squirrels.

I stepped into the past. My memories had returned despite the Erasure when I was ten. How? Divine intervention! The table had collapsed in a pile of rotting wood, but the small chair still sat where I had left it. The wood burning stove had turned a dull red with rust. When the Liberators came, had they confiscated the book? I crossed toward the stove and paused at the sight of a pile of ash in the center of the cabin. Tears filled my eyes, and I fell to my knees.

“Grandfather?” I said shakily. He had been Incinerated in the Adjudicator cylinder and his ashes left behind, untouched by time and weather. I would spread them on the pond later. I wiped tears from my eyes and went to the stove. The door creaked as I jerked it open. Inside, I spied the metal box. Grandfather must have hidden it and the Liberators had not found it! I placed the rusted box on the top of the stove and opened the lid.

Inside, my mother’s Bible lay unmolested by time. The golden letters on the cover read, “The Holy Bible”. The Mark on my forehead burned and I gasped with pain. The searing pain brought me to my knees and then the strangest thing happened. The three numeral sixes floated down from head like dried leaves. They landed on the ground and burst into flame. I touched my forehead. I was free of the Mark. I was truly liberated.

I stood again and took my mother’s Bible and held it to my chest, smelling the fragrance of leather and old pages and, yes, the hint of my Grandfather. I inhaled, breathing in more than just air and oxygen. I breathed in the Spirit and was made new.

I opened the cover of the Bible, and a handwritten note was written in shaky letters on the title page. “Mary, find the Way, the new church and share this lost treasure and change the world. As Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ Mom.” I walked out into the morning sun, the world new and fresh and realized I was finally free.