Unison (The Spheral) (10 page)

“How can you trust an Outsider over—”

“I’m not going back.” He examined the map. “Made the decision before I left Unity.”

My vertigo returned, and I observed the room in a state of disarray. All the trinkets and statuettes were scattered and broken on the floor. Underneath one of the shelves lay Ganesha with a broken trunk. I picked up both pieces and placed the trunk over the chipped face.

Wade shoved me, forcing me out of my vision.

“Shut that thing off,” he said.

I turned off the COR alarm and surveyed the room trying to reconnect with everything.

“It wasn’t another vision about me, was it?” Wade asked.

“There are more to my visions than you.”

“Come with me, Damon. This New Athenia sounds like the most amazing place on Earth.”

“If that were true, Outsiders wouldn’t be lining up at all the accesses to become Unitians.”

“Hah! The Sacred Oath might as well be tattooed on to your brain.” Old Woman pushed her palm towards me and then faced Wade. “Let your friend remain in his fantasy, and join me outside where the beauty of reality is more dynamic than you’ve ever imagined.”

Wade followed Old Woman towards the back door.

The cabin was well constructed and impressive. It took Torrin several years to complete the construction as everything had to be smuggled out by the Strikers. Whatever he couldn’t get from them, he managed to pick up in New Athenia.

“The solar panels were the most difficult to acquire. Torrin had to pay a rider with a wagon to bring them back from New Athenia. It took him almost half a year to find an electric trap. A Striker finally managed to sneak one out for him.” Old Woman pointed to a wall panel. “It can store weeks’ worth of energy.”

“How come no one ever discovered this place?” I asked. “All your electronics should’ve been picked up by the outer-patrol station.”

“There’s a covertly placed transceiver on the western side of the eroded ridge. It’s masked by deception jamming that communicates with a wireless signal interface inside this cabin.”

“You have access to the comnet out here?” Wade asked surprised.

“Along with live feeds of the middle ridge delivered by motion sensor cameras. I saw you both coming. Until today, this cabin was undetectable. All the walls are lined with steel mesh. It makes the whole cabin invisible to radar, but now that you know I’m here, it’s useless.” She grabbed the handle of her plazer. “Maybe I should’ve shot you.”

Wade laughed as I reached for my plazer.

“You’d be dead already if that’s what I wanted,” she said.

I ignored the continuing banter between Wade and Old Woman and admired the impressive vegetable garden. Each line of crop had an irrigation ditch connected to a canal that linked to the river on the western side of the cabin. A sluice-gate controlled the inflow of water. There was also a small pond beyond the garden where Old Woman said she went when she needed time to reflect.

“Potatoes, cucumbers, onions, and carrots.” Old Woman pointed to the next row of crops. “Tomatoes, cabbage, spinach—and there’s plenty of fish in the river. I have everything I want here.” She appeared reflective as she stared at one of the chairs on the porch. “Almost everything.”

Wade gazed toward the mountains. “I could live here. It’s peaceful.”

“I’m glad we have growers in Unity to do this tiresome work,” I said.

Wade ignored me and continued his worship of Old Woman. “What made you leave Unity?”

“The decision wasn’t easy—I was a purple sleeve.”

“She lies,” I said. “No purple sleeve ever left Unity.”

“They do when they’re in love with an orange sleeve.”

“No tenets exist that restrict relationships by color,” I said.

“What color are you?”

“I’m a maroon sleeve.”

“When you—if you make purple sleeve, you’ll adjust your opinion.” Old Woman went back inside.

I nudged Wade on the side of his arm. “Old Woman is in the late stages of the scourge. We should leave now.”

“Maybe you’re the one who’s sick, and we’re part of the cure.”

He left me alone. The isolation of my faith and opinion forced me to question whether my devotion was misplaced, but I didn’t carry the thought long enough to commit to an answer.

I examined the picture of Torrin with the young woman.

“That’s me—when I first arrived here over twenty years ago. My orange sleeve never met up with me at the city border, so I left without him.”

“A foolish decision,” I said. “You gave up your honored life as master to live like an Outsider.”

“Left more for myself. Uncertainty is liberating.”

“Being scared and curious is a hell of a lot more fun,” Wade smiled at me.

Old Woman glanced up at the picture of Torrin. “Sounds like something Torrin would’ve said. At first I thought he had the scourge.” She twirled her pointer finger next to her ear and smiled. “I was surprised to find him here because they told us he died. He was a Chosen.”

“Why did he leave?” Wade asked.

“He never talked about it and requested I never ask, so I didn’t. Torrin believed in and taught the ways of the Ancients. This cabin was his classroom, and I was his willing student. Through the years, other Unitians and local Outsiders came to hear about his travels.”

“Where is the master of the Outsiders now?” I asked.

“He left me a little over a year ago…during our last trek to New Athenia.” She looked up at the picture. “He died in the old tunnel.”

“Don’t you get lonely?” Wade asked.

