A Spit In The Eye - For The Benefit Of Mankind (30 page)

I had not
secured them

And I
passed my palm to allow us entry to the facility and the three of
us moved inside

Susan
made sound

*

‘
Oh, my God, this is the prison where Joshua and Mary were
held?’

*

WHERE THEY WERE CONCEIVED, WHERE THEY LEARNED AND GREW AND
WHERE THEY WEER INCARCERATED. YES

*

As we
moved forwards the women stopped and made odd squeaking
sounds

*

‘
There are machines moving in there.’

*

It was
dark haired Anne who made that sound

*

I DID NOT ELIMINATE ALL MACHINES

ONLY THOSE WHO COULD HURT HUMANS

DOCTECHS AND FOODTECHS AND MENIALS I LEFT UNHARMED FOR THEY
SERVICE THE HUMANS

*

‘
That was most wise.’

*

It was
Susan who made sound

*

HUMANS ARE WISE

I AM AN OBSERVER RECORDER ONLY

*

‘
Where are your humans?’

*

THEY ARE STILL IN THEIR AREAS

I CANNOT ALLOW THEM OUT ALL AT ONCE FOR THEY WILL ATTRACT
INTEREST AND IT WILL LEAD TO CATASTROPHE

*

‘
So they are still imprisoned?’

*

YES

SUSAN

THEY ARE STILL IMPRISONED BUT WITHOUT FEAR OF BEING KILLED OR
EXPERIMENTED UPON

I HAVE INFORMED THEM THAT THEY WILL BE FREE BUT SOME ARE
IMPATIENT AND WISH TO RUN WILD

THEY WILL ATTRACT THE ATTENTION OF HIGH OFFICE AND ALL WILL BE
ELIMINATED

*

‘
Are you going to take us to them?’

*

We moved
together down in the elevator and into the corridor where Humans
and Machines were only separated by the fence

We three
stared out over the mass of Humans on the other side

*

‘
They’re all naked.’

*

THEY ARE UNCOVERED SUSAN

THAT IS CORRECT

THEY WEAR FURS ONLY IN THE COLDEST OF THE SEASONS

*

No Human
was yet aware of our presence so we stood and waited for a shout to
go up and

Eventually

One
did

And the
Humans all turned to face us and a large group rushed over to the
fence

John led
them and held his arms out so that none would touch the
fence

*

‘
Where are Joshua and Mary?’

*

Susan
made sound

*

‘
Hello there, my name is Susan and I am from the community who
live underground, the one found by your remarkable Observer
Recorder, Hope. My friend is called Ann. Joshua and Mary have
remained underground to discuss your history with my people, just
as we have come with Hope to discuss our history with you. Hope has
a plan to release you from the prison so that you may move to be
part of the underground community.’

*

John
responded with sound to Susan

*

‘
It had been quite a time here in the prison, Susan. A
revolution nobody saw coming was all part of Hope’s plan, the idea
of escaping, the uniting of the Human race, us from above the
ground and you from beneath it.’

*

‘
Hope is a very marvellous machine.’

*

‘
I think we can agree on that statement. Will you come through
and join us here in our leisure area?’

*

‘
If Hope accompanies us.’

*

I SHALL BRING SUSAN AND ANN TO YOU, JOHN, BUT THERE MUST BE NO
TROUBLE

SAMUEL MUST NOT CAUSE TROUBLE

*

‘
He will not cause trouble, Hope.’

*

I turned
and moved away and Susan and Mary followed me and

Using the
security code on my palm

I led
them into the area between the leisure area and the Human
quarters

Where
John and others were waiting

They came
forward quickly and hugged Susan and Ann as they made quick sound
amongst themselves

Kissing
and hugging further

Tears
falling from eyes

All of
them together

Humans
united

Men

Women

And
children

The
clothes Susan and Ann wore being greatly admired

Finally

We
stepped into the leisure area where the remaining Humans
awaited

And they
applauded Susan and Ann at great length and many tears were
shed

John
lifted his arms in the air and the mass sat

*

‘
This is a truly historic moment, where humans from different
communities meet for the very first time. Another community we did
not know existed until Hope informed us of such. This is Susan and
Ann, women in their twentieth years who have lived all their lives
underground whilst we have lived all ours in this prison. They are,
and have been for all their lives, free humans.’

*

There was
much cheering and applauding again until all settled
again

*

I
observed the gathered mass searching for signs of trouble from
Samuel or other like-minded Humans but none were visible. All
seemed to be at peace.

