Human Again: A Dystopian Sci-Fi Novel (Cryonemesis Book 1) (11 page)

“Yes.”

“Do you think you could fight them?”

“Damn right.”

“Why?”

“Because I trained myself.”

“Show me.”

“Show you what?”

I lunged towards Bahomi with a right hook. He took the hit and came back at me with a left hook to the ribs. I blocked his punch and pushed him away so I could kick his stomach. He toppled down on his knees.

“Painful, right? Can't you fight with real pain? Oh yeah, you never actually experienced real pain in your simulation training.”

He got up and tried to kick and punch me a couple of times. I avoided his hits or blocked them. Every time I evaded I gave him a punch to the stomach until he could go no more.

He fell to his knees again, gasping. Shanta stood next to him and touched his shoulder. He waved her hand away.

“That's why you need to train for six months outside of the simulation. You think you're quick because it's in your mind. But your body isn't ready until you train it physically.”

Shanta looked even more confused. I turned to her.

“Same goes for gun training, by the way.”

“What if your idea fails?” She asked. “What if we can't prepare them on time? What if no one joins your fun activity?”

“What happens if
your
plan
succeeds
?” I replied. “Let’s say we block the invasion. Then what? You think all the people wouldn’t want to escape back
into
the simulation? The remaining Purists would still be outside waiting for their next opportunity.”

Again I was met with their silence and their wondering faces, which revealed everything to me.

“You didn’t even wonder what would happen if you were successful, did you?”

Bahomi raised his eyes at me.

“That won’t happen because they will not survive. It’s either we kill them all or they run away someplace else.”

“And what do you think?” I asked Shanta.

“I don’t think we need to stay here at all,” I said.

“So where would we go?”

“North, as north as we can; where we can still live outside.”

“And do you even know what’s out there?”

“We need to get there and join the rest of the free people. This place won’t hold us for much longer; the power grid is weak and we’re under constant attack. Put it together.”

“Who will accept ten thousand people? You don’t know what goes on there and who’s fighting whom. How many resources are there to share with others?”

“It doesn't matter now. First we need to win this or else we have no future anyway.” said Shanta.

“That’s sound a lot like the Purists, doesn’t it? Moving from place to place, consuming and exhausting resources.” I said.

“There are abandoned facilities, research labs, schools and hospitals we can use. My mom has friends that can help us get settled there. It’s been offered before.”

“You have no idea what you’re going for and what are the consequences.” I stressed, “You have this desire to destroy everything but no plan for a new order that you want to create.”

Shanta was devastated. I didn't want to attack her like that but she had to understand that I was most qualified to lead this thing.

“Fine, we'll go with your plan for now,” she said. I could see the wetness in her eyes.

Bahomi got on his feet and stormed out of the cave.

“We start tomorrow. I'll gather the others.”

I could tell she wanted to go after him, but I stopped her.

“How many guns do we have?”

“There's enough for a thousand years.”

“What about ammunition?”

“When they built this place they entered the entire world's crisis data into a quantum computer. It gave predictions of how many incidents the city should expect. We have supplies for even worse than the worst prediction. The only part not ready is the people.”

That’s another thing that fed Padma’s false belief that the city could survive on technology alone.

“And how do we mask our activity inside the simulation? I don't want them to suspect there's something going on,” I said.

“Don't worry. We have a guy on the inside.”

“And he is…?”

“He masks our digital activities and wipes security camera footage for us. That's why we can all meet here with no one tracing us.”

“Who is this guy?”

“Let's just say he believes in our cause. We're not just a bunch of kids playing war like you said.”

She faced the door, hesitated, and then turned back to me.

“Thank you for helping us, I know it was difficult for you to make this decision.”

Chapter 13

For a month we were all cramped inside the cave that turned super-hot after all the physical exercises. But hey, it was super-hot outside as well and we had to prepare for the worst. I gave close combat Krav Maga lessons. Personally, I hated that fighting system because it was too aggressive and lacked the beauty of eastern martial arts. It resembled the Israeli attitude: graceless, without manners, cut to the point with no style. But it was designed to neutralize an enemy in the fastest way possible and we had no time to dive deep in eastern fighting philosophies.

My job was to make sure that our weaknesses would be lying beneath many layers of muscle and skill. If you want to be brave and fight in a closed narrow space, you have to trust your body and skills, not guns. Shanta, Bahomi, Toya and Dev’s posture were better, and I could see their muscles were bigger. Their gaze was more focused and calm, like snipers waiting for the target to appear. We ate so much bug-goo to maintain our growing muscles, yet it wasn’t enough, and I didn’t feel as strong as I used to back in my real army training. Luckily, the inside guy had masked the surge in food production data and smuggled bug-goo packs for breakfast lunch and dinner.

