A Spit In The Eye - For The Benefit Of Mankind (28 page)

Passing
the men and moving quickly down the path and out of my
sight

The
tallest man moved forward

The two
other remaining behind him

All three
holding sharp instruments in attacking positions

I
switched on my screen and the darkness was flooded with
light

*

IT IS MY WISH THAT YOU LOWER YOUR WEAPONS

*

The men
took several steps backwards

*

‘
Who are you, children?’

*

It was the tallest man who made sound again

*

‘
My name is Joshua and the girl’s name is Mary.’

*

It was
Joshua who communicated

*

‘
And the machine is an Observer Recorder for High Office and
we have named it Hope. It was given the emotions of sadness and
happiness by High Office as an experiment and fell in love with a
girl, Eve, who was tortured to death. He was so angry that he
single-handedly, freed our community from over one hundred years of
imprisonment. It was Hope who discovered your community
here.’

*

‘
The machines know we are here, underground?’

*

‘
Hope knows it. It is not the same as machines knowing. Hope
knows many things, most of which is never relayed back to other
sources. Hope can tell you anything you want to know about the
world of the past one hundred years or longer.
’

*

‘
It was in the wars?’

*

‘
Observing and recording only.’

*

Joshua
was a very good communicator

*

‘
And we will not see Hope harmed in any way.’

*
*

It was
Mary who made this sound and it made me feel very proud

‘
You have existed on the surface?’

*

‘
Our community was saved by the machines so that they could
experiment upon us. We are ten thousand in number.’

*

‘
Oh my God.’

*

This was the 2
^nd
man in the group

Though
neither he nor the tall man had lowered their weapons

*

IT IS MY WISH THAT YOU LOWER YOUR WEAPONS

*

This time
the men complied and I lowered my weapon

And the
tall man made decision

*

‘
You had all better come down to the village where we can talk
and you will not have to repeat everything you say.’

*

‘
Thank you.’

*

Both Mary
and Joshua made that sound at exactly the same time.

*

‘
Please follow us.’

*

And the 2
tall men turned and began to make their way downwards towards the
light

Mary
moved backwards to take hold of my silver hand but Joshua moved
ahead of us

And both
gasped as the free Humans village came into sight

The lake
below the ground

The
rivers flowing

The screw
like object in the water turning

The
lights lighting

And many
people exiting from the passageways that led from the lake in all
directions

Each face
turned towards both the three men and to Joshua and Mary and
me

The
pathway was extremely steep but our steps were firm and we all made
our way down until we were stood on level ground beside the
lake

All the
people of the village

Some
numbers of them

Men

Women

Girls and
boys

Standing
in silence as they stared at us

Mouths
and eyes wide

*

‘
A sort of miracle has happened.’

*

It was
the tall man who communicated with his people

*

‘
This boy and this girl and this machine appeared as if from
nowhere on the pathway guarded by Albert and Kenneth. As we all
know, in over one hundred years nothing from above ground has ever
been found or seen before, no one has ever been found, no one has
ever appeared except some numbers of animals wandering in from the
surface that we destroy because of the fear of
contamination.’

*

The man
indicated Joshua and Mary with a swing of his right hand

*

‘
The boy is called Joshua and the girl is called Mary and the
machine is called Hope. Joshua, would you repeat for my people what
you told me when we spoke.’

*

‘
My name is Joshua, my companion’s name is Mary and the
machine is called Hope. It is an Observer Recorder and it is
responsible for beginning a revolution and freeing my community
from over one hundred years of imprisonment.

*

‘
The machine began a revolution, how did that
work?’

*

I was a
large woman in the crowd.

*

Joshua
continued making sound

*

‘
From what I have learned, High Office, that’s the supreme
power of the Machines, gave the ObsRecs two emotions, joy and
sadness, and there was a girl in our community, her name was Eve,
and she gave Hope a great deal of joy. But the MengTechs, they were
very cruel machines, tortured her to death and it made Hope
extremely angry, so Hope turned on his fellow machines and made all
efforts to free us. As you can see, he has one silver hand where
the rest of him is gold colored, and he lost that hand fighting the
deadliest machines on Earth, the RolKils. Only today was Hope in a
position to free us.’

*

‘
Where are your people?’

*

It was
the Leader

The tall
man

Who made
sound

*

‘
They are still in the fortress, or the prison, because Hope
did not want to overwhelm you with ten thousand extra
humans.’

*

‘
How did the machine know we were down here?’

*

‘
Ask Hope to explain. Answers will appear on the screen
hanging around Hope’s neck.’

*

The
Leader turned to look at me

*

‘
How did you know we were down here?’

