“Silence” / A Sci-Fi Short

When I dream at night, it is usually in major motion picture color, with added 3D clarity, which brings the visions to a striking realism.

Here is one called “Silence.”

The world was quiet.  All the anxious fear had been silenced, and the only sound right now, was the gentle washing of the sea, as it pulled at the sand in front of me.  I ran my fingers through the warmth of the small crystals, letting the granules slip through the opening between my fingers.  Is this how God feels, contemplating creation? A brief moment of absolute clarity, and then the moment vanishes?

I can’t make the screams go away.  I didn’t like this feeling of being a creator, chosing life and death, placing the value of human existence upon a scale that I must weigh.  It was wrong to me.

The department was my responsibility, its experiments I oversaw.  All pre-cautions were put in place.  How did they breach the system?

I can’t make the screams go way.

“General, you must blow the sector!  If you release it, we’re all doomed!”

That sentence replayed itself like the emotions on the other side of the monitor, as I watched my friends and co-workers claw at the sealed doors, asking for release.  I could not make the vision go away.  It was my creation, a viral mutation that could silence the whole world.  They needed to be released, their anxious fears muted.

“General, your command?”

Did I say the words?  I don’t remember.  All I remember is the silence.  A weight of quietness, which hung about my shoulders, its heaviness equal to my burden of creation.  I can’t make the screams go away.

“Grandma?”

The gentle touch of little fingers brought my vision to the present.  I turned to view the innocence of my grandchild.

“Yes, dear, is it time?”

The small blond head nodded quickly, her smile beaming away the dark cloud which veiled my thoughts.  Rising from the warmth of the sand, I grasped the beautiful fingers as she led me back to the island temple.  Our sanctuary from the silence of the world.  Our place of regeneration, my creation.  A people who knew no war, no fear, no hunger, no disease, no strife.

I could not make the screams go away.