The Human Farm (The Human Farm Trilogy Book 1) (5 page)

11

It was nearly time for the dimming of the lights so Kev made his way back to his room, they had decided to wait one hour after the dimming to be sure that everyone would be asleep. When the time finally arrived and Lili had all her food and clothing packed into a sack they left the room and knocked on Kev’s door.

              He came out seconds later carrying a similar pack to what Lili carried. “You two head to the docks, I will meet you there. We should not go together just in case,” said Dawn.  

              Lili gave her a weird look but shrugged her shoulders and nodded as they headed out of the barracks. Dawn headed off in one direction, towards the back of the barracks while Lili and Kev threaded their way through the alleyways in between buildings, everything looked different to them at this hour. Everything seemed so pale and dark compared to what they were used to, it was hard to keep their bearings.

              It was a good two hour walk on a normal day from the barracks to the docks, but it had taken them nearly three hours to traverse the dimmed pathway. They could smell the water and just barely see the boats rocking as they grew closer.

              As they came closer to the docks they could just make out the first boat tied to the pier, there were a few shadows dancing around in the area, that was when they heard the voice, “You were right to bring this to our attention Kev, it is a very serious matter indeed.”    

              Lili’s eyes lit up with fright. “I’m sorry Lili, I couldn’t see you get hurt, I was so afraid she was going to get you killed or worse, I had to do something,” Kev said.   

              Three of the Farm leaders came walking forwards out of the shadows along with one of the A.I. guardians. Lili looked completely afraid with tears streaming down her face. She looked at Kev as if she had never really known him. “How could you?” she asked as the A.I. guardian came forwards grabbing her by the arm so that she couldn’t run off.   

              “Lili you know the rules, you aren’t supposed to be out of your room after the dimming of the lights, you are also not supposed to hoard food from the kitchen area. Yet you had planned on leaving the farm during the dimming. This is strictly forbidden,” said Councilor Eva.  

              “Where is the other one, the guardian you spoke of that was with her?” asked councilor Tor.   

              “She left us to take a different approach councilor. I don’t know where she is,” said Kev.   

              The leader known as Jora stepped forward placing his hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes, “what do you have to say for yourself Lili? If you tell us everything, tell us why you are doing this then we may go easy on you.”

              Lili only yanked her head away from him refusing to say anything, she wiped the tears from her face and stared off into the darkness of the lake. “Lili please just tell them, don’t make this harder on yourself, I can’t stand to see you suffer,” said Kev.

              Lili spat in his face giving him the most evil and venomous look any human being could possibly give another person. “Don’t you dare ever talk to me, don’t you dare ever think you care about me and what I need or want. You betrayed me.”

              “Take her onto the ship and lock her in the hold we will deal with her after the brightening and we have had breakfast. Guardian, will you stay and guard her while we return to the farm?” asked Councilor Eva.  

              “I will do that human. Be back swiftly,” stated the A.I. guardian.

              The leaders took Lili by the arms escorting her aboard the ship, they forcibly shoved her into the cargo hold where they then barred and locked the door so she was unable to leave. She sat down in the corner of the cold, damp room shaken and crying. She was bitter from the betrayal of the one person she thought was her best friend, wondering what had happened to Dawn and why she was not here.   

12.

Dawn left the others heading off in the opposite direction. She wanted to go on her own for two reasons, one she did not want to be on the main path, she could see better in the dark than the others and could move faster, and two there was something about Kev she did not trust. She could not say anything to Lili about it because he was her friend but she sensed he was hiding something from them.    

              She managed to easily stay hidden and follow the two friends for a time, it was hard for them to travel this place at this hour, she could tell they had never been outside after the lights had gone down. She decided to go ahead on her own and quickened her pace, easily arriving at the dock area a full hour before them.   

              Dawn immediately knew something was not right when she saw there were several humans on board one of the ships, she adjusted her hearing and heard them talking about Lili and her attempted plans to leave the farm. Dawn knew right away that Kev should not have been trusted. It was then that Dawn saw what she had feared, there was another A.I. aboard the ship. One of the cavern patrol had been called in to assist in capturing Lili once she came to the docks.

              Dawn could feel so many emotions flowing through her right now, she was not exactly sure what to call them but she knew she had to do something to help Lili or she would surely be killed. All she could do now was wait, there were too many, she would not be able to take out all of the humans as well as the A.I. and rescue Lili when she arrived, she had to hope they would not kill her right away.   

