The Pleiadian Pledge

I don’t know how I survived...

Saying that a lot of people died is a devastating understatement. According to the World Health Organization, the earth’s population was diminished to one hundred million. 98.5 percent of humans were wiped off the map. Gone. Forever. The aftermath left cities reeking of decaying corpses while those alive were reduced to their lowest, primitive natures.

The asteroid hit when I was 28...

I don’t know if the right word to use is “lucky” regarding those of us that didn’t perish from the hit. Because the plague that followed was so vile, I didn’t think I had the mental strength to watch one more person die an agonizing death in the streets from the flesh-eating virus. There was no help from anyone...because touching skin caused instant transmission. Only type ‘O’ blood was safe from the affliction.

Our parents were at the center of impact in Australia while on vacation. The only memory I had left was a gold heart-shaped locket that my mother had given me when I was young. I told my brothers I lost it, of course. Otherwise, they would have made me pawn it for food. After the hit, milk was sixty a gallon. Meat...only the “richest” could afford. So, to keep my locket safe, I sewed a secret pocket inside my jeans and kept it there. No one had jewelry or anything of value anymore. Food was the new sign of status.

Yet...through it all...I never once lost my faith.

My name is Jules. I lived with my two older brothers, Cullan and Finnet, and my nine-year-old baby sister, Briar. We lived in an abandoned home in Portland, Oregon. The only bit of happiness I experienced came from Briar. We kept hope alive by playing board games and reading the bible.

Over time, the government seized all forms of media in a desperate attempt to stop the chaos. I didn’t talk much to my brothers. They were too jaded from their jobs. It was clear each time they returned home from work, depressed and exhausted.

I didn’t work so I could care for Briar. Cullan and Finnet worked for the NCI (National Cleaning Initiative). They operated bulldozers that moved dead bodies and debris to gigantic holes. Then, a new team would light them on fire and repack the soil.

Life was a breathing twilight zone. The remaining people of earth were like a group of sheep, lost in the endless, scorching plains.

That is until Jupiter arrived…

“Our liberator! Our salvation! Our guardian angel! He has come!”

Or so the people praised...

Growing up, I watched superheroes in movies, those magnificent, good samaritans that saved us from the bad guys. But...what if your superhero, your “savior,” was the bad guy?

Jupiter came to Earth, but not from a distant planet, as we all would’ve assumed. No, he and his species arrived from under the world - near the Himalayas. They referred to themselves as “Pleiadians,” and they outnumbered us, humans, four to one. I’ll never forget the first time Briar, and I saw Jupiter, their leader, on a grocery store television. We both looked at each other as our jaws almost hit the floor in shock. Pleiadians were tall, nine feet in height– all of them, and they had piercing blue eyes. Their skin was albino white, with whitish-yellow hair. And as he spoke, his voice reverberated, almost like a hum inside your eardrums…

Jupiter stood at a podium with the Space Needle monument behind him.

“My fellow Pleiadians, mankind is a failure. Self-destructive and arrogant. But, the fault does not fall on them. They have been deceived by the false lamb and inadequate leaders. Therefore, I have come to you humans with hope. Hope for the future. We will bring peace, healing, and order. It will take time to restore the surface – but time is now back on our side. We have witnessed your evolution for over seventy-thousand years, and now that you are no longer capable of self-sustainment – we will implement the way of our world – the Pleiadian way. There will be no allowance of deity worship. Jesus Christ...is no longer your savior. I am. I am your new blood and bread. For I am the true way.”

Briar grabbed my hand tightly in fear, and we both continued to watch.

“There will no longer be any form of physical currency. All currency will exist on the frequency of six-six-six, implanted into your right arm to keep track of food usage and overall safety. You will also be expected to recite the Pleiadian Pledge denouncing Jesus before the implant coding. Resistance will only be met with execution. Cooperation and equality are the goals. This is for the best interest of mankind. We are all in this together. Peace be with us.”

The New Order was in place faster than we could forget about the ruins of the past. The Pleiadians had advanced our culture seemingly overnight. All forms of illness were eliminated just by standing in a frequency machine for ten minutes. My brothers were assigned new positions as implant coders. We didn’t need cranes and bulldozers to remove the piles of waste. Instead, the Pleiadians used frequency devices that picked up millions of tons at a time and transported them instantly to a black hole in outer space.

One hundred and ninety days after Jupiter’s speech, we looked like we were finally living in the future that ‘The Jetsons’ predicted. The only difference was, freedom wasn’t free anymore. No, you had to sell your very soul for it. You had to recite the Pleiadian Pledge and get the implant to buy and sell goods.

One night, two weeks after moving into our new luxury high-rise apartment, we sat quietly around the dinner table. Cullan wasn’t eating his steak. It was our first meat dinner since the asteroid hit three years before, so I knew something was wrong. Cullan scratched his head while looking down, trying to sift through his anger. I stopped cutting up Briar’s steak and paused.

