Fools of us All - Chapter 7

If someone were to ask, I would probably tell them that I walked for a few days without stopping, just wandering aimlessly, trying to come to terms with what I had heard. Truth be told, I think it was no longer than a few hours. I am sure that it rained for much of that time, one of those depressing rains, the kind that just falls steadily and everything is just grey and cold. Somehow it seemed fitting.

It's an odd feeling, knowing that everything you had held to be true was actually a lie. I had always known that the world wasn't in the greatest of shape. It was hard to get a job anymore and there seemed to be little place for those without work. Entire sections of large cities were given over to those without a place to live. It was almost as though an entire society had developed underneath the brighter and more affluent society, a society made up of those who had to fight just to survive, and where only the strongest last. That was the society that I had recently found myself deposited into. And then I go to that fateful meeting where I find out that it was worse than I thought, that only those in the privileged class were going to be allowed freedom. What we were fighting against was a movement, still in its infancy, to round up everyone who was homeless, the vagrant society, and send them to work hard labour without any rights. Basically what we were talking about was slavery. At least the hard labour at present was still a paid position, though it didn't matter too terribly much because the life span of those hard labourers, both on earth and in space, was horribly short. If the proposed measures were passed into law everyone with whom I was now associated would be sold into slavery and certain death. This was all to be precipitated by the merger of the globe into one 'country' run by a select number of corporations.

And then I go into Dun's office find another layer. The corporations have no real interest in using people as cheap labour. Even without paying them and not taking care of them at all it was still more cost efficient to simply let machines do the same work. What was really being proposed was genocide - round up the vagrants and simply make them disappear. Permanently. That was the first part of what Dun had told me. I was shaken by that, understandably. Being faced with the prospect of being arbitrarily killed was hard enough to take. But Dun wasn't quite finished.

He told me that I was the world's last hope. Myself, and one other person. A person that by all rights, we couldn't use because he had been dead for a hundred years. And yet it was my job to find him and get him to save our world. The last thing he had told me before he left his office was that I was going to be transferred to the proper facility where I would be sent back in time. I could think about it for a day if I needed to, but I was the only one who could stop the coming Armageddon. Is it any wonder that I had to clear my head for a while?


I finally found my way back to the office. The scanning light spun around me again, giving me a slight case of vertigo until I closed my eyes, shutting out the world around me, if only for a second. I heard the sound of the door opening and with a deep breath to steel my nerves I walked into the room.

Dar was still sitting at his computer terminal, his pale features made even more pale by the glow of his monitor. He spent most of his time scanning the government databases and the corporation files, trying to find any information that we could possibly use. He was also in charge of security, and one of the first people I had met when I joined the organisation. I headed over and sat in the chair beside him. With a sigh he turned away from the computer screens and faced me.

“I suppose you know what they told me?” I was in no mood for pleasantries.

He nodded, but remained silent.

“I have to know one thing.” I looked him straight in the eye, and I could tell that he wasn’t completely comfortable, but to his credit he held my gaze. “Did you know of this right from the start?”

Finally he looked away, closing his eyes. “No, I swear to you I only found out a couple of days before you did.”

He was telling the truth. Something that I have always been able to do is to tell when people are lying to me. It is an ability that borders on the mystical, and that was bothering me. Dun had told me that they had been lying to me ever since the beginning, and I hadn’t picked up on it. It almost felt like he was lying to me about lying to me. Something just didn't quite sit right, but I had no way of knowing what.

Finally I dropped my gaze and looked at the computer screen. "Anything new that might be helpful."

Dar simply shrugged. "It's always hard to say. Some things only show up as problematic when you decipher the pattern, and that takes time. Right at this moment, however, I don't have any problems on scan." He placed a friendly hand on my shoulder. "I know all of this is pretty overwhelming, but don't be too worried. I've seen what you can do, and I have faith in you. No matter where or when you are, I'll be rooting for you." He squeezed gently and then dropped his hand, turning back to his work.

I got up, grateful for the encouragement. Squaring my shoulders, I turned to head to Dun's office. Before I could make my way, I felt a hand on my arm. I turned and saw Dar's face, looking even more pale than usual. "Before you leave, come see me, but don't let Dun know. It's important." With that he dropped his gaze again, almost as though I wasn't even present.

Things were moving faster now, faster than I knew. That's probably for the best, because I don't know if I would have had the strength to carry on if I had known what was going to happen next.