Edited By Stephanie Bachman
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I saw a man. Bound and gagged to a chair. He was struggling to get out of the ropes that kept him tied to the chair that was also bolted to the floor. He looked into the camera. Looked at Benito, then sighed. You could hear Benito mumbling behind the camera. Something about the end of the world and that this was all a part of the great chain. Sanguine has been whispering this toxic propaganda for a long time and this was before the loop. The room they were in was dark and you could only see the floor underneath the man which was concrete. The video stopped and Benito thought if he should continue.
“He needs to see it. To understand the future.” Sanguine said.
He pressed play again and we were now in another room. We were walking slowly into a dark house and all we could see was a little bit in front of the camera that was illuminated by a light from the camera. We saw Benito open a door. Then another and then we were in a room with someone sleeping. It was a woman and Benito placed the camera on a piece of furniture and walks next to the woman and takes out a packet of HARD FIBRES. Connects them and whispers.
“Test five. Skeletal system.” He looked right into the camera and smiled for a minute. Then pressed a button on the pad in his hand and we hear some whirring from the FIBRES. It isn’t loud enough to wake up the woman but the FIBRES approach the sleeping woman and then consume her flesh. We see her wake up in a surprise but within a fraction of a second she is turned into something else entirely. Her flesh was disintegrated. Eaten by the FIBRES then left a skeletal system but soon the skeletal system was converted quickly from bone to metal with functional joints and metallic muscles that held the bones together to make it look like a proper moving skeleton.
“I implanted a computer system into the Terium skull. It can obey simple commands.” Benito got up and picked the camera back up. We see specks of blood that would normally outline the body if you still wanted to call it that. It was now a robot. He told it to get up and it did somewhat clumsily. He then told it to follow and it did as Benito walked out of the house keeping the camera on the robot’s motion. It walked just like a human and technically it was. Something in between a robot and a human. Something I didn’t have words for. The video stopped and I could hear Sanguine laughing.
“Show him the others.”
Soon enough he did. The second video showed him sitting in front of the camera in this very room. There was worry all over his face and no doubt had Sanguine been telling him some very scary things concerning his future and the world. He tried to find words for his predicament and he soon found them after getting up, turning off the camera and turning it back on.
“I guess you wouldn’t call me a holy man. I mean. Religion sounds good. There’s a lot of stuff out there that has a lot of potential but there was something else I believed in, technology. I always believed that technology somehow linked us to the higher power, but I didn’t know who.”
Tears began to fill up his eyes. “Ever heard of Leviathan? Hess some… cosmic entity that meddles with us humans. He believes in chaos but within the chaos are answers. Sanguine tells me that Leviathan pointed out the Terium to a bunch of people and they went crazy. For the longest time people avoided the bay that the Terium resided in. Then the scientists and engineers that made South Tech Labs decided to buy the land and well, the rest made history. Sanguine says that Leviathan talked to those men too. Made it clear that it will destroy the planet in time, but they didn’t care. They knew they would make money. I know I’m doing the same thing, in fact expediting the process but Sanguine says I should kill them. They know too much. Only one person should know that the FIBRES are what is killing the planet, then I would take it to my grave. People will figure it out eventually, but I would be long gone when that happens. I have a legacy. Something I need to create for my children and the children of men.”
He turned off the camera quickly and he came back just as fast. Sanguine had been putting thoughts in his head and he had blood all over him. “I have to create a legacy. Something my children will hold onto.” He was much more confident in himself. “I found an area to set up the lab. The housing I’m currently in is owned by Sanscorp. I will supply tech to go out there and I will make the future of my legacy with the FIBRES I have. I have to hold onto some of the old FIBRES and create a fabricator for new ones. I need real Terium for some of these future projects. I know South Tech Labs will hit me with a cease and desist. I hope I can fly under the radar until everything is ready to come into play. A cease and desist can’t be enacted if there is no one to implement it.”
The camera turned off and turned back on with Benito behind it as he was walking up to another house. It was very dark out and he quickly put something into the lock to the front door to melt the inner workings of the lock. He walked in and you can see that several lights were on.
“Someone’s awake.” He said to the camera.
You could see several portraits on the wall of a family of three. A mother, father, and son. He walked into the living room and everyone had their backs turned to him looking at the television which was on the far wall. He walked in a few steps quietly and crouched behind the large leather couch in which everyone sat on. He turned on a couple devices that were connected to his FIBRES.
