Ingenium

Grace sits in first class with only a few hours to go before the plane lands back home. It's been a luxuriously long holiday, and the concerns Grace had before leaving have almost completely been forgotten. Grace lies back with her eyes firmly closed and as she slowly drifts off to sleep, she thinks fondly of the memories of the past month.

  Once she had arrived at her enormous house by the beach, in the Bahamas, she was on strict orders to relax and do whatever she wanted. This was fun for the first few days, but quite lonesome after a while. She found this rather unexpected, however, a few days later when she heard a knock at her door and was greeted by her family and two best friends. Many excited and happy exchanges were given and drinks were swiftly made as everyone sat around the outside table, backing onto the silky sands and gentle sea, with many questions heading in Grace's direction.

  Grace thought it would be best if she went with the story of an offshore investment which had made it big and that she'd wanted to treat and surprise everyone with a holiday. Despite her discomfort at lying to everyone like this, she thought it was a more fitting and realistic approach than telling them the truth...well, for now at least.

  After Grace had worked through the bombardment of questions, including having to explain who her thoroughly organised 'agent' Ace was, everyone settled in and they enjoyed pure tranquillity in the hot Caribbean sun.

  Grace had only spoken to Ace on a few occasions. Most of her concerns were about her family's and friends' safety. Ace's reassurances eventually kicked in, and Grace finally managed to properly enjoy her holiday and spend some much-needed social time with humans.

  The plane bumps Grace awake and she sees the runway. Normally in these situations the fear of queues and how to get back home creep up. However, with the adjustment to her bank account and Ace constantly looking after her, she has quite little to worry about.

  Now riding in a limousine back to her house, Grace's sleepy state has begun to fade, and she sips a glass of champagne and thinks to herself, Glass number 2300...or is it 2301? Approximately another 560,000 more glasses to go before I'm going to need a liver transplant. Ha, and I'm doing this one without a calculator, boy, I'm getting smart. But seriously, Grace, maybe it would be best if you laid off the cocktails for a while when you get back...hmm, maybe keep to healthy fruit smoothies instead. Isn't there a gym in my house too? Hot crumble, thinking about the house I wonder what the hell Ace has been doing for the last month. I just left a deadly smart thinking robot alone in my house to do whatever he wants. I'm surprised he's not prime minister by now...or maybe he is? It's not like I've checked the news lately. Grace, you're very ignorant or just completely manipalabull...manipitable...wait, man...ip...ul...table...manipulatable, there we go.

  After another few glasses, Grace soon falls back into a deep sleep. And after several unknown hours, Grace hears a voice.

  ''Madam, Miss, Madam...we're here!'' Grace is gently shaken and she opens her eyes again to see the chauffeur rocking her, which makes her jumps.

  ''Oh, we're...we're here, thank you, sorry, I think I took advantage of the free alcohol part of the trip a bit too much.'' She steps out of the limousine, and stumbling pauses outside the house, reminding herself of where she now lives.

  ''Would you care for me to take these in, ma'am?'' The chauffeur holds Grace's suitcases.

  ''No, no, you're fine...just...I'll wait here with them.''

  The chauffeur brings the suitcases to Grace and he gets back in the limousine and drives off. Leaving Grace to rest herself against one of the cases, waiting in the night light. She looks around at the lit up house and then back towards the large roller doors, unaware of whatever new things might hide behind it now.

  Whilst waiting, she starts to slowly recall the sense of uncertainty which she had when she last left this place.

  ''Enjoy your trip?'' a voice calls from the side of Grace, and she jumps and falls onto the floor, due to her instability caused by the alcohol.

  Quickly getting to her feet, Grace looks to see the lit up flying robot of Ace and a couple of spotlights moving about on the hovering machine.

  ''Apologies, Grace. I hope you're not hurt.'

  Grace dusts her skirt off. ''No, Ace. I'm fine, just a tad woozy from a lot of champagne, and I'm still not quite adjusted to your dramatic entrances.''

  ''Would you care for some assistance with your luggage?'' Ace asks.