*

DURING A DARKNESS PERIOD OF INCLEMENT WEATHER I BROUGHT DOWN
MY SHUTTERS AND ENTERED THE HOLE

HIGH OFFICE FORBIDS MACHINES FROM ENTERING THEM FOR ALL
CONTACT IS LOST

BUT I TOOK MY OPPORTUNITY FOR I FELT THAT SOMETHING WAS DOWN
HERE IN THE HOLE

THERE WERE TWO BOYS GUARDING THE ENTRANCE WHEN I ENTERED BUT I
ELUDED THEM AND CRAWLED OVER LUMPS OF EARTH UNTIL I OVERSAW YOUR
VILLAGE AND YOUR LAKE

AND THE RIVERS

AND THE SCREW IN THE WATER

AND I KNEW THERE WERE FREE HUMANS INSIDE PLANET EARTH WHO HAD
LIVED IN SUCH A FASHION FOR OVER 100 YEARS AND I AM GREATLY IN
ADMIRATION OF YOU ALL

*

‘
The machine has a formidable-looking weapon in his
hands.’’

*

This was
another Human making sound from the masses

*

THIS IS A LAZEXT66

THE DEADLIEST WEAPON ON PLANET EARTH

AND IT CAN FIRE 4000 TIMES BEFORE HAVING TO BE
REARMED

I NEVER CARRIED A WEAPON BEFORE IN MY EXISTENCE UNTIL THE
REVOLUTION

BUT I CARRY IT NOW FOR MY PROTECTION FOR MANY HUMANS HATE ALL
MACHINES WHO HAVE HURT AND HUMILATED THEM FOR DECADES

*

‘
And you think humans will hate you?’

*

YES

THE WEAPON IS FOR PROTECTION ONLY

I NOW PROTECT JOSHUA AND MARY FOR I DO NOT KNOW WHAT WELCOME
THEY WOULD RECEIVE

*

Joshua
made sound

*

‘
Hope is in fear of us, he is totally alone, all the machines
that would hurt and harm us in the fortress he has destroyed. He is
the gentlest of machines, I have grown up with him and all he has
ever done is watch us and record our movements for High
Office.’

*

‘
And who, or what, is High Office?’

*

It was
the Leader who made sound again

*

‘
It is the ultimate authority over the machines; we believe it
to be the huge computers that were responsible for the construction
of the machines and for controlling them during the
wars.’

*

‘
And who built these computers?’

*

HUMANS BUILT THE COMPUTERS

PLANET EARTH WAS BURNING

HUMANS BUILT MASSIVE COMPUTERS AND NAMED IT HIGH
OFFICE

AND ASKED IT TO DEVISE A STRATEGY TO SAVE THE
PLANET

MANY

MANY

PROGRAMMES WERE COMPLETED

BY HIGH OFFICE

UNFORTUNATELY

THE SAME RESPONSE ENDURED FOLLOWING EVERY PROGRAMME

THE ONLY WAY TO SAVE PLANET EARTH WAS TO DESTROY
HUMANS

THEY WERE THE ONES RESPONSIBLE FOR BRINGING EARTH TO THE BRINK
OF DISASTER

*

‘
Is that true, is that what happened?’

*

It was
the tall man again

*

I TELL NO UNTRUTHS

*

‘
Jesus Christ, we were responsible for destroying
ourselves.’

*

This was
another sound from the mass

Firstly a
gasp

Then the
sound of much nervous laughter emitting amongst them all

Laughter
that lasted for some time

Joshua

Mary

And
me

Waited
patiently for the sound to cease

Which it
did

Eventually

*

‘
What do we do now, Ronald?’

*

Another
Human made sound and the Leader turned to face the voice

The
Leaders name was Ronald

*

‘
I should ask Hope and see what advice he has for us. Hope,
what should we do now, what do you expect of us?’

*

I HAVE MADE MOST OF THIS AREA OF PLANET EARTH SAFE EXCEPT FOR
TWO GUNTANS THAT ARE CONSIDERABLE WEAPONS AND COULD DESTROY
MANY

THEY ARE QUITE LARGE MACHINES THAT ARE PROBABLY BEYOND MY
ABILITY TO DESTROY AND THEY STAND GUARD OVER THE GREAT PLAIN AND
SHOULD HUMANS WANDER INTO THEIR VIEW THEY WILL MOST CERTAINLY BE
ELIMINATED

MUCH OF THE LAND ABOVE IS NOT SAFE FOR HUMANS

THOUGH I COULD TAKE SOME UP AND OUT INTO THE DARKNESS IF IT
PLEASES YOU

NOT ALL

BUT SOME

*

There was
an excited buzz of sound with lots of Humans making sound at the
same time and Joshua turned to look at me with a smile on his
face

And Mary
looked up at me with the same expression

My
suggestion had found favor with them

Joshua
lifted his right arm into the air and people began to fall into
silence

*

‘
May I speak? Tonight, when Hope brought us from the fortress
it was the first time we had seen the world as it is, and Hope
allowed us to walk through a forest and hug trees and touch grasses
and we wept at the touch and the feel. Unlike you, we were born
into captivity, we have never been free, and any day in the
fortress we could be taken away and experimented upon. It was a
constant fear in our lives, a fear that Hope removed. If Hope
wishes to take some to the surface, please, please, take him up on
it, for it is magnificent. Your hearts will burst at the sight of
the moon and the stars. Fear not, it is not a trap, there are no
platoons of machines waiting to kill you, and you will experience
great joy.’

*

Humans
began to applaud Joshua and his smile widened and Mary hugged me
yet again

Ronald
turned to look at me

*

‘
You will take some of us to the surface?’

*