My Castle of Lies

“Conflict between the Continental Federation and the breakaway state of The Equatorial Dominion have been continuing to escalate in the past couple of weeks. Artillery Barrages continue to strike-”

I turned off the radio. There was never a point to listening to it. It felt like the same broadcast was repeated over and over again. The conflicts are always worsening, the famine is always spreading, and the resources have always run out. The world's descent has become constant. Yet people continuously send themselves into hell just to die with no meaning. They don’t even realize they are fighting for nothing at all.

I was sitting in the government cantine eating the bland biscuit they served to everyone. It tasted horrible but at least it was solid. After my first conversation with Adam I had begun to think of topics to try and convince him that humans should be saved. I looked around for inspiration. Posters and propaganda dotted the walls in an attempt to give people a sense of patriotism, but they all end up blatantly ironic. They say to ‘protect the people’ while expecting you to give your own life or to ‘fight for what we have’ when most people in the pits have nothing at all. Yet people still continue to fight. Perhaps they have become blissfully ignorant to the horror of their situation and blindly force themselves to accept it, or maybe they are just looking for a good place to die.

After I finished my biscuit, I collected my belongings and began to walk back to the government dormitory when a certain poster caught my eye. It featured a drawing of a rose with soldiers running along the stem towards the flower petals at the top. Plastered on the top and bottom of the poster read the words, ‘Don’t let the thorns within tear you apart! Fight on for a brighter future!’. Perhaps not everyone here was so ignorant.

“Attention! May negotiator Steven Cross please make his way to the Adam Project laboratory immediately, we have an urgent matter at hand.”

The message boomed through the loudspeakers as I was appreciating the poster. I started to panic. Could Adam have escaped? Could he have been destroyed? I had to figure out what was going on. I picked up my belongings and sprinted through the hallways to the containment room. When I reached the door I inserted my keycard in and it slid open. I was immediately met with a chaotic mess of people yelling in the direction of the cryo-chamber. I couldn’t make out anything from this scene so I pushed forward through the sea of people. I found an opening and what I saw through the glass made my heart drop.

A man was standing next to Adam, pointing a gun directly at his head. He was tall and skinny with messy black hair, and in his current state he looked barely human. Tears and snot streamed down his face all over his disheveled lab coat. You could see his story through his eyes. In those bloodshot red eyes you could see how a once good man had been torn to shreds, and this was his last fleeting attempt to hold on to whatever it was he still had left. While this man was standing there Adam was motionless as if nothing were happening.

I felt a tap on the shoulder and looked to see Martin standing next to me. His usually somewhat hopeful expression had completely faded. He handed me a file titled ‘Dr. Alexi Ross’.

“I’ll give you a quick run down of the contents and then we need you to start negotiations as soon as possible, understand?” Martin said sternly

“Of course” I responded

We walked over to where the microphone was and sat down.

“Contained within the file I just handed you is the cumulative personal information of nanotechnologist Dr. Alexi Ross. He was one of few people selected to directly work on the physical constructions of Adam’s computer and played a crucial role in completing the project. His wife tragically passed during a mass shooting at a canteen on level 49. He currently has one 9 year old daughter. She has been diagnosed with stage 3 terminal Pits disease. He is bargaining for her supposed treatment in exchange for Adam.” Martin described

*(Pits disease is a bacterial infection unearthed from underground when pits were first being dug. It causes a slow decay of the nervous system over time. It is completely impossible to treat after stage 3 and victims fall into a coma and die during stage 4. It is transmitted through eating contaminated food and water.)

“Isn’t he aware that a cure is impossible.”

“Apparently he won’t accept that reality.”

So this is what the world pushes people to. When people can’t accept this world, it forces them into submission, taking everything they have. This is a man who couldn’t let go of hope, no matter how far gone it was.

“I’ll see what I can do,” I told the director.

First, I needed to set the stage. The environment one is in can affect their mind, so I needed to make one where Alexi would feel like it was impossible for him to get what he wanted. To accomplish this I was going to take inspiration from Adam, but Adam still had full control over the systems. I had to find a way to communicate with him without letting Alexi know. Then it clicked. I leaned over to martin and whispered instructions in his ear.

“Check if anyone in this room speaks sign language,” I told him.

After a few minutes of walking around, he came back with an older blonde woman.

“Here, she says she knows sign language.”

“That's good.” I said

I leaned over to the her ear and explained what to do.

“I need you to go to that window over there. Once I give you a cue, tell Adam to slowly lower the temperature in the cryo-chamber, ok.”

“Ok,” she replied and walked to her position.

The director then turned around and told everybody to be completely silent. The tension was thick. One wrong move and Alexi could snap, destroying decades of work and the livelihoods of millions. I couldn’t mess up. I turned towards the microphone, turned it on, and began to talk.

“Ale-”

“Do you have a cure!” he begged.

His voice cracked in strange ways as he stared at me through the glass. His bloodshot eyes were wide open and his mouth formed a twisted smile across his face. I just had to hope he wasn’t completely gone. I motioned over to the woman to tell Adam my message.

“Alexi, as you already know there is no cure, I’m sorry but you have to accept that.”

“THERE IS A CURE!!” He screamed.

He pushed the gun harder against Adam’s head.

“You lie! I know you're keeping it from me!”

“Alexi you have to accept-”

“I won’t accept anything! That's all anyone ever says. When my wife died I just had to accept it. When this piece of shit robot refused to work I was forced to accept it, and now my daughter. I can’t do it anymore! There has to be something left for me.”

