And here he was doing it again, planning to take Molly and Ben’s father away from them just after their mother died. What was he doing, mucking with people’s lives like this?
He knew Martin had planned to fake Damion’s suicide, but then he came up with this insane plan to download his brain into Damion’s. And it was the first he’d heard of this ridiculous idea to make Terri fall in love with him. He wondered if Martin had gone mad with the download. His ideas weren’t sane. He should put a stop to it before it was too late.
Chapter 49
Camilla heard Terri’s scream. She felt helpless, sitting at the camp on her own, so she decided to investigate. Terri had saved her life once, so the least she could do was to try and help her. She knew how thick the forest was, so she grabbed some scraps of leather to drape on the trees so she could find her way back. As she walked through the woods, she heard a groan to the left of her. What the? She headed towards the source of the noise and found Josh, sprawled out on the ground.
‘Josh, are you hurt?’
He groaned again, raising his hand to his head. She had a closer look and found a nasty bump forming there.
‘Josh, can you sit up?’
He groaned again and pointed to his swollen foot tangled up in the tree root. She gently disentangled it and helped him to sit up.
‘How many fingers am I holding up?’ she asked.
‘Two.’
‘Correct. Now how are you feeling. Any dizziness?’
‘No.’
‘Any blurred vision?’
‘No.’
‘Good, now let me check your foot. Just rest a moment, then we’ll see if you can stand. What happened?’
‘I heard Terri scream and ran to find her, then I must have tripped, and everything went blank.’
‘We’ll need to be careful you don’t have concussion, if you knocked yourself out.’
‘We need to find Terri.’ He tried to get up, but felt woozy.
‘Hey, take it easy.’
After a moment or two, Camilla helped him to stand, but he favoured his sore foot.
‘Can you put any weight on it?’
Josh tried. It hurt, but not too badly.
‘That’s good, it’s probably not broken if you can put weight on it. Can you try walking?’
Josh took a couple of steps. It was sore, but the pain was bearable.
‘Good, now let’s get you back to camp.’
‘No, we need to find Terri.’
‘Do you think you’re up for it?’
Josh took a few steps, doing his best to ignore the pain. ‘Yes, I think so.’
***
Terri was surprised to see Damion, as she was hauled into the cave, then tied to a chair by Ethan.
‘Don’t you dare hurt her,’ Damion said.
‘Why would I hurt Terri? I love her.’
‘I barely know you,’ Terri said.
‘Oh, but you do, remember my lovely apartment in London? Amazing views?’
She looked at Damion, then back at Ethan, wondering what was going on.
‘Come on, I know you remember. You donated your kidney to save Camilla’s life; you must remember that?’
Terri gasped, wondering how Ethan knew these things. He walked over to his computer and put on some classical music. Terri cringed. Martin knew how much she hated it, and now Ethan was playing it.
‘Who are you?’
‘It’s me Terri, Martin Bickford-Smith.’
‘No, Martin died, I went to his funeral, and they opened a hospital wing in his name. I think you’ve been brainwashed, Ethan.’
‘In a way, that’s true. A backup of my brain was taken shortly before my death. Now it’s been downloaded into my good friend, Ethan, here. I’ve gained myself another thirty years of life to work on my master plan.’
‘You’re insane,’ she said.
‘No, I know the truth. I know the answer to immortality.’
‘What on earth are you talking about?’
‘Think about it. The brain is a powerful organ, but it can only absorb so much information in a lifetime. So all I’ve done is transferred what I’ve learnt into a younger body, giving me another thirty years of learning and development.’
‘So what have you got to gain from this?’
‘Knowledge, a super race of intelligent beings to heal the world. At the moment we only have history to rely on for our mistakes. If we’ve actually have lived through the mistakes, we may have a better chance of not repeating them.’
‘You don’t know that.’
‘No, I don’t. But by continuing to learn and develop, we’ll be able to create better processes, more efficient transport systems. We’ll learn not to use up all the Earth’s resources. Something needs to happen, Terri, we’re ruining our planet. They’re even talking of colonising Mars as somewhere to escape to once the Earth is no longer liveable, a typical attitude of the human race. Let’s rape and pillage what we can, then find another planet and do the same.’
Terri had to admit he had a point. She’d seen it too; the greed of the real world still shocked her.
Martin continued, ‘The population has been dumbed down by society. Many people are sheep, blindly following the herd, not thinking for themselves. It’s not their fault. They’re being brainwashed in schools, by television, advertising, marketing. It’s everywhere. People are not encouraged to be individuals and spend their life following. The young kids today all look identical, same haircuts, clothing, following the fashions like a herd of goats.’
Damion butted in, ‘You’re as much a sheep as the rest of them. In London you wore designer suits, and owned a trendy apartment. You drove a BMW for fuck’s sake!’
‘And in your apartment you had the latest gadgets and drank expensive wine,’ Terri said. ‘What makes you think you’re so much better than everyone else?’
