by P. S. Power
He was wearing cool clothing that was tight, all in tan. A top and pants of it that reminded him of long underwear, except that it was lighter and more form fitting. Technologist clothing. That didn't really make sense though, did it? He searched the room with his eyes, looking for his weapons, but they weren't there at all. Some knives were, which made sense. He hadn't kept his nine or the forty-five at all.
They were lost in the fight. Hopefully he just wouldn't need them anymore.
It didn't take even a minute for someone to come into the room. To his surprise it was Heather, not someone sane. It wasn't a nice way to think of her though, so he let himself sink into a feeling of total compassion. That let him realize that he'd judged her too harshly most of the time. She was a product of the world that she'd been thrust into. He loved her. Just like everyone else.
"Jake. Decided to stop scaring everyone with that whole coma patient routine, I see? About time. It's been weeks you know. I was just coming to get you. After you go to the bathroom, I mean. Can you walk?" She said it far more kindly than her norm, almost as if she knew the answer was no and might never be again.
He was standing, which meant he could do it. Maybe poorly, but something the Technologists had given him seemed to make a huge difference in how fast muscle degraded or something. Taking a few steps he nodded.
"Probably not up to running for a bit. I can walk, I think. What's up?"
She shrugged.
"What isn't? Everything has changed. The Technologists, the ones that made the zombie plague, they're all in custody. The others have come back from that alternate reality to help us, since Burt told them to do it. He's in jail, too. Kind of. It's really more like they're all locked in their rooms. They aren't even really locked in though. They were just told they couldn't leave. Odina Victoria nearly had a fit that we didn't kill them all."
Jake tilted his head.
"Odina Vicki? Since when? Is Yalla..."
"She stepped down to take a place on the new ruling council. Vicki is the Valkyrie leader now. I told you a lot's changed, didn't I? Anyway, let's walk and talk. Everyone will want to see you." She went to the door at a quick pace, then had to wait for him to catch up. She didn't say anything about it though.
He smiled at her, noticing that she'd bobbed her hair off and dyed it a golden blonde.
"Like the new hairdo. So, the bomb?"
"A nuclear one, Lois set it off. The House is a hole in the ground now that no one can visit for generations. The Technologist were not happy to hear about that, but several people offered to shove another one up their behinds if they whined about the destruction, since it was their people that had made us do it. No one is really happy with them. Not even the ones that came back to help us. Kind of blaming them for what Burt and his people did."
That got a nod from Jake, a thing he shouldn't have been thinking popping into his head. That they were probably going to have to kill the ones that had done it all. It wasn't a good thought though, and he decided to try to save them if he could. Once the danger was past they'd need all the help they could get rebuilding. It wasn't fair punishment, but it made sense for Burt to spend the rest of his life trying to fix what he'd done.
After all, this wasn't over. Not by a long shot. They had so much more left to do. More than he'd probably live to see. As it was he was kind of surprised that he'd survived that last bit. That was probably down to some pretty advanced medical tech, no doubt.
The room he was taken too was small, and filled with a dozen people. The only Technologist there was Hal though. The rest were his people, the ones from the House. Not all of them though. Ken was there, looking a lot better than he would have thought, standing next to Dave and Carley. Nate was with Carl and Samuel, all of whom turned to stare at him as if they thought he was dead or something.
The rest of the people descended on him in one group, patting and holding him tightly as he laughed and returned the moves as well as he could. It was a good thing after all.
"Mickey! I was so scared. Heather said you'd live, but..." Colleen kissed him, her lips warm on his.
It took a second to realize that the others were trying to get his attention too, Cam holding him from the side, not letting go, looking ready to steal him away if she had too. Sammi had his left hand, her eyes glowing a little, but smiling.
"Jake. We have work to do, as soon as you're ready." That comment got a groan from the room, or at least half of them.
Cam huffed at the Bawdri Princess.
"He just got out of bed, can't you, I don't know, just be happy for a minute?"
She nodded but had a serious look on her face.
"Sure I can. But we still have things to do. The first one is showing everyone that Jake is alive and well. He's the glue holding this all together. Then we need to see about the trial. Waiting won't help anything. There's so much to do. We haven't even really stopped the zombies yet. That will take decades. There are still Windigo, the new kind, out there as well. The Technologists are working on a way to stop them as well, but it could take time."
That... Jake stopped, his body going still for a minute. It was more serious than he'd thought then.
"Right, we need to stop them as we can. We need new Cleaning techniques for them... Maybe if we can set beacons that aren't attached to people? For that matter how is it that Burt isn't being attacked right now?"
Heather pointed up at the ceiling.
"This is Australia. Up on the surface, I mean. Surrounded by water. They just can't reach us here. Burt can't leave though. Not until the last of the Cannibals is gone. I told you that they were scary. Way worse than zombies. No one believed me though, did they? Crazy Heather and her stories. I didn't think you'd try to fight them all yourself though. I never saw that happening at all. And they call me insane?"
"OK. So, if I can get something to eat, I guess we should start planning how to take care of all this stuff. This isn't going to be easy." He smiled. "I mean feeding me. I'm starving."
