Raine VS The End of the World (42 page)

“You’ve been awfully quiet, Gerrit. Oh, right.”

He wished he could holler in frustration.

“Free him,” she commanded to her android. It obeyed, twisting a dial on Gerrit’s
M-Gear
.

The boy felt as if a padlock had been removed from his brain. He gasped. He could now breathe freely, speak, and move. He shook from a sudden release of pent-up energy. Unfortunately, his wrists and ankles remained shackled to the wheelchair.

“You… you’re crazy!” he began.

“I suppose I shouldn’t have expected you to comprehend my work,” she said nonchalantly. “I’m merely trying to provide you with a better life than that which Lily has doomed you to.”

“And what kind of life is that? A two-decade-long paradise and then we all die?”

“
Memento mori.
The end is inevitable, Gerrit. There is nothing we can actively do to prevent that flare from happening. Not for this world. For other universes, perhaps, but how many more will perish? Each failed parallel realm does not simply disappear. It continues on to its end. By the mere act of witnessing its existence, we are its creators, and also the agents of its destruction. We weren’t meant to experiment with realities we cannot even begin to understand, Gerrit! Not on such a scale. What we
can
choose to do is celebrate the life we have left.”

“That’s ridiculous. We owe it to future generations to extend our presence in this universe!”

“You’ve been brainwashed, boy. You think humanity has the good of the universe in mind because you’re convinced that you’re destined to be a hero. Up until poor dead Lacie liberated you from that awful girl, you’ve been caught up in life of servitude. Helplessly devoted towards Lily’s ends.”

“Such a hypocrite. What about the billion-plus slaves whose entire lives serve your ends? As for me, I would mean nothing to you if I weren’t associated with Lily. You just want to turn me so you can spite her. I may not have been here for long, but I’ve seen enough of the way you treat your so-called clients in the
Metaverse
to know you can’t possibly pretend at preaching humanity.”

“Notice that I’ve never claimed to be humane,” she countered. “The very word ‘humanity’ is an ideal. Ideals are for boy scouts and talk show hosts – like all societal norms, just another tool brandished by successful tyrants to keep the status quo.”

She took a deep drink, swishing her glass.

“‘Humanity’, ha! I have no such obligation towards civilization. Those in the
‘Verse
are happy; that is enough. My goal is to limit the grand total number of casualties. I certainly have the power to do so. Power is my birthright. But I’m going off-track. Now, what I do believe in is free will. I don’t think you were given a choice with regards to fighting for the destruction of my precious
‘Verse
.”

“You could never know that for sure. And what does it matter, anyway? All this is in the past. There must’ve been a real, logical reason she chose me - and Raine - for this.”

“Open your eyes, child. You felt a strong instinct to protect Raine from the second you met her, did you not? Do you know why that is?”

“Because I love her?”

“Because if Raine’s avatar died in the game, she’d return to a hub, we’d be able to trace her Network address, and Lily’s prolonged game of
Risk
would be finished. You were meant to be her protector from the beginning.”

Queen Lorelei’s Cheshire cat grin was wide as the crescent moon.

“Your ‘love’ for her was manufactured. A hormone injection into your developing body.”

“That can’t be true.”

“Oh, so naïve. It’s embarrassing. Do you think you personally volunteered for that kind of thing? Might Lily have lied to you, enticed you, or otherwise forced you into it? You don’t even know her. You’ve been a tool, Gerrit. You mean no more to her than one of her robots.”

Gerrit had no reply.

“Face it. What she did was no different from child abuse. Yes, that is what it was called, in the world you imagined before entering the
Metaverse.
Early twenty-first century, Alpha world line. You were fed a memory implant, through which you experienced the golden age of online gaming. Recall the Swansea suburb you grew up in, the rolling fields and winding roads you couldn’t wait to drive around. Your dog, Muskie, digging up your mother’s carrots. Running out the door to greet your father, returning from a stint in Afghanistan.”

No way. It’s… it’s like she can see into my head.

“It’s coming back, isn’t it? She toyed around with you and Raine both. Have you considered your past failures, your heartbreaks… possibly created by Lily to increase your attachment to Raine… little tricks of the mind. She’s a master at that.”

His mind raced furiously. Calculating. Weighing. Reasoning.

She knows she’s almost got me. Fight, Gerrit! Fight!

