by Nelson, Kip
Quickly, Mack had to adjust everything he knew about Mr. Smith to fit into this new context. Previously, Saul had painted himself as a simple man who had found this group by accident and only joined them as they offered safety, but clearly there was much more to it than that. Saul had to have been one of the group’s founding members, and would have known about Mr. Smith's methods from the start. Moreover, it meant the horrible treatment Saul received had been from his own brother. So Mr. Smith was the kind of man who was willing to beat and drown his brother to death. This wasn't a man with whom Mack could have a civil conversation.
The man who presented himself in front of Mack and the others did not seem the type to carry out those heinous deeds, although Mack was all too aware that darkness often lurked behind people's eyes. There was something unsettling about Mr. Smith, something little, like how his voice was pitched a little bit too high, or how his eyes maintained contact for a little bit too long. Here was the man who had been responsible for killing all the soldiers at the military bunker, for threatening Willie, and who knew how many others, to provide his camp with food. Here was the man who had been responsible for keeping people against their will and inducting the vulnerable ones into his army to make them a part of his reign of terror. It took all the energy Mack had to not erupt with anger and throttle this man, who was sitting mere feet away from him on the other side of the table.
There were no guards in this room. Mack knew this had been deliberate on Mr. Smith's part, to show he was not afraid of Mack or the others. Taking a life was never an easy thing, but sometimes it was necessary to rid the world of a blight. This had been drilled into him through years of military training. Now he was wondering if it was worth killing Mr. Smith here and now. It would be a grand miscalculation on Mr. Smith's part if Mack did indeed jump over the table and snap his neck, but Mack had other things to consider, such as the time it would take for the guards to enter at the first sign of trouble, and how well they could aim their guns. Even if Mack was successful, there was no guarantee they would be able to make it out of the camp alive. Mr. Smith's army most likely would just start killing off the prisoners if they tried to escape. It wasn't just one man's life Mack had to think about, it was everyone's in that camp. The price of killing Mr. Smith was too high. For now.
Mr. Smith spoke slowly and carefully, as though he had spent a long time training his voice to be neutral and without any hint of an accent. He took his knife and fork in his hands and gestured for the others to begin. In these sorts of situations, Mack ordinarily would have refused the meal, but that was the old world. This was the new, and none of them knew if they ever would get this kind of meal again. So Mack picked up his utensils as well and began eating. The others followed his lead. The meat was tender, the vegetables were crunchy, and the potatoes were fluffy inside. Mack didn't want to think anything good about Mr. Smith, but this meal was damn fine. Saul finally leaned forward and hunched over the table as he picked up a fork in his right hand and began shoveling food into his mouth. Mr. Smith gave him a withering glance and shook his head.
Mr. Smith dabbed the corners of his mouth with his napkin frequently. While they remained silent Mack observed Mr. Smith with covert glances. Every move the man made and every word he said seemed deliberate and considered. If Mack had to use one word to describe the man so far it would be calculated, so everything he did had to be for a reason. He told them he was Saul's brother. Why? Perhaps to cause dissension between the ranks, perhaps to see how much Saul had told them about him. Now Mack cursed himself for being so open with his surprise. Although it wouldn't have made much difference if he had remained stoic since Grace and Luis would have been unable to hide their reactions. It was clear Mr. Smith was using this dinner to find out about them. Mack wondered if this was his usual tactic when new people arrived at camp, or if they were special.
After Mr. Smith dropped the bombshell about Saul being his brother, there had been silence and Saul had not taken the invitation to speak. Despite having been there before, he was the one who looked least comfortable at the table. After a few minutes had gone by, Mr. Smith took another sip of wine and puckered his lips.
“I must say that I thought you all would be far better company when I invited you here to dinner. Saul, what did you tell your new friends about me?” he said.
“Only the truth,” Saul growled, and bared his teeth at his brother.
“Well, truth is only a matter of perspective.”
“I think it's more due to your men pulling us off our path, putting blindfolds on us, and throwing us in a tent for days,” Mack said.
Mr. Smith nodded slightly again, but in his eyes there was no hint of sympathy or understanding. They were cold and empty. Mack had seen those types of eyes only in the faces of the most terrible people.
“I would remind you that you did try stealing our bikes. If you had been successful, my men would have been stranded at the edge of the forest. They didn't have enough water or equipment to guarantee their survival. They may never have made it back home. I couldn't let that go unpunished.”
“So the beating Saul got wasn't enough?” Mack said, glancing over at Saul. The yellowed bruises only just were beginning to fade.
“Saul is a separate issue and I'm sure there are many things he's done that he hasn't told you about. After all, if he didn't tell you we were brothers I wonder what else he's been hiding?” Saul squirmed in his seat and the other two looked over at him, but Mack wasn't going to take the bait.
“We were on our way to the city. We weren't going to cause you any harm. You could have let us go on our way and never heard from us again.”
