Interview With An Apprentice God: A Dangerous Play for Stage or ZOOM.

Kulture play, By Michael Gray Griffith

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A play between one of the Elites, and one of us.

Want to do something different? Then without reading it first, find a friend and pick a role, there are only two.

We are looking for actors brave enough to do a zoom version.

Michael Gray Griffith

INTERVIEW WITH AN APPRENTICE GOD

By Michael Gray Griffith

Pauline is sitting at an interrogation table. Her left hand is bandaged. She is dressed in prison clothes and is in handcuffs.
Finally, the other screen comes on to reveal a man in a well-tailored suit. He looks at Pauline with tenderness and empathy.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Good morning, Pauline. Sorry to keep you waiting.

Pauline doesn’t answer.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Can you hear me, Pauline? . . . Pauline? . . . Can she hear me?

PAULINE
(Matter of fact)
Are you here to watch them torture me?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
What? Oh no, no, no. Plus, I think we can both agree that we are beyond all that.

PAULINE
What happened to the others?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Others?

PAULINE
The ones you had rape and torture me? . . . Have you punished them?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Why would we punish them?

PAULINE
For failing . . . If you fail, will they punish you?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
You feel like you’re winning?

PAULINE
And you will fail.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Yes, well. To me, there are no winners here, 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. Let’s start there, because, and I say this with the utmost respect, you have us all perplexed.

PAULINE
Perplexed. 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 estimation?

PAULINE
Are you intending to have me tortured again?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
I answered that question.

PAULINE
Why not?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Would it work?

PAULINE
Does it ever?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Yes. 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 black out, 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. But for now, how about we try and be a little more positive?

PAULINE
Are you going to kill me? Yes or no.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Well, that will depend on you. And your choices.

PAULINE
I’ve already made my choice. And nothing you will say will change that, so why not just get it over with. Kill me.

Beat. Where does he go from here?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
How is your hand?

PAULINE
What do you care? And since we’re being honest, we all know it’s over for me. So why should we keep wasting each other’s time? Finish it. You know you are going to.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
You sound committed.

PAULINE
You should know, you committed me. And I know that the only reason I’m still breathing is because I haven’t told you what you want to know.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Which is?

PAULINE
(Smiles. Power.)
And since you are going to do whatever you are going to do regardless, why should I give you anything?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Well, that’s why I’m here. If you like, why not see this as a negotiation.

PAULINE
In a fair negotiation, both sides should have power. The only power I have, my only freedom, is to take what you want to the grave.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
(A beat, then an admiring smile)
Like I said, you have us 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
Good idea. Let’s start there. You should be honored. I am someone who has never actively partaken in matters like this. But you are such a special case, that rather than another interrogator, why not see me as a fork in your road. I could either be a gateway to an astounding life, full of abundance and uncharted possibilities . . . Or not.

PAULINE
I choose not.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Why?

PAULINE
(She makes the sign of locking her lips.)
To the grave. Not that I’ll have a grave. So why not take your pathetic smiles back to nirvana, and let whoever is going to do, whatever they are going to do, proceed.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
You’re not frightened of death?

PAULINE
Frightened of it? I’m dying for it.
(She lifts the handcuffs and shows him.)
That’s why I’m free.

Beat.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Were you ever informed as to why your application to be a surveillance officer was successful?

PAULINE
Determination, focus, and an impressive attention to detail.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Your previous job was menial, and yet you tackled it every day with this work ethic.

PAULINE
Big deal. I like working. Plus, I was an atheist with no children, no partner, and my only living relative, my mother, has Alzheimer’s.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
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
Cats die.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Yes, they do. Purpose. That’s why you applied. You were after a life that wasn’t meaningless. Correct?

PAULINE
Actually, I just wanted a pay rise.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Which you received. But let’s go back to the cat. The remarkable thing about them is how much they are loved, especially by lonely people, 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
Alzheimer’s. It has no mercy.

PAULINE
You said missed, not miss.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
They didn’t tell you? Oh, I’m sorry. She passed. I assumed that you’d been informed, seeing how the two of you were so close. It states here that the nursing home was trying to reach you, but they were unable to.