“I tried returning, but all my years on the outside made me too independent to restrict my existence to a small dome. The collective folly of Unitian dogma felt suffocating, so I came back here.”

“Your loneliness has obviously affected your judgment,” I said. “Wade is a curate. I’m sure he can help you.”

“How are you so sure your judgment is better than mine? All your understanding comes from Unity. That hardly sounds objective to me.”

“Your selfishness clearly demonstrates why ‘mine,’ and other words related to the false nature of self, should be stricken from our language. Only with Unity can we rid the world of the destructive influence we’ve inherited from the Ancients.”

Old Woman applauded. “They programmed you well. Keep that up, and you’ll make a fine purple sleeve.” She turned towards Wade. “How about you? Are you alive, or is your head plugged into that Unitian insane asylum as well?”

“As a curate, I help Unitians through reintegration, but it seems more like I’m harming them.”

“How can you harm them by helping them?” I asked.

“Unity’s idea of help is no different from the violence of the past,” Old Woman said.

“You’re nearing a visit from Unity Forces, Old Woman.”

“I’ve known they were coming since I opened my door to you. I knew when I stared into your eyes still filled with sleep.”

I glanced at my holologue, and Wade pushed down my arm.

“Damon, let her speak.”

“This is what leads to violence. We can’t allow this Outsider a platform from which to spew her vile delusions.”

“I’m sure you’d like to throw her—along with that woman who interrupted your induction—into reintegration for daring to disagree with you. If you shut your slocking mouth long enough to listen, you’d realize other viewpoints exist besides your own.”

This intense anger rose from within me, followed by another blast of pain to my head. A part of me wanted my vision to come true. A part of me wanted Wade to die because he was a threat, although not in the way I’d imagined. He forced to the surface things I didn’t want to face: my own doubts over the Unitian Oath that began when Kai claimed credit for my work.

Wade looked at Old Woman. “I lost someone close to me. She was sent for reintegration, and they told us she died of the scourge.”

“But you don’t believe that,” Old Woman said.

“Nasia viewed the world as I did and wasn’t afraid to question common knowledge. Whenever we were together I could be myself, without all the pretenses.”

Old Woman smiled. “In Unity we can be enslaved, and in Unity we can also come together as individuals. This contradiction confused me at first.”

“I could tell her anything because I knew she’d understand.” Wade wiped his eyes with his sleeve. “Now I have no one to confide in. It’s unbearable…the loneliness I feel.”

“Nasia was passionate about her beliefs, but I never thought she’d go to such an extreme to prove them,” I said. “Introducing you to her was a mistake.”

“It was the smartest thing you ever did. Before Nasia, I didn’t know what it meant to feel alive.”

“Then why have you been a walking dead man for the past seven years?”

“I never found anything else to live for.”

“You have to live for yourself.” Old Woman unclasped her holologue and handed it to Wade. “And you can only do that after you free yourself. Make the effort to see ahead, or you’ll remain as you are.”

I grabbed Wade’s arm. He pulled himself away and took the holologue.

“It’s anti-Unitian!” I yelled. “Read that poison, and you’ll probably succumb to the scourge, like her.” 

I tried to snatch the holologue from Wade, and he violently pushed me away.

“Are you sure you don’t have the scourge?” I asked. “You haven’t even read what’s in that thing, and see how irrational you’re already acting.”

“I have the…the…” Wade rubbed his head. “I can’t even think of a word to describe what I’m feeling.”

“Right,” Old Woman said.

Wade scowled at me. “I have the right to do as I choose.”

“If you listen to her, you’ll end up living in the middle of the woods communing with  boars and wild dogs.”

“Sounds like paradise compared to Unity.” Wade walked away.

I glared at Old Woman. “This will be the last day you’ll speak your seditious words."

Her gaze remained relaxed. “What have I said that you find threatening?”

I gripped my plazer.

“Killing me won’t silence your doubts. It’ll make them scream louder.” She stared at my hand on the plazer and then at me. “I’m old and tired,” she said. “This was Torrin’s crusade…not mine. Do it, if you must.”

Old Woman walked to the counter and calmly poured herself a glass of water. “I’m usually not this candid with visitors.” She took a sip of water.

“What do you want from us?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

I stared at Wade and then back at Old Woman.

“I can only hear the truth when I make the choice to listen,” Old Woman said. “It took me over fourteen weeks of watching Torrin’s interactions with Unitians to understand. If I ask you to think or live as I do, I’d be worse than the Overseer.” She glanced directly into my eyes. “You’ll learn this in your own time.”

“For that blasphemous remark, you’ll be brought up on charges of treason.” I peered into the optic of my holologue. A blow to the back of my head threw me to the floor, rendering me unconscious.

HIKING PAST THE CROSSROAD

W
ade sat on the chair in front of the window. He didn’t flinch when I regained consciousness or when I groaned from the throbbing pain radiating from the back of my head. Fearing Old Woman killed him I tried to call for help, but my holologue was missing. I took a deep breath and sat up.