Empyrean

Despite all their intelligence, humans insisted on being the most hostile species on Earth. The many served the interests of the few, sacrificing their lives and souls for the few, fighting their battles for their goals, and bringing hell to the only place the human species could call home. Disregarding all Earth's screams, they kept on harvesting its soul to achieve one dream, superiority….

Defying all codes of humanity, they fell into wars, diseases, poverty, crimes, and ignorance turning Earth into nothing but a vast Wasteland.

In the middle of the world, a town has risen from the ashes. In the middle of chaos, life was buzzing in the shelter where few chosen people were worthy to survive the world's cruelest and most vicious end.

It was called...… Empyrean.

In Empyrean, everyone lived in harmony under strict rules. Inside its walls, they were saved by a miracle, the Elder Father made for them. To him, they were grateful, following the rules he set to maintain life flowing.

There were many buildings in the Holy Empyrean, each filled with souvenirs from the world before the apocalypse.

The community was small yet thriving. Education was important, that's why the Elder Father assigned one of the buildings to be a school where the children of Empyrean would learn the dynamics of keeping their community alive.

The other buildings were also assigned to serve specific purposes; a power plant that powered the whole town, the Main Hall, the Residence, and finally the Ancient Gallery.

In the corridors of the residence, groups of young men and women chattering on the way to their routine duty.

Beneatha passed by a group talking when one of them asked her:

"Beneatha, who is your date to the Gathering tomorrow night?"

With a smile, she moved her red hair back. with a blush, she replied "Cai"

The woos of her best friend agreeing on her date gave Beneatha confidence for the Gathering. Her shy smile accompanied her through the town to Evergreen Garden where she helped tend to different fruits and vegetables. Her father also came to the garden to deliver ripe vegetables down to the kitchen, to be turned into delicious meals.

Beneatha was preoccupied with the big celebration. On Gathering Day, everyone would gather in the Main Hall to feast and praise Ader. This was the 73rd anniversary of their grandfathers' first ascendence to Empyrean, right before the world had ended.

This day has always increased her curiosity to know more about the world before the ascendence. Her grandmother, who was just a little girl when her parents ascended to Empyrean, could not remember much of how life was back then. What Beneatha was taught at school did not quench her thirst, she had only learned about the horrors of the End of the World. On this Gathering Day, she was content to be with a handsome date like Cai.

As dinner time struck, Beneatha walked towards the Main Hall with the others. The large entrance was full of roses on both sides, the smell was enchanting. It wasn't a specific type of rose she liked, but the smell of them all together was breathtaking. Entering the Hall, her parents waved for her to join them, but she chose to sit next to her best friend, Jimma.

The smell of rabbit soup with vegetables was amazing, so she started digging in. It was one of her favorite meals, although it was served very often since they raised rabbits in the basement of the kitchen. After dessert, she went with Jimma to the chess club. It's important for all people of Empyrean to join a social club to keep them closer together.

Beneatha and Jimma chose the chess club, not for the love of the game, but to avoid being in the sewing club with their mothers. As the other members of the club were focusing on their boards, deeply thinking about their moves, Beneatha and Jimma snuck out to the Ancient Gallery, where the remains of ancient civilizations were preserved in a different building.

Fascinated by these civilizations, they used to guess what happened to the people who lived to witness its greatness. With nothing guiding their imagination, they came up with different versions of the stories of the old world…

The beams of light, coming through her window, indicated the beginning of the celebration day. Beneatha opened her eyes with a smile, it seemed that she had had a good dream. Looking at her dress hanging on the wall, her smile widened. This day was going to be beautiful and she knew it.

Empyrean was always busy on Gathering Day, everyone had work to do. Beneatha was no different, she had to go to Evergreen Garden to help with the preparations for the feast.

Like a beehive, the town was buzzing with life. Everyone was heading to complete their tasks to make a successful Gathering like the past 21 Gatherings she had witnessed. From the highest rank in Empyrean's hierarchy to the lowest, every single person had started their tasks early today, the power plant electricians, maintenance workers, cleaning people, gardeners, transporters, tailors, even the hunters.

Trying not to be noticed, Beneatha stood behind the shrubs, quietly watching the hunters taking the hidden gate outside the walls of Empyrean. The hunters were highly respected in their little community, that is why she had always hoped to be assigned as one.

It broke her heart to remember the day of her assignment. She was 16, as the law dictated, when she waited in the Main Hall with the other candidates for her name to be called.

Anxiously, Jimma held her hand as they were hoping that they would be privileged with having a chance for an adventure in the world below as hunters. However, Beneatha knew it was a long shot. Coming from a family of a tailor and a transporter, her rank wouldn't have gotten much higher than a "grower" in Evergreen Garden. Nonetheless, Jimma had better luck. She was assigned as a worker in the power plant.

For two years, they were trained for the new positions they were chosen for. Beneatha was grateful, yet not fully satisfied by the boundaries limiting her curiosity.

As the sun was about to descend, the people of Empyrean started gathering. Beneatha and Jimma were walking with their dates towards the Main Hall, where everyone was dressed well for the occasion. In the middle, all the tables were lined up for the big feast. After that, the rituals of honoring the Elder Father for saving them would start by reciting the stories they've heard so many times about the miseries they were saved from by the miracle of Ader.

"You look beautiful," Cai said in a low voice as the ceremonies began.

Beneatha's dress was elegantly simple. Her greenish-blue eyes looked away as she blushed. Cai had a very high rank as he was the great-grandchild of the Elder Father. However, if their destinies were aligned, she would be well-respected. Besides, he was really handsome, his sharp blue eyes lighting up his stern handsome face. She liked his eyes very much. After prayers, the feast began. Everyone was busy eating and drinking from the buffet when Cai whispered in her ear...

"How about we go out for a walk?"

"Now?" she replied "the rituals will begin shortly."

"Exactly" he interrupted "everyone will be so busy; they won't even notice we're gone."

His mischievous eyes were smiling and tempting her to go.

Despite her usual sneaking out of the chess club, Beneatha seemed nervous, since she knew what it meant to be alone with Cai. Even though she had imagined this many times, her heart raced. Cai was out of her league, she thought, yet he seemed to like her a lot to ask her for private time.

The music could still be heard outside the Main Hall when Cai and Beneatha snuck out to spend the rest of this magical evening alone.

As they were dancing under the moonlight among the smell of roses in the Main Hall's yard, Cai pulled her closer gently then kissed her. His lips were soft and tender, she felt her body resting lightly on his, yet she was still thinking that this beautiful kiss would be even more special if it was behind the wall.

Gently pushing him away, Beneatha held his hand and asked:

"Don't you ever wonder what's out there?"

Stunned by her question, he rubbed his head in a boyish manner, then replied:

"I don't have to wonder; I know what's out there. There's everything we were saved from."

"I mean…" she stuttered, "aren't you curious to see what's behind these walls?"

Afraid to lose this chance of taking a walk with Cai outside the walls, she had to convince him. Knowing that a young man of his high rank would be more easily convinced when his capabilities were in question. Therefore, she took a step closer, looking at his beautiful eyes, pressing her mouth slowly to his ear then said "Are you scared?"

As expected, Cai accepted the challenge, blindly following the urge to impress his date.

Thrilled by the fact that her dream was finally coming true, she wished to share it with Jimma. However, she knew it would be foolish not to seize this rare opportunity.

"I know the way," she whispered, "follow me."

In bewilderment, Cai took her hand as she led the way out through the hidden gate. On the other side, they saw the bridge over which they would descend to a vast forest reaching the horizon. Despite their concerns, Cai and Beneatha did not change their minds knowing that they were not only risking to lose their lives, but also heaven.

The fading music was replaced with silence, intriguing silence. Nothing to be heard but their heavy breathes echoing in the dark forest. Holding hands tightly, they walked further, deeper, and deeper until mumbling voices were heard in the distance, moving around like shadows hiding behind the night's black dress.

"That's enough" Cai's voice interrupted the silence "we should go back."

"Come on," Beneatha replied, "don't be such a baby. It's probably just wild animals."

Pulling her back, he pushed his face closer to hers then said in a hoarse voice

"We've descended to the Wasteland, what animals are these?"

With a mocking laugh she answered, "Look around, does it look like a wasteland to you?"

Beneatha continued pushing deeper, enjoying her night walk between the trees, astonished by the amazing moonlight breaking through the dark forest. As Cai was following, he could feel the movements getting closer and closer, he walked beside her and reminded her saying

"They'll notice we're gone. Let's go back."

Beneatha stopped, looked at his beautiful eyes shining under the moonlight, with a smile on her face she said "Relax, no one will look for me, and no one will question you" stepping even closer to him, she continued, "no one dares, right?"

Despite his worries, Cai was forced to act tough, so he pulled her closer until their bodies touched. She felt his lips on hers as they had their first magical kiss in the Wasteland she has always dreamt of.

The romantic silence didn't last long. Their kiss was interrupted by the shadows lurking in the forest. Suddenly, they found themselves running back to Empyrean. Their feet were moving fast, their eyes were looking around in fear when Beneatha tripped.

"Get up," Cai shouted while still running towards the bridge. Without looking back, soon he disappeared in the dark, leaving Beneatha alone with these predators that survived the world's fatal end.

Despite her attempts to run, her legs were paralyzed by an eerie feeling she could not comprehend. Her eyes were roaming around in fear, trying to see something… anything.

Out of the black curtain of night, she felt a hand pulling her back and covering her mouth. Her feet were kicking as they left the ground. Something was carrying her as it ran fast among the trees barely missing them each time. Suddenly, it stopped running. She was muzzled with a piece of cloth and her hands were tied behind her back. After that, the shadows became clearer...

Horrified by their primitive look, Beneatha screamed underneath the muzzle, but her screams were barely heard. As fear was settling in, she took another look at the creature that captured her.

Before crossing the small opening from which they snuck out, Cai looked behind one last time. Without any trace of Beneatha around, he decided to go back to the Main Hall, trying to wipe the scared look off his face.

