“Are you proud of your daddy?” The Chancellor asked.
“Of course I am!” Lily replied. “Why do you ask?”
“I’m also proud of mine, God rests his soul. We are right to be proud of our fathers. After all, they did something amazing.”
“And what was that?”
“Come on, you know it. They made us.”
“I don’t follow.”
“Yes, you do. Right now, I strongly believe we are the only two people in this whole world with the capacity to really make the difference. All other fathers had children that did nothing but consuming.”
“Well, they could’ve done something if you had given them a chance to grow up.”
“I couldn’t afford. The planet was already exhausted, scarce and dry.”
“Look, if you’re going to start another lecture on overpopulation, you may stop right there! I’ve had enough of it from Shane, from Allison. What you do is extermination, pure and simple. Have you ever heard of something called birth control campaigns?”
“I most certainly have and they were not working. That’s because campaigns only reach the ones with brains. Let’s face it. People with the lowest IQs have the most babies and the infants won’t turn any less dumb than their parents. All they can do is increase poverty and exhaust precious resources.”
“And you think you can just play God and decide for everybody, is that right?”
“This line of thought really worries me. Like I said, you are, besides me, the only other person who can make a difference. And you’re losing a big opportunity here.”
“Yes, the opportunity to bring you down and I’ll make the most of it.”
“Oh, you’re so mistaken, dear. The world of before had famine, poverty, corruption, terrorism, violence and war. We finished all that.”
“And you replaced it by a plague that turned millions into reanimated flesh-eating corpses, which are doing some extermination on their own. You also experiment on people and children like they belong to you. Is that what you call improvement?”
“I call it means to achieve the greatest end of all.”
“I heard that crap before. You’re trying to produce the perfect top-models for a world designed to serve a few privileged ones.”
“I know what you’re referring to, and it couldn’t be further from the truth. We need to select those who will not destroy the world again after we fix it.”
“You’re selecting those who satisfy your very discriminating taste, that’s all.”
“A terrible misconception, you’re mistaking what we do for racism, which is preposterous. All we want is to raise carefully and scientifically elaborated genes, so we can have intelligent people populating the new world, able to use the planet’s resources we grow back in a wise way. This is hardly bigotry.”
“This is still toying with nature.”
“No, we’re fixing nature. You are the one toying with things you’re not supposed to. Can’t you see what you’re doing? You’re getting people killed by fomenting rebellions and myths about road warriors. You’re using your power to make the difference to destroy the order we’re fighting so hard to maintain. People believe you’re a hero, but all you do is bring chaos and anarchy. You should be ashamed of yourself. You are an irresponsible!”
Lily hesitated. She could not find arguments to rebut those last remarks. Meanwhile, explosions were getting dangerously close and the place was heeling over badly.
“Why do you have shareholders?” Lily suddenly asked.
“Well, um…”
“Yes, I was surprised when I heard that, too. But then it hit me, this whole deal is just a big enterprise, right? This talk about making the world a better place is nothing more than a façade, pure window dressing.”
“You’re twisting things up.”
“I don’t think so. You are the CEO of a large corporation who wants to raise profits by eliminating competition worldwide, so you can have total monopoly. And you’re also bringing up the perfect consumers, carefully and scientifically designed to buy your products, whatever they are.”
It was the Chancellor’s turn to hesitate.
“This is a consequence, not the main purpose.” He finally said.
“Nah, I think I’m right. Otherwise, why having shareholders?”
“You see, in every venture, there’s always need for some…”
“And you’re doing a lousy job.” Lily interrupted him. “Every little thing you did so far went wrong, and not only because of me. You lost Devasta Land, Condor City, Brokenville, and to whom ‒ teenagers, townies, zombies and a daddy’s little girl.”
“Those are all anticipated setbacks. We’ve never lost control over anything.”
“Really? What about Shane? She was supposed to die when the walls around the site collapsed, but she didn’t. Her brain somehow erased your security directives. And her next target was you.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“You’d better, she told me that herself. You should be thanking me. No telling what she would have done if I hadn’t killed her. And now you’re raising other children who have the same powers and capacities as she did. And you’re teaching them all the wrong values. What’s going to happen when they grow up and go out of control?”
“Minor issues to be taken care at a later time. What we’re doing and what we can do go beyond anything you could possibly fathom. Stop fooling yourself, Lily. You cannot win, so give up now to avoid more senseless killing.”
“You don’t get it, do you? People will fight you with or without me, because they don’t like what you do. You’ll always have rebellions to deal with. From their point of view, you’re the one bringing chaos and anarchy, disturbing the order they’re trying to restore.”
“You mean to tell me your ways are right?”
“I don’t know which way is right. But I’m sure it’s not yours.”
