Toy Soldiers

by Keith LaHue

  "So we exist, but only within the parameters of our design. What happens when the being that created us does come back? He turns us off, and we fade into oblivion."

  "We're working in it. The mages are trying to find some way to communicate with them when the time arises. I for one would like to continue to exist. It's possible that with persuasion, we might be able to go on, and maybe even become...well not fully human, but closer. You know as well as I do that the true creation of life is beyond the ability of any magic."

  "Suppose we do make contact with the being. What then?"

  "I want the ability to visit the other parts of the construct. I want books, computers, all of the trappings of their society. We can't reproduce, so we'll never truly expand as that idiot Caesar thinks we should do. He's stuck in his temporal loop I think. Many of us have tried to bring him out of it. I want the ability to expand beyond the spell, to engage in the intellectual pursuits. And I'm sick of horses. I kind of wish they'd left them out. The damned army is still milling about as if there's anything to invade. Primary mages have been instructed to cast our own spells on them, to bring them further into reality. Of course, the leaders of the army know better, they were imbued with a greater range of beliefs.

  "What about our efforts to cross into the other worlds. We're still on that track as well I take it?"

  "Yes. That's one of the main reasons I'd like as detailed a report as possible on how the two from New York were able to achieve it."

  "They must have their own mages that broke through."

  "Unlikely. The mage's of that time had been driven underground, unlike our era, when they were commonplace. We got lucky."

  "Not as lucky as the New York duo. They got out."

  "Patience Caius. We'll break through. I'm confident in our ability to penetrate the blue mist that surrounds us. It is the most powerful magic, but we'll manage.

  "I've got to go and report to Caesar. Maybe he'll have come out of his delusional state. He must know he's not our ruler. We have none."

  "We have the rule of our senses, and the more of us that can become a part of the greater reality, the better. Is he still hosting lavish parties? Complete with food and the obligatory orgy?"

  "Yes. I can't say as I'm wild about them. They only serve to reinforce the belief that we are in ancient Rome. I'm off. I'll report back when there's more news."

  "Goodbye. I'll be looking through the telescope for a while if you need me."

  Caius left through the stone archway. Artimus had a thing for New York. Maybe some previous iteration of him had lived there. It was well within possibility. He climbed the stairs to the observatory; he was near the highest point in the city, where they'd erected the telescope. Flavius was there, looking through it when Artimus interrupted him and asked if he could take over for a while. Flavius told him he was just looking at Paris, the Eiffel Tower was fascinating. Artimus was more interested in his beloved New York, but he said he'd take a look at it as that was the way the scope was currently focused.

  Flavius left him to the device he had created. It had been the consensus of all of the fully enlightened Romans that finding out as much as possible about the construct they were trapped in was of paramount importance. So the order had been placed with the artisans, and the telescope constructed.

  Artimus put his eye to the eyepiece and looked at Paris. It was somewhere in the same timeline as New York's as far as he could tell. He perused the city for a while. It was hard to make out parts of it, as it was a low city, in contrast to New York, with its elegant high-rises towering over the land.

  He cranked the telescope to look at New York. The first thing he noticed were the gaps in the blue mist that circled the island of Manhattan. Without a doubt, the inhabitants that had escaped New York had punctured the fabric of magic that had kept them confined to their area of the construct.

  Artimus found this to be the most encouraging turn of events that had happened in some time, on par with the actual ability to look into the city of skyscrapers. They'd escaped, the two New Yorkers. That meant Artimus too would be able to leave Rome at some point. New York appeared to be the closest environment to Rome. Paris was another direction, opposite and somewhat farther away. He took his eye away from the telescope and turned his gaze on the more immediate surroundings. The blue mist around Rome looked intact. Artimus didn't know more about magic than any of the other non-mage inhabitants of Rome and as such he wasn't sure if the rift in the New York habitat's blue mist puncture would eventually bleed over into Rome. He could only hope.

  22

  Davey was with his dad on most days. His father was only a week away from getting his cast on his left arm off. The leg would be another two weeks. He hadn't spent much time with the model. His friend Tim and had taken up the new hobby, he’d received a computer game as a gift. They had both become engrossed in it. Tim brought his laptop and the two of them networked them together and played a dungeons and dragons type thing.

  Davey did descend into the basement once a day to take a picture of the progress on the Great Wall. If his dad didn't get better soon, the Wall would be finished. In a way, Davey wanted that.

  David Sr. had heard Davey's claim that the Wall was growing. He'd lost track of how long the spell had been running. Why the hell had he cast it, to begin with? He, more than most wizards of his order, loved his creations. He'd let them run a few weeks, and then undo it all with a wave of his hand. He knew that at least some of the creatures of magic he'd created were on the move, and changing things. He'd seen the cars moved around and done nothing. He'd let the spell run, thinking he'd undo it the next day, or the day after.