Later, three more creatures joined her kidnapper and started mumbling as they stared at her in a creepy way. Despite her resistance, one of them grabbed her arm forcing her to walk away from Empyrean, towards the seemingly endless forest.

In the deafening silence, Beneatha's mind was struggling to comprehend the nature of these creatures. "Why do they walk strangely?" she wondered, noticing how they can barely drag themselves along by their giant bare feet.

Their long shaggy hair couldn't be distinguished from their body hair, which gave them an ape-like appearance.

As Beneatha was led to her doomed fate, she felt scared and alone. Unlike in Empyrean, here she was just prey for these ugly creatures. "No wonder why the Elder Father called it a Wasteland" she murmured.

Her feet were getting tired as they descended further into the dark forest, so was her heart. She couldn't stop thinking about how she messed up the balance the hunters were fighting to keep. This time, it was not like being caught by her father sneaking into the Ancient Gallery. This time, she's been taken away from the only place she ever knew as home. All of her dreams to see what's behind the walls were leading her into her own death, if not worse.

All of the walking and thinking left her light-headed. She felt her lips cracking as she tried to utter the word "water". Soon, she realized how stupid to expect anything from these savages when their only way of communication was mumbling. So, she broke into tears.

Her desperate cries were suddenly stopped by the hums of one of the creatures removing her muzzle and handing her a flask of cold water. The satisfaction of the water quenching her thirst turned into bewilderment by how his features were getting more human-like. After that, it all turned into fear as stranger things started to happen.

"Where are they taking me?" she wondered, "What will they do to me?"

After walking for almost an hour, a tree in the middle of the forest transformed into a half-demolished building. On the edge of the fallen second floor, a female creature, in an old dirty dress, was staring at Beneatha as she was being taken away in bewilderment, as she could have sworn the ones accompanying her were not wearing any clothes.

More disturbing images started to appear as they stepped deeper into the Wasteland, but they would vanish before she could grasp what was happening.

Frightening by how her dream of seeing what was behind the walls turned into a horrifying nightmare, she found an answer.

"I am hallucinating" she repeated to herself, "The water was poisoned."

Fear turned into anger raging inside, pushing her to hit one of her captors in a desperate attempt to break free, before a strike on the head put her in a void of darkness.

In the barren dusk of her deep sleep, Beneatha saw Evergreen Garden. She could even smell the fresh dew soaking the plants. In a flash, the ground started to crack, the steel walls started to fall down, unveiling the herds of these creatures breaking inside Empyrean terrorizing and destroying the peaceful paradise they built and saved for 73 years. In the twinkling of an eye, Empyrean turned into a ghost town. The Neptune fountain was pumping blood instead of water, the great dome was collapsing and the last pieces of humanity were being destroyed.

Struggling to open her eyes, she heard grumbling then she felt the cold floor sneaking into her bones. A waft of death invaded her senses. In confusion, she looked around and everything looked grey and lifeless. "Where am I?" she asked, "what's happening to me?"

The unsettling feeling of uncertainty was shattering her reality into pieces. Her heart was racing on the strength of the disturbing glimpses interrupting her vision. "Is this a dream?" she wondered. She couldn't help but feel guilty as she remembered her mother's warnings, not to let curiosity be the curse that would doom them all.

The small cell, she was thrown at, was pale and lifeless like nothing she had seen before. The combination of fear and guilt was so lethal that Beneatha was panting, trying to gasp for air with her eyes staring at the metal door locking her away.

Shortly, the creepy silence of her cell was interrupted by a bang on the metal door, before it was opened and two creatures dragged her out without a sound.

All of her resistance did not stop them from taking her through empty corridors into an open space, where she fell on her knees at the sight of the creatures lining up to see her.

She was startled by one man appearing to be human standing among the crowd. It didn't take long before she was distracted by the image of a disgusting rodent passing next to her then disappearing into thin air. Struggling to understand what was happening, she was dragged away from the crowd to a weird lab-like office down the hall. She had a strange feeling of numbness in her brain only for seconds, but it was enough to disturb her with images of shattered glass before it disappeared yet again.

Beneatha sat on a leather chair in the office with a lot of meaningless junk spread all over the place. In astonishment, she felt adrenaline pumping inside her veins, her eyes widened unable to comprehend what they're seeing. One of the creatures was wearing glasses! As he approached her, his body appeared to be human, wearing dirty jeans with old black sneakers. On the other hand, his hair was messy covering most of his brutal face. His front teeth were big and scary, with two relatively long canines appearing from the tips of his big mouth. He stretched his hairy arms towards her, passing weird machinery around her head. Paralyzed by fear, Beneatha couldn't stop the half-beast from whatever he was doing. Despite their primitive appearance, these creatures seemed to be more evolved than she thought, yet they can't even speak.

Strikes of flashlights started hitting her head, reflecting images of ugliness and savagery. In the clamor of their mumbling, her heart raced to hear "Hello?" In a flash, she raised her eyes towards the scary creature with glasses. He was standing away from her, holding a can. Glimpses of a handsome young man started to appear on his face. Soon, it returned to its horrifying features. In their loud mumbles, the half-beast seemed troubled. They seemed to be communicating. Torn between astonishment and concern, Beneatha wondered if this was just one of the crazy dreams she used to have as a child. Even with the numerous attempts, they made to communicate, Beneatha wasn't able to recognize anything but a few bits of words. It was scary, these few words she heard were making her heart drop. She could not understand why this was happening or what was the point of communicating if she was only food?

Lost in her questions, Beneatha could not help but see how her senses were not reliable anymore. She realized that the hallucinations she was having weren't fading away. Instead, they were becoming even clearer.

Without any major success, Beneatha was led back to her cell, where she was left to think of every horrible scenario of her death. Deep inside the darkness of her thoughts, it hit her.

The creatures were looking for something… but what? she wondered for hours trying to escape the hallucinations visiting her mind in the shape of a rodent. Nothing made sense, everything might be just a hallucination inside her drugged brain. Her senses were erratic, so she closed her eyes, striving for a moment of clarity.

She remembered the quiet garden surrounding the Ancient Gallery back at Empyrean. She used to go there whenever she felt trapped in her thoughts, and that happened quite often. She caused a lot of trouble when she was a little girl. Her soul was full of questions but no answers were found. Sitting beside the Ancient Gallery was comforting, it brought her peace and lucidity. In the darkness of the windowless cell, she drowned in a sea of regret and nostalgia.

Beneatha couldn't decipher the reason behind all of this, but she was convinced that nothing was going to be the same. "Coming here must have disturbed the balance people of Empyrean were keeping all of these years" she pondered in confusion. They have always been told that the apocalypse destroyed all human traces, except what they were able to reserve in their little heaven.

The battle inside was getting fiercer, a part of her trying to understand how these creatures had survived the end of the world outside the steel walls of Empyrean. While the other struggled to match what she had always been taught with what she was seeing. In the middle of all this mayhem, Beneatha fell into a deep slumber.

Days and nights passed the same for Beneatha, her hope was fading slowly as fear conquered her soul. She spent her days in the hands of these creatures being scanned, terrorized by hallucinations while her nights were haunted by nightmares. In her dreams, Empyrean had fallen into destruction, fire, fear, and chaos. Every tiny corner of paradise was being torn apart by those weirdly evolved savages; hence she couldn't help but feel culpable. For a week, she has been dragged into the lab-like office many times, and every time, distress was getting the better of her.

In her cell, she was waiting, floating away in her thoughts and fears. Beneatha couldn't understand the purpose of these daily scans and attempts, which kept her alive till now. Nonetheless, every scenario she thought of ended with the same conclusion. "Neither the world nor the war has ended outside Empyrean" and she let them both enter the only haven...

Sitting on a metal bed, Beneatha buried her face in her knees, scourging herself for whatever hellish door she had opened, when she heard footsteps approaching the door of her prison.

Again, she was dragged down the ghost-infested corridor into the lab office where everyone was waiting. Kicking and resisting to sit, Beneatha was becoming fretful. Sacrifice was her only option; she had to sacrifice herself for the people of Empyrean to continue living in peace. But first, she had to fight. The grumbling got louder as more of them tried to get hold of her. The creepy half-beast with glasses was the only one who didn't seem to be bothered.

Beneatha was pushing and pulling in her attempt to reach the closed door when she suddenly gave up. She stopped fighting; her face got pale as if she saw a ghost. Her mouth was dry, unable to utter a word. The bewilderment of what she was seeing was clear on her face, she couldn't believe it. The ragged creatures were humans...

She looked around in confusion, the walls were cracked threatening to fall at any moment, the little beams of light coming through the broken windows unveiled the debris lying around as if she was seeing all of it for the first time.

"Can you hear me?" The handsome man in glasses said in a husky voice, "don't be afraid, we're not going to hurt you."

Beneatha nodded, frightened by the drastic change of everything around her, her mind couldn't comprehend what had happened. "How did these beasts suddenly transform into humans?" was the only question swarming her mind.

"Please sit," the man in glasses said shortly.

Sinking deeper into disbelief, she found herself sitting on the same leather couch, but it was viciously ripped in the middle that the padding was coming out.

After a short pause, Beneatha was able to summon her courage to say

"You can speak our language."

He adjusted his glasses with a smile, then replied "All of us can," then continued gently, "I'm Goliard, what's your name?"

Beneatha didn't reply, her mind was still swirling. She was staring at him, unable to believe that this beast had turned into a nice-looking young man; she thought this could only happen in the old fairytales her grandmother used to tell.

Anxious to explain, Goliard couldn't handle the silence any longer. He insisted:

"There's nothing to be afraid of, we don't want to hurt you."

Waiting for a response, he covered his mouth with his hand, pressing his fist on his lips trying to control his agitation. Beneatha's eyes were still wandering the room in disbelief, nothing made sense. Finally, she asked, "how?"

Trying to hide how thrilled he felt, Goliard looked away and replied

"I don't know for sure, but we have theories."

"I don't understand," she said, "what do you want from us?"

