The End of the Line by Tom Lichtenberg & John Lichtenberg
was his most adventurous customer, willing to taste test everything from raisin cheesecake to pumpkin-fried chicken nuggets. After living so long on berries and roots, she was happy to have any new flavor sensations. Ember only yearned for the old standbys, but chose to starve herself in any case, refusing even water.
"Why are we even bothering with this charade?" she asked Edeline as they were settling down for the night. "We're all for it, anyway, the way things look. And why not? I'm as ready as I'll ever be. I've had enough of marching through this tedious wasteland, worrying about sneak attacks from mindless stupid robots, not to mention that boy."
"He means well, I'm sure," Edeline said, to which Ember only grunted.
"He's a show off, if you ask me," she said. "It's always 'look at me, look at me'. He's like a little baby."
"If it's true what Red Cliff says, then he's only a few days old," Edeline mused. "I wonder what that would be like, to go from zero to sixty in no time flat."
"I think I'm finding out," Ember snorted, "And I can tell you it's no fun at all. At least you're already fully grown. I feel like I'm being ripped apart and put back together again every few minutes. And these stupid pants! One minute they're choking me and the next they're falling down."
"Have you tried to take them off?" Edeline asked, "Because I noticed that I can't anymore."
"They're stuck," Ember agreed. "Even when they're too big they're still attached somehow. It's crazy. Like everything else around here. I wish I knew how to make it all stop."
"Tomorrow."
Zed had once again appeared in their midst without warning.
"Don't worry," he added. "I'll take care of it."
And before Ember or Edeline could open their mouths to ask him what he meant, he was gone. The moon, which had made an early entrance into the sky that day, remained exactly where it had initially shown up, spinning and whirling madly throughout the night, dizzying the eyes of anyone who attempted to keep looking at it. A few stars had also decided to join in, but none of them were familiar to Edeline or Ember, who eventually fell asleep.
Soma once more remained awake throughout the night, searching in her mind for clues about the true nature of Zed. She was by now convinced that he was a new kind of being entirely, one not accounted for in any Keeper lore. She knew all of the historical types, the patterns of perfection upon which all of the genetically modified humanoids were modeled. There were the standard templates of beauty, fame, riches and leisure. There were the legendary kinds of power, including mastery over the sea and the sky, eternal youth, infinite wisdom, magical powers. All of these had been achieved, to minimal effect, supposedly 'superior' creatures that never actually did anything. She had seen them all, but Zed was something different, and she wasn't quite sure what he was.
She still did not know where they were going, and was determined to find out, planning to stick as close to Zed as possible the following day and pester him until he finally revealed their destination, but it turned out to be far easier than she anticipated.
"We're almost there," he announced to the entire group first thing in the morning. "About an hour's walk to the Dead Tree, and down we go from there."
With that, he dashed ahead, leaving the others to hustle to keep pace. The promised hour turned into another, and then another, and the four followers were on the verge of giving up hope when they saw what had to be the Dead Tree itself, a sickly, bent and scraggly thing that towered over the landscape. They found Zed sitting beneath it, hands behind his head and a huge grin on his face.
"Down we go!" he shouted, springing to his feet, and disappearing behind the trunk. The others could not imagine where he had gone to. The ground seemed flat all around the tree, which stood alone in a clearing. Soma tentatively stepped behind it, and was surprised to find there a hollow opening in the ground, with a stone wall surrounding a half dozen steps leading straight down into a roiling sea of rough brown waves. Zed was nowhere in sight. The others joined her and they all stood there, confused.
"Where did he go?" Red Cliff asked the question. Soma walked down a few steps, feeling the walls on either side for any sign of a hidden door, but found none. The rushing water lapped and splashed onto the bottom steps, and she could see nothing beneath its murkiness. She retreated to the surface, shaking her head.
"I don't suppose the yellow book has anything to say about this," she suggested. Red Cliff tried again to make it speak, but the page it opened to remained blank just as before.
"Useless!" he cried, and flung the book to ground.
"I've had enough of that thing," he said. "No more. If The Coalition wants to tell me anything, they can say it in person from now on."
