Chapter 2

An intense ringing sounded in Jim’s ears, and his vision was blurred. People ran around him, laughing, and there was a stinging odor he’d never smelled before. He sat up on the street and rubbed the back of his head. As his eyes adapted to the new light of the city, he saw it in a way no one had seen it before. The top part of the surrounding buildings were engulfed by the sun’s energy, and the sun had spread to light up most of them. Why had God gifted them with the sun?

He got up on his feet and wobbled where he stood. The sun’s power seemed to lick the community houses, spreading its warmth, while God’s people bowed to the light. Jim stared in wonder at the sunlit buildings. It was a new era, a time for change.

He limped to the dais with the broken trickler that had flung him onto the street and leaned on it to keep steady. He was hurt, but he could still move, and nothing felt broken. Still, a sharp stab went through his ankle as he approached the crowd, bowing toward the sun blessed houses. The closer he got, the more intense the heat became. He panted and his lungs started cramping. The sun was a little too strong so close, but it was valuable information. He’d never smelled the sun before. His eyes stung, and he blinked away tears.

If only the elders were here to see this. They were the most devout, and they should have taken part in this blessing. Maybe God forgave him, just so he could take part in this wonderful gift?

A beige piece of fabric fastened to a wall caught the sun’s power and the sun rapidly took it into itself. The piece fell toward the ground, and the bowing people sprinted forward to pick it up. A teen with dark hair came there first, got on his knees, and grabbed it with both hands. He drew back his hands, screaming, waving them in the air. The sun blessed his clothes, and soon, the sun covered his body.

“Get the sun away from him!” Jim screamed, and hobbled closer. Then he gasped and looked into the sky, hoping God didn’t hear him. Of all the things they were allowed to do, it was strictly against the rules to refuse or discard God’s rare gifts. But God heard him and wanted him to experience it. A small piece of sun ripped away from the building, sailing down toward him. Jim stood still, waiting for it, his legs shaking. Then his mind and eyes went to the teen on the ground. He didn’t move.

Jim took a deep breath, but he couldn’t stand there. He didn’t, oh, almighty, want to be blessed by the sun. He threw himself to the side, and another person stepped forward, arms raised.

“You’re an acolyte, and you refuse God’s gift?” the man said, sneering. His eyes squinted toward the piece of sun flowing toward him, and it landed on his chest. He screamed and his arms moved to wipe it off, but somehow, he managed not to. “I want to be… part of… the sun!”

Jim crawled up on his feet and stumbled away. This was weird. Way too weird. He didn’t oppose change, but this was too much at once. God had a plan. God always had a plan. Was it to turn all the city’s inhabitants into their own suns? Why did it sound like that process hurt so much?

He peered over his shoulder as he made his way toward the edge of the plaza. The sun had overtaken the man completely, and he didn’t shout anymore. Other people approached to take some part of the sun from him.

Jim cursed in his head. An obedient servant of God should know to appreciate His gifts, not run from them. Still, his whole being screamed at him to get away. Jim leaned toward the first building on the next street and sucked in a breath, which resulted in a cough. He wasn’t worthy, and he had blasphemed not only once, but several times since he came down from the mountain. God would take vengeance on him now, for sure, and Jim shouldn’t object. Not after what he’d done, or refused to do. This was the most luxurious gift God had ever bestowed on them, and he’d refused it. Continued to refuse it.

The sun kept spreading its influence behind him, and Jim walked down the street, trying, over and over, to push away the guilt for doing so.

Without the sun in the sky, the street was almost completely dark. Darker than any night he’d ever experienced. Colder, too. Yet his feet stumbled forward on their own accord, having known this street since he moved into community house forty-three. The air was clearer here and felt easier to breathe. With his ears still ringing, he opened the door and ambled to his bed, where he didn’t even bother to undress before he laid down.

*******

“Jim!”

Jim stirred to a soft voice and shaking of his shoulder. He squinted at the dark shadow beside him. “What? What is it?”

“The sun has come to bless our house!” Zent grinned and pushed a brown stand of hair behind her ear. She was barely visible in the darkness. “It came over after blessing house forty-one, and I thought you might want to sing praises with us. Mother already started, and some of the others have also gathered on the roof so we can experience God’s gift together. The sun has blessed most buildings in our street from what I hear, and more than a few people have become suns themselves!” She pulled on Jim’s arm, and her face lit up slightly by a flicker of sunlight that came in through the open window. She coughed. “Do you think I can become a sun, too?”

Jim listened to the crackling noises just outside the wall. The sun… here? It got warmer, sure, and it was harder to breathe than normal. He sat upright, and his head spun. “No, no, this—”

“No?” Zent asked, hurt. “You don’t think I’m worthy of becoming a sun?”

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“I need to get away from here.” Jim swung his legs over the edge of the bed, and Zent slapped him, making his head ring again.

“You of all people should know we must appreciate God’s gifts! Have you turned against God?”

Jim coughed and stroked his aching cheek. “That’s not it. God is angry at me.” He looked at his knees. ”He probably doesn’t want to give me any gifts, so I’ll just… accept that.” Jim nodded. Yes, right. He wasn’t worthy of becoming one with the sun. That’s why he’d walked away from the plaza.

“Angry with you?” Zent furrowed her brow. “But God loves us. He’s never harmed us, and he wouldn’t be so angry that he didn’t want you to have this precious gift. This is all in his plans.”

“Well, I’m not taking any chances.”

Zent gaped at him, tears shining in her eyes. “How could you deny this gift when it’s on our doorstep? God touched you! That was you on the mountain, wasn’t it?” She coughed and wiped her cheek. “God sent us the sun, and made it travel all the way from the plaza to here, maybe for you alone. You don’t deserve to be an acolyte if you’re going to deny his gift like this.”

