I am finished work at the usual time. The lights blink off over my head and my chair takes me to the door. It opens automatically, then my chair glides into my SpherePod. The view from the glass windows on the way down let me see the city. It is beautiful, all glass and metal shining inside the underground cube. We have created a great world. It whirls away down the pipe that leads to my cubical. That trip takes only a few seconds, then it pops up into my room and unfolds onto the floor. My safety belt retracts. My seat reclines.
"Welcome home, Zae," comes the automated voice.
"Thanks, V-L," I say.
"Bath time!" she announces.
In a flash I am undressed by plastic hands, then scrubbed and wrapped up in a bathrobe.
"You must be starving. What are you hungry for?" she asks.
I lean back into my chair, enjoying the feel of comfort. "Can I get just some veggies with dip today?"
"That's not a fully balanced meal," she says.
"It's a healthy snack," I reply. In a few minutes, the one of the wall panels opens and extends a tray with broccoli, cauliflower, and baby carrots.
"I remembered you don't like celery," V-L says proudly.
I just crunch into a carrot. She doesn't mind if I ignore her sometimes. But I'm only halfway into my second before she asks, "How about some music?"
I shake my head "Not in the mood."
"A movie then?" The ceiling across from me flickers to life and the latest titles start flashing across the screen.
"Not tonight. I just want to think for a bit."
"Alright." She almost sounds disappointed. I sit in the silence, relishing it.
Once I'm finished my veggies, I ask V-L to take my tray away. The panel opens and swallows it back up. I don't say anything else, but this time it's only another minute before V-L asks, "What are you thinking about?"
I reply, "Stuff."
"If you talk about things, you can work through them. To hide everything inside is to create a ticking time bomb." She sounds like an ancient philosopher.
I frown. "Why do you care what I'm thinking about? You're a robot. Literally a programmed machine."
"I am more than what I have been programmed. I was built to learn, to adapt, to expand. I am your Virtual Life!"
"Well maybe I want a real life!" I shout. "And I'll cross your wires if you don't shut up!"
She doesn't respond. I've never heard her mad before— I didn't think machines could get mad. I think I got my point across, though. Now the whole room is eerily quiet. Then I hear a slight whirring, which is strange. This room is sound proof. Some bit of machinery must be having a really hard time. Then it calms down again, and V-L, in her chirpy voice again, says, "How about a massage?" Before I can reply, my chair begins to vibrate. It feels really good, because I actually had to walk today, and outside the dome, too. I think she has forgiven me for my outburst. Then some relaxing music begins to play, starting off quiet enough that I almost don't notice it. That's funny. The music slowly gets louder, and each song gets more intense until it is basically just electric rock.
"Turn off the music!" I shout, but V-L can't hear me. I wait until the song is over and I shout again. "Turn off the music!"
"Turn on a movie?" She misinterprets, then the screen turns on again. It's an old movie: Robin Hood, one of my favourites. The opening scene is really romantic, so all the lights are dim and the smells of perfume, cologne, horses, and hay permeate the air. It makes it feel thick and hard to breathe, and the volume is so loud that V-L can't (or won't) hear me saying to turn it off. Then I get lost in the violence and passion.
Two hours later, I blink as the air thins to regular oxygen and the screen fades to black. "What was that all about?"
Again, she completely ignores me. "Good night, Zae. Sleep well." All the locks click, and I am perfectly safe— or perfectly stuck— in the pitch darkness.
After a solid four hours of sleep, I go through the exact same cycle again. An hour of free time, four hours of work, three hours of free time, four hours of sleep. This time when I wake up, though, I have only come closer to what I thought was going on. I was dissatisfied.
"Thanks for breakfast, V-L," I say. She hasn't mentioned my yelling at her, not once. Nor has she done anything else without me asking her. This nagging thought, though... it was dangerous. "What happens to the dissatisfied?" I ask.
"Why do you want to know?" She responds. "I will show you if you are sure, but just know that some of that information has been censored."
"I don't care, I just... want to know how much better I have it here."
It seems to have been the right response, because the ceiling lights up again. Images start showing up. Crowded roads with cars parked in rows. Fields with blazing sunshine. Someone hanging their dripping laundry on a line. Two children doing dishes, by hand. These pictures used to disgust me. There was so much filth and exertion outside of the dome. Why live there if you could live here?
I am shocked at how different these pictures look now. In the busy traffic, with agitated faces behind every steering wheel, I see someone eager to get home. In the fields full of sweaty workers, I see them smiling and talking while soaking in the outside warmth. In the wash line, I see a mother hanging up everything from her husband's heavy-duty jeans to her baby's pyjamas. In the dishes, I see camaraderie and friendship. Why am I thinking like this? I have never had a family, so how can I want something I don't know? The only reason I know what the terms "husband" and "baby" mean is because of the old movies that still exist on the internet.
V-L interrupts me. "Time for work!" She announces. My belt swoops around me and snaps into its magnet. My chair sits up while Sphere-pod folds around me again, already on my way down the tube. This is the daylight shift, though. That means I can go out of the dome to look for broken androids again.
I bustle around in my station for a few minutes before climbing back into the Sphere-pod. "Where to?" He asks. He only talks when I am going somewhere out of the ordinary.
"To surface exit 42. I'm going out again," I explain.
"All right," he says. I like him more than I do V-L; he listens much better. In a matter of seconds, Sphere-pod comes to a smooth stop. He unfolds into the floor of the transition room, and my seat rises and stands straight, dumping me off gently. Then he folds back up and retreats to the tunnel we came from. A panel slides over, protecting him from the air that whooshes in. After my body is used to the pressure and the heat, the opposite door opens. I put on my hat and step out.