  Now he was terrified of what might happen. His son had left his cell phone by his bedside the other day. It was unlocked, as Davey had been instructed to leave it when they had bought it for him, and he had scrolled through the picture of the Great Wall. It was as he suspected. It was growing because the inhabitants he'd created in China were on a course that would lead them to the end of the project. It was imperative that Dave Sr. get better, and get back down in the basement before they finished the wall. The Chinese had only been created for one other thing other than construction: war. If they found there was out of the Chinese area all bets were off. He had failed to create the containment spell in the area that was under construction. That meant that these beings could leave their area, and create god only knows what kind of havoc in the other population centers of the diorama. He shuddered at the thought of droves of peasant china men hacking peaceful Native American Indians to bits with their crude weapons horrified him.

  There was one other solution that he now had to consider. Davey wouldn't be a full-fledged mage until he was twenty one or so. At puberty it would start, at is had with Dave sr., and at that point, he had planned on having a sit-down with Davey and explain to him what he was. Davey had some powers even now, more than Dave had had at his age. And while it wasn't possible for Davey to undo any part of Dave's magic, he could possibly create either a containment spell or a dampening spell on the Chinese area to prevent them from invading the adjacent area.

  It was a last resort. But one he just might have to take. He thought about asking Davey about the pictures and complimenting him on his initiative with the creation of the new sections of the wall. Then he could tell him that oh, it was supposed to dog-leg left here, and a slight right turn here, and could he take out some of what he'd done and redo it? That would keep the progress of the wall going. As long as the peasants had something to work on, they'd keep on that one track mind and continue. Dave mulled over the options, not sure what to do.

  Mary came into the guest room and gave him his pain meds. He didn't need them all that much anymore, but he knew to do as his wife directed.

  God how he wanted to be free of this room, this bed, so he could go downstairs and undo what he had done. If the order of wizards he was in found out about this, there would be serious penalties. He had to come up with a solution, and fast.<
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  23

  James and Donna surveyed the house when they entered. The party should have been going full bore at this point. Kenneth Loney was still sitting there looking morose while Donna moved towards the alcohol. It had lost some of its appeals as it didn't actually do much unless you believed in it, which neither of them did anymore. So it was just for show, like everything.

  "We're real Kenneth." James said, “recalling” the man from acting with him in some movie that wasn't real. But the fact that Ken had asked them if they were real made him believe that Ken was real. The other three people outside of him and Donna were no longer wandering aimlessly. They had settled on a couch as soon as Donna brought them a drink. They'd asked Donna where everyone was, and she'd told them that "It was still early" which it decidedly was not. They started some nonsense conversation amongst themselves. James was beginning to suspect that there were degrees of reality in play here; those that were aware and those that were not.

  "Ken, come with me, and Donna." James motioned for Donna, she took his cue and the three of them ended up in the kitchen.

  "Ken, you're aware that things aren't exactly what they appear to be. Is that an accurate assumption?"

  "Yes." He rubbed his eye awake. "It started when I got to the party. My wife had told me that Donna had called. She didn't elaborate, so I thought it was just a reminder of the party tonight."

  "Actually I called to cancel it."

  "That explains why Jane looked so lost. There was something about her demeanor; I couldn't quite place my finger on it. Then it got worse. She had had plans with some of her friends to go shopping and whatever. Then they didn't show. So I questioned her. I asked her where and when I had proposed to her. She started to speak, then it was like her thoughts got all garbled, and she couldn't remember anything. It seriously fucked with her, and pretty soon I called an ambulance. She's started spouting all this gibberish, none of it made a lick of sense. It was then that I knew that she wasn't real, and in all likelihood, neither was I. You see, I had this vague memory of our wedding. But it wasn't clear, the way it should have been. I'd asked her something that literally blew her mind. Whatever makeup of humanity she had possessed, it disintegrated upon analysis. So I came here early, and no one was here. Then they showed up. I didn't know any of them, but I questioned them, mainly about the past. They just wandered in thought and none of them were able to provide any kind of answers. Then I realized that it was all a sham, perpetrators unknown, and I...I wasn't real either."

  "You are real. Sort of. Donna and I have been on missions of discovery ever since I realized that we were in an artificially created environment. It seems there are 'degrees' of reality in this construct, or whatever you want to call it. For example, many parts of the city don't exist. We've been all over and 'greater' Los Angeles isn't that big. Long Beach isn't there. Whoever created us never intended for any of us to 'wake up'. But wake up we did, and once we had been awakened, that was the moment we became real. You became real this afternoon. Or at least as real as we can be. We're in a temporal loop. We keep repeating the same day over and over. Until now. We've broken out of it. I went two days without eating. I only know about excretion through some innate knowledge. I've never had to go. Neither has Donna. But because we're aware, because we know, we have to be real. We've got self-awareness now. So do you. So the three of us aren't fake, we're real now. Do you understand?

  "I think so. But who or what controls who and when people wake up? Is it possible to induce it in others? My wife lost her mind. Maybe she wasn't strong enough to take it. Is that possible?"

  "At this point, I'd say anything is possible. Including the very real possibility that we could lose this self-awareness, and go back to being automatons," said Donna.

  "I don't like to think of that. I have needs...wants, everything a 'real' person would have. But you're right, I have no need to eat, drink - you name it. Then why does this nag at me, the lack of explanation for it all? It's like we're puppets in some perverse show put on by God knows who or what. And when does it end?"

