Elysian Fields (8 page)

The next day at dawn, Lan and Tom were already on their way back to the city. Tom was very concerned that Thomas would find out Lan hadn’t been out partying after all.

“Who knows whether
he’s got somebody on your tail? Have you thought of that?” he asked Lan in a somewhat angry voice. “These are dangerous times, boy. You have to be extremely careful from now on.”

“Would you mind not calling me
a boy?” Lan asked, feeling slightly annoyed at Tom’s tone of voice. “I don’t like it, and I suspect Allan resented it too. It’s condescending.”

Tom appeared taken aback.
“Allan never mentioned that to me. I’m sorry if that made you feel uncomfortable. I’m so used to seeing him, and now you, as a young boy.” He paused for a bit before continuing, “I have to tell you; seeing the two of you together is very confusing for me. I was going to say
when did you grow up so soon
, but then, I was addressing Allan, not you. And yet, you are my son, too. I guess I’ll need a bit more time to find the proper way to talk to you in a way that’s appropriate.”

“I understand perfectly how you feel,”
Lan decided to open himself up to this man, his father. “In my mind I keep calling you Tom. I thought Thomas was my real father, but then it turns out you’re my real father, and yet neither of you are my father, or maybe both of you are. It’s really screwed up.”

“You’re right. A complete mess
… And guess what? We have to make sense of it all very soon, because they’ll find out about us sooner or later.”

“Do you know that when I came to the house last night
, I wasn’t entirely sure I was a clone?” Lan felt the need to continue on the topic they had started. “Part of me still wanted to believe that this was a game of sorts. I mean, everything Allan had told me made perfect sense, and logically I was convinced. Emotionally, I was a wreck. I felt totally lost and alone, scared and nervous that I would die any minute. Do all clones go through the same agony like I am?”

“
No, not as far as I know,” Tom replied. “According to my knowledge, the clones don’t even know what they are. Imagine how
you
felt the day after you’ve been brought home to live with Thomas, the thought never entered your mind until Allan told you otherwise, right? I believe that is the standard. I’m not saying that the family members haven’t noticed some minor changes in temperament, or that there was no adjustment period, but I haven’t heard of any major problems with clones slipping right into life as if nothing happened. For all intended purposes, they were the originals brought back to life.”

The two stayed silent for a time.
“That’s very troubling to me,” Lan said eventually. “How come the members of their families haven’t realized they were dealing with different human beings altogether? How come
you
never suspected anything in your position of power? You could have said something, done something.”

“
But I didn’t know for sure, Lan. I’m looking in retrospect now. I don’t remember any instance when an original and a clone lived their lives in parallel. Even now, I can’t tell whether you’re just Allan continuing on a different path, as if you’d lived in a parallel universe.”

“
That’s absurd! I’m not Allan, can’t you see? I am a human being who had been dreaming desperate dreams in a tube filled with fluid, waiting to be awakened. An enslaved human being, not even knowing it… I can’t even begin to imagine myself in suspended animation, waiting for the tube to rise so I could escape.” Lan actually started to cry, angry over the thought of his prison.

“
Lan, it’s over now. You are free, my son. It’s over.” Tom’s unsteady voice, as if fighting back his own tears, brought Lan back to the present.

“
You’re right, it’s over. But my whole life has been altered by the knowledge of who I am. Nobody could ever understand me, except maybe Jules. She must be devastated. I’d like to believe that she’ll be all right. I should have stayed, to wait for her to come back.”

“
Out of the question, Lan. You need to go back now. We’ll see each other soon enough. And I’ll let you know about Jules’ situation. She’s very strong, an admirable girl. And you two appear to have more in common than any of us thought.”

“
You may be right. If she can make it, so can I.”

On that note, they got close to the edge of the forest, behind the Server compound, and
Lan said goodbye to his father. With his mind still in turmoil, he decided to call him Tom from then on, not yet comfortable calling him father.

Sunday morning was bright and cloudless. Allan woke up feeling rested and at peace for the first time in days. He went downstairs to find David and Daniel eating in the kitchen, while Mel’s voic
e could be heard outside feeding the chickens their breakfast.

“Scrambled eggs again?”
he asked.

“There
’s a good supply of those from our feathery friends outside,” David mumbled, with his mouth full. “Help yourself.” He pointed towards the stovetop, where a pan was still half full.

“Where are Lan and my father?”

“Tom went to help Lan through the forest,” Daniel replied. “He’ll be back soon.”

Sure enough, a
short while after that, Tom came in and joined them at the table. “So, Allan, can I ask you more about the Imaginarium?”

“
We should probably wait for Mel to join us,” Daniel intervened. “She’d be upset if we started without her.” He went outside to help Mel finish her work.

They moved to the living room to have more space, and Allan started to recollect his actions
from a few days before. He told them about the sequence of events in the
War of Sovereign Nations
game. He talked about Brad and his traditional warfare approach. Then he moved onto Brent’s cyber-attacks and nuclear war scenario.

