Stand Against Infinity (6 page)

“Do you always think through things like
this?”

He paused for a few uncomfortable seconds.
“Since I only have one brain, and I intend to keep it for the rest
of my life, I suppose so.” He smiled, a look that was both
disarming and unusual on his large face. He pulled down the visor
in front of him and looked into a mirror. “There is one more thing.
We must leave immediately, the authorities are behind us.”

The flashing lights shone through the back
window, and Samuel realized two men had already pulled up behind
him in their patrol cycles. Cycles were made for speed and could
easily outrun a pod. Samuel turned around and saw them both get off
of their cycles and slowly walked toward the car, one on each side.
Exuding authority, they were tall and muscular with dark hair and
grim expressions.

Samuel glanced at U2258 who still had that
calm expression on his face. Samuel wished he could feel that way.
A man showed up at U2258’s window, and tapped on the glass. Samuel
made a move as if to roll down the window and then gunned the
acceleration, leaving the two men standing there.

“You know,” said U2258, “they will catch
us.”

“I know they’re sure going to try,” said
Samuel. He looked over to U2258 and he was smiling again. Samuel
decided he liked it. It was an honest smile.

“Where can a pod go that a cycle cannot?”
asked U2258.

“To the outcasts.”

U2258 said, “But we will not make it that
far. The cycles are too fast, and they will call others. Our pod
will be stopped and we will be caught.”

“Not today,” said Samuel. He turned the wheel
sharply around a corner and saw a straight stretch of road which
would take them much of the way out of the city, but he would have
to dodge the pods dropping people off at work. It was a busy
morning as usual.

U2258 looked in his mirror again. “Six,” he
said. “And they are all behind you, gaining fast.”

“I will get what distance I can, but I have a
plan and it will involve running.”

“I can run.”

“Good,” said Samuel. “What is the one thing
that a pod can do that a cycle cannot?”

“A riddle?”

“A puzzle with only one useful answer.”

U2258 scratched his chin and thought about
this. He seemed interested in the challenge. Now the flashing
lights were right behind them again and they began the formation
that would bring their pod to a stop, two cycles alongside of him,
edging themselves past slowly until they would soon be in front to
slow him down by force.

Now the rest of the cycles that had been
behind had also come along side as those in front were spreading
the inertia nets that would stop his car.

“Well,” said U2258. “They are faster, more
maneuverable, smaller, more powerful, lighter.”

Just as the cycles in front were about to
throw the net, Samuel looked both ways, turned to U2258, and said,
“Go backwards.”

“Oh,” said U2258, but that’s all he had time
to say, because suddenly the wheels screeched and slowed and then
headed backwards. The change was so sudden that they both almost
hit their heads on the dashboard display of the pod. Samuel looked
backwards as he drove for two blocks and then screeched around a
corner while the cycles tried to slow and turn around on the main
street, but with so many of them they got in each other’s way and
it took longer than it should have.

“All out,” said Samuel. And they both
abandoned the pod. Samuel led them through an old tall apartment
complex with a flickering light out front. A building he had never
seen before, but then again, neither had their pursuers. They
entered the front of the building and took an elevator to the top.
He knew the authorities would be trying to trap or chase him down.
Once at the top he saw the second elevator next to him also headed
up toward them. He waited with U2258 for a few moments and then
stepped back into the other elevator and headed down again.

“What are we doing?” asked U2258.

“Again, we are going backwards,” said Samuel.
“One thing people are not good at doing.”

They hit the bottom floor again and Samuel
and U2258 rushed out onto the street. And there, just around the
corner were six empty cycles.

This was what Samuel knew best. He pulled out
some wires for the first cycle, yanking them out with a jerk. Then
he did the same for the other three. “Can you ride one of these?”
he asked.

“I’ve never tried,” said U2258.

“Well, neither have I, but I’m willing.”

They turned on the cycles at a press of a
button and they were off. For just a second both of them were a
little unsteady as they got used to the cycles, but as they sped up
they became easier to control. They rode side by side. “You know,”
yelled U2258, “they will call in for more backup.”

“No, they won’t,” said Samuel. “I disabled
their power. They aren’t going anywhere or calling anyone.”

U2258 yelled back after a pause, “You would
have made a very efficient criminal.”

“From now on, we are criminals,” yelled back
Samuel.

Hirach had lived among the Waldenese for many
years thinking little about those from the city except for when he
saw something like what he was seeing now. Two cycles, generations
more advanced than he had ever seen when he lived in the city
himself, came rushing up toward their settlement. Both stopped in
front of him while he had been going for his daily walk.

“Come from the city, have you?” asked
Hirach.

“We would like to join you,” said Samuel.

“You are welcome to do that,” said Hirach,
“But those cycles are traceable, are they not?”

Samuel got off the cycle, squatted on the
left of it, and unscrewed a small cap. Then he pulled off a small
blinking device the size of a thimble, threw it on the ground, and
crushed it under his foot. Doing the same to the other cycle, he
said, “Not anymore.”

“Then come join us,” he said. “We already
have a place you can stay.”

“Where would that be?” asked Samuel.

“With me.”

Hirach proved to be an interesting host. He
had grown up in the city, but had moved here with his family when
he was still just a boy. “When I was young I remember the chips,
such as you wear, were only a science fiction. We used to joke
about the many devices we carried and about how someday they might
just embed them into our skulls.”

After some silence U2258 said, “Well, it’s
not science fiction anymore. And worse is coming.”

“Worse?” asked Samuel.

“Yes, they have just developed chips that can
receive information through the airwaves. And on top of that, they
are putting in subliminal messages that will brainwash the wearer
to their way of thinking.”

“Then a man’s brain will no longer be his
own,” said Hirach. “How sad.”