“But where's the fun in that, Mack? You've already caused me trouble. That little stunt you pulled at Willie's farm wasn't smart. Luckily, they've fallen in line since then, but I don't appreciate people messing with my system. However, from what my men told me about you, and from what Willie and his family said, you strike me as an interesting man. You’re the type of man I need around here if I'm to build up this place and make it reach its potential. You said you were going to the city. I'm telling you that that was a mistake. It would have been a waste of your time and I did you a favor by bringing you here.”
“It's never a favor to make anyone do anything against their will,” Mack said, keeping his voice as calm and as steady as Mr. Smith's.
“Indulge me, why were you going to the city? Was it to see if there was a group of people who were working together to rebuild humanity? Was it to scavenge any useful supplies that were left in the aftermath of this apocalypse? Was it to set up a new home and have a roof over your heads in one of the abandoned houses? Was it to try searching through the city to send a message to someone, to anyone? I'm going to tell you a harsh truth now, Mack, and all of you had better listen carefully. It doesn't matter what you were going to the city for because it's all gone. It's dead.”
“No...” Luis said.
“Yes, my young friend. You don't think I tried to get there? Of course I did. I sent people to investigate. There's nothing there. Sure, there may be a few people still clinging to life, but I wouldn't call what they're doing living exactly. From what I can tell, losing electricity made people lose their minds. They couldn't handle it. They fell into a frenzy and most killed themselves and each other. It takes a special kind of person to adjust to these new circumstances. So I can't say I'm surprised, but to think of all those lives thrown away...it is such a shame.”
“You couldn’t have gone through every part of the city. Somewhere there would have been someone. Maybe they needed help, or maybe they could have helped us? You can't know everything,” Mack said.
“You're right. I can't know everything, and I'm happy to admit that I don't. After all, Socrates said only a wise man knows he knows nothing. But what I do know is the city is dead, all the cities are dead. This is a new world, Mack; I would have thought you'd have come to see that by now. What we once knew is no more. It's a great Darwinian purge. Onl
y those who adapt will survive. Everything else will be left behind, and the new world will be built on its ashes. I don't plan on having anyone tread on me, and I don't think you do either.
“What we used to worship is no more. All those stores have been ransacked. They were filled with worthless electronics. We no longer have movies or those godawful shows to numb our minds. We're free to think for ourselves again. We can choose our own destiny. We no longer must be shackled by what the government's ideology tells us to do! The throne and the power behind it have disappeared.
“We're entering a new era of human discovery and I want to be at the forefront of it. I want to be there, writing down the history we're making. Every good story needs its heroes, Mack, and you can be one of them. I want you to be a part of this with me. You're a smart man. I know you can see what's happening here. Some people are narrow-minded.” As he said this he shot a glance at Saul.
“But I can tell you are highly intelligent. Put it to good use. The city offers nothing for you. Neither does the old world. We need to change our thinking and move beyond what we once knew.”
Up until now Mr. Smith had kept his tone entirely neutral, but as he spoke of the new world his eyes gleamed and he almost began breathing heavily. Mack took note of the fervor he showed and knew it made him dangerous. Yet for the time being, he could do nothing other than play along.
“Tell me more about your vision of the new world, and why it's going to be so much better than the old.”
Mr. Smith smiled with relish. Mack had the distinct feeling Mr. Smith was the type of person who loved hearing the sound of his own voice, and that he also loved lecturing people about his unique thoughts. Mack hadn't had much time to profile Mr. Smith properly. If he had had to guess at the moment, he would have said Mr. Smith had been at odds with his upbringing. Perhaps he even went as far as despising the people and place he had come from, given the differences between him and Saul, and the way he had treated his brother, as well as the efforts he had made in cutting out his accent. He was obviously a man with ambition, a man who wanted to make something of himself in this world, and saw the apocalypse as an opportunity for improvement. Perhaps he was unfulfilled in his old life and things hadn't gone the way he had planned, and now finally people were willing to listen.
“I'm glad you asked. In the old world we celebrated mediocrity, and I, for one, was tired of it. We had to pander to people and always think of those who might get upset. Instead of giving people first place we gave every participation trophies. Excellence was being bred out of us, creating a society of automatons who didn't know how to think or feel for themselves. You must have seen it, with the way everyone was so connected to their devices, as if they were life support machines. You had people texting and typing to each other instead of talking. Relationships became remotely communicating with someone rather than being with the actual person. Everything became easily had with one click of a button. There was no effort in life anymore, no struggle, and this was all designed so we wouldn't see what was happening right in front of our faces. The government was doing this so we wouldn't challenge them. It happened so surreptitiously that we didn't recognize it, but before we knew it we had lost our drive, and our ambition. We were ruled by the corporations, used as sacks of cash for them to live the high life, and we all were forgotten.
