The Human Farm (The Human Farm Trilogy Book 1) (3 page)

7

Lili and Kev were enjoying the time they had together, it wasn’t often they got this free time together. They spent it relaxing and doing the things they most loved doing as most friends usually do. Swimming happened to be something they both enjoyed immensely, Lili was by far the best swimmer in the entire community, able to out swim everyone.   

              The time started ticking by, time always seems to go faster when you were having fun. The friends made their way out of the water and donned their clothing, the shirts clung to their still wet skin as they made their way back to the central meeting area, completely oblivious to the stranger sitting just yards away watching their every move.      

              It was now time for the evening meal, food was the one thing that there was always plenty of on the farm. There was plenty of food to choose from and no one ever went hungry. Every vegetable you could think of was grown in the fields and there was an abundance of meats from the animals raised on the far side of the fields in the livestock area, as well as plenty of seafood’s and other freshwater fish to choose from.

              There was always someone working at any given time in the community kitchens preparing meals and cleaning dishes. The work in the kitchens was almost non-stop. The line for the meals was a long one but no one ever fought over a position in the line because there was always plenty of food for everyone to eat and most people were able to get second helpings if they chose to do so.

Lili often spent a lot of time around the animals in the livestock pens and fell in love with them. She hated the thought of them being raised for nothing more than food, she vowed she would never eat meat and swore she would only live on fruits, vegetables and grains. She made her way through the line taking up a wide variety of fruits and vegetables as well as several pieces of bread. She may have forsaken meat but she lived a happy and healthy life and was friends with everyone around her.

The table settings were set so that everyone sat together, there were several long tables placed nearby. Everything that goes on in the farms with the exception of sleep time and the occasional free time is done in groups. There wasn’t a lot of privacy within the farms but then there was no real need for any.  

              When everyone finishes eating, the group as a whole helps with clearing the tables and taking care of any leftover foods that remain. Most of the food scraps and left overs get used as compost and are recycled, made into fertilizer for the next set of crops, or are fed to the animals in the livestock farms.

After finishing with the cleaning Lili said goodnight to all her friends and made her way into her room. The lights to the community dimmed shortly after meal time, they never went out completely but they dimmed down to a bare light to make it easier for people to sleep as there is no sun or moon in which to gauge time or to tell day from night.

              No one has to go to sleep right away after lights dim but they must be in their rooms, what they do at that time is completely up to them. Some of the people may choose to light a candle and do some reading or perhaps work on some small craft projects, while others, depending on the jobs they perform throughout the day may decide to go straight to bed and quickly drift off to sleep.

              Lili was never one to be able to simply lie down and drift off to sleep easily no matter how hard she’d worked during the day. She found she needed to do something to help her unwind. She would often read one of the few books that were offered to them or she would draw a picture with the few art supplies they were allotted to have. She decided she would lay in bed and read from her favorite book ‘Bertie and the Cow’. It was a story that had been told for a long time on the farm, back in the old days when the farm was first settled by a woman named Bertie and her cow. It talks about how she had tamed the wild cavern and made it into a home and how she had populated it and made it the way it is today. She started to get drowsy as she read the story, just as she was drifting off she heard a noise at her door.  

8

Dawn hid herself far enough away from the buildings so she wouldn’t be seen but close enough so she could still see the girl she wanted to talk to once she was finally alone. This was one ritual the humans did that she didn’t understand, she knew what it was and that they did it to gain energy but she didn’t understand how it worked. She couldn’t help but think about how odd humans were but at the same time she wanted to learn so much more about them, she wanted to be more like them, to feel more like them.  

              A.I.s did not know the concept of impatience, however without really knowing what she was feeling Dawn grew irritated at having to sit and wait so long while the community sat and recharged their energy, although she did have to admit to herself that it didn’t seem to take nearly as long for them to recharge as it did for her to do so.  

              Finally the wait was over and the crowds had started to disperse. It wasn’t long before the people started taking off to their assigned habitats one by one. She followed the girl she wanted to talk to until she disappeared behind a door. She waited for several minutes to be sure everyone in the compound was safely in their rooms before she walked down the hall to the girl’s room and knocked on the door.

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              Lili looked puzzled, wondering why someone would be knocking on her door after the dimming of the lights. No one was allowed to be out wandering the compound after the dimming. She grabbed her candle and walked to the door, she hesitantly grabbed the handle unsure of who or what may be on the other side. When she finally gathered the courage to open the door she saw a pair of red eyes staring at her from the hall. She let out a gasp and dropped the candle as she backed away from the door.

