When the Gods Die.

It was three in the morning. Double Oh Nine walked down the dark vacant Taiwanese street. He stopped at a garbage can. There in the garbage was a coke can not crushed to a short little pancake of aluminum, but it was crushed lengthwise. The ends were folded so they were exposed. Mr. Bind took the pull tab on the can, broke it off, and put it in his raincoat pocket. He threw back the can in the garbage. He looked down the street, nothing. As he started to walk away, a door was heard to open and close. Now, there was another man on the street. The sound of a bullet being loaded into the chamber met he obviously had a gun. Mr. Bind ducked into an alley. The man now had an associate and they were following him into the alley.

Double Oh Nine stood with his back to the wall. He took his handgun and pointed it around the corner, fired twice, and ran. The gunfire back was instantaneous. He dove, rolled, popped up, and shot one of the assailants. The other took cover. The secret agent took a pen from his pocket, clicked it, and threw it behind the brick wall that the man was hiding behind. When the pen exploded, the man screamed as hundreds of poisoned pins flew into him, and he died.

A third assassin, lurked in the shadows hearing zero, looked from his hide and saw nothing. Mr. Bind was not in sight. Quickly he scanned the scene, just the dead bodies of his associates. There was a click from his left side. He spun to it, nothing. There was a noise to his right, he spun to it, nothing. There was a noise behind him he spun to it to see Mr. Bind and his gun. They both fired their weapons at the same time.

****

“Mr. Bind? How do you feel?”

“I’m, oozie. That voice, Wild Touch! What have you done?”

“Why Mister Bind, if you only knew. What is the last thing you remember, Double Oh Nine?

“I died! It was just me and my Maker. They were telling me the Why to Everything. It made so much sense. Then, you! Now, it is gone. What have you done, Wild Touch?”

“Yes, Double Oh Nine, what have I done. What about you? Mister Bind, what have you done? You’ve evidently come back from the dead!”

“Wild Touch, how, why?”

“You alone understand me. No one really appreciated me, but you. You foiled me at every turn, but now I will have my revenge, the ultimate. You will pay!”

“What? I’m not afraid of you, Wild Touch.”

“Mister Bind, you should be. Take him to the lab. If he resists, beat him. Take everything from him. Strap him down to the table.”

“Wild Touch, did you bring me back to life so you can kill me?”

“No, no Mister Bind, I have much more fun in mind for you.”

“What are you injecting into me, Wild Touch.”

“Why it’s your last shot of Ambrosia, Mister Bind.”

“The fruit salad?”

“No Mister Bind, think again.”

“The stuff the Gods drank to live forever?”

“Why yes, it is, Mister Bind. A lifetime of research has paid off. A select few have been treated. And now you. You will now live forever.”

“What?”

“Yes, forever. I’m confining you in to your cell where you can sit and watch the world spin by you, forever.”

“No, wait Wild Touch … “

“Too late, Double Oh Nine, you get to watch it all. Take him to his cage. Weld the door shut. I will come back and check on you every once and a while. Oh, no one knows about this place. No one will bother you. You have complete solitude. Good-bye, Mr. Bind. Enjoy your situation. I certainly will.”

“No! Wait! You can’t do this. Don’t leave me, here. Wild Touch! Wild Touch!”

And I was alone in an iron cage. I could see down into the valley from the ridge that the cage overlooked. Each day melted into another. A month went by and I lost track of time. Day after day I was trapped in a cage that would not let me stand up straight. Whatever Wild touch did to me I did not need food or water. The days went in an endless stream.

One day there stood Wild Touch.

“Having fun Mister Bind. You have been here for a year. How do you like the place?”

“If I ever get out of here, I will get you, Wild Touch.”

“Only you will never get out, Mister Bind. You shall live forever in that cage. Ha ha ha ha ha, good-bye Mister Bind.”

Through the years, Wild Touch would come and gloat, other than that I was alone. I constantly searched the cage for a weakness, but there was none.

After a very long time, the cage rusted to a point I broke a bar free. I worked on it for months. And managed to free myself. Wild Touch was no longer coming to see me. My clothes had a long time ago rotted away. I walked down a dirt road for days. I had no desire to eat or drink.

When I climbed to the top of a ridge, I looked into the valley and saw that a great city had been obliterated. Melted skyscrapers lay in twisted ruins. Roadways had been overgrown and taken back by nature. Whatever had happened, happened long ago. How long had I been in that damn cage? Had Man’s reign over the Earth ended?

I had never felt so alone. I wandered for years and found no one. I picked a place I liked and made a homestead. There I recreated what I could and lived comfortably. I have none of the machines of man. All things human are no more, only my implements of comfort. I make tallow candles for light. I have water delivered via an aqueduct for washing. My compound is walled with a gate to keep out large predators. I have a crossbow but have never used it. I don’t wear clothes. I don’t get cold so I don’t need to dress to keep warm.

I do raise cannabis and have made several water pipes to smoke it. I have thought about going around where Brownsville Texas was to see if I could find some peyote, but the landscape has changed and I cannot get my bearings. If I’m not mistaken my compass is pointing south according to the stars. I have tried to kill myself several times but always awake fine. I guess I ride the planet until it explodes. I still have the can tab from the coke. I have no idea what it contains.

I have prayed to every known God, I guess that they are all dead. If they talked to men, they did not talk to me, and as far as I knew, I was the last man on the planet. Damn Wild Touch!