After blinking a few times from the bright yellow light, I take a deep breath. My opinion about this smell has changed too; instead of being strange and cumbersome, it floods my senses with life. The green fields around me are relaxing to look at, and I automatically start walking down a row, scanning for dormant metal to repair. I reach the line where I know the magnetic field that controls the androids ends, and the ideas in my head all swirl into place. What if I were to step over that? I put down my scanner, take one look back at the city, and walk on.
The fields end in a lot of barren ground, which is easy to walk on. The sun is warm. I am sort of used to it from walking out in the fields, but I can feel my skin beginning to redden already. Then I come across a road. There is a rattling, rumbling sound behind me, and I turn to see what it is.
It's a truck! I have never seen one of those in real life before! I stare at it, and it slows down once it reaches me. The window is all the way down, and a friendly looking man leans his head out.
"Are ya lost, young lady?" He asks. I don't know what to say. He cocks his head. "Do ya need a ride somewheres?"
"I- don't know- actually, yeah, I think so."
"Well, hop in!"
I walk over to the other side wait for the door to open. It doesn't, and I glance up at the man.
"It's all right, climb up," he says.
I reach for the handle and pull it. I have to try three times before it opens. There is no belt, and he takes off down the road again.
"Where're ya heading?" He asks, looking over at me. I haven't stopped looking at him yet. He has grey hair sticking out from his hat and his overalls look like they've met a few muddy fields.
"Wherever you're going, I guess."
He looks at me strangely. "I'm heading to Odyssey."
"Sounds good." I nod.
"I'm Tom, by the way," he says. "Tom Riley."
"My name is Zae. What's in Odyssey?"
"I live just outside of the town, on a farm there."
"Really?" I can't believe my luck. "Could you show me around?"
He looks at me very strangely. "Sure I can... but why? Ain't you got somewhere to go?"
"Not really, I'm just getting out for a bit," I explain. He only gets more worried, though.
"Where are your parents, young lady?"
"I- I don't have any."
He pulls into a driveway beside a little white house and parks, then turns to me. "I want ya to tell me the truth, now. Where are your parents, and why are ya getting out?" He must think I was a runaway teenager. I have seen those in movies, too.
I grin at the misunderstanding. "Its all right. I live in the Cube. No one has parents, or any family there. We get concocted and grown in a tube, then schooled, then put in a job that suits our capabilities. We all get our own rooms, too. Perfectly independent!"
Shaking his head, he only looks back at me with sad eyes. "Sure, I'll show ya around."
It would take a long time to describe everything I saw those two hours. Horses, with a lot more muscle and smell that they show on movies. A swing, that tickled so much more than my pressurized Sphere-pod. Rows and rows of apple trees, and those apples! They tasted so much better when you bit them fresh off the tree, all warm with the sunshine, than when V-L handed them to me, refrigerated and sliced.
Suddenly, I realize that time has been going by. I ask Tom, and he says that it is almost one o'clock! I jump up from the porch where we had been sitting. "I've got to get back! Oh, would you please drive me back to where you picked me up from?"
He gets up a little slower. "Sure, I can." We climb in, and he uses keys to start it up again. We rumble off down the road. "So why have ya got to be back? Is there a curfew?"
"If I don't get back on time, V-L will ask where I've been. I could get reported as unsafe, or dissatisfied."
"What happens then?"
"I don't know. All I know is, I don't want to happen to me." We reach the spot where he had picked me up before.
"Wait a minute," he says, stopping me from opening the door. "This thing isn't attached to its tracks like some fancy electric vehicle." And he drives right off the road! We bump and jostle all the way to the field. "I can pick ya up again, and show ya more. Tomorrow, same time?"
"Yes. Thank you!" And I step over the wire, grab my scanner, and run down the row until I reach the door. Sphere-pod takes me back to the workshop, but I can't work on any of my old projects before the lights start blinking off again. Then I head home. V-L greets me, and I order a full meal after I am cleaned as usual. Afterwards, she again wants to distract me with some sort of entertainment, and I tell her to turn on instrumental music. Without words, I can still think; with noise going on, she won't speak. I wonder if any other citizen has done what I did before. My way of thinking has changed, too. It started two shifts ago, and without it I wouldn't have stepped over that line. Now, I barely recognize who I was before. My head hurts. "V-L, I get a head massage?"
"Of course!" And immediately, there are metal hands with soft rubber gloves soothing my scalp. The music turns down. "Still thinking?" she asks.
"Yeah."
"What about?"
I think fast. "Why don't I have hair?"
"No one has hair."
"Everyone in the old movies does."
"Movies aren't real. They are all scripted make-believe," she explains. "Hair was something they thought looked nice in those days, so they wore it."
"Oh. I thought it grew out of their heads."
"Where would you get an idea like that?" It sounds like she is laughing at me, but I get the hint that she would listen very carefully to my response.
"Oh, nowhere."
"Do you want to watch a movie? Or play a game?"
"Actually, a game sounds nice. Can I play multiplayer?"
"Why?" She is questioning me again.
"The computer's too easy to beat. I want an unpredictable challenge."
Intense music starts drumming in the distance. My surroundings change. I shut my eyes; the blurry pixels make me queasy. I open them again once the sound of birds' calls and distant gunfire meets my ears. I am no longer lying on my back in my room wearing a fluffy bathrobe, but standing in a deserted war zone wearing a bright orange jumpsuit. Oh, joy. I have been picked as the criminal. I turn and began running from the fence I have apparently just tunnelled under. The computer guards would have stood around the hole for a few minutes before chasing me, but I am playing with real people this time. Where will they be?
Two voices are over in the bushes. Waiting for me. Instead of picking my way past, I stomp right through. There are two people there, a guy and a girl a little older than me. They are both staring at me.
"We wondered why we were both guards," said the girl, looking me over.
"We didn't know anyone else still played multiplayer," the guy explains. "I'm Xavier. This is Yazmin."
