She grabbed it and after swimming close they held each other for a moment to provide warm to themselves. This was the closest they had ever been before.
“We have to somehow get to the knoll right over there!” he bellowed, “if we don’t make it we will starve to death here.”
“What about mom and dad?”
“All this time I thought you never cared about them.”
Chase saw that he was just opening a wound further which was already gaping. There was no need.
“We can worry about them once we are safe. Ready, on 3! 1! 2! 3! GO!”
They dived and swam for their lives. After what felt like hours they reached what seemed to be a newfound beach. The pulled themselves up and tried to wring themselves clean as much as they could.
There were several moments of nothing, staring into their world, just thinking. Finally Jessica turned to him.
“Chase, you just saved my life. Thank you.” They embraced.
He had saved her life! For the first time in his real life, he had done something. His hunger, tiredness and extreme cold had been momentarily drowned out by this realization before actuality again set in. For the first time he had experienced great pain in accomplishment of a goal. This was an unfamiliar feeling. The hug had felt somehow… genuine! But they needed food, their parents were missing and possibly thousands of people were stranded in their units without having any clue of what to do, they would die of starvation in short order or be taken by the river or freeze.
He looked around where his father had his padobe, but there was no sign, same with his mother. Did it really matter he thought for a moment? I mean he had barely ever really talked to them and his own birth was simply as a result of a computer program. No matter, if he was to live through this, he would need help. Being older maybe they would know what to do. He called out.
“Dad! DAD! Are you there!”
There was a faint guttural response. It sounded like he was alive but he must’ve been in shock. Chase took one of the broken branches and made a bridge to his Paragon and started tight roping his way across. He could see him.
“Dad! Are you OK?”
“She’s gone Chase. She’s gone” he said in a somber tone.
“Whose gone? Mom?”
He didn’t respond, he just looked right at him and nodded.
Chase didn’t quite know how to feel about that. He had some memories with her, but none which rivaled those within his simulated existence. Still it was a blow to his psyche.
“Come on, we can’t stay here. We need to go. We need to get supplies.” Said Chase.
“No you don’t understand, it doesn’t matter anymore, she’s gone.”
“Stop sitting there like a whining baby and come on! If you don’t come with me I’m going to make you follow me and you’re not going to like it.”
His father sat more upright, taking affront to Chase’s bold threat. This is something he had never experienced before.
“Listen the pain you feel in your stomach is hunger, we need to get out of here before it’s too late and none of us have enough energy any more to move!”
He held out his hand. But his father ignored it. Chase went back and picked up a rock. Climbing back near his father he threw the rock at him as hard as he could, knowing that being out of shape would mean that he wouldn’t be able to put much behind his throw. But he caught him hard in the temple nevertheless.
“There! Do you feel that? That is called pain! If you don’t come with me you’re going to feel a whole lot more of that through cold and lack of food. So let’s GO! Mom is gone!”
Slowly the man accepted his hand and made his way onto the branch. After a short time, they made it back to the shoreline. Chase, Jessica and “dad” or Arthur as he was called by name stood huddled together warming each other.
“So what do we do now?” asked Arthur.
“Well you’re the eldest, I was kind of hoping you could help me.” Replied Chase.
Arthur just shrugged.
Jessica, though distraught, uttered probably the first positive thing she had said in many years, “Well at least we’re together as a family for the first time”
“Right! From here on we go together. We can get through this. We could now go and save others from drowning also, but unless we find ration we would be sealing out own fates. Come on Art, what do you know about the food processing plants. Do you know where they are?” said Chase.
“They are underground, but they are far far away. In ancient times, we used to have cars, but the only cars we have now are within the program.”
“Then we walk. Let’s go.”
For the next several hours they trudged through the wasteland. Finally they came upon a huge building which had ancient markings on it. The Better Life Company Food Processing Plant 429, district 11. They tried to open the doors which hadn’t been used maybe in a hundred years at least. Chase used his bulk to force it.
“Just what exactly are we going to do with the food when we find it Chase?” asked Jess.
“I don’t know, I was thinking we could probably eat it.”
“No, no I mean I have absolutely no idea how to prepare real food, do you. It’s not like we can just take a bite out of a live cow can we?”
“Oh I hadn’t thought of that actually.” Chase stood by puzzled.
Arthur offered his advice “We will have to subsist on a diet of fruits and vegetables to make it. To synthesize the food in our pabodes, all types of fruits and vegetables were needed, we just have to get at them. But meat we cannot eat raw, or we will get sick and die.”
“I’m so hungry, I think I could probably eat a cow now actually.” Said Jessica.
They had passed many souls in their trek and they had been walking for a many hours. They were well out of the flood zone now, but as the sun began its gradual expedition to the horizon, the air began to chill. They had passed many people, all without homes. A small crowd was eyeing their every move out of curiosity and also what looked like hunger. They were about to enter the giant building with no lighting inside. Chase noticed the onlookers.
