Lifeboat

39. The Jury

It took me a bit of effort to keep up with the blinding pace Erica set, but I managed to stay within a few paces of her lightning strides.

"So," I spluttered breathlessly behind her tall frame. "How exactly did the other Poll save us from the dawn?"

Without turning her graceful bald head, Erica inclined her chin to the right and she spoke loudly for me to hear as we continued our fast sprint.
"She dragged you all across the beach and up into the treetops before it arrived. Just in the nick of time. One more minute and the happy couple would have been toast. You, I'm not so sure about."

Erica came to an abrupt halt, our legs wrapped in swaying corn as the warm breeze played with the crop around us.

"Poll knew that you would be unharmed. So she left you on the sand to deal with it. General Tander turned you off, as such, before he left you all there to die. I'm guessing he has a soft spot for you, you know, because you remind him of his dead daughter I suppose."

"I don't remember any of that." I sneered. "Are you making this up?"

Erica roughly grabbed me by the arm, her grip severed the flow of blood from my elbow through to my wrist. I winced in discomfort.

"Why should I lie to you, human doll?"

She yanked me hard and we strode through the yellow field in perfect silence. A few metres away, we arrived at a tall, rectangular building with steep walls leading up to regular intervals of round, steel barred windows.

"Get up there on the second floor." Erica smirked at me as she bent to offer me a push up with her knotted hands.

"And you?" I asked suspiciously. "Why should I trust you when you obviously don't trust me?"

Erica's face fell flat. Devoid of all humour.
"I never lie, but you can't help yourself."

"That's not how I am." I threw back my head of curls and glared at her. "I have no program to follow now. I choose to tell the truth."

Erica straightened up to her full height. Her face set hard.
"As far as we know. There could still be a latent string of commands underlying in your messed up mind. I wouldn't trust you if my life depended on it."

She waved her hand at the third window to the left on the second floor.
"There," she barked at me. "You can get yourself up there. And for goodness sake, don't get caught."

With that, her slender figure slid up the sheer concrete wall. Her hands clawed into the surface and her soft, slippered feet stuck fast with every tread.

In astonishment I witnessed her fluid movements and her final flourish as she dropped onto the window ledge below her. She took hold of the iron bars, wrenched them apart and disappeared into the building.

Show off.

I placed my fingertips on the warm wall, high above my head. Then, without really understanding why, I lifted my knees and leapt up. My body took over my intentions and I found myself crawling upwards.

Ha! You're not the only one, you walking bean pole.

Once I gained a foothold on the second floor windowsill, I was able to peer through and I spotted Erica's bent figure hiding behind the railings of a narrow strip of a balcony. I seemed to remember that it had been named a 'mezzanine'.

The thick rails provided cover from the lazy gaze of the World Union State guards down below. The chamber was immense. An acoustic rebounding symphony of voices. And right at that moment, my Dante was finishing up his grand presentation.

I hopped down from the window and snuck in close to the railings. I didn't bother to look at Erica. She had no idea what passed through my mind, my body, my heart or even my soul at the reception of his words. His speech changed everything. It brought my new life into a new world.

"Why? Why is it so important to control nature? She's fought back."

I watched, spellbound. The entire audience of the jury, sat to the left, underneath my position, perched in rows of cripplingly uncomfortable plastic chairs. Their eyes joined mine following his striking figure as he strolled up and down in front of the judge's bar.

His voice never faltered for a second. A strength of truth to his words gained his presentation a credence that no power on earth could take away. Everyone felt the power of the honest facts. There were no lies in this court today. At least, not from my Dante.

"You poisoned the skies to try and obliterate the epidemic. But it's not possible to be God. Nature is fighting back. It's bred in the new, freeborn population. The 'Providers' will never outbreed free choice pregnancies. Your programme is a failure. Only mother nature will control life. "

My eyes clouded over as I strained to keep up with Dante's motions. He stalked around the floor below. His hands held out before him as he forced every single person in the Central Committee below to meet his eye.

I swelled with pride. This was his moment. This, his time. Dante owned the room. My chest swelled with pleasure as I observed the master at work.

"Your future is a disgrace!" He cried. Launching himself at the barriers between himself and the defendant.

General Tander stood defiant. Even with his hands trussed painfully behind his back. His obstinate features caused me to catch my breath.

Dante, however, obviously felt no such fear. He levered himself up onto the wooden rails which protected the defence from the prosecution and goaded a reaction from the General and his company of lawyers.

"Your choice is a lie. The human race won't be a party to it. We won't stand by and let you take the world down with you."

I gulped down a mouthful of dry air. Erica turned her head and we connected. Eyes. Thoughts. Emotions and knowledge. Dante's final words ricocheted off the expanse of the enormous room. His voice, immortalised by the reverberation.

"Your time is up."

Erica smiled. A sincere light flickered in the corner of the darkest section of her iris.

A rush of held breath, down on the floor beneath us, released from the many tentative souls there. It escaped into the air and rose up like ghosts to join us.

General Tander fought his captors wildly. His yells increased in pitch and fervour while he fought his best to be free of the guards dragging him back to the prison sentence which awaited him.

"I'm being used here!" His sick, sweet voice rang out all too sharply around the enormous room.
"I'm the perfect excuse for a scapegoat. Ignore me at your peril. They know what I have created. Don't believe for one second that they will throw away everything I've given them. Are you so naive?"

I didn't want to see it. But I had no choice in the matter, my eyes were glued to the action below.

A uniformed guard strode up to the defendant and stuck an electric pulse weapon into his ribs. The resulting shudders and howls of pain were deftly covered over by the joyous release of music across the sound system. An old anthem. Maybe of a country or nation, long lost to history.

A member of the Jury sat to the far right of the line beneath me, rose to her stocky feet and lifted her bald head to the wooden vaulted ceiling. Her words rang out in deep, automated tones.

"The matter is closed. General Tander is accused and sentenced to death for breach of contract and severe criminal damages against the World Union State. The P. O. L. Programme is to be obliterated from existence. The dawn purge is no longer of consequence and so will cease to be implicated. Ladies and gentlemen. We have entered a new era. Let's embrace the world once more."

An outbreak of cheers and roars of happiness enveloped the chamber.

Erica crept closer beside me. Her fingers slipped into mine. We watched silently while the people below clapped each other on the back and laughed as the General was yanked away from the room.

Dante shivered and looked up. We made eye contact. I held a steady gaze. Then pulled away.