"Then come on down. They're waiting for you," Zed shouted from below them. His head was sticking out of one side of the wall just above the lowest step.
"Oh, that's right," he added. "You guys can't really see. I don't know why they made you so that you always believe what your eyes tell you. Talk about a design flaw! You could all use a corrective brain module. Anyway, I'll fix it."
With that, he withdrew his head and the wall where he'd been turned into an open door, which led into a dark stone-walled corridor. Soma led the others down and into this hallway, where they proceeded cautiously feeling their way as the floor descended gradually for some time.
"Maybe some light?" she asked at length, uncertain whether Zed was still even with them. With a snap of his fingers, the entire place lit up like the beach at noon.
"Here we go," he yelled as the walls opened up and they entered a huge bright room filled with tables and chairs and sofas, all of which were covered in stray clothing and blankets and papers. The place was a total mess. From the ceiling hung paper box lanterns of various sizes and colors, and the walls were cluttered with maps and blueprints and what looked like finger-painted representations of classic art works. The far wall was dominated by a grid of projections which appeared to be live images from the surface. Soma recognized the village of the blue wall, where residents lined up to obtain anything they desired merely by pressing on a tile representation of the item. She saw what must be the remains of the forest prison, now a jumble of fallen trees and rubble. She saw Mer-people bobbing in the sea, and some members of the Flock roosting on the roof of an ancient parking garage. She saw Tanners lying about on beach chairs, and Celebrities lounging in outdoor cafes sipping on specialty drinks. All of them, she noticed with alarm, looked extremely ancient and decrepit, like the Monks.
"Ta da!" Zed announced, clearing away a pile of blankets which had been obscuring a desk, before which sat a very old man and a very old woman both focused intently on the desktop screens in front of them.
"Mommy and daddy," Zed declared, but the couple did not seem to even notice their visitors until Zed went right up to them and plopped himself down on the desk in front of them.
"What's this?" the woman asked, scratching her head, looking up at him.
"It looks real enough," the man muttered. "Did you turn on the 3D projector?"
"Not me," she said. "It must have been you."
"It wasn't me," he grumbled. "I actually know what I'm doing, unlike some people."
"Oh right, said the man who left peanut butter all over the counter," she snapped. "The ants are my friends. That's what you said."
"So what?" he bickered. "At least somebody gets fed around here."
Zed reached out and placed his left hand on the old woman's head, and his right on the old man's. Looking at Soma he said,
"Here's your Coalition, or at least what's left of them. This one is Tom, and this one is Khandi. They've been down here roughly forever. Isn't that right, Dad?"
"I think it's your new one," Khandi said. "The one from the other day."
"Oh, it could be," Tom replied, now looking intently at Zed. "It's grown a bit faster than I planned."
"Like a weed, Dad," Zed smiled. "I've been growing like a weed. And thanks to you fine people, we'll all be dead and gone before y
ou know it."
"No need for such drama," Tom muttered. "It's all under control."
"Under control?" Khandi nearly screeched, turning towards him. "Is that what you call it? Look at us! We're what, a hundred? A month ago we were still sixty four, like we'd always been, and now this is what you call 'under control'?"
"I brought visitors," Zed said, gesturing at the group who stood gaping at the sight of the cranky geezers. Tom and Khandi slowly turned in their seats to examine the newcomers. Khandi counted them aloud and when she was done she said,
"What do you know, there are five. Didn't we have a rule about that?"
"The Law of Five," Tom agreed. "It certainly is a coincidence."
"What?" Ember shouted. She could not contain herself any longer. "Are you kidding me? Who are you people? This is all nonsense. Nonsense!"
"Why of course it is, little Ember," Khandi replied. "Did you think to make sense of the world? Come now, you know better than that. Rules are rules, after all. Follow them and everything works out. Don't follow, and they don't. Isn't this how you played the game? You mastered the known, and let the rest all alone."
"How do you know me?" Ember said.
"And there's little Soma," Khandi said, gazing at her. "Our sweet little Soma."
"Kept them safe, we did," Tom nodded. "Edeline too. Hate to think what would have become of them out there if we hadn't."