“Has any of you studied how to cook food?” he howled across the field.
Two hands raised. If they did happen across food, there would be plenty of it. He beckoned the whole group to come with them. Again despite his pain, he felt the same feeling of exhilaration. Real people were depending on him now and he held their lives in his hands, their real lives.
“If we happen to run across food, I will need you two to prepare it for us. Now, does anyone have a source of lighting, it’s pretty dark in there?”
At first no one answered up, “Our best bet is if we go in there and hope that our sight will get used to the dark.” Said one man.
Inside the building was dank and cold, however after several minutes, They were able to make out a few doorways and went deeper into the compound. But soon they had to abandon their efforts as it became simply too dark to see. As a group they decided to rest that night within the nearest Paragon to wait for the morrow. Hunger tore at them and despite the hard floor, sleep came over them through exhaustion. Clinging to life they fought for their existence.
* * *
Things picked up the next morning when someone had found some clean drinking water from a nearby brook. Everyone had quite a bit and after one of them had been able to create a makeshift torch, the trek into the building resumed. It was 2 hours of scavenging into the depths when the first signs of food presented themselves. They were rows and rows of mulberries, but any food was better than nothing and the group satiated themselves. With starvation averted, the question of what was next became apparent.
“Do you think all Paragons have failed everywhere? There has to be some way to rebuild them isn’t there?” asked Jessica pleadingly.
Chase thought it over for a moment.
“I really don’t know Jess. But what I do know is that they were all networked. If one failed, others were supposed to get it bac
k online. But no one ever would’ve expected for them to universally fail everywhere. It must’ve caused a cascade reaction across quite a wide region. Just how wide we may not know for some time.”
“But there has to be something we can do? Isn’t there something we can do Chase? I mean we can’t all live on a diet of mulberries for the rest of our lives can we?”
Chase was used to being in positions where he had to make decisions for a multitude of people. But none of those people ever really existed. And actual lives were never truly lost. Besides that was the fact that while they may be able to stave off death itself, it would very soon become a question of quality of life and he and everyone around him was currently living an existence reserved for animals or worse. He had to do something, the number of drifters was beginning to accrue. The look on their faces told him they had no direction whatsoever. They had been become completely dependent on the machine.
“All right, listen Jessica. In a few hours everyone in the group should be nourished. I need to gather everyone around and call a meeting. I need information. Then we can plot a course of action.”
* * *
After a few hour passed what was a group of 60 or people had swelled up to a throng of several hundred. Chase noted that a lot of them still looked hungry. But he took position on a hillock near the processing plant so all could see him. They were all beginning to face his direction. Word had spread that a government representative was on the scene. Chase didn’t particularly feel the need to reveal that he had nothing to do with the authorities and that he always a particular revulsion for anything involving politics. But his nerves were starting to get to him. The time had come.
“All right everyone! Settle down.” He made gestures to quite the crowd so he could speak, “Everyone listen up.” Clearing his throat, he prepared himself to yell so all could hear.
“My name is Chase Brimley, and I’m here in the interests of everyone’s survival. While I might not be part of an official relief effort, I regret to inform you that from what I can see, there is no official relief effort and nor is there going to be one.”
So far it seemed he was just causing more of a stir.
“But it is time for us to band together to help each other survive. We need to depend on each other and we can make it. First things first, I see a lot of hungry faces in the crowd, I want you to know that you are because you had sense enough to figure out that this is the site of one of many paragon food processing stations. If you need food, we currently have several runners entering the plant and gathering what fruits and vegetables we can. So far all we have are mulberries. While this might not be the gourmet diet you’re used to, it’s either that or starve to death.”
Someone in the middle of the crowd had something to say.
“The runners have found other fruits now including quinces, cantelopes and lemons. They are looking for further orchards but it is difficult traversing the dark.” Said a man in a blue cap.
“Oh lemons! Good, of all the fruit to find so far it looks like we are hitting the motherload.” Chase quipped.
The crowd laughed, probably the first smile they had had since the storm.
“OK this is very important. The entire agricultural system is currently underground. This is a problem because flowers and plants need sunlight to survive in the real world. But as they were built underground an automated series of infrared and ultraviolet lighting was also built to sustain them, they will no longer grow because that system is down. All the plantations will die in a matter of days or weeks. Therefore our first order of business is to venture as far into the compound as we can and take back and replant as many fruit bearing vegetation as we possibly can. They will have to continue to grow in real sunlight. Long term goals will be to get as many seeds of as many types of plants as we possibly can. So we will need a team of people to plough nearby fields to prepare them for farming. Also we to extract and freeze as much food as we possibly can before we learn to sustain ourselves with food.”
He could feel that the crowd was starting to feel the passion and sincerity in his voice and were starting to feed off of him.