Allan explained
his own strategy and how the food had been laced with addictive chemicals, dulling people’s minds, and he mentioned the great entertainment that would distract the people whose country he was planning to conquer.

“Thus, when my troops landed, nobody cared about what was happening to their country. They had lost any desire t
o fight, freedom becoming an empty word. I won without a shot being fired. In a way, it was less satisfying because there was no real war, as if I had been cheated of a fair victory,” Allan concluded his story.

The others had been listening carefully, absorbing e
very word. After the story ended, everybody was quiet for a while, as if they were still under the influence of the emotions they felt as the story unfolded.

“Very interesting,” Tom started. “The scenario you played brought about
the similar results I’ve seen in the city. You remember me talking about our citizens, especially the Servers, losing interest in life, their whole existence centered on entertainment and food? I think you’ve just opened up the possibility that what’s happening to our city is real, not just a figment of our imagination. I see no other reason for the attempt on your life.”

But Tom was
no closer to finding out the masterminds of the plot than before learning about the game. Even with his security contacts, he couldn’t come up with any logical culprits.

“
You may not have an answer, but think about it,” Daniel intervened. “Allan performed an experiment, with the hypothesis being that a whole population can be manipulated into doing something without them realizing it. Thomas was probably afraid that he’d start thinking that way in real life, or that with some prior knowledge, he’d start noticing things in the city.”

“
That’s true, since Lan seemed to have all my memories but those about the game. But how would Thomas know what I was playing?”

“
Perhaps he has a way of connecting to the game,” David speculated. “Who knows, maybe all the games we play are monitored and analyzed.”

“
The fact that the authorities don’t do anything about the Scrappie compound, and that they don’t care to keep us contained, shows that they are not concerned about an uprising or other dangers. Maybe it’s because they already know everything,” offered Mel.

“
You’re right,” Tom added, “while to you it may seem that city security is simply lax, it’s a proven fact that it’s easier to control people that do not feel cornered. We have to leave them a way out. Otherwise, they become dangerous and lash out. We kept the Scrappies under control by ensuring that they have a choice of coming back to resume their existence in the former positions, after the initial rebellious stage was over. Meanwhile, the ones with real mental issues or leadership qualities, the potentially dangerous ones, we took them to the Happy Endings clinic.”

“
So what do we do?” Allan felt at a loss.

“
I’d like to propose something.” Daniel stopped briefly, deep in thought. “If I could conduct a field test, on a small population of mice, for example, perhaps we could draw some conclusions regarding the food. No offense, Allan, but I’d hate to just jump right to the conclusion that our food is contaminated. Yet based on the symptoms Tom mentioned before, and my observations, it is a definite possibility.”

David was quick
to jump on his idea. “In the meantime, I could dig up some background information about entertainment. I remember some friends talking about subtle messaging being layered into advertising during the last century. It seemed farfetched at the time and I didn’t pay much attention. Maybe it could shed some more light on the situation.”

“
Very well,” Tom concluded. “Let’s do that, and then we’ll regroup and see what we’re up against.”

They finished their discussion and David went back to the city to get some lab mice for Daniel to start his experiment. Tom went out too, to discuss with Serge the latest developments, and ask if there was anything his old friend could do to help, in addition to what they had already agree
d upon.

Allan, Mel
, and Daniel were left alone to speculate on everything that had happened.

A few hours later, in the middle of the afternoon, they were sitting outside on the back porch.

Jules and Lan turned the corner at the back of the house. Allan saw them coming and was unsure what to do, torn between anger of seeing his brother disobeying father’s instructions and happiness that Jules was back and seemed all right.

“
What are you doing here, man? I thought father told you not to come here except in an emergency,” Allan started.

“
I thought you’d like to know that Brent and Brad are all right. No harm came to them like with you, though it’s hard to say for sure that no one got to them.” Lan sat down on the porch. “And I wanted to make sure that Jules was all right. Don’t worry,” he added, seeing Allan’s stare, “I’ll go back before dark.”

“It’s true. I a
m a clone,” Jules stated simply, taking a seat on a wicker chair. She told them everything.

“So
do you feel any less of a human being, now that you know what you are?” Lan asked her, with no hint of sarcasm.

“It’s weird to know that I
’m the result of laboratory work. But then, am I me or just a collection of a poor girl’s memories and a shadow of her soul? I don’t even remember being sick or weak or anything like that, and apparently Julia was always sick. I have a hard time understanding this. Yet, what I am has no bearing on
who
I am, a human.”

“I think,” Mel ventured shyly at first, “that all human beings, whether originals or clones, have divine origin. I read a lot and it got me thinking that never once were we able to create a living cell from nothing. Manipulate yes, but not create. Even when we take the DNA and replace it with another person’s, we’re just playing God, nothing more. So my theory is that
the essence of life, the soul, is something given to us and is unique, ours forever and ever. Our memories, our thoughts, they’re external additions. You understand what I’m trying to say?”