“I'm telling you, whoever caused this EMP did us a favor because it gave us a chance to awaken and open our eyes. We don't have to be slaves to the machine anymore. We can live as we were meant to, to be free, and we finally can start celebrating our achievements again. I want this place to be the new outpost of the new humanity. I want to have the best of the best, and begin a new race of people where we don't settle for being average or mediocre, where merely taking part isn't enough. I want everyone to try their best in everything, to seize each day as an opportunity to improve themselves, whether it's nourishing their souls or their mind or their bodies. I don't want us to be held back by those who sought to shackle us. I want us to take humanity to the next level. Think of the strides we could make if a new human race was built on these ideals. Nobody ever would settle for being less than the sum of their parts--”
“And what would happen if somebody didn't want to push themselves, or couldn't reach the heights expected of them? What if somebody was average?” Grace said, interrupting Mr. Smith's speech. He seemed shocked anyone would dare interrupt him before he finished saying his piece, and he blinked slowly at Grace before his mouth widened into a thin smile.
“There will be a place for everyone in this society, but only the few who excel will be exalted. The rest shall be there to serve and perform the menial tasks needed for society to function.”
Grace stared at him and, unlike Mack, she was unable to keep her anger in check. “You're talking about slavery, aren't you?! You talk about this as though it's some brand-new idea, but it's ancient. It's been done before. It didn't work then, and it's not going to work now. You're nothing more than a monster, and I'm not going to stand by and let you judge who is exalted is and who isn't. Who are you to judge that?” she said, and spat on her food.
She wasn't finished. She picked up her plate and smashed it on the floor, then picked up her glass of wine, from which she had not taken a sip, and threw it against the wall. The dark red liquid looked like blood as it slowly dripped down the wall of the hut. With a frenzied look in her eyes Grace dug through the food left on the table, feeling the juice of the meat soak against her fingers, and picked up a sharp fragment.
“I've a good mind to kill you right now,” she growled, pointing the weapon at Mr. Smith, who simply sighed and dabbed the corners of his mouth with his napkin once again. Seconds later three guards burst in and pointed guns at Grace.
“Don't worry, men. There's no cause for alarm here. This child simply was throwing a tantrum,” Mr. Smith began, which only caused Grace to get angrier.
“Please escort our guests back to their accommodations. Although I will be speaking more with Mack, so return for him later.”
“Are you sure you don't want one of us to stay?” the youngest of the guards asked.
“Thank you for your concern, but that will not be necessary. Mack is smarter than his young companions.” Mack had to watch as Grace, Luis, and Saul all were escorted roughly out of the hut, leaving him alone with Mr. Smith.
“She's a rather passionate young woman,” Mr. Smith said, continuing to eat as though nothing had happened.
Mack glanced down at the floor. He wondered how rare that wine was. There were people outside who would have killed for the food that now was resting on the floor, yet Mr. Smith treated it as though it was nothing.
“And she has a point,” Mack replied.
“What you're doing sounds eerily similar to, say, Hitler's idea of the Aryan super race, or Nietzsche's ideal of the ubermensch.”
“Their ideologies were borne from a hatred of humanity. I simply want to cultivate the best parts of it and bring those to the fore. This is an idea that has been around since the ancient Greeks. You quote Hitler and Nietzsche, I counter with Plato and the idea of the philosopher king, a man who was raised to be better than anyone else, who was well-educated and would lead by example. You talk about the ubermensch and I give you Superman, an alien who brought all the good elements of humanity together. The compassion, the sense of justice, and of truth.
“I only want to improve the human race, and there is a place for everyone. Your friend misinterpreted my words. Everyone can try improving themselves. I don't believe anyone is born with a limited potential. We all are masters of our own destiny. If we fight with everything we have we can excel at least in one thing, but if we are lazy and settle for being average that is when the human race suffers. That is the attitude that cannot be indulged.”
“And is that the kind of world you're trying to set up here?”
“Trying is the operative word there, Mack,” Mr. Smith said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
It was the first time he had shown Mack some sign of vulnerability, and Mack wouldn't have been surprised if this all was an act. But for the time being he would play along.
“I am somewhat limited with the resources at my disposal. Unfortunately, I have not come across too many people who would fit the idea of excellence. I have had to make compromises to keep this place running and build it up so I can welcome new people. I want you to be one of those people, Mack, and your friends, too, if they are willing to accept the new order of things.”
“And what of Saul?”
“Saul is free to make his own choice,” Mr. Smith said, sipping his wine. Mack wasn't sure how to take his answer.
“You can't blame me if I'm a little skeptical. After all, you have kept us prisoner.”
“A sign of the times we live in, I'm afraid. Your little group has proven to be quite resourceful and I wanted to make sure you weren't going to escape before I brought you here.”
“You know, it's kinda sad that somebody attacked our nation and managed to disrupt our way of life, and instead of Americans working together to find out who did it and to retaliate, we end up fighting among ourselves.”
“You're working under a false premise there, Mack. There is no America anymore. We're all out for ourselves, but we can build something better than America.”
“I refuse to believe that. I love this country, and I know it still beats in the hearts of the people.”
“Believe what you will, but it doesn't change the state of the world. You think of everyone as Americans, but you need to remember they're people first. They're not just going to change their nature overnight. There is a place for you here, Mack. I'd like you to be a part of this, and to lead by example.