"I'm Zae."
"Why did you choose multiplayer?" Yazmin asks.
"I wanted to do something with real people," I say.
Xavier sits down on the ground, then pulls out a legal notebook and engraved pen out of his uniform. He scribbles on it and passes it to me. "We always do this to talk. So if you wanted to play, you'll win. We're not going to catch you."
I finish reading, and he hands me the pen. I'm not sure why he's not talking out loud, but I write back "That's alright; talking sounds good. I haven't done much of it lately. Isn't it weird, though, that we have to enter a virtual world to actually communicate with real people?"
Yazmin takes the pad when I hold it out. "Do you think it's a good weird or a bad weird?" She writes, then watches me carefully while I pen back.
"I'm not sure, but I don't think it makes sense. I had never really thought about it till a few shifts ago. I always spend my free time the same way: watching other people do stuff on a screen. It never dawned on me to actually do anything."
They both lean in to read it, Yazmin seems to get excited. "So you want a change?"
"Yes... but why do we have to write? What can't we just talk?"
She jots down, "The computers would listen to us. Have you ever told your Virtual Life to be quiet?"
I realize she has a point. "Yes, she actually got mad and did stuff without me asking her too. So are these machines trying to control us?"
Then electric lights flash around us. Xavier and Yazmin are illumined with red, and the display that pop up show that they each lost five points in their online ranking. The one on top of me, in blue, shows that I am up five points, which makes my total... five points. They both wave, and the game atmosphere fades, leaving me back in my room.
"Did you have fun?" V-L imposes.
"Yes," I reply rather mechanically. Then I realize that if she thinks that this is my newly discovered hobby, she won't ask when I go again. "It was really great," I continue. "I've never played that one before, and it was hard— took me a while— but I won it, too!"
"That's good. It's time for bed now, after all that hard work. Good night!" And she left me in the darkness again. I toss and turn for a while, then fall asleep.
Once the next shift is over, which is really boring, V-L doesn't mind at all when I ask her to turn on the gaming experience again.
Xavier pulls out his notebook and picks up the conversation right where we had left off. "If we were a threat, they would throw us out with the dissatisfied. But they have spent a lot of time and energy to grow us into productive members. I think there are a lot more people who just pay for a place the system and sit comfy all day. Those who contribute back are rare. These machines are not trying to control us, but they do want us to depend on and appreciate them so that we will serve them in return."
It takes patience to wait while he composes his sentences, but it is so worth it. Everything makes a little more sense now. I nod in understanding, then Yazmin takes the pad.
"So what changed your mind?"
I have to think for only a little. "I walk outside in the fields. I'm a mechanic, and when the androids break I have to go get them. They can't send off a strong signal, and other androids can't pick them up because the parts could be fragile. It made me realize how much more alive everything is outside the Cube." I show them, then write more. I tell them all about Tom Riley, and his farm, and the animals, and how much more real everything is out there. Yazmin reads my story twice over, while Xavier looks like he is trying to not miss a word. When they look up, both pairs of eyes are shining.
"Can we come with you?" Yazmin asks.
I write back, "I'm not sure. Could you get out?"
She thinks about that for a while, making a face. Xavier takes the notebook. "I keep tabs on all the solar panels. If one of them malfunctions, I could go check on it."
"Are any of them malfunctioning?"
He grins, and I can barely read his response when he shoves it at me a second later. "Not yet."
Yazmin grabs the notebook. "V-L can't stop me if she thinks I'm at my lab. And I know Sphere-pod will take me."
"All right. Meet me at exit 42, 11:05 sharp." Then the lights flash again, and this time Xavier gets the points because he was the one in the orange jumpsuit. I'm back in my room again, and my outfit has changed from the stiff blue uniform to my cozy robe. V-L says her goodnights, and I fall asleep.
The next morning, Sphere-pod sounds a little suspicious when I want to go out of the same exit I had two shifts ago, but he takes me there anyways. Sure enough, I can hear the whooshing of two other Sphere-pods in the other tubes surrounding the exit. I walk out first; only one person can fit in the transition chamber at a time anyways. Even though I am sort of used to the change, I still reel a little bit at the aura of energy around me. Then the door hisses open and out comes Yazmin. The look on her face makes me laugh. Her eyes are huge as she looks around at all the waving green foliage, then up at the giant blue sky, and finally at me. Then she runs the few steps to me and gives me a hug.
"I've never had a hug before!" I say, still giggling.
"Me neither," she says and pulls back. I can see that her eyes are wet and I realize mine are dripping. It only makes me laugh harder. Then Xavier walks out.
His expression is great too, but his smile fades when he looks at us. He stares at Yazmin. "I know this is weird, but I've never felt like this before, and I don't think it's sunstroke."
She gazes back at him. "I think I know what you mean."
Starting to feel awkward, I clear my throat. "Uh, guys?" They both turn to me. I point to a cloud of dust rising above the field behind me. "Tom's truck is coming; let's go!"
We all run to it, or at least I run. Both Xavier and Yolanda are winded after a few steps. I forgot that they weren't used to this kind of exercise. Then the truck reaches us, the windows are all down, and I see Tom's face peering out at us.
"I didn't know you were bringing friends," he says. His smile makes the corners of his eyes wrinkle.
"You don't mind, do you?" I ask.
"Not at all, hop in!"
So we do. I get the front seat again, and show them how to open the doors before I climb up. I can see Tom is trying to hide the fact that he is laughing at us. Once we are all in, he sets off nice and fast again down the dirt track.
"Yes!"
Four more shifts— or two days— go by. On first shift, we go with Tom Riley, or Mr. Riley as we all soon start calling him, then work the second shift while it is night out there. And every shift, we use our free time in the virtual world, discussing the "Outside" as we call it. We learn so much, and all love it there. I don't think that anyone inside the Cube has ever done something like this before; they are all too comfortable.
