The Last Place to Stand (3 page)

“It sounds like it must have been serious,” says a woman's voice.

“Nervous system paralysis or shut down,” says the man who first spoke to him. He figures it must have been their leader. His voice is clear and commanding.

“What does that mean?” says a younger sounding man.

“It means, maybe the effect is temporary, maybe it is permanent.”

“So what do I do?”

“X4287? You’re why we’re here. My name is Samuel, and we’ve come to help.”

Ghuhu was enjoying the sunshine, playing in the dirt. Dirt was great stuff. You could add water and it was mud. Then the mud could be shaped into just about anything. If you took mud and put it in a bucket and added more water, it looked like chocolate. Mama wouldn't let him do that anymore because she said water was precious and could not be wasted.

His brother, Moses, and he were making mud balls. That was okay because they found the mud already made. If they made enough of them they could have a war. They could invite other kids and they could pretend they were the Technophiles and the Waldenese, fighting an epic battle. Of course, the Waldenese would have to win because they were the good guys and because they had brains that were all their own. Technophiles hated the way they were made, so they changed whatever they could. Then if someone had a problem, they would throw them away like trash.

“How do you know the Techno's kill people just because their 'speriment didn't work?” said Moses. Moses was three so he didn't know how to say everything right yet.

“Because sometimes they are brought here to get better,” said Ghuhu.

“Have you seen them?”

“No, but Mama told me.” That settled any argument.

“Do you think Ahab really fought them?” asked Moses.

“He says he did,” said Ghuhu. “But you know what? I heard he used to be one of them and that's why he's so mad at them.”

There was a sound of coughing and when the boys turned around, they saw a group of men carrying a stranger who looked hurt. There was blood on his face and something was wrong with his eyes. There were some others who followed too, and they looked big and tough, like they’d seen a lot of hard days.

“Mama!” the boys yelled as they ran into the mud dwelling.

In the next house over from the boys, a woman with sun-darkened skin and an expression that showed that she had seen a lot in this life stepped out of the dwelling and looked at the strangers. Immediately she ran back into the house and brought out a bowl of hot water and a towel. Then running back in, she grabbed a pillow and a blanket. She laid them all out near the entrance to the dwelling and said, “Lay him here. Is this more of their handiwork?”

“Looks like it,” said Samuel. She took the towel and wet the corner and began to wipe the blood off of his face. “What is your ID, or do you have a name?” she asked.

“X4287,” he said. “I've already told my story once and would just like to rest if that's okay. I know they carried me, but it was not restful. “

“Sure,” she said. “We have a place already prepared for you. Who are these others?”

Samuel introduced Odysseus, Jane, Hamlet, Lucy and Sam. “They were attacked in the city,” he said. “They had already begun to turn and we were already watching them. It was fortunate we were close by when we saw the commotion.”

“My name is Pocahontas,” said the woman. “But I'm usually called Poke. My husband will not be able to come just yet, but I will tell him that our family just got bigger for a while.”

-----

That night they all ate vegetable soup with bread. X4287 ate and quickly asked to be excused. He said he needed more rest. Having been given a blanket and a place in another room, he was taken to a room to sleep. A couple of Samuel's men went with him, also ready to sleep for the night.

After they had gone, Samuel said, “Thank you so much for the soup, I have been living off of the fare of the Technos. They don't seem to find pleasure in food so much. To them, food is a function of necessity rather than something to enjoy. Do you remember?” he asked Jane, who was sitting near him.

“Oh, yes,” said Jane. “It hampers productivity. If we didn't have to eat, we could get more done and progress would be quicker. This is why there are experiments always being done to try to make food quicker to eat, yet give more nutrients. There is also talk that someday, maybe they won't need to eat at all. Their bodies will be free of the need for food and rest.”

“That's right,” said Odysseus, standing up from his place near the door, “rest has already been cut way down by many people. There is a prescribed drug that most people use, cutting down the requirement of sleep to three hours. We don't take it because we don't think it healthy, but then again, we are rebels in many ways. Just before you rescued us, we were thinking about what to do with our children's programming.”

“Programming?” said Poke. “I guess it’s been too long. What does that mean?”

Jane explained, “They used to call it school. All children have to go through a certain number of hours of programming per week. But lately it’s been getting more invasive. When they are young, they are taught basic morals such as . . .” Here she looked to her son, Hamlet.

“Technology is the highest achievement of man,” he finished. Then he added, “Working gives you purpose. Without purpose, you are a waste of resources.”

“Those are some of the things they teach when you’re young,” said his mother. “It’s different than how we grew up. And now as they get older, they are beginning to take their chips and program them directly so that students need less convincing, having their mind coerced through the chips influence. The feeds make it even worse.”

One of the men with Samuel, Gary, said, “I thought the chips could not make you do anything you don’t want to. You still have free will, right?”

“Well that's the way it is now,” she said, “but they are trying to take away free will altogether. Even now the chip does not control you directly, but it can influence you immensely. The chip now includes subliminal messages barraging you all the time, even when you sleep. Because the chip never does sleep, it can transmit data to your brain all the time. After you are told something is true a few times you may doubt it. After a hundred times, you may think it might not be true. A thousand times, you start to wonder. And after a million times, it must be true.”

“That's why we started looking at alternatives,” said Odysseus. “It took over a year for me to learn how to read. Then I taught Jane and Hamlet. Soon we began reading books at night. They are illegal because the government can’t control or change what’s been written in them. Some are kept for archive or display purposes in museums, and they are not easy to get. We started learning as a family through reading about other views of life.”

Jane said, “That's when it started to get dangerous. We knew this “re-programming” of ourselves and our children might be risky, but we felt compelled. Once we started finding out about the world through other eyes, we started to have a hunger for more. We read stories, and histories, and the Bible. We read about sciences not related to technology such as zoology and sociology.”

