by Jaclyn Lewis
“Propped up on my mother’s knee
Sitting in the shade of an old Oak tree
A shadow flies by quicker than a ghost
As she reads to me beside the coast.
And the book says:
‘As I was walking o'er little Moorfields,
I saw St. Paul's a-running on wheels,
With a fee, fo, fum.
Then for further frolics I'll go to France,
While Jack shall sing and his wife shall dance,
With a fee, fo, fum.”[1]
Kylee understands now. She’ll have remembered the same thing I did--our mother reading to Elise on the sandbank and a fighter jet flying so close overhead she had to cover her ears.
For all the tense moments and indecision I have felt, I know this is the time. Telling Titus the truth could only get us so far and now we must do what we need do to survive.
It may have been a trap for Titus to leave us here alone, or we may never get another chance, but we will never know and we have got to try to escape. I’m afraid because I know I am not cut out for this sort of thing.
We all glance at each other—hands poised on the arms of the large ancient chairs. We are ready to move, but just as Pax stands up, Titus comes back in.
“Well, my good friend Howard is just as pleased as I was to find out that I have more offspring than I knew about. The DNA test is back. Don’t get excited—I don’t intend on sharing my findings with you. He did offer me a word of advice, though. ‘Kill them slowly,’ he said. The lie detectors in this room have been radiating ever since you sat down.” At this he motions to the guards and they come over in full force.
Struggling against them, we all fight back, but are pushed against the walls to be handcuffed.
“Curtis, take them downstairs. And be gentle with the three.”
“I knew it! I knew you were a monster!” Ember screams at him—kicking the guard behind her.
“My dear. I am no monster. I am making a better world for you. For all of you. You’ll see. And when it’s over we’ll be together—a family.” She spits on him when he closes in to kiss her on the forehead.
The guard in charge—Curtis leads us out of the private suite—past a dining hall where workers have paused their lunch to stare at us—most of them just look confused. They probably don’t even realize what’s happening…what’s about to happen.
“They are lying to you! They will destroy this planet—your families, your homes!” I cry out. But just then I feel a sharp pain surge through my body like electricity and the room fades to black.
And there in the mystic void she waits. Like she has been trying to pull me to this one moment all along.
Chapter 24
*
Genesis
The breeze swirls while birds peck at tiny crumbs left by children and their lunches. Waiting impatiently in the center of the park, I’m playing with something in my hand. It’s small, the size of a diamond. I clutch it for dear life as he approaches.
Seeing Andre worried just like me awakens a sense of hopelessness. Maybe I thought he could handle anything with a smile.
“Did you speak to your father?” He kisses my neck as he breathes the question.
“Yes. Oh Andre, it’s worse than I thought. So much worse.”
Sometimes I’m still surprised by my own French accent in these dreams. But it sounds natural and right in this moment.
“The research he’s doing—it could bring an unnatural amount of evil into the world, power not like anything I’ve dreamed of. And all in his hands. He’s so focused on completing his research that he doesn’t care who’s caught up in the middle anymore.
“I asked Doctor Anutosa if the tests would hurt the baby and he told me to wait until after he’s born. But my father said he wouldn’t wait. He wants it done now.”
“Well, I’ll tell him ‘no’. Surely he wouldn’t harm his own child—and only grandson. He’ll just have to wait.”
“You didn’t see the look in his eyes, Andre. He’ll force me to do it. And I don’t want to.”
A flood of salty tears takes over from the emotion of the moment combined with the hormones that flow through me, and they make me feel like I will melt under the weight of my sorrows. This situation feels impossible. We sit down on a bench and he holds me, stroking my hand gently and brushing up against the diamond.
“What’s this?” He inquires.
“I couldn’t risk it—I couldn’t risk him misusing my genetic makeup so I stole it and the diamond it was stored in too. I came across some things—some things that make me think he wants to start over…”
“What do you mean? Start over what?
“Start over the human race. Using us as some kind of templates…somewhere else. This is about more than simple memory implantation, this is about destroying everything. I can’t be a part of it.”
“That sounds a little outlandish, Elise. I mean, he’s a bit eccentric, but I don’t think he would go quite that far.”
He thinks I’m crazy. How can he not believe me…his own wife?
“Andre, I want to leave the country.”
“Do you think you’re overreacting just a little? What about our commitments? What about CGC? I finally have a reputable job and you just want me to leave?”
“You don’t believe me.” I’m angry now.
“It’s not that…I’m just trying to wrap my head around it all.” He places a tender hand on my belly—I haven’t even really started to show yet, but there’s a slight bump that only the two of us really notice.
“We were the first to conceive a natural child in…how many years? Ten? Fifteen? That makes us special…he needs us. There’s something about us both that he wants so I don’t think he would harm us, Elise.” He assures me.