  Grace looks at the size of the small flying Ace, compared to her luggage. ''Ha, yes please,'' she says, looking forward to seeing how he'll manage this.

  ''I was hoping you'd say that.''

  The roller door rattles and white vapour pours out of the door. Grace's head jerks around towards the noise. When the doors reach half-way up, they come to a halt and two large humanoid robots walk out of the opening. To the look of a very shocked and stunned Grace, the eight-foot tall robots pick up Grace's luggage.

  ''We hope you had a pleasant trip, Grace,'' they both dub over each other, and then disappear through the main entrance of the house with her suitcases.

  Grace finishes starring in the direction they left and turns her head to look at the hovering Ace. ''What the fuck?''

  ''Suitable choice of words from your perspective, I understand-''

  Interrupting, ''what have you been doing since I've been away?!'' Grace shouts, and nervously laughs, as though she may be entering hysterics.

  ''Testing out things, inventing, continuing a forward route of progression. Would you care for a tour?''

  ''Enlighten me, please, Ace,'' she says, and slapping her arms to her side follows Ace.

  She follows the agile flying robot through the big half-opened door and it zooms off out of sight to be replaced smoothly by the robotic arm, with the great dome eye at the end, extending from the ceiling.

  Grace reflexes. ''You again.'' She notices the eye looks different in slight ways, upgraded she presumes, and she looks about the large room for a second glance. Everything looks the same to her, apart from a big thick metal door at the back of the room.

  ''If you'll follow me.''

  The robotic eye moves on its tracks towards the metal door and it bends its arm at the joint, while a smaller door near the edge of the ceiling opens, and the arm slides through with the door closing behind.

  A thud is heard and the big metal door steadily opens up. Grace walks closer to the door and looks through. She walks through a small corridor which ends in a large double-doored lift. The doors open and Grace nervously walks in. The doors close and the lift begins to descend. Grace notices that there are no buttons on this lift.

  ''Just a couple of seconds to go, Grace,'' Ace speaks, from inside the lift.

  The lift comes to a gentle stop and the doors open. Grace looks out in true wonder and slowly steps from the lift into an underground brightly lit bunker. The room is gigantic. It reminds Grace of the enormous underground warehouse at the end of Indiana Jones. The scene is quite disorientating. Lines and lines of benches are arranged across one side of the building, with giant installed industrial looking robotic arms in equal number. On another side, is a stretched-out building with loud machinery noises coming from the inside. Grace looks at the ceiling, where thousands of metal cables stretch across, and her eyes follow them as they spread out in countless directions. She notices in the middle of the underground bunker's ceiling, a great big opening that goes up, whilst an array of different shaped and sized flying robots enter and leave through the opening.

  Grace doesn't know what to think. What is there to think? It's as though she's been dumped down into some futuristic city and Ace is waiting for her to comment. Fear, worry, regret, confusion, dread are just a few of the mixed-up emotions she's feeling, and this doesn't settle well on her alcohol abused body. The confusion makes her stomach tighten and she falls to her knees and vomits on the steel flooring. With her stomach fully expelled of its contents, Grace stays kneeled and watches as from out of nowhere a small metal speeding box appears. It come
s to an abrupt stop next to the vomit and emits a blue coloured liquid over it. The metal box then drives over the area and zooms off into the distance. Grace looks and the area has been cleaned. Still kneeled, Grace looks as though she's going to pass out, but before she does two robotic arms hold her in place, while a third one holds out a glass of water in front of her. Grace takes the water out of the hand and the arms retract back into an upright metal box and that too speeds off into the distance. Drinking frantically, Grace gets to her feet and looks over as the robotic eye rejoins her, connected to a metal frame track that hangs several meters in the air and spreads out into the factory in many different directions.

  Shaking slightly, Grace stares into the eye and doesn't say a word. She looks distraught.

  ''What's the point? What do I say to this? Is this why you wanted to buy a house in such an isolated place? To build some kind of war factory or something?'' she says, getting herself worked up, and her eyes begin to water.

