by Sam J Fires
The family’s financial situation grew dire too. In that time the scope of classical computing had grown even narrower and Jacob was forced to supplement his income by also retraining but as a plumber. Initially he never intended to join a plumbing gang, he was determined to merely respond to broadcasts as fast as he could and pocket the cash for completing the work. But that wasn’t to be.
The plumbing, electrical and other related gangs operated with a distinct pattern. Within any given area, plumbers or electricians were stationed at different points. When a broadcast was transmitted, the plumber nearest would proceed to tend to the work and collect the money. If any individual plumber or other gang tried to answer the call, they would be countered with brute force. The plumbers would then collect all the earnings and place them into a kitty to distribute at the end of each week. The portion of the spoils each member received was a function of seniority within the gang. Seniority was earned through either long, exceptional service or commitment to the gang. This would mean fighting off other parties who dared to venture into the gang’s territory and not dying.
On Jacob’s first evening as a plumber, he tried going out as an individual. A broadcast was transmitted not far from where he was situated, and his self-piloting motorcycle was able to get him to the location before any other plumbers. After completing the job and receiving the pay, before getting back to his motorcycle, he was attacked by a group of men.
They beat and kicked him so viciously and unceasingly with their bats and their boots that he was rushed to hospital sometime after without a cent to be found on him.
Ally was horrified by his condition and begged him not to continue, but the tears in her eyes weren’t enough to dampen his drive to provide for his family.
As soon as he healed, Jacob joined the very gang which had beaten him within an inch of his life. This was their life now.
Ally, for her part, found herself overcome with such a depression that consumed almost every drop of her hope. She was no longer employable, nor would she ever be again but every time she went for an interview or applied for a job, she could still only but hope. That hope brought feelings of pain, rejection and, on occasion, regret.
To lighten the load on Jacob’s shoulders she undertook the task of teaching Olly so they would save on the tuition fees involved in enrolling him into a virtual course. Besides, Ally was significantly better than the bulk of teachers in the system. Even so there were still challenges to be overcome. Quantum computing had made the enforcement of copyright much more stringent and effective and in opting to avoid the costs of virtual education, Ally decided the best way to teach Olly would be with actual books.
For a long while she struggled to find any physical books but then it dawned on her that there was one place where there would be books. The FF communes.
She debated with herself about going there, relentlessly reviewing the pros and cons. One thought which held her back was what if someone did want to hire her and they found out? Again, hope was her enemy which held her back from doing what was required to live in the actual world.
Of course, if she did ever end up going, she would have to keep it from Jacob. Previously when she was abducted by the task force, Jacob had been beside himself looking for her and Olly and then trying to re-assemble his family. She could not put him through anything like that again.
But as the days went on, curiosity captured her mind and she couldn’t stop obsessing over the thought until one day she made her way to the nearest commune. With no interest in becoming the next Barbara Miller, or whatever the girl’s name was, she left all her technology at home which basically meant everything she owned including her watch. Almost everything was connected to the internet to both receive and transmit information. She didn’t want a silly slipup like this to lead to her demise.
So, with nothing but the clothes on her back, her subscription car dropped her off about ten kilometers away from the commune so she could walk the rest of the way. She approached the imposing monastery-like black gates manned by a collective of armed guards who were presumably FF members.
“What do you want?” One of the guards shouted at her as she made her way to the gates.
Ally felt a lump in her throat and had to summon all of her will to keep from turning on her heels and running.
“B-b-b-books” she managed to stammer.
The guards raise their weapons and trained them on Ally. She shouted, this time more calmly.
“I’m not a spy, I’ve come to get books.”
The guards looked at each other quizzically and then one opened the gate, came out and searched Ally before leading her into their home once satisfied that she was not in possession of any compromising technology.
Once inside Ally was led into a large drawing room and offered tea. She politely declined and was left sitting for what felt to her like an entire summer. Then a little man in a wheelchair was wheeled into the room. He was old with wispy white hair and sunken, sallow cheeks. Ally wondered why Methuselah had been wheeled in before her.
He sat, studying her intensely for several uncomfortable minutes and she noticed that his eyes were rather lively and seemingly intelligent.
Suddenly he announced loudly, “Welcome to our home.”
She was startled. The old man continued.
“We can never be too careful. Now why on earth would a sane person want books?”
Ally begin to relax. “I’m a teacher and I need them to teach my son.”
The Methuselah eyed her curiously. “Are these not available to you on your quantum internet?”
She was taken aback by his knowledge of the mode of communication utilized outside of the commune and he noted her surprise.
“We’re not hermits you know, we just don’t want to be bullied.”
She sighed and a sad look flashed across her face for a moment but not so brief that the Methuselah did not pick it up.
“You cannot have our books. It’s taken us years to collect them and we can’t just let them go.”
Her enthusiasm seeped from her body. Defeated she stood up, ready to leave.