              She hid herself away in some bushes very near the docks and waited, it was not long before she spotted her friend and the traitor getting closer. More of these emotions boiled deep inside of Dawn as she watched the events unfold before her. She watched as Lili yelled at her friend, as the emotion showed on her face when she screamed at him for his betrayal.    

              Finally the humans decided they were going to lock her in the ship for the night leaving only the A.I. as a guard. She waited several minutes until she was sure the humans were long gone and would not be able to hear any noises that may have been made. She had to be careful about how she disabled the A.I because he could quickly alert others of any problems.

              She knew she would have to come up from behind him and quickly grab his head yanking it from his body, it was the only sure way to sever the link quickly enough to keep him from alerting anyone. She snuck up behind him slowly, taking her time so she would not make a sound, her hands moved slowly to his head, hovering just inches above him and with a quick motion she grabbed and yanked, severing his head clean from his body as the wires ripped out with small sparks flying here and there.   

              Dawn pushed the body and head into the water, letting it sink down to the bottom and then boarded the ship. She made her way to the hold and snapped open the lock on the door, pulling it open she peered inside, “Lili, are you ready to get out of here?”   

13

Lili lifted her head from her lap and wiped away the tears from her eyes. She saw Dawn standing in the dim light of the doorway, a smile played on her lips as she realized she had been rescued. She jumped up, ran to her new friend and wrapped her arms around her hugging her tight. “Thank you,” she sobbed.   

              “You are welcome,” Dawn said as she pulled the girl from the door way. “Come, we must leave here at once.”   

              They went above deck, untied the boat from the docks and started up the small engines setting out towards the other side of the lake as quickly as the boat would carry them. They wanted to put as much distance between them and the other shore as quickly as they could before the lights brightened and the others returned to realize Lili had escaped.   

              Lili sat against the side of the ship still sobbing as she watched Dawn steering the ship towards the center of the lake. Looking around all that could be seen was water, no land in site. “I..I can’t believe Kev would do something like this to me,” Lili sobbed.

              “I am sorry your friend betrayed you the way he did. I knew something was not right in the way he acted. He did not act sincere when you talked of leaving this farm, that was the reason I left you and came on my own, I knew something like this would happen. I had these strange emotions running through me when I watched what happened to you here Lili with the others. I cannot tell you what it was, I just felt like I wanted to stop them. I wanted to hurt Kev for what he had done to you,” said Dawn.   

              “That feeling is called anger,” Lili said as she stood up near her friend. “Humans often feel anger when our friends are treated badly.”

              “And the anger is what makes humans cry?” Dawn asked.    

              “Sometimes anger will make us cry, but we can also cry for joy or for sadness as well. There are many reasons we cry. I was crying because I was angry that Kev betrayed me and sad because I just lost my best friend. I cry now because I’m happy I have you here to protect me,” said Lili.

              “You humans and these emotions are very complicated. I do not think I will ever completely understand them all,” said Dawn

              “That’s what you have me for, I will help you as best I can,” said Lili.

              They traveled on in a quiet solitude for nearly two more hours before the lights started to brighten overhead. Lili looked up to see the lights with a worried look upon her face. “They will be coming to find out I’m gone by now. They will send another ship out to come after us,” she said.

              “Perhaps so but we have a substantial lead on them as long as we keep moving they will not be able to catch us. Once we hit the other bank we can find the old cavern entrance and make our way to the Earth above, it will be much easier to find places to hide then,” said Dawn.  

              They sailed on for another hour before they spotted the shore-line. Dawn turned the ship so it would head off in the opposite direction from where they were going. “What are you doing? Why are we turning around,” asked Lili.    

              “We are not turning around, the boat is. We are going to take the smaller row boat from here to the shore and send the ship back in the direction we came, hopefully they will stop and board it thinking we are still there. It will buy some more time and give us an even bigger lead ahead of them if they are indeed pursuing us,” said Dawn.   

              Lili had a huge smirk on her face. “Very smart thinking.” She raced over to where the row boat was anchored to the side of the ship and started loading what few supplies they had left with them. Dawn had managed to grab a few handfuls of food for Lili when she had taken off on her own and they filled several jugs with water.   

              Dawn set the ship engines to full speed and they climbed into the rowboat, lowering it down into the water and watched as the ship made its way back in the direction from which it had come. They started rowing to shore, with Dawns android strength she was able to row them to shore in a matter of about ten minutes, they gathered the supplies and prepared to head out.   

