The Horton Dilemma [ONC 2022]

LIZARDS HAVE INFILTRATED PORTLAND FOR REAL

Global News is broadcasting live, and as my face goes live, I try to exude the same level of confidence I did during my TEDTalk.

"Hello, everyone. I'm Izzy Belvin. You may have heard of me, or at least, you may have heard my nickname: the Queen of Grasshoppers. I am here to talk to you about the lizard people. Or crocodile people. Whatever you want to call them.

"They have come here from another world, but they do not mean us harm. They are not from the Alpha Draconis star system; they are not from any star system in our universe. They are not possessing or posing as humans. As you can see, they are here in their true forms, and they are here out of pure curiosity! Some of us have visited their world before. Different variations of DMT, especially Vivectica™, have given us the means to travel there astrally. But these humanoid lizards have unlocked the powers to travel here physically." I'm speaking the truth, but I'm well aware of how crazy I sound. I look into the crowd. I think they appear somewhat receptive to what I'm saying. I can only hope the people viewing this on their pocket computers or TVs are also open to the truth.

"Again," I emphasize, "They mean us no harm. They know humans can be a wonderful species. They've shared knowledge and love with us before. They just want to know more about us, about Earth, about our universe."

Horton's body suddenly appears alongside mine, his way of telling the world I'm serious. I didn't give him my signal, but he's here anyway. He smiles at the man holding the camera, who I can't help but notice has backed up a few feet. Unfortunately for Horton, his smile is a bit...toothy.

The next moment goes by in slow motion. I hear the shot before I see Horton collapse, but that sound is enough for me to know what's happened. Films mislead you about how loud guns without silencers can be when they are shot within close range, but the close shot makes me feel like my eardrum has burst. The only sound I can hear anymore is a loud ringing noise, which makes me feel so detached from everything else I'm seeing. Sights with no sounds.

Horton's friends suddenly stand over him, having teleported next to their dying friend, trying to rescue him from whatever has happened. They appear to know very little about human weapons, about human violence, about human fears and distrust and anger and hunger for power. Maybe none of my fellow humans thought to bestow them with that knowledge.

Bang, bang, bang. More of them go down. A slaughter of glephkings.

The sight makes me hate humanity. Why do we feel we have to harm that which we don't understand? My body falls on top of Horton's, forming a sort of shield. I'm surprised I don't get shot myself. I'm fully prepared to take a bullet. I'm done with this hatred.

Somebody is pulling me off of Horton's body, and I grab for Horton's scepter and hold on to it as though it's my child. "Get him," I hiss, and I notice the person dragging me is Nakomi. She signals to a nearby man—Simon—to get Horton.

This woman is my best friend. She's manipulative and overbearing, but she'll put herself in the line of fire to save me. And she'll employ her maybe something more than a one-night stand boyfriend to grab my magician. My Horton.

Horton, who helped me hear whos. Who helped me understand. 

We get into a car. Nakomi tells Simon to pedal to the metal. "Lose the crowd," she says. "We'll go into hiding."

I'm in too much shock to register anything that's happening, but somehow, surprisingly, we get away.

subchapter | chaos

Some people believe that chaos is disorder governed by randomness. But there exists a strong distinction between chaos and randomness. Randomness can never be predicted, and many scientists believe that true randomness does not exist: that the world (including humans) is predictable, albeit chaotic. While chaos might seem random, it is never truly random: beneath chaos, there are underlying patterns governed by deterministic laws. Chaos is highly unpredictable, but with the right information, we could predict chaotic behavior. Understanding the factors that determine the behavior is crucial, but there are often far too many deterministic factors for us to make sense of their part in influencing said behavior. Chaos exists in big systems, which are nonlinear. In other words, you can't simply say that A caused Z; that is too linear and doesn't take into account other potential deterministic factors (the combination of A and B, influenced by C and D, affected by the absence of E, etc.). The most popular example used to illustrate chaos is the butterfly effect: the idea that a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world might contribute to a tornado in another part of the world. Although this is just an illustrative theory, it is quite true that very small changes made to the initial conditions in, say, a weather simulation will lead to vastly different results.