NEVER NEVER NEVER

God's Human Creation

I slowly revive from the deepest oblivion. My mind gradually begins to function. A voice vibrates in my ears, and it echoes. I can finally hear someone talking nearby but can't see him. I force myself to open and roll my eyes toward the voice. I realize there are no eyeballs in my sockets on my skull. 

After a while, someone pulls open my eyelid with a tweezer-like device and pokes the back of the sockets. A warm wet round ball is pushed into the left socket. The wired pressure near to my brain unnerves me. Someone is still poking my eyeball with the tweezer as if he or she is readjusting the implanted foreign organ. 

"Open your left eye!" The voice commands me.

I slowly open my eyelid as told. The sight in front of me is still blurred, but my eye can detect a hint of the light above. I blink repeatedly, and the left eye begins to adjust itself. Someone leans over and stares at me. His contour becomes visible, and my vision detects a giant lizard head with cold yellow pupils piercing at me.

My instinct takes over, and my body moves fast to protect my face, but both my arms are bounded to the operating table. I am completely exposed to this beast.

"Don't worry. I won't kill you." The beast grins slightly.

"I just created you. I am the creator. You are my artificial son."

The beast keeps his fiery eyes on me, and I try to grasp the meaning behind his words. His words echo in my head.

"I just created you. I am the creator."

"You might not understand what I say. I resurrected you from the dead to be my faithful servant.", the beast continues.

"You are created with the likeness of our Gods. I created Hercules' mighty upper body with stem cell technology for you to dig the gold faster. I dissected the wings of a unicorn, so you can fly faster to bring me the gold you extracted from the earth. I gave you the hawk eyes so that you can detect the gold quicker than anybody.", he stops for a moment to contemplate.

"You are my masterpiece up until now. You obey me no matter what because I am your dear father.", he caresses my forehead with his fingers. They are the touch of the human hand. My creator is a half-human and half-giant lizard.

After the long agonizing operation, my creator releases me from the operating table, handcuffs me, and brings me to the dungeon.  

He opens the rod iron door and pushes me in. Before the creator shuts the door, words come out of his mouth.

"You stay with the rest of semi-humans. Once I finish dozens of more creations, another God will bring you to the mine in Siberia, where plenty of gold is buried beneath the soil."

He throws me into the dungeon. The humidity permeates the space, and I can almost cut it in half with my hand. I detect a faint move of an individual or a beast.

"Who is it?" I whisper.

Ghostly shadows move cautiously and get closer to me.  My body stiffens a little and slowly retrieves backward. I prepare for the sudden attack from all sides. This is my instinct after being a swordsman all my life.

"We are semi-humans just like you." The voice echoes in the dark dungeon.

A stream of light penetrates from above and hits the head and the body of a human, but double-headed crocodiles grow where his head is supposed to be.

"What do you mean by that? I am semi-human?"

He laughs out loud and continues his words.

"You haven't seen yourself in the mirror yet, I suppose. You have two unicorn's wings sticking out from your back, and your upper body is unusually enlarged. Do you still call yourself a human?"

I look at my body to check what he was saying was true.

"Who are you?" I utter a word with amazement.

"I was created by that mad God just like you. He created me to make sure no human will steal the gold. If they do,  these crocs will bite them to death."

There is another semi-human who comes forward out of the blackness. The ray of white light hits her large bosoms.

"All of us were created by that crazy scientist. Our only purpose is to dig gold. He created me to break the extracted stones into small pieces with my ten cobras." She shows me five cobras snapping at each other instead of her left arm.

I ask them more questions to figure out where I am and what will happen to us all, even though our collective future seems very bleak.

Another semi-human, a minotaur, comes forward and speaks out.

"There are about 300 of us mixed with disfigured humans. The mad scientist thinks that he is our father because he created all of us with genetic experiments."

The cobra woman cut into our conversation.

"There are more failed experiments than successful ones—there are countless dead bodies in the dungeon right next to us. So we should consider being lucky that we are alive even though we are half beasts. He keeps experimenting with cloning and stem cell technology to create the best and the most efficient creatures to extract gold. That is his only purpose."

I begin to figure out my situation and pose another question to a minotaur.

"Where are we?"

"We are in the city of Uruk where Tigris and Euphrates river merge.  Those disfigured humans are all Sumer people from this area. Your body is also rebuilt from the dead Sumer corpses."

I look at my body with this new knowledge. Eerie feeling engulfs all over my body. Another question lights up in my mind. 

"Where are Gods from?"

"You should ask Sumers for that question. They will tell you.", the croc man replies.

One of the humans comes out from the dark, and his left arm is missing. He hesitantly opens his mouth.

"Long time ago, they descended from the sky. When my grandfather was little, they have already arrived here at Uruk. We were happy people before they arrived. We had a simple way of life. We hunted and gathered some grains and vegetables in the field nearby. Our life was good."

Another human without a leg interrupted and continued to speak out.

"Then the Gods arrived, and everything changed. First, we had to hunt and gather food for them. Soon after, they demanded more. They took our wives and impregnated them with demi-gods to control us, Sumers."

Another continues. Part of his head is torn off.

"All healthy men were gathered and taken to Siberia to dig gold. Many never came back again. We hear they died of hunger and froze to death because Siberia is the end of the world with the inhuman severe weather."