Her eyes were filled with tears, as her brain was exhausted by all the failed attempts to comprehend what was happening. She felt helpless, thinking about her nightmares as she could see them becoming reality.

"They are humans indeed" she whispered to herself, "but by the look of them, they know nothing but savagery. You can't trust them."

Goliard took a step closer towards her, then he leaned back at the desk arguing

"We'll get to that, don't rush things. Let's start with your name."

It didn't matter if he was sincere or not, Beneatha had already made up her mind to make it right by saving her people's lives, even if death was the only way to do it.

Silence got irritating as she looked down without uttering a word and that's when Goliard broke it saying "Look, we understand that this is very shocking for you, but we have been waiting for this moment since we were born" he paused a little looking at the others, then continued "so, we'll postpone range tests till tomorrow. How about you take some time to absorb reality?"

Aside from his innocent nerdy look, Goliard was freaking her out. Her heart bounded when his eyes followed her as two of the Wastelanders took her away.

On the way back to the cell, the corridors were even more daunting. Remains of rooms were laying one after the other. The sun was about to go down as they went down to leave her to think all night.

The transformation of the Wastelanders wasn't the only thing preoccupying Beneatha's mind. Everything has turned into an endless hallucination, arising because of the poisoned water. The furry rodent was not vanishing anymore, instead, it was staring back at her as it went through the crack in the wall.

The walls of her cell had the scent of death and agony. Everything was so strange as if this was the first time she noticed all these details. Beneatha was convinced that, somehow, the poison had taken over, throwing her on a cloud of delirium.

Uncertain of anything around her, Beneatha closed her eyes on the metal bed hanging from the wall. It didn't take long for the battle to start over… "What are the range tests?"

Sleep was not gentle on her as she tried to solve this mystery over and over. Shattered between the various versions she thought of, and the memories of Holy Empyrean, where everything was in order like clockwork, Beneatha finally gave up to dreams. Suddenly, the door was opened and two Wastelanders ordered her to get up. Rolling her eyes, Beneatha knew that no matter how hard she resisted, she wouldn't be able to stop the inevitable... The range tests.

The three walked through the corridors outside the building, where Goliard and the rest of his friends were waiting.

Acting like a gentleman, Goliard greeted her and apologized for waking her up so early.

"Honestly, I couldn't sleep last night," he said with an excited tone, "this is a breakthrough."

Beneatha rolled her eyes again staring at the barely standing building around. To her surprise, there were hardly any trees in sight. "What about the forest?" she asked out loud.

"What forest?" Goliard exclaimed.

"The forest you kidnapped me from" she reprimanded while following him down the street.

Suddenly, he stopped and looked at her, then said:

"About that, we're sorry, we didn't want to hurt or scare you, but we had to do this. There was no other way, you made sure of that."

"What do you mean?" she asked terrified by what his answer would be, but it seemed that he was holding back as well. So, they continued walking.

Looking at the remains of what used to be a residential area, Beneatha saw the last remains of humanity as the Elder Father had described. "Nothing but a vast lifeless land." The end of the world didn't miss this area, demolishing every soul that had ever lived here.

Walking two blocks away from that cell, a tall tree appeared right in front of her. She jumped back and screamed. Goliard and his friends ran towards her, some of them transformed again into their primitive ape-like appearance. Trying to pull herself away, the last thing she heard Goliard say was "It's happening" Then everything went back to a vague grumble.

Before she could even realize what was happening, Beneatha was pulled a few meters back, where every one of them returned to their human appearance. Suddenly, she heard Goliard's voice saying "Let's mark here, that's where the range ends."

Gently, he approached her apologizing "I know it's scary, I'm sorry you have to go through this." He leaned down to help her get up, then commented "but this is very valuable data for us."

She jumped at him yelling "What are you doing to me?"

"We don't want to harm you," he tried to comfort her, "but we have to do this, to shut off the thing in your head."

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Well, I assume you don't know", he said as bitterness got clearer in his voice.

"Know what?" Beneatha yelled again.

Without any answer from Goliard, her suspicions grew bigger. She couldn't trust them, especially him. He couldn't fool her with his innocent geeky look or compassionate sweet words. After a little pause, she couldn't hold her anger in anymore, so she scolded him

"Drop the act, there's no need to act nice. You're not going to have what you want."

Stubborn as a bull, Beneatha sat back down resisting getting up.

Refusing to listen to Goliard's long speech about the necessity of their work, she noticed how the others were waiting for his orders to drag her along the street back to the isolated cell.

"You either have to drag me," she interrupted, "or kill me and get it over with because I'm not going anywhere."

Goliard seemed pensive, trying to say something but couldn't. Beneatha's refusal to cooperate was succeeding to trouble him. Beneatha was sure that he had a plan up his sleeves, seeing him taking his time to set his mind on what to do with her. In a wave, Beneatha realized that he was in charge when the rest of the Wastelanders turned away, leaving them alone. As if he was counting on her hallucinations to keep her from getting too far once crossing the range.

Silence didn't last long, Goliard took a deep breath and calmly said:

"It's not easy to understand why we're doing this without hearing the whole story."

Beneatha rolled her eyes away to a rusty sign. As she tried to decode what was written on it, Goliard's voice reappeared in her focus saying "My mother spent her whole life trying to communicate with you, so did my grandfather."

Her big eyes were staring at him while he was looking away, with a little frown on his face, he continued, "Now, we can talk to you, but we still can't communicate."

He looked at her with bright brown eyes beneath his glasses, in an attempt to make her trust him, but it was a long shot. Beneatha looked at him with stone-cold eyes. Yet, he managed to get her attention.

"Do you know how the world ended?" he asked.

"It ended because of diseases and wars." She answered proudly. She knew the answer, since history was her favorite class, despite how boring everyone said it was.

"Right, my grandfather was 9 years old when he entered the bunker with his family" he added, "when he got out, everything was destroyed, except the island."

"What island?" she wondered, "in the Wasteland?"

"The Wasteland?" he looked around to the lifeless barren town, then commented with a smile "fair enough."

The sun was getting stronger, sending its beams directly at them, as no shade of a tree or a building covered their heads.

"Few people survived the years they spent under the ground" Goliard elaborated, "and even more of them died above the ground, as the only survivable place was sealed."

Beneatha was listening to every word he said attentively but tried to keep a poker face. Besides the occasional widening of her eyes, she succeeded to convince him that she's not interested in the little lecture of personal history he was giving. Picking up on that, Goliard stood up then said, "let's go for a walk, shall we?"

His attempts to make her trust him weren't fooling anyone, especially not Beneatha. She had a smirk on her overheated face. With the usual attitude, she murmured, "Do you really think I'm stupid to believe your emotional story?" she paused for a second, then continued, "oh, now I should trust you?"

"No," he replied, "but the sun is going to melt us if we stay here."

"Whatever," she said agitatedly while standing up, "I'm your prisoner, aren't I?"

Goliard appeared to have a hard time resisting the rage in his eyes. Agitated and anxious, he said, "After coming this far, I won't let you sabotage my mother's plan."

Beneatha sensed how he regretted uttering these words instantly, noticing the way he sucked all of his anger back then calmly added "I expect you to tell me when we cross the jammer's range."

Shocked by his straightforwardness, she wondered "Jammer? What Jammer?"

"It's what's making you see the truth of the world around you" he replied, "it disables the chip in your head."

"Chip?" her eyes got wider, "in my head?"

Battling herself, she needed to understand whatever nonsense he was talking about. Beneatha stood face to face with Goliard, demanding him to elaborate.

"When you go out of the jammer's parameter" he explained seeing the shock on her face, "you see things differently. That's what happened with you a bit ago, right?"

He sounded so confident in his diagnosis, but she couldn't figure out how he knew. Eventually, curiosity took over her fear so she asked:

"You mean that you're doing something to make me see things this way?"

"Yes," he answered unaware of the suspicions he raised in her mind.

More afraid than ever, she started running away from him. Yet, her attempt to escape didn't work as one of the Wastelanders appeared from nowhere and carried her back to Goliard. He stood with clear shock on his face, it was a mix of pain and disappointment.

"You should understand that we need each other," he uttered calmly, "otherwise, we'll all die."

He walked away after telling his comrade to take her back to the cell, cutting their meeting short.

Despite all of her kicking and screaming, Beneatha was dragged through the haunted hallways into the dull cell. The sunlight disappeared as they went down the stairs, leaving nothing but flashlights in her eyes. In bewilderment, she paced back and forth in the little space beside what's supposed to be a bed. She couldn't get her head around the fact that Goliard has been manipulating her with his human appearance, gentle and calm personality, and stories of his genius family. "But why?" she wondered. He didn't reveal his plans. What he meant by saying "we need each other" was perplexing her mind.

Her head was preoccupied, trying to analyze every word he said to find an answer, she even forgot today's meal. As she picked up during the time she spent in this hideous place, they had one meal per day, like in Empyrean, but less in portion and diversity. It was always rabbit meat, whether it was soup or roasted, which indicated that their technically evolved community wasn't capable of planting or hunting. Water was even more scarce, every other day, she'll have a glass of water to quench her thirst.

Diving deep in her thoughts, Beneatha was startled when the door was banged open. Her meal had arrived, but it was different. It was a weird roasted thing; the smell wasn't tempting either. It was different as if she was smelling this for the first time.

She opened her eyes, as she discerned what they were doing. Goliard is punishing her with this smelly meal, after her attempt to escape. It's a game of power now, she understood that. But two can play this game, she thought, and she had the upper hand on this.

The Wastelanders weren't the only ones observing and studying her, she was studying them, too. The scarce food and water supplies weren't the only things she picked up during her stay here, the Wastelanders made it crystal clear that she was valuable to them by not killing her on the first day.

Goliard attempted to use the smelly food, thinking that he would force her to cooperate by starving her. However, if she went on a hunger strike, he would know that this was not a game he could win.