PAULINE
I thought you said you weren’t going to torture me.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
This is not torture. It’s the truth. The truth shall set you free, correct? (He gives her a moment to reply, and she doesn’t, so he continues) It also states here that on her last day, she had a significant period of lucidity. I have heard that can happen with Alzheimer’s. Apparently, she spent that time calling out for you? You were all she had, correct? (He waits again, but she doesn’t reply.)
It also states that she was cremated in what they call a click-and-collect cremation. And she is now in a cupboard in the funeral director’s establishment, waiting for you to pick her up.

PAULINE
That was a mistake, by you.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
How so?

PAULINE
Because any chance you had of persuading me to help, any slim chance, 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
They were lying. We knew they were lying. They knew that we knew they were lying. But still, they kept lying . . . You will never release me. I know that.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
No, I do not know that.

PAULINE
Are you trying to sell me hope? After all you’ve done, you really think you can sell me hope?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Can I ask you a question? Out there, in the living world, not one person has inquired about your whereabouts, not one. Then, after your mother died, we scrubbed your records. Currently, and forever more, there is no public record of you anywhere. Officially, not only do you not exist, but there is no proof now that you ever existed.

PAULINE
Good.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Good?

PAULINE
Next question.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
I hadn’t finished asking my first.

PAULINE
If I don’t exist, what’s the point?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
That’s my question. If no one out there will ever be aware of your sacrifice, then all this pain and suffering is for nothing.

PAULINE
Pointless.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Absolutely and utterly pointless.

PAULINE
Just like your question. Is that it? Are you finished?

Pause.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
It doesn’t have to be this way. I have an option that could lead to abundance.

PAULINE
When did my mother die?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
You don’t want options? Options that will see you prosper.

PAULINE
When did my mother die?

Beat.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Two weeks after your arrest.

PAULINE
What happened?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
She had a rare reaction to her sixth booster. They attempted to treat it with a protocol of Medazilin and Fentanyl, but it appears 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 is me.

PAULINE
(Finds this funny.)
You’re my friend.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Considering that this current conversation could be the last one you will have, I would suggest that I am your best friend.

PAULINE
I thought you said you weren’t going to torture me?

He starts again.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
I’d like to go back. As I was saying before we got sidetracked, all these factors influenced our decision to employ you. Along with the fact that you had no criminal history of any kind. You didn’t even have a parking ticket.

PAULINE
It’s called being boring.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
And despite the scant information you had, you believed in what we were trying to achieve. You were dedicated. You were a star employee.

PAULINE
Also known as a fool.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Oh no, we are the fools. That’s why I’m here. All we want to know is how you did it.

PAULINE
I believe the technical term is that I fucked you.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Yes, you did. Then, in turn, we reciprocated. Or as it is known technically, a lose-lose.
Do you have any idea how long you’ve been here now?

PAULINE
Six months, three days.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
How can you possibly know that? You have no access to a clock, or daylight. No TV, no computer. You can’t even hear the guard’s radio, so how can you possibly have kept track of time?

PAULINE
It’s a gift I keep stored in a 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
What if I’m not? What if I’m trying to liberate you?

PAULINE
Liberate me?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Yes, and a positive conversation is the only path to that.

PAULINE
I am already dead. I knew that the moment it happened. 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?

He starts again.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
You were very good. Even during training, that was noticed. 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 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 from what direction will it come? Above, below, from inside? Who knows, which means the only strategy you have to prevent it, to try and stop it, is to observe everything. Even each other.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
I ask again. What do you think is coming, Pauline?

PAULINE
(Smiles)
I’m sorry. I interrupted you. I believe you were complimenting 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 humanity from itself, sacrifices have to be made.

PAULINE
Oh yes, lots of sacrifices. Heaps. So, how are you coping with all of that? Is 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
No. Oh no. I was a nobody, a shadow for a shadow’s shadow . . . Until now.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
You think you’re important?

PAULINE
No, not think. I know I am. That’s why you’re here.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
You are imprisoned.

PAULINE
Only externally.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Internally, you believe you are free.

PAULINE
Not free . . . Victorious. Currently, I am so close to victory that I can almost see it. The only reason I’m not already there is because you guys haven’t lived up to your promise.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
To execute you?

PAULINE
You see, your greatest threat will be my deliverance.

Pause.
He decides to return to a previous strategy.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
The plush apartment, that was nothing. If you hadn’t betrayed us, we would have given you so much more. More than most people could comprehend.

