The Remnants of Yesterday (24 page)
Read The Remnants of Yesterday Online
Authors: Anthony M. Strong
“So I don’t have a brother.” The realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt angry and sad, both at the same time.
“You do. Jeff is alive, at least out here. We modeled your brother in the simulation on your real life brother. We do that for all of our patients, it helps their mind accept the new reality.”
“This is a lot to take in.”
“I know it is.” Meadows placed a hand on my shoulder. “We never intended this, believe me.”
“Then why wake me up?”
“We didn’t mean too. Of course we knew it was dangerous to employ sensory input from this side to contact you, but that shouldn’t have caused this, at least, not on its own.” Meadows looked genuinely perplexed. “Something must have happened within the simulation to throw you out. Something traumatic that caused your consciousness to reject the new reality, at least temporarily.”
The bus crash. I remembered the chase, Clara losing control, the bus flipping. “There was an accident. I was hurt.” Another thought struck me, a much worse one. “Or I was killed.”
“You didn’t die Hayden. Even in the virtual world, if you die, that is it. Game over.” Meadows glanced past me again, toward the unseen person. “We have to put you back inside. You can’t stay here.”
“And what if I don’t want to go back?” I didn’t want to return to that nightmare, but I also knew Clara was there, and I couldn’t abandon her.
“There’s no other way. If we disconnect the download, you absolutely will die.”
“I’m already dying according to you.”
“Only your physical body Hayden. But if we unhook you, it will be like flipping a light switch. There’s not enough of you left, not in your own brain. You exist in the server now, on our computers. We can’t bring you back.”
“Oh.”
“It’s a one way street I’m afraid.”
“So what happens now?”
“We put you under again, put you back to sleep, and you wake up in the simulation.”
“Will I remember this?”
“Yes. We wiped your original memories, or rather the computer did, but we can’t wipe this. You are already a part of the simulation. Any newly created memories will remain. And that is good.” He leaned in close, his mouth next to my ear. “You need to reach New Haven. Lead anyone you can find there. Save them. It is safe there, I assure you.”
“Wait.” I needed more information.
“There’s no time. Who knows how this, being here, will affect you if we don’t. There may already be adverse side effects to coming back here.”
“But–”
“Listen to me.” His voice took on a grave tone. “Things are getting worse. If you don’t get to New Haven soon the virus will catch up with you, infect you all, just like Emily. We can’t stop it Hayden, we can only slow it down, but you must get to the safe area.” He looked up, nodded to someone. “If you will, nurse.”
I knew what that meant. “Wait, please…”
It was too late. I felt lightheaded, the room spinning, fading. I caught one last glimpse of Doctor Meadows standing over me, a look of concern on his face, before the room collapsed in upon itself in a flash of bright white light. In that moment, I saw something else too, another person in the room, coming into my narrowing field of vision, a clipboard in her hand. I could hardly believe my eyes, it was Emily…
I GASPED AND SAT UP.
“Oh, thank God.” Clara was crouched next to me. “You’re back.”
“What happened?” For a moment, my mind was blank. My head hurt. I looked around, surprised to find myself propped up against a tree. “Where am I?”
“The bus rolled.” Clara reached out and took my hand. “You took a real beating, hit the roof. We thought you were dead.”
“No such luck.” Things were coming back now. I remembered the chase, shooting back at the truck after it took out our tire. I also remembered the strange room, and Doctor Meadows. Was that all just a dream, something my mind fabricated while I was out cold? It must have been, because I also remembered seeing Emily, alive and well, just before I woke up. The only way she could be there, out in the real world without a scratch on her, was if the whole thing was nothing more than my own damaged mind keeping me entertained until I could recover from what must have been a tremendous knock on the head. Finally, pushing the unsettling thoughts from my mind, I looked at Clara. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine, except for a few cuts and bruises. I was wearing a seat belt. Those school busses are built like tanks.” She smiled. “Not that I’d want to do it again, mind you.”
“Yeah.” I glanced sideways, toward the road. The bus lay on its side. It looked like some almighty hand had taken a hammer and pounded it. All the window glass was gone, and the yellow paint was now missing in places, replaced by scrapes of bare metal where the vehicle had bounced and slid. Along the road, behind the bus, was a trail of debris. “Boy, we really wrecked that thing.” I forced a smile. It hurt my face so I stopped.
“We’ll probably need new wheels,” Clara said.
“I never liked that bus anyway.”
I recognized Darwin’s voice, and turned to find him sitting a few feet away on a fallen tree trunk.
He looked like he’d gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson. His eyes were swollen, and there was a gash on his cheek. His jeans were torn at the knees. When he spoke, I saw that his lip was split. “Damn thing made me feel like I was back at school. Next time let’s find a sweet sports car, a Ferrari or something.”
“I think we can find something a bit roomier than that.” I was relieved that he was still alive.
“What’s the point of being the last people alive if we can’t have some fun with it,” Darwin replied.
“Fun can wait.” I remembered what Meadows had said, that I should lead the survivors to New Haven. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the phone, hoping there would be a message on it, some sort of confirmation that my encounter with the doctor was real, but the screen was shattered, a spider’s web of cracks creeping over the surface. The phone was broken, useless. I threw it to the ground. “I guess my phone fared worse than I did.”
“Who cares,” Clara said. “We’re all safe. That’s what matters.”
“Not too safe.” I remembered Gary and the other morons in the truck. “What about–”
“Darwin took care of it,” Clara replied.
“He did?” I looked at him surprised.
“Yeah.” Darwin held the sawn off shotgun aloft. “Me and Betsy went and had a little chat with our friends in the truck.”
“You killed them?”
“I did what was necessary.” Darwin placed the gun back on the ground at his feet. “They were pretty banged up after their truck hit that tree trunk. You scored a direct hit on the driver, put a hole the size of a grapefruit in his head. The other two were just sitting there, trapped in the wreckage. Man, they were in a bad way. It was more of a mercy killing really.”
“You shot them while they were defenseless?” This didn’t sound like the Darwin I knew.
“Yeah.” He fixed me with a cold stare. “Just like you shot Emily.”
“That was different.”
“No, it wasn’t.” He bowed his head, looked down toward the gun. “Seems this little trip of ours has made us all into killers in one way or another.”
“We’ll talk about this later.” I tried to stand, but I still felt shaky.
“You need to rest.” Clara moved close to me, put her arm around me. “We can stay here awhile.”
“Not too long.” I looked toward the wreckage of the truck pushed up against a tree several feet away, imagining the grisly sight inside.
“No, not too long.” She rested her head on my shoulder. “Just until we get our strength back.”
I closed my eyes, grateful for a minutes rest. There was a hard journey ahead of us, one which we might not all survive. I didn’t know what new horrors we would face before we reached New Haven, but for now at least, everything was calm. We were safe, we were together, and we had a purpose.
I put my arm around Clara, leaned down and kissed her, my lips lingering on hers, and for the first time since it all began, just for a moment, I was happy.
THE END
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