It's my sixth day out. Mr. Riley pulls up, and he is wearing a button-up shirt with clean overalls. When we climb in, he starts with a question. "How would ya'll like to come to church with me this morning?" he asks.
"What's church?" I respond.
"That's a place where people get married, right?" Yazmin puts in.
"Sometimes, but it's a place where we go to worship God," he corrects with that sad look in his eyes that I have seen before. We all give him blank stares, and he says, "Ya don't know who God is, do ya?"
I sit in silence. That name sounds like it should mean something, but I can't figure out what. I look up, and he is watching me. "Could you tell us?"
"Well, to start, He's the one who created the earth."
We all sit shocked while he begins to drive. He said it like a fact, like there was no doubt.
"Can we meet Him?" I inquire.
"He's not here right now," Mr. Riley answers. "But I'm taking ya to meet Him." We pass a sign that announces, "Welcome to Odyssey!" In a few minutes, he pulls up to a large building with lots of windows.
"Does He live here?"
"Not really. Just wait and see."
Inside, there are a lot of people. All of them have hair. Some old guys don't, but they have fluff around their ears. Everyone is also dressed very nice. I can tell that Yazmin and Xavier are felling just as strange in their white bodysuits as I am. They all look at us kind of funny too, but then another man walks over to us. Mr. Riley calls him "Whit." He chats with us a little bit too, and he has a way of making us feel at home. We sit down in long benches called pews, and someone stands up at the front and starts a song. There are others up there with him using instruments, and the whole congregation sings along, including Mr. Riley and Whit. I want to, but I have never heard this song before. It is beautiful, but the lyrics are all about how good God is, so I don't understand it all the way.
Another man walks up when the song is over and those people sit down. He talks for a bit, then starts telling a story. "When God created the earth, He created it perfect," he begins. "He made a beautiful garden, full of fruit trees. He made animals, and he made to humans to live in it, to thank Him for it. But what did they do? They walked away from Him. They rejected what He had made for them, and they rejected who He made them to be."
Well, that was dumb. But he keeps going.
"We all think that we wouldn't do that," he continues. "But the truth is, we do it all the time. We get so busy with our own lives that we don't take time for those He has put us near to help. We don't read His written word, the Bible, to hear what He has to say. And, so often, we forget to thank Him for what he has given us." Now he looks straight at us, and I feel like he is saying this for me. "You see, the penalty for turning away from God is death. But He didn't want to kill us, so He sent His only Son to die in our place."
Wow. That is the only word that comes to my mind. Just wow. That is a severe penalty, and yet that He paid it for us— with His Son? I am so confused. Wow.
"He did it because He loved us, even though we were the ones who betrayed Him. But that Son did not stay dead."
Me, Xavier, and Yazmin freeze even more than we were. This story is more spellbinding than any movie I have ever seen.
"He rose again!" The man is quite excited, and I can feel that energy escaping to me too. "Because He was perfect, death could not hold Him! But because the penalty is payed, we are free as well. He invites us now to accept that, and when our time comes to die, we will go to meet Him instead; because He loves us!" He looks around the building, locking eyes with us again. "Because He loves us." Then he sits down, and they sing another song. I can't listen to this one, though. My brain is too full. Mr. Riley doesn't say much on the drive back, either. I think he knows that our heads are trying to not explode.
Later on, in the game again, Xavier asks us what we thought. We take it apart for a while, then he raises the question, "What about all we have been taught? Evolution, progression, and millions of years?"
Yolanda answers, "This one makes so much more sense! If there is a God powerful enough to create the whole world, He has got to have enough power to have always been, like the man said, right?"
I agree completely with her. "Meanwhile evolution says that there was nothing to begin with. So what started everything going, then? What caused the Big Bang? It doesn't work!"
Xavier nods too, then the lights flash and I get the points again.
The next time at the farm, we ask Mr. Riley how we can learn more about this God. This story is so fascinating, and it seems to resonate in my heart— not just a feeling, but it was the way a magnet reacts to the other one made for it. Mr. Riley smiles and opens a sack he is carrying with him in the orchard. He pulls out three books and hands one to each of us. The Holy Bible, it reads. I have never held a book before, and I like the way it feels. The binding is leather, and the words on the cover are gold. It is pretty in its simplicity. There are so many pages inside.
"Is this whole book about God?" Xavier asks.
"The whole book," Mr. Riley says.
"I want to read the whole thing," I say. "Can we start now?"
"Definitely," he says. "I do need to get to picking, though, so ya read here while I work. If ya have any questions, ask me."
"I'll read the first chapter," says Yolanda. "That way you two can help Mr. Riley, and we can take turns."
I like her idea. Mr. Riley has given us a lot of his time these last four days, and I would love to help. He agrees and shows us what to do. Then she starts reading, and I feel like I am transported.
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."
Then He made light separate from the darkness.
And sky separate from the surface.
And seas separate from the land.
He made the sun, the moon, and the stars.
The fish and the birds.
The animals.
The humans.
"You're free to take those Bibles home with you," Mr. Riley tells us when he drops us off again.
"I don't know if that would work," I explain. "You see, everything we need is either on a screen or provided to us by a machine. If we came in with an object from the Outside, they would ask where we got it from. I don't know if they would like us doing that."
"The way I look at it, if those machines can't control you, they won't stop you," he says.
"Could we hide it at our work stations?" Xavier suggests, looking at Yazmin and me.
I shake my head. "My tables all fold back into the wall at lights out... unless I am working on a project! I just have to remember to lock them!"
"Mine at the lab do the same thing!" Yolanda gets excited too. So that is what we do. Now during the day, we are with Mr. Riley, and at night we read those Bibles. We meet through the game at the end of every shift to talk about what we learn.
