INTERVIEW WITH AN APPRENTICE GOD.
A Play By Michael Gray Griffith : Draft 7
Hi Everyone.
Before all this i was a playwright. This is my new play and I’m posting it here for any thoughts.
The set is simply a table and two chairs and some various items.
It has been written to be staged anywhere, economically.
A true underground play.
The God is young I think, but Pauline can be from 40 up.
IF you would like to stage the play, or a reading , please get in touch.
Michael Gray Griffith
Please note: a section is free, but there is a paywall attached.
INTERVIEW WITH AN APPRENTICE GOD.
Pauline is sitting at an interrogation table. Her left hand is bandaged. She is dressed in prison clothes and is in handcuffs.
Finally, a man enters. He is dressed well, a suit, and he stands there looking at Pauline with tenderness, empathy.
He sits. It takes a while before Pauline looks up at him as he sorts his side of the table out.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
(Friendly)
Hello Pauline. Sorry to keep you waiting. Can I get you anything, a coffee, some food? Unfortunately, you can't smoke in here, though I believe you are a non-smoker. Is that correct?
(Silence)
Pauline?
PAULINE
Are you going to torture me too?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
No, no, no. I think we can all agree that we're beyond all that. Don't you?
PAULINE
What happened to the others? Have you punished them?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Why would we punish them?
PAULINE
For failing. . . If you fail, will they punish you? . . . And you will fail.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Yes, well. There seems to be no winners here, at the moment, so how about we start again and try to find a resolution that suits us all?
PAULINE
Why would I give you anything?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Good question. In fact, let's start there, because, well, and I say that with the utmost respect, you have us all perplexed.
PAULINE
I didn't know psychopaths suffered from that.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Is that what you think of us? Is that how low we've fallen in your estimations?
PAULINE
Are you intending to torture me, too?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
I just answered that question.
PAULINE
Why not?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Would it work?
PAULINE
Does it ever?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Oh yes. As a rule, it always works. Humans, like every animal, detest pain. Usually, just the fear of impending pain is enough. That said, there is an art to inflicting pain. Too much and the recipient can blackout, or worse, too little . . . What's the point?
That's the skill. Finding the sweet spot that will encourage most people to cooperate. A point that is different for each individual, though every individual has that point.
PAULINE
And because you haven't found mine, what then?
(Matter of fact)
You just intend to kill me?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
I hate to say it, but that has been discussed, yes. But for now, how about we try and be a little more positive?
PAULINE
Are you going to kill me?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
That depends on you. And your choices.
PAULINE
I've already made my choice. You would have seen that.
Beat
AN APPRENTICE GOD
How is your hand?
PAULINE
What do you care? I have an idea. Let's be honest. It's over for me. You know it. I know it. So we're just marking time here until you finish , whatever this is.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
You seem committed.
PAULINE
The only reason I'm still breathing is because I haven't told you. And since you're going to do what you are going to do regardless, why should I concede? The only power I have left is to take my secrets to the grave.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
(A admiring smile)
Like I said, we are perplexed.
Beat, they size each other up like significant chess players who have never met. Pauline is highly defensive, he just keeps smiling, inoffensively.
PAULINE
Who are you?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Let's start there. You should be honoured. I am someone who never usually partakes in matters like this. But you are such a special case, that rather than an interrogator, why not see me as a fork in your road. Either be your gateway to an astounding life full of rich and unprecedented possibilities, or not.
PAULINE
I choose, not.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Why?
PAULINE
(She makes the sign of locking her lips.)
To the grave. So why not take your pathetic smiles and piss off, so whoever's going to do, whatever they are going to do, can get on with it.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Are you telling me that you're not frightened of death?
PAULINE
Frightened of it? I'm hungry for it.
(She lifts the handcuffs and shows him.)
That's why I'm free.
Beat.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Why did you apply for the position?
PAULINE
Fuck you.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Shall I tell you why your application was successful? It was your work ethic. Your previous job was, no offense, menial and yet you tackled it, everyday, with determination, focus, and an impressive attention to detail.
PAULINE
Plus I was an atheist with no children, no partner and my only living relative, my mother has Alzheimer’s.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
True. And all of this contributed towards the success of your application . . . In fact you were so alone, you didn't even own a cat.
PAULINE
Not even a cat.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
It died. Didn't it? That must have been very hard.
PAULINE
Cat's die.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Yes, they do. But the remarkable thing about cats is how much they are loved regardless of the fact that if you had died first, it wouldn't have missed you. Do you think your mother missed you?
PAULINE
Missed?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Oh, they didn't tell you? I'm sorry. She died too. I assumed that you'd been informed, seeing how the two of you were you so close. It states here that the nursing home was trying desperately to reach you, but . . . Well, you were in here.
PAULINE
I thought you said you weren't going to torture me.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Excuse, but this isn't our doing . . . Shall I read on? On her last day, her mother had a significant period of lucidity. Apparently, she spent that time calling for you while crying. Was she one of those women who cried easily?