“You’ll be surprised what lengths she’ll go to in order to have her will done. You’re only sixteen years old, boy. At what age did she kidnap and brainwash you? It’s a wonder she hasn’t done irreparable damage to you already, dear. Keeping you near malnourished in that bunker, dressed in old robes. You were saying something about hypocrisy earlier?”

“Even if she’s as bad as you say, that’s not as bad as you are,” Gerrit replied, trying not to let her see that her words had shaken him. “At least she has hope for the future, and isn’t obsessed with controlling the world so much as with the survival of the species. From what I understand, you’ve deformed human civilization completely to suit your own ends. I don’t know what everything was like before you took over, but it couldn’t have been worse than this. Clearly.”

“You underestimate the mercy of ignorance. The Alpha world line was not unlike mine. There was also a massive population collapse in the twenty-first century. The resulting society was ruled under a worldwide government. The masses were no less enslaved than they are now, only they didn’t have my
Metaverse
to ease their pain. So yes, I would definitely say I’ve made an improvement.”

Queen Lorelei walked over to the large window. She waved her hand and the curtains began to part. The morning rush-hour traffic was in full force as hovercars dotted the skies, buzzing about like worker bees. The beauty of the glowing city drew Gerrit in with a ferocious power. He strained against his shackles trying to combat its influence.

“Maybe we’re supposed to fight the pain,” he said. “If we endure it, we’ll grow stronger. Only then will there be a chance for us to live. But keeping people trapped in their fantasies is just keeping them weak. It’s a false shield from the truth.”

The Queen closed the distance between them, slowly, painfully.

“Do not speak to me of hope. Its endurance is but an evolutionary defect. You’re young and restless, so I forgive your shortsightedness. I have lived only thirty-four years, seven months, and twenty-three days, but I’ve seen much. From my high tower in space I wept at the destruction of Alexandria. I watched countless women burn in public for suspicion of witchcraft. I was powerless to stop the Crusades. I have witnessed the birth of mankind; I think it only fitting that I see it to its end. There are ancient things large and terrible and beyond the imaginations of those peons out there.”

Lorelei leaned over inches from Gerrit, distracting him with her shapely curves as she studied his uncertain eyes.

“The extinction of humanity is a purely natural one. Throughout history, our species has lost more knowledge than we shall ever gain. We once lived in harmony with nature. Look at us now. In our short tenure on this planet, we’ve defiled our garden and neglected its treasures. Humanity is not even worthy of a footnote in the encyclopedia of this or any other universe. If anything is to survive the solar flare, it will be the ruin of my city to serve as a grim reminder for anyone who sets foot on this rock that we were here, we destroyed each other, and we failed to achieve anything of lasting importance.”

Gerrit kept a strong face, but the Queen saw the cracks.

“I know what you’re thinking, Gerrit. You’re different, but you’re not. You’re a soldier, and like the rest of the helmeted herd you’re very much in love with the material world. You pine for that high-level armor, or for a real dragon. Deep down you hope for the game like a junkie ever-seeking his fix.”

“I’m not immune to my own desires, but at least I don’t try and pretend at self-righteousness. You’re the one deluding yourself.”

“On the contrary, I’m so right there’s no reason for me to jump on the defense. Lily’s mission has failed. It was destined to fail. Going by the proper order of things, that solar flare will come, and there will be no tomorrow for this iteration of life on Earth. With the extinction of the virus of humanity, we stewards of death shall become immortal, frozen in time. And why not let the androids inherit the planet? Human existence is vain ambition driven by natural selection. The afterlife, on the other hand… that grim, cold darkness that awaits all… that beautiful void calls to me, Gerrit. It calls to you, too. Join me in welcoming the dark days of our fateful finale. Your friends are gone. You will never see them again. Not your guild, not Peter, nor Yossa, nor precious Raine.”

Gerrit hung his head, stone-faced. She placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Despair not. None of this is your fault. It’s Lily’s. She placed you in a world you grew to love, only to have you fight your way out of it. I was acting in self-defense, you see, protecting my sacred realm from her underhanded ploy. I could have had you killed. It would've made no difference in this battle. My aim is to show you compassion, for you have been unfairly wronged. You are alone now. I am your only friend.”

“No. I can’t call you a friend. I don’t agree with what you’ve done.”