"Why gold? Why do they need it so much?" I utter with disbelief.

"We don't know. The Gods never tell us. But once a year, a big ship descends from the sky and stays in Uruk for a month. People say the slaves carry all the gold extracted from Siberia into the ship. They also take many slaves as well. On the 32nd day since the ship arrived, it flies away back to heaven."

"Where does it go?" I questions.

"No one knows. Nobody ever came back from heaven."

One older Sumer continues.

"There is a handful of Sumers who escaped into the wilderness, and the wild beasts killed many. But some survived. They formed a group of resistance and fighting against Gods in the treacherous mountain in the north."

"How many are they?" I ask with curiosity.

"Not many. Maybe hundreds, or thousands at the most. They are hiding somewhere in the vicinity of Mount Ararat."

"Mount Ararat?" I repeat.

"That is the mountain Noah's ark landed after the flood."

"Did it really happen?" I look at him with amazement.

"Yes, Yes! It really happened, and the ark is still visible on top of the mountain. It is revealed to our n***d eyes when the snow melts in the springtime."

"Do you know how to get there?"

"You keep following two rivers to the north. You will see the double snow cap mountains where the rivers end."

I gather all the possible information to assess my situation and look for the next move for my survival.

Many days pass without any hints of what is going to happen to all of us. Once a day, the dead beasts are thrown into the dungeon, and all the savages fight for food to survive. The rule was simple and cruel. If you don't grab the rotten meat, we die soon after of starvation.

There is no peaceful respect for each other as humans under this life or death situation. Primal instincts take over, and we are back to a pack of wild beasts. There is no difference between humans and a pack of wild wolves.

We patiently wait for what crosses next right in front of us.

One day out of the blue, the heavy iron rod door opens wide. A demi-god screams out of his lungs.

"Get up and Get out! Get up and Get out!"

A demi-god whips us with crude leather with metal thorns at the end. 

"Get out, filthy humans! It's time to take a shower!"

Long human trail foams in the staircase to the ground above. Some are afraid of not knowing where we are taken to. Others get scared and run back to the dungeon. At least, they know what to expect the life in the dungeon.

All of us are brought into a large room with a ceiling filled with small holes. I can see the strong sun penetrating the room. I haven't seen the sun since my last fight with Musashi. A painful memory of defeat suddenly comes back, and I clench my fists with agony.

A drop of water comes out of a small hole, and someone screams with fear as if demi-gods are trying to m******e us all. Then the rain begins to fall on top of us, and the voice of fear turns to the echoes of joy. I open my mouth wide open and drink the pure water; it revives my body and spirit. Demi-Gods scream out loud from high above us.

"Make sure to wash your body thoroughly, dirty humans! Get rid of all the dirt from the dungeon!"

The rain stops suddenly. Another door, opposite to the door we entered, opens wide. Demi-gods scream again.

"Get out the shower room and walk towards the ship!"

Once outside in the air, a strong ray penetrates us, and the body temperature goes up rapidly. The desert heat dries us instantly. I squint my eyes to avoid direct contact with the sun. All of us wonder what comes next. Will we survive, or will the demi-gods s*******r us all?

About one thousand humans are altogether out on the yard in front of the humungous palace made out of red-ocher-colored mad bricks. Layered bricks soar to the sky, and the shadow of the giant edifice covers half of the yard where we stand. 

A gigantic ship descends from the sky above.  It looks like an entire monument comes down gradually.  All of us are awestruck without a word. I wonder how this monster ship can float in the air. I look around me, and everyone is looking up into the sky, including all the demi-gods guards.

I see a moment of opportunity opens up. My trained reflex makes me move quietly toward the gate. No one notices my awkward behavior. I run faster and faster until I am away from everyone around me.

The gate is only two hundred yards away when one of the guards screamed at me and blew a horn. Everyone turned their faces toward me. A bolt of lightning passes right next to my body and destroys the wall ahead of me.

Another stream of voltage lands right in front of me, and it made a profound hole in the ground.  I understood right away, this flash of light is something I have to avoid at all costs.

I have only a hundred yards away from the open gate when the large wooden structure squeaks loud and begins to close on me. 

"Stop shutting the gate! Stop!" I scream with my gut out.

The door is closing right in front of my eyes, and the guards are chasing after me. I know I won't make it in time. I need to come up with an alternative.

"What am I going to do, Kojiro? What am I going to do next?"

I talk to myself while running as fast as I can. My eyes begin to wander around to other exits.

"Stay focus, Kojiro! Concentrate!"

I think about the unthinkable; the unicorn's wings on my back.

"Is it possible that I can fly away?"

I don't know how to use my wings, focus my mind on my back muscle where two wings are attached, and visualize in my mind that two wings are flapping perfectly synchronized to lift me in the air.

"I can fly! I can fly like a hawk! I can fly!" I chant as if it is my mantra.

My feet are no longer touching the ground. My body is lifted up in the air. It goes higher and higher. I am flying in the air. This is a sensation I have never experienced before. I am moving against the earth's gravity. 

A bolt of lightning misses my rib and burns my skin slightly.

My body lifts high and crosses on top of the gate. I see the high stone wall surrounding the city of Uruk. When I extend my eyes outside of the gray wall,  a barren field spreads to eternity. I am free at last and escape into the wilderness.