“I think I do and I’d like to believe you,” said
Lan. “That way I can be at peace with the fact that it’s still me when I have memories of things I’ve never experienced, some of them quite gross, I might add,” he made a puking face looking at Allan, who smiled.

“Why does it have to be a god who has created life, etcetera, etcetera,” intervened Daniel, his face quite intrigued. “It could just be that we were born, we live and we die, end of story. Life could have come from outer space, other planets, you know, via meteors or comets, or simply through evolution.”

“Ultimately, it’s our choice to believe whatever makes sense to us,” Mel continued. “I think that a soul such as mine, experiencing so much beauty and sorrow and pain and love cannot simply cease to exist at the moment of death. And if this is true, then I must have been created by something or someone immortal as well, probably in his image, because it was the best model to copy.” She smiled shyly, as if apologizing for speaking so much, something that was unusual for her.

“
You should know by now that the creation theory does not hold water,” Daniel insisted. “It’s no more real than the boogeyman. Every decent scientist will tell you that there’s ample proof that evolution has been going on for millions of years. The human soul is just wishful thinking. We are extraordinarily ordinary, if you’ll pardon my expression, there’s nothing special about any of us. We will die and the energy field around our brain will disappear, our thoughts will vanish and we will immerse in a great ocean of nothingness.”

“
Stop speaking to me like I’m a child,” countered Mel, her face becoming flushed. “First of all, I call it intelligent design, as well as creation theory, and it obviously implies an intelligent designer. You mock my faith, but what is your conviction if not faith? Your belief that things eventually change if given enough time over the course of billions of years, isn’t that just another kind of faith? The universal law of entropy implies destruction, not creation. Everything in nature mutates, doesn’t evolve, in my opinion. Tell me, if I drop a box with toothpicks on the floor, how many times do you think I would need to drop it before the toothpicks form your name, Daniel? Is a billion times enough? Or if I have all the components of a mechanical watch in a box, how many times should I shake it before it turns into a watch?”

Daniel just stood there, taken aback, Mel’s passion
seeming to make a very strong impression on him.

“I
wasn’t mocking you, and I’m sorry I upset you. It was just pure scientific debate.”

“No, it was not just that. When we stop seeing the magic in the world, we are truly doom
ed, no better than a machine. That saddens me more than I can say.” She went inside, leaving them all without a chance to reply.

“You didn’t need to be so mean,
” Jules remarked. “She’s a sensitive girl.”

“
I noticed that,” Daniel muttered. “I care about her. We were just talking. It wasn’t a personal attack.”

“
But she took it very personally,” Jules continued. “And so do I. We’re not just talking about abstract things, we’re talking about how we feel about the world. We are trying to make sense of our existence. Without a moral compass, how do we know right from wrong? And who gives us the moral compass? Human beings change their opinions all the time. What was totally unacceptable a few decades ago has become the norm nowadays. Look what we’ve done with the clones. Maybe we need an absolute truth to guide us through life and only God can give us an absolute compass.”

“Here we go again,” Daniel lamented. “
Sorry, but this is how I feel.”

“I don’t know about you guys,” Allan said, attempting to change the subject, “but since clones are human beings, as proven to us without a doubt, don’t you think it’s a great injustice done to them? I mean, to harvest them for their organs? Who gave us the right to choose who lives and who dies?”

“That’s why I told you I couldn’t do it anymore,” Daniel raised his voice appealingly. “We had the technology to grow organ tissue; whole organs
, without the need of a whole human being. When and why did we start to harvest our own kind?”

“We should fight for
the clones’ freedom!” Jules volunteered with great excitement.

“Why not, let’s do it!” Allan found himself joining in her frenzy.

“Do you really mean that? Are you willing to sacrifice your life to fight for this cause?” Lan seemed skeptical.

“
Why not?” Allan felt his belief getting stronger. “Lan, the fact that you and I met, it’s the chance of a lifetime, and I’m sorry you went through such an ordeal in order for that to happen. But you are alive and well now. I think we should stop developing clones and free the ones already in stasis.”

“
We can make things right,” Jules agreed, “we can have a purpose so that our lives are not in vain.”

Allan felt the energy in the air at unbelievable high level
. I can do something exceptional with my life.
The realization struck him with intensity.

“
We’re just a bunch of young people with no real power,” Daniel’s voice brought them down to earth. “We have no weapons, no allies, just a lot of enthusiasm.”

After a brief letdown, Allan felt his willpower resurface, his clear determination stronger than ever. “
We have my father and his connections at Secure-IT. We’re smart and we have each other. Together we can accomplish something great. And if we fail, so be it. Our lives will have had a meaning beyond ourselves.”

“
When did you get so enthusiastic about life?” Daniel asked. “Just yesterday you were trying to get your life back without much concern for anything else.”