“I’ll tell you once again that we can’t do anything”.

“SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP! You’re all lying to me! I know. You're trying to keep to yourself. That's it! You’re going to sacrifice the few for the many! Well I won’t let you. I swear you will give me the cure or this robot is gone!”

I checked the temperature of the room and at this point it was already below 0 degrees Fahrenheit. It seemingly had no effect on him. The tears streaming down his face were beginning to freeze over but he still kept pushing on. Negotiating normally wouldn’t work with Alexi. He had fallen far beyond the point of saving. He kept so much hope for the future that when the world took it from him he just couldn’t accept it. Perhaps it is better to give up and accept your suffering then to push forward through an unending hell.

“Adam you can stop now.” I said out loud through the microphone.

It wouldn’t make a difference if Alexi knew now. He had completely descended into insanity. His mind was engulfed in darkness allowing him to see only a single way out. The only way to solve this was to step into the darkness with him.

“Martin, please forgive me for what I’m about to do.”

“What, why?”

“I’m going to tell him there is a cure”

“But there isn’t one, what do you-”

“I’m going to lie to him. We will make him think his daughter will be cured. Since he can’t accept reality, we are going to have to build a new one for him.”

Martin was silent, but I knew he understood. We would have to leave our morals in the past in order to guarantee our future.

“Are you sure you want to do this? I don’t want to see you destroy yourself.”

“This is the only option. My willpower brought me this far, I have confidence I’ll make it through.”

Martin let out a heavy sigh.

“What do you need me to do?” He asked

“I need you to act like you are making a phone call, just sound out words for around 3 minutes. That should hopefully be convincing enough. I also need to get his daughter here as soon as possible. I’m planning on telling him that a hospital in another city has a treatment, and I want to at least give him a final goodbye. After this is all said and done we can let his daughter rest in the government hospital until her time is over.”

Martin hesitantly went over and told a group of people what to do.

“They said they should be able to get her in around two hours.” Martin responded

“That should be fine.”

There was no other option, I was going to betray Alexi. Once Martin finished faking the call I told Alexi what he wanted to hear.

“Alexi, there is good news. We just heard back from one of the neighboring pit cities, and It turns out they have developed an experimental treatment for the Pits disease, and so far it seems to be successful.”

After I said this, Alexi began to laugh. It sounded almost maniacal. He kept on laughing in his little bubble, ignorant of the truth.

“I knew it! I knew my hope would pay off. Finally something good will come from this world.”

“Alexi, you will have to let go of your daughter for them to begin treatment. She is already on her way here, so get ready to say your last goodbyes.”

There was a long pause before he responded.

“What. No no no no no that can’t be true. Can’t I go along with her?”

“You have taken a hostage to get your way, that is criminal. We cannot let you leave here, but we can at least guarantee your daughters safety.”

Alexi was dead silent. Most likely the realization of what he was doing had finally hit him. In a moment of false clarity, he accepted the reality I created for him.

“I will accept my punishment, just please save my daughter, I can’t lose anything else.”

His words rang through my soul. I was destroying the life of someone right in front of me. Taking the only thing left from him and forcing him to accept it. Because of me he will never understand the truth of this world. But perhaps that will be for the better. I mustered up what little willpower I had remaining and responded.

“Thank you for cooperating. Your daughter will be here in 2 hours, we ask that you please step out of the chamber-”

“I’m staying here till she gets here, I can’t risk anything else.”

“Very well.” I replied.

The next two hours were the longest I had ever experienced. Everyone in the room sat there silently waiting. Exhaustion had spread throughout the laboratory. Finally the metal door slid open, and through the entrance came his daughter. She sat in her wheelchair unmoving, almost like she was paralyzed. You could see the disease all over her. Pieces of skin were starting to peel off exposing the muscle underneath, and her eyes had grown eerily dark from the decay. It was painfully obvious that she couldn’t be saved. We all watched as she was wheeled to the entrance of the chamber. Alex could barely keep his composure. Only we knew this would be the last time he would ever see his daughter again. His daughter was wheeled into the chamber.

“Alicia. Alicia. guess what. The people at the hospital in the neighboring city have a cure just for you. They're going to save you!”

“Daddy? Is that you?” Alicia responded.

“Yes it’s daddy, we’re going to be okay.”

Alexi leaned in and hugged Alicia. They were trapped in their own little world

“Daddy are you there? I can’t see you.”

“I’m right here with you, don't worry. Daddy’s going to go away for a while but I’ll be waiting for you when you come back.”

“Where are you? I can’t feel you. I’m scared.”

Alex’s eyes widened. He fell to his knees sobbing. Tears ran down his face and snot ran out of his nose. His cries echoed through the building, reverberating through the room, pounding against me like a hammer. We all starred in silent horror at the scene playing before us. There was no escaping from the hell we were born into. No matter how hard Alexi tried, he still couldn’t get away. After his cries subsided he stood up and looked his daughter in the eyes.

“Daddy why are you crying? I’m going to be cured right?”

“Of course you are.” He said quietly.

I couldn’t tell what happened within him, but something had broken.

“I’ll be waiting for you… Goodbye Alicia”

Nobody said a word. Not when Alicia was rolled out of the room, not when the guards entered the chamber, and not when his hands were cuffed behind his back. Alexi walked through the crowd of people, and before he walked out of the room, he turned around to say one last thing to me.

“Thank you.”