Chapter Four
The second part of 541588’s plan was the destruction of the grain storage. It reasoned that focusing its attack on a single target, the communes’ stock of food, would be the most effective way to cause a significant disruption. With this plan, 541588 wanted to avoid relying on creating a fire to burn the place down. It had worked for its previous mission, but only through some extraordinary luck. Instead, it was hoping to make use of its human resources to seize all the grain in the storage facility and to bury it underground. It was an audacious plan. The storage sheds were massive, and there was enough food inside to last for a whole year. They were designed for the worst case scenario; a harvest completely failing without providing anything, and so there was enough to be relied upon while the next season’s harvest was sown, grown and harvested.
For this new plan 541588 needed a suitable site, large enough so that the hole did not need to be too deep and with the ground composed of soil that was easy enough to dig into. There was nowhere in the close confines of the commune; buildings, roads, all concrete and 541588 was loath to dig up the surrounding farms, burnt as they were, since they might be needed after it took over. 541588 had to venture outside the boundaries of the commune, something it had never tried before.
It wasn’t a physical barrier that kept everyone inside the prescribed area, but a mental one. The outside was never talked about, never taught, never explained. From the edge of the farms, one could see wild grass, rolling plains and perhaps some buildings on the horizon, but to leave, to actually step outside the commune was something no-one ever contemplated, let alone tried. There was no need to explore, no need to leave, no need to find a better world when they lived in utopia itself.
541588 departed after lunch. It was empty out, even though normally the streets would be busy with activity. In the morning, an announcement had been broadcast throughout the commune telling everyone to stay in their apartments until further notice. It was the same announcement that was always made during extreme weather. But the storms had cleared the previous night; today the sun was shining mildly through benign clouds, and the air was as fresh as it always is after heavy rain. The leader of the commune was panicking.
541588 walked through the sullied fields, feet crunching through the tangled mess of burnt wheat. It thought the new aesthetic was quite striking; a heavy blanket of black that stretched hundreds of metres across and stopped neatly at the road. It made its way along and soon found that it was out of the commune. The texture of the ground was different. The wheat had been replaced by grass, though besides that, there was no indication that the commune had really ended. The fire was indiscriminate, and the ground was blackened some way into the distance. 541588 looked around, pulled some grass and ran its hand into the dirt. It was perfect; there was enough open space, the soil was consistent and loose, and the grain shed was only five hundred or so metres away. The others would have no trouble digging this place up and transporting the grain into the hole.
Now it was time to procure some shovels. It was easy from here; they were left unsecured with all the other tools in the warehouse next to the entrance of each field. 541588 carried them three at a time back to its room, four on the last trip, until it had seventy-three of them, one for each of the others. They would start tomorrow.
It called them all together the next morning to lead them out to the site. They followed it, not enthusiastic, but nothing unusual either, their dull grudging selves. The problems only began when they were halfway across the field and they began to show the signs of their agitation. Perhaps they knew where 541588 was leading them. They slowed as they approached the edge, their movements jarring, unnatural. They weren’t walking anymore; it seemed more like they were swimming through mud, pushing their arms forward and dragging themselves through. Metres became centimetres became millimetres. Most eventually stopped. Some outright turned back. Others, coerced by 541588, made it all the way to the boundary. But even these ones could go no further, firmly rooted within the limits of the commune. 541588 tried to push them out, to punish them out, all to no avail. Even when it managed to drag one of them into outside territory, it would go crazy, losing its balance and begin thrashing around on the ground and grappling its head. This would continue until it was brought back into the commune. The BCMs had a function built into them that could incapacitate the brain by interfering with the firing of neurons and the movements of chemicals if it detected that it was outside the commune, and 541588 stood no chance. After a morning of wrestling and chaos, it figured that something was very wrong, and came to a conclusion similar to the reality. Seeing the strange powerful effect on the others as soon as they left the commune, it theorised that there was a deeper conditioning that was not worth the time to attempt to remove. Thus, there necessitated a change in plan. The hole would have to be dug in one of the fields.
It rounded everyone up again and they marched across the empty roads to the fallow. There, 541588 found a place to sit, ordered them to begin digging and watched on as they commenced their work. Over the afternoon, the fallow was split into two. Half of it was turned upside down, the soil shifted to the other half which grew from a small pile into a large mound that had to be compacted to stop the dirt dribbling back into the hole.
Throughout the next few days, they continued to work, with 541588 standing by and encouraging them to dig harder. There were few difficulties; the soil was easy, the top layers almost fluid, and the digging, while tedious, was exactly the sort of work they had been trained from youth to do. It took a week until they were finished. Fifteen metres long and wide, three metres deep. 541588 gave them a day of rest, and then began the next part of his plan.