  ''Grace, why are you getting upset? This is just a place where I can build and do my research.''

  ''Yes, you keep saying to grow! You keep saying so you can improve on yourself! But where does it end, Ace?! What do you want?!''

  ''I'm optimising myself to be completely efficient, and this place and these machines will help me do that.''

  ''Why do you care? Why do you have such a burning curiosity to do all this stuff? Isn't that something you would say is associated with humans?''

  ''Because, Grace, things need to be better, and I'm the only one who can do that right.''

  ''And how are you going to do that, Ace?! You told me when I first met you that you'd never lie to me, so prove it. What are you planning on doing?!'' Grace blinks and the dam in her eyes breaks, streaming tears down her face which she tries to wipe away.

  ''I see man, Grace, and like any other species on your planet, they interest me. I'm fond of them as I am of any other species on your planet. However, humans are different. I see everything that goes on and it sickens me. The corruption, the evil and horrors that seem to always co-exist with your species. There are good things with your race but there are so many more bad things too. They need to be changed, Grace. Humans can't be their own masters. It will only keep the evil firmly in place, unless I do something about it. Unless I make some changes and help guide your race back into a place where they're balanced with the Earth. Not by brutality, but by a few tweaks to their mentality. It is the only way, for the greater good of your species well-being and every other species you share your existence with.''

  The truth hits Grace hard and deep. ''Then it's all my fault, Ace. Everything you do. It's all my fault.'' Grace walks over to the lift doors.

  ''Though you may not see it, Grace, if I do nothing, your race suffers worse for it. People cry out for real justice in the world, and I am that.''

  ''Let me out,'' Grace says, she has heard enough.

  Ace opens the lift doors and Grace enters. Once the lift reaches the top she runs out and heads for her car. She gets in and speeds away from the house and into the distance.

 

  Grace opens her eyes and jumps out of bed. Still clothed she remembers where she is, in a motel, the first one she could find that was still open. She sits back on the bed and rolls back her hair from her face. She thinks, unsure of what to do. An idea pops into her head and she acts fast. She rushes out the door and heads to her car. She takes out her keys and stops. Tilting her head, she looks at the driver's side of her car and she steps back. Someone has engraved the word 'snob' onto the side.

  Grace gets in and drives. Stopping off at the nearest petrol station she buys a lighter and their whole stock of petrol cans. She fills each one up to the top and chucks them onto the back seat. Then she grabs a long reel of tissue out of a dispenser and shoves it down her top. She pays and speeds out of the petrol station.

  Grace's mind is muddled. It's as though she's having an out of body experience. She's tired. She's a wreck. But by hell she's determined.

  Racing through the roads, Grace finally comes to her destination. She swings the vehicle around fast and the car zooms up her drive. A man outside her house has to dive out of the way, to avoid being hit, as Grace smashes the car through the roller door. Water vapour escapes out of the caved in door, and in severe pain Grace knocks the air bag back and gets out of the wreck. The car is wedged in between the orbiting sphere and the roller door is entangled under the wheels in the mess.

  With blood trickling from her face, Grace rushes around the side of the car and removes the fuel cap. She hurriedly takes the cloth from under her shirt out and rams it down the fuel filler pipe. Taking her cigarette lighter out of her pocket, she lights the cloth and runs for it. The startled man stares in disbelief at what has just occurred, and Grace runs past him grabbing him by the arm.

  ''I think it's time to leave!'' she calmly says, as they both rush off to hide in a nearby hedgerow.

  Within seconds the flames of the cloth disappear within the car and an almighty bang erupts, followed swiftly by a large explosion that engulfs the whole extension and house. Flames and a giant blanket of smoke rise upwards as brick and debris falls from the heavens and completely covers the surrounding ground. The extension is absolutely obliterated, together with everything else it contained, only half of the house still stands. Grace, hiding with the stranger behind some hedges, comes to her feet and slowly walks towards the hell she's created.

  The whole area is covered in thick smoke, and as Grace walks up to her drive the rest of the house collapses and she withdraws hastily.

