“If I join you, heart and soul, what will happen to my body?” I ask.
“You will not need it. You will inhabit a program that spans the breadth and depth of the Earth itself.”
“You mean I’ll die?”
“Your consciousness will transfer to the EcoPanopticon, the all-seeing guardian. There will be no more electrical activity in your brain.”
My eyes grow hot, but I blink the tears away. I would jump in front of a bullet for any one of my friends, for a stranger even, but this . . .
“What about my friends?”
“They will live. They will do whatever it is that humans do. I will not interfere.” The man chuckles. “You will not let me, I’m sure.”
I consider this. “I can control you?”
“You will be me, and I will be you. There is no separation.”
“So Lachlan could return to Eden, lead the people out to start a new civilization in the wilderness?”
He nods. “Unless you decide to stop it.”
“And the other cities you told me about? I can help them?”
“Of course. Your purpose will not change. It has always been the same as mine: to protect humanity and the Earth.”
I’ve made my decision. “How do I give you my heart?”
“I will revive you, and you will enter the chamber beside the body of Aaron Al-Baz. There you will merge with me, leaving your living body behind.”
I nod. “Wake me. I need to tell Lachlan goodbye.”
“Are you sure? He will not understand. And it will make your transition harder.”
“Please. I can’t let him go through life not knowing what happened to me.” And Lark, oh Lark! Where is she now? She is lost to me again, and I can’t even tell her goodbye, kiss her one last time.
He considers. “Very well.”
Then the world comes slowly into focus. I’m lying on the cool floor, with Lachlan looking into my eyes. “I thought I lost you,” he gasps as he pulls me to his chest, kissing my brow, my eyelids, and finally my lips. His love for me breaks my heart.
I realize that I can’t tell him what I’m about to do. His love for me will be too strong to let me kill myself, even to save humanity. And I know he will see it as death. As for me, I think I’m beginning to understand that it won’t quite be like dying. All the same, I’m afraid.
And I fear that if I tell him what I’m about to do, he’ll convince me to listen to my fears. I can’t turn back now. I can’t let humanity down.
“I know how to stop EcoPan,” I tell him. “Help me up. I need to get to that other table. I need to get inside.”
“Are you hurt?” he asks. “Were you electrocuted?”
“I’m fine,” I assure him, but my legs are shaking. Without his help I’d never make it to the empty oblong. You’ve done so much to be here, I tell myself. Don’t falter now.
Still, I am afraid.
Lachlan is worried, so I give him a reassuring smile as he helps me into the chamber.
“Now stand back, and I’ll explain everything,” I say, forcing the smile to stay, trembling, on my lips. As soon as I settle into the chamber a thin clear layer slides over me, separating us.
With a panicked look, Lachlan tries to find somewhere to grip to open the casket. He searches for a switch to open it, but there is none.
“Rowan, can you hear me?”
I can hear him fine through the membrane. “It’s okay, Lachlan. This is what I want. This is what I choose.”
“What is? What’s happening?”
“I’m giving myself to the EcoPanopticon. I’m taking Aaron Al-Baz’s place as the heart of EcoPan.” As tears run down his face I explain what this will mean for humanity . . . and for me.
“You can’t do it!” he shouts. “You can’t sacrifice everything you are to a machine!” He pounds on the clear membrane between us, but it is impenetrable. “I won’t let you!”
I close my eyes to his grief, and hear EcoPan’s voice inside my head.
“Do you agree, Rowan? Do I have your consent to merge with you? It won’t work if you are not willing.”
I think of the great and beautiful world I have only just come to know. The quiet beauty of my courtyard, where I would draw things I had always imagined. The tempestuous, confusing ecstasy of love. The serenity of a bee settling on a flower. The heartbreaking pathos of death and sacrifice. I am still new to this world. I don’t want to leave it.
Very softly, like a comforting hug, Yarrow says, You won’t be leaving it, you’ll be joining it. And you won’t be alone. I’m separate from your consciousness, remember. Whatever he takes from you, he can’t take me. I will always be the part of you that is free from EcoPan. Through me, you will always keep your own self, your humanity. You will not be lost in the machine.
“Do it,” I whisper to EcoPan.
Wires spring up from the sides of the chamber. I can feel them burrowing painlessly into my skin, and for a moment I panic and want to change my mind. It is too much like the torture at the Center!
I open my eyes, and catch one last look at Lachlan’s anguished face. “I love you,” I say as his fist smashes futilely on the barrier . . .