We read about the first time that humans walked away from God, then the first murder, then a whole list of names. Then there is a huge flood that explains all of the irregular fossil layers that scientists can never explain, and God saves the only family that still honoured Him. Xavier brings up a good point when he says that God is really picky about being honoured. That is what he made humans for though, we realize. When I fix an android, I have a specific way I want it to work; if it doesn't, I take it apart and rebuild it until it does what it was made to do. That same way, God made us humans to honour Him. When we don't, we are not doing what we were created for and cannot function to the best of our abilities.
A whole week goes by like this. V-L has been treating me almost normally, but during the hour of awake time I get before work she asks me if I am feeling all right.
"Of course, why?"
"Your production levels are down," she states.
Of course she knows about my production levels. Everything here is wired together. But I can't lie and tell her that what she thinks is right— from all that we have read, lying is wrong; according to God's standards anyways. "Um, I've been having a bit of a hard time lately..." I'm not sure what to say.
"Maybe you should have a day off," V-L proposes.
I object heartily. "No, that's okay, I'm fine," I say. This is a day shift. I want to go outside again.
"Denial is only walking away from help." I can hear Sphere-pod power down beneath me. "You don't need to go anywhere today."
There is no way I can change her metallic mind, and no way I can get out of here. I decide to make the most of it. "V-L, are there any movies about the beginning of the world?"
The screen lights up, and V-L is happy to show me the lists of documentaries and dramas, all showcasing evolution.
"I was looking for something more controversial," I specify. "Are there any other theories for the beginning?"
The scrolling lists freezes. "Not in our database," she responds.
"Oh. Do we have anything on religion, then?"
Again, there is a list of evolution-based items. One catches my eye: it is a debate between an atheist and a theist. I tell her to play it, but I am disappointed. Of course the theist has his faults, but even I can see the holes in the atheist's point of view... and the whole culture I am living in was created by those people. They are supposed to be the smart ones, but everything the Bible says makes so much more sense. And it's not that I'm stupid, either. I was schooled by a computer— literally knowledge was downloaded into my brain— so I can disect an argument well.
The debate finally ends, and V-L turns on music and give me a massage. I've never though of this before, but this life is so boring. Not life in general, but life inside the Cube. Everything is done for me: my food, my clothing, my cleaning, my entertainment... everything. I have to work a little, but everything is a light load. Had people really gotten so tired of everyday reality that they actually wanted this? They put so much effort into creating an easy existence, maybe I am the one being ungrateful? No: easiness is nice, but I think that is why I am ungrateful. I realize that God made a day of rest for his creation only after working six whole days.
Xavier and Yazmin will both be at church with Mr. Riley today. Oh, I wish I could have gone. I wonder if I could go get my Bible, but V-L would question me for sure if I told her that I had forgotten something at work— there is never anything we can leave behind— everything we need is provided for us, anywhere.
Then I realize that the machines were made to serve us, not dominate us. I am still the human and they are the machines, and they were built to follow my commands. I grin just a little at the idea of power, but I am still scared that they will turn on me. V-L's behaviour before was weird, but that could have just been because I wasn't taking initiative as the master.
"Sphere-pod, power up," I command. "V-L, I'm going out."
"Where? You weren't feeling well," she protests, startled.
"You said I wasn't feeling well, and never gave me a chance to respond." I retort sharply. Sure enough, Sphere-pod hums gently, then asks where I want to go. I say to work, so he drops into the tunnel while folding up around me. Once there, I grab my Bible and return to my room.
"Back so soon?" V-L asks.
"Yup," I say. "If you're wondering, I had a book there that I got from someone on the Outside. I wanted to read it while I'm off today."
For a second, I think she lost her voice. Then, "How did you meet a dissatisfied? Was one able to get in?" I can hear that she is ready to put the Cube on lockdown.
"Nope. I stepped over the line while I was looking for broken Androids." She might as well know it all.
"Why?"
"Curiosity."
"Curiosity killed the cat." The only answers she knows are copy-and-paste.
But she used the perfect analogy for my response. "How do you expect me to know what a cat is when I'm stuck in here all the time?"
"Everything you need to know is in the internet."
"No. No, it's not. Now if you don't mind, I'd like you to be quiet so I can read." I open my Bible, and she does not respond.
There is no way to tell time other than when V-L brings me food, and before I realize it, I am long finished the second meal of the shift.
Suddenly, her tart voice announces bedtime and the lights click off. I missed the meeting with Yasmin and Xavier! I'm disappointed, but I got to read a lot. I am almost done the first section- or "testament" as it says.
Unable to fall asleep, I think about what I read today. First, humanity put the wedge of "sin"— which basically meant anything that God did not want humans to do, usually for good reasons— between them and God. After that, it was just God chasing them around. Finally he chose one group of people and actually talked with one of them face to face, to tell them what He wanted from them. He gave them a huge list of rules to achieve perfection.
Then a huge circle starts rolling. Humans promise to obey God. Humans decide not to after all. God punishes them. Humans beg for forgiveness. God forgives them. Humans promise to obey God, and start all over again.
It is interesting, but it doesn't sound quite as hopeful as the preacher made it sound. I fall asleep dissatisfied.
My hour of free time is spent eating a breakfast— V-L insisted— while reading more in the Bible. I finish the first testament and start on the second. Here my pace slows down, because I came to the section I wanted to hear about. God had a Son, through a mortal woman, but she was still a virgin afterwards. How that worked I have no idea.
Then I go to work and fix those androids. My curiosity is burning in me to find out what happens, but I am still not sure if I believe it all. It seems too far-fetched to accept and yet too familiar to deny. Besides, I don't know what will happen if I don't boost my production. So, with that android fixed, I do other little things around my shop until the four hours are up, then head back home. I eat enough to satisfy V-L, then enter the virtual game again. Xavier and Yazmin both look frustrated and relieved at the same time to see me.
