In one way the Dragon was not displeased. After having been sealed in the Borderland for 1,000 years, he had found his way out. While he was imprisoned, his influence had grown and become ingrained within society. Even though there was now a Westworld and Eastworld, it was safe to say, he had dominion over both. That part was good.

This is not to say he was content. He still had anger issues. They stemmed from the disrespect God showed when he cast him from heaven. He, who once stood beside God, was cast down to earth by the hands of Michael! And for what? A simple challenge to God’s authority? Is not the occasional leadership challenge a good thing? Is it not the example given to us by the animal kingdom? Competition is complete. It produces cunning, perhaps deception, and dominance. Of course once you weed out the crowd, and are competing amongst the best, ethics do fall to the wayside. Nothing can get in your way at that level of competition. Certainly not ethics.

But what was so unethical about what he did anyway. Did he lie when he spoke to Eve? Not a word of it! Everything he said was absolutely true. Eat from the tree of knowledge and you will gain it. Eat from the tree of eternal life, you’ll gain that too. No. There was no deception whatsoever. How was I undermining God? “Well, I didn’t want them to know about the tree of knowledge”. Come on. What are we children?

“The truth is I saved them. Even though God had to take credit for that too, I sent them out into the wilderness to learn about life and its eternal potential. Is it my fault they came back not having learned a damn thing. Oh sure I might have gone a little overboard with the money thing and created a false God. Very pleasingly, it did gain in popularity and overshadowed the morality of God, but what was I to do? He threw me down among these untamed beasts. I needed some kind of system to create order”.

No. Satan’s eviction from Heaven had nothing to do with any kind of revolt or challenge. This was all about that bastard son Ethan. “Oh! Now that I have this beautiful son, he must stand at my right side. My son can know no evil. You’re out Satan”. That’s what happened. How was it going to work with Satan and Ethan working side by side? You know how it is with kids who have powerful parents. They’re fuck-ups! Don’t do a lick of work their entire life, and through birth they’re given absolute authority. The sense of entitlement! What kind of feeble mind do you have to have to accept absolute authority like you earned it? How was one supposed to respect that? Okay, the guy came down and died for humanity’s sins, but what’s he done lately? Jack shit!

The moment that son came along, Satan was out and he didn’t do a damn thing to deserve it. What does that tell you? It was fear. God acted out of fear. He feared Satan’s power. That’s what was going on. Now he knew he’d have to fight his kids' battles too, and he knew he wasn’t strong enough. That’s what it was.

This thought encouraged Satan. “If he fears me, what does he stand to lose? What’s the one thing an all knowing, all powerful being stands to lose? Everything, that’s what. In life, everything comes down to power. Either you have it, or you don’t, and if you don’t, you’re nothing”.

Satan smiled at this thought. He could never forgive God now. Not after the way he cast him off. Michael! He sent Michael to do it, like he was too important to do it himself. He didn’t even send Ethan to do it, although Ethan was just a baby at the time. No, he sent Michael, an underling; almost a commoner. Was that intended to put Satan in his place? Was he to be looked upon as someone less than a commoner? Was he a big joke in heaven now? How dare God! Did he not expect a response to such a humiliation?

Well, Satan was building his response. Everything was working. He walked right out of the Borderland unnoticed, and Whitehead was waiting for him on the ferry. It was unfortunate that Whitehead had to forfeit his life, but Satan needed a body, and the power that came with this one. Besides, Whitehead was still running around inside him enjoying a pureness of evil he could never gain on his own.

Satan’s army had grown large enough to absorb the loss of one of the faithful; even a General. The past 1,000 years of exile had produced that army. Long before his imprisonment, he had sent out the fallen angels to spread their seed among the human women of earth. The offspring weren’t perfect. They still had human elements, but all in all, they were good sturdy stock. A lot of them were dead now if that’s what you want to call it. On death they became demons. Billions and billions of demons. Enough so there could almost be one under every bed.

All in all, Satan felt ready for his revenge. The cost to escape the borderland was the Dark Angel and all the Fallen Angels, but he had gained their offspring and there were many. Every time a human was confronted by lust or greed, a demon was present urging them on. Many came to wear the Mark of the Beast. Much of this world was populated by them, the remaining Nephilim, and the demons. There were still humans, but they were so disorganized they presented no threat. In fact, they were dying in droves and for good reason.

Satan figured killing off God’s children was the best way to start a war with him on earth. Satan knew he would never get back into heaven the way things were now, so the only alternative was to bring the fight to him. Kill off his children. Make their very existence torture and watch them die. Satan found it relaxing, but he knew it would have God seething. If Satan couldn’t go to God, then God would have to come to him, and if killing off his children didn’t get him here, nothing would. Now, sure enough, although no one had seen him, there was a feeling Ethan had come to town.