It got a polite chuckle, but he was taken to a food assembler in what looked like a cafeteria, feeling pretty good about the whole thing for some reason, he ordered pizza, wondering what would come out. It turned was plain cheese with white sauce on it, but was good for all that. A bit like a grilled cheese sandwich really. The whole thing was hot and it was just once slice, but it was probably more than he should eat, unless he got out to collect some bio-material himself soon. It wouldn't do to make more work for someone else.
He picked at the food for a while, starving, but feeling a little sick from all the grease on it. He wouldn't waste it, he couldn't, even though it could have been put back in the hopper on the top of the assembly device without losing anything from it at all. The idea made him feel even worse than being sick did. So he went slowly, taking almost forty minutes to get it all down. No one questioned him on it, but they didn't leave either, or even eat, just sitting around him as if he was supposed to be doing something and they were waiting for him to get to it.
There was need to hurry though, he knew that. Not so much he had to force himself to be sick though, or waste food.
When he finished, the small white plate the food had come on going back into the top of the machine, he stood, feeling a little better for the food. It wasn't really enough, but it was a start. Jake didn't know where to go next, or what the plan was at all, but one of the Technologists came in, a girl that looked to be about fourteen or so. One of the people that had stayed behind like the Linsters, with her family.
That was clear, because no one glared at her like everything bad in the world was her fault.
"This way, please?" She didn't wait, just heading down the hallway outside the room, making Jake speed up a bit to keep up, everyone else following along. They were delivered to a much larger space, that was set up to look a lot like the floor of the U.N. Tiered seating with members from each group waiting at their own table, ready to go. In the front there were three seats. Yalla had one of them, Morris
on the far side. In the middle was Darian.
Of course. The Bawdri did like to lead after all, and they felt almost entitled to the job. It wouldn't have been who he would have picked, but that wasn't fair. Darian wasn't a bad guy, just a little old. Even if he didn't look a day over forty, the man had been around for thousands of years. It didn't really seem to have made him a better person though. Just one that had more reason to distrust others.
"Thank you all for coming. We've held off passing judgment for the accused until we could all be present. If they could be brought in?" The Bawdri looked across the room at a doorway, one that had a stream of people come through it. They wore Technologist tan, but Jake realized he did too. In fact they all looked to be identical to him. Not as skinny, but that had to do with other things, like the fact that they'd never had to go hungry.
Except for Burt. He was skinny too. He'd let himself starve with everyone else in the House, for some reason. Maybe as penance for the rest of what he'd done?
There were no guards and they weren't shackled or held in any visible way. It didn't really matter though, did it? They couldn't run fast enough to escape the rest of them, not starting from the room they were in. Following behind them, also dressed in tan, was Morten. He had two eyes now, but one of them was metallic silver, not made of flesh. He held his head proudly enough, until he saw Jake, then he looked down at the ground, taking his seat without making eye contact again. There was a gallery to the right, where the rest of them sat, spectators it seemed, not expected to talk or give any testimony.
The event wasn't a court case at all. No one was denying that they'd done it, tried to kill all Humans everywhere. Or that the way they'd done it had been chosen to play on Human fears on purpose. Burt explained why it had been zombies though, his voice serious and a little sad.
"We needed something that would spread and keep being transmitted, so we created a vector that wouldn't stop. Hunters that would seek out uninfected populations, so that even hiding wouldn't work forever. I see now it was a cruel thing to do, but even the base fear they produced was on purpose, keyed into the terror centers of the mind so that people wouldn't be able to resist as effectively." He didn't sound proud of himself at least.
Each person accused got a chance to talk. Not all of them were exactly contrite about the whole thing either. The woman that had been in charge of the remote base they were in just laughed at them for instance.
"Why bother with this farce, just kill us like the barbarians you are, and be finished with it. I don't really care if you feel good about it later." She sounded a bit bitter, which wasn't fair, considering it was her fault that most of the world was a disaster area.
Jake kind of liked Morris's answer though.
"Why bother? Because as hard as it might be for you to see, we're desperately hoping that one of you can say something redeeming. That in some deep recess of your being there lies an ember that we can fan into a flame of hope. That's why were bothering."
The woman didn't seem to be impressed by that though, not at all.
"Hope? You do have hope now. You have a chance to fix this wreck of a world, if you make it happen. Your chances would have been better if you could have just waited another three months, but who knows, maybe you can pull it off? Just don't get lazy or let people guide an entire planet with greed again."
They just went down the line, the third to last man standing as the others had, his voice firm and loud enough to be heard without amplification. It was a decently large room, but not a stadium or anything, for all that it looked like one.
"Excuse me, please? I don't understand..." He pointed down the way at Morten, gesturing with his whole hand.
"That boy isn't one of us. I used advanced conditioning protocols on him, against his will. He acted in our interest, but it was never his choice. Punishing him for it is incorrect. Punish me for what he did, if you must. It's where it's due." That actually got a stir from the seats out in the gallery. Finally a voice spoke up, strong and commanding in tone.
