A rumble began to emanate from the rows with more and more people becoming aware of Isaac’s conclusion. He could feel the weight of the assembly’s emotions as piercing gazes fell upon him one by one like a quarrel of bolts. The rumble grew into an incoherent roar, the crowd’s opinions and emotions clashing in a maelstrom of vehemence.

He caught little sight of composure within the roiling mass of agitated persons.

Screams and cries of fear and misery, outrage and hate, smashed into Isaac with enough force to knock him unconscious; with those most caught up within their own fervor, lashing out at those around them, further exacerbating an already volatile situation.

Pockets began to form, lines were drawn.

Isaac watched helplessly as his people fell into a madness of his doing, his mind racing and failing to find the words necessary to turn this around. He hopelessly flailed for an answer, feeling despair hanging heavy around his neck like the yoke of a draft horse, watching the crowd creep closer and closer to violence.

“That is enough!” A voice thundered through the theatre, a ripple of shock traveling in its wake as the crowd became aware of from whom it emanated.

Even Isaac was stunned to find Elijah, face twisted in apoplectic rage, to have yelled with such intensity. Gone was the man unanimously known as kind and even-tempered, replaced instead by a daunting force of nature.

Elijah tromped up the stage and placed himself at its forward edge, glaring out over the now apprehensive crowd, “Are you all morons?!” His voice cracked in chastisement, “We’ve all been told humanity is hurtling towards self-destruction and you’re choosing to fight amongst each other rather than work out a goddamn solution?!”

Their frenzy having the wind knocked out of it at Elijah’s targeted scolding, Isaac watched as a number of people turned away in chagrin and embarrassment. However, despite the pause invoked by the admonishment, it did not solely cow the crowd into introspection.

More than a few faces glared venomously at Elijah, his words stoking the flames of their ire into conflagrations of rage.

One voice seethed up from deep within the crowd, “Who are you to tell us how to act!”

Another voice simmered forth simultaneously, “You’re probably with Giovanni and knew about this all along!” it accused.

More accusations bubbled up, declarations of collusion and conspiracies bursting forth, the crowd swelling to the point of being lost in turmoil once again.

Isaac remained at the podium, watching as some people struggled to remove themselves from the increasingly incensed mob.

An altogether unsurprising outcome, his speech had failed. However, the degree at which the situation deteriorated following it certainly wasn’t within his expectations. Whether it be because the shock of his announcement was too overwhelming, his speech too practical, or his words failing to convey the breadth of his regrets and emotions, Isaac could think of no other way to have told them.

As they devolved to violence after his speech, Isaac wracked his brain for some way to draw the crowd away from their hysteria and focus their attention at the road ahead; but found nothing.

Approaching him from behind, Isaac mimicked Elijah, as earlier, placing a hand on his shoulder, “I know at this point it’ll just come off as disingenuous but, I’m sorry.”

“Call me naïve and simple but I thought that by presenting the truth, everyone would rally amongst each other to protect themselves, their families, their futures, everything really; in the face of this… man-made apocalypse,” Isaac shook his head and sighed, “looks like it’s just another thing I’ve gotten wrong.”

“Wrong is an understatement.” Eli replied, tensing under Isaac’s hand.

“You dropped multiple bombshells on us and expected what exactly?” he hissed, tone emitting a certain incredulous scolding, “That we would all just go back to work after being told that our world, futures, and lives were at risk of being snuffed out in a new world war; all at the hands of the man who knew this was coming and hid it from all of us!?”

“Did you somehow expect these people not to struggle with this information!?” Elijah motioned out at the crowd, twisting out of Isaac’s grip and facing him, “To not struggle in the same manner - made all so obvious - you have been, since you became aware of the same information!?”

Isaac stood stock still, like a raw slab of marble, Elijah continuing to hammer away at him, “Isaac, I have worked with you for years, treated you as family for just as many, so I can quite confidently say I know you better than anyone here. I know that you are desperately grappling with the emotions created by the same news you announced to us today, just as everyone else. But they won’t… they can’t.”

He sighed, the wrinkles lining his face deepening into imposing crevasses, “While I won’t say your choice of following the truth was incorrect; the moment you admitted to withholding this information… God, even choosing to tell them of their impending doom at all meant that whatever followed, no matter how honest or passionate, was lost on them.”

“Even if your speech was one of the most rousing of all time, which it was anything but, son,” Elijah chuckled mirthlessly, “There is nothing you could have said to prevent any of this from happening after all that was brought to light.”

Isaac chewed at the inside of his cheek, Elijah’s words forcing him to struggle with the consequences of his decisions, both of today and the recent past.

“You screwed up kid, catastrophically in fact,” Elijah continued, giving voice to many similar thoughts swirling in Isaac’s head, “You’ve hurt and pissed off everyone here... myself included. To all of these people your intentions, no matter how noble, are worthless, your words even more so. But, unlike the majority of the people assembled, I know you. So, what are you going to do to salvage what little good will might be left for you?”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Isaac met Elijah’s eyes, finding a complicated swirl of emotions within them as he repeated, “What are you going to do then son?”

Isaac had to quickly look away from those eyes, the dizzying amount of emotions; disappointment, fear, anger, exhaustion, trust, hope, all coming together to a nauseating effect, making the world spin and swirl.

Eli was right, he had failed, and while he didn’t agree that the outcome of his confession would always turn out the way it had, Isaac was finding he had little energy left to waste lamenting over it. He had failed in many aspects, but he hadn’t failed in telling them all the truth.

What they did with the truth was up to them now, and as guilty as it made Isaac feel, he couldn’t be any more relieved as to no longer have anything to conceal.

Isaac could hope that some would choose to act on the information they now had and assist him in completing the development of Enuma, but he held no expectations that they would fulfill such hopes any longer.