Repressing the recurrent feeling of nausea, she tried to distract her senses with something else. She recalled the roses lining along the way to the main hall and tried to retrieve their smell back. In spite of the fact that she couldn't bring them to this hellhole, the trick worked; the smell faded away slowly. Yet, the memories filled her with remorse and nostalgia. Without being aware of it, she started crying.

Her tears drizzled pain and sorrow all over her mother's dress, which was dirty and ripped to the extent that she could barely recognize it.

With the passing of every hour, Beneatha was getting hungrier and thirstier. Crying for hours didn't help, she was hardly swallowing her tears and self-loathing. It wore her out, she didn't have any power to move or even blink. yet her eyes were focused on the smelly plate at the corner of her cell.

The door was opened again, but this time it was Goliard standing behind it. He took a quick glance at the untouched food, then fixed his eyes on Beneatha, who was rocking herself with all the energy she had left. Calmly, he approached her bed, then asked "can I sit?"

Without waiting for a reply, he ignored her angry look and sat on the other corner of the bed forcing her to sit back on the other end.

"I noticed that you haven't touched your food" he inquired.

"Do you call that food?" angrily, she replied.

"I see," he commented, scratching his head. After a short pause, he continued "although it's the same food you always get."

He stumped her with his answer like always. Everything he said seemed so ambiguous; he was depending on that. He wanted her to doubt herself and her memories, he wanted her to believe him. For the first time, she felt that she had started to understand what he was doing. All that fake kindness was shattered by her revelation.

"Can I ask you something?" again, without waiting for a reply he continued, "how did the meal use to be?"

Beneatha didn't answer, the silence was the only weapon she could use in this situation, and she used it indeed. She knew they weren't going to kill her, they needed her, so she suppressed the urge to pour all of her anger and loathing on him, and turned her face towards the empty wall behind.

Her silence made it clear for Goliard that she was not going to let him win. He took a deep breath and adjusted his glasses, and with a calm hoarse voice he said:

"Listen! I'll tell you everything, but you need to believe me. Everyone here is in great need of your help. Being held in a cell inside a collapsing prison isn't a good way to make you trust us, but we knew how you'd react when you see us, so we needed to guarantee your cooperation."

He paused for a short while, but with no visible reaction from Beneatha, he continued…

"My grandfather was 13 when he got out of that bunker. There was nothing left, as you can see now. They started searching every building which wasn't completely destroyed for resources, you know, water, food, and medicine. Despite the fact that most of the pills and food were expired, rotten, or completely unfit for consumption, they helped them survive for a while. However, they knew they couldn't just depend on scavenging one street after another. They felt the need to make a community, to grow food and herbs, make medicine, and find a stable water source to bring life back to these people."

Goliard's words were hitting a cement wall of distrust and doubt, yet they attracted her attention again. Despite all her attempts not to show any interest in his manipulating stories, Beneatha's wide eyes were urging him to continue his story…

"In their hunts, most of the spoils were things they couldn't use like fridges, washing machines, laptops, UPSs, batteries, and endless amounts of wires. With no electricity, all of these fancy old things were useless. One day, an old man called Manuel had an idea that we can produce electricity by solar power like they used to do in the good old days, and that was the start."

Beneatha's curiosity started to show on her face. She was attending to every word coming out of his mouth. Goliard noticed that and didn't want to waste this opportunity.

"The little power they started to generate wasn't enough to operate anything, except for the old gadgets" he continued as she had shifted her eyes to stare at him, "Trained by Manuel, my grandfather became the best technician, and that was the only thing he taught my mother to do."

As her thirst for more grew bigger, Goliard saw a chance to build some bridges, so he said "Everything she had worked on was for one goal, to communicate with your people." A little smile appeared on his face then continued "On the day she was chosen to be in charge of leading 50 dying people in the mission of their survival, she said "we want to survive, but if survival requires killing other survivors, then it isn't worth it, because if we did, eventually, we'll always end up here, like this." He stared into Beneatha's eyes commenting, "she was stubborn, just like you, she was ready to do anything to save her people, but she wouldn't kill others for it."

His last comment left a huge mark of shock on her face, her eyes were wide open, so was her mind. The battlefield inside her started viciously, scarring her overwhelmed soul by resisting being affected by his well-spoken words. Goliard seemed to wait for something to change, so, he took another shot…

"She died for that cause, I'm honoring her wishes by achieving that" he touched her hand gently, then proposed, "how about you help me break the vicious cycle?"

Quietly, Beneatha pulled her hand away, and immediately cocooned her legs inside her arms, looking at him suspiciously.

For Goliard, another attempt proved to have failed. With clear disappointment on his face, he stood intending to leave. Before his shadow left the small cell, his voice echoed in the empty corridor and tenderly he said, "Just think about it, please."

The smack of the door ringing in her ears took over the awkward silence he left behind. All over again, Beneatha was left alone with her thoughts.

She debated this over and over in her head all night long, sleep wasn't gentle with her that night. With only a few hours of sleep, Beneatha felt tired as she was dragged out of her cell the next day. Passing one more time through the corridors, she heard her stomach rumbling, as a consequence of not eating her meal. Wondering what progress that has made in her case, she weighed down all of her options. Being so valuable, she knew that going back to Empyrean wasn't an option for the Wastelanders. Goliard's story last night awakened something new to think about. It hasn't been easy for her to accept the fact that there are other beings living outside the walls, neither were the conditions they were living in. Destruction and death were the only two components of life here. "That doesn't matter," she whispered to herself, "the moment they'll set foot inside the walls, they'll bring them over to Empyrean."

Nonetheless, the little humanity she had was still struggling to convince her of the words Goliard's mother had said: "Letting people die out here isn't any different from killing them." She argued. Passing by a group of children playing football with a big ball of paper didn't help her case. It was the first time she saw a child living in this barren place from which life had escaped long ago. Yet, with their little innocent laughter, they managed to turn this Wasteland into a home. A strange feeling invaded her. Uncertain of what the right thing to do was, she felt this burden weighing her down even more.

By the time they met Goliard's group down the street, she caved to the new emotion. Goliard greeted her calmly with a nod, then they started walking…

He seemed even calmer today, he didn't say a word for quite some time now, which only increased Beneatha's agitation. She waited for him to say something. When he didn't, she decided to break the silence.

"I just saw the children playing outside the prison," she said, "I mean, I obviously knew that you have children, but…"

She paused thinking of what was the "But" in her sentence, somehow that was difficult to comprehend. Why had seeing the children playing here impacted her decision? She didn't know, but Goliard dragged her out of the whirl of her own thoughts by finishing her sentence…

"They made us seem more human to you, didn't they?"

She nodded realizing that this was exactly the analysis that made sense. A happy smile appeared on his face; Beneatha noticed that he seemed excited. She felt that this would somehow change the scale of power in this game. As they continued their walk down the road, a waft of a nice smell invaded her senses. It was the smell of dew moisturizing the tree leaves, giving it life and bringing to Beneatha a joyful feeling. It didn't take her long to notice that there were no trees in sight, quickly she started turning her head around trying to look for the source of the smell. "Oh no!" she uttered right before the panic attack hit again.

Goliard tried to grab her arm before she delved further into her delusions, but her screams evidently showed him that he was a bit late. The kicks and punches were tangling the task of bringing her back. Then, one of his comrades succeeded in grabbing her feet to drag her back to reality.

The monsters haunting her senses were fading gradually, when she heard Goliard's voice saying "it's okay" it was tender and comforting, somehow. Whether it was the gentle tone in his voice or the newfound realization of their human side, she was relieved to be pulled out of that nightmare. Calmly, she nodded to him pointing to the end of her episode. With mixed new feelings winning over her, she accepted the new terms of the need to know what they have to say. Led by curiosity, she took his hand and stood up again, then stated: "My name is Beneatha."

Bewilderment was clear on his face, he seemed happy to know her name. With coy eyes, he said: "Nice to finally meet you, Beneatha."

However, Goliard's smile was not enough for her conditional cooperation. Beneatha wanted to clarify her terms to consider helping them, so she said confidently:

"This won't change the fact that I will never betray my people. I just want to…."

Beneatha paused to think about what she wanted in return. Despite all of the thinking she had done last night, she couldn't find anything she wanted more than to know what was happening to her.

"I know you would never let me go" with a sigh, she continued "So, I am only asking you to tell me what is going on."

Even though silence didn't last long, it felt like ages for Beneatha as she stared at Goliard, waiting for his response.

His battle seemed to be less intense, it didn't take him long to decide what his next move would be. He called one of his comrades then said "Uncuff her."

Goliard ignored the eyes of the Wastelanders staring at him in shock. He looked at Beneatha with a smile then added "If we are asking her to trust us, we need to give her a reason to."

Unable to wait any longer, Beneatha broke the "what now" silence again, asking:

"What does it do? The Chip?"

He took his time before answering that, he did that a lot as she noticed, either to increase suspense or to carefully weave his words. Finally, he said, "I'm not sure, but I think it changes your perception of reality."

The look on her face was a clear sign for him to elaborate, and he was good at reading her signs so he added "From all of the encounters we had with your people, we noticed that you get really scared and aggressive once you see us, I think you know all about that!" with a little smile to lighten the mood he continued, "which suggested that you see us as a threat. Like seeing a ghost, most of you would either run screaming or attack us."

Beneatha was befuddled by his description; it was exactly how she felt whenever she saw their savage ape-like faces. She felt a sting in her chest, but couldn't know why. Was it because of how accurate Goliard's description was? Or just the fact that she was afraid to come to realize that he was telling the truth about everything.

Again, Goliard seemed to have noticed the confusion Beneatha was feeling. As if he knew that she started to doubt everything she had known. Therefore, he didn't waste any time and said:

"Honestly, I am still struggling to imagine how you see us. Based on how scared you look after crossing the range line, I would say you see us like beasts."

Surprised again by his accuracy, she replied "Wild Apes, hairy wild apes."

He chuckled a little then gave her a strange look she couldn't understand, it bothered her for some reason, so she asked, "Do you think that this "Chip" make us see you like that?"

"Not only us," he replied confidently, "remember your meal?"