“Thank you for seeing me and I’m sorry for wasting your time.”
The Methuselah seemed puzzled. “But who said that you had wasted our time?”
Ally was perplexed by the old man’s response and before she could say anything, he continued.
“Come. Bring your boy, use our books. Teach our children, and yours. We cannot give you money, credits or cryptocurrency but if you need anything for your home and we have it, you are most welcome to it.”
CHAPTER 6
A CLOSE SHAVE
T here was no question whether we were still going to try and salvage the sheet of corrugated metal. The Heap Sharks would soon be upon us, perhaps twenty more seconds and it would be too late for us to get away.
My hand was bandaged tightly but it was my right hand and my launching arm that bore the wound.
We both made a dash toward the wall. On reaching it, Israel began swinging the rope in a circular motion, the way a cowboy might have swung a lasso. Once he felt that he had generated enough momentum, he attempted to throw it high into the air. It hardly reached the top of the wall. He tried a second time but from the corner of his right eye noticed that a Heap Shark could be seen emerging and beginning to charge at us.
Israel’s second attempt at launching the rope was even weaker than the first. I grabbed the rope with my uninjured left hand and, with one desperate swing of my weaker arm, threw it up mightily.
The rope flew high into the air, latching onto the wall. I gestured for my brother to climb and without hesitation the small boy scaled the wall and was on top of it within seconds. He turned to indicate a Shark only a few seconds away. Another two emerged and were only a few yards away. With my good hand cut, I would probably climb the wall half as fast if by some luck I was able to get away from the Shark bearing down upon us.
The Shark, now not even a meter away, lunged at
me but I managed to step out of the way and yank the rope-hook free from the top of the wall. The Shark lunged again, but I was a step ahead of him once more and was able to avoid him a second time, but the hook of the rope came crashing down on my head with an unimaginable force.
I wobbled on my feet, like a boxer about to hit the deck, and blackness engulfed me momentarily, but somehow, I was able to regain my senses. My head with a hundred pounding hammers, but I picked the hook off the ground with my weak hand and raised it up like a weapon.
The two other Sharks arrived and were bearing down upon me too. With my back to the wall and the three Sharks forming a semi-circle in front of me and more beginning to arrive, I did the only thing left to do. I launched the hook up high so that it was within reaching distance for my brother to catch it and hook it onto the wall.
While the Sharks had been preoccupied with me, my younger brother had been preparing Plan B. He lit the first of three Molotov cocktails and dropped it down so that it landed in the half yard between me and the Sharks, creating a flaming barrier between us.
He dropped another for good measure, and it struck one of the Sharks whose clothing caught alight. This Shark panicked and instinctively grabbed hold of the Shark nearest to him. Israel might have lacked strength but not accuracy. The human side of the Sharks emerged as they all began to panic in the face of a blazing fire.
I needed no invitation to begin climbing the wall and, even at a significantly reduced pace, and with blackness again threatening to engulf me, I was able to make it to the top without incident. Israel let me abseil down from the wall first before following suit. One Molotov cocktail remained, and we decided to use it to create a distraction in the border city. But first we had to blend in again. We discarded our poaching paraphernalia and gear, keeping only our pants and shoes while removing the thick black jackets we had been wearing, revealing the skimpy, ripped t-shirts beneath.
I took the last Molotov cocktail and lit it, before flinging it at one of the more popular drinking spots in the border town. This drew a lot of attention as the venue was more populated than many of the other spots around. We quickly fled the boundary wall in a practiced casual manner, but my heart felt as though it would come up out of my mouth at any moment.
We reached the place where we had been staying and entered our room, trying to ensure that nobody saw us. Once inside, we packed enough of our stuff to make it appear as though we were leaving but left enough unpacked to make it seem as though we would be back one more time before leaving. Whether the Sharks and Heap Lords came after us now or later was irrelevant, eventually someone would tie us to this room.
We dressed again, Israel putting on a hoody that had belonged to me when I was younger, and I slipped on a camo jacket. I dressed my wound again as best as I could, the way our mother had taught me, and then we fled the border town under the thick blanket of smoke and chaos we had created.
We walked until dawn and then rested for the day. A blessed relief as my head felt ready to split wide open. We moved again in darkness, always wary, Israel now having to support me as the pain fought to take me down.
A pale, yellow light crept from behind, growing the illumination around us as an old camping van carrying a family emerged as if from heaven. Parents, two daughters and a dog. Our rescuers.
CHAPTER 7
THE COMING OF THE SECOND SON
A lly had recently discovered that she was pregnant again and had told Jacob. He was mortified. He was happy for Ally, for the both of them but he had no idea how they would manage to feed another mouth. Truth be told, he had no idea how they had managed thus far.
Ally was positively glowing as she had been for a few months now. He was happy to see her laugh again and now thought he knew why.
A baby. Our son.
