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- Mar 31, 2008
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"George, please! You know I never say please. Does that tell you how important you are?"
George Washington sighed. He didn't want to discuss the matter but he had no one to blame but himself. When Lawrence and Augustine asked him to discuss something with them outside the camp in the middle of the night.
"I don't want to get swept up in this," George stated solidly. His eldest brother by fourteen years, Augustine, glared at him.
"You not wanting to 'get swept up' will cause the tribe to tear itself in two!"
Lawrence, 40 and older than George by four years, nodded, "If you tell the tribe that you think we should settle down, then they'll listen to you and there would be nothing Henry could do about it."
"Besides kill us all!" George snapped.
Lawrence shook his head, "My brother, you should know that the people respect you greatly. The only reason they don't rise up is because it seems you don't care. It seems like you support the nomadic lifestyle now."
"I don't."
"Then why don't you say anything?"
"What will we do if the game migrates and we stay here? Huh?"
Augustine smiled and pointed through a clearing in the forest to the moonlit river, "The land around the Mississippi makes great farmland?"
George scoffed, "I'm not a farmer so I wouldn't know."
"We can teach you! Like we'll teach everyone else but unless we get the tribe to settle down, as a whole, we'll split."
Lawrence turned to his brother, "What's wrong with that?"
Washington frowned, "Stories of great tribes settling down as a whole, or near whole, are spreading through the region. Great tribes will build great settlements and then we'll be overrun."
"Exactly," Augustine sighed, "Listen, we've done all we can to persuade you one way or another. It's up to you."
The three brothers traveled back to camp in silence.
---------------------------------------------------
"Get out here, Washington!"
George's eyes shot open and he swore. Damn my brothers! He thought. His tent shook violently, causing him to swear again. Barely ten seconds passed before Henry's men stormed his tent and dragged him outside. If the entire tribe wasn't out watching, then someone must've died because George was sure everyone was out to watch the spectacle.
Of course, Lawrence and Augustine were here too but with the added benefit of being manhandled by four more of Henry's men and...."Hey! Get off of me!" George got the personal treatment as well. The two men who dragged him out wrested George's arm behind his back.
"Plan failed, boys," A voice roared from the direction of the parting crowd. Chief Henry himself was paying a visit.
Thunder boomed in the distance.
--------------------------------
Deep inside a large mountain was a heavy concrete bunker and inside the bunker was a computer. If the computer suffered from neglect, it didn't show it for it was performing hundreds upon hundreds of trillions of calculations a second. Many of them too complex for any of the humans on the planet to understand at the time except maybe one which wasn't really a calculation or simulation.
But a digital clock. Maybe still above the average human's pay grade but there it was. The clock had been running for maybe 800 years. Maybe 8000. IT would only run for eight more minutes before every digit hits zero and calculations would be ran over and over and over again until the very last nanosecond when the computer will come up with the list of the nineteen humans.
George Washington sighed. He didn't want to discuss the matter but he had no one to blame but himself. When Lawrence and Augustine asked him to discuss something with them outside the camp in the middle of the night.
"I don't want to get swept up in this," George stated solidly. His eldest brother by fourteen years, Augustine, glared at him.
"You not wanting to 'get swept up' will cause the tribe to tear itself in two!"
Lawrence, 40 and older than George by four years, nodded, "If you tell the tribe that you think we should settle down, then they'll listen to you and there would be nothing Henry could do about it."
"Besides kill us all!" George snapped.
Lawrence shook his head, "My brother, you should know that the people respect you greatly. The only reason they don't rise up is because it seems you don't care. It seems like you support the nomadic lifestyle now."
"I don't."
"Then why don't you say anything?"
"What will we do if the game migrates and we stay here? Huh?"
Augustine smiled and pointed through a clearing in the forest to the moonlit river, "The land around the Mississippi makes great farmland?"
George scoffed, "I'm not a farmer so I wouldn't know."
"We can teach you! Like we'll teach everyone else but unless we get the tribe to settle down, as a whole, we'll split."
Lawrence turned to his brother, "What's wrong with that?"
Washington frowned, "Stories of great tribes settling down as a whole, or near whole, are spreading through the region. Great tribes will build great settlements and then we'll be overrun."
"Exactly," Augustine sighed, "Listen, we've done all we can to persuade you one way or another. It's up to you."
The three brothers traveled back to camp in silence.
---------------------------------------------------
"Get out here, Washington!"
George's eyes shot open and he swore. Damn my brothers! He thought. His tent shook violently, causing him to swear again. Barely ten seconds passed before Henry's men stormed his tent and dragged him outside. If the entire tribe wasn't out watching, then someone must've died because George was sure everyone was out to watch the spectacle.
Of course, Lawrence and Augustine were here too but with the added benefit of being manhandled by four more of Henry's men and...."Hey! Get off of me!" George got the personal treatment as well. The two men who dragged him out wrested George's arm behind his back.
"Plan failed, boys," A voice roared from the direction of the parting crowd. Chief Henry himself was paying a visit.
Thunder boomed in the distance.
--------------------------------
Deep inside a large mountain was a heavy concrete bunker and inside the bunker was a computer. If the computer suffered from neglect, it didn't show it for it was performing hundreds upon hundreds of trillions of calculations a second. Many of them too complex for any of the humans on the planet to understand at the time except maybe one which wasn't really a calculation or simulation.
But a digital clock. Maybe still above the average human's pay grade but there it was. The clock had been running for maybe 800 years. Maybe 8000. IT would only run for eight more minutes before every digit hits zero and calculations would be ran over and over and over again until the very last nanosecond when the computer will come up with the list of the nineteen humans.