I have a feeling in the pit of my stomach that is uneasy. So I practically plead with him, “All I want is to go somewhere safe where we can lay low for a while and then after the baby is born, I’ll go back to work—try to undo whatever he’s done. But I don’t trust my father and he needs this diamond to do whatever it is he wants to do. As long as I have the diamond, he can’t do anything crazy with it while we are away.”
“This is what you want?” He asks to make sure.
“Yes. I want to go back to France—where my mother rests. I think I would like for him to be born there.”
Andre squeezes me lightly and studies the crystal in his hand.
“So…you’re in there, huh? All your memories?” He asks.
“Yes. I wish I could fit something more useful inside—for whoever ends up with it. So they would know the dangers that lie ahead. This technology—it frightens me. And we have to find a way to save our son.”
* * *
My chest aches when I finally stir from sleep. I jerk myself up—sure that there’s a sudden danger that I have to meet—someone I have to fight back. Violently, I thrust away the hand that reaches for me before my eyes focus and see that it’s Pax.
I’m in a room with five beds, and a small bathroom that has a door, but is open to the top. There are glass walls all around us, and guards are posted outside.
My eyes quickly search the room to make sure everyone’s here—Ember is lying on her bunk with her feet up against the wall reading something—a magazine, I think. Silas and Kylee are huddled together talking and Pax—Pax is trying to talk to me.
“I had a dream.” I tell him. “It was important.”
I pass on how Andre and Elise suspected Camp of doing something with their memories. How the memories were collected in diamonds—is that why the mining of diamonds on Erimos was so central? Is that why I chose the sun that first day? Were her memories really choosing me the whole time?
Then I go on to tell him about Andre and Elise’s conception of their child. There was something special about him—a child that would be born not from medicine or science, but simply love. He would be a healing balm for the human race, perhaps, carrying with him the hope
of natural birth. Him. That’s the first time they have mentioned that their child would be a son.
But she was scared and ran away to France. And we already know the end of the story.
Silas has crept over and heard the last part of the tale.
“What I can’t figure out,” he says, “Is how they recorded their last memories. She had her diamond, but what about his? Where were his memories stored?”
“Titus must have uploaded to the diamond again. She said he hadn’t finished the process so maybe he was hoping to. I just can’t believe he did that to his own daughter.” Paxton adds, shivering.
Looking around the room—at our circumstances now, I’m beginning to understand because after all, he is doing it to his children again.
Chapter 25
*
Dr. Mitchell
We’ve been locked up for several days now. The guards can hear and see everything that we do so there’s no way for us to really talk about anything that might interest them. They refuse to give us pens or paper. Every now and then they agree to project a movie onto one of the white walls.
Star Wars is a favorite of mine. Not only because of the space travel, but because the good guys win. And of course, Ember goes into a fit of laughing mockery when Luke kisses Leia without knowing that she is his sister.
“Oh cut it out already!” Silas says irritably. “It’s not like I ever kissed her.”
When I told a guard that Titus bears striking resemblance to Darth Vader, we had that privilege taken away. I couldn’t resist it.
We pass the time away playing tic-tac-toe with only our hands--remembering what moves have been played. Silas and I try it with Chess too. He’s able to remember the board pretty well, but I lose myself after a couple of moves and then he complains that no one will play with him and crosses his arms while he pouts.
So far, we have not been tortured or horribly mistreated. But I guess that’s a matter of perspective. Titus hasn’t been to see us at all and this makes me both uneasy and glad for every day we don’t have to see his face.
The food we’re given is not terrible and some days even borders on “tasty”.
Undoubtedly, Ember has formulated multiple escape plans, and shares some of them with us when the time is right—when the guards are changing shifts, eating, chatting each other up.
We know that we’ve got to get out of here soon. Finally, after nine days, Titus comes for a visit. He saunters in like the king of the universe, but we welcome him with closed stances and resolved faces. He has two guards standing on either side of him and a couple more with big guns watching through the glass.
I can feel Ember’s eagerness and the door is open…wide open. But we’d never make it out alive and she must know that because she’s forcing herself not to take the risk.
Titus sits on one of the empty beds and folds his hands calmly.
“I wanted to give you something…something that doesn’t just happen to you every day. It’s called ‘the chance of a lifetime.” He says.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. Your near relative Elise, sacrificed herself for the program…so you could live. I want you all to take her place, be at my right hand, watch as the universe evolves into something better. I think you owe that to her memory.”
“So it’s true, then.” Ember speaks up. “You plan to wipe out this entire planet…men, women, children. Because you want to be a god. Because you want to control everything.”
“There is no god. There are only things that work and things that don’t work. This planet doesn’t work anymore so it will be tossed aside like…like a piece of scrap paper you would toss into a wastebasket. But I have something better in mind and you can help me. I can tell you all the things you want to know.” His shoots a piercing a gaze toward Silas.
His own confirmation of his plans is all that was needed to make his guards twitch and give each other a sideways glance. In an instant, I can see that this revelation is news to them as well. How many people has he lied to? How does he even keep track of who knows whatever version of the truth he has told?