“I’m offering you the world and you’ve still got the spirit of a revolutionary,” she said with a sigh, turning her back to him and refilling her glass. “There was a time when I saw myself in the same light. I inherited a world in chaos, and brought it order with my strength, and then my laws, until even those were no longer needed. Don’t you see the genius of the
Metaverse
?
It eliminates the politics, the corruption, the self-interest, the unchecked greed. Have you any idea what that does to efficiency? To rebel against what I’ve done is to doom the cycle to repeating itself,
ad infinitum
.”

“An assumption. You don’t know that for certain.”

“Perhaps, but I don’t see you proposing any realistic alternatives.”

“Try this. Let the people rule themselves. Let truth and freedom ring on Earth again. Only then can you or anyone else make a judgment as to whether humanity is worth saving. Human beings are neither good nor evil. We’re born as blank slates, filled with potential energy. The people just need a true hero, someone to set an example---”

“There are no heroes in this world, Gerrit. Only those with the will to control, and those content to live at their mercy. Why do the masses accept beliefs? Blind faith. Greed. Fear. Ah, fear. The ultimate tool. Not fear of their masters, see. Fear of one another, and eventually, their own selves. People censor their own thoughts. It’s the damnedest thing. Every new regime is born from well-funded acts of terrorism and propaganda. All that ever happens is a slight change in management. You can’t fight the existence of
the
system
.”

“We already are.”

She snickered in disgust. Gerrit couldn’t bear to look at the Queen any longer. She trained her gaze on him, downing another sip of wine.

“Think over your decision. I’ve got something special planned for the meantime. It may just warm you up to the idea of spending some quality time with me,” Lorelei jested.

“Feed him Program Sisyphus,” she called to her android servant, who opened a briefcase of microchips, selected one, and plugged it into a socket on Gerrit’s
M-Gear
.

“What are you doing to me? Stop this!”

“Oh, don’t be so dour. You’ll come around eventually. What’s there to fight for, Gerrit? Nothing you can possibly do will change the course of history. My nano-bots run this world, from dictating its storms to molding children’s minds. Regardless of how many exploits Raine has uncovered, there is no way those clowns can shut down my
Metaverse
. That mainframe, darling, is no cakewalk. It is the ninth circle of hell.”

“If a man wishes to be sure of the road he’s traveling on, then he must close his eyes and travel in the dark.” – St. John of the Cross (Juan de la Cruz)

The cockpit of Lily’s tiny shuttle popped open and both girls climbed inside without hesitation, drenched in the rainfall that had suddenly exploded into a thick shower on their way down the path, as if the gods were engaged in a riotous water balloon war.

“Cold?” Lily asked as she helped a shivering Raine strap into the back seat.

“F-freezing,” Raine yelped.

Lily flipped her goggles down and hit a few holographic buttons. Raine immediately felt her clothes tighten, and then loosen back up again. She touched her hair; dripping wet moments ago, it was now dry as a bag of raisins.

“Where are we going?” she asked as Lily’s attention turned to the main console.

“To the Wall of Secrets,” Lily replied, cranking the ignition. “Hold on tight, engine starting in three… two… one…”

Raine’s stomach leapt into her throat as the ship kicked into top speed almost immediately. As trees flew by, it became quickly apparent that Lily was careening through a forest, dodging wildlife, hunters, and even flying past a small fishing village. It seemed unreasonable that they hadn’t hit anything yet. And then they passed a landmark she had long given up on seeing.

Visible a mile out from the cockpit window, the theme park absolutely dwarfed the real Stonehenge. True to the scale of the drawing on the map outside Clyde Castle Town, the structure encompassed a gigantic water park, with a fleet of RVs and flying vehicles parked by the wayside. Thousands of kids frolicked on the many attractions, all blissfully unaware of the changes about to befall them. Putting herself in their shoes, Raine felt a sense of emphatic helplessness as she pictured them ejected from their virtual home.

A dark thought slapped her across the face like an Atlantic salmon.

Does
Endless Metaverse
even need to be destroyed?

Before long the craft slowed to a stop at the opposite edge of another forest. Lily unbuckled them both and beckoned for Raine to follow her outside. Trembling, Raine carefully maneuvered her way out of the cockpit. Lily took her hand as she descended.

“How was the ride?”

“It was… fast,” Raine said, her brain’s center of balance still in the process of re-adjusting to solid ground.

“We’re looking for a very specific phrase,” said Lily when she had Raine’s undivided attention. “The phrase is ‘
Please get me out of here
’. Pretty straightforward. It’s written here somewhere.”

