J Mauldin - Final Solution

I felt empty with the absence of her hand, and so I filled the void with words. “How are we not being watched? Cap can find us, right? All he has to do is check and see where the crew are logged in.”

“But lo!” Liberty wagged a finger an inch from my nose. “Griffin showed me a way to fool the system into thinking we’re inside separate simulations. Something about running two instances while projecting one of us, you in this case, into the other, keeps the system from seeing them linked. She’s about the smartest person I’ve ever met when it comes to programing in Sage computer language. All I can do is fumble around in the dark.”

My mouth fell open. “Hot damn, that’s smart. I’ve never done well with Sage. I can read a little of it, but not write much. You start getting into code compilers for chemical computing assembly language and it’s like…” I ran an open palm over my head.

“Riiggghht,” Liberty drew out the word five times its normal length. “You definitely know more than me, well, about that at least. Too bad not much else. So thick headed.”

“Is that so?” I bowed up my chest. “Well, lookie here, milk dud, I’ll lay some knowledge on you for real!”

She took off down the hill, heels kicking up grass. “Whatever, Davie, I’m soooo scared. But you have to catch me first!”

I shot off after her, field flowing beneath my feet. Just as I was about to close the gap, she shoved me back onto the ground and took off double time.

She was faster than she looked. Before my butt had hardly hit the turf I was after her. “You know what? All I do is run in my free time. I’m fast as lightening, Liberty!”

“You know what else? This shit isn’t real!” She threw up her hands, dashing for a cluster of evergreen trees.

“Crap,” I growled, and ordered my legs to pump faster. She was right. What did my physical body matter in this virtual space?

As my heart rate increased, my stomach began to swirl. I forced down the sensation and pushed ahead. Liberty might have been faster per step, but she lacked my crazy long stride. I flew forward, quick as a bird, and caught her around the middle.

“Gotcha, rabbit!” I said, goosing her in the side.

“David! Damn you!” She was laughing so hard she snorted. “That’s not fair, ganging up on someone smaller than you.”

“Smaller? Are you kidding me? Your personality more than makes up for the difference in size.”

The two of us tangled and fell over, rolling down the hill end over end. If I could have stopped laughing for an instant it might have hurt when I hit the ground. As it was, I didn’t hardly feel a thing. The hill became steeper as it went, spurring us on all the more.

“Shit! David!” Liberty yelled, sounding panicked.

“We… are…” I shouted in reply, the words only audible when facing the sky, “almost… at… the… bottom.”

The ground leveled off beside the lake. We skidded to a halt in the grass. Liberty came to rest beside me, lying flat on her back, panting as if she’d run a marathon. Sprigs of green grass were sticking out of her hair at a variety of angles like confetti.

“Holy shit,” she hissed.

“Holy shit is right.” I could only smile. “Hot damn, that was fun!” I rolled over and met her eyes, crawling across the grass to take her face gently in my palms. Caught in a pregnant, uncertain moment, she paused and calculated her next move.

She leaned in and our lips met, forming a soft, wonderful kiss. Our tongues exchanged affections as our bodies gravitated closer, putting us into a press of tangled limbs. Liberty found her way on top of me, sweet lips trailing down my neck and upper chest. She began unzipping my jumpsuit and lowered her hands, but I stopped her, drawing her chin back up. I looked into her eyes and felt so very small, my soul crushed by a beautiful, crystalline moment.

A war took place in her expression, those massive, dark eyes morphing between modes of soft kindness, hard steel, and terrified uncertainty. I leaned in for a kiss, hoping to wash away her fears, but she scooted back on her hands and put a tiny distance between us that was as wide as the sea.

“You asked me once why we fought the Axis,” she said, averting her eyes.

I shook my head in confusion. I wanted to keep up the momentum, but knew this was important. I needed the truth from her as much as she needed to give it. It was a crushing weight of knowledge resting upon her heart. I would just have to hope she wouldn’t now act as if nothing had happened. Wild emotions I thought I’d left far behind filled my mind and body, scaring the hell out of me. What if she turned away from me again? What would I do?

“I did ask,” I conceded.

“Then I’d like to tell you a story.” She waved an arm across the sky in a wide arc. “A story of ten children.”

A series of birds chirped in the distance. A bug crawled up my leg. I flicked it off out of reflex. This was all so surreal, so convincing. I raised an eyebrow. “A true story?”

“In its way.” She tightly closed her eyes and began to speak, using that far off voice again. “There once were ten wondrous children with one hundred golden coins. These ten children are the world, and their hundred coins all the money in it. There is one who is the Sovereign, two who are Contented, five who are Bottoms, and three who are Gazers. They live in one place together, but despite their freedoms, are kept separate by barriers they cannot see or touch.

“The Sovereign is the richest, and wishes to remain that way. He is a natural leader, a child who, in his private world, can get things done because he was born of privilege and will always be of privilege. He holds all the power on the playground as he believes he deserves, and thinks of generations down the line, ensuring his grandchildren’s grandchildren will have what he has, secure and unmoving. He holds most of the coins that the children use in trade for sweets and bread and juice, eighty of one hundred.

“Then there are the two Contented. They get on well enough, but are not so far removed they’re blind to their lessers’ struggles. They want to do what is right, if given the chance, they truly do, but won’t risk much. They hold ten coins altogether, five a piece, and wish very much for it to stay that way.

“Five of the children, the Bottoms, are hungry and so they take what scraps they can. They’re sent to complete the errands of their betters, to do the tasks those refuse in exchange for biscuits and saccharine tablets while others consume steak and Coca-Cola. They believe that this is their lot in life. That they will never rise above. When need be, they steal and cheat out of reflex and survival. They do not think of tomorrow like the Sovereign and Contenteds, sometimes not even to the end of the day. Their betters fault them for not managing their vast wealth properly. They hold three coins between them, not even one to each, yet are held in contempt for their abject poverty.

“Then there are the three Gazers. They have been told since birth they would do great things, be great things, but are just on the edge of making it happen. As their opportunities expand, the Sovereign arrives and demands more. Whenever they gain an inch, life takes three quarters. They see the Bottoms, and wish to help, but can’t. They resent the Contenteds for being comfortable, and despise the Sovereign, for he holds all the power and none of the compassion. And so they too struggle, but against themselves. They fight and backbite, all for an uneven split of seven coins.”

Liberty scooted up beside me, putting her head on my shoulder while resting her hands on bent knees. I leaned close and remained silent, feeling her body rise and fall as she breathed.