She stood still in a state of shock, another piece of the puzzle in his speech last night had fallen into place. Beneatha stared at him with a frown, urging him to say more…

"Last night was the first time you had a meal without being affected by the chip" he explained, "this proved our theory that you're delusional about a lot of things you see and deal with."

"Do you mean, everything I used to see is not real?" trying to understand, "everything I smelled, sensed, heard, or felt?"

"Not completely though" he replied, "Personally, I think it altered your perception of the world to make it more appealing."

Not to leave her hanging on the cliff of uncertainty, he commented, "a way to cope with the intolerable reality."

She looked around with suspicion filling her eyes and mind, trying to find what could contradict his assumption. Beneatha wanted to understand, but until now everything is even more confusing than she thought it would be.

If he was right, then their whole sacred Empyrean would be as barren and ugly as this Wasteland, the loyal believer inside her argued. Out of the blue, the befuddlement on her face was replaced with a sharp skeptical look. Then she questioned, "what's the point of invading Empyrean then? It's just another dead land anyway, isn't it?"

Beneatha sensed that Goliard had too many questions to ask. She could see that he was battling to hide his agitation. Suddenly, he asked:

"So, you call it Empyrean? How convenient!"

Unable to understand why it would be so, she nodded before pulling herself away deeper into the barren road.

As she passed by a huge crater with the remains of a great building inside that showed what happened there. She tried guessing the story behind this big hole, going back in time to the game she used to play with Jimma in the Ancient Gallery. Shortly, Goliard's voice pulled her out from the deep crater within… "We call it the Island."

Beneatha took a minute to comprehend what he was talking about. Even when she finally did, she couldn't understand "why?" she asked.

Standing next to her on the edges of the big crater, Goliard explained: "because it looks like an island, but it was built on a river, not a sea." Notwithstanding his clear words, Beneatha's eyes were still confused. Then, he went on, "My grandfather told me that this was Berlin, and your Empyrean is the Museum Island. His mentor, Manuel, told him that the German government barricaded and prepped the island to save the artifacts of the museum" with clear contempt in his voice, "a legacy of the world the old generation had destroyed with greed and selfishness."

Realizing that his description of the museum applied to Empyrean as it was full of artifacts, books, and remains of humanity, it scared her to think of the possibility that he was telling the truth. For the first time, Beneatha saw the similarities between them. Both of them saw the past from the same perspective, but both of them tried to change that in their own ways.

At that moment, the adrenaline from absorbing the truth was rushing through her veins. The little "he's manipulating you" voice inside was fading away, she said, sighing "that's why you want to invade Empyrean."

"We don't want to invade anything" he replied agitatedly, "it's the only place that can sustain life. There we can all prosper; with your land and our knowledge we can bring this bleak city back to its greatness."

The sun had painted the sky orange as it was going down on this gloomy place. Goliard sighed; a little disappointment appeared on his face. He seemed anxious, adjusting his glasses before saying:

"For 26 years, I have watched my family, friends and loved ones fall into the jaws of death by malnutrition, disease, and dehydration. Not to mention the brutal attacks of the Island dwellers."

The pain was clear in his voice as he went on "Haven't you noticed that none of us has any weapon? We don't want to repeat history of surviving through blood-soaked violence."

When Beneatha's face wasn't showing any signs of change of heart, Goliard's pain turned into frustration filled with anger. Barely swallowing what was left of his pride, Goliard took a step closer then said "Look around, look at this place you are leaving us to die in. It is easy for you to play this game when only your life is hanging in the balance. For me, the faces of all the people that died, while I was trying to convince you to help us, will haunt me forever."

The fact that the Wastelanders weren't holding any weapons wasn't enough for Beneatha to stop being skeptical of them. With a simple calculation, she was able to figure out that in the Wasteland, they would have access to all types of weapons. Besides being heaven which everyone was trying to take over, the people of Empyrean had limited access to the outer world. Unlike the Wastelanders, for whom the horizon was their only limit. Nonetheless, she understood what he was trying to say this time. He was insisting on following his mother's lead, as he said he was. Yet, she found herself turning her head away to avoid their eyes meeting. The silence was her usual weapon. Usually, it was effective but not this time. Suddenly, Goliard stopped. He took a torch from one of his comrades. Going the other way, he ordered her "Come with me, I want to show you something."

An Awkward feeling accompanied her in their little walk into the dark. Beneatha was afraid to ask where they were heading. She wasn't afraid of Goliard, but of the feeling that had kept visiting her all day. She was concerned about whatever new thing he'd open her eyes to. Deep inside, she was sensing some truth in his agitated voice, but something was forcing her to resist that feeling.

When they finally stopped, Beneatha heard the moans coming from a ramshackle building. She looked at Goliard with scared eyes, reflecting light from the fire of his torch. With a wave of his hand, he invited her to enter the eerie building. As they walked down the corridors, Goliard broke his angry silence by saying "This used to be a hospital, it still is, but you know what I mean" referring to the state of this building, then he proceeded "I brought you here to show you what price we're paying for your ignorance of reality."

The screams and cries were getting closer as they went deeper into the darkness of this place. The room they entered was crowded with sick people, while only two, what she believed to be "healers", were pacing back and forth between the piles of the suffering patients. A camping spotlight was lighting the room, and as Goliard was explaining that it was his mother's fix.

"She believed that the light might be the beacon to survival," he said, "something to light them out of pain."

His tone has changed entirely once he spoke about his mother, it was evident to Beneatha that this was a wound struggling to heal. She resisted whatever reason that was pushing her to comfort him, with one image of that happening to the people of Empyrean, the little sacred voice inside won the battle. She couldn't cave to her human side again, she had to believe that the Wastelanders were the bad guys, otherwise, her people would be.

In every story that has been told, there were always two sides, the bad and the good. Beneatha believed that they ascended to Empyrean because of their faith, the Ader chose whom to save, they weren't to blame.

All the way back, Beneatha couldn't say a word. For a reason, she couldn't figure out how he had stunned her with that scene. His words were aching her. Goliard was silent as well, he seemed to be pensive, thinking about something. What was he brewing in that head? She wondered. Right before arriving at the big bonfire the rest of the group had lit behind the prison, Beneatha summoned her strength to ask…

"You said your mother was the leader of 50 people" with a higher pitch she continued, "but I didn't see that many."

"You're right" he replied with a smile revealing his astonishment, "were you counting?"

Ignoring his question, Beneatha started playing his game. Few meters away from the bonfire, she was able to see the whole clan gathering around to eat the only meal of the day. In addition to those whom she saw at the hospital, Beneatha had seen around 35 people. The math wasn't right, why? She wondered. The only two options she was able to think of were, either Goliard is telling the truth and they're slowly dying, or he's lying again. "Maybe that's why there were no weapons, because these were the civilians, while their guards were hiding, waiting for the right moment to prey on Empyrean," she thought, "or maybe that's their plan."

A waft of a disgusting smell invaded her senses, breaking her chain of thoughts. It was familiar but this was more pungent. Feeling the urge to puke, she wondered how all of them seemed not to be bothered by it. The kids were running around the fire, most of the adults were holding bottles of what seemed to be alcohol, jugging it like water.

"What's that smell?" she asked, "is it the food?"

"Yes," he answered, "it's the smell of fur burning."

Fur? She wondered, but before she was able to express her disgust, Goliard explained, "rats. That's the only food we have now, aside from anything the raiders bring back."

"Raiders?" she interrupted. The nature of the food was the least of her concerns, even when the smell was intolerable, something else was preoccupying her mind. Her suspicion was proven right, they have a raiding squad.

The noise around started to fade, as she sunk deeper into her thoughts. The only image haunting her mind was the massacre these raiders would do to Empyrean. Horrified by that image, Beneatha slapped Goliard's hand as he was handing her a bottle and started running away. She knew she couldn't outrun these beasts who have an advantage of being home. This is where they were born, they knew every corner of this hell-like place. Nonetheless, she didn't stop running away, while the Wastelanders ran after her.

The light shining from the fire was fading behind her as she was getting further away. Beneatha was running, hearing her heavy breaths getting louder and louder, feeling the sweat dripping down her neck, as the wind slapped her face. She fixed her eyes to the dark horizon, afraid to look back. She knew running back to Empyrean was a long shot, but she had to take it. She should warn the good people of Empyrean of the horrible fate awaiting them. So, she kept running. Out of the blue, a man jumped on her, knocking her down on the ground. She felt the pain in her back, while her bones were crushed between the man's heavy body and the asphalt. His face was the last thing she saw, before going into a deep dreamless sleep.

When Beneatha opened her eyes, she was tied to the leather armchair in the lab-like office, with only Goliard staring at her. A smile appeared on his face when he saw her awake.

"I'm glad you're fine" He expressed, "I'm sorry for what happened, but you left us no choice."

Without replying, Beneatha stared at the rope pinning her to the chair, restraining her moves.

"Why am I here?" she asked, "what are you going to do with me?"

"I had to bring you here, despite everyone's objections "he replied, "I know you're scared, but I'm sure you have already figured out that you can't run. It'll only hurt you and force us to do something like this. As I told you before, you're the only hope for our people's survival."

With a sigh, he touched her hand then continued, "Look Beneatha, I understand your instinct to run away from us, I really do. You're scared, but so are we. That's why I brought you here, instead of the cell. You need proof, and I'll show it to you."

Beneatha was bewildered by what she had heard. Discarding the battles waging inside, she had to give all of her attention to Goliard as he put that machine closer to her head.

"This is a scanner I developed," he bragged as he walked her through it. "Just look at the screen here, and you'll see the chip in your head."

Fixing her eyes on the screen he mentioned, fear started conquering her body as she watched the little thing, he pointed at saying "Here, can you see it?"

Unable to comprehend what it meant, she nodded, staring at the little thing inside her head. The loyal part of her was still trying to find an explanation for what she was seeing without any success. Yet, she couldn't stop fighting.

"This doesn't give you an excuse to disturb our lives, kill everyone so you can survive on our land."

