"Don't you see? Don't you see what those savages are doing to our town? People are afraid to walk the streets, man!" Trent slammed his coffee mug on the tool bench in his garage, shattering it, slicing open his right palm. Unflinchingly, he continued, "We have to do this! We can save the world! I need people, though. Lots of people to get the job done. Blowing up one measly McDonalds in Attraction just won't be enough. I need people all over. I need you, Dale. I need you to continue on recruiting after I'm gone."
Dale shut the door he had almost walked out through moments before, turned and sighed. "Why do you have to do this now? Why do this at all? Isn't there an easier way?"
"No man. No. It has to be done now - as soon as possible. And I have to be the first. That's the way." Trent's long, sweaty black hair covered his eyes like the door beads of a psychic's entrance. He split his hair at the bridge of his nose, brushing it to the sides of his head revealing dark, bloodshot eyes. Trent's coffee habit kept him awake for the past three days, turning his speech into a pause-filled stream-of-consciousness. In between the "uhs" he said, "This is the mission I have chosen. This is the reason why all these people are here with us. They follow me now, but they'll follow you when I'm gone. Can't you fucking see how this will save the world?"
Dale couldn't think. He looked into his brother's eyes; stared at his brother's open mouth, his brown-stained teeth, his heavy breathing. Trent resembled and sounded like an obese Jeff Goldblum on speed. Dale's eyes watered. "No. I don't see why killing yourself along with a group of children will 'save the world.'"
"Because, man!" Trent waved his hands in exasperation; drops of blood hit Daniel in the eyes. "Because they control us!"
"Come on, now. How could they possibly 'control' us? We're bigger and smarter than them. They do what we say!" Daniel knew he couldn't reason with his older brother, and he prepared for the onslaught.
"Listen, brother. I know what I'm talking about. They do control us. Children rule this world because we're always out to placate ... [uhh] ... because we 'aim to please' ... because we're raising them to be killers!" The group of twenty others stopped talking. They advanced on Trent and his brother, some sitting on the floor for "story time," others standing, arms-crossed, smiling in approval. Their leader stepped back and faced them all, continuing in a proper public speaker's voice. "Because we lay the focus of all our lives to having them, towards breeding them, towards repopulating an already over-crowded Earth."
Dale listened to his brother in awe. Trent had always been charismatic, intense, and slightly twisted. He had always been the family spectacle. After attending college and dropping out after seven quarters, Trent moved from house to house, town to town, selling drugs and living a lie. After moving in with his financially stable younger brother, Dale, He settled down and started reading. The combination of his twisted logic, the inhalation of fields of marijuana, and modern philosophy drove Trent to World Domination aspirations. Dale quickly suggested World Salvation as an alternative and from that point Trent kept Dale apprised of all his theories and missions. Dale followed his brother as he had done all his life; from the time when 10 year old Trent with his bicycle dragged 8 year old Dale in a wagon halfway down a mountain (whereby Dale lost two teeth in a fall ten yards from the bottom), to the time when 17 year old Trent invited Dale to help him fight a 45 year old alcoholic for his twelve packs of Coors Light. Trent always talked his brother into one scheme or another; it would seem he would succeed on this night as well.
Trent's eyes were on fire. His 260-pound body dripped with sweat while the volume of his voice shook the hairs on his brother's arms. "Because we teach them how to live and we're teaching them wrong and they grow up to ... to destroy us all ... and one day they will destroy us all!" Trent exhaled emphatically with every pause and continued, "Because they watch how we live now ... and they see how we act and they see how we treat each other ... and they learn ... they learn the talent ..." Trent exhaled again, thought frantically, quickened his speech, slurring words, "They learn to hate and to kill and they get that from us and if we kill them all now then maybe we can purify the Earth and maybe we can start the world afresh ..." Fearing he was losing their attention, he paused again briefly to think of how to end this, and spoke even faster. "We kill the children and we stop the reproduction of the human population and if we do that then all humans will die and this will purify the Earth!" With this, Trent stopped. He wiped head-sweat onto his hand, brushed his hair out of his eyes again, and regained his composure. In a calm, wide-eyed voice, he continued, "We can start over. No more killing. No more war. Only love. Love for all who lives." He looked at his brother as he said this. "Love for the planet. Purity will save us all from Hell. We'll have our own personal Eden again. We'll all revert to the times before the wheel, the creation of fire, the Original Sin." The twenty recruits cheered. Dale stared at his brother, smiling, approving.