I want to feel life again. I want to feel like I’m alive, like I’m really free and headed toward some kind of dignified destiny, unknown and full of fucking glory.
Can she give me that? I’m not sure.
Maybe I should be wondering if I can give that to her.
Again, I pull on her chains. “Come on. There is more to show you here. Soon, you will come to realize your worst fears. And that’s precisely when you’ll find the courage to wake up. Just like I did.”
I remember the day my eyes were open. I saw her face, Ava’s. Once I knew the truth, I could never let go. And now I’m here, with her, and all I can think to do is bring her to the place where it all began. A place of darkness, but through that dark will come the birth of light.
It’s the place I first died. The place I first felt that impenetrable freedom of love. For the first time in my pathetic history, I felt adoration. For myself, for the world, and for her, a woman I hadn’t even known.
All of this is impossible. But I follow it like the cultist’s follow their rage. With faith, anything is possible.
Once I have my hands locked around her, she does not struggle. She behaves, walking in silence through Earth’s bitter reality.
After some time, the landscape finally changes. We come across a set of sharp, industrial metal beams that rise hundreds of feet into the air. They are nothing more than sheets of metal set on a frame, interspersed with conduits for electricity used in powering something like a city, and a smattering of storage slots.
But that’s not what it’s used for. Even to this day, I have no idea what its purpose is. But the hunters of the forest took me here. They showed me the truth. And then they killed me.
Everyone is infected, but there’s a way to fix that. A way to open their eyes.
Copper wiring bends around the entrance of an enormous building, maybe four or five stories tall. It’s as long as a transport dock, built out of strong bricks the color of the night. If I didn’t pause, she may have missed the sight completely.
“Elon built this place?” she asks.
I laugh. “No,” I mutter. “They did. I don’t know why or how, but the people of this planet showed me this project. I haven’t returned since. I needed to find you first.”
Her eyebrows crease. “Why?”
“Every life I’ve lived is a chance to understand this world better,” I say, placing my hand around her cheek. “My purpose is twofold. To escape…”
I wait for the second part. “And…?”
“To wake you up. To make you understand what this is really about,” I say.
“You keep saying that, but I still don’t know that means,” she mutters.
“Soon.”
I expect her to run, but she is completely frozen. Ironically, her body temperature has shot up one degree higher, despite the frigid winds that won’t seem to ever let up.
In this house of darkness, she won’t need to wear any clothing to cover up her naked body. This is a holy place, a place of ritual and worship. A place of sex and renewal.
The scientists that deprogrammed me to breed this woman might have known I’d bring her here. The people must have built this place to complete my oath to those devils in the sky.
But I can’t be certain.
She freezes and makes a fearful noise. “Wait. I’m not ready,” she says.
“I’m sorry, Ava. This is not my choice.”
There’s no stopping this now. After all, she requested me to take her here. It was her choice to make, whether or not she knew it.
As we near the entrance, the noises I flashed back to earlier filter out from the door. A few humans walk out in black fur and leather, covered in oil and sexual fluids, cackling like the wild animals they are.
They are travelers, one of the first groups not to attack me. They are harmless tourists who feign surprise every time they see me.
As soon as they witness Ava and I, they fall to their knees and bend their head toward the ground.