Aberrant: The Long March - Despair

[Andrew Murphy]

OOC: The following takes place during Chapter 8 immediately after the bombings.

Down on earth, in a large house, in a dark room Andrew stares at the Television. His expression is one of abject despair as he view through split screens the carnage wrought by those terrorists that they were unable to identify and unable to stop. Explosions at the world's major government buildings, innocent civilians killed, and all because of the changes they wrought on this earth.

What have we done … have we helped at all or just made things different?

Andrew could watch no more and yet was unable and unwilling to turn the images off. Instead he forced himself to watch as he sunk deeper into despair. At first he had helped, providing his medical knowledge to the triage teams and doing all that he could but by the end of that day the constant work, the massive amount of energy he had expended creating untold liters of blood for donation had left him wiped out, exhausted to the very core of his being. He had retuned home and begun watching the news, watching with horror the thousands of people he was unable to help.

I tried, I did all that I could, I gave more blood and triaged more wounded than any man could do, than any ten men, and yet I barely scratched the surface of the suffering …

He thought back to the decision that changed his life and, directly or indirectly set him on this path. When he had heard the offer and seen the proof from Omar and Steve to join an interdimensional crew of explorers he had jumped on it. His life had been in shambles and there was little to keep him from seeing the potential for a new life. He had been selfish of course; he had left his family behind without so much as a note or a letter goodbye. Then not a week later he had undergone a metamorphosis that seemed part miracle and part science fiction and comic book wet dream. After that he had felt empowered by his abilities, he had joined the crew because of what it would give to him and now with his powers and his full knowledge of the crew’s mission he had the power to change things for the better.

I was a fool to think my powers could change the world, the only thing I have changed is myself, I’ve become a monster, eating the flesh of others to survive.

Scant months later the dimension hopping had stopped and it was then that his life began; as he found a calling, a duty, and a responsibility to this adopted world. Some seventy years later Andrew sat and stared blankly at the images of horror being broadcast from around the world. He thought back to his world, to the horrors that his actions and the actions of the other had prevented; World War 2, The Cold War, the threat of mutually assured destruction by nuclear weapons, the wars in the Persian Gulf, and more.

We can’t stop it … it’s mankind’s nature to destroy itself. Have we done anything worth while? We came to this world to help, and yet it is being torn apart yet again because of us.

Andrew hurled the bottle in his hand at the screen. An explosion of glass, plastics, and liquor showered down to the floor. He screamed until his throat was raw and then he curled inward, unconsciously drawing in on himself.

Seventy years we’ve worked to make this world a paradise and yet we cannot even eliminate the simple threats from within, the threat of human nature. Seventy years and all I have to show for it are a tortured soul, a ruined body, and a hunger for flesh that I cannot quench. When will it stop? Will we ever find peace?