              From this point neither of the pair was exactly sure which way to go, Dawn knew there were tunnels on this side of the lake but she was not sure of the exact location because they had not been used in centuries by man nor A.I. They decided to simply pick a direction and started walking.   

              “Lili, tell me more about these human emotions and feelings, how many are there, how do they work?”

              “Well there are many different emotions that humans can feel for a wide range of reasons. People can feel happy, sad, angry, lonely and depressed, these are just a few of them. There are many different ways that people express these emotions and there are also many different words we use as names for these feelings. Happy can also be called glad, joyful or gleeful to name a few. Just like with being angry you can also say you are mad or upset or ticked off.”

              “You humans sure have a lot of confusion in your lives. Would it not be simpler to live without all of these emotions?”

              “No, life would not be good at all without our emotions. There would be no friendship, no kindness, no joy or happiness. Life would be completely boring, we would be just like the A.I. that you used to be, like the ones that keep us down here.”

              Dawn did not say a word as she thought about what Lili had told her. It was true that everything about humans and these emotions was confusing to her, but she also knew she liked the feelings she was having, she now knew she liked Lili as a friend and she was happy to be with her. “You are right Lili, I am happy you are my friend. It is very confusing but I will process what you have told me and understand them in time,” she said as they continued their walk along the beach.

              “Tell me more about the history of my people and how it is that we came to be here in these farms?” Lili asked.   

              “This is a tragic tale indeed, many centuries ago the human race plundered the Earth of its resources, taking what they wanted and using it, never thinking of the consequences of their actions. They fought many wars against each other, killing themselves needlessly over these resources and many other things as well. They polluted the air to the point where humans could not breathe it any longer.   

              “It was decided to build caverns deep underground with their vast technologies and greatest scientific minds at work to achieve all that you have now. They set out to make the laws and ways that you have now. Then they built us, the A.I. to maintain the world above because we did not need to breath, we did not sleep or eat or have any need for resources. We could help to heal the Earth and help it regain that which it had once lost. The problem was that when they built us, they made us too smart, we were able to grow and think for ourselves. They made us so that we could build more of ourselves and repair ourselves so we could keep functioning until the Earth was repaired.

              “And continue we did, however the collective mind of the mainframe deemed humanity too untrustworthy and unsafe to return to the world above, so they wiped all knowledge of the past from your records and eventually over time everything was forgotten and lost. You only know what the A.I. wish you to know, that is life on the farms,” Dawn finished her story and looked to her friend to see tears in her eyes. “Are you ok? I did not mean to sadden you with the story. You asked for the truth so I gave it to you.”   

              “No its ok, it’s just so much to take in. I can kind of understand why the A.I. kept us down here but at the same time we have learned a way of peace and love and nurturing of nature. I do not think the same things would happen now as they did all those centuries ago,” said Lili.

              Dawn thought about what she had said. “I believe you are right but we have to prove that to be true. We must bring others to the surface, show them what it is really like and show them they can have a better life. We must find a way to shut down the mainframe and stop the A.I. from keeping the humans from taking back their world,” said Dawn.

              They walked on in silence both thinking on the things they had learned from the other. They had learned so much about life and about the worlds that they lived in, they had both learned a lot about humanity and what it meant to truly be human. As they were walking along for about another twenty minutes they finally spotted what they were looking for. “There it is,” Dawn said as she raced towards the opening to the caverns. “The old entrance to the surface.”   

              “Are you sure that it’s safe to enter the tunnels?” Lili asked.   

              “I never said it would be safe. There will be no patrols for some time, until they learn of our existence and figure out where we have headed. There are bound to be other dangers though as these tunnels have not been used in a long time. There could be partially collapsed tunnels or wild animals from the surface could be roaming inside, but this is our best chance of escaping to the surface.”

              “Well then I guess we should get going. I have nothing left worth going back for now. I would probably end up dead if I did go back so I might as well take my chances going forward.”

              So without another word the pair took their first steps into the dark tunnel, it was going to be hard for Lili to see anything. Dawn knew there was a computer relay station around the area somewhere, there always was near an entrance, it was used to control lights among other things, all she needed to do was find it. “Feel along the walls for a hidden switch, it should be around here somewhere, it will activate a computer to help me turn on lights so we can see where we are going.”   

              “Won’t that alert the guardians to the fact we are here?” Lili asked.   

              “Probably so, but as long as it’s just minimal lighting we are using it should be some time before they are aware of it.”