"We should see to having him checked for signs of such before passing sentence. Perhaps the Linster Family would see to that?" Vicki was wearing a white outfit, one tailored to her, but no sign of rank or badges. Some of the other people had things like that, but not her. Nothing that might get in the way during a fight.
"Seconded." The man that called out was Winsor. He glanced at Morten and shook his slightly shaggy head. "As long as Jake agrees, I mean. It twas him that was left to die."
A few other people tried to say no, but Yalla looked at him from her raised perch and shrugged.
"I agree. What do you say, Very Good Man." She used it like an official title, almost as if invoking a higher power.
Jake stood, just in case anyone didn't know who he was, raising his voice like he used to when performing.
"For my part in this I think that we should seek to forgive them all. Which won't be easy. As to Morten though, I believe that this other man has taken responsibility for his actions, when he has no need to do it, not if he was lying or simply wanted death. We should get him checked out, of course, but that's a formality. He should never have been put on trial here at all. Or, you know, whatever it is we're going to call this." He smiled, hoping it didn't seem over the top. It was just that they had too much to do to waste people on anger for things they couldn't control.
After that Morten was scanned by Sara and pronounced to have signs of severe tampering. Burt and the man that had taken responsibility for it both stood and walked over, as if they weren't prisoners on trial with their lives in the balance, explaining things to the woman, who finally walked Mort out by the arm, looking around like she expected someone to try and stop her. No one moved at all though. Finally Jake waved for her to just go.
Burt started talking, no doubt as a distraction to get the kid from the room.
"I take full responsibility for this. For all of it. I'm sorry. I won't say it didn't have to be done, there was nothing else. But I won't try to claim that necessity makes something like this right either. I..."
That started a fight. Just an argument, but one that lasted for about an hour, with several of the delegates proclaiming that they'd kill the man with their own hands if the council didn't do it for them.
Jake just listened, finally taking Colleen's hand. That seemed to surprise her though, at least she jumped a little bit. Heather, who was sitting behind them, leaned forward to whisper.
"See. He likes you. Things got messed up, but it wasn't either of you doing it, you can make it work. Don't give up. If you die now it will kill him you know. You need to keep her with you Jake. Like I always said. Things will be better now. Fewer people messing with you anyway. Make sure you invite me to the wedding. Maybe I can actually get a date? I can't see it happening, but there were a lot of things I missed. Hope..." She smiled, a dreamy thing that looked satisfied.
"That's going to be a wonder to see. The world to come is better than the one we had, I think. I mean, not that there won't be troubles, but we get through them. We all do. In the end."
The whole room had stopped arguing to listen to her, which made her blush, but stand up too, her voice getting stronger as she spoke.
"We make it. By working together, by choosing to be good instead of mean, or greedy, or petty. We're going to build a new world and it will be something no one has ever dreamed could happen. A place where no one is hurt, where we listen to others ideas. A new thing that no one here would ever imagine in a million years. It starts now." She went silent, sitting again.
After a minute she nudged Jake's shoulder.
"I said it starts now. Better world... Get on that, will you?" For some reason that got a laugh. Not knowing what to say Jake stood his breath leaving him as it hit what he had to do. It was going to be different than what he'd been thinking though, wasn't it? Instead of heading the hunting teams for the Windigo, he had to step back, and be what he was always supposed to be.
The Very Good Man.
Though not at the end of the world at all. Just at the beginning of the new one.
"Right. Let's do this thing then. I'm passing sentence on these... villains. Please stand." Waving his right hand he waited for someone to object, but no one did. They just waited for him to speak.
"Burt... Humperdinck Linster, you've admitted to causing the deaths of over six billion people. You claim that it was to save the planet. This is, simply put, the very worst thing that anyone has ever done, no matter how good the reason. For the rest of your days, in penance for this crime, you will work tirelessly to fix the things you have done. Other than rest at night and breaks for meals you shall seek no pleasure other than your work. No one will watch you, or seek to harm you. But you will not fail in this task. Do you agree to this?" That part was important.
Burt nodded, then licked his lips, as if he understood what it really meant. It wasn't some kindness Jake had given him, it was a command to do the impossible. And never give up on it.
"I do." He said it somberly at least, as if there was actual weight to it.
"Fine. Get to it. Everyone here will give you what aid you need, and make certain no one stops or harms you for what you've done. Go. Do what you can to repair it all."
Then, one by one he asked the others if they would accept the same punishment and if they really understood what it meant. One by one they left, the room silent as they did. When the last person was out of the room Jake turned to the rest, looking around at the people nearest him first, then out at the room, finally he addressed Darian, Yalla and Morris.
"Some people will think that this was a kindness, but if we're going to have a better world it must start here. If people make a mistake they need to be given the chance to fix it. If they cannot, they need to try until they create something better than what they broke. It won't work if people are insane or simply evil, of course, but we need to make certain that we aren't the ones causing the bad things. Sometimes it will be a mistake and cost us for not taking action earlier, but a truly better world has to have room for people that mess up."