“Test seven. We’re going to try to implement the whole system.” Quickly he pressed a few buttons and the HARD FIBRES came pouring out of the devices. They quickly attached to the father who was currently laughing while eating popcorn. He started to make some uncomfortable noises and then began screaming. He got up picking at his skin trying to figure out why he was in so much pain. Benito barely peeked the camera over the couch. Just enough to see what was happening. The father soon fell down to his knees as he slowly put his hands up to his face. You could see organic materials slowly being replaced with mechanical ones and he soon turned into some bleeding robot. The mother and son were screaming trying to figure out what was happening, and Benito quickly pressed a few other buttons to do the same to the other two. Soon enough they too turned into disturbed machinations that one would have nightmares about. They were all robots now. Skeletal, nervous, even their skin.
Benito got up and looked at everyone and he wasn’t very happy. Something was wrong as he tried to push a few buttons on another pad that I supposed controlled them. It looked like they kept powering on and off as they twitched periodically.
“That’s not right.” Benito said under his breath. He walked up to the father who was still on his knees and opened up his head with a simple push on a panel on the back of his head. He looked at all the circuits and then began to talk again.
“Even though it has completely mirrored the entire body, it does not have any form of consciousness. The virtual intelligence I had developed isn’t enough. We’re going to need an artificial intelligence…or find some way to upload a conscious to one of these things.” The camera pointed down as he thought, and you could see piles of blood and gore that were once a part of the family. Pieces of the body that were no longer needed such as major organs and blood. The camera turned off and I sat there in thought.
“Why not create a body without killing someone? Why is this bloodshed necessary?”
“We need blueprints. Exactly how a body works. This device I’m creating will track it. With each and everybody, we find that much more about how the body works and it helps us understand how all these connections and synapses work together.
“There’s no way that you are able to create such a complicated body by clicking a few buttons and turning them into robots.”
“Turning them into robots was the original plan. Something to help the future of the human race to give Sanguine a body. These clouds that are coming into major cities. They are corrupting crops and people. But if there was nothing to corrupt…”
“Impossible. You can’t expect everyone to give up their bodies to become…that. These monstrosities.”
“At first I didn’t think we had a choice but maybe. Just maybe. We can’t live here anymore. I can create more. A way to leave the planet. To find new places. Terium can be used for so much.”
“I don’t know what sounds more far-fetched, expecting everyone to turn into robots or to leave the planet entirely.”
“Doomsday is coming.” Sanguine said. “Those who stay will mutate into something else. Their minds won’t be anyone’s, their bodies will become something else entirely. No one will want to stay here once they find out what the red clouds do.”
“If you are listening to my opinion. I think it would be best to create a way to leave the planet. Just stop killing, Benito, please.” I pleaded. Benito considered it for a second, but he quickly abandoned the idea.
“If we leave then killing will still be necessary. We will need robots to control ships to build up in space. HARD FIBRES needs an atmosphere to move around. Unless…Benito started writing a few ideas down on his computer. I tried to make sense of it, but it was all algorithms and science jargon. It made no sense to me.
“The end of the world is coming whether you like it or not.” Benito said. “We’ve already killed it. The things Sanguine has showed me. There is so much we can still do. Ways we can help but we need help. We need people. Other like minds. I can’t do everything as much as I prefer to work alone. We need to recruit. I have several plans. Ways to prolong our stay here but I need things I do not know about. Architecture, engineers, biochemists, anatomy and physiology experts’ people who can pick up the slack.”
“If anyone knew what you were actually doing then they would never align with you.” I said.
“We can, persuade them.” Sanguine said. “See what he is capable of? He is a visionary.”
“You gave him those disgusting ideas.” I said
“I may have planted a seed but sure enough. The actions are all Benito. Just you wait to see what he does next.”
“What’s next?” Benito asked. “I’ll show you what’s next. I drafted up these plans before the loop started.” He shook the mouse on the small computer in front of him and showed some blueprints in a file. For a minute he made some adjustments and looked back at the wall that was to the back of the house.
“How big is my back yard? What do you think?” He asked.
“You should be able to see the blueprints on Sanscorp’s living quarters.”
I figured just as much. Sanscorp pays the rent. They own this building. If Benito left, he would have a lot to explain. Not to mention he would be homeless, but I was sure that Benito had a solution to every possible problem that would happen. He’s been waiting for this moment for a year. He was calm and calculated. Something like a killer or what you would expect a successful killer would be like. Benito looked at several diagrams on Sanscorp’s server and found the exact copy of his cookie cutter house and the dimensions and materials that were used. He opened back up his diagram and extended it to go well past the foundation of the house and deep into the back yard ignoring the intention Sanscorp had for it. Room for kids to play in the grass. Room for barbecues with family and friends. Room for a family dog to roam. This life wasn’t for Benito. So, he deleted it with a stroke of a key to give him more space for his workshop. The ceiling would be lower. Probably so the grass would live just a little bit longer with little dirt he would allow to be in his back yard. It would be hidden. No one would know until it was too late. He was to build a dynasty that would be looked on in future generations.