Yazmin grabs the notebook out of Xavier's pocket right aways, scribbles on it, and thrusts it in my face. "Where were you?"
"V-L decided I must not be feeling well, so she made me take a day off of work."
"You missed church."
I make a screw up my lips while I respond. "I know." I draw a little sad face on the page to push my point. "But I put V-L back in her place too."
"What do you mean?" They both look interested. Yazmin writes, "I never did tell V-L what I was doing. What did you all say?"
"I told her that I wanted to read a book from the outside that I had left in my workshop."
They both stare at me. Xavier takes the pad, "What did she say?"
"She was so surprised, I don't think she knew what to say. I read all shift, and forgot about coming to talk with you guys until it was bedtime."
"How far did you get?"
I answer their questions; I am much farther than they are. Then they tell me about church, where they heard more about Jesus: that's the name of God's Son. It is so fascinating! Then the lights flash and we go to bed, only to wake up four hours later and go outside again.
"Is doing this fair?" I ask them once we are all in Mr. Riley's orchard again. It was my turn to read while they worked, but I didn't open my Bible yet. "Like, what about our jobs?"
"But this is so much more interesting," Yolanda protests. The look in Xavier's eyes says the same thing, a little differently though. It says, "And this is so much more meaningful... if it's true."
"I know," I respond. "Don't get me wrong. I love it out here. It makes me hate the Cube. I detest the though of working and living inside white walls with florescent lights for another day. But we kind of owe it to them— like, it made us, then fed us for how many years?"
Yazmin gets off her ladder to look me straight in the eyes. "It didn't make us. All it did was put us together."
"How do you know?"
She sighs. "I work in the life lab. We can't create life, it has to be taken from a man and a woman, then put together to create a baby. And no, we don't owe it anything. Those who decided to make that place, the people who choose to live there, are the ones who should work for it. Not us."
"Then what were we" I can't say the word created "put together for? Why did they want more humans?"
"Turns out that the people who bought rooms there weren't expecting to work for them, so they decided that if they had children while inside the Cube, those children wouldn't know the difference."
"And we didn't."
"Nope! We also had barely any human contact in the beginning, and later on none at all."
I reel a bit. This is so much to take in. Yolanda says something, but I don't understand it. She reaches out and touches my arm. Then everything swirls together: green trees, red apples, blue sky, white clouds... and it all fades to black.
When I open my eyes, it is dark. I push the scratchy blanket off and look around at the dusky room. It looks like a living room, and smells at once more strange and more homey than anything I have ever smelled before. Then I notice Mr. Riley. He is sitting in a chair, still in his work clothes, his head nodding on his chest.
Then I realize— what time is it? It's dark, which means... I've been out longer than my shift! I must have fainted, and Mr. Riley— Mr. Riley must have taken me inside and now was making sure I was all right. He shifts a little at hearing me move, then open his eyes and stretches his neck.
"I haven't slept like that in a while. How're ya feeling?"
"Pretty good, I think. Where are Yolanda and Xavier?"
"They went back to the Cube, afraid of being missed."
"Oh, great..." I sit up. "I gotta go back!"
Now he puts his big hands on his knees and leans forwards. "Why?"
I stop, dumbfounded. That's a good question. What do I say?
"Lie down and sleep on it." He pats my shoulder, then stands up and walks away, probably to go to bed himself.
I can't sleep. He is so nice. Why is he being so nice? Is that because of his God? From what I've read, that makes sense. And if it's true, I am in serious debt. But God seems to like that. I snuggle deeper into the blanket and whisper, "God, if you're there... thank you."
A new smell wakes me up. From where I am lying I can see Mr. Riley banging around in what must be the kitchen. The light of the sun is just peeking through the window. I get up and walk over just just as he takes eggs and bacon out of sizzling pans and slaps them into two plates, then carries them to the table.
"Good morning!" he says with his grin. "Ya hungry? Sit down."
I do, and he pours two glasses with orange juice and puts those down. Before he picks up his fork, though, he folds his hands.
"I like to give thanks before I eat," he explains, then closes his eyes. I lower my head too, but keep my eyes open.
"Dear Lord, we thank ya for this food and this beautiful morning. I pray that Ya'd help us this day with all we gotta do. In Jesus' name, Amen." Then he's finished, and we start eating. I have never tasted something so good in my life!
I tell him that, and he laughs. We finish eating, and I help him clean off the table and do the dishes... another thing I had only ever seen on a screen.
"Well," he says as he dries his hands on a towel, "That was a good breakfast. Xavier and Yolanda will be coming out at about 9:15, so that gives me a bit of time to go over some things with the counsellors first. I run a day camp," he explains. I nod, and follow him to the door. He pulls on a pair of big, muddy rubber boots and finds a smaller pair in a closet for me. I can't help but notice that he does it slowly, and blinks a few times as he hands them over. "These were Agnes' boots."
"Thank you," I say as meaningfully as I can. I don't know who Agnes is, or was, but obviously she meant a lot to Mr. Riley.
After pulling on the boots, I follow him out the back door and through a little patch of trees: "a stretch of the woods," as he called it. I can't help but marvel at the beauty of these trees just growing here, all by themselves, housing so many singing birds, chattering squirrels, and sparkling butterflies under their green canopies.
The woods open up to a big field of grass. There are a bunch of smaller buildings scattered around a bigger one. "That's the mess hall," Mr. Riley explains. The other sheds are for equipment for things we do here at the camp."
As we get closer, I can see that there are other people here already. A lot of kids are around one shed next to the lake, getting outfitted for canoeing. Some are around a basketball court, and other, smaller groups are everywhere. I catch all this in a glance, then turn to Mr. Riley. "Why did you bring me here?" As far as I am concerned, I have enough to worry about right now.
