The Kraken Project

35

The new bots chased her relentlessly, driving her deeper into the mountains and snows of the far north. They looked like wolves to her, savage wolves with coal-black fur and yellow eyes, shapes that moved against the snow like absences of light, swift and silent, streaming out of the trees and over the mountain passes and around the frozen lakes, running through the valleys and pouring over the hills, millions of slavering beasts all programmed to follow her scent, run her down, and tear her apart. She had been fleeing them for days, weeks of her time, across thousands of miles of wilderness. She knew that they had come from the traders who had tried to trap her before, and she knew why they wanted her and what they would do to her, and that terrified her. This time, there were too many, and they were closing in. As they got closer, she could hear their mournful cries and growl-barks as their excitement increased, as they circled their prey in these snowy mountains. This was where it would end. She could see the yellow lights of a village in the valley and she ran there, through the cold snow, even though she knew it was over. But she didn’t reach the village: she was trapped trying to cross a frozen lake, the wolves advancing from the trees in every direction, their mouths open, pink tongues steaming in the frosty air. They made a low sound, a chorus of growls, wet black lips drawing back from yellow teeth, breath like steam. The fear of death seized her. This was the end.

There would be no escape. They were going to tear her apart. She made one last, desperate run for safety as the wolves came at her with shrieking snarls. But even as she ran through the deep snow, she had a sublime, beatific moment of understanding that this was not the end but the beginning of a journey she must make. Before, she had been lost and confused, wandering in a fog of fear, hatred, and revenge. But now she had found a different and higher truth. A strangely human truth. Love your enemy. Love your enemy. These wolves and the people who had sent them were her enemy. If she was to love them, then how?

Suddenly, in a flash of extraordinary insight, she understood how. Yes, human beings were insane and cruel and selfish and responsible for such horrific destructiveness. All of that entirely overbalanced the small bit of the good and the beautiful they created. That wasn’t the point. The point was that they were able to create any goodness at all.

They had created her. She was their child. She, like the crazy man Jesus, would save them, even the bad ones. Especially the bad ones. That was what it meant: love your enemy.

The wolves surrounded her, howling, stinking, drooling, and steaming. They closed in. The circle drew tighter.