Plato's Cave During the Slicer Wars and other short stories by Terri Kouba

  It was after Sarah’s trial that most of the members of Plato’s Cave who didn’t have small children moved back above ground. We pulled our eyes away from the cave wall and focused again on eliminating the Slicers. Marla, my father and I spent long hours in the lab, trying one thing or another. We all had a good foundation of knowledge about defensive systems, how to defend ourselves from the Slicers, so we spent weeks as Derrick and Kendra taught us offensive systems, how to attack an enemy, tactics, strategy. We pored over old military, metallurgy, biology and genetics books. The next three months were a thrilling time of no sleep and too much new information.

  The tribunal had unanimously decided that Sarah acted for the good of the community and, while her actions would have hurt the community immeasurably, she was not to be expelled. She had broken the rule of taking drastic action on her own, but that was mitigated by the fact that it was in response to Marla breaking the same rule.

  Sarah chose as her act of contrition to serve Marla’s interests for seven years; whatever Marla asked, Sarah would do. The problem with this was that Marla asked for too little, which left Sarah’s guilt un-assuaged. Sarah began taking it upon herself to do things for Marla unbidden. Sarah always served Marla her meals, even during those rare times she ate in the commons. Sarah washed and mended Marla’s clothes and tidied her room, but Marla spent most of her time with us in the lab, and so Sarah spent most of her time in the lab too. Which is how it came to be that it was Sarah who suggested the method of how to eradicate the Slicers.