"Your land?" he repeated, as disappointment appeared clear in his tone, "So, you're not better than the old generation, are you?"

Met with angry silence, Goliard insisted, "for 68 years, we've been trying to change what our ancestors did, our ancestors, yours and mine. Before the whole world collapsed, our ancestors refused to help each other, drawing borders, making limits, carving hatred in our bones, hatred for each other. They claimed their possessions and fought for them. Look where that led us."

Goliard opened the door so Beneatha could be escorted down to her cell. Right before she was taken away, he asked, "Do you know what's the difference between us?" Without waiting for an answer, he proceeded, "we have lived every bit of that misery. It took away everything from us, except our humanity. While you, what you thought was saving you was only blinding you from reality, stealing the last shred of humanity left inside you. It made you turn your backs on the other survivors, just to keep the claim that you're the only humans left. Because only that justifies what you've done." With a wave of his hand, Beneatha was thrown back into her cell, left alone to think of every word he uttered.

It was the second day in which Beneatha hasn't tasted food nor clarity. She sensed how dry her throat was while pacing the cell back and forth. She could hear her stomach rumbling, interrupting her thoughts which kept her restless all night. Raging at Goliard's accusations, something didn't add up. Goliard said "68 years" but before she was kidnapped, the good people of Empyrean celebrated the 73rd anniversary of their ascendance to Empyrean. It boggled her mind to think of the slightest possibility that they've been lied to about when the world ended, not to mention the fact that there were other survivors.

In shock she froze, diving away in the dark ocean of doubt. It didn't matter that Goliard's words appeared to be true, she felt even more suspicious that he was deceiving her. He was saying what he knew would leave her hanging on an edge of uncertainty.

The fight wasn't over yet. When she was dragged out of her cell, Goliard wasn't waiting outside the prison, as usual. She stood alone there, watching the Wastelanders attaching a metal chain to her handcuffs. The other end of the chain was attached to the waists of two of them as an extra measure, after what happened last night. Filled with rage, Beneatha crushed her teeth together suppressing the urge to break free as she was fully aware that it wouldn't change a thing.

From afar, Goliard and three more Wastelanders appeared. With an order to move, the chain started pulling her forward as the two guards started walking. When their eyes met, Goliard looked down instantly as if it was an apology. Without looking at her, he murmured, "we're going towards Empyrean today. So, please, do not try to do anything stupid. You will only make things worse for both of us."

"Why?" she wondered, as curiosity took over her excitement. Why would they take her to Empyrean the day after she tried to escape? Is it possible that his apology was meant for something else? Are they going to attack now? These questions swarmed through her head, feeling the reins shackling her attempts of protecting Empyrean. There, on that barren street to Empyrean, she felt helpless. In no time, her curiosity turned into fear.

As they walked to the southeast part of the city, one thing was preoccupying Beneatha's mind. Goliard's apology seemed sincere as if he had lost the battle of breaking the vicious cycle of violence his mother had started years ago. She noticed that he was avoiding any eye contact as if he couldn't bear to look at her, not to mention talk.

After a long dreary silence, Beneatha decided to talk to him. At least, to understand what was going to happen to her people.

For the first time this morning, Goliard brought himself to look at her under the eyes of the other 5 Wastelanders accompanying them. Just when their eyes met again, she expressed, "it was all a lie. Your mother's peaceful, non-violent plan. It was all a lie, wasn't it?"

She noticed how painful her words were to his ears as shock and agitation appeared on his face. The table was turned, Beneatha was the one with nothing left to lose. It didn't matter, whatever she said or did wouldn't change what would happen at the end of this walk.

"Whether it's something you just made up to get what you want, or you're just turning your back on your mother's wishes, both ways you're messed up, you're even worse than I ever thought you'd be."

Her insults poured down, leaving him speechless with nothing but shock on his face. Goliard didn't stop her, so the punches kept coming.

"That's why you weren't chosen to be saved" with a cold tone she said, "you deserve to die here in this hellhole where you belong."

Everyone suddenly stopped in shock at her statement, staring with anger filling their eyes, except Goliard who looked away, far away, then calmly asked:

"Do you see that dome over there?" pointing at a distant building, "that metal dome on the river?"

Confused by his weird calmness, she moved her eyes to where he was pointing. Just as she saw it, his voice rang in her ears again…

"That's the island, Empyrean, as you call it."

Her dry throat became even drier, it was hard to swallow the fact that this ugly dome was indeed Empyrean. Instead of the big forest, this dome was surrounded by abandoned cars thrown left and right down the street. Yet, she couldn't help but feel distress in her heart, making it hard to breathe.

In the absence of any reply from Beneatha, Goliard continued talking, "Do you see the piles of dead bodies, waste, and sewage you dump on this side of the river? That's your doing."

Agitated by his shameless claims, Beneatha refused to believe it. This lie was more horrifying than the images of the bloated bodies floating between a river of garbage, so she objected

"Do you think I'm stupid enough to believe you? That's not Empyrean."

Impressed by her stubbornness, he urged her to look "Isn't that the bridge you crossed with your friend the day we captured you?"

Blood froze in her veins as Beneatha remembered the bridge from which she ascended to the Wasteland with Cai. Although his words started to show some truth, she was still trying to resist believing them. So, she turned her head away.

Staring at the ugly place, which might be her beloved home, Beneatha noticed that Goliard was heading to sit in the shade of a rusty car parked here since the apocalypse. The rest of the Wastlanders followed his lead as he started telling his tale...

"The survivors of the bunker had also thought that they were the only ones left in this vast world, up until my father's group showed up. That was before we knew about the island dwellers. My mother was five, as I was told, when she met my father. He was only 8 years old when he lost his parents after getting poisoned by the polluted water. Despite the lack of resources, they welcomed them. I didn't know my father very well, he died after a long battle with cancer when I was 3 years old."

Beneatha was still standing and cautiously listening to Goliard's story when she realized that this was another attempt to let sympathy be the changing factor in the game, they were playing….

He looked up at her, then continued….

"When my mother was 16, the news of other survivors on the island spread when the scavengers told them about the man walking on that bridge. While everyone was huffing and puffing when told about his reaction to seeing the scavengers, my mother realized that there was something wrong. That's when she started working on a way of communication. However, to find out a way to do that, she needed to figure out why first. And that took many years of her life."

It was clear to Beneatha that Goliard was doing his best to hide the tears filling his eyes. He swallowed his pain and anger pausing for a second, which left Beneatha waiting for what he had to say.

His exhausted finger pointed at the distant Empyrean and continued with a sigh, "That's where she was killed by your armed men."

With clear shock and sympathy on her face, she whispered, "the hunters" Unaware that these words broke loudly, Beneatha sunk into deep thinking of the guilt she suddenly felt upon hearing that as she knew that fear drove the hunters to kill her.

"Now we know why" Goliard's voice broke the silence she imposed as he said, "Yet, refusing to help us would just be as selfish and evil as killing us with your rifles."

Furious at his accusation, Beneatha snapped out of her sympathy, yelling "You want me to help you kill my people?"

"No" he replied as agitation appeared clearer in his voice, "You still don't understand, do you? You're still blinded by only one idea "Us and Them", and that concept is what brought this horrible end."

He paused for a moment to gather his strength for another round then continued, "if we don't break the cycle, it won't be long until another war kills the last one of us all."

Letting his words sink in, Goliard ordered to return to the base. On the way back, Beneatha was left to think of the threat hovering around their lives. Bizarrely, the notion of seeing them as strange creatures stealing human images had faded in this glimpse of the inevitable end.

50 minutes of being pulled by her chain passed when Beneatha suddenly stopped, then exclaimed, "your mother wanted to break the cycle, right?" With a wondering nod from Goliard, she continued, "this means, she had a plan."

Goliard was staring at her with complete disbelief at what was happening, he seemed unsure, wondering "Was it possible that she had changed her mind?"

"There's one," he replied, "but it's built on mere assumptions."

"And that's why you brought me here" she interrupted, "isn't it?"

Without waiting for his confirmation on her conclusions, Beneatha took a step closer towards him then said confidently, "See? I understand."

Walking away from him, Goliard scratched his head then uttered, "Look, time isn't on our side, I believe you know that well by now." He summoned the last shred of energy he had left to ask "Are you going to help us?"

"I'm not promising anything" she replied as the power shifted to her side, "I have to hear your plan first."

At this point, Beneatha's heart was racing at a random pace as its heat drove her forehead to sweat, despite the chilling breeze. She waited for an answer in a staring contest, all in silence, except for the sound of fire sizzling in the background.

Suddenly, the smell of the smoky fire invaded her nose. Smooth chilling breeze carrying an ominous feeling into the air, blowing her red hair as it fell on her shoulders. Beneatha was experiencing something new, the feeling of the smoke touching her face, the power from the table that had turned into her favor, it was all giving her a sense of satisfaction. Despite the awful smell coming from the rats, they were roasting, a familiar sensation had awoken inside.

Although Beneatha and Goliard weren't talking, the voices around were getting louder and louder. She had a weird feeling of comfort, she was not nervous, nor angry. Staring at the rats being roasted on a stick as the others were drinking, laughing, and waiting to have their only meal of the day, Beneatha sank deep into her thoughts. She admired how they held tight to the little pieces of happiness among the Wasteland. However, that didn't last long as the part of her that believed in the sanctity of Empyrean was a master of making the rest of her feel guilty for the repeated emotions of sympathy, she had for the Wastelanders.

With anger sickening her believing soul, she turned towards Goliard. Immediately she snapped him out of a long silent reverie, saying abruptly:

"I know why you brought me to dine with you tonight, not in my cell."

"You do?" he replied calmly, "well, I didn't intend to make it a secret."

"You are trying to manipulate me, aren't you?" she inquired.

"Not at all" he interrupted her wave of anger, "I understand the need to think of us as enemies, but can't you just see that we're not?"

He paused, leaving the skeptical part of her wonder, then he continued...

