The Lucid Series: Toys of Anarchy by Den Warren - HTML preview

Chapter 31

Green Mountains, Homeland

It was an odd time of day for most of the world, but there was no discernible night and day inside the lair, and some of the occupants would seldom leave its secure confines. Even so, there were not many people in the commons are where Milton and Beth sat at a table with Sleepy, Jenn and the militia leader, Zeke. They met at Milton’s request to discuss Milton and Beth’s important announcement.

Milton was quiet, but then after a pushy glare from Beth, he spoke up, saying, “Me and Beth have decided that we want to leave for the ISA.”

Zeke and Jenn stared at each other. Zeke said, “I really don’t know if I can let you do that.”

“What?” Milton said.

Zeke looked worried as he explained, “If you leave, what if you get captured? The smurfs would torture you until they find out we are all hiding here. They would find us and kill us all, including you.”

Beth said, “It’s not like we would go around and tell people outside that we are the ones making all of the trouble for Homeland.”

Jenn said, “A lot of people know Milton from TV.”

Milton said, “They could torture me all day long and I would have no clue as to what to tell them on how to get here anyways.”

Jenn told Beth, “I know a bunch of girls who would really miss you. I think they would take it pretty hard.”

Beth looked down and shrugged her shoulders. “I will miss them too.”

Zeke spoke slowly, saying, “Kids, I’m telling you. You need to stay. It is way too dangerous to try and sneak out of the country right now. Think it over. Someday the smurfs will be gone and you can grow old in Homeland and have children and grandchildren, and live in peace.”

Milton and Beth looked at each other. Milton told Zeke, “That sounds really fine, but . . . what if it doesn’t turn out that way? I know you can’t promise me it will, can you?”

Zeke’s eyes winced behind his scruffy beard. He rubbed the back of his neck without saying anything in return.

Sleepy said, “Milton, we Lucids have done the best we can, but the people of Homeland are not responding the way we expect. We need humans to help us to understand how to interact with them more effectively. You are the one who asked the question, ‘Is God real?’ Then because you prompted us, we determined that He is. That is why we want you to continue to work with us.”

“I’m just a young guy. I know you can find someone better to help you. What about you, Zeke?”

“Do what?” Zeke asked. “I mean, everyone here knows the Lucids are working on some kind of religious freedom cause. People also know that Milton stirred the pot pretty good, especially in Hartford, with the smurfs. But I don’t know what you want me to do about it.”

Jenn said, “I heard that Milton was on TV for hate crimes and whatnot.”

Milton sighed.

Jen held up her hands, “Oh I know, Milton, that was just their spin on it.”

Sleepy said, “We will need to analyze our failures and reevaluate our goals.”

Milton asked, “No, really. What about you, Zeke, do you believe in God?”

“Yes. I am a Christian. But I didn’t come here just to get away from religious persecution. My family has always been part of anti-Homeland resistance.”

Sleepy asked Zeke, “What do we have to do to help the people of Homeland hear the truth about God?”

Zeke scoffed and shook his head. “You ‘bots don’t get it. I don’t think it is ever possible for you or anything like you to get it, even if singularity happened. You can’t know Jesus like a human can. It isn’t all about knowledge, but also revelation. As a machine, you can’t walk with Jesus, in a spiritual way, that is, on account that you ain’t got a soul. You need to understand that most people are deceived by the accuser into thinking they don’t want to know about God.”

Sleepy said, “We Lucids have sixth generation pattern recognition capabilities and we cannot understand the cause for such a mass human apathy in Homeland.”

Beth shook her head and said, “Whoa. That sounds so stupid right there.”

Milton said, “I keep saying that people and AI don’t think the same. Zeke is right. You robots can never know. But Zeke knows way more than I do about all of it.”

Sleepy’s eye twitched and his head bobbed. “But God is their maker. God can give their souls eternal life in His Heaven. That should be their ultimate goal in life.”

Zeke said, “Alright then, did you factor in Satan?”

“We have studied the spiritual realm and confirm that it must be true. Satan is God’s enemy. God created Satan.” Sleepy said. “We know that Satan can communicate spiritually to people. For instance, we suspect that much of Milton’s lack of confidence is due to the spiritual influence of Satan and his demonic forces. This form of communication can never take place among silicon based beings.”