“But when it really got dangerous,” whispered Lucy, “was when we disabled our chips. Then, even though no one could tell just by looking at us, we started to act differently. And we couldn't go to programming anymore.”

“We knew we would eventually get caught at that point,” said Jane, “but we didn't know what we could do.”

Jane asked Poke, “Tell me, are there a lot of you?”

“Oh, yes,” she said, “hundreds.”

Sydney sat by the fire across from his wife and turned toward the new family. “We call ourselves the Waldenese. It's from an old book called Walden about a man who goes into the wilderness to find himself. Originally, that's what most of us were. People from the Technophiles who wanted out. So, you see, we can identify with many of you. That was some time ago when this colony started, and some are from the next generation that never knew the ways of your world. We are thankful for that.”

“Technophiles?” said Hamlet. “Why did you call us that?”

“Because, “said Sydney, “Techno has to do with technology--what that society praises above all things. And philiacs means to have a love for something that is insatiable.”

“You know, we call ourselves the Solpaths,” said Hamlet. “It means we are on one path, the path of improvement through technology.”

“And do you believe it?” asked Odysseus.

“I used to, when I was younger. Now I'm not so sure.”

Samuel smiled. “Asking the questions is half of the battle.” Then turning to Poke and Sydney he said, “Thank you for letting us stay the night yet again. We will be going back tomorrow when it first gets light.” His face took on a somber expression. “There are others, you know.”

The rest of his men, not wanting to impose, left the room to sleep. Poke put a hand on his shoulder, “Do you still think she might change her mind?”

“No, not anymore,” said Samuel. “U1472 is strong. And. . .” His voice sounded weak, “she is with someone else now.”

“I'm sorry,” said Sydney, “I'm sure your wife—”

“Ex-wife,” said Samuel.

“Your ex-wife will someday regret her decision to stay.” Sydney sounded almost as sad as Samuel. “You gave her every opportunity to come with you, but she just wouldn't, even knowing what that society carries with it.”

“Death and separation,” said Samuel with certainty. “Death and separation. Separation from themselves and others. Even when we were married and together, we were apart. The technology was always in the way. Receiving feeds gets in the way of other communication, no matter what they say.”

“I know,” said Poke; her voice low, “I know.”

“I need to go,” said Samuel.

“One thing,” said Odysseus. He had been quiet all through their conversation. He stood up with Samuel. “Your name. Do you know what it means?”

“Heard of God,” said Samuel.

“That's right,” said Odysseus. “God heard our affliction, and he sent you. Thanks for listening.”

Samuel smiled just a little at that. “Thanks.”

Two men were standing over him. He was strapped into a chair. “Just a precaution,” they said. “This will not hurt, but we can never be sure of a body's response.” His chip was taken out from behind his ear. A new chip, silver and green, was inserted instead. As they slid it into place, he felt a jolt of information, a new awareness of his abilities. He had more in his mind to access, more information. He also had new speed.

He found that he could think of several things at once. They said they were working on multi-threading for the human brain and he was the first experimental recipient. The human brain, by default could really only concentrate on one cognitive task at a time. People thought they could multi-task, but this was only an illusion. They could start one task, and then quickly start another. Then their brains could move back and forth between the two so quickly that people thought they were really doing two things at once but that was just not the case.

For instance, a man could be actively listening to his wife and reading (an old fashioned feed) at the same time. But each time he read a piece of text, he would not process what his wife was saying at that time. Since his brain records it subconsciously, however, once he returned back to listening, he could play back what his short term memory recorded in order to process it. But of course, at that time, he is not reading. Because he can really only do one cognitive thing at a time.

He felt privileged that he had been the first asked to get this modification due to his reputation and his past performance. He was already quite successful in his career. This would give him even more of a boost. His brain would literally be able to do more than one thing at a time, doubling or even tripling his efficiency and speed.

That night at home he had his first seizure. He was sitting at his couch receiving and processing three streams and having a conversation with a friend at the same time. He was loving it. He felt so much more productive. He could feel his increase in worth. At that moment he noticed his arm had been shaking. How long had that been going on? he wondered. As he sat there the rest of him started to shake. He finished his conversation, but continued the three feeds. The shaking became uncontrollable. He lost bladder control. A few minutes later, he blacked out.

He awoke in the morning and everything seemed to be okay. Everything was again operational. But that was only the first time. This happened several times with other side effects. Loss of sight for a day, he had to call in sick that time. Passing out due to a forgetfulness to breathe, that had happened at home and another time at work.

With these signs, he started to worry. He had heard that sometimes people have breakdowns. He wondered, Is that what's going on? But I have so much potential now.

When he was unable to move-now that was scary. That's when they took him to the physician and that's when they terminated him.

Lying there, X4287 thought about all this. The memories played through his mind like a vid feed. He thought of his rescue from the dump. He was so fortunate. He didn't know they just dumped burned out people. They didn't even let him keep the chip. He felt again behind his ear for what he knew was missing.

Someone entered the room. He opened his eyes, but of course he still couldn't see. “Hello,” said Poke. “How are you feeling today?”

“It was good to get some rest,” he said, “but I still feel pretty bad. How long have I been sleeping?”

“All night and half of today,” she said. It was then that he felt the sun on his legs. There must have been an open window.

“Does anything hurt?” she asked.

“Everything,” he said.

“But that's not the worst thing, is it?” she said in a factual tone.

“No, it's the lack of feeds.”

“Hmm,” she said. “I thought you were one of those—who received feeds that is. It is always harder for them. Over time it will get better.”

“I feel so lonely. Empty. Useless.”