              “Please do not be alarmed, I mean you no harm,” said Dawn.  

              “W…who are you?” she asked.   

              “My name is Dawn,” she said as she pulled the sheet off from her body.

              Lili let out another louder gasp, “y..y..your one..one of the patrol guards. Please I have done nothing wrong,” she babbled incoherently.

              “Relax, I am not one of the patrol A.I.’s I am something different. I.. I do not know quite what I am. That is why I am here. I need your help,” said Dawn.

              Lili looked at her dumbstruck, “What can I possibly do to help you,” she asked “Your kind are the guardians, you know all and you see all.”

              “No, I am nothing more than a relic tossed in the trash and forgotten. I was broken down and no longer needed. Something strange happened to me, I have been having these strange, what you humans call feelings or rather emotions. I do not understand them, I need your help to understand them,” she said.

              “I don’t understand, are you not like us? Do you not feel like we do,” she asked.

              “No we do not, we are machines, very advanced tools that were built by humans hundreds and hundreds of years ago. There is much we can both learn from each other if you are willing, but you must tell no one. If anyone finds that I am here the other A.I. would come and we would both be in a lot of trouble.” she said.

              “What do you mean humans built you? Aren’t you the ones who provide us with everything, guide us and govern us? I don’t understand,” Lili said, still confused by the stranger in her room.  

              “No, in fact your people did not always live in these caverns. There is in fact a whole other world above, on the surface of this world, a much bigger, more beautiful place, full of resources and materials that rightfully belong to the human race. It is a world that is being kept from you by the very A.I. that humanity once built centuries ago,” she said.

              “But I don’t understand, why would my people choose to live below ground if there was a world above us, one rich in resources. Why would they build your kind to keep us down here, enslaved to never again step foot out there?” she asked. 

“You must understand, these farms you live on were only meant as a temporary home for humanity. Once long ago there was a great and terrible war, the Earth was so greatly damaged it could no longer sustain life. Something had to be done, so we were created to help heal the Earth. The farms were made far below and humanity was moved here and formed a far more simple life than what they were used to in order to allow the Earth above to heal. However over time, my kind grew and learned and we learned that humanity could not be trusted. Human kind never learn from their past mistakes, they always make the wrong choices and in the end they destroy everything that is beautiful. So it was decided by the collective mainframe that humanity would remain living as they are on the farms and the Earth would be preserved as it is. It is a sanctuary, for nature and the peaceful creatures that inhabit the lands above, creatures that roam free and know nothing of war and violence or destruction,” she said.

              Lili listened to the story that Dawn had to tell her in complete silence and awe. She felt as if she were having some grand adventure in a make believe world, yet part of her believed what she was hearing was true. She grew more and more excited with every word that Dawn spoke. “Oh but do they not see that we know nothing of this war or destruction? We are peaceful and caring. We share everything freely here on the farm, we could never possibly destroy something as beautiful as what you are describing.”   

              “I have gathered as much by watching you throughout the day today, the human race has definitely changed much in the last few centuries, however the collective mainframe does not spend as much time observing the humans as I have done and they do not fully trust you, they do not have the feelings and the emotions that I somehow have gained. They are cold empty uncaring machines,” she said.

              “And what is it that makes you different from the rest of these, what you call A.I.,” she asked.

              “I really do not understand it, I was sitting in the junk heap waiting for my power cells to run down, then all of a sudden I was hit with a burst of, something I cannot describe and I was having all of these weird feelings and emotions that I have no meanings for, I somehow gained a human soul. That is why I came down here, that is why I sought you out hoping you could help me to better understand these emotions I am feeling, help me to better understand the human race and why it is that they are being kept down here and not returned to the world above where you truly belong,” said Dawn.

              Lili felt sorry for her and the story that she told, she couldn’t help how she felt it was in her nature to want to help anyone that was hurting or lost. “I promise you Dawn I will help you in any way I can and I would love to hear more about this world above, about the wonders it holds.” 

              “I would be happy to share with you what I know of the world above, provided you will share with me everything you can about what it is like to be human and everything you can about human feelings and emotions. I wish to know what all of these emotions are that I am experiencing within me,” she said.  

              “I will do the best I can to explain them to you, there are many different types of emotions and feelings. Human beings are very emotional creatures and we tend to be very emotional over a wide variety of things but I promise you I will do the best I can to share with you everything you wish to know,” said Lili.  

              “Where should we begin, there is so much to tell?” said Dawn.