"How do you know about us?" Edeline demanded.
"Because we saved you, of course," Khandi said. "Not entirely on purpose, but nevertheless."
"Let's just say we atoned," Tom added.
"Somebody messed up," Khandi said.
"Somebody left the printer on," he countered.
"Somebody said it wouldn't matter," she replied.
"The bottom line is we kept them all safe. The humans would have destroyed us all. Somebody had to do something. So we used the botanical gardens. It worked."
"You?" Ember yelled. "You made the forest prison? You put us all in there?"
"Prison? Oh no, not at all," Tom said. "Safety Zone. You see, the humans couldn't get in there. Cellular rejection and all that. Some tried, and some fried," he chuckled.
"It's not funny!" Ember insisted. Tom waved his hands around.
"But then the Law of Five," he said.
"Ridiculous. It was already broken," Khandi said. "Ever since the you-know- what."
"We don't know that for sure," Tom glared at her, and the couple resumed their argument.
"Three weeks to the day," she shouted, "it's been exactly three weeks, and look what's happened. The Safety Zone, all gone. Machines run amok. Did you see the footage of the moon last night? And what's with the sunsets? What about the sunsets? And you still call it a coincidence?"
"I agree there might be a correspondence," he admitted, "but causation does not necessarily follow. Besides, somebody said they tested the fix."
"Somebody didn't have all the data," she yelled.
"Then somebody should have said so at the time."
"Somebody shouldn't have let them go ahead with the program."
"Somebody gave the okay."
"Somebody gave a 'tentative' okay. Do you even know what 'tentative' means? Or have you forgotten that too?"
"Mom! Dad! Enough!" Zed said, jumping back onto the floor. The old couple hushed, but only for a few moments.
"He's turned out well," Khandi admitted. "Presence. Command. Confidence. And talented, too. The manifesting thing. Impressive."
"Yeah, not bad," Tom said. "It's a shame he's the last."
"You really used up all the stuff?"
"All of it. Everything we had. I figured if we only had one shot, I might as well dump it all in."
"So that's it," Soma spoke for the first time since they'd entered the room. "I'd been wondering what he was."
"The end of the line," Tom murmured. "There won't be any more, unless, you know."
"There's still a chance," Khandi said, and she gestured
"Why are we even bothering with this charade?" she asked Edeline as they were settling down for the night. "We're all for it, anyway, the way things look. And why not? I'm as ready as I'll ever be. I've had enough of marching through this tedious wasteland, worrying about sneak attacks from mindless stupid robots, not to mention that boy."
"He means well, I'm sure," Edeline said, to which Ember only grunted.
"He's a show off, if you ask me," she said. "It's always 'look at me, look at me'. He's like a little baby."
"If it's true what Red Cliff says, then he's only a few days old," Edeline mused. "I wonder what that would be like, to go from zero to sixty in no time flat."
"I think I'm finding out," Ember snorted, "And I can tell you it's no fun at all. At least you're already fully grown. I feel like I'm being ripped apart and put back together again every few minutes. And these stupid pants! One minute they're choking me and the next they're falling down."
"Have you tried to take them off?" Edeline asked, "Because I noticed that I can't anymore."
"They're stuck," Ember agreed. "Even when they're too big they're still attached somehow. It's crazy. Like everything else around here. I wish I knew how to make it all stop."
"Tomorrow."
Zed had once again appeared in their midst without warning.
"Don't worry," he added. "I'll take care of it."
And before Ember or Edeline could open their mouths to ask him what he meant, he was gone. The moon, which had made an early entrance into the sky that day, remained exactly where it had initially shown up, spinning and whirling madly throughout the night, dizzying the eyes of anyone who attempted to keep looking at it. A few stars had also decided to join in, but none of them were familiar to Edeline or Ember, who eventually fell asleep.
Soma once more remained awake throughout the night, searching in her mind for clues about the true nature of Zed. She was by now convinced that he was a new kind of being entirely, one not accounted for in any Keeper lore. She knew all of the historical types, the patterns of perfection upon which all of the genetically modified humanoids were modeled. There were the standard templates of beauty, fame, riches and leisure. There were the legendary kinds of power, including mastery over the sea and the sky, eternal youth, infinite wisdom, magical powers. All of these had been achieved, to minimal effect, supposedly 'superior' creatures that never actually did anything. She had seen them all, but Zed was something different, and she wasn't quite sure what he was.
