The Last Place to Stand (15 page)

X213 was surprised at the arrangement, but did not want to make a big deal about it at the time. Now it was time to march. She got up, folded her cot, and carried it. It was kind for Zach to let her use his own. Since he was carrying some things for others who had been injured, she thought it only right to carry the cot.

As they were leaving, she heard a lot of noise. There were some more explosions and the sound of people screaming. She did not understand all this, but then she saw Techcorp in the distance. Something was wrong. The building looked like a centipede from this distance. She thought that odd and watched as they marched, she in the middle with Iris beside her and a man on each side of them. Each of the men carried stunners. It certainly was an odd arrangement, but she decided she felt safer this way, so she did not complain.

They marched through a perfectly modern city just as the night sky was turning to ash gray. The sun was not yet up fully. No emergency seemed present at the time. Only in looking back and seeing Techcorp did she realize something was wrong. Since the city was based on technology utilizing the feeds, having those feeds cease to function as they did was dangerous. Some modes of transportation would no longer run on time. Some jobs would cease to exist. Information would be at a standstill.

Of course, the built in database models would still function, but most people had already had the upgrade and that meant instead of having chip based memory, the main memory would be on a larger database located remotely. Feeds would send information that was needed about any inquiry required, and people had grown into the habit of accessing this constantly. That meant that without the feeds, most people had no reason to even have a chip. No information was kept on the chip anymore, it was all located somewhere else. And without functioning technology, what were they? Homeless.

For this reason they came out by the thousands, in groups of families and working people. They walked toward the country, which was an easy thing to do. They only had to walk away from all they had ever known. They walked, and as they did so, they talked; something they had never done before for any great length of time. The children didn't know their parents. The parents didn't even understand their children. So it would go like this:

“What did you do today darling?” a mother to her daughter.

“I went to school today,” she would say. And then she wouldn't know if she should go on talking about her day or stop, since the rule of the family was always to be brief, for mothers and fathers were very busy with their own feeds and their own projects.

“And what did you do at school, honey?” the father might say.

“I learned about the feeds and how to manipulate the number of them according to the need,” she would say.

“That's nice,” the mother would say.

“It sure is,” the father would say.

Then they would walk in silence wondering when to speak next. This went on in groups all over the countryside. People without the ability to communicate without feeds decided to give it a try. It would be some time before it would come naturally, but it was a start. And everyone, a child and even a physicist, has to start somewhere.

When the light of the sun had come over the horizon, Samuel saw the village in the distance. It was a welcome sight. This time he had wondered if he would ever see this place again. It was not that his newest venture was so dangerous, it was just a feeling that he had when he left.

Now he did not know what to feel. He had resigned himself to this thought long enough that he did not think it would be possible to come back. But here he was, and this time with his daughter. His ex-wife, U1472, and her husband had been quiet for most of the trip. Of course, they were traveling in the middle of the night and were probably extremely tired without the use of their medicinals that helped them get away with so little sleep.

“Is that the place?” asked U1472.

“Yes,” he said.

“Father, what will it be like out there?” asked his daughter, T-5529.

“It will take some getting used to, but once you do, it will be wonderful. It will be like getting to play without having to keep improving yourself. Just playing to play.”

“It sounds wonderful already,” she said.

“But aren't we carrying our civilization with us?” said her husband, D1298. “I mean, look at all these people on their way to your lands. They are deeply affected by their own civilization.”

“We don't know what it will be like until we try it for ourselves,” said Samuel. “These things are always hard to see.”

For a while they traveled in silence again. As they approached the village, they looked back and saw that others were also fleeing the city. Many others. This would certainly change things. Maybe D1298 was right.

They arrived at the village and his men separated and went to their own homes. Poke came out to greet Samuel. She gave Samuel a hug. “I was worried about you. I don't usually worry so much, but something about the way you left last time made me anxious. I didn't know if you would be back this time.”

“You and me both,” he said. Then he remembered who was with him. “Poke, this is D1298 and U1472 and this is their daughter, and mine, T-5529.”

“Pleased to meet you,” said Poke. “Would you like something to eat?”

“May we sleep?” asked U1472. “We did not sleep last night and the journey was long.”

“Yes, you may. Let me set you up with a cot and some blankets or if you would rather sleep on the floor, we can put a few blankets down for padding first.”

“I think I like that last idea,” said U1472.

They entered the house, but D1298 stayed outside with Samuel. “It feels kind of strange talking to my wife's ex,”he said, “but what’s even stranger is that whenever she talked about you, I always found it impossible to hate you. She would be angry, but when she would describe some of your conversations I found myself admiring you, rather than angry.”

Samuel ignored that last part. “It's a bit strange for me as well.” He looked toward where the cooking fire should be, but saw that it was mostly burned down. He went to the stack of wood and selected a few small pieces, then put them on the few coals that looked most alive. After he had made them into a kind of pyramid, he blew into the coals until they reddened. He continued to blow until the base of one of the smallest splinters of wood caught. Arranging the other wood so that it was around and over that one burning piece, he began to relax.

“I'll be honest,” said Samuel still working on the fire. “I don't really know you and I'm prepared not to like you.”

“Oh,” said D1298.

“But I'll give you some time before I decide if you’re really my enemy or if that was just the reaction of a lonely man who knows his wife and child have been taken by another.”

“Uh, yeah,” said D1298 in almost a whisper.

The rest of the time they were quiet as Samuel got the fire going. Then they stared at the flames for a few minutes and D1298 finally said he would go to bed as well.

Samuel sat by the fire and decided if he would continue to hate this guy or if there were any alternatives. He decided there didn't seem to be any other option for now.