              “How about we wait until tomorrow, I have several hours of free time to myself and I am rather tired and need to get some sleep,” said Lili.

              Dawn looked at her confused, “You need to recharge?” she asked. “Is that not what you did earlier when you consumed vast amounts of food at the community tables?”  

              Lili let out a slight chuckle. “That is only part of the process in which humans recharge our energy. Food is what we use for fuel but we also need to sleep for several hours every night in order to re-energize our bodies so we are able to work the next day. If we didn’t do this we would eventually wear out and die,” said Lili  

              “Oh I see,” said Dawn. “Very well then, tomorrow we shall continue. Is there somewhere safe I may stay, where I will be undetected by the other humans until we may talk again?”

              “You can stay here in my room, no one else but me is allowed in here. It is forbidden for anyone to enter the habitat of another in the farms without them being present. You will be safe here until I return,” she said.

              She gave a slight nod of the head and sat in the corner of the room keeping watch over her new friend. Since she did not require sleep, she contemplated all the things she had learned so far about the feelings and emotions of humans. She also went over all the data she knew about the Earth above and the true history of the human race that she would share with her new friend. She would start her out small, she did not want to frighten her with too many gruesome details of the horrid past.  

              Lili lay down in her bed, happier than she had been in a long time, not only had she made a new friend but she had also learned there was a whole new world out there that truly belonged to them and that it was a beautiful, amazing place just waiting to be explored, just ripe with adventures for her. She quickly drifted off dreaming of the many adventures she was sure to go on in the future.   

9

Lili woke the next morning with a smile, as she stretched she looked around the room and jumped with a small shriek as a pair of red eyes and wild red hair stared back at her from the corner. She had forgotten about her new friend from last night. “I’m sorry, you startled me. Did you not sleep?” she asked.      

              “As I told you, I am a machine and do not require sleep nor do I require food. I merely sat and observed you as you replenished your energy. You do a lot of talking while you do this sleep thing,” she said.  

              Lili looked at her horrified, “I talk in my sleep? I hope I didn’t say anything too embarrassing,” she muttered as she got up from the bed. She rifled through her dresser to find clothes to wear for the day.  

              “You talked a lot about a man named Kev and you went on about animals and the world above,” she said.

              “Oh, I must have been dreaming,” she giggled. “Kev is my best friend. Well I need to go to breakfast and to work. I have free time later, I will come back when I have finished so we can talk more,” said Lili as she quickly changed her clothes.    

              “Very well, I shall remain here until you return, remember, no one must know I am here or we could both be in danger,” said Dawn as she watched the girl leave the room.   

              Lili made her way out of the barracks house and over to the kitchen area where she met up with her friend Kev. She was in a better mood today than she normally was, full of energy and smiles. “Good morning Kev,” she said as they jumped into the breakfast line.  

              “Good morning, you seem awfully cheerful today Lili,” said Kev.

              She smiled at him as she grabbed a tray from the pile and started loading it with fruits and breads. “It’s just a good day is all, we only have the one line to check today and I’ll have plenty of free time. I thought I might spend it in my room reading today, it’s been a while since I’ve read a good book,” she said smiling.  

              “Oh,” he said as they continued through the line. “So you won’t be going with me to the animal pens today to see your animal friends?”

              “Sorry, not today Kev, I just feel like being by myself doing some reading. I promise next free period we have together we’ll go.”

              He shook his head as he looked suspiciously at her but said no more as they made their way to the tables to eat their breakfast. Breakfast was usually the one meal of the day where everyone was quiet and simply ate without much to say to one another. Any other time during the day there was always much chatter about the day’s events, which usually consisted of the daily life on the farms and the small variety of jobs that were done, or they discussed how they would be spending their free time.

              Lili was excited to get through her day, she rushed through her meal hardly taking the time to taste anything. As soon as everyone was finished she was the first one to jump up and start clearing the table so they could get started with their day.   

Today was one of the rare days when Lili worked by herself. The first two sections of piping that led away from the farms were easy to check and required only one person each, so they each took one section. The rest of the lines required two people at all times to check over.

              Lili loved what she did because it usually involved getting dirty. She made her way to the hatch that would let her into the lines of her section and climbed down into the piping of the water lines. There were many smaller lines that ran off in different directions, they fed the many fields that lined the roadways along the lines. There was also a bigger line that crossed over into the livestock barns to make sure the animals had plenty of fresh water. The main line, also the biggest, is the one that led to the living area of the community which kept the population supplied with drinking and bathing water as well as swimming water for the pool area.