‘Because I know the truth. Admittedly, I did fall into society’s trap of enjoying the money I earned as a surgeon. I also loved the God-like feeling of saving people’s lives. But then I realised, what was the point of it all? I’d replace the heart of some rich scumbag, so he could carry on beating up his wife or stealing from innocent people. I’ve managed to see past all that. The only way forward for the Earth and the human race, is a super race. People who care about the land, not the money, like here in the Community.’
‘You keep going on about this super-race. How do you plan to do that?’ Damion asked.
‘Brain downloads. I’m still working on the technology, but it’s getting there. But continuing to download our brains into younger bodies is a start.’
‘But you can’t just willy-nilly go downloading your brain into innocent victims. What about Ethan? He had a life, memories. And now his life’s been erased as if he never existed.’
‘Not erased, Damion. I have a backup of Ethan’s brain. I can copy it back if I so wish.’
‘But you have no right to do it. It’s immoral, not to mention, illegal.’
Martin took a deep breath. ‘Damion, Camilla told me how you two used to talk about healing the world when you were at school. That’s why she was studying medicine and you had planned to be a lawyer. But really, do you think the two of you could have made a difference? My way will work. It may take a few generations, but we’ll get there, and I plan to be there to see it.’
‘You still haven’t answered my question. You can’t keep downloading your brain, and others, into innocent people.’
‘Who knows what the future of knowledge will hold my friend? Now it’s time to start downloading. Who wants to go first?’
Terri looked at Damion. ‘What’s he talking about?’
‘Ah, you weren’t here when I revealed my plan, were you, sweetie? I’m going to make you fall in love with me through a simple download. Want to go first?’
‘No, leave her alone. I’ll go first.’
‘I’m interested to see how my brain works in your body, Damion. It will be an experiment to see w
ho learns the quickest. I’m guessing it will be me. So far with our testing we’ve only had success by downloading to a brain with an exact DNA match, so I apologise in advance if I turn you into a monster.’
Damion shuddered with fear at the thought.
Martin dragged Damion’s chair towards the computer equipment. Still bound tightly, he was helpless to do anything about it. Martin hooked electrodes up to his head, then placed some headphones on him. He fiddled around on the computer. ‘Are you ready Damion? No? Too bad, it’s time.’
Martin clicked a button on his laptop and a buzz started playing through Damion’s headphones. Visions started whirling around in his brain. This can’t be happening. He focussed on Leonora and his children, trying to shut his mind off to the noise and the visions.
His children appeared, giggling and playing in the garden. An overweight lady called out, ‘Rupert, Claudia, time to come inside.’
Damion, racked with confusion, wondered what was happening. His children were called Molly and Ben; who are Rupert and Claudia?
He followed them into the house, where the woman dished up their dinner. Anger reared up within him at the sight of his fat wife.
She needs to stop eating too much, it will kill her.
Wife? That’s my wife? He struggled against the scene in his mind. No, no, Leonora is my wife. Who is this lady? He tried to bring Leonora up in his mind. Suddenly she came into the kitchen, but she was much younger, only a teenager of about fifteen. What was she doing in this strange house? The lady spoke to her. ‘Leonora, can you set the table please.’ Then she turned to face him. ‘Martin, can you get the wine glasses out and sort out a bottle of wine?’
Martin? She just addressed me as Martin? He fought the scene unfolding in his mind. Adult Leonora popped into his head again, with her vivid green eyes and braided hair. Molly and Ben were there too, and he clung to their image, afraid to let go. But his efforts were futile as they slowly faded into the distance.
Suddenly he was transported back to his childhood, a feeling of impending doom building inside him. His overweight mother was in the kitchen, stuffing donuts in her mouth. But Mum is thin, she looks after herself; why do I think this lady is my mother? Confusion enveloped his brain as he wondered what was real and what wasn’t. She saw him, standing there looking at her. ‘What are you staring at Marty? Now, be off with you.’
No, no, this cannot be happening. He pulled up images of Molly and Ben again, struggling to maintain focus, but the other visions overpowered them, and his children disintegrated.
He stared back at his fat mother eating donuts, then she suddenly clutched her chest, unable to breathe. Was she choking?
The scene jumped to a hospital, where his mother lay connected to a machine. A doctor spoke to his father. ‘She’s had a massive heart attack, and the machine is the only thing keeping her alive. We need your permission to pull the plug.’
Grief wrapped itself around Damion, squeezing all the air from his lungs. It was his fault. He should have stopped her eating so many donuts. How could he have let this happen?
***
The door scraped open and Josh and Camilla barged in. Familiar voices rang out.
‘Stop him, stop him, he’s downloading his brain into Damion!’ Terri cried.
Josh hobbled towards Martin and grabbed the headphones from Damion’s head.
Martin pushed Josh, knocking him off balance and he crashed onto the floor.
‘Ethan, what are you doing?’ Camilla cried out.
‘Not Ethan anymore.’ He held out his hand. ‘I’m Martin, your charming ex-husband.’
Camilla ignored his hand. ‘You need to disconnect Damion and we’ll talk about this.’
Martin picked up the headphones and placed them back onto Damion’s head.
Just then, Pete made an entrance. ‘Martin, this is wrong. Disconnect him now.’ He raced over to Damion and disconnected the laptop.
