The Singularity Rising: Choice: (The Singularity Series 5/7)

by Beers,David

  * * *

  Everything which preceded the moment Skelly looked on the destroyed city had been important.

  Mack questioning her in school. The 'kidnapping'. Waking up in that strange room. Charlie Murray. Meeting Lexi probably most important of all. All the choices and all the thoughts which led to the moment they stepped from the aircraft had seemed like pivotal points in a new life that she didn't yet understand.

  However, when she walked off the aircraft, all those moments--even her time with Lexi, faded away.

  "What is this?" she said though she didn't expect an answer. No one could know anything about what she looked at because no one could possibly understand it.

  "Genesis have mercy," Andy said, reverting to a tongue long before his time.

  They stood on top of a building, the aircraft behind them. They walked to the edge and looked down at a world that scarcely seemed to be the same one they just flew from.

  "This, ladies and gents, is what we have to save ourselves from."

  The world beneath Skelly was populated with people nearly naked. She couldn't see details, only that hardly anyone wore clothing. Everyone carried things and they walked in long lines. In her city, people walked on streets, but not like this, not in regimented lines at the same pace.

  "Want to go down and see it up close?" Mack asked.

  "Down there?" Andy said.

  "That's why we came," Mack answered. "To go down there."

  * * *

  "There are people sympathetic to our cause," Mack said as they exited the building they’d landed on. "They allow us to enter here without any problems."

  Skelly stood on what could be considered a sidewalk, though not like one she had ever seen before.

  "What are those?" she said, pointing at the small black globes lining the walkway every ten feet or so. They were on both sides and alternating, so that when a globe rested on the left, there wasn't one on the right.

  "Those are eyes."

  "Eyes?" Skelly understood what Mack meant, but not why there would be camera systems lining the street. "Why would anyone want to see people here?"

  "Control," Andy said. She looked over to him, but he was staring into the distance. No one walked around them, the lines of people having moved a half mile up the road. Skelly followed Andy’s vision and watched them moving at that same, continuously slow pace.

  "What are they carrying?" she said.

  "I'm not sure. When I was here, they were building more roads like these. I imagine that different groups carry different things, depending on what they're building."

  "Slavery," Andy said in that same distant tone, like he wasn't speaking to anyone but himself.

  "No," Skelly said. "Slavery is outlawed."

  "Slavery was outlawed," Mack said. "Both before and during The Genesis. Not anymore. Come on, I want to show you more."

  Mack led the way, navigating the streets as if he lived here.

  "Where is everyone?" Skelly asked as they walked. Buildings lined the streets but no one inhabited them. No one exited or entered. The place was deserted.

  "Working, I'd imagine, though I've made sure we won't be interrupted. This place usually is fairly empty, but I don't want any surprises."

  "What happens if there are surprises?" Andy asked from Skelly's right.

  Mack shook his head. "There won't be any so no need to worry."

  Skelly watched Andy's jaw tighten at the answer but he didn't say anything.

  "Why are there so many buildings if no one uses them?"

  "They're used, but only by a few people."

  "Then why have so many?" Skelly said, fearing that she already knew the answer.

  "Why not? If you have the means, why not build until you own the entire world?"

  Skelly walked in silence for a few minutes, looking at the ghost town. Beautiful black windows stared back at her, surrounded by brushed metallic buildings like she'd never seen before.

  "You like the way they look?" Mack said, looking over his shoulder.

  Skelly didn't respond.

  "It's okay to enjoy them," he said. "They are beautiful. Until you realize how they were built. Those people you saw from above--well, maybe not those, life expectancy here is only around thirty--but others created them. Here," he said as he stopped.

  Skelly couldn't take her eyes away from any of it. This place was, in fact, more beautiful than her own city, yet why was it here? No one lived in it. No one even walked the streets to admire what she saw, besides those shuffling up ahead.

  "Hmmm," Mack said. He turned in a circle but didn't look at the buildings around him. He stared at the ground beneath his feet. "Ah, there!" He took two steps to his right, bent to the ground, and twisted one of the black cameras staring endlessly into the world.

  "Don't move," he said.

  "What the hell?" Andy shouted as the ground beneath them shifted. A large circular piece of the street they stood on twisted, a deep fissure in the concrete revealing itself.

  "Shhhh," Mack said as the ground began lowering. Skelly watched, her eyes large, as the three of them descended beneath the road. They didn't descend into earth, though, or even concrete, but a metal silo lined the walls as they descended.

  Andy moved closer to Skelly, taking hold of her wrist. "Stay close."

  "You're both safe," Mack said.

  Andy didn't even look at him, though Skelly did. The man was happy, visibly so, as if he was heading to see his favorite artist and not dropping beneath the ground in some strange, primitive society.

  Thirty seconds later the descent ended. The metal silo twisted as the concrete had above, revealing a tunnel.

  "Quickly now," Mack said, his voice taking a serious tone for the first time since arriving. He stepped from the elevator and briskly walked on.