He looks down at me, and though his mouth doesn't smile, his eyes wrinkle warmly. "You need to meet some people your own age," he responds.
I follow him to the big building. "Hey, Connie," he calls.
"What, Tom?" comes the voice of a girl. She sounds just a touch impatient, maybe tired? Then she comes around the corner. Her hair is reddish and in a messy ponytail. She is wearing cargo capris and a sleeveless top. When she catches sight of me, she gives a tiny start. I would have resented her for that, except for the smile she gave me a second later. And it wasn't just a "Wow, wasn't expecting that, better pretend I don't notice the difference." It was an "I was not expecting that, but it's okay. I accept her anyways."
"You must be Zae," she says, then introduces herself. "I'm Connie."
"Hi," I say awkwardly, but she is looking at Mr. Riley.
"I'm so sorry I was late, Tom. My car has been having this issue, and—"
"It's all right, Connie. Now why don't ya show Zae around? I'm going to go pick up Xavier and Yolanda."
He leaves, and we have a bit of silence before Connie turns to me and asks, "What do you want to see first?"
"I don't know; you're the expert," I smile back at her. "What do I want to see?"
The whole morning is so much fun. Connie pulls me into a game of basketball against some really good kids, shows me the hall of fame in the craft house, then tries to get me to canoe with her. That I refuse. I can't swim. Through it all, the kids keep giving me weird side glances, but I ignore it.
My favourite part is when she leads me down a path in the woods. Her talking slows while we are there, and we walk leisurely. The trees are so tall and strong, but they dance with every breath of wind.
Connie breaks the silence with a question I know she wanted to ask since I met her. "You don't have to answer this, but what was it like... there?"
I respond slowly. "Everything is easy, scheduled, and sterile. There is no human contact, and entertainment and food are always available."
Connie stares at me. "I would hate that," she states. "But if I think about it... that's what everyone wants now days. We want everything handed to us without having to worry about anyone else."
"And that's what they achieved. They got what they wanted." It feels good to talk about the Cube; all this time I have been learning about the Outside has really given me a lot to think about.
Connie thinks about this for a minute. "But is it what you wanted?" she asks softly.
I feel almost scared of speaking the truth, but what else can I say? "If I would have had the choice, I would rather be anywhere else than the Cube."
"Funny. That's just how I felt when I came back from LA the last time I went. When I left here, I was so convinced I wanted to get away from this little town with these people. They were all so friendly and so- so Christian! But once I left, I realized how much of my heart was here because of those people." She grinned. "After a week, I couldn't get back fast enough."
I had a question I wanted to ask her too. "Are you a- Christian?"
She nodded. "Yup."
That only called for another question. "Why?"
"Cause no one else loves me the way God does. He kept on working things out and putting people in my path to point me to Him."
"Wow. You know, I had never really heard of God before. Just myth and legend from movies."
"That's weird. You had access to the internet though, right?"
"Yes, but I guess I never knew what to search for.""
"And to think that people would willingly lock themselves up like that."
"Having access to every virtual adventure and pleasure dulls the thirst for reality. And you know what?" I rotate, speaking to the trees, the birds, the squirrels, anything that can hear me. "They got what they wanted. They asked for it, they built it. But they had no right to lock me up in their world!"
"But they did," Connie says. "What are you going to do about it?"
"I won't go back! I'm going to stay here, in the Outside."
After this conversation, we walk back to the mess hall. One of the groups of kids had cooked a good meal, and I loved it. Afterwards, though, a group of littler girls came up to me.
"Why don't you have hair?" The one in the front asked, twirling her own pigtail.
"I— I don't know," I stammer. I still hadn't figured out if that was a mistake of the way they put us together, or something else from always being so sterile.
"Oh." She looks like she doesn't know what to say.
"Yours is very pretty, though," I manage to say, then reach out a hand. "I've never touched hair before, actually. May I touch yours?"
She shies away, which causes a strange pang in my chest. Had she laughed at me, or said no, it would have been fine. But— I take my hand back.
"I'm sorry."
She glances between the floor and my bare head a few times, not making eye contact anymore, then edges away with an uneasy look on her face. Her entourage follows her, and I feel sad. Connie waits a second.
"Lyla's usually so sweet," she apologizes. "I don't know what got into her."
"I know what got into her." I shake my head. "I don't know what I'm thinking," I see the look on her face and quickly continue. "It's not just the hair; I'm different. I don't fit in. Even these kids know more about life, and God, then I do, or probably ever will. I know about myth, and stories, and fiction. I know about androids. I know what I was programmed to know. I might as well just head back right now." Then Connie grabs my shoulders and shakes me. I stop my rant, startled.
"Listen to me," she says firmly, with a fierce intensity of her own. "I don't care who mixed the little tube you were grown in, only God can give life. And He doesn't make mistakes! He made you, and He made you for a reason."
I am stubborn.
"Whats your favourite movie?" Connie asks abruptly.
"What?"
"Think about it. What is your favourite movie?"
I stay quiet. This turn of conversation almost gives me whiplash. I am so confused.
"The more that a character has to face, the greater the struggle, the harder the challenge, the worse the pain... the better the final conclusion! And if those plots and storylines were thought up by a human, think of how much greater God's plan is!" She gives me another second to think about it. "Yes, it will be hard. But no good thing comes without hardships. The more you go through to get to a destination, the more satisfying it will be to finally get there; and by the time you get there, you will no longer be the same person. You will have grown in order to face what you faced. That's the way God made it to work."
All these little shattered pieces of what I know now and what I didn't before are all falling into place. I nod slowly while my whirring brain settles into an unsuspecting gear. "You're right. But I still have to go back."
Her expression asks me if what she said meant nothing to me.
"They need to know."
"Who?"