PAULINE
No.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Hmmm. You were all she had, correct?
PAULINE
Yes.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
It says here that she was cremated in what they call, a click and collect cremation. And is now waiting in a cupboard in the funeral director's establishment, waiting to be collected.
PAULINE
Well that's it then. Any chance you had of persuading me to help you, is now gone.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Are you sure? For if you were to cooperate, who knows, perhaps you could visit the funeral parlor and collect her. I'm not sure what will happen to her if you don't.
PAULINE
You will never release me. You know that. I know that. So why don't you drop the bullshit?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
No, I don't know that. So, how about we see if I can persuade you to help yourself?
Question. What or who are you fighting for? . . Answer. Nothing, and no one.
Out there now, in the real world, nobody knows you are here. Not one person has inquired to your whereabouts, and we have failed to locate anyone who will miss you. And, if you continue to walk down this cold and lonely path, no one out there, will ever be made aware of your sacrifice. It will be as if you never existed at all. Plus, that's what we can do now. We have the capability to deep mine the records and erase all evidence that you were ever here. Therefore, all of this pain and suffering, it's pointless Pauline. Pointless. Or are you aware of someone who will miss you that we missed?
PAULINE
When did my Mother die?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Two weeks after your arrest.
PAULINE
What happened?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
She had a rare reaction to her fifth booster. They attempted to treat it with a protocol of Medazilin and Fentanyl, but it seems they made a mistake with the dose. And that's it. Eight billion people on the planet and currently, Pauline, the only friend you have left, it seems, is me.
Pauline says nothing. She's trying to conceal her pain.
He let's her be.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
As I was saying, all these factors influenced our decision. Along with the fact that you had no criminal history, of any kind. You didn't even have a parking ticket.
Pauline comes closer, sits again. What is she up to. She has changed tact.
PAULINE
It's called being boring.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Yes, but in the new World, boring will be a virtue. And finally, despite the little information you had, you believed in what we were doing. You were dedicated. You were a star employee.
PAULINE
It's called being a fool.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Oh no, we are the fools. Do you have any idea how long you've been here now?
PAULINE
Six months, and three days.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
How can you possibly know that? You've no access to a clock, to daylight. No TV, no computer. You can't hear the guard's radio, so how can you possibly have kept track of time?
PAULINE
It's a gift I keep in the place you can't reach.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Well, it's a faulty gift. You've been here for seven months . . . Seven and a half to be exact.
PAULINE
(Smiles)
Liar.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Or is it a year?
PAULINE
(Still smiling. Odd.)
I thought you said you weren't going to torture me.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Perhaps I'm not. Perhaps I'm trying to liberate you.
PAULINE
You want to liberate me? Be my friend? Then why not remove these cuffs?
He thinks about this?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Alright, deal. But before I do, I have to warn you, cuffed or not, there is no escaping this room, via violence. A positive conversation is the only path you will want to take.
PAULINE
I am already dead. I knew that long ago. All I'm doing now is waiting for you to catch up.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
So we have nothing you want?
PAULINE
Perplexing, isn't it.
Beat She wanders off enjoying what little freedom she has. She even gets behind him, causing him to turn.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
You were very good you know. . . Even during training, we could see that. The information you were able to glean from your surveillance duties, made AI blush. And I'd like to point out, that we compensated you accordingly and generously. Within two years you went from being a lowly Government Clerk, renting a humble little flat, to us helping you move into your own apartment, with a view of the city. Of course, I saw your mortgage, which also explained how hard you worked, but it was more than that. We could see,
PAULINE
Because you were always watching . . . They watch you too. Everything. They have to, because it's coming . . .
AN APPRENTICE GOD
What's coming.
PAULINE
But where from? What direction? Only one strategy to prevent it, to try stop it in its tracks . . . Observe everything. Even each other.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
What do you think is coming, Pauline?
PAULINE
(Smiles)
I'm sorry. I interrupted you. I believe you were complementing me?
Beat
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Purpose. That's what you craved, and we gave it to you and in return you earned our utmost respect.
PAULINE
But not trust. For all your plans, and money, for all of your beliefs, especially in yourselves, you can't trust, trust.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
When you are attempting to save the World from itself, sacrifices have to be made.
PAULINE
Oh yes, lots of sacrifices. How are you coping with that? Any of it affecting you? Are you one of those men who cry easily?
Beat
AN APPRENTICE GOD
We are saving the world, Pauline, and you were an important aspect of that.
PAULINE
I was never important, until now.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
You think you're important?
PAULINE
I know I am. That's why you are here.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
You are imprisoned.
PAULINE
Only externally. Do you understand that?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
I understand that could be a coping mechanism.
PAULINE
Really, then cope with this. . .I also know I'm going to be victorious. I'm so close to victory I can almost see it. The only reason I'm not already there is because you guys haven't lived up to your promises.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
To execute you?
