Treachery

Written 2003.

His footsteps echoed around him. The room was empty except for the single, lonely laptop in the middle. The laptop was his pride and glory; it was his only weapon against the world. Luke remembered back to his first conquest, he had connected his laptop to the school’s network and reprogrammed every computer. The teachers weren’t too happy when they realised the computers would only work for him. They punished him with expulsion, but they didn’t understand. Luke didn’t need school any more; he had gained all the knowledge he needed to obtain his dream. Oh but that was such a long time ago. He had used his knowledge and gift with computers to obtain his dream. He now had every computer under his control, be it the space satellites or the humble telephone, and with them under his power he was ruler of the world.

 

Luke didn’t use his control to make mankind his slaves. Life continued as it always had for everyone, except a select few. He had hunted down all that ever opposed him and deleted them. All of them were deleted except one. That was the reason he was here today. Why did she haunt him so? He had only known her for such a short while but still she haunted him. Was it the way she had judged him or was it the way she gave pity to him, maybe it was the way she abandoned him? Whatever the reason the answer was the same. She had to be deleted.

 

Luke opened the laptop; the screen displayed a pleasant greeting. Suddenly a window opened across the screen, a window containing a message. Before Luke had a chance to read the message the window minimised. Luke sat there trying to restore the window but the mouse was faulty, it was almost as if it was avoiding the button. When he finally got the window open his eyes scanned over the message. His heart started to race faster, his fingers twitched as if typing a counter-command. A faint scraping sound echoed into the room. They were coming. They were coming for him. He rose to his feet and fled the building into the night. The scrape of metal and the grinding of gears followed him. No one noticed as the laptop’s message of betrayal blinked out of existence.

 

*~*~*~*

 

He had been running for two hours, the sound of metal on metal still ringed in his ears. He could hear them but they weren’t following him. He had run into a forest where they couldn’t follow him, that was the one design fault he had made. The sound he was hearing must be his imagination. Luke stumbled through the trees the sounds were his constant torment. His foot had caught on an exposed root and he fell to the ground. He tried to lift himself up but lacked the energy needed. His head dropped and rested against a tree trunk, his eyes closed. Slowly all went quiet; Luke guessed he didn’t have enough energy to maintain his imagination.

 

Time passed, He was unsure of how much but he knew it had. A soft crunching sound reached his ears, it was getting louder. It was getting closer and he layed exposed, face down in the dirt. Luke tried to lift himself up; he stumbled to his feet. He took a step and fell against a tree trunk. All his strength had betrayed him when he needed it the most. The sound was almost upon him. Luke staggered around the tree and managed to put it between the sound and himself. As he glanced around the tree he saw a woman wander into the small clearing in front of him. The woman pushed her long, strawberry blonde hair back from her face. She looked around the clearing with a smile, a friendly, welcoming smile. Luke recognised that smile; it was the smile that haunted him. It was she who haunted him.

 

Luke carefully pulled himself around the tree to present himself to her. Her emerald green eyes rested on him; she gasped and took a step back into the shelter of the trees. Luke attempted a step towards her; his own feet betrayed him as he stumbled. He showed his own weakness to the one person he was desperate to hide it from. There the pity was again; it washed across her face as she stepped forward to help him. “Luke, you walk like an old man. Not the young man I knew during our senior year of high school.” She took his arm and supported him. He wished to put all his weight on her but the fear of abandonment and falling face first in the dirt stopped him. She led him through the trees; she led him with a purpose. She now held his fate in her hands. He wondered what fate she had in mind. Luke prayed it wasn’t the same fate he had had in mind for her.

 

*~*~*~*

 

She led him to a large clearing; a hut stood in the middle. It was a small wooden hut, a comfortable size for one person. She directed him through the door and gave him a seat at the table. She sat down at the other side of the table. “I have feared the day I would see you again. But I never expected to see you like this. What has happened?” She questioned.

“My computers have turned on me. My own machines have betrayed me.” Luke explained, and then he thought about what else she had said. “Why did you fear meeting me?”

“Do you think me so stupid as to not know you are hunting me? That you wish to destroy me? Please give me some credit. As for your machines, it is about time something hunted you as you have hunted so many others.” She said as a look of anger had passed across her face.

“What are you going to do with me?” Luke asked, hoping she would be forgiving.

“What am I going to do with you? Well nothing, I don’t want anything to do with you.” She said with out showing any emotion. “My sister comes to visit tomorrow. I’m advising you leave with her. She will take you back into town.”

“But if I go back into town I will be hunted.” Luke pleaded hoping for some pity.

“That is your problem not mine. I have been through it and I don’t wish to go through it again. You betrayed me once; I don’t want to give you a second chance.” She said as she rose from her seat and left the hut. Luke sat there looking at the table thinking. What was he going to do? He thought about it and finally came to his decision; he would go back into town. He would go to his friends for help, they would hide him.

 

*~*~*~*

 

Her sister appeared on the edge of the trees; Luke was the first one to see her. He slowly retreated into the hut. She greeted her sister and then the sister was introduced to Luke. Her name was Sofia; Luke had never known she had a sister. Sofia looked him up and down, a look of pure hatred showed clearly on her face. “This, this is what has hunted you for so long?” Sofia asked as her eyes flicked from Luke to her sister. Luke knew that he wasn’t wanted and left the two sisters to talk.

Luke lost track of how long he walked for, but when he returned to the hut Sofia was waiting outside for him. “If we are going to get back to the town before dark we should have left half an hour ago.” She snarled at him. She turned and walked off into the trees. Luke hurried to keep up with her. Not once during the walk did she turn around to look at him. She just kept walking in silence as if he wasn’t there.

As they reached the edge of the forest Luke saw a small farmhouse. Sofia turned and faced him, “Wait here I’m going to get us something to eat from the farm house. It would be better if you stay in among the trees.” She turned and walked away before he could reply. Luke watched her go into the house, he waited. When she finally exited she was carrying a small bundle of food. They sat in silence sharing the food. When she had finished eating, Sofia raised to her feet and started walking for town again. Luke quickly finished his food and ran to keep up with her. He couldn’t believe it; she was treating him like he was nothing. How dare she.

 

*~*~*~*

 

As they reached the outskirts of town Luke so tired that he ready to drop where he stood. They walk into town and suddenly Sofia stopped. She stood there waiting; Luke wondered what she was waiting for. He was too tired to care, too tired to realise until it was too late. The machines were upon him in a flash. They were carrying him away when he heard, “You betrayed my sister, you ruined her life.” Then he worked out what was happening. Sofia had betrayed him; she had contacted the machines. She had turned him in, she had doomed him. She had doomed him just has he had doomed so many others.