  "We're still sorting all this out ourselves," said Donna. "We've been all over the parts of the city that are here, and determined what is here and what isn't. There doesn't appear to be any escape from it."

  "I can't accept that. There has to be something beyond what you two have discovered what is real. What happens when you try to move into an area that doesn't exist?"

  "There's this inexplicable blue mist that only appears when you get very close to the area that doesn't exist. If you try and cross, you find yourself back in some place that does exist. It's like teleportation. One minute you're almost at the beach, and then you're somewhere else. It's kind of a creepy feeling when it happens," said James.

  "I can't accept that. We need to find a way across the barrier. If none of this is real, then there still has to be something on the other side." Kenneth paused. "Or not. Maybe you'd just fall off the map into oblivion. I think that's preferable. I want to try and experiment with one of these border areas. We can tie a car, or one of us, to a tree or something, and drive across into the great unknown."

  Kenneth was taking all of this remarkably well. It had taken both James and Donna some time to come to grips with the reality or non-reality, as it may be. They worked out the details, Ken thought it would be best to chain a car to a tree and drive across. He volunteered to drive, saying that he would prefer death, or non-existence, whatever, to this half-life.

  The three of them got in James' VW and drove into Hollywood to find a hardware store. They tried three different places before they hit on one that had a long enough chain to cross the border. James was of the opinion that it wouldn't work. Donna and Ken were more hopeful.

  They drove out to the first place James and Donna had tried to cross, when they had been going to drive to the desert, only to find themselves back at Donna's place. They approached the area cautiously it there was a palm tree near the border. James secured the chain to the bumper of the car, while Ken wrapped it around the palm tree, using a large padlock to make sure it was secure. James did the same to the car bumper.

  The moment was upon them. Ken started to get in the driver's seat when James stopped him.

  "We all go. For better or worse. I want to know and so does Donna"

  "Besides, if you ended up in some kind of void, wouldn't you want company?" smiled Donna.

  "Okay, we all go."

  The three of them piled into the car, Donna riding in back while James drove. Ken rode shotgun. James inched the car towards the border. Into the mist, they went. Donna suddenly cried out that she was scared as the mist enveloped them. James told her they were all scared, and Kenneth agreed. They were surrounded by mist now, there was nothing here as far as they could tell. Just a blue mist.

  Then they broke through somehow, maybe the magic had been weakened, and found themselves in a strange city. They all gasped in shock as they looked at the Byzantine architecture. James could feel the pull of the chain now and told the others that this was as far as they went unless they unchained their car.

  The verdict to unchain the car and explore this new city was unanimous. James and Kenneth got out and quickly unchained them. James looked around to get his bearings. He told Donna to get out of the car.

  "We're leaving the car here. Everything about this city points to it being older than Los Angeles. A car might freak out the inhabitants."

  "Where are we?" asked Donna.

  "I think we're in Turkey. I have nearly no memories of having learned about this city, but the architecture looks like something I have this hazy recollection of from the school I never went to," said Ken.

  "Or maybe somewhere else, maybe in the mid-east; I don't know," said James.

  "Let's walk on in and find out," said Ken.

  They all moved slowly into the city. There were no cars, and here and there, as they entered the city proper, they found the bazaars that made this part of the world unique. They had no curren
cy of the time. From what they could figure out, they were definitely in the past, though how long ago none of them could tell.

  "Do you guys want to go back?" asked James.

  "No, let's explore. Although I find the fact that a city from the past and thousands of miles away from Los Angeles disturbing, I'd like to find out if any of the people here know that they don't exist," said Donna. Ken agreed that they should stay a little while longer. And then go back. Ken said they if this city existed adjacent to their city, then he wanted to know what was on the other borders. They should make a map of the “world” so to speak. So they'd know what surrounded lesser Los Angeles.

  On this, they all agreed. None of them wanted to stay in this strange land overnight. James looked up at the same bland shy, devoid of any sun. It was the same type of light that reached LA, from some unknown source that definitely wasn't the sun as he knew it to be. He had a feeling the sun "rose and set" at the same time here as it did in their part of the world. They were far enough away, assuming the world existed, that it should have been dark here now. But it was the same dull light that shone down on them back where they had come from. Donna, in a moment of bravery, walked over to some guy selling tea.

  "I'd like a cup of tea please."

  "Of course ma'am," said the man from (Turkey?) in flawless and accentless English. He poured her a cup and took her American dollar, even made change. Hell, he'd given her American coins in return. She walked back over to the guys.

  "They speak English. And have no problem taking American money."

  "I haven't seen any cars. Not the same era," said Ken. He had put on his scientist hat, which James and Donna felt preferable to the crying weakling he'd been such a short time ago.

  "Are we ready to see if we can get back?"

  "Yes. That would complete the experiment," said Donna, aping Kenneth. He smiled back at her in recognition of the little poke. The retraced their steps and soon found themselves back at the car. The blue mist was right there. They piled into the car. James carefully put the car in reverse and backed into the mist.