“They are choosing their own destruction,”
said Samuel. “I do not feel sorry for them.”

“Oh?” said U2258. “You do not seem like a man
who can turn off feelings so easily.” Samuel tried his best to
ignore the comment.

After a few days, Hirach came to Samuel and
U2258 and said, “I have a better solution for you than to stay with
me. I still enjoy my privacy, though you have been most
entertaining for the time you have been here. But there is a family
I would like you to meet that is set up better for long term
guests.” And that was how they were introduced to Poke, short for
Pocahontas, and Sydney. The couple took them in with no questions
asked. They had no children and they seemed to delight in inviting
those new to the Waldenese to live with them for a while.

Samuel and U2258 lived there for over a
month, at the end of which U2258 changed his name to Wallace.

One day, Samuel was talking to Poke outside
by the cooking fire, as an old man slowly ambled up the path. “I
don’t know why,” said Samuel, “but I am restless. I don’t sleep
well at night and I find myself daydreaming a lot. What is wrong
with me?”

“I am sorry to hear, but I don’t know,” said
Poke. “Ah, just the man we need.” The old man walked slowly up to
the fire. “How are you, Methuselah?”

“Doing well,” said the old man. “May I ask
who this is?”

“This is Samuel. He has come from the city to
live with us, but he is troubled.”

“As the Master says to bear one another’s
burdens, I would feel privileged to bear yours. What is it that
troubles you?”

“I was just saying to Poke that I cannot
sleep at night and I cannot concentrate during the day. I don’t
mind working and I have often helped Sydney or others who have
employment around here, but still my mind wanders.”

“Ah,” said Methuselah, “sometimes when the
mind wanders it is searching for a place to land. What are your
tenets?”

“Tenets?” asked Samuel.

“What do you live by?”

“The only tenet I have had is one that was
handed to me, and it goes like this: Be part of the solution, and
not part of the problem.”

“Then I think you have your solution.” Then
turning to Poke. “Might I have a sip of tea while this young man
works out his puzzle? I find my mouth unusually dry today.”

That evening the stars were so bright Samuel
seemed to see the curve of the earth above him. They were so bright
he could walk by starlight, and so he did. The terrain here was dry
with scrub brush here and there, so he could walk in almost any
direction without hindrance.

The only noise was that of crickets and the
sound of the slow wind. It was a warm night, a summer’s night.

Be part of the solution and not part of the
problem. How could he do this? He knew what the problem was. The
city. Living like that was destructive to everyone there. And if
what Wallace had said was true, it was only going to get worse. But
how could he be part of the solution? It seemed that the solutions
was out here, among these stars and in this silence. The only
solution was to leave the city and come to the Waldenese, where
life was simpler. Where things made sense. But how could he help
them do that?

Tired from chopping wood earlier in the day
and his long walk, Samuel headed back to the house. Wallace was
still up when he got back. “Can’t sleep?” Wallace asked as he
walked in the door. Candlelight flickered against the walls.

“No, I’m trying to figure out a puzzle.”

“A puzzle?” asked Wallace with a sparkle in
his eyes. “I love a good puzzle.”

“Then here it is. How can I become part of
the solution rather than part of the problem?”

“What is the problem?” asked Wallace.

“That people in the city are trapped. That
things will only get worse, but they don’t see it, and they will
remain in their snare.”

Wallace sat in silence for a moment. “But we
found a way out.”

“Yes, but we almost didn’t. Remember? We were
almost caught. And you know what happens when you are caught. They
send you in for reprogramming.”

“That is true, we were almost caught.”
Another pause. “It sure would have been nice if someone would have
helped us get out when we needed it.” The silence after that
statement was pregnant with meaning.

Both men looked at each other, and Wallace
smiled. “I figured out the puzzle, didn’t I?”

“You did.”

That next evening, after everyone had
finished their work, Samuel called a meeting of the village. This
was not a hard thing to do. He had Sydney, who was well respected,
call everyone together. When they had assembled outside Poke and
Sydney’s house, he stood in the middle of a large circle of
people.

“I know that I am new to this area and I
thank you for your hospitality. I was lucky to even escape the
Technophiles, as you call them. But now I want to go back.”

“Go back to that nightmare?” said a small man
in the back.

“I want to go back to rescue those who, like
me, want out but don’t know how.”

“Like a rescue mission?” said a young man
with a high voice.

“Yes, but an ongoing one. And I am calling
for volunteers. It will be hard, but it will be a worthy mission.
You see, I have decided that my purpose is to help others get free
from what entangles them. But I will need help. Who is with me?

No one raised a hand. No one spoke up, but
there was a good deal of murmuring as they talked with one
another.

“I will leave in the early morning before the
sun comes up,” said Samuel. “If anyone wants to join me I will
leave from this house.” Having ended with that, the people
dispersed.

Later that night Sydney talked with him after
the others had gone to bed. Wallace told him that he was tired and
would turn in early.

“Come with me,” said Sydney, and they both
stepped outside. They had a perfect view of the city. The lights
were bright and the buildings tall. “Whatever happens, I want you
to know that what you are doing is a good thing. If I did not have
a wife and my own mission, I would go with you.”

“I believe you,” said Samuel. “Do you think I
will have to do it alone?”

“I don’t know. It’s a hard thing you ask
people to do. To leave comfort and safety is always difficult.”

“I realize that, but I had no choice.”

“Oh, but you did have a choice, and you chose
wisely.”

The two men stood silently for a few moments
and then Sydney said, “It is a far, far better thing that I do,
than I have ever done.”

“What?” asked Samuel.

“A quote from a very old book,” said Sydney.
“You should get a good night’s sleep. You will need it.”

They both turned in for the night, but Samuel
hardly closed his eyes. He wondered what tomorrow would bring.