The image of the Chancellor began to break up until vanishing completely. If he had something else to add, the words got lost in the middle of destruction.
“As they say in the corporate world, without further ado…” Lily spoke to herself.
She ran out of the toy room and up the stairs.
The place shook even harder under the rattle of thunderous explosions. However, the fact that the oil-rig was more and more tilted downward helped Lily climbing faster. She felt like she was going straight ahead instead of up.
“I hope Oswald has already taken the children as far away from here as possible.” She murmured.
By the end of the stairs, Lily found another chamber. Inside of it there was a room protected by glass, accessible by means of a door with a small panel connected to it, intended to lock the door by password.
Beyond the glass, Lily could see blinking lights of electronic equipment, surely state-of-the-art apparatus which did not belong in an oil-rig. Some of the devices were partially destroyed, as if a fire had consumed that place before it spread outside. And the sounds of imminent destruction screamed all around.
Lily grabbed her boomerang and hit the panel attached to the door with it, hoping that such action would open the door.
“It won’t open.” A fainting voice came from the other side of the glass. “It’s broken. And these glasses are too reinforced.”
“Amy?”
The Australian walked around the room, searching for the person who had just spoken, until a bloody little hand touched the glass on the other side. With great effort, Amy stood up to face Lily. The girl had very little hair left on her head, and most of her body sustained second and third degree burns. There were still tubes connected to her.
“I knew you’d come…” Amy murmured, her voice very low “…for the children.”
“They are safe.” Lily said. “Now we must find a way to get you out of there. This place is falling apart.”
“I know.” Amy answered almost in a whisper. “But I’m not going… anywhere. My brain is… too damaged. Soon it w
ill tell my heart… to stop beating. I took their signal and… threw it right back at their faces. I guess some overload was inevitable.”
“You didn’t have to do that. We could have found another way together.”
“I had to pay… for the sins of my mother.”
“No child should ever have to do such a thing.”
“That’s why you have to take the children. Teach them… the right things.”
“We can do this together. They’ve surely learnt a lot from you already. There must be a way to get you out of there!”
“It’s too late. This is… something I should’ve done before, but I couldn’t hurt… the children. You made this possible, very good idea the power shutdown. It bought me the time I needed.”
“No, you made this possible, very good idea sending the song.”
“I didn’t know it.” Amy smiled with the few teeth she had left. “I found it… in your mind. It’s a beautiful song.”
“Yes, it is.”
“I sent it to Nancy too, so you would know it was a… message.”
“But if you could talk to my mind, why sending a message hidden in a song? Why didn’t you tell me in plain words that the Awakening room was in the oil-rig?”
“It would appear in the… system logs. Allison would have known.”
Amy coughed blood.
“Are you sure there’s nothing I can do?” Lily asked, tears welling up in her eyes.
“You must go. I’ll never forget you. I’m very happy I had the chance to meet the road warrior.”
“You are the warrior here.”
“I just did what my mother never could. She was blinded by power.”
“Speaking which, I’ve been meaning to tell you, sorry about killing your mom and all that stuff.”
“It was self defense. I know my mother was hurting you. She was hurting people. She hurt grandma badly.”
Amy held her burnt face against the glass and said:
“You have no idea the things you can do. The antenna up there… and all brain signatures will sink with this place. All instructions sent to people’s minds… will wear off in very little time. They are free. And they won’t know what to do. They need you. Lead them…”
Amy slowly closed her eyes and fell. The song stopped repeating in Lily’s head, to once again become a regular, soft memory. So Lily knew Amy was dead.
Very far from there, the same happened to Nancy, the music in her mind came to a sudden stop. She also understood. Nancy’s legs faltered, causing her to fall on her knees, crying the loss of her beloved protégée.
Lily went out the room and down the stairs.
Another door opened in the Awakening room and the Chancellor emerged. He walked to the glass and saw the massacred body of Amy leaning lifeless against the glass. His eyes flooded with tears.
“I’m really sorry that you and your grandmother could never see the beauty of this project with the same eyes as your mother and I did.” The Chancellor spoke to the inert body. “Just know that I loved your grandma with every beat of my heart, same as I loved you, and I always will.”
He took a few steps back towards the door he came in, still keeping his eyes on Amy. His cell phone rang. He answered it.
“I’m coming, Harland.” He said. And after a pause: “Yes, I noticed the rig is tilting and burning in flames. I’ll be there shortly.”
The Chancellor finished the call and put the cell phone back into his jacket pocket.
“He surely has the gift of perception.” The Chancellor grunted and left the room.
Lily rushed down the stairs, but the oil-rig was so tilted she was practically sliding down. She made it to the terrace, only to find out there was fire on all sides. All exits were hopelessly blocked by the flames.