"I am not manipulating you, but the chip in your head did, that is why you are fighting what is left of your humanity."

Shocked by his accurate description of the battle she is fighting, Beneatha was speechless. Despite her attempts to win this game, she felt that she was losing the battle and she couldn't accept that...

"You want me to trust you, don't you?" she said confidently, "how could I trust you when you clearly dodged telling me what your plan is."

In that moment, she noticed how the voices around had faded into little whispers. All eyes were fixed on them, it was a moment of confusion for everyone, including Goliard.

In spite of the sweat dripping down her face, she summoned her strength to fight one more battle:

"You're asking me to help you, without even telling me what I am going to do" she elaborated, "for all I know, you're going to destroy every last one of us, to save your people."

Confusion turned into awkwardness, as the silence fell down on the Wasteland. No sound to be heard but the fire crackling, shattering sparks around. The flames were shining on Goliard's glum face. It seemed as if he was weighing down all his options as hesitation was clear on his face. Then, he finally uttered:

"I know it is a lot to ask, but I want you to promise me one thing" he took a deep breath, "hear me out, not only with your ears and heart but also with your head. Think of what will happen to all of us, if you refuse to help us."

"Just tell me" She replied coldly as she was tired of playing games. Beneatha needed this to be over, she couldn't tolerate the smell of death, disease, and nothingness invading all her senses.

Next to the fire, they all sat down, listening to the plan which could finally give them salvation from this half-a-life. Goliard took a big sip of the weird-tasting alcohol, avoiding their eyes to meet. As if he was trying to summon his courage, or maybe weave a new lie. However, it was clear to Beneatha that he was stalling. Her impatient sighs were obviously stressing him out, then he said:

"We believe you have some type of control room for the chips in your heads. All we want to do is to shut it down, so the people of the island can see and hear what they have been turning their eyes on for years. My mother stood against waging a war on your people because she believed that you will find that slumbering humane part. All these years we've been trying to do that and today we succeeded. I saw it in your eyes…"

Listening attentively to the truth he unveiled made her nervous. With an attempt to shift the attention away from the feeling of belonging she had a couple of minutes ago, she asked

"How?"

"My mother worked her whole life to find that answer" he replied, "she was working on a virus to kill it. However, she died before achieving that. So, that is was my whole life's mission."

"Kill Ader?" the believer in her exclaimed loudly, "are you insane?"

"Ader?" he asked, "Is that what you call it?"

Ignoring his question, Beneatha couldn't understand why she felt so angry at his ignorance. So, she repeated:

"You can't kill it, do you understand?" agitated by the thought of that, she replied, "Ader is the reason we are all still alive."

"It is just an AI" one of the Wastelanders shouted, "it is manipulating your perception of reality, don't you get it?"

In spite of the rage of the angry believer inside her, a memory has awakened flashing her mind back to when she saw Jimma's uncle, Angosin, shouting in the corridors of the residential area "They should know the truth."

Jimma told her that he had an incident. After falling down from the top of Neptune's fountain, when he was a boy, he started having delusions. They were able to deal with him for a while, but then, he lost his mind completely and started saying crazy things about how Ader was controlling the people of Empyrean. That was why Jimma's father turned him in. Beneatha felt a strong shock bolting her body, paralyzing even her eyelids as she looked at the speaker without blinking or uttering a word.

"My mother was right" He replied, "In times like this, people hang onto anything to survive. She believed that this is how religions were created by our ancestors. People need faith to keep them sane when death takes over everything. The problem is, when we begin to think of it as something divine, we start justifying horrible actions for its sake."

Despite his desperate attempt to add a smile to his words, Beneatha's chaotic emotions have left her in a state of disbelief. Her silence made it clear to Goliard that she had started absorbing reality for the first time. Like never before, this time it was touching something close to home, it awakened something. The realization of it was burning her soul to the ground then rising her back from ashes to be burnt all over again. Tutored by the fighting parties inside her, painfully, she whispered "Empyrean was heaven-like, but it is all an illusion, isn't it?"

Goliard handed her the bottle with a nod as if he was encouraging her to swallow the truth with a drop of alcohol, hoping that it would make it easier. Unsure if it would, Beneatha took a big sip from the awful tasting bottle, to swim back to everything she experienced in this Wasteland. The images of trees and rats flashing, the awful sensations she started having, the smells and tastes, even the air which had a metallic taste, with a waft of the pungent odor of sweat and blood.

However, these smells weren't what was aching her soul, but the feeling of being uprooted into an abyss of uncertainty, unable to figure out how her whole life was just ones and zeros as she listened to Goliard explaining the technical parts of her savior. Despite the incomprehensible words Goliard was uttering, his voice was confident.

For Beneatha, the more he explained, the more lost she felt. Not by his fancy technical terms, but by the excitement he felt, talking about his long-life plan out loud, in the hope that it would finally come true.

For 30 minutes, Beneatha did not say a word, she listened carefully to Goliard's plan. Just as he concluded saying "Again, these are only assumptions, which only you can confirm." He stared into her eyes waiting for her to say anything in return, and she did…

In an attempt to absorb everything, he has just laid upon her, Beneatha retraced his words…

"You want me to tell you about Ader?" she wondered, "and help you convince my people to let you upload the virus, you have developed, so everyone would see reality as ugly and painful as it is?"

With no answer to give to ease the painful decision she had to make, Goliard looked down and nodded.

A moment of complete silence had passed, when Beneatha realized that the only solution to save these people from their certain deaths was that her people had to suffer losing their heaven to this forsaken life. Little did she know that this decision would become even harder, after what Goliard had to say…

"There is one problem, though" he added, "These chips have been integrating with your brains for so long now, and…."

Beneatha noticed that Goliard was struggling to find the words she knew he would say. Therefore, she interrupted, asking:

"So, you don't know what will happen to us, when you shut them down?"

A nod from Goliard overloaded her mind with confirmations of uncertainty, perhaps because she needed him to say something smart. However, Goliard's silence along with his sorrowful eyes weren't making her any calmer. On the contrary, the calmer he got, the more anxious she felt.

Ignoring the eerie feeling about this whole thing, Beneatha was anxious to find a beam of hope, so she fired one question after another at Goliard in an attempt to find a way to ease the decision she had to make.

"Are we going to die?" she asked, trying to face the truth, "All of us?"

Goliard took a moment before answering that question

"It is a possibility, I won't lie" he took his glasses off, wishing to see differently. He proceeded, "On her deathbed, my mother told me about this risk. Since then, I have been trying to think of every possible scenario that might happen when we…, you know!"

She did know, somehow. Goliard was a perfectionist, she thought, he seemed to have the urge to do things right. Nonetheless, this sense of familiarity was faced with nausea, the alcohol might have caused.

After taking a deep breath to swallow that feeling away, Beneatha forced herself to urge Goliard on continuing, as the words were barely getting out of her mouth...

Instantly, Goliard noticed the anguish in Beneatha's trembling voice. Therefore, he answered the question immediately without his usual pauses...

"The chance of that happening is 1 percent, which means, the other 99% is our hope of survival."

Despite the cheerful tone he used, Beneatha felt something odd happening. She felt a little dizzy, her eyes started to lose focus. Goliard's words were fading gradually. She had a weird feeling as she was still conscious. However, she couldn't figure out whether she was still sitting or she was lying on the floor. Soon, she realized that she lost the sense not only of her limbs but of anything around her. She can only see a shadow of Goliard and the Wastelanders flashing as images captured in the past, on a black background. Strangely, she knew that Goliard was still talking, but she couldn't figure out a word he said. All of the sudden, it all disappeared into complete darkness, where she was able to only hear her inner voice repeating "what is happening to me?"

A couple of minutes passed as Beneatha was floating inside her own mind. Then she heard a voice disrupting her peace, dragging her out into the world of sensation. It was Goliard's voice calling her name over and over. As her eyes started to reopen, she felt his arms around her, felt his warmth on her skin. Suddenly, all of these smooth, nice feelings turned into a need to throw up. In a quick move, she turned around to unload the greasy alcohol out of her system.

In the few moments she was passed out, Beneatha felt strangely numb. She wasn't either happy nor sad, as if all this fighting, pushing, and pulling were for nothing. Although living in heaven, isolating and blinding themselves from the horrors and hardships of life was a tempting idea to fight for, yet she didn't want to fight for an illusion. Weirdly, the sense of reality had a good taste that she liked. Whether it was the alcohol sucking the last shred of sanity inside her, or just the fact that for the first time, she had to realize that closing her eyes to avoid dealing with the despicable things they caused wasn't enough anymore. She felt something for the first time, she was free from her guilt. Without thinking, she found herself holding Goliard tightly, afraid if she let him go, the whole sense of reality would fade away.

On the other hand, Goliard was bewildered. He was standing so still as this was the first time Beneatha had shown sincere human emotions for any of them. Despite how happy he seemed to be by this progress, something was obviously preoccupying his mind. His smile wasn't enough to hide the hesitation in his eyes. Suddenly, he looked into her eyes and said "There is one more thing…"

He held her hand then continued, "Death is just one possibility, there are many others."

"What do you mean?" Beneatha asked. Her emotions were torn apart between fear of the answer and surprise.

"If the AI has been evolving over the years, it might have copied itself into the chips in your brain as back up. Shutting it down might not actually kill it. Instead, it will aggressively take complete control over you."

He paused, leaving Beneatha speechless. In the mess of her thoughts, her heart started to race. She couldn't imagine what would happen then, but she knew it would be ugly.

"At that point" he added, "both our people would be eradicated."

Silence didn't last long, as her fear was overpowered by bewilderment, she interrupted with a question "Why are you telling me this?"

Her question was obviously perplexing Goliard. He took his time to find the words before he finally said: "I know this is overwhelming. To be burdened with making a choice that would set the course of the future." In a lower tone, he continued, "My mother had her own battle to fight. She had to choose between invading the island, which would guarantee our survival, or stopping the violence humans have used for generations."