They hadn’t lain in simulation beds all day long, which was another part they had to mask. So they created their own avatars to play around in the simulation in case someone was looking for them. While the others sneaked in and out to the city, I stayed in the cave. I had one working gun with ammunition with me in case any Purist discovered the cave. I wondered how the Purists didn’t smell me after so many days of sweating and without taking a decent shower.

On the last day of the first month Bahomi caught up with me after we finished our session.

“If something happens to Shanta, I'll kill you,” he said.

“I'm not stealing her from you.”

I was honest. That girl wasn't stable; she tricked me into liking her so she could take advantage of my skills. She lied and manipulated me to become a soldier again. Not the ideal date, I would say. She was attractive, she was smart, but deep down I was still hurt.

He repeated his threat and then he walked back toward the city.

That night I decided to go back inside to take a damn shower. It’d been a month already and although I got used to the smell and dirt, I felt like I deserved a treat. Shanta arranged for the security camera footage to be erased, but I still I had to keep a low profile, and do it quickly.

I went back to the gym late to use the shower. It was empty. When I got out though, Isaac was there sitting on a bench and stretching. He was shocked to see me, and then he became angry. I felt like a teenager being caught doing something bad.

“Where have you been?” He asked.

“Away.”

“Away where?”

I could say nothing to him, and didn’t have time to make up an explanation either. So I just started walking. But he blocked my way; angry, old, and looking right at me.

“I can’t tell you.”

“You’re supposed to be in jail, everyone’s been looking for you.”

“President’s punishment.”

“Don't lie to me. I tell stories; I can smell a lie from miles away.”

“What do you want?” I said while trying to leave again.

He blocked my way. Something was different about him; he was frightening.

“Don’t think me for a fool. Wounded in a fight with a Purist, and then escaping jail. Everything's just too obvious.”

“That what?”

“You’re part of the resistance.”

My heart stopped. I felt every vein shrink in my body. I kept a frozen face.

“No I'm not,” I said in a soft tone, “I’m just trying to survive.”

He looked at me like he didn't believe me. And why shouldn't he? He read me like a billboard. I tried to divert and smiled.

“I was hiding until I could figure out what to do.”

That was the truth, but only part of it.

“Listen to me, my wife is in this simulation. She's having the best time ever. She's happy and unaware of everything that’s happening outside. I'm the only one who can keep her safe, ok?"

“Ok…”

“So I won't let anything happen to her. I don't know what your plan is, but if I feel that even something as minor as a cockroach's fart is about to happen—I'll tell Padma all about you and your resistance game.”

“I'm not a part of a resistance, why won't you believe me?”

I could hear Bahomi shouting in my head 'Just kill him!'  I was indeed close enough to break his neck but I couldn't do that and I couldn't have him expose us either. He didn’t realize that he and his wife are in greater danger than he thought. But if he did tell Padma, that’d be the end of me.

“So tell me the truth, what do you do?” He asked again, as if to give me another chance. He apparently didn't want to turn to extremes, either.

“I'm just…”

“If you try to lie to me one more time I swear on my soul I'll tell Padma.”

“Ok, I’ll tell you I swear, but please don’t tell Padma.” I played innocent.

“Let’s hear it.”

“Do you think THEY can hear us here?” I said softly, pointing toward the ceiling.

“Who?”

“I don't know; anyone that might be listening. Do they plant microphones in here?”

I didn't want anyone to listen to our conversation more than they had to.

He moved back and pointed toward the showers. We both squeezed inside and he turned the shower on. We stood near it fully clothed, our voices shrouded by the sound of the shower cycle.

I spoke quietly.

“I go out of the gun circle. I go on walks alone, I run and exercise.”

He looked shocked, like he had trouble believing me.

“That’s what you do?”

“I go in and out alone all the time.”

“How do you do that?”

“There’s a secret way, through an old service tunnel. Isaac, I just have to be outside. I can't stay inside this grey prison 24/7.”

“I see,” he said, looking calm. He apparently believed me, but looked like he didn't know what to do with what I just said to him.

“What if another Purist attacks you? What if you get kidnapped?” He asked, apparently fearing for me.

“Then it’s
my
problem. The guns keep you and your wife safe like they always do.”

He didn’t know what to think. My story fitted my extreme circumstances exactly.

“I can take you outside; you told me that you've never been out there,” I said.

“I haven’t.”

“You can’t tell anyone.”

“I won't,” he said.