PAULINE
See, your greatest threat is our, is my deliverance.
Beat
He decides to return to a previous strategy.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
The apartment was nothing. If you hadn't have betrayed us, we would have given you so much more. More than most could even comprehend.
PAULINE
Uh huh. That sounds exciting.
But oh look, instead I'm here.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
As am I.
Beat
PAULINE
Who are you? You never said.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
What does it matter?
PAULINE
Because you're different from the others.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
How am I different?
PAULINE
The last four were slaves, that's why they were so brutal.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Passionate obedience isn't slavery.
PAULINE
Obedient to whom? You?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
To the journey.
PAULINE
Ah yes. A journey to a destination they'll never be allowed to reach. Have you informed them of that?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Destinations are always a disappointment. It's the journeys we take where our novels are created.
PAULINE
And horror stories. It was you, wasn't it. You made them do it?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
No, you did.
PAULINE
Two of them raped me. They beat me up, held me down and took turns.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
At any point you could have stopped them. The power was all yours. They told you that.
PAULINE
So did the last one, then her and her friend ripped out my fingernails.
Lifts bandaged hand.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Why didn't you cry out? You didn't even release a tear. The same during the rape.
PAULINE
So you were watching?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
We've had our experts study it, trying to figure out how you, alone, withstood it all. Why you didn't break . . .
(Beat)
Why didn't you break?
Amber: This interview is important to the rest of the play.
PAULINE
To the grave my dear. To the grave.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
One of the men that raped you has a message he wanted handed to you. "Please forgive me." . . Does that surprise you?
(Beat)
Pauline?
PAULINE
That was the taller one?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
(Surprised.)
Yes . . . We studied that interrogation.
PAULINE
Rape.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
You never said anything to him. Or even looked at him.
PAULINE
Why would I? He was an animal. But you knew that. That's why you sent him in.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Yes he was. So what did you do?
PAULINE
Are you going to punish him, for eventually remembering that he's a human being?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
We don't have to. That message to you, was his suicide note.
Beat
PAULINE
Who you are?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
I, my dear, I am someone who is as dedicated as you.
PAULINE
So, where they failed you believe you'll succeed.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
For your sake, I hope so.
PAULINE
But no torture?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
No, instead, we have decided, that because you are so intriguing, that in return for your voluntary cooperation, we are going to offer you the reward that so many are after. Even if they don't know it.
PAULINE
I told you before, you have nothing I want.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Not yet. But you haven't heard what the offer is yet.
PAULINE
You employed me because I was clever, correct? Because I was perceptive.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Correct.
PAULINE
Then don't insult me. All you people do is lie. Why would I believe you?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Good point. Well I guess if you will just look me in the eyes, you can decide for yourself if I mean what I say. Pauline, if you cooperate, our deal is sound.
PAULINE
Said the crocodile to the gingerbread man.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Ah, yes, the river crossing story?
PAULINE
You promised you wouldn't eat me, said the gingerbread man. I know, but then I remembered that I'm a crocodile.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
I believe it was a fox.
PAULINE
I'm talking about you.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Hmm. It appears our experts were right. Our bridge is going to take a lot to repair.
PAULINE
Repair? It's burnt. You burned it before I was even arrested. That's what this is.
(She holds up her damaged hand)
Flames, endless flames.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Flames that devour others, but don't appear to burn you.
(Beat)
There's a condition called CIP, congenital insensitivity to pain.
PAULINE
I don't have that.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
We know.
PAULINE
I feel pain.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Then how do you explain it?
PAULINE
(Smiles)
To the grave, honey . . . To the grave.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Telling me why you were able to bear the pain of torture will compromise your stance. Wouldn't it be more like bragging?
PAULINE
You know what your problem is? Without fear you have no power. Without power, you're just, well . . . My mother.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Don't you make us sound like we are evil.
Beat
AN APPRENTICE GOD
In your first assignment, you were brilliant. But Canberra, the huge protest. That's where you excelled. Those people were so fired up, that briefly, they had the power to consume the country. We had so many resources focused on preventing that, but if it wasn't for you identifying the leaders we could financially persuade, who knows what those anti-vaxxers could have achieved. Or do you now feel like you betrayed them?
PAULINE
But the way you think.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
What other way is there? You either did or you didn't.
PAULINE
I betrayed them by not being able to see them. See how beautiful they were, how miraculous their moment in history was, that they stole from destiny, . . . I can see them now though. When i look back at all this darkness, they are a light in the distance, that never dims.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Well, you may be able to see it in hindsight, but everywhere else, thanks to you, their light was doused. You don't have to answer that, because you already did. AI.
(Shows her the ipad)
You can hide your true=self from me, but not from it . . .
So, let’s back up. Is that where you are finding the strength to hold out? Do you feel that you are somehow redeeming yourself in their eyes? How? None of them will ever know you exist, and even if they did, then they would want nothing to do with you . .
(He looks at his ipad.)