Sanguine was in my head. I could hear his lips smile if he had any. He was working me from the inside. If he could change Benito’s heart, then he could probably change my figurative heart just the same. I thought like Benito. I knew what he planned I was just a few steps back. I can’t just know what he is thinking but I could figure it out over time. With a little delay. I’ll be behind his though process but maybe with him and me not communicating I can outthink him. Get ahead of him somehow. Show him the error of his ways. Convince him that he didn’t need Sanguine.
“He wishes to separate me and you. He thinks he can outthink us.” Sanguine said.
“Let him try. His outlook would be refreshing and once he offers something to the table, maybe we will be one again.” Benito looked up from his computer and into a mirror next to the desk. “Don’t make me regret saying that. I can also kill you if I wish.” How would that be possible? Kill his own thoughts? Or his conscious? I’m not really sure what I am.
“You’re the good left in him. Something like a conscious. He’s still capable of good without you. He’s done so much to help society. He will create a means of escaping the post-apocalyptic world that humans have created.” Sanguine said. Soon the files on the computer were complete and my body got up and walked next to the power box. He turned off everything and all I saw was darkness. He turned on a flashlight and turned on one of the tablets for HARD FIBRES. Connected a little hard drive into the tablet and it read his diagram. He checked everything over to make sure he didn’t make any mistakes, which he didn’t, then proceeded to see how many packets of HARD FIBRES he would need. It said seven. Here. He only had five. He sighed and headed upstairs to get some more packets for down here.
Seems like a packet of HARD FIBRES could create a lot. Each packet looks roughly five inches wide and a foot long and looked as if it were a microwaveable bag of popcorn with a little latch that would ooze out the HARD FIBRES. The HARD FIBRES were in silver bags with a lot of warnings written all over them with instruction of what to do and when to do it. Instructions like to not eat and keep out of eyes. The HARD FIBRES themselves were pretty simple. There were millions of the nanorobots in one package which could create enough stuff a thousand times its size. Five of them were enough to build an unfinished basement from little to large. There was equipment to be made too. The room would be full of it in just a moment. Power would be rerouted, and the power box would be made to accommodate a higher input of electricity. Benito grabbed the bags from the room that was full of them and headed back down into the basement and attached them to the tablet. It accepted the configuration and told him to leave the room. He did and went upstairs and went to the fridge. You could hear a whirring of nanobots consuming material, converting material, and placing material. It would all be done in a matter of seconds. Sipping the orange juice straight out of the bottle. Benito listened till the whirring stopped and it did. All was quiet in the house.
Benito didn’t mutter anything under his breath. Sanguine said no words about the upcoming fallout or his plans but waited to see what Benito did next. I almost feel that he could talk directly to Benito and not me. Blocking out any plans he would lay out for me to stop anything, if I could do anything. I wasn’t sure what I could do other than sit here and watch but I was obviously capable of something or else Benito wouldn’t have locked me out. Maybe I could hide my own thoughts from Sanguine and talk directly to Benito. Maybe there was something more I could do and somehow get through to Benito even though they set up blocks and walls. I waited to hear from Sanguine. Something like “good luck” but he knew that I was plotting. He always does. He hears my every thought, every wince at Benito’s chaos that he’s created but he didn’t say anything.
“So…tell me about this Leviathan.” I said.
“I’ve been looking into many other places and there’s nothing quite like it.” Sanguine said. “It’s interesting. There’s a lot of speak about him among intellectuals. Even though chaos is his nature he believes in a lot of other things that could help the future of humans. Gives us an explanation on why the universe is the way it is.”
“How do you know so much about Leviathan?” I asked.
“How do I know so much? Leviathan and Sanguine are the same person. I have lived in the exact same environment as Leviathan and it seems like me and it are the same exact creation in just a different skin. That’s why I chose to inhabit this place. I’m already a God. People will soon understand.” I didn’t understand how he was and wasn’t the Leviathan, but it was just another thing that made him tick.
“Just another person playing God I see.” I said trying to get a rise out of him. He didn’t respond knowing full well I was trying to get him to say more about himself. A way to understand it so I could defeat it.
Benito finished drinking his juice and started to head towards the basement again. The house was dark and quiet, and it looked like a horror movie was about to start. He opened the door to the downstairs and a bright light pierced the darkness that was coming from downstairs. He went down looking around at his new basement and it was a modern marvel. There were many machines that constructed items and there were some cool storage machines. There was a large table in the center that looked like it could do drafting and other technological things that I didn’t quite understand, and I was sure I would never understand it. There were other objects down here. Some indescribable but no doubt they were there to move Benito’s work forward into the future. Benito cracked his knuckles.
“Alright boys. Let’s begin.”
Next Chapter:
The Crucible Part IV (Yet to be released)