PAULINE
(Fake yawns)
Uh huh. Well, that sounds very 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 so very 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 though? . . . 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
In my time, I’ve found that destinations are always a disappointment. It’s the journeys we take where our novels are born.

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 then they took turns.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
And at any point, you could have stopped them. The power was always yours. They told you that.

PAULINE
Yes, they did. Then the last two, she and her friend, tore off my fingernails.
(Lifts bandaged hand.)

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Why didn’t you cry out? You didn’t even cry. The same during the rape. It was like you had switched off.

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?

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 from his suicide note.

Beat.

PAULINE
Who are you?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
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
We have had some very long discussions regarding your fate, and we have decided that because you are so intriguing, 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 just look at me, you can decide for yourself if I mean what I’m saying. Pauline, if you cooperate with us, 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,” said the crocodile, “but then halfway across, I remembered . . . I’m a crocodile.”

AN APPRENTICE GOD
I believe it was a fox.

PAULINE
I’m talking about you.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
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 your tolerance levels?

PAULINE
(Smiles)
To the grave, honey . . . To the grave.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Telling me why you were able to bear the pain of torture won’t compromise your stance. Wouldn’t it be more like bragging?

PAULINE
You know what your problem is? Without fear, you have no dominion. Without power, you’re just . . . 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 who were open to persuasion, who knows what those anti-vaxxers could have achieved. Or do you now feel like you betrayed them?

PAULINE
Not 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. For some reason, I couldn’t see how beautiful they were, how miraculous their moment in history was. What they were doing, without any plans as to how, was attempting to steal back their future from destiny . . . I can see their beauty now though. No matter how deep the darkness, there they are, a light in my rearview mirror that never dims.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Well, you may be able to see them using hindsight, but everywhere else, thanks to you, their light has been doused. You don’t have to answer that, because you already did. AI.
You can hide your true self from me, but not from it . . .
So, let’s back up.
The memory of them, is that where you are deriving the strength to hold out? Do you believe that by enduring punishment, you are somehow redeeming yourself in their eyes? How? None of them will ever know you existed, and even if they did, they would want nothing to do with you.

PAULINE
Agreed.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Really? Because AI has read you and 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 it knows everything, 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
A memory everyone will forget . . . 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 lifeblood 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 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
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 our fences will go, leaving the forests to return. Imagine herds of bison roaming across the prairies, or huge pods of whales singing across oceans that are empty of plastic but full of fish. I could go on, but does that sound like the dream 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 is available only while I’m in here. 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 . . .

PAULINE
You’ve already raped my body. I couldn’t stop that, but I will choose who rapes my soul.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
How about choosing to trust someone who could enhance your soul?

PAULINE
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 godmother?

PAULINE
You heard what they said. They had to come. They had no choice.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
(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
Then 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, while 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 that fault. 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 pruning 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 are now 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.

PAULINE
Depopulation.

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 positively alter and improve their lives. Think of that. Soon, all diseases will be gone. 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 now have the technology. All we need, and what we have found, is the courage to face the last obstacle preventing us from 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 untraveled. 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
Yes, I did, and the answer is 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 color, 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.

PAULINE
Growing on genocide.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Yes. Unfortunately, there is no way around it. This essential transition period demands such an unprecedented amount of brutality. Not just physical, but emotional, spiritual. We are not evil psychopaths; we are just the ones who are brave enough to accept the terrible challenge.

PAULINE
You mean rich enough.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
We are approaching the end, Pauline, and the fate of our species cannot afford sentimentality. It depends on focus. That’s why you were so effective. If those people in that campground . . .

PAULINE
Camp Epic.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Odd that it was called that. Yes, well, if those people had managed to truly unite, to organize and grow, all of what is about to transpire, is unfolding, could have been lost. They might just have been the old world’s last hope. That is how important you are. You saved everything. That’s how much we owe you.

PAULINE
Then pat me on the back and kill me.

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 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
Ok, let’s move on. Because 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 yourself 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. Though to realize that, 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 Achilles heel.

PAULINE
That’s the real reason you are offering me a reprieve.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
It is. Even if you don't tell us, we'll find out eventually, and meanwhile the system will survive, but if you could tell us, 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 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
Are you plagued by ghosts?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
No.