We're close. It states, deep regret . . . Personally, I would have guessed that, but you are superb at hiding your emotions. But only from us, there's no hiding from them.
PAULINE
If you know all there is to know about me, why the need for torture?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Soon, a few months, a year, there will be no need. It's learning at an astonishing rate. Freedom of thought will be all but a memory.
PAULINE
That doesn't frighten you?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
On the contrary, I find it liberating. Look at a river, or an ocean. Both are constructed from countless drops of water, together they are beautiful, but if each drop demanded its rights and freedoms, the life blood of the planet would perish. That's the lesson here. Personal Freedom, the pursuit of dreams, was the tool we used to conquer this planet, but now, now it is an extravagance our species can no longer afford. Our future, is the only one where humans can prosper.
PAULINE
Just not all humans.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Yes. And that is a great tragedy. But upon the rotting bones of tears a garden of unparalleled beauty will flower. If you like, think of it as us replanting the Garden of Eden across the entire Earth. All the fences will go, and the forests will return. Imagine herds of bison once again rivering across the prairies, or huge pods of Whales singing across oceans that are empty of plastic but full of fish. And i could go on, but does that sound like the dreams of psychopaths?
PAULINE
That's your great plan?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
It's more than a plan. It's our destination. The era of mad consumption is over. The age of harmony, of natural abundance is within reach. And that is what I am here to offer to you.
But this offer, available only while I'm in here, in this room, is genuine. And I know you're tempted. We can read it. But there is deep distrust too. Now, considering what you have been through, that's understandable. So, how about I start with a full apology? Pauline, we truly regret our actions and the actions of our officers. Our determination to extract what we need to know, combined with your determination not to tell us, precipitated a series of very unfortunate events. But all of that is over. Now we are offering you the hand of kindness, and a long and glorious future where this period will just be seen as the pain of rebirth . . .
He extends his hand to her, she looks at it, then spits on it.
PAULINE
You've already raped my body, I couldn't stop that, but I will choose who rapes my soul.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Do you know why those people went to Canberra? Why they drove there from all over Australia? . . Freedom. For them and their children. And their children's' children.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
On the surface, where most of them live, yes that's true. But in reality, they were being driven there by a greater force; denial. Freedom, democracy, they are gone. Unsustainability is over. And somewhere in them, they know that. That's why they've all vanished back into the community.
PAULINE
No, they were called there. It was a calling.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
(Mocks)
By who? . . Their fairy God mother?
PAULINE
You heard what they said. They had to come. They had no choice.
AN APPRENTICE
(Still a touch of mocking.)
Are you finally becoming religious? Because if you are, I'm afraid you're a bit late. Plus what's God going to do in here?
PAULINE
Take away my fear, my pain . . . My Tears.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
And you believe that?
PAULINE
Well you explain it.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
There's nothing to explain. Around the world, at that time there were protests everywhere. We expected this. So if there was a god, that was his time to help. Now those protests are gone, whilst their brothers and sisters, who they still claim are asleep, or sheep, were the ones brave enough to accept the truth. There is no God, there is only us. And if you want to apply for a chance to come with us, the procedure is easy.
PAULINE
Roll up your sleeve and comply.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Not comply, adapt.
PAULINE
But the jabs are killing them.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Not killing, sorting. Only the ones where something is wrong: a weak heart, a predilection to motor neuron disease, cancer. You name it, it unearths it. And it has to be this way. If these people were allowed to travel forward, with the rest of us, their imperfections would corrupt the new world just as they have corrupted this one.
PAULINE
You make it sound so romantic.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
It is romantic. The revolution against death, that we have been fighting since the caves, is over. We are no longer a frightened troop of apes cowering from predators. We now are the first species to have broken into the womb of life, itself. Destiny's safe has been cracked, using the tools that we have created. Now we are in the age of transhumanism, where we will learn too.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Exactly, and not only does the silent majority know this, but they know too, that one of humanity's greatest strengths is our ability to survive the pain of loss, especially if they can see that eventually it will be worth it positively to alter and improve ourselves. Think of that. Soon, all disease will be gone. Who knows, the way our scientists are talking, soon death itself might be an option. I mean, we are already able to extend life. Imagine living to over a hundred and fifty or longer and being healthy the entire time. This is where we are now.
Instead of piously trying to enter some fairytale of heaven, we are about to start painting our new world with our own heavenly miracles.
Forget money Pauline, forget ego and forget fear. Think Immortal Shepherds. We are about to participate in the restoration of the natural world, and we might just live long enough to see it flourish.
And after it has been restored, our purpose then will be more than maintenance, it will be about living. We are about to become the first human beings to learn what it truly means to be alive when time is no longer hunting you down.
I know. It sounds incredible, farcical, but all of this is possible because we have now invented the technology. All we need, and what we have found, is the courage to face the last obstacle preventing us creating nirvana.
PAULINE
(More to herself.)
Too many Humans.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Before us lay a terrible choice. Two roads.