I was exhausted. A couple of minutes after, I took him outside. We followed the same tunnel Bahomi had shown me before, wearing cactus suits. It looked like he was so happy, both to be going outside and to be wearing that damn suit for the first and last time. I was like his father now, taking him by the hand and showing him something spectacular he’d remember forever.

We came closer to the hatch.

“You can't be out there for long.”

“It's ok, I just want to see.”

Before I opened the hatch I put a piece of metal under the hatch’s sensor so it would read the hatch as closed, like Bahomi taught me. Then I pulled myself out and reached inside to help Isaac out. I closed the hatch and we sat on the ground watching the night sky. If you were ever in the desert you probably knew what we saw. We could see the Milky Way; stars scattered like sugar grains in blueberry pudding. I don't know why that metaphor came to my mind but I could actually see myself taking a spoonful of that sky. Isaac took a long breath.

“I used to look at the sky from a whole different planet,” I said. “What happened to this place?” It was more of a general wonder then an actual question but Isaac apparently also felt philosophical because he started storytelling again.

“You can't control everything all the time. Ever since the dawn of humanity we’ve tried controlling everything out of fear. We’ve feared the dark, fire, rain, hunger, growing old and dying. So in order to control X we invented Y. But Y always created another fear. We feared nature so we invented gods. When the gods didn't bring rain we feared hunger so we invented agriculture. We feared wild animals so we invented weapons. But then people started using weapons against each other. So we began to fear each other so we invented rules and governments to keep people safe and deal with the criminals. We feared immorality so we invented laws but then others began to punish by their own laws. We feared death so we invented medicine and medical procedures. Then we feared gene manipulation. We invented computers to control information and then we feared robots would take our jobs or kill us."

That was a lot to take in.

"Whenever we tried to control something we only made it worse by creating a new problem, along with the opportunity to carry it out. We made more complex and sophisticated systems that became too hard to control. We created industries that ruined our planet. We watched it get destroyed through our expensive lenses and screens because we needed more products and energy to control our life. So we had to go underground, because there was nothing left to control outside. There was no other way to control civil war and starvation. So our only solution was to control ourselves in simulations. We became digital gods. This world is not the best place to live in but we have no other place to go. That's the only thing we have left.”

“There’s not much difference between us and the Purists,” I said. “We stay underground using green technologies to sustain ourselves until the atmosphere settles, and they want to destroy all corrupt technologies so the world will settle.”

“We’re all human; we all need to wait until the world will be habitable again. The difference is that we take care of ourselves without causing more harm, while they are exploiting and destroying everything for their own interest.”

I didn’t say anything for a long moment. I had to let everything he said sink in.

“I understand your fear for your wife, but if you say we can’t control anything over time, then why even bother?”

“Because I love her.” He then stared into my eyes.

“We do irrational things for the ones we love, even if we know it’s futile.”

He gazed at the sky.

I had nothing else to add. I just lied to the first friend I made here, and hoped he believed me. I didn’t know what would happen to him during an invasion, or what would happen to his wife. I could just offer him a peaceful experience right now in hopes that any thought he had about reporting me was subdued by the sky.

We sat there for a couple more minutes breathing in the sky. He cried.

“I’m going back inside,” he told me. “Thank you for this.”

“It's the least I can do.”

Once he got back, I closed the hatch from the outside and walked all the way to the cave, making sure no one was following me. After I reached the cave I pulled out a mattress and laid on my back with my eyes closed, as if I was about to enter the simulation. I just needed to rest from having the responsibility of all the constant planning.

I closed my eyes and imagined the last day with my friends on the beach. It felt weird just imagining without the simulation’s aid, it felt lacking. In my own imagination, Noam and Dan were sitting next to me drinking their beers, staring at the waves. Everything was quiet: no war, no armies, and no worries. I looked at them and they seemed so peaceful and relaxed. Their expression was projected by my mind's desire onto their figures. Now I needed my own lightness, even if it was superficial and banal. I wanted Hadar. I started to miss her again so I imagined her sitting next to me, smoking, which I hated, so I made it go away. She was looking at the waves, waiting for me to create her first words. She had mocha skin and green eyes, silky black hair and a nose piercing. Back in my old life I hated when she took long silent moments because I wanted to know what was going on inside her head. I slid my finger on her shoulder. She smiled. I remember her skin was smooth as a peach’s. I lied down and put my head on her thigh. She leaned over and kissed me with her full lips. You might suspect I was horny but I wasn't. I just wanted a place to rest inside my mind inside the dark cave. Only then I could finally realize why Knaan’s simulation was built: so one could escape Knaan from time to time.

Being locked inside a shelter could be damned depressing, even if it was built to save your life. But it could be just as depressing to be ‘free’ in a ruined outside world.