“Do we have to find this thing?”

“It’s our two tickets to paradise. The backdoor exit created with the original source code. It bypasses all the trackers and takes us through essential networks. Probably never been used. From here we’ll hitch a ride on an abandoned pipeline to the mainframe.”

“And why exactly didn’t you find it earlier?”

“Because its location automatically changes every hour, and as planned, there’s only a fraction of a wall left for it to appear on. We have forty-six minutes before the next refresh.
Vámonos, amiga!
”

It took Raine a second to recognize that Lily was referring to the great wall she encountered when she met the odd little man and his tortoise. They were currently at its far eastern end, just on the outskirts of the forest. Its remains receded over plains and hills into the far distance – true to Mister Senior’s word a significant chunk had been hastily demolished.

Lily brushed away moss growing over parts of the wall. Raine and Chance joined in to help her. The Rainbow Cat scanned the writing intently.

“That’s right, Chance. It should be nearby. You take the north side, Raine. I’m patched in more remotely than you are; my video resolution isn’t as good, so I need the extra sunlight.”

Raine looked closely at the lettering. There were at least fifty lines of text running up and down the length of the wall. It was much denser than the section she’d first seen.

“This could take ages!”

“It’s our only option. Your virus is warping the code of this grid as we speak.”

Raine was horrified.

“Virus?! What did you do to me?”

“It’s a computer virus, silly,” Lily said as they moved down the wall, searching. “Limited in range, so we’ve got to trigger it at the mainframe core. It’ll also activate if you d-mat, which is why we’ve been keeping you alive.”

“What happens when it triggers?”

“Game, set, and match.
EM
will self-destruct, presumably. This is all on the off chance that yours truly and BB can even get to the core to deliver the payload. Afterwards, he’ll carry a replicated virus to the backup server.”

The fight suddenly taken out of her, Raine stopped searching the wall. Pacing wildly, she pulled at her hair in exasperation.

“So the truth comes out at last, huh? I’m just a… a virus!”

“You’re much more than that, Raine! You’re the perfect gamer! Without you we’d all be lost!”

“But you used me! You kidnapped me from my previous life and brought me into this mess!”

“No, no, no. I didn’t want to tell you ‘til we were free of this place, but you’re a volunteer! You, Gerrit, and I developed the plan to bring
EM
down together!”

“What? That’s ridiculous!” Raine yelled. “I think I would remember if I sold my consciousness to you!”

“You weren’t bought or sold! Your memory needed to be… modified in order for our plan to work. No, don’t look at me like that. Please, you have to believe me. There’s much more to it. We’ll talk later; we just need to get out of-”

“Mister Senior was right! You messed with my head! What difference is there between you and the Developers?”

“The difference is that I’m the one who hasn’t given up hope in humanity. Raine, this realm is a prison for the human mind. Once we leave the
Metaverse
, you’ll understand why our work is necessary.”

“Never mind the
Metaverse
for a second. What about my dreams? My friends? What about my foster Mom? Why should I believe you? And even if I did, what can I do? I’m not a soldier; I’m just a damned girl! I don’t know you, Lily! How can I possibly trust you? You’ve been keeping me from the real facts. Tell me, what exactly happened to Gerrit? Did you ‘modify’ his memories too?”

Lily gulped.

“Can it wait?”

“No, this is important! I need to know!”

“Yes. But he consented to it, just like you did.”

Raine gave up and sat down on the grass, looking pensively out at the digital world before her. Chance approached and wrapped himself around her neck. The warmth gave her strength: it was comforting, in a strange way.

“In the world you remember, people allowed famous faces to shape their opinions. It was an act of social engineering. Pulling on heartstrings and promoting fallacious thinking was the most efficient way to silence people’s minds and get them to accept anything. That isn’t how I operate. Orwell said that the most dangerous form of lie is the omission. I fully agree. But the needs of this mission go against my principles. As much as I want to be an open book to you… I can’t.”

“That’s the part I don’t understand. And the
Metaverse…
”

“Is a method of control, the dead end of civilization. I don’t expect you to believe me at face value, but it was you two who came up with this. I didn’t mean to make things so complicated. I never asked for all this deception and confusion… you have to understand, they scan everyone’s memories upon entry. They would’ve known the entire plan, and how to hurt you. And there’s no way we could have communicated this info without them catching on. I’m sorry that things had to be this way.”