Without giving Beneatha a chance to understand what he was trying to say, he added as if he was repeating a lesson he learned by heart:

"Humanity isn't just a species which would kill to survive. It is a principle, a code to live and die by. Sometimes, you need a catastrophe to see that survival isn't just about staying alive at all costs. It is about being able to live and die with what you have done."

It was strange for both of them to see how things have changed since a couple of hours ago. Nonetheless, they both knew it was true.

The picture, Goliard succeeded in painting, opened Beneatha's eyes to the truth, which haunted her for the rest of that night. This time, she wasn't locked away underground. She was staying in what is left of a room in a semi-house near the prison. Beneatha ignored the sound of footsteps pacing outside, as she lay down to sleep her hangover away. She needed a clear head to make such a decision. Even though she was barely forcing her eyes to stay open, the alcohol helped put her to sleep, drowning deeper in her worst nightmares.

Despite her attempts to wake herself up, Beneatha couldn't stop the horrifying flames burning every last bit of Empyrean. This time, the walls of Empyrean were still standing, no Wastelander was in sight. As if the fire was started from inside. Just when she saw her parents' faces as they were burning, everything turned into a black screen…

Beneatha was awakened by Goliard's voice and face greeting her with a smile. Involuntarily, she found herself smiling back, forgetting all about the nightmare from last night.

The day went slowly, Beneatha knew what Goliard was waiting to hear, but she couldn't find the courage to make a decision. He didn't urge her for an answer. Instead, he continued trying to get closer to her. He answered all of her questions without hesitation. He told her every detail he thought of while making his hypothetical plan. He talked about his mother, as Beneatha asked him to. For some reason, she felt a weird link between them. She couldn't help but comment…

"Your mother must have been an amazing person, how did she make all these people follow her when their lives were in the balance?"

"It is a choice you make," he replied with a smile, "I am not saying it is an easy choice, but it is one. As my mother used to say "No one matters more than the other, our lives aren't worth more than anyone else's, why should we kill to survive?" that was her belief."

She admired her beliefs and strength to actually stick to them, even when life had been very cruel in the Wasteland, and for her ability to convince 50 people to follow her down such an uncertain path.

"What was her name?" she asked, "Your mother"

"Hede" he replied with a smile, sensing that Beneatha was about to make her mind of who she wanted to be, "it means the warrior. How fitting! Am I right?"

Whenever her sweet memories of Empyrean shout out for her to refuse, the images of the dying people in the wrecks of a hospital and the pile of rotten dead bodies her people threw in the river unaware that they were polluting the only water source left for the people of the Wasteland to depend on, reappear in front of her eyes reminding her that even when they were oblivious of the implications of their actions all these years, they were the reason these few Wastelanders were languidly dying.

Yet, if she accepted, she might be the cause of killing every last one of the good people of Empyrean. Even though the choice was very difficult to make, it was inevitable and she knew it.

The vividness of these images was more staggering and painful. The sentiments which were blocked from her senses started to awaken something inside, it was changing her, bringing her closer to humanity inside her. As the sun began to rise behind the horizon, lighting the sky and eclipsing the darkness of the world, Beneatha had set her mind on a decision, which she knew would change everything, including herself.

She looked at the big fire burning in the middle of the little ring, then uttered the magical words everyone was anxious to hear.

"Hede was right," turning her eyes to Goliard, "Killing to live is not a life worth surviving for."

She sighed, then continued without taking her eyes away from him, "It is difficult to choose between saving my people at all costs, even if that means your lives, or risking their lives even if it is one percent chance, to save you." She paused, looked away and gently confessed "Our lives don't matter more than yours, either."

There, Goliard won the little game they were playing all that time, but he lost his heart to her. Somehow, between the ashes of death, a little beam of hope had risen. Blushing, he warmly welcomed her saying "Hede would have been so proud."

His words were hugging her anguished heart. She needed to hear that, although she didn't know it before.

Despite Beneatha's newly found emotions, she knew the urgency of finding the best plan to enter Empyrean without any resistance. So, with no delay, she started telling them about the passage she came to the Wasteland through, where they could sneak in.

Days and nights were much alike for Beneatha. They would all start with a walk on the last point of the jammer's range, where she was training to conquer her chip, empowering her consciousness to take over. The process was painful, but every day she found her strength in Goliard, as he stood there by her side to bring her back from the delusions she had to deal with. One morning, she broke down in tears, realizing that this was impossible. With a disappointed tone, she asked, "Why can't we just use the jammer? Isn't that why you were making range tests?"

With a sympathetic smile, he replied, "Yes, at first. Then, I thought, they would be all riled up once everything around them changes completely, they would be trying to figure out what happened. Then, Empyrean would turn into chaos. We wouldn't have the chance to kill Ader."

She paused for a moment trying to absorb the horrifying image he had just printed in her mind, but not for long. She turned towards Goliard, looked directly at his eyes, then asked "That might also happen after killing Ader, wouldn't it?"

With a fading smile, he hesitated to answer...

"Most probably, but you are our only hope to convince them to make the right choice. After all, you are one of them, they will listen to you"

His rhetorical question stumped her as she tried to imagine herself telling her people the truth about the faith that helped them survive for 73 years. It wasn't an easy task Goliard was asking, she couldn't think of any scenario that could work. It was a fact she struggled to confess even to herself, causing any harm to Ader was a crime, not to mention killing it.

"It is a problem for another day, Beneatha" Goliard interrupted her thoughts, "now, you need to take over the chip, to break free from its hold over you."

Ignoring his voice, Beneatha was pensive, thinking of another way. Even if she succeeded in conquering the chip, it wouldn't change the fact that they would still be under its influence, unable to see the truth nor hear it.

Out of the blue, she asked "Can you make another jammer?"

With speculating eyes, he nodded, so she thought loudly, "So, make one just for me."

"I thought about that" he replied, "but if you were offline, your people may not recognize you and…" he paused a little then continued, "they might kill you at sight, and I can't risk that."

"They won't see me" confidently, she whispered, "I will sneak in with you, I have years of practice, I am good at that."

Goliard's eyes were still not sure what was the plan Beneatha came up with. Picking up on that, Beneatha elaborated "I know you want them to make the choice, but you can't kidnap them all to make them see the truth, Can you?" She paused a little then continued "With Ader in our heads, the people of Empyrean will not listen to the truth, even if I am one of them. It happened before with uncle Angosin. For years, he was telling the truth, but he was taken away and no one talked about it since."

Without understanding why she felt the urge to convince him, she insisted "Plus, I know when is the best time to do it without anyone seeing us."

Attentively listening to the plan, she made in a couple of minutes, astonishment was clear on Goliard's face.

They both sat down on the far edge of the remains of this fallen city, while Beneatha told the details "The third night of every month is the transcendence. Every man, woman, and child in Empyrean gather in the Main Hall to transcend up to a higher level of purity. That's the perfect time for us to sneak into the Ancient Gallery and wait there until we hear the end-of-the-day drum striking twice, usually at 9 pm, everyone goes to sleep. Then, I will take you to Ader."

"What about the guards?" Goliard asked, "what if anyone was at the Ancient Gallery?"

"No one dares to avoid going to the transcendence" smiling at his ignorance, "plus, we don't have guards, there is no need, it is the sacred city."

"What about the hunters?" he asked again, as his fear wasn't dissolved "the ones you said killed my mother?"

"The hunters don't carry weapons inside the walls" she replied, "that's the law."

Despite all of the well-quoted answers Beneatha was giving, Goliard's mind was still preoccupied. Something was obviously bothering him, but he didn't say a word.

After a long silence, he asked as if trying to answer a swarm of questions exhausting his mind…

"What happens during the transcendence?"

"We go to a pure state of mind" romantically, she replied, "it is like a dreamless deep sleep, where you feel, hear and see nothing, where you can't really think of anything, but somehow, you feel your soul elevating as a tiny piece to merge with the whole, composing the perfect harmony" she opened her eyes with a smile perfectly lining her face, then concluded, "When it is over, the souls reunite with its Earthly shapes, to wake up energized by your spiritual evolving to become a better, more hard-working worshipper of Ader."

Two days have passed in which they discussed every aspect of the new plan. Still, Beneatha couldn't figure out what was boggling Goliard's mind.

It wasn't until they were sitting alone away from the fire two nights before the Transcendence when Goliard finally told her everything…

"I have been thinking about what you said about the Transcendence," he confessed, "there is only one purpose I could think of for such a process."

Staring at the black curtain of nothingness on the horizon, he continued "it is an update. Every month since it was created, the Ai, you call Ader, has been updating. This means we don't know how evolved it has become."

Beneatha's heart was beating so fast that she was able to hear it. She sensed that this was bad news but she couldn't tell how.

"This makes the possibility of becoming hostile when we upload the virus higher," he added, trying to unload this burden off his chest.

The disappointment was clear on Beneatha's face as she heard that, and Goliard was able to see it. Little did he know that she had passed the point of questioning her decision. Therefore, she was so calm as her eyes were filled with tears, yet her voice was like a symphony of hope orchestrated by her new perception of life as she said"

"This won't change anything, will it? The possibility of you dying here is still much higher, isn't it?"

She paused thinking of how much she had changed since she first set a foot in the Wasteland. The loss of the fantasy of heaven caused her pain, but she came to realize that nothing was more satisfying than the sense of reality her new mission had brought her. Then, she added…

"Thank you for telling me the truth about the beautiful lie I called my life."

"Do you miss being unaware of the truth?" he wondered.

"Yes," anxiously, she replied, "However, it will always be a lie, no matter how beautiful it was."

It was a bright day, followed by a moonless night. Here they were, marching quietly into Empyrean. Beneatha led Goliard and the other two Wastelanders closer to the huge walls. She remembered the last time she saw the bridge when she descended with Cai to the Wasteland. This time, it was barely standing, surrounded by nothing but empty rusty cars and leftovers of the preceding human culture. Ignoring the ache in her heart, she knew it was the only way to evolve, not just as one survivors' community, but also as humans. She felt herself ascending but not to Empyrean, but to the clarity of truth.