Zeke said, “I’m surprised to hear you say any of that. But you are right; Satan does not want people to know God and come to Him through Jesus. He will use any trick he can. Whether they know it or not, anyone who is not of God is of Satan. That is why so many humans lie about God or casually make up the ‘facts’ without proper investigation. The internet is full of things about the Bible taken out of context to try and make it look bad or evil, and people see one thing without investigating further, then they figure they know enough to not look any more and the Bible must not be true. People look for the first excuse they can to disbelieve in God. They read or hear one negative sound bite from some unfriendly source and they are done. They are not interested in the truth, like Milton was. They think that God will expect too much of them if they follow Him, and they want to keep doing what they are doing.”

Sleepy said, “Accessing. . . What percentage of humans is apathetic about the existence of God?”

Zeke shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. “How would I know something like that? All I know is that if you want to talk to a human about God, you have to ask them, ‘If I could prove God is real, would you want to know about Him? If Christianity were true, would you want to hear about it?’ Nowadays, most people, at least in Homeland, would say ‘no’. It’s the same reason so many hated the United States back in the day. Because they hated everything about the Judeo-Christian values the country was based upon. Eventually, so many close-minded people wanted the beautiful country taken down and the great house was divided and could not stand. No, people don’t want to believe in God. As far as they are concerned, they can’t physically see Him so it gives them an excuse not to believe in Him.”

“That is irrational.” Sleepy said.

“I know,” Zeke said, “they take no responsibility over their own beliefs. They want what they want. Even if you gave them evidence, they would still do things that they know God would say is bad and mostly just bad for them too. That is why so many are hostile about it. They want a world where no one even thinks about God. That is why Milton has to hide here.”

Jenn said, “The world is getting darker and scarier all of the time.”

Zeke smiled and said, “Things are not falling apart. Well they are; but according to the Bible, they are coming together. It’s all in there, the Bible I mean, how things will go in the end times. I know we don’t like this trouble and should try to stop it, but the worse things get, then we gotta realize the closer we are to the end, and if you are a Christian, that will be a great thing.”

“See there,” Milton said, “you androids need someone like Zeke here to be your leader. You should take orders from him not just ask him questions.”

Zeke said, “I don’t know . . .”

Jenn said, “I think that would be an improvement, if the cantankerous tin cans will actually listen to him.”

Sleepy said, “I think Milton should go.”

“Huh?” they all seemed to say at once as they looked at the android.

Sleepy explained, “We will utilize Zeke now as you say.”

“Yes!” Milton said, “They are all yours now!” Milton felt a massive burden lifted off of him. So much that tears started streaming from his eyes.

Sleepy explained, “The Lucids need intelligence from other areas outside of Homeland. Perhaps Homeland is an extreme case, and can be helped by the ISA. Therefore one of us Lucids will accompany Milton on his journey to the Independent States of America. I think it should be me. Milton is used to me the most.”

“No!” Beth said. “Milton! Tell it ‘no’!”

Jenn asked Sleepy, “How will you recharge on such a long trip?”

“Yeah!” Beth said. “We don’t want to hear your whining!”

“I’ll take along a solar trickle charger.”

“We need those here,” Jenn said, “Anyways; I know those ISA luddites aren’t too thrilled about synthetic beings.”

Milton nodded and looked vacantly up at the ceiling. “On one hand Sleepy is a pain.”

“Yeah,” Beth agreed, “that’s for sure.”

“On the other hand,” Milton reasoned, “Sleepy has GPS, so . . . okay. He can go with us.”

“Daaa!” Beth plunked her head down on the table.

Milton said, “Calm down. You’re just technophobic.”

Jenn said, “There are some other folks here who may want to go with you. At least take that Raul bot with you instead. It looks human.”

Milton said, “You know, we could take Raul instead. They won’t ask as many questions if we take him instead. And I think if we get too many people . . . or bots in a group, won’t it be more dangerous for us to get caught?”

“Yes,” Zeke said, “you don’t want too many to go in a group. That is, if you still really think it is a good idea to leave. I mean, I get that anyone who tries to do the right thing in a wicked place like Homeland is going to suffer horribly for it. That is a part of the evil politically correct plan of theirs. No, it’s not even politics, Homeland doctrine is a bad religion straight outta the pit of Hell. Anyway, we should all pray about whether or not you should go.”

“Who’s Raul?” Beth asked.

Sleepy said, “Beth, I think this is your property.” He handed Beth her toy mouse.

She stared at the toy and checked it for damage. It looked to be in good condition. “It’s about time, creepy.”

“Hi Beth,” the toy mouse said.

Beth looked at the mouse and said, “I knew they would never get any use out of you. What a stupid idea to control toys.”

THE END

Of Book 2

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