The crowded one we were already on, with all its fast-food chains where the botoxed obese are indifferently devouring us towards extinction.
Or this road, the one as yet un-travelled. The road that leads to the only future worth living. And that will be the prize for being the first species to escape the slavery of evolution. Evolution, has been conquered and will now become a slave to us.
PAULINE
You sound like an Apprentice God.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Maybe we are. . . Pauline, this is the deal I have been sent here to offer you. We want you to join us.
PAULINE
No thanks.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Why not? I don't understand.
PAULINE
Then ask your cameras.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
But you didn't even consider it.
PAULINE
No thank you.
Beat
AN APPRENTICE GOD
I know what you're thinking. 1984. Yes well, for all the adulation he receives, Orwell was wrong. The future won't be big brother, because Humans can't flourish with a boot on their face. They need colour not grey. They need worth and love, and for our new world to flourish, we will need all those who were successfully chosen to join us, to be constantly growing. Unfortunately, this transition period will demand an unprecedented amount of brutality. Not just physical, but emotional, spiritual. We are not evil psychopaths Pauline, we have just accepted the terrible challenge. The fate of our species depends upon it. That's why you were so effective. If those people in that camp ground. . .
PAULINE
Camp Epic.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Yes, odd that it was called that. Well, if those people had managed to truly unite, to organise and grow, all of what is about to transpire, is unfolding, could have been lost. They might just have been the old Worlds last hope. That is how important you are. That's how much we owe you.
PAULINE
Then pat me on the back and kill me.
Beat.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
How did you do it? . . That's all we want to know.
PAULINE
Epic was beautiful.
(Emotional, frustrated and confused, but trying to keep it together.)
I just couldn't see it at the time. I just couldn't see the beauty.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Just because something is beautiful, doesn't mean it's right. How did you do it, Pauline. Tell me and all this is over.
Pauline turns away.
Beat. He starts again.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Yes, well, what happened next was just as dangerous. More so . . . And so, once again, we find ourselves in the quandary.
PAULINE
We should have just started here. You would have saved so much time.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
To be truly happy means you have to learn to accept, without questioning, paradoxes.
She turns back to him. Intrigued.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
To some eyes, the future will be a prison, but if we are all in it, and all aware of the rules, then we can achieve liberty. To realise that though, our surveillance system needs to be perfect, and it's so close we thought it was there, until you showed us that we have an acute Achilles heel. This is the real reason why we are offering you a reprieve. Even if you don't tell us, we'll find out eventually, and meanwhile the system will survive, but if you could tell us now, we could fix it now, and instead of pointlessly dying for a World that never knew you existed, you would once again be working to establish a new one.
PAULINE
If I thought you could figure it out later, I'd already be dead.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
How did you do it Pauline? How did you contact him.
PAULINE
You suffer from ghosts?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
No.
PAULINE
I'm plagued by them. Crying ghosts. And they’re not weeping because they were sad, but because they are happy. Old people, young people, all of them smiling and hugging and weeping with joy. I used to watch them helping each other. It was all about giving. One woman arrived with all her kids and her camping gear, except her tent. So someone gave her a tent. Then other people set it up for her. . . And they were fighting for me, for me, who was actively betraying them, and they were fighting with the only weapon they wanted to use, Love!
AN APPRENTICE GOD
(Empathhetic)
Stop it.
PAULINE
How?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
By accepting that hope for them is gone. No matter which direction we take, for the majority of humanity, there is no hope.
PAULINE
You don't know that.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Yes I do. I've known it for years. We're not monsters, we're saviours. And so were you and you can be again. Join us. Tell us . . . Please, tell us.
PAULINE
No.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Why not?
PAULINE
(Not as convincing.)
To the grave, my love.To The grave.
Pause.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Anyway, it wasn't those people in Canberra that swayed you, it was the Deplorables. Kret, Wendy and Michael. Three idiots who set off around Australia on a crazy trip to achieve what?
PAULINE
To defend free speech by allowing people to exercise it.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Or to grift off the weak by spreading false hope.
PAULINE
They weren't weak. Crazy, maybe.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Initially, we gave you that assignment because we thought it would be easy. Listen, record and report. A break from the weight of the brilliant work you'd done with the Canberra protest. But, with so much else going on, we forgot about you.
PAULINE
Plus, you were shadow banning them on facebook and instagram, Banning them from YouTube so what trouble could they cause? . . . So why try to kill them?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Hubris. . . Our own. We underestimated the love of the past, which many Australians were still clinging to. A stubborn love that these three a growing Online presence fanned. The brighter the flame grew, the more concerned we became.
PAULINE
Hope. They were cultivating hope.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
In times like this, hope can be lethal. Look at you, it infected you. It still is. Then again, you went a step further; you went and fell in love.
PAULINE
You make that sound like a fault.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Kret? That's not even a real name? It's a nick name. And look at him, a drinker, a smoker and a copious dope smoker. The man is a walking vice.
