KJL: Go go go go go!
[sounds of dog barks receding]
KJL: Careful. More of them. Bound to be. They’ll try to get in front of us.
[sounds of engine revving; tires squealing]
KGM: Look. Maggie’s got them. Down on the beach. They’re not… We’re gonna make it!
[sounds of car engine; tires squealing; acceleration]
KJL: We’re going to… oh my God it’s… they’re not… there’s not enough of them! Ha-haaaaa!
[sounds of car engine; tires squealing; acceleration; heavy breathing; coughing]
KGM: No no no no no. They’re [sound cuts in and out; knocking sounds] the road. We’re on Sixth. We’ve got to turn into town. Aw, shit! Can’t go west!
KJL: Why?
KGM: River’s flooded all up and down there. Gotta go east for bit, then cut back. Hold on. Gotta U-y.
[sounds of tires screeching; acceleration]
KGM: More up there. Dammit. We’ve got to—
KJL: Turn down—
KGM: I can’t do that! I—
KJL: Go!
KGM: Gotta ditch and hide before they get here.
KJL: Look look look. Pull in, pull in.
KGM: Good idea.
[sounds of tires squealing; engine turning off; car doors opening; car door chime]
[sounds of footfalls]
[sound of a roaring[33] and slam]
KJL: Where should we go?
KGM: In there.
[sounds of car doors slamming]
[sound of interior door opening; footfalls]
KJL: They saw us. [sounds of heavy breathing of two people]
KGM: No they didn’t. Let’s just stay here awhile. [sounds of heavy breathing of two people]
KJL: They did.
[sounds of heavy breathing of two people]
KGM: FYI, it’s back on.[34]
KJL: Uh, okay. Not really a priority right now, Kevin.
KGM: Let’s recap for dear reader.
KJL: Let’s not. Let’s get out of here.
KGM: Real quick. Okay. We’ve been in this oil-smelling office since this morning. Blinds shut. Hunkered down and still.
KJL: We napped.
KGM: You napped.
KJL: I napped. I’m a little bit preggers. Sleepy.
KGM: They didn’t even come up this street. I sat here and thought about everything again, how things relate. You remember all those copies of Lord of the Flies Jespers had?
KJL: Yeah.
KGM: Remember that Bible citation on his board?
KJL: Yep. Matthew 16:23. Uh, something like get behind me, Satan. You don’t have God in mind, only things of men.
KGM: Yeah, something like that. You know what “lord of the flies” translates to in Greek and Hebrew?
KJL: Waiting for you to tell me.
KGM: Beelzebub.
KJL: Dammit. Get behind me Beelzebub. Don’t remember learning that in ninth grade. [pause] So, you’re saying Jespers… what? He’s a scientist.
KGM: Dunno. He was reaching, he was having premonitions, putting puzzle pieces together, looking outside of science. All scientific discovery starts with wild what ifs, right? What I was saying about Grandma Lucille earlier? I just wrote an extra credit essay on Lord of the Flies, a story about children all alone, no adults; just wrote that story about late bloomers based on vivid dreams of me and you and Bass looking at a sea of kids; Johnny’s night terrors; I go up to Mount Bonnell apropos to nothing that morning. Me, you, Bass, Fleming. No—
KJL: —coincidences. I’m with your Grandma Lucille. Wish I’d met her.
KGM: Me, too. She died this summer. Missed all this fun. Listen, as soon as it’s dark, we’ll drive up to Utopia. Or somewhere in the Hill Country, somewhere where they can’t box us in. Wait out the winter there.
KJL: Kevin?
KGM: What?
KJL: Feel that?
KGM: What?
KJL: That… [whispering] There’s someone here.
[sounds of heavier, quicker breathing close to the microphone]
KGM: Who’s… who’s there?
[sounds of heavy, quick breaths close to the microphone continues]
NEW VOICE:[35] It’s only me, brother. No other.
[KJL screams]
[muffling noises; popping on the microphone]
[sounds of children humming one note; loud close surf]
[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]
JLM: Good morning, brother. Here, take this thing.[36] Let’s finish your story. We want it to be complete, don’t we?
[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]
KGM: [scratchy, confused voice] Johnny?
[long pause]
Where’s Kodie? What have you done with Kodie?
JLM: She’s fine. She’s over there.
KGM: Over where? Kodie! Kodie!
JLM: Stop.
KGM: [breathing heavily] We can help you, Johnny. I came here because you all asked me to. To help you.
JLM: [his voice wet and flangey here] Sure. That’s why you two were trying to escape. You wanted to help us.
KGM: If you need our kids to grow and breed with yours, if that’s what’s going on then, okay, I can see that and—
JLM: No no no. Not at all. That’s not it at all.
KGM: Johnny’s pacing. My brother paces back and forth. He’s agitated, he’s—
JLM: Stop. Always talking. All you ever did. Your world. Talk talk talk.
[sounds of children humming one note; loud close surf]
[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]
KGM: Yes. We talked. I talked. I had to tell the story.
JLM: Why?
KGM: I can’t explain it.
[children’s humming falls away]
JLM: Yes you can. Tell us.
KGM: He waves his hand like a game show host over the huge crowd of kids surrounding us.
[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]
To understand, I guess. To try to understand. To make a record so we can remember what happened.
JLM: Blah blah blah.
KGM: You’re holding your head. [sounds of children humming low]
JLM: I don’t want to remember. Stop making us…
[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]
KGM: Why did you bring me here, then?
[long pause]
KGM: You’re looking around. Your face is desperate. The faces around you look back with cold indifference—
JLM: —I don’t want to do this!
KGM: Do what, Johnny?
JLM: You want me to explain? You want me to talk? So you can understaaannnnnd? Well, I won’t do that. [JLM sniffing[37]] We do. Kevin? Do you understand? We just do. We take care of each other. Each and every one, all the time. We know each other’s faces intimately. We don’t have names for each other. Do you understand what I’m saying? Do you get what that means? You call me Johnny because that’s all you know and I respond to it with words right now because I have to.
[long pause]
[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]
KGM: You think this will last?
JLM: It just is. There’s no thinking to do. The morning of, as you call it, it all changed. Simple.
KGM: Simple.
JLM: That’s right. But you can’t understand that.
KGM: It’ll break down, Johnny.
JLM: There’s nothing to break down. We just are, and we just do. We exist, we sing and then we die. So simple.
[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]
[long pause]
JLM: [the voice wet and flangey] It’s time.
33
It is believed this sound is the sound of a garage door closing. The car (type footnoted above) was found in an auto repair facility, Advanced Auto Repair, in Bay City, Texas, approximately twenty-one miles north of the Natural History Museum parking lot at Matagorda Bay. KGM’s boat bag was recovered from inside the car. Dr. Warren Jespers’s draft paper and the notes from Professor Kenneth Fleming and KJL were found inside, copies of which are attached as Exhibits B and C.
35
This voice belongs to Jonathan Livingston March (“JLM” hereafter), KGM’s younger brother, Johnny; me, transcriber and editor herein.
36
JLM, like Nate before him, speaks here in that “wet, flangey” voice. Around the world during that early period of weeks to months after the “day of” (now known as New Day or “ND”), though scant accurate records exist supporting this with this recording being the strongest. It is believed that no more than a few children were speaking, JLM and Nate among them. It is not yet understood why during this “transition period” the population did not speak. The “thing” referenced here is the digital voice recorder KGM has had with him throughout.