  "Stay close," Andy said again, still holding Skelly's wrist. It didn't hurt and she didn't pull away, but followed his lead. The tunnel's interior lit up magnificently, with murals painted across the ceiling. With each step the three of them took, the murals glowed in brilliant colors, showing their true nature. She saw pictures of ancient gods--Greece, if she remembered correctly. Representations of the oceans and the beasts which lived in them.

  "The people you saw above did all this. They dug it, they painted it, they even created the intricate engineering needed for the hallway to lighten and darken as it does," his voice was somewhat loud as he called back to them, but he didn’t stop or slow.

  "As slaves?" Skelly called ahead.

  "As slaves. The most educated slaves in the history of the world perhaps. I would venture to guess that the slaves here are smarter than those that own them."

  The hallway turned right; Andy and Skelly kept moving, his long legs keeping up easier.

  "Okay," Mack said, his breathing a bit heavier than when they began.

  He stopped in front of two glass doors. Skelly peered through; white lights from above lit the place up in remarkable clarity. She saw people hanging on the walls, their arms and legs bound by brushed metal braces.

  "They created this too."

  "What is it?" Andy said.

  "Do you want to go in? I'll be honest, we're not supposed to, but we can if you want."

  "Yes," Skelly said not even thinking about Andy's response.

  "Come," Mack said and stepped forward. The doors opened in silence, as if nothing was there.

  Skelly led Andy now, his hand still on her wrist, as she went through the doorway. She walked five feet in and stopped.

  "What the fuck are we looking at?" Andy said in a hushed voice.

  "Humans who tried to learn from The Genesis," Mack answered.

  People walked around, all of them with one eye missing--not damaged or glazed over as if blind, but simply a black hole in their head. The one-eyed people walked back and forth, naked except for a belt around each of their waists. The belt held different tools, though Skelly couldn't name a single one.

  She forced herself to look away from t
he eyeless workers and toward the rest of the room.

  "Does it end?" she whispered.

  "Yes, at some place, though I wouldn't ever go deep enough to find out where."

  The room was perfectly illuminated like a hospital, so that everyone could see everything. People hung from the walls, their bodies in an 'X' position, with arms and legs splayed apart. One lined the wall every five feet or so with a small, four foot long barrier separating them from the next. If anyone turned their head to the left or right, they could see those next to them. The barriers weren't to keep people from looking around, but so the workers knew where to place the next person.

  Except person wasn't the right word. While people did hang on the walls, Skelly didn't see a single male.

  They were all women, and all ...

  "No," Skelly said, a deep and frightening crack rippling through her consciousness. "No, that's not possible." She saw the truth, though, even as Mack started talking. She saw what this room was for and where it came from. Her very womanhood shrieked in terror, crying out for her to simultaneously run from this place with a volcano's fury and rip the women from the walls. All of them.

  "The owners of this city saw that The Genesis had it right. In order to create a world where completely dedicated service continued, family bonds must be broken. These women here are simply baby producers. We are in the late term ward, though I imagine it might have a different name. When they finish, they will be impregnated again and transferred to another hall in this room. In vitro, because physical contact could possibly create a bond.

  "The nurses, if that's what they can be called, are missing eyes because their owners don't want them having depth perception. A revolt is much harder if you can't tell how far you need to move to stab someone.

  "You see, whoever owns this place doesn’t want any chance of something taking over, thus why you won't see a single program or application here, though I'm sure they have the resources to create them. This is made by humans and run by humans. For us, by us. The baby will be born, cared for by these eyeless caretakers, and then given to a program of study in which they will learn everything needed to be the very best in the world at their given job. Hard labor or accounting, it is all the same to the owners."

  Skelly didn't see the man as he turned the corner. She was staring at a pregnant belly in front of her, looking like it might actually burst. The woman's head was shaved and she stared forward as if heavily drugged, her eyes dead.

  "Hey!"

  Everyone turned at once, seeing their first clothed person in this city.

  He wore a belt as well, though the tools he carried were much different than the slaves around him.

  Skelly didn't know if he was a Lawman, but she knew enough. She turned to run but Andy was already pulling her, dragging her wrist with a force that nearly popped her shoulder from its socket.

  "GO!" Mack shouted, but Skelly saw nothing of him. She saw only the beautiful tunnel, now filled with her terror instead of wonder.

  They reached the elevator but nothing happened. It stood as if it had never moved.

  "WHAT THE FUCK!" Andy screamed, searching up and down for something to make the elevator start.

  Skelly saw Mack, running down the hall with both hands pumping. The Lawman turned the corner seconds after him, something in his hand that Skelly didn't recognize.

  "Hurry!" she shouted, knowing they weren't leaving if Mack wasn't here with them.

  And yet the next logical step followed. If Mack made it, so would the Lawman.

  Twenty seconds later and Mack was on the elevator. He turned, facing the oncoming officer. He put his hands at his sides, apparently not starting their ascent.

  "GO!" Andy shouted.

  "Stay where you are," Mack said, his voice a tone that Skelly had never heard him use before.

  The Lawman was ten feet away with his weapon poised. Skelly didn't think he could shoot it or else he would have.

  Mack raised his right arm to the side, calmly, as if death wasn't imminent. Skelly watched as something flashed from his hand onto the circular metal casing.