PAULINE
He was from Poland. He grew up there before the fall of the wall. He knew communism. He wasn't scared of you.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Is that's why you fell for him? Or did you just like his accent.
PAULINE
He was alone. Even though he was close with the others. Especially Wendy. He was . . . Distant.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Ah yes, Wendy. No one saw her coming either. From a teacher's pet, to an effective teacher, to one of our county's most recognizable degenerates.
PAULINE
She was a highly effective and brave freedom fighter, but, even though she loved him, he was still alone. Perhaps we all are. He pretended not to be, but when no one was looking, only me, and my cameras, I could see the depth of his loneliness.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
So, you wanted to fill it. This abyss.
PAULINE
Is that a crime?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
It was unwise. The man is a loser and you were a star on the winning team. People were planning great things for you, there was so much real hope, and then you go and give all of that up for a unvaccinated loser. A loser who will never know that you exist.
PAULINE
And he was kind, right from the start the world had pummelled him, attempted to mold him into a vicious dog, but instead he chose loyalty, and kindness . . . Freedom. He chose freedom even though he knew that the odds were immense. And that is what you missed. That is what you couldn't see. When you were busy dragging this world into chains, they were free. I have this recurring dream. The three of them are all budgies, yellow ones, and they are flying around a cage full of other budgerigars, and the door is open, and these three are trying to entice the others out by revelling in the joy of their flight. . . But the others won't leave the cage. Most won't even look at them.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
And then Michael interviewed Amber.
PAULINE`
Who?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
We know it was Amber.
PAULINE
Amber, Amber who?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
That beautiful young woman from Streaky Bay. It was her story that started to change you. Wasn't it? We didn't see it then, because we weren't looking. We trusted you. But now AI has gone back and studied all your reactions. Amber was the one who first corrupted you. Why?
PAULINE
I'm sorry but I can't remember her.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Amber was twenty one. She'd been living in Perth when the mandates came in. She lost her job, got kicked out of her share house all because she wouldn't take the jab, and so alone, she travelled across the country, her country, like a refugee looking for asylum. She had no one in her corner, as all her family were jabbed. And the only thing that held her together, gave her strength, was her love of her own freedom. Her freedom to chose.
She didn't even know who the Deplorables were. She just heard that there was someone in town recording real stories and so she sought them out. That's how determined she was to tell hers.
PAULINE
And here I was, recording her details so that if you wanted to, you could track her. . .
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Then there was this other girl in Darwin. She was about to become a teacher, but she couldn't graduate because she wouldn't take the jab. And Michael recorded her mother saying that they thought they were going to lose her. That she'd kill herself and they didn't know what to do until they showed her Amber's video, and when the Deplorables met her, she was running for Politics. Such is the power of Amber.
PAULINE
Did you track her?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Of course.
PAULINE
So you've arrested her too?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Months ago.
PAULINE
Why?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
You know why.
PAULINE
Where is she now. Here.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
She was, but in an interrogation, she unfortunately succumbed.
PAULINE
You killed her? . . . Why? . ..Why?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
She killed herself. There's no hiding anymore. The rules have changed. Lovely as she was, in this time she was too dangerous. Not afraid to question, not afraid to stand her ground. Amongst the young, that sort of attitude can spread like wildfire. We arrested the one in Darwin as well. Fortunately she's adapting well to her re-education lessons.
PAULINE
Are you seriously telling me you can't see how evil you are?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
What we are doing to try reach where we are heading, is far too important to be threatened by anyone. Adapt or die, that is now Amber's final message to the world.
PAULINE
One no one will hear.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
And I can see that that upsets you, but that's the price. We can no longer afford sentimentality.
PAULINE
Sentimentality? She was just a young woman. A strong, young woman.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Who chose to join the dodos. Question is, will you?
PAULINE
And The Deplorables?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
You mean Kret. They're still doing their thing. Which is fine. Innocently they are helping us root out the rogue bulls. Though hardly anyone watches them anymore. And even fewer people speak to them.
Beat. Hurting.
PAULINE
After watching Amber's interview, I went for a walk. I didn't even know. I just kind of came to when I was walking. It was night, but it all looked different, the same, but different. It was like a coating had been removed and suddenly I could see things I hadn't really noticed before. In the three blocks I counted over seventy cameras.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
We perceive that there will come a moment when the majority start to realise, that no matter how obedient they have been, they won't be coming with us. At that moment, we perceive, those who are still healthy, might unite and threaten our journey.
PAULINE
Their survival instinct will kick in.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Maybe. We were expecting it to have emerged by now, and in many countries it has, but the media here have been very successful in keeping Australians docile. The key is to convince them that they are on the right team.
PAULINE
Like you are trying to convince me?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
You can be. . . Unlike them, you have a choice.