PAULINE
You don’t hear them crying? They’re not weeping because they are sad, but because they are happy. Old people, young people, smiling and hugging, their eyes wet with tears of joy. They are helping each other. They are giving. One woman arrived with all her kids and camping gear, except their tent. She had packed so fast she had forgotten their tent. So someone just gave her a tent. An entire tent. Then other people set it up for her. Men. And all these people, these beautiful people, were fighting for me. Me, who, full of your fear, was passionately working to betray them, as they fought back with the only weapon they’d brought: love.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
(Empathetic)
Stop it.

PAULINE
How?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
By accepting what you already know. Noble as they are, for them, hope is gone. No matter what direction we take, for the majority of humanity, there is no hope.

PAULINE
You don't know that.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Yes, you do. You’ve known it for years. That’s another reason we hired you. You thought of your fellow citizens as fat, lazy, greedy, and selfish.

PAULINE
That was a long time ago.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Four years . . . Despite the rantings of the conspiracy theorists, we are not monsters; we are saviors. And so were you, and you knew it. That was one of the reasons you worked so hard. And you can be again. You can join us as together we build a healthier and more sustainable world. All you have to do is tell us . . . Please, Pauline, tell us.

PAULINE
(Not as convincing.)
To the grave, my love. To the grave.

Pause.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Anyway, it wasn't the 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 everyday people to exercise it.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Also known as grifting 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, and seeing how our relationship was built on trust, we forgot about you.

PAULINE
Plus, you were shadow-banning them on Facebook and Instagram, banning them from YouTube, so how much trouble could they cause? . . .

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Exactly.

PAULINE
So why try to kill them?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Hubris. . . We underestimated the love of the past, which many Australians were still clinging to. A stubborn love that these three, with their growing online presence, fanned. The brighter the flame grew, the more concerned we became.

PAULINE
Hope. They were using courage to cultivate 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 love sound like a weakness.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Oh no, it’s anything but. People claim fear limits them, but nothing is more binding nor blinding than love.

PAULINE
Or liberating.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
You feel liberated?

PAULINE
I feel free.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Free? We tell you when to get up, when to go to bed, when to eat, when to shower. You have no window, no TV, no phone, and you have absolutely no contact with the outside world.

PAULINE
And will soon be killed and discarded as though I never existed.

Beat. Affected. Puzzled.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
How could you possibly feel free?

PAULINE
Because in what’s left of my time, I’m me. And so was Kret. But that’s why I fell in love. When no one was looking, only me, through my lens, I could see the depth of his loneliness.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
And so, you wanted to fill his abyss.

PAULINE
Is that a crime?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
It was unfortunate. 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 an unvaccinated loser. A loser who will never know that you existed.

PAULINE
And he was kind. Right from the start, the world had pummeled him, attempted to mold him into a vicious dog, but instead, he chose loyalty, kindness . . . Himself . . . Freedom. He chose freedom even though he knew that the odds were overwhelming. 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. In it, the three of them are all budgies, 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 reveling 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
It was her story that changed you. We didn't see it then because we weren't looking. Like I said, we trusted you.

PAULINE
Or took me for granted.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
They’re different? . . . Yes, well, now AI has gone back and studied all of your reactions. It was Amber. She was the one who 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 refused to get vaccinated, and so, alone, she traveled 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 choose.
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 her story.

PAULINE
And here I was, recording her details so that if you wanted to, you could track her down. . .

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
You tracked 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 during an interrogation, she unfortunately succumbed.

PAULINE
You killed her? . . . Why? . . . Why?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
As lovely as she was, in this time, she was too dangerous. Not afraid to question, not afraid to stand her ground. Among the young, that sort of attitude can spread like a virus. We arrested the one in Darwin as well. Fortunately, she saw the error of her ways and is adapting well to re-education.

PAULINE
Are you seriously telling me you can't see how evil you are?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Our destination is far too important to all of humanity to risk it being threatened by individuals who refuse to accept change. Adapt or die—that was Amber's final message to the world.

PAULINE
A message that no one will hear.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Oh, they can hear it. That's why they are adapting. In order to survive, we can no longer afford sentimentality.

PAULINE
Sentimentality? She was just a strong, beautiful, young woman.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Who chose to join the dodos. The question is, will you?

Beat. Hurting.