Jim blinked. He hadn’t thought of that. Never brazen enough to even think he was the one God wanted. Was God’s plan to transform the sun-touched ones into something new? Maybe he only intended to transform the ones who survived the process?

His mind snapped back to the sun-touched teen and man. They must have been overpowered by the light. Did that mean they weren’t worthy? Did God aim to try Jim’s capabilities, or to take Jim up to the sky, like all people who died? All the same, this meant that the grand gift could kill him if he got too close, or make him into something else. Both sounded like a type of punishment.

A shiver ran through his body. The sun had chased him. That’s what it was. God wanted to punish him in another way than simply ending his life.

”Get away from me,” Jim said, ”Otherwise God’s punishment will—” He looked up from his knees. Zent had disappeared. The stairs creaked above him, and people up there cheered between series of coughs.

The sun would make mini-suns of them all.

Jim jumped to his feet and winced as he landed on his bad ankle. He snapped his food bag from the kitchen, hung it over his shoulder, and continued out the door. A gray mass laid over the street, but when he waved his hand at it, it swirled around his arm and made him cough. Different color variations of sun lit up the stones, and Jim turned his head toward the roof of community building forty-three. Ten of twenty-five stood on it, watching the sun climb toward them, and they welcomed it with a smile, some reaching down to be the first ones to greet it.

He didn’t want it. It made him a coward, and it was disrespectful toward God, but he couldn’t bring himself to stay. Not like the others.

With the help of the shine from the sunlit buildings, Jim made his way further through the city, toward the eastern cliffs. That was the farthest he could go, and hopefully, the sun would stop its search when it couldn’t find him in the city.

As he passed community house forty-eight, he glanced over his shoulder. His heart skipped a beat, and he quickened his steps, trying to ignore the pain. The broken sun chased him through slowly climbing from house to house. If he could only get to the cliffs, the sun would likely give up, and when it couldn’t find him, it could form into itself again and return to the sky.

“Hey, monk-boy,” a raspy voice called, ripping Jim from his thoughts. “What are you doing here?”

Jim scanned around for the man while he wiped sweat from his brow and scalp with his sleeve, but he couldn’t see anyone.

“I… I don’t know,” Jim mumbled. “And I’m not a boy.”

An old man leaned out from the window of community house fifty and nodded down the street. “Ah, if I was younger, I would revel in God’s gifts. But I can’t walk far anymore.”

“That’s a shame.”

“No, what’s a shame is that one of God’s acolytes seems to sneer at God’s gift.” The man shook his head, but then he gave Jim a gap-toothed grin. “Or are you, say, here to guide the old ones into his light? The ones who can’t go there themselves?”

Jim swallowed and looked down the street. ”No. I’ve blasphemed, and this is my punishment. I don’t wa—I mean, I God wouldn’t find me worthy.”

“Arrogance,” the old man snorted. “You think God has his eyes on you alone? That you know of his plans? No, boy. God has gifted us the sun and will take us up into heaven. When else has this happened? No, believe me. If you shy away from God’s plan, you will live in an empty world. So, help me. Let’s become suns together.”

“How do you even know about all this?” Jim asked.

The man pointed up to the roof, and Jim followed the finger. Up there sat a group of people, just watching and waiting patiently for the sun to grace them. Unlike the inhabitants of community house forty-three, these people hadn’t begun cheering yet. A few coughs alerted him to the crowd on top of the next house. Every house’s roof.

Jim swallowed. “Go up with them, then. I won’t become a sun. I want to live. If I become a sun, God won’t let me. Or anyone else.”

The old man spat out the window, and it landed on the stone between Jim’s feet. “Be off with you! You are definitely not worthy, heretic!”

Jim stumbled down the street, trying to ignore the words the man hurled after him. He’d known he’d get shunned for his decision. It proved he was the biggest coward of them all; he wouldn’t take the gift and he wouldn’t accept his punishment. He’d already used the courage he had when he met God on top of the mountain. Others could do what they willed, but the more he saw of the sun, he was sure it was there to take everything from them. God’s plan was to kill everyone. What had they done? Was God simply… tired of his creation?

Jim shook his head. No. God had given them everything. He even delivered more food than usual. Why? Was this a test? The sun would overtake everything, and God hadn’t stopped it. He’d started it. Maybe he wanted the sun to grow? But then, why not just… make it bigger?

The street sloped upward, and a small distance away stood the rock formations that covered most of the east and north side of the world. The stones towered over him as he ambled in between them, and followed the rocky road. It took him less than a small trickler turn to reach the first open area, and even though it wasn’t that far up, it allowed him to view the east side of the city. He sat down on the edge of the gray stone and looked over the east part.

The sun had spread itself wide and grown massive within the thick gray-black stuff he’d walked through, and its light glinted off the stones in the street. Jim pulled off his backpack and took out a piece of bread. As he took a bite and chewed, he sniffed and brushed a hand over his eyes. It was the stinging. Not self-pity. The stinging of the gray mass that had overflowed his eyes, and the heat wafting up toward him. The crisp bread suddenly felt like a lump in his throat, and he sucked in a shaky breath. in any way he looked at it, his city wasn’t the same anymore. God’s plan to change everything, to destroy his creation…

No, God loved them. He always provided for them. But that means he can choose to take it all away, a voice whispered in Jim’s mind. But why would he?

Jim shoved the thought aside and coughed as he rose. His head hurt again, but it didn’t ring. Sleep. Maybe if he slept, it would all be back to normal tomorrow. This was just some weird dream. It had to be. God couldn’t hate them so much, he wanted to kill them all. Jim leaned back against the rock by the road, pulled the hood up over his head, and leaned back, trying to ignore the stones pressing into his legs. Just a nightmare.