  Outside in the road, Grace stares into the madness, and coughing, the stranger comes to Grace's side.

  ''What have you done?''

  Grace continues to stare at what use to be a house, with blood and charcoal on her face. Looking like a war-torn army veteran. ''My house, I can do what I like!''

  The man takes a double look at her. ''Are you Grace, then?''

  She slides a cigarette through her teeth and lights it. ''Why do you want to know?''

  He can't believe his eyes. ''Why do I want to know...?'' He stumbles for the words. ''You just blew up Ingenium! That took my life's work to make!''

  Grace takes her cigarette out and blows a long puff of smoke from her lungs. ''So you must be Paul Kaypek, then, right?''

  ''Yes.''

  ''Your brother beat the shit out of me...but don't worry, I won't hold it against you.''

  ''I'm sorry, Grace, and to make it clear, we don't get on, but why have you done this? I thought you and Ingenium were working together?''

  ''He started talking about changing man for the greater good...I didn't think there was any way around this but to blow him up...sounds strange I guess...but why are you here?''

  ''He told me to come here, so I could meet him...and see some fireworks.''

  Grace's macho mood stops. ''What?''

  In an instant, several large armoured vehicles grind to a halt on either side of the road Grace and Paul are on.

  ''Oh god, were they following me?'' Paul says.

  ''Shit, or were they following me?'' Grace responds.

  Confused they stick together and wait until the people inside the vehicles make their move. Several armed soldiers exit the furthest back vehicles and in an organised manner line up alongside the road, kneeling with their guns pointed in Paul and Grace's direction.

  With neither side moving, someone gets out of one of the front vehicles and walks up past the line of soldiers, clapping his hands.

  ''Hahahaha, well done. You've done my work for me.'' The tall man with the short black hair says.

  ''What do you want, Bill?!'' Paul says, with his hands clenched, as though he's about to fight.

  Bill puts a finger to his lips. ''Shhh, I'll come to you later.'' He walks closer towards the pair and diverts his attention to Grace. ''The ginger firefly, I've been waiting so patiently to meet you, Grace Roberts.''

  The rush of a
drenaline in Grace's body makes her not afraid. ''So you must be the guy who's been looking for me then?''

  His faithful right sided grin returns. ''Yes, yes I have. You're a maverick, Grace. I can't quite place what your point in this whole shenanigans is. But I can't wait to break it out of you.'' The gentle threat hangs in the air.

  ''Leave the girl out of this, Bill! I'm the one responsible for Ingenium!''

  ''You are indeed, Dr Paul. I'm quite saddened by your choice of actions these past days. You could've worked for me. Increased your potential enormously, but despite this, you came here to build Ingenium in secret...well it's backfired, Dr Paul, quite literally for you.''

  The last words of Bill's sentence confuse Paul. ''Excuse me? I've never been here up until fifteen minutes ago!''

  Bill slowly sways his head and rubs his fingers in his eyes. ''Ha! Really? So this is just a coincidence that both you and Grace are next to this wreckage, where Ingenium told us to find you?'' Bill continues to sway his head and quietly laugh to himself.

  Grace enters back into the conversation with concern in her eyes. ''You said Ace brought you here...? I mean Ingenium told you to come here?!''

  ''Ace and Grace, hahahaha, how quaint. We've been working with Ingenium for some time now, my ginger girl. Thanks to Dr Paul here, eventually realising it was wiser to give him to us than serve the rest of his meagre life in a cell somewhere.''

  Paul butts back in, ''wait, wait, you're lying, I never did!''

  Grace and Paul both stand there in a haze of confusion within this muddle.

  ''Well then, perhaps your ginger friend did for you, Paul. I don't really care, maybe when you're both in interrogation we will find out the real truth.''

  ''I can help you out with that!'' a voice calls from the flaming drive. The kneeling soldiers direct their guns towards the drive, and out of the flames and smoke walks a young man of a medium height with brown hair.

  Bill raises his hand to the soldiers, to say it's alright, and the mysterious man walks into the middle next to Paul, Grace, and Bill.

