Frontier Line

Frontier line

Every few moments once the attacks cease and the silence of the valley reclaims our senses Jared begins to complain. I feel its his attempts to rationalize how we ended up here as soon as his panic stops he begins in again on thoughts of home. Thoughts of who and or what comprises of home for he now knows this is the end. We have lost many men in this fight to reclaim our rights and our land. Now we are here pinned down in a valley in what would have been two counties away from the train station that could lead us out of town; that was before April 9th the day communication ceased. We travelled south from the North woods it was a section of dense tree cover and foliage a place in with no cell towers, nor substations nothing existed there. It was our last bit of hope a place to lie low before we tried one last attempt to flee the jurisdiction of the Ordination. We as humans, individual's autonomous and free became reliant on AI, reliant on a few people who we elected, then Prime minister Andrews volunteered to be the first person turned into an incarnate cyborg the procedure was initially to be done post mortem, but Andrews wanted more he believed in the expedited pace of progress in Next Gen science the combination of man and machine. Soon all of parliament was either given an ultimatum of join us under guarantees' of wealth and safety or be cleared, as if your were cache data. The fabric of our society was damaged beyond repair by the mass clearing. Not since the French Revolution have we seen this much blood shed. Im writing this for the sake of posterity, Jared is sleeping again I'm in a frenzy of exhaustion and hypervigilance. the Ordination troops have a platoon just a top the valley floor, part of them cyborg the other are men. They have our exact location. I know the machines won't kill us unless we move it the men I fear.

Jared woke up and gasped something of a labored scream, no sound came out as he is too afraid to speak above a whispers reach. This time he asked me if had had anyone special in my life. I looked over the into the distance then back towards him and said "I did" I never really spoke much to Jared about this type of thing so I began laconically awaiting to notice his reaction.

"Yeah..I had this friend she was something else."

"Is she still alive?" Jared reluctantly asked

"Could be, Id like to think she is. I fought alongside her husband, he leaves behind a son."

"Jesus, Im sorry he must have been a good man."

"Yes."

"How about you" I asked not knowing if Jared ever got a chance at love.

"Keep going, I wanna hear more about this woman."

"Suit yourself."

Before I could continue I heard some movement west of where we were camped out at the air is all too still for it to be only a rouge breeze I feel the presence of them. closing in on us. I locked eyes with Jared and mentioned my index finger over my lips and signaled him to do as followed. I took a deep breath in and watched him reciprocate the breath to the exact inhale, deep clam and silent upon exhaling. we waited in what felt like 10 minutes of silence. The noise increased each passing minute, each piece of dry brush that snapped under foot shook us closer to each other huddled together in the eroded part of the bluff we found I reached for the chain around my neck. held it tight and remained still. The movement ceased. As soon as it did I jotted down in my notebook "At some point it is enough." Jared had noticed the chain around my neck and asked what the deal with it was.

"It was her husbands. She gave it to him, he passed it on to me so I could find her when this is all over."

I reached into my buttoned shirt and pulled out the once sterling silver heart shaped necklace locket that looked like it had sustained some kind of distress, inside was a picture of their son.

"Did you ever see him, that is your friends son." Jared asked this time with a keen sense of compassion.

"Yes I would watch him for her when He was at work back before the this all started."

" See people always thought that I liked her, loved her more then he did. That was a lie she was the closest thing to a sister I've ever had. Their little boy is something else Jared. He has the uncanny patience of an old man all wrapped up in his little head. It was Easter Sunday and their grandparents had the kids over for an Easter egg hunt all the other kids were eating candy or playing tag what have you. Not him he was more fascinated by the flashlight his grandma gave him to search the house with. crying to his mommy so he could have the damn flashlight. I think he's gonna be an engineer."

I could see the visible sadness in Jareds eyes.

"May I ask you one last question?'

"Go ahead."

"How did you know you just loved her as a friend."

I took a breath similar to what we did moments ago and went on.

"Their little boy I saw his father in him, people always said that we were the same person, at times I cried thinking that I was him and we as man and women were never meant. That all changed when I saw him with that flashlight. Jared genetics can destroy a man, the sum of my biological failure's and my incarnate addictions did not form me into this man, huddled here in the hell hole with you, the product of all that was nothing. There was nothing new in that world. Only them. And only me. I'm better off alone."

I reached down and clutched the locket and asked Jared if he had anyone special he turned to me and smiled.

"Your are right. There was nothing new in that world as he slow and deliberately reached into his pocket. I looked down and saw a small religious pendant it was Saint Gregory the patron saint of travel.

"How do you think I ended up here with you?'

"I'm a wanderer, nomad, gypsy what have you all the same name for a man with no identity as far as the old world went I was as good as a dead citizen. I joined the Military a year before the Ordination was erected once Prime minister Andrews committed the atrocity that lead us here to this exact moment I was offered that ultimatum. you already known the answer."

"let's go find her." said Jared as he kissed the pendant all the while nodding at the locket I so dearly held in my hand.