As the sun climbed the mountains and on into the sky, Samuel could see other Technos starting to arrive at the village. He didn’t feel in the mood to act hospitable at the moment, so he said goodbye to Poke and the kids and left for his house.

X213 had been traveling for many hours and didn’t think she could continue much longer. All the emotions of the day before and the lack of sleep made her feel like the living dead. Iris was marching next to her. “My feet have never hurt so badly,” said X213.

“I'm not surprised,” said Iris. “You don't look like you ever got out much. Being a Techno, I expect you will have lots of aches and pains before we get there.”

“Where’s there?” said X213.

“Home, of course,” said Iris. “Our home. And it's been a long time coming. I used to be so gung ho about helping those who wanted out, but lately I have been thinking about home again. It's like a dream that stays with you, even when you open your eyes.”

“You mean like a feed?” said X213.

“No, I mean like a dream,” said Iris. “That waking nightmare you call the feeds is only a way to torment your dreams. Didn't you ever notice that when you sleep at night your dreams are filled with the feeds? It was like living at the office. You never got away.”

“I guess I got used to it,” said X213.

Traveling on in silence for a while they could feel the heat of the sun beginning to come upon them. It was a good thing it was fall, likely the heat would not be too bad today.

After a while X213 spoke up again. “I've been thinking about a name.”

“Got one yet?” said Iris.

“Well, that's the hard part,” she said. “I don't know what kind of name to use because I don't really know what's available.”

“Read any books?” said Iris.

“Never,” said X213. “It wasn't even permitted. Only troublemakers did that when I was in school. Anyway, it's such an arcane practice. They said that reading was only useful to get us to the point where we could have the feeds. Now reading is obsolete.”

“Some good stories you could have read,” said Iris.

“Like what?” said X213.

Then Iris began to tell her a story about a little girl who had been told to visit her grandmother who was sick. In order to get there, she had to pass through a forest and in that forest there lurked a hungry wolf. At that point, Iris had to explain what a wolf was. Then she said the wolf met this girl with a red hood and tried to fool her into thinking that he was a friend. “But how could that be?” said X213. “A wolf is an animal so it can't talk.”

“It's just a story,” said Iris.

“A story that doesn't make sense. Where is the reality in that? Where is the instruction?”

“Oh,” said Iris, “I'll tell you there's lots of instruction in this story if you’re willing to be taught by it.”

“But it has a talking wolf in it!”

“Do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?” said Iris.

“Okay,” she said, “Go ahead.”

Iris continued the story about the wolf who found out where Little Red was going and got there first. Once at the grandmother's house, he ate up the grandmother and dressed in her clothes. “How could a wolf fit in her grandmother's clothes” said X213. “It's ludicrous! A wolf runs on all fours, right? It's not even the same shape.

“Do you want me to go on?”

After a pause, “Okay,” said X213.

Then Iris told the part where Little Red comes in and sees her fake grandma and comments on how she looks. “But,” said X213, “didn't she see the dirty tracks of the wolf? You would think it would be obvious that there was a fight. And how can a wolf eat a grandmother without leaving blood and even maybe a few pieces of her still lying around. I mean, it would be an awfully huge animal for the wolf to eat all of her.”

“Do you want the rest?” asked Iris.

“Sure, it just seems strange,” said X213.

Iris continued, saying that when Little Red started talking to the wolf, saying that her teeth looked awfully huge for her grandmother, the wolf revealed who he was and that he wanted to eat Little Red. At that moment, a friendly woodcutter entered the house and killed the wolf with an axe.

“Whoa,” said X213. “Brutal. There must have been blood all over their house. I thought this would be a nice story, the way it started, but it seems to be a gruesome horror. Who reads this stuff?”

“Children. Or it's read to them by their parents. It's a very famous nursery tale.”

“Aren't your children emotionally traumatized with stories like that? Doesn't it give them nightmares?”

“Not usually,” said Iris. “We don't really talk about blood and pieces of grandma all over the place and things like that.”

“So, you lie to them?” said X213.

“We just keep certain details out,” said Iris.

“You have a strange way to raise kids,” said X213.

She gave a short laugh, the first X213 had heard. “Maybe to you. But it seems a lot better than telling your kids to raise themselves. Leaving them to learn by the machines and then sending them to a school where they don't even get to play at a recess. That to us would be neglect.”

X213 wanted to say something about this, but she had already been thinking about her own childhood and how unhappy it was. Happiness was not a value she had been taught, utility was. But now she doubted the wisdom in that. If she was useful, but miserable, would that be what she would want for her child? “I-I don't know much about that,” she whispered. “I'll have to think about it.”

Iris felt slightly bad for the way she had talked to X213. “I'm sorry,” she said. “I'm sure you do what you think is best for your kids, like all of us. How was it for you growing up? Did you have a happy childhood?”

“No,” was all X213 said. She said it with such force, that Iris could tell there was a lot of anger behind it. She also knew she should not ask any further since there was such a feeling of finality behind the way she said it.

It was another hour before they got to a village. The people they met there were nice, although a bit backwards to X213. She tried her best to be nice, but she was in an angry mood and she couldn't tell why. She did not know if it was okay to show emotion in this new land. Growing up, it was not tolerated, but here maybe the rules were different.

The villagers gave her a place to sleep and thought maybe she would want to do so even though the sun was so high in the sky. She had walked all night, but the idea of sleep did not comfort her. She wanted to see this new place. Anyway, maybe the drugs she had taken for so long were still taking effect and she could do with less sleep. But when she let herself be honest about it, she realized that the reason must have been that she did not want to lose this feeling of anger that she had recently felt. What did she have to be angry about?

She finally went to where they said she could sleep and dozed off thinking about her life as a child and her parents in particular.