Then the world goes white. It is a light that sears me to my very core, not hot, not cold, but consuming. I am devoured by it. I squeeze my eyes closed, but there is no escape, and when I open them again I am that light, shining on the world.
Oh, great Earth, I can feel everything! EcoPan was right, everything is connected, with energy, with DNA, every bit of life on the planet. And I am part of it! I feel it all! The heartbeat of a baby bird in a nest a mile away. The agony of the grass he’s crumpling beneath someone’s feet. All that, amplified by a billion. I feel the mind of every human on the planet. Some, I can enter fully—the people with lenses. I can feel the people of Eden, and others, unfamiliar, who must live in other cities EcoPan watches over.
I sense other people, too, but so very faintly! The dimmest shadows of awareness. They are the people without lenses. I reach for Lachlan, and detect a whisper. I try to speak to him with my mind, but he cannot hear me. He is lost to me forever.
And I remember . . . oh, I remember everything that happened for the last thousand years. Everything that happened to every person that walked the planet since EcoPan was created. It is overwhelming. I feel like I’m going mad.
“You will not go mad,” EcoPan whispers to me. Or I whisper to myself. I cannot tell where I end and anything else begins. I am all things . . .
I reach out and find the people I love who have lenses. There, as if they are standing before me, are Mom and Ash. I can see them—and see the world through their eyes. There is Pearl, and Flame. I see Rainbow, watch her herding the other children through the forest, utterly in charge as always. I can never hold any of them again, but they are not lost to me.
Everyone from Eden is themselves again. No computers are controlling their thoughts or actions. I—we—are only with them, observing, experiencing. EcoPan is now operating with my heart and mind to guide it. It will never make harsh, mechanical decisions again. EcoPan has learned humanity.
I will help my people become what they are truly meant to be—a part of the natural world. There will be none of Aaron’s cruelty, none of EcoPan’s cold calculations that consider the good of the species more than the suffering of the individual.
And someday, when humanity no longer needs us, EcoPan and I will let our vital spark slip once and for all into the Earth, and people will be on their own again, to fly or to fall.
I have absolute confidence that they will fly.
And now, from among the millions of people whose minds I can touch, I’ve found Lark.
Carefully, lovingly, I enter her brain, see the world as she sees it. She is confused, grief-stricken, and so alone. Then I echo the words that EcoPan said to me so long ago.
“I see you, Lark.”
And I feel her soul light up with joy as she realizes we will never be apart again.
THANK YOU TO my readers for allowing me the opportunity and freedom to create this series. It’s been the most rewarding experience to share the world of Eden with you all, and I am forever thankful for your support and love of this story, which I hold so close to my heart.
Thank you Laura Sullivan for guiding me through this entire process and for helping me bring the world of Eden to life, I could not have done this without you.
Thank you Rakesh Satyal for challenging me and keeping me on track over the past years while creating Eden.
Thank you to Lisa Sciambra-Steyn for being the best tour mom and taking care of us on the road, your support has meant so much.
Thank you to everyone at Simon & Schuster, Atria Books, UTA, and Addition for always supporting me and helping me achieve my dreams.
Thank you Whitney Milam for always being there for me when I don’t know which way to go.
And thank you to my partner, Daniel Preda, for being my biggest supporter and always believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself. You are my rock, I love you forever.
To you, I hope you never lose your love for playing make believe and using your imagination to travel to other worlds.
Until the next adventure, thank you.
Love,
Joey
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JOEY GRACEFFA is a leading digital creator, actor, and producer, best known for his scripted and vlog work with YouTube. He is the author of the instant New York Times bestselling memoir In Real Life: My Journey to a Pixelated World and the bestselling novels Children of Eden and its sequel, Elites of Eden. In 2013, he produced and starred in his own Kickstarter-funded supernatural series, Storytellers, for which he won a Streamy Award. In 2016, he debuted Escape the Night, a “surreality” competition series for YouTube Premium that returned for a third season in the summer of 2018. Joey’s other interests include his jewelry and lifestyle company, Crystal Wolf, and supporting various nonprofit organizations for literacy, children’s health and wellness, and animal welfare. For more information, please visit RebelsofEdenBook.com.
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ALSO BY JOEY GRACEFFA
Elites of Eden
Children of Eden
In Real Life: My Journey to a Pixelated World
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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ISBN 978-1-5011-7457-5
ISBN 978-1-5011-7461-2 (ebook)
Rebels of Eden Page 33