But in reality the source of Ally’s happiness was far more complex but yet much simpler. She had been teaching the children of the commune every day for the past couple of months, except weekends. Naturally, Jacob still knew nothing of this, always being out with the plumbing gang, fighting over scraps like football hooligans.
It was more than the teaching that brought her joy. At the commune people were less stressed, happy, natural. Living tasks took more labor than in the world she retired to every night but the living itself was more rewarding. Life was degrading outside of the commune.
She had come to learn that the leader of the commune, the man she had dubbed Methuselah was one of the founding fathers of the FF named Bryan.
Bryan had been a successful psychologist and motivational speaker a lifetime ago who intuited the spiritual consequences of the fourth industrial revolution and sought to remedy this by creating a haven and an example for the rest of humanity.
Initially he had found it hard to persuade people to believe in his concept. Earlier on he was even accused of megalomania and Fourierism. The movement, however, did attract some attention when some libertarians, concerned about their security and freedom, found refuge in his writings and began to assist him in his ambitions.
It was this combination of spiritual idealist and right-wing conservatism which gave the Friends of Freedom its split personality.
Ally’s favorite part of each day was when she got the opportunity to speak to the Methuselah by herself. He was wise and penetrating in his insight about human nature and she soon became bewitched by the sway of his charisma. One person she couldn’t stand though was Bryan’s second in command. Adam.
He was brutish, cruel and about as right wing as it got. She could not understand how Bryan could take an oaf like Adam as his second in charge. She had asked him once and Bryan had said “He’s loyal and he has a role to play in what’s coming. We all do, but he will never be more than a second in command, even after I go. There must always be a purer heart at the helm.”
This routine continued for a month or two and then on a day no different to any other Bryan revealed to her what they had been planning, what they had been planning for years.
Adam though was secretly jealous of the time that Bryan had been spending with Ally and rumors began circulating that she would replace Bryan as their leader one day. After hearing that plan straight from the Methuselah’s mouth, Ally knew she could not postpone telling Jacob.
Bryan permitted this on condition that Jacob was brought to him during the big reveal. Ally had only intended telling Jacob of her employ with the FF after the arrival of their second son, but there was no time left for that.
“There’s something I’ve been keeping from you” she said. Jacob looked at her surprised at this admission for there was something he had been keeping from her too.
“Promise that you won’t be mad” she continued.
Jacob merely continued to stare at her, waiting.
She then explained it all to him. Where she had been going, why she’d gone, why she stayed and how at peace she had felt at the commune while Jacob remained patiently silent the whole time, waiting for her to finish.
Normally he would have been angry at her for keeping something this significant from him, but instead he merely began to sob a heartbroken cry before revealing his secret to Ally.
“About a month ago I began feeling confused and dizzy. I found it difficult to do any work. I was always short of breath and I would often find myself coughing up blood. I passed out on a j..job…” He began to weep again, and Ally began to weep with him.
She embraced him, placing his head against her pregnant belly.
“I passed out and was taken to that same hospital again. They say I’m terminal. They say I won’t make it six more months without a quantum cure. They…”
The two wept together, standing and embracing one another long into the evening. Yes, there were treatments which could greatly extend the life and quality of cancer patients, treatments a lot more effective than chemotherapy, but like everything else in the quantum era, it was beyond their budget and they knew this without even bothering to investigate.
T
he next day they packed the things they could not bear to part with and made their way to the FF commune where Jacob had intended to spend his last days and hopefully meet his second son.
On arriving at the compound, he was met by Bryan who was being wheeled by Adam. It had been a very long time since Jacob had seen a wheelchair or for that matter any vehicle which did not wheel itself. The four of them went to the very drawing room where Ally and the Methuselah first met. Olly was ushered by one of the women to play with one of his friends.
On Jacob’s arrival, Bryan remarked that “I am a bit surprised to see that you’ve come with your wife here so soon. I expected the birth of your second son to be what drew you here.”
Jacob looked down. “I’m dying. I have about six months to live.”
“We’re all dying Jacob, but lucky are those who know it and make the most of what time they have left.” This didn’t comfort Jacob.
Adam now addressed Jacob.“How much has she told you?”
“Nothing. Yet.” Ally replied.
Jacob was confused and muttered under his breath. Great. More secrets.
The Methuselah spoke up again. “I instructed Ally not to tell you of our plan and I myself might not have volunteered anything today. But time is of the essence for us all so I will let you know our plan and whether you agree or disagree with it, you will not be allowed to leave these premises. Do you agree to this condition Jacob?”
Jacob looked at Ally. “I’ve come here to die. That’s the only way I’m leaving, Ally.”
She took his hand in hers and began to tear up again.
“You’ve come to die but might find that it’s the first time you really live Jacob,” Bryan said.
The Methuselah continued to explain their liberation plan to Jacob. After hearing the details of the plan, Jacob felt sick in his guts.