Chapter 3: Contact
Joe lay back in his bed and looked dreamily at the bleak hospital ceiling. A smile was on his lips. At first glance one would not understand why he was smiling, unless one noticed the sign that there was on the door of the hospital: "Hospital For The Mentally Ill."
Joe hadn't always been crazy. But a few years ago, just before the bombing of London, he had started hearing a voice. A voice, muttering, as though to itself. "Revenge, revenge, revenge." It had affected him. He became paranoid and nervous. He would burst out screaming at seemingly harmless remarks. That was when he got a knock on his door and was heralded into a white van. At that point he did not care. At the hospital, he started falling into the ways of the other patients. If it was no use protesting that he was not crazy, at least he would not fight the craziness emanating from the other patients.
The nurse came in and coaxed him out of bed. She changed the sheets and helped him wash his face. Then she left. And Joe was alone. Then he heard the voice, the same voice that he had heard two years ago. "We will have Revenge. Revenge, revenge, revenge." Joe didn't scream, but he was scared. However, he was more scared of the straitjacket he would wear if he started screaming. Instead he said: "Who are you?" The Voice seemed surprised. "Who are you?" it asked. Joe said: "I asked first." The Voice was silent. Joe was pleased. He had found a way to send it away. Then an answer came. "We are the Pigeon." Joe still didn't talk. If he didn't speak, it would go. However it came again. "You are strange, Man." Joe remained silent. "You are the only person who can hear us. How is that?" Joe kept his silence, but he had begun to tremble. "Listen to me…" But Joe was not listening. He started screaming uncontrollably and immediately two male nurses came in and tried to calm him down. Eventually one produced a syringe and pushed it into his arm. Joe fell silent. The last thing he heard before he fell asleep was "Revenge."
The darkness faded. Joe looked up and expected to see the dirty white of the hospital ceiling. Instead he saw an eye. It was flat and red, but it was infinitely evil. "Hello Joe," it said, and its voice was familiar. It was the Pigeon. "We brought you here. You are the only man who can communicate with us. Therefore you are dangerous. You can impede our plans by warning the world about our attacks."
Sure, thought Joe, like they're going to listen to me. He managed to stutter out a few words. "Why are you…?"
"Why are we doing this? Revenge. Revenge Joe. You don't know what it feels like to be held in contempt by an intelligence far lower than ours. To be…classified like a normal bird. To be called rats with wings. That is the cause of our Revenge. We are not guilty. You are."
"But why don't you try and make peace? Why do you have to annihilate…"
"Why not?" cackled the voice. "We can do it. There is, of course, another reason. We're cramped."
"Cramped?"
"Yes. The dimension we inhabit can only be accessed by your mind. However, it is cluttered with the minds of all humans. And by all, we don't mean all humans alive, but also all dead humans."
"But, if that is so, then killing people won't make a difference, will it?"
"Think, Joe, think. We're crowded already. If we annihilate all humans, there won't be any humans to produce more humans. And this crowding will stop. Eventually we might find a way to rid our dimension of all humans."
Joe thought a bit. He hoped at that moment that he was crazy. If he was, then this was not a problem. Slowly the eye began to fade away. As he lapsed back into consciousness, he heard a voice say: "Joe."
He sat up in his bed. That voice hadn't been the Pigeon's. Someone else was in that dimension. He looked up and saw the ceiling, dirty-white. The nurse came in with his lunch.
Read Chapter 4 of Revenge of the PIGEONS