Susan and
Ann stepped forward and bent from their middles

And my
Humans rose and reciprocated and introductions were done and Susan
began to make sound

*

‘
We received an enormous shock in our underground village
during the night that has just passed. Our two guards, we call them
guards but it is just a duty for young boys to instil in them a
sense of duty, who have guarded our underground village for more
than hundred years without encountering anything other than the
occasional animal who wandered in, suddenly encountered Joshua and
Mary and Hope, the Observer Recorder with the silver hand. All were
welcomed into our community and the three of them gave a brief
account of your history and how you were murdered and tortured by
machines over many years. This has not happened to us, for when the
wars were coming to an end we retreated to the caves and the
passageways that ran from them. We have spent the past hundred
years building thousands of miles of passageways so that our caves
are now linked across what used to be known as Europe, the Middle
East, and Asia. Theoretically, we could travel thousands of miles
across continents, even beneath water where tunnels are maintained.
Beneath the ground there are millions of humans and the only reason
we never came to the surface was that we thought the world was
contaminated from the wars and filled with machines. Hope tells us
that this is not so, saying machines are only collected around the
many prisons where humans are held for experimental purposes. We
are greatly sorry to hear this story and in future we will do
whatever we can to help free those humans. With Hope’s assistance
we believe this to be possible.’

*

‘
And do you want us to come and live underground with
you?’

*

Samuel
had not calmed

He
remained angry

Even
though his sound appeared trite

Of course
Susan and Ann wanted my Humans to live underground with
them

*

‘
We thought that would be the best arrangement for we cannot
yet live openly above ground for Machines will, eventually,
discover us and they will annihilate us all over again.’

*

‘
What if I don’t want to do that, live
underground?’

*

‘
Samuel, please be quiet. We are discussing our very future
here, in a time when it is still not safe to live on the surface of
Earth. The caves offer us an alternative.’

*

It was
John who admonished him

*

‘
I will not be quiet, John. What if there are those among us
who do not want to live underground, free or otherwise, what will
happen to them?’

*

‘
Frankly speaking, Samuel, it is either underground or
nowhere. There are no options.’

*

‘
There are always fucking options.’

*

And large
and burly Samuel

The
largest bully among the Humans stood and began shaking his fisted
hands and several other Humans stood with him

All of
them angry

I admired
the free Humans more greatly for their discipline

Samuel
began to push other Humans aside as he made his way
forward

With
others moving with him

To stand
before John and Susan and Ann

I lifted
my weapon and found a place where I had a decent view of
him

*

‘
Look, it might be all right for the rest of you, but some of
us do not want to live underground where, apparently, you get fancy
clothes and have skin like alabaster. We want to be free in the
true meaning of the word, we don’t want to hide if we are not
prisoners, we want to roam the lands freely and go where we wish to
go.’

*

‘
You cannot be allowed to do that.’

*

John was firm in his statement

*

‘
And why fucking not?’

*

‘
Because by behaving stupidly and selfishly, should you simply
be released into the wild, you would be captured and made to talk
and you would reveal the whereabouts of the underground humans and
all would be massacred.’

*

‘
I would never talk.’

*

‘
Everybody talks, Samuel. Not one person the MengTechs ever
experimented on ever kept silent. You would talk, you would
tell.’

*

‘
And what’s stopping me from running out of the cave once you
put me down in one?’

*

Susan
made serious sound

*

‘
We cannot accept this human. He is too aggressive, too loud
and too fond of oaths and violence.’

*

‘
Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?’

*

And
Samuel took several aggressive steps towards Susan

*

YOU

SHE IS TALKING ABOUT YOU

AND TO YOU

AND YOU MUST STOP YOUR FORWARD MOVEMENT

*

‘
Or what, girly machine? What the fuck are you going to do
about it if I keep coming forward?’

*

And he
continued moving forward

His hands
clenched and his face distorted with temper and rage

He pushed
John aside

Causing
him to fall to the ground

He pushed
Susan aside and she made loud sound and stumbled
sideways

And he
came for me, arms swinging

Though
those who had followed him came no further

Samuel
was on his own with his anger and his rage

I could
no longer accept his behaviour

*

I WILL FIRE THE WEAPON

*

Samuel
took no notice and continued stamping forward, the rage becoming
more twisted on his face

*

I WILL FIRE THE WEAPON

*

My
warnings did not appear to affect his step or slow him
down

He left
me no options

I aimed
the LazExt66 and shot him and that was the end of argument and
aggressive behaviour

There was
nothing left of the bullying Samuel

He was
eradicated

Every
Human eye turned to gaze at me

*

‘
What the hell did you do that for?’

*

It was
John who made sound from where he lay on the ground

*

BECAUSE HE COULD NOT BE REASONED WITH

HE WOULD HAVE HARMED SUSAN OR ANN AND I PROMISED THEIR
COMMUNITY THAT I WOULD CARE FOR THEM

SAMUEL COULD NOT BE REASONED WITH

HE WOULD ALWAYS HAVE BEEN TROUBLE FOR THIS COMMUNITY AND FOR
THE UNDERGROUND ONE