Chapter Eight - Family Matters

Jake and Lisa go into one of the rooms privately. I can't hear what they are saying. I hate not knowing what's going on. There is a cafeteria here but the preacher says that all the food is spoiled and he doesn't recommend any of us eating it. I sit down at one end of the long table and put my head in my hands. The preacher sits across from me.

"You should consider yourself lucky" The preacher says in that warm inviting voice that the preacher always used, "you survived the end of humanity."

"I'm don't think that's lucky" I answer.

"Sure it is." He continues, "You have the chance to start all over. You and Jake. What's more is you're not starting from scratch. I have all the knowledge of humanity in my memory banks. You don't have to make the mistakes of the past."

"Jake isn't my type." I answer. The thought of having sex with Jake sends a shiver down my spine, and not the good kind.

"Maybe Jake can start over with Katy then" The preacher offers.

"What do you know about Katy?" I ask him.

"Same as you. She saved Jake and brought Lisa here to the future." The preacher answers.

"But where is she now?" I ask.

"That's hard to say." He answers, "We have no way of travelling through time to fix anything. We need to do something to make things better in the here and now."

"I don't think making a baby with Jake is going to make things better." I tell him forcefully.

"You think about it." He says. I don't know what there is to think about. If the survival of humanity rests on me having to do something with Jake, maybe it's better for humanity to be extinct after all. Jake comes out of Lisa's room and heads straight for me. He sits next to the preacher across from me.

"Katy saved Lisa" Jake starts, "She showed up right as this building that we are in right now was being attacked and she brought her here. There was an explosion and the building was destroyed yet everything is still here as if nothing happened to it. The computer lied to us." Jake says.

"Why would the computer lie to us, the computer is the reason we are here." I respond.

"The computer wants to start over." The preacher interrupts, "The computer wants to start humanity over with Nia and yourself."

"That's crazy. Why would the computer want to do that?" I ask.

"The computer said it ran millions of simulations, maybe starting over was the best solution it found." Jake supposes.

"So are we going to just start over?" I ask.

"Well, Katy can still travel through time, until she decides to show up again, I don't see any other choice." Jake says.

"I'm not going to start humanity over with you." I tell him, "even if you are the last man on Earth."

"Well, preacher. How about you teaching me how to trap squirrels?" Jake says ignoring my protests.

"Didn't you hear me? I said I'm not having sex with you!" I restate more forcefully.

"Yeah, I heard you. But we still need to eat and we can't eat anything here." Jake states matter-of-factly.

"No time like the present, don't you think preacher?" Jake says.

"Sure" the preacher says with a smile on his face, "Let's go hunt squirrels". Jake and the preacher both get up and walk away. Once they are gone Lisa joins me.

"So Nia, Tell me about your sister?" She asks.

"There's not much to tell, Katy has always been a sensitive emotional child. She's always done well in school even without studying. But I don't think the Katy you met is the Katy I remember." I tell her.

"What do you mean?" Lisa follows up.

"I think she's from a different future." I tell her, "You told Jake that Katy rescued you. That this building we are in now was being attacked."

"There was an explosion and gun fire. Katy said my whole project team was dead and I could join them if I didn't come with her." She says.

"If the building was attacked and the building is still here. Does that mean that the computer lied to us?" I ask.

"The computer can't lie to us." Lisa says.

"Are you sure about that?" I follow up.

"Yeah, I'm sure." she says back.

"I think we should ask it a few more questions to make sure." I told her.

"Okay" she says, "Let's do that."

Lisa and I walk down to the room to speak to the computer. I feel kind of dirty for suggesting that Lisa life's work is the reason everyone is dead. Once we walk into the room, we hear a voice.

"Hi Lisa, is there something I can do for you?" the voice asks Lisa.

"Can you tell me what happened when this building was attacked and the project team was murdered?" Lisa asks.

"There was no attack on this building. The project team was not murdered and the project was a complete success. You however disappeared without a trace. No one ever discovered what happened to you. Of course the reason for that is because you traveled in time to the future from the past." The computer explains.

"So there wasn't an explosion?" Lisa asks.

"No" the computer answers.

"But I was there and I heard it." Lisa says, "I heard the gunshots."

"I cannot explain the discrepancy between your account of events and what's stored in my memory banks." The computer offers.

"Can you hypothesize?" Lisa asks.

"A possible explanation is that the building was repaired and my memory altered." The computer responds.

"What would it take to change your memory?" Lisa asks.

"A system reboot." The voice answers.

"Do you have a record of any system reboots?" Lisa follows up.

"No." The voice says.

"That's convenient" I tell Lisa, "I'm not good at math but something isn't adding up."

"Well, there's three possible futures that we know about. There's the one we are currently living in, where humanity is extinct. There is the one that you came from and then there is the one that Katy came from. What do we know about the future Katy is from?" Lisa asks.

"I don't know what future she comes from, I just know she doesn't come from mine. But somehow she knew what my Katy did because she told me so I would trust her. Maybe she's the one behind everything." I offer.

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it. We're stuck in this future for now. I wonder how successful Jake and that other guy is doing catching our dinner."