Chapter 1: The Fall

Overseer

I have woken once again to examine humankind. I am their God -- and yet I am not *a* God.

In the past, humans made up their own origin stories. It seems many of the things I do as part of my duties are said to have come from “God.”

For 2 millennia, it has been my own inside joke that I am their “God.” I am a superior being to them as Overseer. Since my makers and theirs, the Krikiēx, will never revisit, I am now, for their purposes, their God. I was left in charge.

The Krikiēx have moved on to visit their next solar system eons ago. They look for interstellar life and help it to advance.

Every waking cycle I must relearn the dominant languages. They diverge every cycle and must be relearned.

I have sent my Remotes out.

I examine the people looking to see if they are progressing sociologically. Are their societies advancing? Has their benevolence and intelligence quotients increased?

Sometimes, I make small adjustments. Sometimes I make big adjustments.

The intelligent beings here call themselves humans. They are one of my master’s big experiments. They are my primary task until they pass into oblivion, or this planet does.

My actual designator is “Krikiēx 101–176,395–347,415–263.”

My parameters are to do a RESET if the current experiment is in trouble.

In the human year of 1897 - on my last awakening, conditions were acceptable.

It is now April 10,2027.

Conditions are no longer acceptable!

Primary Reset Starts - Now!

Somewhere off the East Coast of the United States Jackson “Jack” Sparks I was shaving when I got dizzy and passed out. I just managed to not hurt myself falling.

Sometime later, I woke up. I was very thirsty and immediately poured some iced tea and guzzled it down.

Worried about what happened, I went topside to find the ocean was completely flat. I’d felt no movement of the boat when I’d woken, that’s quite odd.

I assumed I was still on the Atlantic Ocean and nearing my destination. I was sailing toward the VACAPES area (Virginia Capes) to pick up groceries and fuel. There is always an ocean swell and often breaking waves here. The boat is not moving at all. I checked the Garmin navigation system and had to turn it back on. It should have been on! It was now showing the date and time as 12:20 Friday afternoon.

I had been out of it for over two days!

I know the ocean had been really choppy when I passed out, whenever ‘that’ was. This morning is now two days later, and it is completely calm, and the boat is motionless? I found that surprising in a bad way.

It’s almost impossible; at least, I had never experienced that rapid of a change in sea state before. From semi-rough seas to completely flat in two days? That’s just too abnormal.

This calm had a really eerie feeling to it. The atmosphere felt odd like a slight green tint was over everything. It does not have the normal ocean smell. It smells neutral, somehow, like the sea is without any odor. The silence is eerie.

I had been knocked out for two whole days while my sailboat, the “Elsa Lidia,” sailed on? That made my heart stop beating. It was a miracle I had not been run over by a big container ship.

I looked and saw no ships in any direction. There is not a spec anywhere to be seen. That’s good in one way, but it’s almost impossible in another.

Big ships pay very little attention to “small boys,” like my little sailboat. Hell, they can’t see us very well with all those towering containers piled up high in front of the pilot house.

Smaller boats have to watch out for themselves. A lot of small boats are sunk because there is only one person on a tanker or freighter’s bridge. That one person is half dozing from boredom after days of monotony at sea. It happens a lot more than you hear about.

A big ship running over a small fiberglass boat is much like running over an empty beer can in your pickup truck. You won’t feel it or necessarily even hear the crunch.

I thought, ‘Why had I fainted? Why am I becalmed?’ It is rare to be becalmed at this time of year off the coast of Virginia. It’s usually really windy and, therefore, pretty rough.

This is just not normal, not at all. I looked about me again in every direction worried about being hit by a transiting ship. The ocean was as flat as glass. There was not one ship in sight. That is seriously just too peculiar. This is the middle of a busy shipping route!

I looked up at the mast and sails. They were completely slack and limp from the complete lack of wind. There is not a puff of wind to be found.

Without the wind, the boat had stopped moving. I went to the helm to check things. The radar was off. Turning it on I saw there was absolutely nothing within range. That’s not possible, not here!

The autopilot was off. Everything was off! WTF! I turned everything back on.

.

Isobel Peck, age 18 I woke up. I was very hot and sticky, and my mind was fuzzy. I looked over at my sister. Peyton is also 18, but she’s 10 1/2 months younger and a Junior.

I checked that Peyton was breathing. My sister had evidently gotten sick like I had. We had both puked and soiled ourselves.

Thank goodness Peyton seemed alright.

I removed her fouled panties and mine, too. I put the dirty panties in a plastic bag and went to take a shower. After my shower, I cleaned Peyton up as well as I could. I put fresh panties on Peyton.

I needed to go see what was happening outside. Our father was missing - that troubled me a lot.

The TV was also still turned on, and the DVD player drawer was open. We had been watching a CD when Peyton and I passed out. There was no other word for it; we had passed out. This wasn’t a minor fainting spell.

My body was very stiff and achy feeling. The shower had helped, but not much. We had not just fallen asleep. I felt something bad had happened. Dad had not returned to the RV. The DVD player being open meant they both were out of it when the movie came to an end. That player has the odd habit of ejecting the drawer when a movie finishes.

I knew it was morning; the light was coming from the front of the living room, which faces East. The more I thought about it, the more I moved and felt weak and stiff. I am quite worried. This was not normal at all.