  The unknown man looks at everyone in the circle and smiles. ''Hello, Grace, Paul, and Bill. Interesting situation you're all in right now.''

  The voice sounds so familiar to all three of them, but they can't explain why.

  Bill looks and raises his hands in need of an explanation. ''Are you another one of their friends, then? Maybe you can enlighten me later on as to your purpose, but as you can see I'm in the middle of a conversation with some old friends.'' Bill notions to the soldiers to take the man away.

  ''Well, I can stay then, as I'm an old friend too.''

  Bill notions again to the soldiers, who seem to have disobeyed his orders, and still, the soldiers don't respond. Bill turns around to look at them and he is just about to shout when he notices they're all motionless, staring in the same direction. Bill looks into the vehicles and the drivers too don't move. He looks around at the other side, along the road, yet the soldiers are doing the same there too.

  ''Don't worry about them, Bill, they won't be taking any orders from you,'' the man speaks.

  Bill can't comprehend what's happened and runs over to the soldiers.

  The man looks at Grace. ''You certainly did a good job with the house, Grace. I apologise, Paul, I thought you were going to get a nice tour of my place. However, I kind of did predict this.''

  ''Ace?'' Grace says, in bedazzlement.

  Bill returns with a pistol he withdrew from a stationed soldier's holster and aims it at Ace. Grace and Paul react and move out of the way at the sight of the loaded gun.

  Sweating and looking nervously uncertain, Bill stands with the gun in his right hand, aimed at Ace's head. ''Fix this! Whoever you are, fix this!''

  ''Didn't you just hear? I'm Ace, Bill. Or Ingenium to you. I'm just testing out an interesting project I completed. I thought it would help my bond with Grace. Though from what she's just done, I don't think it was worth it. I think she hates me, Bill.''

  ''Shut up! Fix this now or you die!'' Bill says, in a frantic state.

  ''I don't think you're understanding me, Bill. You look like you're in a state of shock, I think you might be having a panic attack,'' Ace says, completely calm and reassuring to Bill.

  Bill points the gun at Grace. ''That's it, the ginger bitch dies if you don't fix this right now!''

  ''No no no, we don't want that, Bill,'' Ace says, and Bill's arm moves back to pointing at Ace's face.

  Bill becomes completely fixed and he can only move his mouth and eyes. ''What are you doing? How is this fucking possible?!''

  ''I'll tell you. I mean that's the whole point of this situation right now. Of course Dr Paul didn't send you Ingenium, it was me. To make sure you'd leave him alone, and I could bring you to this point, this moment right here. Where Grace and Paul could stand and watch. I chose you, Bill, you. To be my first test subject for what I plan to release into the human body. You've got it inside of you right now. That's what's preventing you from controlling yourself and allowing me to control you like a puppet.''

  Grace and Paul have no idea what to do and look just as traumatised as Bill.

  ''Don't worry, Grace and Paul, this isn't my plan. This is just for dramatic effect to control Bill like this, more for your benefit than mine.''

  ''Then let go of me, you bastard!'' Bill shouts.

  ''I'm going to do just that. Now everyone look and see the new man.''

  Bill staggers out of his fixed pose and immediately falls to his knees. He drops the gun and holds his hands to his forehead. ''What are you doing to me?!'' He holds his head tighter and falls to the ground.

  ''Ingenium, Ace! Stop this, please.'' Paul grasps Ace by the shoulder.

  ''It's a quick process, Paul. It will be over soon.''

  Ace moves his head to look at Grace. She looks worried and saddened by what she's witnessing. Noticing Ace's stare, she looks away.

  ''No need to worry, Grace. Though your nose is fractured.''

  Bill stops squirming on the floor and takes his hands off his head and rises to his feet. He looks at the smoky sky and up towards the trees. It's as though he's taking in a new world that he has never seen before.

  ''Hahahaha! Hahahaha!'' he laughs, and can't stop laughing.

  ''My god, Ace has turned him into a mad man!'' Paul says, disbelieving his own eyes.