“Cullan, what’s wrong?”

Cullan shook his head and was just about to speak before Finnet interrupted,

“We can’t keep protecting you, Jules. Yours and Briar’s names have come up on the alert system five times. Five times! And every time I see it, I put your name on the back of the list. But, I can’t keep doing it – we can’t keep doing it. ‘Cause, we’re risking our lives, our lives, you understand!? Hmm?! What makes you so much better than us?!”

Cullan nodded his head and added, “The implant – you can’t even feel it, literally, like it’s not even there. And the pledge, it’s stupid, I mean, who cares? They’re just words.”

“They’re just ‘words’?” I scolded. “If mom and dad were here…”

Finnet slammed on the table. “Well, they’re not! And we gotta take care of you. We gotta take care of Briar! Now, you need to stop reading that bible. You need to wake up and realize that you’ll get decapitated trying to prove something to somebody who doesn’t even care!

“And what about Briar?” Cullan continued. “You wanna be the reason our sister isn’t alive?”

Briar burst into tears, and I stood up to hold her.

“I’m not saying that pledge,” I whispered as I wiped her tears, “Shhh-shhh. You’re going to be okay. Shhh.”

I walked back to my seat and continued, “They’re not just words, Cullan.”

Cullan crossed his arms and shook his head.

“Finnet, they’re trying to rip our very souls from us because they don’t have one. Well, let me tell you something, they can’t have mine. And they can’t have Briar’s either!!”

Cullan’s eyes welt with tears as he foresaw my fate playing on the screen of his mind.

“Please, for me, Jules?” He wept. “I can’t live without you. You still make us feel like we got mom in the home. Just say it. After the sixth alert, they put you on the watch list. Every coder and supervising coder and Pleiadian will be looking for you.”

“I’m not coded – they can’t find me.”

Cullan knocked his drink off of the table and screamed, “Jules! How can you be so selfish?!”

I calmly replied, “The same way you can be so gutless.”

Finnet interjected, “Okay, no. I’m drawing the line there! We’ve protected you for six months! Now, you’re gonna get coded tomorrow, or you’re gonna leave tonight.”

Briar stood up, and a hush came over the table. “I don’t wanna get coded. But, I don’t wanna die either.”

Cullan took in a deep breath and gazed at Briar. “Not you, Briar Rose. You don’t have to leave.”

“Yes, I do,” She sniffled. “Who’s gonna watch me?”

Finnet exhaled loudly and murmured, “I know somewhere you can go.”

A few days later, Briar and I found ourselves sleeping in an annex behind the bookshelf of a Pleiadian-human hybrid named Draxeous. He was seven-foot-eight and had long, white hair around his bald spot. He noticed my brother’s protecting us and told them privately that he could help them after our alerts ran out.

One day, a month later, Draxeous came behind the bookshelf to eat with us. While cutting one of the poached eggs on his plate, he said in a broad, English accent, “I feel somewhat of what you feel. You see, Plaedians are incapable of empathy. They say that we advanced beyond it, but I think even primitive activity has value in the most intelligent ways of life. After all, emotions are how we remember the things we remember.”

I smiled and nodded, then thought aloud, “ So, how did you become mixed with humans?”

“My father was a scientist. He came to the surface sixty years ago.”

“Before the asteroid!” I blurted.

“Yes, and he had a son with a tall, albino Swedish woman. He said that he thought she was Pleiadian at first.”

We all laughed but were suddenly silenced when we heard a loud crash nearby. The sound of heavy footsteps quickly followed.

And before I knew it, I was being dragged out of the house by my feet and taken along with Briar.

Briar was immediately coded before they took her back home while Draxeous was executed on-site.

Eighteen days later, I was yanked out of my cell and put into a fluorescent room with a stainless-steel floor and ceiling. I was weak and dirty - wearing an all-white jumpsuit with my heart-shaped locket around my neck.

In front of me was the virtual pledge displayed in thin air:

“It is with full consciousness do I pledge my allegiance to Jupiter. I promise to be a contributor of love and labor. I vow that my mind, body, and soul belong to Jupiter. I denounce Jesus Christ and all of his teachings. This, I pledge forever.”

I looked over at Cullan, Finnet, and Briar. They forced them to watch behind an invisible electro-shock barrier. I saw Cullan’s eyes light up when he noticed my locket. Then, a supervising coder walked out, along with the executioner holding a silver, beheading helmet.

The supervising coder blared in a commanding voice, “This is your last chance to take the pledge.”

I glanced over to Briar and said with tears tumbling down my face, James 1 2-8, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

The helmet’s blade sliced through my neck in half a second. My golden heart-shaped locket flung through the air and opened to pictures of my parents. Briar sobbed for me, but I died without regret. I’d rather die for what I believe in than stay alive...betraying my soul.