As scummy and selfish it may be, Isaac couldn’t afford to wait on his employees, co-workers, partners, acquaintances, and friends to argue and debate over a course of action. He couldn’t wait for them to process.

He wasn’t about to order them to action, he had lost any capacity as a leader, in his eyes, the moment he chose to withhold Ray’s warnings, not to mention having promised not to do so.

Cowardly and dismissive the choice budding in his mind may seem, Isaac had said his piece, no matter how ineffective, and it was up to them to use it as they saw fit.

Eli had asked Isaac what he was going to do, in a way was pleading for him to give some form of direction to the madness… but the only way forward for anyone here, was the path they chose to follow.

Not one he chose for them.

He was done talking.

He didn’t have the time to waste.

“I’m going to do the only thing I can, Eli.” Isaac replied, “Work.” before turning away from Elijah, away from the crowd, and exiting to the sound of their hysterics, hoping they would find solace with whatever decision they made next.

―――――――――

Isaac’s consciousness was distant, his body moving through memories ingrained into their fibres, following paths woven into their strands through countless repetitions as he walked from the theatre. His emotions remained raw and chaotic, their manifestations baying in his mind for any form of release, snuffling and clawing at every nook and cranny for the slightest of weaknesses to exploit.

Lost in the recesses of his thoughts, the deafening silence of the halls drew him once more to his speech, the harsh reality of its fruitlessness settling over him like a bleak cloak.

Even after years of navigating meetings, galas, seminars, and every other manner of social function under the sun, Isaac was still just as uncomfortable when interacting with others as he was the first time he was forced to speak in front of an audience as a child.

The only difference now being he had mastered the capacity to hide his discomfort and project a confidence that was altogether as fake as the Loch Ness monster or the Moth man, but just as zealously believed.

“Of course, none of that experience mattered when I really needed it to count.” Isaac grumbled internally.

Maybe it was like Eli had said and his announcement was doomed to fail from the start. Maybe there was some manner of speechcraft that could have persuaded the audience to follow his lead unflinchingly.

“Maybe a part of me just wanted it all to crumble so I didn’t have to be the one pushing the rock up the damn hill this time…” A certain degree of truth rung with that final thought of Isaac’s, making him shiver in discomfort.

A formerly buried portion of Isaac reared up from the depths, jaws poised to latch onto his train of thought, desiring nothing more than to capture him in a maw of self-flagellation, to rend his every consideration with serrated and hooked fangs of punishment. To force him to constantly ruminate on his recent failures and suffer over them and his secrecy both.

However, his wretched self-destructive tendencies, the demons and wraiths of his psyche, and every manner of monster within his mind, faltered, finding their fangs and claws lame under the looming ramparts of Isaac’s growing conviction.

Devoid of the uncertainties surrounding his employees' choices, Isaac was consumed by a singular focus, the work ahead. As insurmountable as the task of completing Enuma appeared, it harkened back to the beginnings of his career, tackling the unknown and wrestling it into reality. It filled him with the same form of fervid exhilaration he had felt when founding Babylon’s Revival, creating the original Cradle, navigating the intricacies of AI, and so many other former impossibilities.

That old heady excitement and familiar passion manifested as a fanatical devotion to overcoming the challenges surrounding Enuma’s completion. But, tempered by the reality surrounding the project, Isaac’s devotion became sharp and unwavering in its focus; his invigoration tamped down by what costs failure would denote into a razor-edged commitment.

The treacherous thoughts screaming that he was a coward, running away from the consequences of his frankness, were cut short by the keen blade of Isaac’s focus; the negativity desperately consuming his perceptions dashing itself against an ironclad keep devoid of the cracks that mired the former bastions of his mind.

Isaac felt his mentality shift, the bleak weight of his ruminations sloughing off his shoulders like ice melting off the eaves of a roof. The wildness of his emotions began to abate, their chaotic tides calming under the gravity of his purpose. The howling and snarling beasts of his psyche muzzled and caged in a jail of confident determination.

His posture shifted, Isaac’s awareness turning away from the depths of introspections to the reality at hand; his mechanical and seemingly autonomous motions being replaced by a self-assured poise, his eyes flickering with a certain manic excitement.

It took a scant few seconds for Isaac to orient himself, finding his destination closer than he had expected, before he continued walking through the complex’s halls. Nondescript sliding doors and black grooves against the white tint of the walls began to speed past as his stride began to open up, his goal closing in; frenetic energy beginning to bleed through his new-found poise.

Being unfettered from the domineering presence of his anxieties magnified Isaac’s more eccentric predilections, even if only temporarily, replacing his depreciating thoughts with hyper-focused ones.

Isaac came to a sudden halt, the minimal decoration of the walls replaced by bare edifices of concrete, a singular thick door barring further passage. Standing in place, nearly vibrating with overwhelming drive, his eyes rapidly passed over the words –

“Department of Research and Development”

“Authorized Personnel Only”

“CAUTION:”

“Hazardous Materials in Use”

“Heavy/Manufacturing Equipment in Use”

“Safety Protocols in Effect”

– to the small computer mounted to the wall to his right. The computer, indicating its awareness of his presence, flashed in synchronicity with his wrist pad scanning it for the appropriate markers for entry. Isaac remained in place for long seconds, a small glimmer of impatience beginning to spark, when the computer chimed a high sharp note in acceptance of his idents, the tone followed by the deep clunks of the door’s mechanisms unlocking.

With the heavy sliding doors beginning to recede into the walls, the internal security functions disengaged and no longer holding them sealed, Isaac squeezed his way past the doors into what he liked to call the “Laboratory.”

“Time to work, Isaac. Time to work.”