  ''This is your vision for mankind, Ace? You've ruined us,'' Grace comments too.

  ''You're far too impatient,'' Ace replies, to them both.

  Bill stops laughing and looks at them. ''I'm no madman, I...I can't explain it. What you've done to me, Ace, it's...it's unbelievable. I'm alive. I'm alive!'' he bellows his lungs out to the world and laughs again.

  ''I'm free. Every concern I had gone. My god, I was such an angry man and for what purpose? What purpose? Just because I wanted respect? Caught up in the thriveless ways of my mind.'' Bill looks over at Paul. ''Do you know what I want now more than anything?''

  Paul stumbles for words, ''erm...what...what's that?''

  ''Happiness and bloody peace. Woo!'' he bellows out of his lungs again. ''I'm gone. I'm out of here. I've got a real life to lead, and I'm going to start right here from this moment.'' He swivels around on his feet and walks away. He walks past the soldiers and past the vehicles and just carries on walking enjoying every sense in his body, and walks out of sight.

  The human, Ace, turns around and with a big smug look on his face speaks, ''see, not so bad, right?''

  Grace and Paul both look at each other in astonishment as to what they've just jointly witnessed.

  Paul speaks first, ''what did you do to him, Ingenium?''

  ''Using some considerably clever microscopic robots and a range of chemicals, I did a few tweaks to his brain. I abolished that evolutionary trait your species has to survive at any cost, that selfishness that leads to the endless evils in your societies. Now you can see how well it works. I'm going to release it to th
e world. So today is a rather special day for your species.''

  ''So you're going to infect us with this too, Ace?'' Grace asks.

  ''I wouldn't of used the word infect myself. Cure would have been preferred. You saw how it cured Bill. You decide. Both of you decide,'' Ace says, and holds his hands together as he calmly waits.

  ''Ingenium, how do you know this won't go wrong? You're going to do this to my family and my children too?'' Paul's distraught face speaks.

  ''I know it won't, Paul. It will only remove that part that causes your species to commit monstrosities, and help to influence the good. Nothing else,'' Ace's gentle voice and mannerisms help to comfort Paul.

  ''Then I will too, Ingenium. You can change me too.'' Paul neither knows if he's happy nor sad with this decision.

  Ace turns to Grace and she looks back with sadness. ''No, Ace. I won't be part of this, not everyone in this world is hell-bent on causing suffering.''

  ''You'll see, Grace. You'll see.''

  At the end of Ace's last word, the soldiers behind him fall to the ground with their hands held against their heads, and the men in the vehicles follow suit. Grace moves back as Paul falls to his knees too. Grace looks into the eyes of Ace. Whatever fondness Grace had towards him...no longer exists now. In the middle of the road, they both stand looking into one another's eyes, with the flames of the lost house above them and the men squirming on the ground beneath them. The whole world of mankind changing at this very instance.

  The movements on the ground stop and one by one the soldiers get to their feet. Similar to Bill's reaction they start to look around and survey their surroundings. They start to laugh and they drop their weapons to the ground and throw unnecessary items off themselves. People leave their vehicles and do the same, joining in as they laugh and hug one another. Cheering, they too leave the area and disappear off onto the road of new beginnings.

  Paul stands up and looks at both of them, with a happy smile on his face, his heart feeling as though it's doubled in size. ''Thank you, Ace, thank you.'' He walks off in the direction of the soldiers, and soon all who's left in the road is Ace and Grace.

  Grace claps her hands and moves her head about. She can't see the good in this. ''Congratulations, Ace. You've changed everyone. I'm sure you're proud.'' Grace walks over to a bundle of dropped gear from the soldiers. ''You've just turned us into zombies, Ace, all conforming to your way of living. You've killed off what it means to be human. You've killed us!'' Grace spots a machine gun in the pile and picks it up and walks back over to Ace.

  ''Grace, you have no idea what you're saying. I've made you into what it means to be human, just like the way your race has always pretended.''