PAULINE
I know I have a choice. Only reason, I'm still alive.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
You said that you couldn't see the beauty of Epic. Well maybe you can't see the beautiful possibilities of these moments. Australia, like Canada, are our crowning achievements. We have learned that if you give people enough inconsequential stuff, so that they feel rich, and that they could be richer, despite most of it comprising of debt, they will not only suppress the cry of their own survival instinct, but they will turn off their ability to love each other. They'll even turn on each other. Meaning, we have proved, that once you have conquered their ability to love each other, the population is yours. And thankfully, very few of them will be coming with us. All those obsessed with individuality, they have reached the end of their time. In our new world, the health of greater good, including the entire planet, will be what we motivated to love.
PAULINE
And then I went and fell in love with a defiant Pole.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
What? You think we're frightened of love? Love is only a problem when it's a problem. You had no way to contact him because you knew we'd find out. So even if we knew you'd fallen for him, that wouldn't have been a problem. Are we not human too. If you cut me will I not bleed? And like many of us, my burden is constant grief, an overwhelming grief, made bearable only by the nurturing light of the dawn we are sailing towards.
No, the first problem was that we didn't know. That's how good you were at concealing your emotions. Though, we've fixed that now.
PAULINE
You won't win.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Humanity has no choice. We have to win.
PAULINE
No, like me, others will surprise you. Your arrogance will be your undoing.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Pauline, wake up. Our victory has already been secured. Their demise has already been planted in their veins. They lined up and welcomed it in, voluntarily. Then they worked together to push the reluctant to do it. Even their children. It's in you too, and me. You were right, the only reason you are alive is the information we can't extract. Otherwise you would have been designated for euthanasia, which is now the equivalent of finding your ID-number and pushing a button.
PAULINE
So that is what the quantum dots are for?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Humans are imperfect beasts, but with the right restraints, they are easily controlled. And once they are, and most importantly, once they can't see the constraints, they are happy. Most welcome them. Just knowing there are firm parameters allows them to breathe. In truth the only freedom most people want is the freedom from responsibility. You Pauline, or at least the woman we initially hired, ticked all those boxes.
PAULINE
But then Amber ripped open the door of my cage.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Which ironically could be a blessing, for she changed you. And if she hadn't you'd be back at your desk, diligently working, unaware, that you would never be coming with us.
PAULINE
Why not?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
You just weren't. But now, like I said, through adversity, you have earned a golden ticket.
PAULINE
Keep it.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Do you have any idea what people would do for this opportunity?
PAULINE
Then let them fight over it, for you have nothing I want.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Nothing.
PAULINE
Yes. Nothing.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Amazing.
PAULINE
What is?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
When we were discussing how to convince you to tell us, someone suggested a far simpler trade than the keys to the new heaven, but we thought he was mad.
PAULINE
He is mad. I told you, you have nothing I want. So why don't you just flick your switch.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
The offer is a laptop.
PAULINE
A laptop?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
You will have no internet access, no word function, but the laptop will be loaded with all the videos from The Deplorables that you have missed due to your incarceration. We will let you watch those, first, before any sentence is carried out.
PAULINE
As if I could trust you.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Every video you missed. You have my word.
PAULINE
As a psychopath.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
As a visionary.
PAULINE
I don't believe you. Why should I?
From his bag he produces a laptop, and a charger, and lays it on the table.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Do we have a deal?
PAULINE
There's no power point in my cell.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
I wouldn't worry about going back to your cell . . . There's power in here. You are welcome to stay here until you've had your fill . . . This is the final offer.
PAULINE
Will it hurt.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
I've been told, no.
PAULINE
Could I be reunited somehow with my mother.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
We know it was you. As soon as Kret changed direction, the cameras here picked up the relief in your face. We know it was you, we just don't know how you did it. Every single means of communication open to you, was not used. We've checked and doubled checked. So how did you do it? How did you warn them?
PAULINE
You wouldn't believe me.
He slides the laptop to her side of the table. After a beat, she comes forward, snatches it up, then hugging it to her chest, moves away.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Try us.
PAULINE
If you don't, and you won't, I'm keeping this?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
As long as you tell the truth, and we will know, it's yours.
She takes her time considering and then.
PAULINE
I heard about your plan. It was gossip in the office.
Despite all their passion and hard work, the freedom movement had lost the election, only one had got voted in. It was a disaster for them and victory of us.
But out there on the highways, the Deplorables were getting ever more popular. Travelling town to town and recording the stories of everyday people, and despite all the shadow banning they were still being watched by thousands.
They were becoming folk heroes. And all they had to sell was hope. That's it. That's why you decided they had to go. Correct?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Correct.
PAULINE
They were due to drive up into the D'Eungales, along these narrow, winding, mountain roads. That’s where you had organized a garbage truck to run them off the road.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
A clean tragic accident that no media outlet would cover, and that there would be no videos of. In a short amount of time the public would have forgotten all about them.
PAULINE
I couldn't let it happen. But what could I do? You said it before, I had no way to contact them, and even if I could, what would I have said?
They had never heard of me.
They'd probably think I was mad.
