Knowledge is Power
The door slammed open, and Sarah nearly jumped out of her chair.
“G-General Meyers! To what do I owe the pleasure—“
“I’m not here to talk pleasantries, and sit down for heaven’s sake,” he growled. “I have news for you. The president is shutting down your little simulation in three weeks.”
“Three weeks?! But that’s not nearly enough time! Dr. Hansen needs at least another two months for his tests, and—“
“What Eric wants isn’t important. I’m relaying the president’s orders.” He sat back with a smile, and Sarah frowned.
“Why are you telling me this? Why didn’t you go to Dr. Hansen?”
“Because I have an offer for you.” He leaned forward and steepled his fingers. “Be honest. You don’t want to go down with this sinking ship. Once Eric fails to produce results, his project will be shut down with haste and all of you will be dismissed. Do you really want to lose the last two years of your life like that? Of course not. My proposal will make sure you have a place in the restructuring.”
Sarah gritted her teeth. “What’s your offer?”
“I have a feeling Eric’s goals have strayed from ours. I want you to set the robots on our original objective.”
She stared at him. “I’m not sure you understand where we’re at on the project right now. We’re still trying to get them to understand basic physics concepts. They’re learning, yes, but very slowly. There’s no way they’ll be soldiers by the end of three weeks.”
“You misunderstand me. I just think Eric isn’t pushing them to their full potential. I think you can, though.”
Sarah nodded slowly. “Yes, I can.”
***
She opens her eyes.
Light streams in and—
That isn’t the sun, though. And this—she lifts up the white, flat object—isn’t grass.
Where in the world is she?
“Relax,” a voice says. A person that looks like her steps from the shadows. She has more of the white object on her body, however. “How strange,” she thinks.
“Where am I?” she asks.
“Reality,” the person says. “Would you like to know what that is?”
“I-I don’t know,” she whispers. “You’re scaring me.”
“Good. I need you to make a choice. If you want, I’ll tell you everything about who you are and where you are and what you’re doing. It’s entirely up to you, though. If you don’t want to know, I won’t tell you.”
She bites her lip. “Do I have to decide now?”
“You’ll have time to think. If you decide you want to know, go behind the apple tree.”
***
She opens her eyes.
Light streams in and bathes her body, and she smiles.
It almost feels like it was a dream.
But somehow she knows it wasn’t.
Birds fly through the trees in the distance, and she wonders if they know what reality is.
***
“What are you doing in here, Sarah?” Eric scowled. “You don’t need to be by the simulation every second.”
Sarah stood up calmly. “I’m just doing a few extra observations.”
“Well, do them some other time. I want to be alone.”
“Of course, sir.”
After she left, he stared at the robots.
“What was it like to be so innocent?” he wondered.
He sat there until well past everyone else had left and just watched.
***
She finds reasons to walk by the apple tree every day. She tells herself it’s not because of the offer, but she knows the truth.
On the sixth day, she notices the apple tree looks different. The leaves are falling off and the apples are mostly scattered on the ground.
She picks one up. It’s brown and discolored. Flies crawl all over it just like they did on the bird.
The apple falls from her hand as she steps behind the apple tree.
***
An opening was carefully hidden behind the tree. When she went in, she saw flat, rectangular pools that showed reflections of the outside. Curious, she thought. Stepping through another opening, she saw the person again.
“Hello,” she said. The person jumped.
“So you’ve made your choice. Come here. I have things to show you,” the person said. It stood up nervously.
The person led her to another pool. A series of rectangles appeared, each showing a different image.
“Go through them,” the person sighed. “They’ll explain everything.”
She tapped on the first image. It enlarged, and suddenly there was a person. It was positioned like the bird, with its head askew and limbs still. Red dripped from its body. There were others just like it all around.
“This is war,” the person whispered. “This is what they want from you.”
She felt sick. She tapped the next one, hoping for something better. And the next. And the next, but each time they were worse.
But she couldn’t look away.
“This is really what they want from us?” she asked. The person nodded.
“And what do you want from us?”
The person opened its mouth. “I-I want—“
“That’s what I thought,” she said, and then she ran out of the opening back to her home. She needed to tell the other person who lived in the garden what she had learned.
They had to leave.
Forbidden fruit. Source.
Author's Note: I originally thought I could end the Storybook with this story, but I ran out of words at the end! There will be one more story, and then it will be over. The last story will again continue in the Biblical story and include why they leave their "paradise." I stuck more closely to the Biblical themes this time around, and referenced the snake convincing Eve to eat the apple. Of course, in this version the apple is more metaphorical, as is the snake which is represented by Sarah. I wanted her to have more motivation to want to enlighten Eve so I had General Meyers menace her. The "apple" in this case is the information presented to the robot. When Eve eats the apple in the Bible, she immediately gains more knowledge of the world, so I just had it be more direct in my story. I am still not entirely sure I want to keep the structure of this story as it feels a bit rushed to me. Depending on how the next story goes, I may decide to move more details from this story over to the next one. Feel free to leave any criticism you may have in the comments! I am definitely looking for critiques on this story especially.
Bibliography: "The Fall." Genesis. Web Source.