At her words, Raine curled up into a ball and hid her head between her knees. She didn’t move a muscle.

“Sending you into the
‘Verse
wasn’t easy for me. I love you, and I love Gerrit. He did his duty. He protected you to the best of his ability, and without him here we’re at a bit of a disadvantage. We’re running late as it is. The faster we move, the less people die. I swear to you, once we get out of this place, first things first. We’re going to rescue him. And then, together, we’re going to free everyone.”

Raine gave Lily a quick glance to check the sincerity in her eyes. Quietly satisfied, she promptly disappeared into her knees again.

“I promise I’ll get you home, Raine. That is an absolute promise. But it might not be the home you’re expecting.”

There was no response.

“You had a dream last night, didn’t you?” tried Lily. “Can you try to remember it?”

Only fragments were clear to Raine. There appeared to be a connection with her recurring vision.
But what could Lily know of my personal dream? And what if that vision was a ‘modified’ memory, too, planted in my head? Every one of my memories might be false. Ugh! The questions were never-ending.

Despondent, Lily went back to searching the wall. Raine raised her head. With Lily’s eyes elsewhere, she was finally able to relax. Chance wound his way off her neck and flew off to chase some butterflies. Before long, the girl found herself idly pulling out tufts of grass.

Nothing makes sense anymore.

She ran her fingers over the greenery. It did look and smell like grass, but somehow it just didn’t feel right. She pulled a blade apart in the middle, and both sides dried up and withered away.

This place is dangerous because people treat its ridiculous rules and laws as their reality.

In video games, Raine reflected, you almost never have to make these kinds of difficult choices. The game makes them for you. The paths are pre-set, the story moves forward on its own, and artificial intelligences are calibrated and fine-tuned during the development process. In most games, you basically go from point A to point B and destroy or manipulate anything in your path.
But life itself isn’t nearly that simple.
Raine’s expertise was in running away from her troubles, and often from the people who had taken her in and did their best for her, or didn’t, but at least they tried.

There’s the kicker
, she reflected.

She’d never done well with responsibility. Raine was so caught up in self-preservation that she hated to have to shoulder even the smallest burden for others. Now the fate of the world had fallen into her lap, and one wrong move might doom the fate of every Earthling.
What sort of a thing is that to put on an adolescent orphan?

Perhaps Agnes was right in one way; if she could shift her perception, think past her own immediate desires, she might be able to accomplish something good for others for a change. If there was a small chance that her actions could save lives, didn’t she at least owe it to Lily, and to everyone else, to give this hero business a fair try?

Knowing what I know now, I don’t have a choice. And neither does Lily. I’m sure she has her own doubts and fears, too. And everyone deserves a second chance.

Raine thought of the Mana Tree, a symbol of Divinity, dying a slow death in some forgotten underground cavern. The way everything here appeared designed to keep the truth hidden, and the players always craving, never satisfied, enslaved to the system. The clearer her thinking became, the more her craving for the
Metaverse’s
bread and circuses diminished. The decision seemed so obvious, and so inevitable.

Despite her best efforts to escape the world and all its problems, these were the cards that she’d been dealt. Perhaps it was her very impulse to escape and her curiosity for new experiences that led her into such a paralyzing situation. But regardless of how ‘fate’ had brought her to this juncture, she had a gut feeling – call it gamer’s intuition – that the only way out this time was through. And there was kind of an awesome rush to it. They were approaching the final boss, only this time there was no cheat code, password, or save file, and they were down to their last lives, with no quarters or continues.

Chance meowed, bringing Raine two Gold coins, which were quickly absorbed by her wristwatch. The cat-like thing ran back to Lily, still frantically searching the wall. Raine considered the odd girl and her lofty, mind-boggling mission.
Was everything that Tony showed me really true?
If so, it didn’t seem right that Lily should have to do all this alone. Raine sensed honesty in her, and desperation. Here was a girl just trying to do the right thing. Her methods may have been unorthodox, but she let reason be her guide. She was an endangered species, a romantic warrior with a troubled past, and something about her seemed to need protecting.

Raine got to her feet and walked towards Lillian.

“I can end your mission at any instant by taking off this crown and de-materializing, yet you trust that I won’t. What makes you so sure your viewpoint of the universe is correct?”

Lily continued to search frantically.

“My own experience, and common sense. The
Belladonna
doesn’t have the power to create universes. It’s a scientific impossibility.”