‘Now, now, why did you have to go and do that?’ He stepped towards Pete, who ducked as Martin took a swing at him. Pete kicked Martin in the shoulder, knocking him off balance, thankful for his training in karate. Martin scrambled up, grabbed Camilla and threw her at Pete, toppling them both over in the process, then fled out the door, not stopping to look back.
Pete and Camilla untangled themselves from one another. Pete ran to the door, but Martin had disappeared. There was no point chasing him; the others needed attending to.
Camilla checked on Josh. He was in a lot of pain but otherwise seemed okay.
Pete untied Terri, who promptly rushed over and hugged Josh.
Pete then removed the electrodes from Damion. ‘How do you feel?’ he asked, as he continued cutting the cables from his arms and legs.
‘That was awful, I had some weird visions whirling around in my brain and I think I just had a fleeting glimpse of Martin’s life. Thank God my own memories are back, but my head feels as if it’s been split open.’
‘With the technology we have at the moment, we can download only small amounts of data at a time. I’m hoping you weren’t attached long enough to have done any permanent damage.’
‘Why did you stop him? I thought you were his business partner.’
‘I was, but I didn’t believe in what he’d planned for you. I’d already made my own daughter an orphan and I didn’t want that happening to Molly and Ben. The Community has that effect on people, softens you up.’
Camilla and Terri lifted Josh into a chair. He was feeling better, apart from the pain in his foot.
‘I think you’ve got some explaining to do, Will. What the hell is going on here?’ Camilla asked.
‘My name’s not Will. I’m Peter Willows, the man who adopted your daughter over twenty years ago.’
Pete went on to explain from the beginning, how he’d been involved with Martin for years in his business venture. After the business shut down fifteen years earlier, Pete had clients requiring organ transplants. When he couldn’t provide them, things started to get messy with them demanding their money back. The only problem was, Pete didn’t have the money; he’d already spent it.
He started receiving death threats, so he forked out a fortune on extra security. Then they started threatening his wife and child and that was when he decided they needed to escape. He lied to Fenella, and told her he was taking her on an exotic holiday, just the two of them and arranged for friends to look after Alice.
Then, with help from Martin, he whisked Fenella away to the Community and their deaths in California were faked. Fenella had been beside herself with grief but by the time she found out, there was nothing she could do about it.
Martin still kept in touch with Pete, and when he told him about his new venture, he was more than keen to be involved. The technology was almost ready, and Pete was excited by it. But then word came through that Martin had died in a car accident. Pete knew what had to be done. He had talked about it many times with Martin before his death; Pete was to keep him alive by downloading his brain.
Pete then took Ethan aside and told him he was the chosen one. He was to receive special messages from his God and he would soon become an Elder of the Community. Ethan readily agreed, and the downloads started.
‘You guys are sick! Poor, poor Ethan. He was such a charming lad and now you’ve ruined him. You’ve turned him into a monster!’ Camilla said.
‘We have a copy of Ethan’s brain, so we can download it back.’
‘How long will that take?’
‘We can speed up the process in reverse, now we know what to expect. But when downloading into Ethan’s brain, we followed a gradual process so as not to arouse suspicion. We started the process five years ago, after Martin’s death. We started with a small amount of data and increased it each time, at six-monthly intervals. So we’ve been downloading data to Ethan’s brain every six months for the last five years. The first transfer involved some vague memories. He became moody afterwards, but the moods died down as time went on. Then six months
later it was time for another download and we followed a similar process. We decided it wasn’t safe to download more often than every six months.’
Camilla scoffed at the thought of it not being safe.
‘So how do you propose we restore Ethan? Keep him tied up for five years while we return his memories?’ Damion said.
‘I don’t know, but I suggest we find him first,’ Pete replied.
Chapter 50
To ensure there wasn't any panic in the community they decided that only Damion, Terri, Camilla, and Keith should go looking for Ethan, while Josh stayed behind and rested his foot. They split up and checked all the accommodation and buildings on-site, then spread the search to the beaches and swimming holes, but there was no sign of him.
Having no luck on the first day, they spread further afield expanding the search to the caves and forest, each evening return back to camp to update the others on their progress.
After they had spent several days scouring through the undergrowth of the forest it became apparent Ethan had disappeared. Damion however wanted to explore one last location, by visiting the cliffs that had frequented his dreams. So he and Terri set off on their last attempt to find Ethan.
Following the coast line for about an hour, Damion stopped to survey the area. ‘I think the cliffs are over there,’ he said, and they headed towards them.
As they drew closer, Terri picked up the slight aroma in the air. ‘Someone has a camp fire nearby,’ she said, twitching her sensitive nose as she followed the scent. Damion followed in awe, as he still couldn't smell anything.
Terri led them away from the cliff edge towards an outcrop of rocks, behind which they found a makeshift camp. A collection of branches stacked together formed a shelter, and embers burned in a fire pit. The bones from a part eaten meal lay beside to the fire. It looked like Ethan could hunt after all.
The Eternal Community Page 19