“One of our problems is that we need light sources as the entire underground is currently pitch black. Some of us need to find either a back-up power supply or we need a stockpile of torches. Any people arriving here must have some survival sense to be here. They need to be immediately fed and then put to work right away in order to feed others and start in on food preservation. Food is our first problem, then we can move onto the problems of shelter, finding our loved ones and rest areas.”
There was an agitator in the crowd who stepped to the forefront.
“No what we need to do is to get the system back on line!” He bellowed.
Chase looked right at him. There was something familiar about him actually. He stood in what looked like a tracksuit wearing a bandana with a skull, his face belligerent. Then he realized, this man’s personality had been represented in his programs. He had his incarnations many times reflected in the soldiers he had to command and each time he always had the same solution. Chase, being in a position of power, had always placed him first in line in those squads which were in the very front lines to act as diversions, meaning they would be killed off first. But somehow he always managed to pop up again, and here he was in the flesh! Chase thought somehow he wouldn’t be able to do the same thing here. But then again…
“Without food, trying to expend energy on repairing machines we have no idea how to repair would be suicide. But then again, if you wish to go in that direction, I would be happy to appoint you the leader of an expeditionary force to find working Paragons and report. Please, be my guest.”
That seemed to shut him up, and he could feel the crowd’s confidence in him gaining. He could feel his own confidence gaining. This was very different. He was completely physically exhausted not having had a real night’s sleep, being without a bed, but somehow he wasn’t tired, this was exhilarating. Normally in high command he was still the one receiving the mission briefing, now he was dictating it.
“Besides fruits and vegetables, if anyone has an idea on what to do with cattle if we find it I’m on all ears. Now we should also start planning for the future, I will be passing out a pad of paper and writing implements we recovered from within the building. I need you to write down what skill sets you possess, whether it be cooking, carpentry, administration, agriculture, just anything that could be useful. Please refrain from putting your high scores and the ability to play racquetball on the form if you please. We need bare necessities right now.”
Chase was wearing out his voice.
“Very soon we will be taking on this problem from the angle of resetting the program. But we are just not at there right now. By show of hands, has anyone here seen any working Paragon units anywhere?”
No one in the entire crowd raised their hand, except one tentative hand near the back. Which hand was promptly lowered seeing that no one else was raising their hand.
“No. So that means the entire grid is down, probably for many miles, possibly throughout the state and furthermore, it is quite possible that the continent has gone into failure now. We just don’t have the data right now. But if we get further information I need to be informed of it at once so we can act. Now we are going to split into teams. I want torch makers on the right, I want plow men next to them, I want the largest group, the vegetation re-planters and re-seeders to my left and finally I want a team of greeters to welcome any and all newcomers to our plantation to help with feeding and instruction on the far left here. Everyone pick your role and join the group, I want people working in teams.”
This was the moment of truth for Chase, would they actually follow him, or were in such a state of shock that they would not know what to do, would they listen to him? At first, he felt dismayed. The crowd just seemed to continue to stare at him.
The man with the bandana spoke up again, “Why should we listen to you? What makes you think y
ou’re our leader?”
“Well we were all planning on following you, but then we found that you weren’t really dressed for the part.” Chase replied and the crowd laughed again.
He passed out the notepads and then reiterated the exact group names and looked back at them expectantly and pointed. And then it happened, slowly groups began to form. They were following him and they were well in the hundreds now. There some arguing and infighting but it was negligible. They had direction and a sense of purpose, and Chase had given it to them. Again he was feeling emotions he had never experienced before. He wondered if there was more to come. He was beginning to enjoy this.
Over the next few hours the plantation grounds began to form, many were coming out of the building with a plethora of fruit bearing plants and seeds. Things were starting to look better and many new people arrived probably because they saw the fires that had been started by some of his troops. The greeters did they job, feed them and put them straight to work. He got his notepad returned to him and looked over the skillsets trying to find anything auspicious. He had cooks, some construction workers, artisans, a few doctors and priests. Apparently they also had someone who specialized in web design as well as an “anti-hacker”. Not much use for that but OK.
As the sun began to descend, he realized that people were as exhausted as he was without beds. Soon they would all need to sleep to get ready for tomorrow. He decided to appoint some people as scouts for shelter and bedding and put them to the task. It was nightfall by the time a nearby building had been located for many of the people, there was some soft material of an unknown nature but it would have to do, even if it smelled a little. Chase took Jessica and found a reclusive space near the back of the building in which they could spend the night. As they were walking, he noticed a couple of women watching them thinking that she must be his girlfriend, hah! He was actually attracting the attention of women by his actions. How interesting. He wondered what it would be like to be with a woman in real life.
They nestled in as best they could and exhausted, Chase stared up at the moon as it quietly illuminated the nearby trees which seemed to rustle their own sense of contentment that man had once again rejoined them upon the earth. He heard a few owls calling out and between the wind there was a howl from a wolf. There was a beauty in the surrounds after all, you just had to look for it. He closed his eyes and dreamed of the future.
Epic Page 11