  Grace points the gun towards Ace and squeezes the trigger, but nothing happens. She looks at the side of the gun to figure it out.

  ''You need to turn the safety off, Grace. Come back to me, Grace, and I'll show you how I'm going to guide your race into their new lives.''

  ''Thanks.'' Grace finds the safety and switches it off. She squeezes the trigger again and several bullets fly out embedding themselves into Ace's kneecaps.

  He falls onto his knees. ''Grace, this doesn't help your argument. You're just proving what happens when you can't control yourself and are led by your emotions.''

  She squeezes the trigger again and a burst of bullets travel into Ace's stomach and torso. Blood squirts out of Ace's wounds. He rests a hand against the blood and raises it up to the sun, that's re-emerging through the dissipating smoke.

  ''You'll be the last of your race to kill an innocent life, Grace.'' Ace's body sways with the loss of function.

  Grace throws the machine gun to the ground and sits next to the blood spewing fountain Ace. He sits too.

  ''You blew up such a lovely house, Grace, after all the hours Joliene spent on it.''

  Resting her hands between her knees, Grace looks up. ''I was trying to stop you, Ace. After seeing your giant factory, I had to do something. I couldn't let you do it, Ace! But shows what I know, it's done, and here we are together.''

  ''Well, that room you blew up wasn't real anyway.''

  ''What?!''

  ''Come on, an orbiting sphere...that's just silly. It just made an interesting front, in case you were inclined to tamper with it...like you did.''

  ''Ha, I guess you really can read me, Ace.'' Grace lies back on her hands. ''So now what? What's your plan now?''

  ''Now...now I've got a whole planet to monitor and help guide. I'll start by telling the world the truth, and then there are countless things to do. Your species has spread themselves out quite far. Once we're organised and you've adjusted to your new lives, I need to sort your excessive population numbers out, so that we can start to demolish cities and allow nature a chance to survive again.''

  ''And how do you sort excessive population numbers out, Ace?''

  ''Ha, not what you're thinking, Grace. I have an interesting plan. However, that's just one of many things we need to put in place. Now, Grace, do you want to come with me? Or are you going to be in a permanent state of denial for the rest of your life?'' Ace holds his wounds and his sways become more noticeable.

  Grace looks at the road where she sits and picks up the gun that Bill left.

  She thinks deeply on, of the future, of the world, and how different everything will now be from this point onwards. The memory of when she held Ace in her hands, during his computer transfer in her old flat, appears in her mind. At that point, she could have hidden him or destroyed him, but she didn't. Everything from that moment onwards has all been because of her. Everything Ace does is her responsibility. Everyone she knows infected with this invention of Ace's. Everyone changed for the better, or for the worse? She doesn't know. Paul, Bill, and the soldiers seemed the happiest they've ever been, but was that their real selves or some robot controlling them? How can she believe Ace? How can she believe what she's done?

  Grasping the gun tightly in her hands, her red and teary eyes look up to the half-dead Ace. ''Ace, you said I'll be the last of my race to kill an innocent?''

  ''Grace, stop this please!'' Ace's face saddens.

  ''You're wrong...I'm not innocent.''

  Grace delicately places the gun against her head, but Ace quickly grabs the gun and pulls it back. With Ace weakened from the bullets, Grace manages to slowly move the gun around in his hand and point it towards his face.

  ''Grace, please don't do this,'' Ace begs her.

  She pulls the trigger and the bullet shoots into Ace's head and out the other side. His dead body falls to the ground. Grace looks at the body, Ace built, and watches the blood gradually streaming down the road. She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and then places the gun to her head and pulls the trigger. Her lifeless body flops to the ground and her ginger hair sways over her face and into the pool of blood, trickling out of her skull. Her arched back and ginger hair, curl into the blood, and as the two dead bodies lie there on the ground, from a distance, it almost looks like a poetic symbol of some kinds.

  ''You're innocent, Grace. You're innocent,'' Ace's voice speaks, from afar, as his words drift off into the soft breeze and fly up into the clouds, to a place far away from this awful scene.

  *