My heart stops and I prepare for the chance we’ve been waiting for—but not expecting to get.
And then it all happens at once—one guard tosses his rifle to Ember and the other holds back Doctor Camp. In the commotion that follows, bullets fly, glass shatters, and the sudden sounds all but burst our eardrums.
Running on adrenaline, we make it to the outside corridors. Three more guards who “switched sides,” have joined up with us, but we are still outgunned and outmanned.
“Which way to the specter bays?” I shout, straining to be heard above the volleys.
A rebel guard motions for us to follow him so we run down a flight of stairs into a dark and narrow hallway that leads us underground.
I played paintball once at a bachelor party. All my friends were outdoorsy types—hunters, fishermen, military guys. I was the only one who stuck out like a sore thumb. I remember thinking then that if I ever had to use a real gun on a real person, it might be breaking my oath as a doctor. I struggled with that feeling afterward—never knowing how I felt. That is, until Trina called me after being mugged at a gas station late one night. I remember how violated she felt when she cried in my arms that night and I resolved then and there to learn how to protect life as well as how to heal it. For the first time I saw how depraved the world could be. So the next day, I bought two pistols—one for me and one for her. We would practice on the weekends until the sound of the bullet didn’t make me flinch anymore.
And right now, in this moment on the run, I am glad for that decision. And just like back then, I fight to protect not only our own lives, but also the lives of billions.
All of a sudden, as if we are attacked by a million fireflies, bullets ricochet off the walls around us. Someone from behind is firing and I’m trying to get the girls to run ahead of me so I can fire behind. They’ve almost all made it when the scatter of sound stops. I got my target, but so did he.
Ember has fallen on the stones in a pool of her own blood.
One of the guards on our side hands me a flashlight. Her face is as pale as asprosium dust as she clutches her left shoulder. She stutters, telling me that she’s ok and that it missed anything important by an inch.
Maybe she’ll convince the others, but not me. There’s too much blood and I’m a doctor--I know she won’t make it far now.
But we’re almost out of the tunnel. If we can just get on the specter and out of here, I can work on her—save her.
Kneeling beside her, Genna is on her knees—a heap of hysteria.
“We have got to go! Get her up! Let’s go!” Silas screams.
The emergency lights are flashing in the tunnel now and a piercing siren is going off. That means the whole base is on alert.
Silas and I help Ember hobble to her feet. Two of the guards who were with us are already up ahead--calling and motioning for us to come faster. The other guard is bringing up the rear.
“Just go.” Ember barks. “I can handle myself.”
“Don’t be silly. We can’t handle ourselves without you.” Silas says even as he tries to control his own cracked voice. Just then, I hear more footsteps behind us. Silas has Ember by the arm and she is walking ok now. Then we break out into a run and the chaos resumes. The blast doors that separate the tunnel and the specter bay in front of us are closing and we run even faster.
Looking behind me, I check to make sure everyone sees the doors and is keeping up.
So far it looks like we will make it out and we run through the doors without stopping. On the other side, there’s shouting as the guards tell us to get on board the specter that is fired up and waiting for us. Suddenly, when I look behind me I see that the doors are closed and that someone was left behind.
Genna made it, but is screaming and beating the doors back to the tunnel with her fists.
As I whip myself around back toward the tunnel, everything happens in slow mo
tion. The guard who’s trapped in the tunnel with Ember is carrying her now –running fiercely and motions for us to stand back—but he’ll never outrun the guns behind him. He sets Ember on the ground and tries to shoot the doors open with his rifle, but they are bulletproof. The guards on this side are trying every code they know to open the doors, but have been locked out.
There’s so much screaming and noise and adrenaline. The seconds must be flying by quickly, but I’m able to focus on every detail—the yellow light that flickers in the corridor, the green of Ember’s eyes that match the soft grass of Paddock Isle in Pavana where the sheep graze, and the piercing red blink of the keypad that is identical to the color that flows from her body on the other side of the glass.
Just then we hear more gunfire and I snap from the pause I was just encased in. The noises have resumed—Genna’s screaming, Silas’ pounding, the guards pushing buttons. It’s like a symphony of horror.
The guard who is protecting Ember falls to the floor from a bullet to the chest and a shadowy figure emerges--slowly. It’s Titus. He knows we’ll be gone before he gets the doors open, but he smirks in victory anyway as he scoops Ember up off the floor. The speakers are on in the specter bay and Camp’s voice echoes off the metal in the room.
“Two of you will die. But there’s only one I want. You may escape, but one day there’ll be nowhere left to run. I am, after all, a patient man.”
Then, Ember is dragged away and we are forced to watch from the door that can not be opened—a separation that means freedom for some and captivity for one.
Chapter 25
*
Genesis
At first I’m faintly aware that Silas is pushing us toward the specter even as I’m kicking and screaming. He finally picks me up and I’m punching him with my fists. Time freezes again. My heart doesn’t beat, but it isn’t silent. And in the next moments it just splits down the middle in wrenching pain.