“I do stop a lot to talk when I'm in a sinking oil-rig on fire.” She considered.
There was only one way down. In the distance, Lily could see the speedboat going at full speed.
She climbed on the protective guardrail and stood there.
“Okay, it’s Geronimo time.”
Lily jumped off the oil-rig.
27th MOVEMENT
Allison Forrester sat down on the seat inside her personal escape pod and tried to get comfortable. She set the coordinates on the control panel and waited for the countdown to finish.
“Fantasy Grove, here I go.” Allison divagated in the privacy of her mind. “I miss the Sugarloaf Mountain anyway. If those pathetic little rebels think this is the last they’ll ever hear from me, they are sorely mistaken. They have no idea what’s coming to them. No more miss nice girl.”
And the escape pod took off and cut the skies.
Mate, Tara and Price watched from afar the gigantic oil-rig sink into the ocean. The immense construction, which once glittered in the splendor of a limitless power, had become the grave of a little girl who dreamt of defeating the greed of man.
“Do you think she made it?” Tara asked.
Mate Clarkson did not answer. Melancholically, he lowered the binoculars.
The flames extinguished as the massive structure sank. The last device to hit the water was the big dish antenna, to also disappear into the depths of the ocean.
“Well, if she died, at least it wasn’t in vain.” Price said.
“I’m glad to know.” Lily said while clumsily trying to park the speedboat along the pier. “I would hate to die in vain.”
“LILY!!!” Mate cried.
“It sounds about right.” The Australian said. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m still alive.”
“Jeez!” Mate screamed. “I was worried sick!”
“You didn’t have to, boykie.” Lily said. “When I bought my seat in this pleasure cruise, I specifically requested a roundtrip ticket.”
“Actually, I was more worried about you driving this thing.” Price spoke. “All those zigzags of yours when you left the pier made me sick, and I wasn’t even in the boat.”
“Well, it’s not my fault if they put the steering wheel on the left.” The Australian responded.
Lily jumped to the pier and Mate hugged her tightly. Tara and Price helped the children out of the speedboat.
“What about Amy?” Mate asked.
Lily and the children lowered their eyes.
“She didn’t make it.” The Australian said.
“Sorry to hear that.” Price spoke.
“I guess Amy would have liked it if you took us back home, to our moms and dads.” Oswald said.
“That was the idea all the time.” Lily replied.
“Thanks!”
“You can wait in my truck.” Lily spoke. “There are soda pops in there.”
“Hum, Lil…” Mate said. “I guess you need a better catch phrase after rescuing folks.”
“Actually, they rescued me.” Lily revealed.
She turned to Oswald and shook hands with him:
“Thanks for coming back for me, man!” Lily said
“Don’t mention it.” Oswald responded. “For the record, we were not leaving you. As the docking bay was no longer safe, we took the boat out of there and circled the rig, waiting for you to jump from somewhere in there. Amy had already told us you always jump from someplace eventually.”
“I’ve been feeling a bit jumpy lately.” Lily said.
She turned to Tara.
“It looks like you won’t have to deal with the mainframe in the oil-rig after all.” Lily said.
“Yes.” Tara answered. “It was actually kind of stupid of them to make that mainframe the master. We’ve already erased the entire database of the slave mainframe here, piece of cake.”
“Now, the people of the world will have to once again wreck their brains to decide what to do with their lives tomorrow.” Price commented.
“We saw a helicopter flying out of the rig right before it sank.” Tara told Lily. “Whoever was in it didn’t give a damn to you and the children.”
“It figures.” Price spoke.
Major and his townies found the shielded dome the Undertakers had previously used to generate and send the Tornado signal. The place was rather unprotected at that time and they had no trouble breaking into it. All workers and guards were still there, except for Allison. The fancy equipments had been turned off.
“Please don’t shoot.” The head doctor said. “We surrender.”
“You most certainly do.” Major said.
“What’s going to happen to us?” Bonnie asked.
“You’ll be taken to Condor City and will answer for your crimes.”
The engineers and doctors were escorted outside. They ended up captured by rebel forces on account of contractual clauses.
Some men still stayed in the dome for a final search.
“I could turn this place into a bar.” Major considered.
“And perhaps put some chess tables here and there” His son suggested.
“I guess a pool table would be more lucrative.” Major replied.
“I think that big building over there would make a hell of a hotel.” Another man said.
“Yup” Major agreed. “This whole complex looks secure enough. All we have to do is find a way to get rid of those damn corpses littering the fields.”
Major and the other Brokenville residents decided to stay there for a while, to make sure the industrial park would not fall in the wrong hands again. Teenagers and children were taken back home.
Apocalily Series (Book 2): The Almighty Lady of Tomorrow Page 28