She still did not know where they were going, and was determined to find out, planning to stick as close to Zed as possible the following day and pester him until he finally revealed their destination, but it turned out to be far easier than she anticipated.
"We're almost there," he announced to the entire group first thing in the morning. "About an hour's walk to the Dead Tree, and down we go from there."
With that, he dashed ahead, leaving the others to hustle to keep pace. The promised hour turned into another, and then another, and the four followers were on the verge of giving up hope when they saw what had to be the Dead Tree itself, a sickly, bent and scraggly thing that towered over the landscape. They found Zed sitting beneath it, hands behind his head and a huge grin on his face.
"Down we go!" he shouted, springing to his feet, and disappearing behind the trunk. The others could not imagine where he had gone to. The ground seemed flat all around the tree, which stood alone in a clearing. Soma tentatively stepped behind it, and was surprised to find there a hollow opening in the ground, with a stone wall surrounding a half dozen steps leading straight down into a roiling sea of rough brown waves. Zed was nowhere in sight. The others joined her and they all stood there, confused.
"Where did he go?" Red Cliff asked the question. Soma walked down a few steps, feeling the walls on either side for any sign of a hidden door, but found none. The rushing water lapped and splashed onto the bottom steps, and she could see nothing beneath its murkiness. She retreated to the surface, shaking her head.
"I don't suppose the yellow book has anything to say about this," she suggested. Red Cliff tried again to make it speak, but the page it opened to remained blank just as before.
"Useless!" he cried, and flung the book to ground.
"I've had enough of that thing," he said. "No more. If The Coalition wants to tell me anything, they can say it in person from now on."
"Then come on down. They're waiting for you," Zed shouted from below them. His head was sticking out of one side of the wall just above the lowest step.
"Oh, that's right," he added. "You guys can't really see. I don't know why they made you so that you always believe what your eyes tell you. Talk about a design flaw! You could all use a corrective brain module. Anyway, I'll fix it."
With that, he withdrew his head and the wall where he'd been turned into an open door, which led into a dark stone-walled corridor. Soma led the others down and into this hallway, where they proceeded cautiously feeling their way as the floor descended gradually for some time.
"Maybe some light?" she asked at length, uncertain whether Zed was still even with them. With a snap of his fingers, the entire place lit up like the beach at noon.
"Here we go," he yelled as the walls opened up and they entered a huge bright room filled with tables and chairs and sofas, all of which were covered in stray clothing and blankets and papers. The place was a total mess. From the ceiling hung paper box lanterns of various sizes and colors, and the walls were cluttered with maps and blueprints and what looked like finger-painted representations of classic art works. The far wall was dominated by a grid of projections which appeared to be live images from the surface. Soma recognized the village of the blue wall, where residents lined up to obtain anything they desired merely by pressing on a tile representation of the item. She saw what must be the remains of the forest prison, now a jumble of fallen trees and rubble. She saw Mer-people bobbing in the sea, and some members of the Flock roosting on the roof of an ancient parking garage. She saw Tanners lying about on beach chairs, and Celebrities lounging in outdoor cafes sipping on specialty drinks. All of them, she noticed with alarm, looked extremely ancient and decrepit, like the Monks.
"Ta da!" Zed announced, clearing away a pile of blankets which had been obscuring a desk, before which sat a very old man and a very old woman both focused intently on the desktop screens in front of them.
"Mommy and daddy," Zed declared, but the couple did not seem to even notice their visitors until Zed went right up to them and plopped himself down on the desk in front of them.
"What's this?" the woman asked, scratching her head, looking up at him.
"It looks real enough," the man muttered. "Did you turn on the 3D projector?"
"Not me," she said. "It must have been you."
"It wasn't me," he grumbled. "I actually know what I'm doing, unlike some people."
"Oh right, said the man who left peanut butter all over the counter," she snapped. "The ants are my friends. That's what you said."
