The War In His Mind

Chapter 8

They woke up together next to the window. The glass was shattered and darkness flooded the room. A strange peace came Abraham as he began to recall what happened. He didn't know what time it was, or how long ago it happened, but the airship was gone. There was nothing attacking them. For the time, he assumed, the two of them were safe.

Abraham looked over to the guard. He sighed and said, "You're going to need a name."

"What good is a name if I don't have a purpose?"

Abraham handed the guard his personal book. It was open to the first page. Abraham watched as the guard read the very few words that were there. "My purpose can be your purpose too, if you want it to be," Abraham said.

"How can I be somebody new if the man who created me wants me to be a clone?"

"We might be made in his image, but that doesn't mean we are him..."

The guard took a deep breath. "My new name is Israel. I will rebuild a great nation. I will bring life where there is no life. My purpose is not only to be somebody new, but to build something new."

Abraham stared at Israel. "Is that what you want out of life?"

"Isn't it what you want too?"

"All I want is to be free. Have a life. Fall in love."

Israel looked surprised. "What about all the people here? What will become of them? Will you leave them to be slaves?"

"Everyone here's just a puppet. Just pawns. Clones of a mad tyrant."

"I used to be that same way...but you changed me. Why can't that happen again?"

Abraham thought about that statement. He didn't know what caused the change in Israel. He knew that he himself was a glitch, but didn't think you could pass it on others. "Who knows..."

Israel pulled out a flashlight and shined it on various books. "We're in a library, mate, I'm sure one of these books has something valuable for us."

Israel moved the light past the fiction department and highlighted the historical reference department. "Maybe we can discover something new about this world."

"Where did all these books come from?" Abraham asked.

"I heard in the military that O'Neil brought these from whatever world he came from."

Abraham stopped moving and thought about that. "Why would he put books with different thoughts, emotions, and plots in a world of clones void of emotion?"

Israel shrugged. "Maybe it keeps him from being lonely."

Down the isles, Abraham found several books written by O'Neil himself. Many were fiction. He was an author with no audience. The thought made Abraham pity him. What good is art when it can't be given or appreciated by anyone else?

Abraham noticed something odd happening on the right side of a bookshelf. The shelf itself was vibrating, like the stair and the window. The books on the shelf were nameless and had blank covers. 

"Hey, hold up..." Abraham pressed his palm against them. A bright light emerged from in between them. It blinded Abraham. A loud beeping sound came from it. When the sound died down, the light diminished with it. In its place, several new books appeared on the shelf.

"What happened?" Israel asked. He was breathing heavily. Abraham could tell that he was nervous by the shake in his voice.

"I...I don't know..." Abraham said.

Of all the books, one stood out above the rest. It was a large book written by O'Neil titled "The Wonder City Chronicles."

Israel rushed to pick it up. He flipped it open and looked inside.In the table of contents, Israel found a chapter on how new people are created. It told Israel and Abraham all about the code that is used to generate beings. According to the book, the system's code had only two jobs. To create new people and assign them a purpose. It explained that a single line of code, "DifferentiateValues: NO" forced every being to become an exact clone of Thomas O'Neil. Without that line of code, everyone would be unique. The system would create all kinds of people. People of different ethnicities, and different creeds, ideologies, worldviews, and even people of different physical shapes and sizes.

"What if we could change the code?" Israel said.

"How would that do us any good?" Abraham asked.

"We can create a whole new generation of Wonder City citizens. We can tell them the history of the city and what's been going on, and those who are angry about it can help us put an end to it."

"I just need to get out of here, man. I want a life. I'm not fit to be a king."

Israel grabbed Abraham's hand. He looked at him square in the eye. His face was intense, and in that moment, Abraham knew did not have a choice. "I promise you, if we can do this successfully, you'll have the life that you really want. We can make that happen."

"And what if we fail?"

"Then we try again..."

Israel let go of Abraham.

"We'll need to get to the command center," Abraham said. "Where's O'Neil?"

"Can't say that I know..." Israel looked out the window to see another airship passing by. It didn't seem to notice them. "... But I think our ride is here for us."

Abraham and Israel climbed the ladder back to the top of the dome. Together, the men jumped on top of the airship.