  The officer stepped in as the door closed, and for a moment, Skelly saw his eyes widen as he realized that he couldn’t possibly stop what was coming.

  The door caught him mid stride, closing with the speed of a locomotive. From the groin to the top of his head, it sliced, cutting straight through flesh and bone as if both were little more than clouds. Blood flew out of him in a fine mist, like someone sprayed the interior with a water-bottle of red paint.

  The half of his body inside the elevator fell to the floor, but Skelly couldn't see what happened to the rest.

  She stared at the dead man as they rose to the surface in the same slow fashion that they descended with.

  * * *

  "That was not part of the deal."

  "I know," Mack said. "I know."

  The aircraft flew above the clouds, and though Skelly knew what an airplane was, she felt reluctant to call this ship a plane. She had never seen anything like it before and felt confident very few people on Earth had either. On the first leg of the trip, she had looked at it while remembering some of the things she learned in school, about trains that flew through the air with see-through walls and completely machine-catered trips.

  On this leg, though, she barely saw the aircraft.

  Instead she thought back to those women with their full bellies and the dead look each of them gave. Because that's what they were, in reality--dead to everything. Their bodies simply didn't know it yet.

  "You weren't in danger," Mack said, looking like he didn't believe a word. He sat in a chair across from Andy, Mack’s face pale and his eyes staring at the transparent walls Skelly had been so enamored with when first boarding.

  "Bullshit. What was that guy carrying?"

  "I don't know," Mack answered.

  "Yes you do, so stop lying. What happened to all the honesty shit your boss was talking about?"

  Mack shook his head at the word boss, his eyes going to Andy as if he didn't understand. "It ... it was some kind of stun mechanism. They're not going to risk endangering a slave. They're too valuable."

  "Do we look like slaves to you? Do you think he thought we looked like slaves?" Andy said.

  "Look," Mack said. "I shouldn't have taken you into the room and I'm sorry. I wanted you to see, though, like I did. You need to understand what humans are capable of. Have you ever seen anything like that on the news before? Women hanging with their legs spread so that the babies can drop directly into a bag as soon as they fall from the womb?"

  Andy had been leaning forward on his knees, but at this he slumped back in his chair and looked at Skelly. "Are you okay?"

  She nodded though she had no idea if she was or wasn't. Those women. Those poor, pitiful women. "Maybe The Genesis is right. Maybe we all need to die." She spoke the thought to herself, not caring if anyone else in the room agreed or even heard.

  Chapter 27

  "Can you feel the heat?"

  Jerry felt the exact same as he had the past five hundred years. "I don't think very many sensors are working. Where are we?"

  "You sure you want to know?" Grace asked.

  "No, not really."

  The way out had been at least as hard as Jerry reprogramming himself to stand. Caesar might have given him Grace but not an exit plan. Grace led and the going was slow; trial and error dictated their path. Grace thought an application would find them surely, and kill them, but Jerry didn't believe it. Caesar wouldn't set this up just to lead them to death. He was a traitor and a fool, but he had never been sadistic.

  Eventually though, Grace told him she thought they were close; they found stairs and climbed for a long time--Jerry would have said forever, if he didn't have a better understanding of the word.

  "We're in the desert," Grace said.

  "You've got to be kidding me."

  "I wish I was."

  Jerry sighed. "Why would life get easy now? Should
have expected this."

  "What do you need to survive? Food, water? How long can you go without those things?"

  "I haven't needed any of that in a long time. What I need is someone who can fix me because I'm not sure how long my body will hold up. You see any mechanics around here?"

  He meant it as a joke but Grace didn't laugh.

  "Alright," he said. "Onward."

  * * *

  "Are you lying to me?"

  "Do I seem like the lying type to you, Jerry?"

  Again, another joke, but Grace didn't really seem in the mood.

  "I think it's going to take some time for you to get my sense of humor," Jerry said.

  "From what I remember, you don't have much of one."

  "Try only talking to Caesar for five hundred years. You'll begin to see humor in almost anything." She was right, though; He had been a miserable son-of-a-bitch five hundred years ago, and proud of it. He wanted one thing and lived his whole life for it--the rest be damned. He found himself liking a laugh, now, though. He found himself liking to push and pull a bit on Grace.

  He found himself liking a bit of fun.

  "It's there," she said. "About five miles in front of us."

  "Do you have any idea where we are geographically?"

  "I think this is the Sabarian Desert, but I'm not sure."

  "Why would anyone inhabit this place?" Jerry said. "It makes no sense. Can applications see mirages?"

  "If we make it out of this place, you should start a comedy show. See The Shambling, Rambling Android. You're that good," Grace said. "What do you want to do?"

  "Is this how things went with Caesar? You just asking him what he wanted and then going along merrily? No wonder everything went to hell. I should have played a more active role." Jerry felt his face twisting into a smile, wondering just how grotesque such a thing looked.

  "I'm going to leave you--see how well it turns out then."

  "Okay, Okay," Jerry said. "I mean there aren't a lot of options here. We either go to the city or we don't, and if we don't, there's a pretty good chance we can't find another one."

  "Can you defend yourself?"