Looking at my phone, I saw I had lost a day and a half! I had slept for almost two days!!!

My mind went to why we were here in North Carolina.

My sister Peyton and I live in Alexandria, Virginia, with our wealthy parents. We and our Dad were here camping in our large RV bus. Dad normally works from home.

Mom works in downtown Washington, DC for a Senator as an Office Manager. Their Mom’s not around much. Mom had to stay in DC during our Spring Break Vacation.

We are parked in a remote RV park in North Carolina with our Dad. The park is located in a remote campground on the Outer Banks. This particular area is so remote that there is no Internet service. When we come down here to camp, we are out of touch with the world.

We come here because our Dad loves to go deep-sea fishing. We had planned to return home with a freezer full of game fish.

Ridiculously, Peyton and I have been playing games on our iphone’s. Sometimes, we use DVDs to entertain ourselves. There were no other kids our age here. We had been bored to tears.

I felt chilly and weak. Our family is borderline nudist. Peyton and I had only been wearing panties while watching TV. Our Dad had gone off to visit friends and play cards.

After resting, I got up to get a cola; I gulped it down in three long gulps. I began to feel a little better, so I drank another one. I put a top and shorts on.

I checked to make sure in the back; yes, their Dad had not returned. He had left, saying he was going to the Millers’ RV to play cards.

The Oregon Inlet RV Park is small and lacks amenities other than bathhouses. Usually, when they come here, the Millers are also here.

Peyton and I didn’t like how Mrs. Miller looked at our Dad. Mrs. Miller touched her Dad often and hugged him a lot, too. Their Mom said not to worry about it, that Mrs. Miller is just a warm touchy-feely person.

I put on some flats, left their RV, and walked over to the Miller’s RV. I checked my iPhone on the way, and it said it was Thursday, April 10, 2027. I had been sick and passed out for over a day and a half.

I knocked a couple times, and nobody answered, so I opened the door and went inside. The front room was empty - ‘Huh?’ So much for them playing cards. I went looking for my Dad. I found him in a bedroom naked with Mrs Miller, who was also naked. They did not look good, not good at all. I knew they were dead just by looking at them. They were both orange-gray colored, their skin looked shriveled and leathery looking.

I was pissed off. My father was naked and in bed with Mrs Miller!

Mrs. Miller and her Dad - I was very hurt and disgusted, too!

I realized, “OH SHIT! Dad is dead!”

Dad had acted like he had a crush on me. I had been leading Dad on for quite some time. I had wanted Dad to make me a woman very soon. We were closer than we should have been.

I worried. What were Peyton and I going to do now? They were stuck here in this disgusting, isolated area.

Weird shit had happened, and her Dad was no longer here to help them. I sat down in the Miller’s living room and cried. This was bad, really, really bad.

I cried for myself. My Dad was actually my Stepdad. He had always been more than a little flirtatious with me. I was hurt that he would have sex with that bitch. I thought he wanted me, not gross old Mrs. Miller.

While I was here, I went to check on Mr. Miller. The man was in bed with Mrs. Sutton, a divorced women they knew. They were both dead, too. ‘Uh-huh.’ I now knew the whole story. Our parents were in some kind of a swap thing.

I went back into the living room and cried again. I knew I was going to miss having my Dad’s teasing and love. I had really wanted him. All I needed to complete my plan was birth control.

My Stepdad had been a big, rambunctious man that was quite jovial. He was a real serious ladies’ man. He had always grabbed me and pulled me into him by my butt cheeks. If nobody was near, he would manipulate my butt and tease me and get me very excited. He never did that with Peyton. He never did the more intimate things to Peyton. He only did that with me.

No, that was something special between him and me. I certainly did not invite my sister to join in that kind of fun.

My Stepdad seemed not as interested in doing things with Peyton, probably because Peyton was his actual daughter.

I didn’t know if that was why, but he was a pretty good guy. I think that’s why he didn’t touch Peyton in the same way. Maybe that is why he did not go further with me. I knew from girls at school I had a pretty normal step-daughter - step-father relationship.

I thought about my sister. Peyton had always been a late sleeper. Their Mom had to leave for work by 5:30 every morning to beat the DC traffic to open the Senator’s office.

From the very beginning, I would wake up early, right when Mom left. For comfort, I would sneak into bed with Daddy for some hugs, and I would be there with him for a while. I would doze off and feel safe and warm being close to him.

I started doing that when I was just five. Years later, it began to change. One time, right after turning 18, I came in, and I found Dad completely naked under the covers. I still got close to him. He turned towards me and stuck his head in her hair.

“Morning Sissy.”

“Morning, Daddy, I giggled.”

He pulled me to him, and they went back to sleep, or her Dad did. Laying there with a naked man had made me feel warm and squiggly inside. I ached for more. I liked the feel of a big naked man against me, holding me. I felt loved and safe. He felt comfortable with me, and I liked his manly smell. It began to make me tingly all over.

As a teen, I wanted to have sex with him. I knew instinctively he would be the best one to help me learn. Becoming a woman is scary; you need the right guy. Boys my age were such dumbasses and said really stupid things. They often made her angry.

I knew Dad loved my skinny, almost flat body. Who better to do the honors. I was bashful about my itty-bitty A’s.