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“Eldon again,” Ethan thought. “Who can he have running around inside him this time? Certainly not me”.

“Well, I’m pretty sure I have the lay of the land,” he said to Bill. “Now, I’m sure you have some questions about my story, but just know, I’m here to help. I hope you’ll see it that way unless I give you cause to question otherwise. I think we can do some things to make your world better. I’m not sure what or how much better things can get. One of the rules of life is when you get something wrong, you go back and start again, and you keep doing that until you get it right. It’s the repeat pattern in duality and designed to eventually get you where you have to go. You start over with a little more experience and maybe an eye for something new that you overlooked before. Eventually you succeed. Your world took the wrong direction and is starting over. I don’t know if actualization is in your future, or even survival, but I want to help you get on track. How hard is it to get into the Consortium”?

“You have to pass through ten vacant blocks of high level security with Sheriff Bobs patrolling them. We call it the dead zone. It’s impossible to get in unless you’re invited. There’s also an urban myth going around that those blocks are possessed”.

“Possessed”?

“Yeah, well, you know, like I say, it’s just a myth. Probably something put out there by the Consortium, but people who have thought about entering were scared off by something, and they say it was demons”.

“Hmph. What do you think the population of the disenfranchised is? You know those who are not part of the Consortium or the elite in Eastworld”.

Whatever 90 % of the world population is. Even more if you believe the media. How many are left is hard to say. Last year there were about eight and a half billion people. This year, who knows. So many in the emerging nations have died of famine, floods and pestilence. Even in our country people are now dying for the same reasons. Now, there’s rumor they plan to kill off some of us to bring down CO2 emissions. Fewer people, less pollution”.

“I bet there’s still billions,” Ethan mused. “I think I’ll go out on a bit of a walkabout and see first hand what’s going on”.

“You want me to come with you and show you around”?

“No. That’s all right,” Ethan replied. “All roads lead to Rome”.

“You know Ethan, in spite of their failings, all of these people you see around you are good people. They’ve been cleaved out of life by those few in power who think they’re better and think they know better than the rest of us. What’s happened to us is terrible. People don’t believe in themselves anymore”.

“I know”. We’re going to fix that”.

The dead zone began at 57th Street and ended at 47th Street. Anything south of that was controlled and occupied by the Consortium. Ethan figured it could take days to get to the Freedom Tower on foot. He hoped the Consortium had public transit. There wasn’t any where he was now. He started to walk towards 57th street where he could enter the dead zone and make his way into the Consortium. Getting through Central Park alone was about 40 blocks of walking.

Ethan hadn’t walked more than 10 minutes before he ran into Elsie. From a distance it looked like she was fighting a man, and when he hurried over, it turned out she was.

“What’s going on here?” Ethan asked when he got closer.

“He took my candy bar!” Elsie claimed.

Ethan looked at the man who had eaten half the bar while fighting off Elsie.

“You were kicking this girl,” he said.

“Survival of the fittest,” the man replied smugly, almost like Ethan should understand.

He didn’t, and rage filled him as he grabbed the man by the throat and raised him two feet in the air.

“This is exactly what I hate about what you people have become,” he said, but then he caught himself and put the man down. The man was nothing more than the effect. “Listen to me,” he said. “This is not the way. Learn to work together and you will live”.

The man looked in Ethan’s eyes and it wasn’t the fear of physical harm that compelled him. “I will,” he replied.

“Go tell your people,” Ethan said. “A New World is coming where you won’t have to fight for survival. Tell them to live and work together. That’s the way”.

“I will,” the man replied again, this time almost bowing as he excused himself and left to spread the word.

Seeing the man almost bow got Elsie curtsying again too, especially after watching Ethan lift him off the ground. He had to be her knight in shining armor. “My Lord,” she said in full curtsy, head bowed. “I am honored you would come to my aid. Nothing more than a poor damsel in distress and you save me”.

“Me. A young lady,” she snuck in and peeked to see if he was going to contradict her.

Ethan was looking at her in much the way Bill always did. “Come on,” he said. “We’ll go find you something to eat. Maybe ice cream”.

“Ice cream!” Elsie exploded excitedly. “I’ve never even seen ice cream. I don’t think we’re going to find any ice cream around here”.

“Well, let's go see what we can find,” Ethan said, holding his hand out to her.

Elsie grabbed his hand immediately. Maybe they were dating now? She was pretty sure damsels always dated their knights in shining armor. “Where are we going”?