Solipsis: Escape from the Comatorium (38 page)

“
Okay,”
he says unsure, backing away. The door opens and Renee exits. Within
a moment, she is joined by a second Renee.

Seth
backs away, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“
I'm
not dead am I?”

“
We
vivisected you.”

“
Saved
your life.”

“
I
figured that out,” he replies. Both Renees sit on either side
of him, but he is obviously uneasy, scoots back.

“
Relax,
you're okay.”

“
Now
we're on the same plane of existence. No robots, no sensors, no
bodies to get in the way.”

“
Yeah,”
Seth replies, very uneasy.

“
What's
wrong with you?”

“
It's
a lot to take in. I mean, I almost died, now I'm some brain in a damn
jar,” Seth replies. One Renee kisses him on the cheek. The
other joins with a kiss on the other cheek. “Stop,” he
pushes them away.

“
What?”

“
You
killed my father. You didn't try to save me when he put a gun to my
head. You used me.”

“
I
did what I had to.”

“
I'm
sorry, I need some time alone.”

“
Do
we alert the authorities?”

“
No
absolutely not.”

“
There
might be more of them out there, accomplices that got away or are on
the mainland, we have to go after them!”

The
survivors assembled in the atrium debate their next course of action.

“
Look,
we cannot, simply cannot have a repeat of the Rothstein incident,”
Peter announces.

“
What
was that?” Renee asks, standing beside Peter. The debate rages
but Peter stops to explain it to Renee.

“
Before
we came out here on the ocean, our servers and vats were in a
warehouse. Well, the feds decided that one of our residents was in
possession of child pornography. The man was using an avatar of a
child and was engaged in virtual sexual activities. He shared a video
of it with the wrong person and he got busted. We let them come in,
take him, take his vat and put him on trial, and then put him in
prison. I mean, a prison, for a brain in a vat, it was completely
absurd. They had to make their own neural net, but it was just him on
it, and it had all these limitations, so he was in a virtual prison.
They mismanaged his brain chemistry and he died of a kind of stroke
after six months. That's one of the reasons we came out here.”

“
If
we tell the authorities,” Dr. Graeme argues, “they're
going to come in here, investigate, try to determine if anyone was in
the wrong, and some of us killed people, it was self-defense, but the
government won't be satisfied with that. With the attitudes out there
about us, we just can't subject ourselves to their treatment.”

“
I
agree,” Peter says.

“
So
are we in agreement, no telling the authorities?” Dr. Graeme
asks.

“
What
do we do with the prisoners?” a man asks.

“
Yeah,
we can't just keep them here.”

“
And
we especially can't let them into Solipsis!” a woman shouts,
looking at Renee.

“
Are
you talking about Seth?” Renee demands.

“
We
can't trust him.”

“
What
do you want to do, kill him?” Renee asks. “I mean, if
we're not going to the feds, not letting them go, then what are we
doing with them?”

“
We
can put them in hell,” Patrick adds. “See how they like
it.”

“
No,”
Renee says. “Absolutely not! We let them go. We've learned our
lesson, we won't be caught off guard again. They don't pose a threat
to us anymore.”

“
But
after what they did? You just want to let them go?”

The
desert floor of hell has been erased, turned into a lush green field.
Nearly the entire population of Solipsis is there. The avatars of
those who died during the ordeal are all laid out on concrete slabs
in a kind of cemetery. The grounds are beautiful, dotted with
colorful blooming trees. The avatars lay silently, serenely, ready to
be placed below ground. With so many dead, it seemed too daunting a
task to have a proper funeral for all of them. Rather they are laid
out for three days to receive good-byes, then they will be lowered,
hidden forever. Everyone walks through the rows, saying goodbye to
those they lost.

Patrick
and both Renees sit on a hill overlooking the graves.

“
Come
on, we need to do this,” one Renee says.

“
Not
yet.”

“
Are
you still in denial? He's gone, we need to say goodbye.”

“
I'll
stay right by your side,” Patrick adds. They each take a hand
of the reticent Renee. Small footsteps carefully lead them down the
hill and through a row of lifeless avatars. Some are just familiar
faces, some friends; all of them struck down by evil.

They
find Percival, dressed in a white suit. They stand on one side of the
cold concrete slab. They silently stare.

“
Should
we say something?” Patrick asks.

“
I
want to say goodbye to Nellie too.”

“
She's
over there.”

They
approach the avatar of Nellie. Both avatars represent the same
person, and yet are very distinct.

“
I
still think we should say something,” Patrick adds.

“
Why
isn't Mom here?” Renee asks through tears.

“
Something’s
wrong with her. She's not all there,” the other Renee replies.

“
She's
just having a hard time.”

“
Mind
if I join you?” Seth asks from behind them. The Renees beckon
him. He joins their side, overlooking Nellie. “She'll be
missed.”

“
What
do you care?” Patrick interrupts.

“
What?”
Seth is caught off guard.

“
Why
are you even here? You were a part of this,” Patrick says,
pushing Seth away.

“
Stop,”
Renee says, getting between them. “He helped us, without him,
we don't get out of that hell.”

“
That
doesn't excuse anything,” Patrick says, “he went along
with the plan, he knew they were going to do it, he could have given
us warning, told somebody. As far as I'm concerned, he's one of
them.”

“
Patrick,
stop.”

“
I'll
leave you three alone,” Seth mutters, walking away.

“
Can
we please just say something, this is absurd.”

“
What's
there to say? A prayer?”

“
I
don't know,
something
.”

“
I
might have something to say,” Patrick adds. “It's umm,
Nellie read me this poem before I had my vivisection, I was nervously
waiting for hours for my surgery and she sat with me. She was so
calming, so motherly. She held my hand and read me this poem:

And
Death Shall Have No Dominion

Under
the windings of the sea

They
lying long shall not die windily;

Twisting
on racks when sinews give way,

Strapped
to a wheel, yet they shall not break;

Faith
in their hands shall snap in two,

And
the unicorn evils run them through;

Split
all ends up they shan't crack;

And
death shall have no dominion.

No
more may gulls cry at their ears

Or
waves break loud on the seashores;

Where
blew a flower may a flower no more

Lift
its head to the blows of the rain;

Heads
of the characters hammer through daisies;

Break
in the sun till the sun breaks down,

And
death shall have no dominion.”

Both
Renees float in a black loading program. They experience no physical
sensations and hover in zero-gravity. One Renee opens up a file on a
digital display system brightly lit in front of them. This is a
program for watching older videos or movies in a blank space where
you have no distractions of your physical body. The video begins with
a noisy digital signal. Blocks of the image are corralled into
squares that are an average of their color, artifacts of video
compression.

“
Wow
this video sucks.”

“
I
don't know how people watched stuff on those digital cameras, it's so
ugly.”

Nellie
walks up to a podium. This is really Nellie, flesh and blood, no
computers, no animatrons, no avatars, but her real body. Her red hair
shines like strands of copper. Both Renees immediately see a
resemblance to what they see in the mirror everyday. In a weird way,
it's like meeting your real mother, years after she's died. They knew
her well, but not as this person.