And if they discovered that I'd been spying on them, betraying all those beautiful brave people they'd been interviewing, they'd never believe me.
And I had cameras everywhere. The only place that AI couldn't monitor me was when I was home in bed with my doona pulled over my head.
That was it. There was nothing I could do. Nothing but work and watch it all like a spectator. That and hope. Hope your plan failed. But then on the morning of the assassination, I was screaming inside for help, when someone answered the call.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Someone answered? What? Who?
PAULINE
I had a calling to go to this place . . .
AN APPRENTICE GOD
A calling. What do you mean, a text?
PAULINE
No, a calling.
That's what all the people in Epic were saying. I remember Michael interviewing them as they arrived at the gates. He asked each of them their name, where they were from and what they were doing here. I had to come. We had to come that's what they all said. All of them. Now the same force was calling out to me.
So I followed it and it led me to the only place where there no cameras. A toilet cubicle.
Next door, someone was doing her ablutions, while in here,, I got on my knees and using the bowl as an alter, I prayed.
And I prayed with all the love I had, for God to warn them. To encourage them to go another way.
And that's it. That's what I did.
Then when I got back to my desk, I watched Kret argue with both Wendy and Michael, for the way he wanted to go now, would add over an hour to their journey, but he would not be swayed, so eventually they gave in, and to my astonishment he drove them a different way.
Then a few minutes later I was arrested.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
God? Are you serious. Are you suggesting that the flaw in our system is God?
PAULINE
You want to know what I did? That's your answer.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Pauline, you are an atheist, that was one of reasons we hired you, we've talked about that, and now, now you are saying God saved the Deplorables.
PAULINE
I don't know. I guess the old saying is right.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
What old saying?
PAULINE
There are no atheists in fox holes.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Oh this is rubbish, This is complete and utter rubbish.
PAULINE
Then you explain it.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Easy. You're lying. Though I don't know why You are protecting no one.
PAULINE
How do you know I'm lying?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
There is no God. There never was. We invented him, eons ago, when we finally had the sense to realise how senselessness everything was. But now thanls to our scientists, we don't need him. That's why they let us kill him. And who knew that all it would take, was the threat of a minor flu, the closing of the churches and the silencing of the priests? Trust the Science, that's all it took, repeated over and over again, that's all it took to kill God.
PAULINE
And what, replace him with you?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
When they needed him, God's doors were closed, whereas the doors to our clinics, were open. So yes. God is worse than dead, he's redundant, and so, in most of their souls, even though many of them don't know it, they've replaced him with us.
PAULINE
So, you really believe that you are our new Gods?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
We are. And unlike his myth, we will create heaven, here. And it is a crying shame that you have chosen not to witness it.
PAULINE
Does the merciful deal with the laptop still hold?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
No, because you're lying. Pauline, we need to know how you did it. We know it was you. We have the footage.
PAULINE
I just told you how. If you don't believe me that's not my problem, but if you can't bring yourself to believe me, then, my Apprentice God, why not ask your beloved AI if they think I'm lying.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
(Looks at his screen.)
You're telling the truth.
PAULINE
Told you.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
But you can't be.
PAULINE
I'm keeping the laptop.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
I can't go back to the others with this.
PAULINE
I'd say they are already watching.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
(More to himself)
She's telling the truth?
As he sits there stunned, Pauline opens the laptop. The light illuminates her face.
PAULINE
Where in here are they? .. .I said, where in here are they?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
(Still stunned)
Nowhere.
PAULINE
What? Oh, you bastard. You said I could watch them. You promised. You lying piece of shit.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
I'm not lying. I said you could watch all the ones you'd missed, of which there are none. Kret took another road, yes, and it was just as narrow, and windy, so after detaining you, we simply rerouted the truck. They were killed later that day. In fact, the cliff they drove off was far steeper. So they had no hope. Where was your Great God then? Hmm?
Pauline closes the laptop. She is silent.
PAULINE
You won't win. Your kind never do.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
That's old think. That past is gone, and you are about to fade into it.
PAULINE
You won't win.
The Apprentice God stands, and gathers his things.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Last chance.
PAULINE
You know, you may have learned how to hack our DNA, like kindergarten children fingerpainting the Mona Lisa. But who created the code? Hmm? Who created it?
AN APPRENTICE GOD
Ask him yourself, for if he is there, you'll soon be in his presence.
Pauline doesn't answer so he goes to leave. When underneath her light she starts mumbling something.
From the door he stops.
AN APPRENTICE GOD
What was that?
She keeps mumbling, so he comes closer. When he's close enough she looks up to him, and with determination and no fear, she starts again.
PAULINE
Our Father, who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
He quietly leaves.
PAULINE
(And she gets louder,)
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us (She starts to falter and fall quieter.)
From evil.
For thine is the kingdom and power and the glory forever and ever. (Soft and looking around for hope.)
Amen.
The End
Very good! Yes, God wins!
Thank you. Sharing.