"So what?" he bickered. "At least somebody gets fed around here."
Zed reached out and placed his left hand on the old woman's head, and his right on the old man's. Looking at Soma he said,
"Here's your Coalition, or at least what's left of them. This one is Tom, and this one is Khandi. They've been down here roughly forever. Isn't that right, Dad?"
"I think it's your new one," Khandi said. "The one from the other day."
"Oh, it could be," Tom replied, now looking intently at Zed. "It's grown a bit faster than I planned."
"Like a weed, Dad," Zed smiled. "I've been growing like a weed. And thanks to you fine people, we'll all be dead and gone before y
"No need for such drama," Tom muttered. "It's all under control."
"Under control?" Khandi nearly screeched, turning towards him. "Is that what you call it? Look at us! We're what, a hundred? A month ago we were still sixty four, like we'd always been, and now this is what you call 'under control'?"
"I brought visitors," Zed said, gesturing at the group who stood gaping at the sight of the cranky geezers. Tom and Khandi slowly turned in their seats to examine the newcomers. Khandi counted them aloud and when she was done she said,
"What do you know, there are five. Didn't we have a rule about that?"
"The Law of Five," Tom agreed. "It certainly is a coincidence."
"What?" Ember shouted. She could not contain herself any longer. "Are you kidding me? Who are you people? This is all nonsense. Nonsense!"
"Why of course it is, little Ember," Khandi replied. "Did you think to make sense of the world? Come now, you know better than that. Rules are rules, after all. Follow them and everything works out. Don't follow, and they don't. Isn't this how you played the game? You mastered the known, and let the rest all alone."
"How do you know me?" Ember said.
"And there's little Soma," Khandi said, gazing at her. "Our sweet little Soma."
"Kept them safe, we did," Tom nodded. "Edeline too. Hate to think what would have become of them out there if we hadn't."
"How do you know about us?" Edeline demanded.
"Because we saved you, of course," Khandi said. "Not entirely on purpose, but nevertheless."
"Let's just say we atoned," Tom added.
"Somebody messed up," Khandi said.
"Somebody left the printer on," he countered.
"Somebody said it wouldn't matter," she replied.
"The bottom line is we kept them all safe. The humans would have destroyed us all. Somebody had to do something. So we used the botanical gardens. It worked."
"You?" Ember yelled. "You made the forest prison? You put us all in there?"
"Prison? Oh no, not at all," Tom said. "Safety Zone. You see, the humans couldn't get in there. Cellular rejection and all that. Some tried, and some fried," he chuckled.
"It's not funny!" Ember insisted. Tom waved his hands around.
"But then the Law of Five," he said.
"Ridiculous. It was already broken," Khandi said. "Ever since the you-know- what."
"We don't know that for sure," Tom glared at her, and the couple resumed their argument.
"Three weeks to the day," she shouted, "it's been exactly three weeks, and look what's happened. The Safety Zone, all gone. Machines run amok. Did you see the footage of the moon last night? And what's with the sunsets? What about the sunsets? And you still call it a coincidence?"
"I agree there might be a correspondence," he admitted, "but causation does not necessarily follow. Besides, somebody said they tested the fix."
"Somebody didn't have all the data," she yelled.
"Then somebody should have said so at the time."
"Somebody shouldn't have let them go ahead with the program."
"Somebody gave the okay."
"Somebody gave a 'tentative' okay. Do you even know what 'tentative' means? Or have you forgotten that too?"
"Mom! Dad! Enough!" Zed said, jumping back onto the floor. The old couple hushed, but only for a few moments.
"He's turned out well," Khandi admitted. "Presence. Command. Confidence. And talented, too. The manifesting thing. Impressive."
"Yeah, not bad," Tom said. "It's a shame he's the last."
"You really used up all the stuff?"
"All of it. Everything we had. I figured if we only had one shot, I might as well dump it all in."
"So that's it," Soma spoke for the first time since they'd entered the room. "I'd been wondering what he was."
"The end of the line," Tom murmured. "There won't be any more, unless, you know."
"There's still a chance," Khandi said, and she gestured