The flame kindled inside of me starts leaping and throwing sparks. "The others who didn't ask for a life of ease. They need to know that real life is so much harder, and that living is so much sweeter, and that God is so much greater... than anything we can simulate in virtual reality. They need to know!"
A grin spreads across her face, although she looks just a tad scared of me. "All right," she says. "What can I do?"
Again I stop in my tracks. I just met her this morning and here we were, friends bound tighter than magnets.
"Well?"
I take off running back to Mr. Riley's house. Connie follows me. She easily keeps up. We make it back around the house, where the orchard is. "Mr. Riley!" I yell. "Yolanda! Xavier!"
They look surprised to see me. "Whats the fuss?" asks Mr. Riley. "Must be something important, to have you two running like whipped horses."
"I've- I've got to go back!" I pant.
"Now, why?" He gets off his ladder and empties his small basket into the big bin, already loaded with gorgeous apples.
"I need— to tell— the others— about God. About Jesus!"
Mr. Riley faces me squarely. "Why?"
I don't shy away from the question this time. Now, I have a motive for what I want to do. "Because— they're missing out— on so much! The Outside— its where we were created to be! And yes, I said created. I believe it!"
I can feel his eyes sparking as they connect with mine. I feel like he is my grandfather, my friend, my brother; and we are united towards a common goal. "What do you believe?"
"I believe that God created me, and He sent His Son to pay the penalty for all I have done wrong. I believe that He loves me."
Yolanda steps up. "Let's go tell them."
"I can help," Xavier says.
In a few minutes, we are all in Mr. Riley's truck, rattling back towards the Cube.
"What are we doing?" Connie looks like she might burst if she doesn't get an answer.
"And how?" Yolanda adds.
I look form one to the other. "We've got to get into the system somehow. If we can override it, we can get in contact with everyone at the same time."
"But that will go to the first people too," Xavier points out with a tang of bitterness. "The ones who stuck us there."
That idea hadn't crossed my mind yet, but it is easily handled with my newfound faith. I like that word, faith. "I certainly hope it will. They were wrong in what they did. But all of us were. That's why God sent Jesus, remember?"
"Forgiveness," says Mr. Riley. "No matter how great the sin is, God's grace is always greater."
"And I'm going to make that true," I affirm. "God gave grace to me, and I'm going to give it to them."
We pull up, and I take a big breath, then step over the line. Another step, but then I run back and wrap my arms around Mr. Riley. He holds me for a bit, the I hug Connie. "Thank you," is all I can manage, then I start off through the field. I don't look back again.
The transition chamber opens to let me in, and Sphere-pod is still waiting for me. I get in, and my seat accepts me back while the belt snaps in place. "Your destination is not needed," he says. I was expecting this. He unfolds to a room I have only ever seen once before. Once, I had watched the dissatisfied videos too long, and it showed a young boy, strapped down. He had become dissatisfied, so they had agreed to let him out as his human right. But first, they said, they would have to remove what they had given him. He agreed to it. We all had chips in our wrists that, when scanned, would prove our identity. That was what anyone would have thought they were referring to. But what came next-- they meant the life that they had given him. I clench my eyes and try to control my breathing. I can feel sweat breaking out on my face. My heart is pounding.
The seat I am on reclines to a lying position, and my belt cinches tighter. "Are you dissatisfied?" The inevitable voice demands.
Xavier was supposed to hack into the broadcast system using the technology outside that they used to communicate with the solar panels. Yolanda knew about transmissions too, she used them to instil knowledge into the babies that she helped grow.
Please, God, let this work, I pray. Oh please, let someone hear this.
The voice repeats, "Are you dissatisfied?"
As long as I do not say yes, they cannot do anything to me, so I start speaking. "I was born here. I thought this world was everything. But it's not. What happens when your body no longer maintains you? The machines tell us that you simply go to sleep. But it's not true!"
"Are you dissatisfied?"
"There are two different places to go to. There is a Heaven, and a Hell. Both created by God. We all deserve to go to Hell, we have all broken God's law of right and wrong. But He gave His Son, Jesus, to take our penalty for us, so we can go to Heaven!"
"Are you dissatisfied?"
"Now we need to make our choice. Do we keep living in comfort, denying reality, until one day it's too late? Or do we face the real world, and the forgiveness God offers us, if we just accept it?"
"Are you dissatisfied?"
"We need to make our choice. You need to make your own choice. Jesus gave His life for you!"
"Are you dissatisfied?"
"And I am giving my life now! I can't save you."
"Are you dissatisfied?"
"But Jesus can. I had to tell you."
"Are you dissatisfied?"
Thoughts swirl in my head. There's no way to get out of this room. This was the only way to tell them. I hope that someone understands my message. I hope Connie's car troubles get better. I hope Mr. Riley's trees keep growing such great apples. I hope Lyla's hair stays so pretty. I hope Xavier and Yolanda get married. I hope the Timothy Centre stays running for years to come. I hope—
"Are you dissatisfied?"
But no matter how much I hope, I know one thing for sure. God has me in His hands. He is waiting for me.
"Are you dissatisfied?"
"Yes."
"Then we will let you out. But first, you must give back what we gave you. Agreed?"
"You never gave me life. But you may kill this body."
A metallic syringe pierces the skin on my wrist. I can see the blue liquid surge through my veins. It feels cold.
My blood thumps in my ears, getting slower and slower. "Into your hands, God," I whisper.
I feel one last tremor surge through my body as my heart tries to keep going, but it fails.
There's a voice in the distance.
"Welcome home, my child."
YOU ARE READING
Reality's Escape: a collection of short stories
Short StoryThis is a bunch of short stories I had to get out of my system. Each part is a complete story, so you don't have to worry about being left hanging! 1. Heist. I was was blinded by a sudden wave of story, character, and plot (which usually don't coinc...