PAULINE
After watching Amber's interview, I went for a walk. I didn't even know. I just kind of came to my senses when I was out walking. It was night, but it all looked different—the same, but unrecognizable. It was like a coating had been removed from my eyes, and suddenly I could see things I hadn't 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 realize that, no matter how obedient they have been, they won't be coming with us. At that moment, 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, but it hasn’t. That said, the media 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. The only reason I'm still alive.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
You said that, when it was happening, you couldn't see the beauty of Epic.
Well, maybe you can't see the beautiful possibilities of these moments.
Australia, like Canada, is one of 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 debt, they will not only suppress the cry of their own survival instinct but will turn off their ability to love each other.
They will even turn on each other.
Meaning, we have proved that once you have conquered their ability to love, the population loves the state instead and becomes governable.

PAULINE
You mean disposable.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
In our new world, the health of the greater good, including the health of the entire beautiful planet, will be what we are motivated to love.

PAULINE
And then I went and fell in love with a defiant man.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Are you implying that we are frightened of love? Love is only a problem when it's a problem. You had no way to contact him because if you did, 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 a constant grief, an overwhelming grief, made bearable only by the nurturing light of the dawn we are sailing towards.
We are not frightened by love. We are driven by love. In these terrible times, our only solace is love. In fact, you could even claim that we have been commissioned by love.

PAULINE
You really believe that.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
How could we not? It’s true. We aren’t devils; we are instead the only people love trusted to do what has to be done, for love.

PAULINE
Love of what?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
You . . . Humanity.

PAULINE
You won't win.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
We have to win. Humanity has no choice.

PAULINE
No, like me, others will surprise you. Your arrogance—that will be your undoing.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Pauline. 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 the same. Even their children. It's in you too. 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 searching for your ID number and clicking 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 and reminded me that I’m a human being.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Which, ironically, could be a blessing, for she did change 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
Incredible.

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
This laptop.

PAULINE
What?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
I will leave it with you. 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 single 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?

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 returning to your cell . . . There's power in here. You are welcome to stay here until you've had your fill . . . This is our final offer.

PAULINE
Will it hurt?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
The fear that it will hurt more.

PAULINE
Will it hurt?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Yes.

PAULINE
(Nods and considers.)
Could I be reunited with my mother?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
As soon as Kret changed direction, the cameras here picked up the relief in your face. We know it was you. We just cannot figure out how you did it. Every single means of communication open to you was not used. We’ve checked and double-checked them all. How did you do it? How did you warn him?

PAULINE
You wouldn’t believe me.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Try me. Plus, AI will tell us if you are lying.

PAULINE
If you don’t believe me, and you won’t, can I keep this?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
As long as you tell the truth, 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 gotten voted in. It was a disaster for them and a victory for us.
But out there on the highways, the Deplorables were getting ever more popular. Traveling 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 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. Within a very, very short time, they would be forgotten.

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 that 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? Who? How?

PAULINE
I suddenly felt a strong 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 were no cameras. A toilet cubicle.
So I got on my knees and, using the bowl as an altar, 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 arguing with Michael. For the way he suddenly wanted to go 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 seriously 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 the reasons we hired you; we’ve talked about that. And now, now you are claiming that 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 foxholes.

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 realize how senseless everything was. But now, thanks 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, adding enough fear, and 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 clearly not up to the job, 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. 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. Stunned.)
You’re telling the truth.

PAULINE
Told you.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
But that can’t be.

PAULINE
I’m keeping the laptop.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
I can’t go back to the others with this.

PAULINE
Aren’t they 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 did indeed take another road, but 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
There has never been a kind like us. That’s old think. The past is gone, and you are about to fade into it.

PAULINE
You know, you may have learned how to hack our DNA, like kindergarten children finger-painting the Mona Lisa. But who created the code? Hmm? Who created you?

AN APPRENTICE GOD
Ask him yourself, for if he is there, soon enough you’ll be in his presence.

Pauline doesn’t answer, so he goes to sign off when she starts mumbling something.

AN APPRENTICE GOD
What was that? I can’t hear you. Can you please speak up?

She stops, glares at him, then defiantly and clearly says.

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 prepares to log off.

PAULINE
(She gets louder and faster.)
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us—

He leaves now.

PAULINE
(She starts to falter and fall quieter.)
From evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. (Alone on the screen, she pauses, then softly, like the last human ever to utter it.)
Amen.

The End