FIRST LINES FRIDAY 56: Chaos Theory

ONCE UPON a time, humanity could no longer contain the rage that swelled within, and the world ended in a wave of fire.

But before this happened, there was a great and powerful man. One day, so very different than all the days that had come before, he sat in his office and wondered how it would feel to burn to death.

For a moment the Dead Rabbit only glared at the robot, though he also looked curious. Then he raised his hands to his head again. Pursed his lips. Blew out. Grabbed the side of his head. He pointed at Cavalo. Back at himself.

“I am sure I don’t have the foggiest idea of what you’re saying,” SIRS said. He beeped and whirred, and his arm shook, tightening his grip around the Dead Rabbit’s neck. The robot’s head rocked back, and his voice blared into the cellblock: “EDWARD LORENZ SAID CHAOS THEORY IS WHEN THE PRESENT DETERMINES THE FUTURE BUT THE APPROXIMATE PRESENT DOES NOT APPROXIMATELY DETERMINE THE FUTURE.” SIRS clicked. Beeped. Gears ground together. “I…,” he said as he looked back toward the Dead Rabbit. “I am….” He beeped again in a lower register. His eyes burned a fire orange. “Processing. The square root divided by… the infinity that is God. Processing. Processing.”

The Dead Rabbit’s face looked animalistic in the orange glow.

The robot paused. “Here,” he finally said. “I don’t think you understand. Maybe a demonstration is in order. A hairline fracture in the sixth vertebrae should be enough to show how serious I am. You won’t die, but it’ll hurt like the dickens.”

“SIRS,” Cavalo said. “Don’t.”

“Siding with him!” the robot cried. “Is that how this goes?” He clicked again. His eyes flashed. “We are friends! You said it yourself!”

“We are.”

“And friends protect each other.”

“Yes.”

“Then I shall hurt him. To protect you.”

Once upon a time, humanity could no longer contain the rage that swelled within, and the world ended in a wave of fire.

One hundred years later, in the wasteland formerly known as America, a broken man who goes only by the name of Cavalo survives. Purposefully cutting himself off from what remains of civilization, Cavalo resides in the crumbling ruins of the Northern Idaho Correctional Institution. A mutt called Bad Dog and a robot on the verge of insanity comprise his only companions. Cavalo himself is deteriorating, his memories rising like ghosts and haunting the prison cells.

It’s not until he makes the dangerous choice of crossing into the irradiated Deadlands that Cavalo comes into contact with a mute psychopath, one who belongs to the murderous group of people known as the Dead Rabbits. Taking the man prisoner, Cavalo is forced not only to face the horrors of his past, but the ramifications of the choices made for his stark present. And it is in the prisoner that he will find a possible future where redemption is but a glimmer that darkly shines.

The world has died.

This is the story of its remains.

Illustrated by Blake Dorner.