Gaia, her husband, and her daughter all frolicked around freely in the lush fields, warm sunlight beating down on their bare backs. Some deer wandered near the edge of the forest, and Gaia stopped dancing around to watch them as they grazed, in awe of their gentle yet powerful presence. They were almost mystical.

         Gaia hugged her husband and daughter goodbye, and with tears in her eyes, she walked away from them, the flowing river beckoning her to the waterfall. At first, she had been ecstatic to see her loved ones again, but seeing them here had just made her sad. Plus, she didn’t mind being alone here. The grass tickled her feet and she giggled.

         “Okay, okay. You’re right. I’m not really alone here anyway,” Gaia whispered as she wiggled her toes in the grass.

            She reached the waterfall and looked out at the immense expanse of crisp blue sky that made her feel small in the best way. Fluffy white clouds billowed towards her, and she smiled into the sunlight, feeling it warm her face in welcome. A cool breeze whistled by, twirling her hair, and she laughed heartily. 

         Gaia climbed down the rocks along the edge of the waterfall, admiring every beautiful crevice that held her hands and supported her bare feet as she scaled down. Once at the lake below the waterfall, Gaia dipped her toes in, and the wet, cool feeling was still as perfect as she remembered. The water kissing her toes tempted her to jump into the lake. She let the water engulf her as she plunged in. All the sounds of the world and all the noise in her mind were muffled by the thickness of the water as it hugged her close. She wished she could stay here forever. 

         But, of course, forever is just a fantasy, and so the distant blare of an alarm tore her from the comfortable embrace of the lake. 

 

“ALERT – WATER LEVEL DANGEROUSLY LOW”

 

The digital words flashed bright red against the blue sky, tainting it with human fragility. Gaia groaned and pulled herself out of the lake, savoring the way her limber, dripping wet body felt before swiping away the alert with a dismissive wave of her hand. 

         “Escape world,” she muttered. The vast blue sky pixelated and disappeared, the lush grass shriveled up and vanished, and the water evaporated into dryness. Gaia let out a deep sigh, and began unclipping herself from the simulation chair and ripping off the wires attached to her head. Her throat ached, reminding her of the perpetual feeling of thirst she had briefly forgotten. Her wrinkled skin felt even dryer than before, and she missed the feeling of water drenching her simulated smooth body. In her once air-conditioned room, she now felt the weight of the heat outside creeping in and pressing down on her weakening body. 

         She reached for her cane and leaned on it as she attempted to stand up from the sim chair. 

         “Karachi, give me a hand, would you?” Gaia strained to yell to the adjoining room.  Karachi, a young aid, was named after a once habitable city in what was the country of Pakistan. She ran in and had to bend over to catch her breath. “Dammit girl, need I remind you again not to run around like that in this climate?!” 

         “Sorry, Gaia, but when you call for me like that, I always imagine the worst! I’m not just gonna leisurely walk to my dying grandmother,” Karachi, aid and granddaughter, explained. Gaia rolled her eyes. Karachi helped Gaia stand up, and they walked together to their water supply. 

         “How much?” Gaia asked as she hobbled over to the couch and plopped down. Gaia remembered the days before water limits and that fancy algorithm that told you how much water you could drink each day. The rivers and lakes had dried up years ago, and it rained only a few times a year. When it rained, though, it rained hard. Those were the only days that people dared venture out from their communities underground. The bare minimum per day to survive for Gaia and Karachi was a liter and a half of water, which they were supposed to split up into four doses every six hours. 

         “Gaia… you need to think about spending less time in the simulator. It really taxes your body and makes you thirstier… but I guess today you can have a little extra water in your second dose,” Karachi said, reluctantly changing the screen above their water supply so that it took some water from her own day’s supply to give to Gaia, without her noticing. Karachi had not told Gaia that their water supply was approaching deadly limits, and the next rain was not predicted to be anytime soon. She would never leave her grandmother too thirsty, even if it meant giving herself less chance of survival. Overly generous people still existed, even in survival mode. 

         Their supply was running low because Gaia’s simulator was selling for a lot cheaper these days. People were getting bored. Karachi had sold their air-conditioned tunnel home and other fancier resources for food and water because Gaia was no longer rich enough to live luxuriously. 

         “You don’t know what you are talking about. I designed this program. I know exactly how it affects my brain and body. You just never experienced the paradise of Earth before,” Gaia closed her eyes and smiled, then opened them and glared at her granddaughter. “You don’t understand, Karachi, and sadly, you never will.” Karachi sighed and brought her grandmother her second dose of the day, then left to go to work.

 

~

 

         Karachi always felt like an ant when she walked through the tunnels to work. In fact, Karachi pretty much always felt like an ant. Just crawling along with the other ants to go do the menial work that allowed the rich to flourish. The queen ants, Karachi thought. Queen Gaia. Gaia had never really thought of Karachi as her own kin. Gaia’s only daughter had died giving birth to Karachi, and Gaia’s husband had suffered a deadly heatstroke in the process of bringing the newborn baby into the tunnels. Gaia had always irrationally blamed Karachi for the deaths of her husband and daughter. After they died, Gaia mourned them by using most of her remaining resources to build the Earth simulator, which she used to escape her reality. She realized she needed more resources to raise Karachi, so she began renting the simulator to rich people who would pay her in food, water, and other useful items. One day, an extremely wealthy woman had offered to provide Gaia with the resources needed to make hundreds of copies of the simulator to sell as a product. It started as a product that only the powerful and resource-wealthy people could afford to buy, and Gaia earned plentiful amounts of food, water, and an air conditioned tunnel home in exchange. Gaia learned people would give anything, even their own long-term survival, to visit and experience the old Earth for a while. Gaia was one of the few survivors who had been alive when the majority of Earth was still habitable and there were still remnants of the old world. Karachi had read all the history and all the articles she could find in the online database, as well as all the cli-fi stories that she could find. Those really interested her. The articles tended to make her angry. There was so much evidence, so many arguments for what would happen to the Earth and why humans should work to prevent it and yet… 

         Karachi was starting to get frustrated as she continued her march to work, and she had been so lost in thought that she almost didn’t notice how few people were marching alongside her. As her mind quieted down, she realized she wasn’t constantly brushing against other workers and feeling their body heat blanket her. She began to look around and saw only twenty or so people out of the normal hundreds of commuters. Commuters usually did not interact or talk because it exerted too much extra energy on top of actually walking to work, but Karachi was so taken aback that she caught up to a woman in front of her.

         “Hey! What’s going on? Where is everyone?” She asked the woman, who looked at her like she was crazy. The woman grunted and shrugged Karachi off, continuing to trudge along through the tunnel. 

         Oh, Karachi thought, that’s why I don’t interact with other commuters. They’re assholes. She continued on to work and thought maybe she would ask her coworker and best friend, Oaky, if he knew what was going on. When she arrived, she saw that she and he were two of a handful of workers who had come in that day. 

         Karachi worked at a vertical farm hub that was powered by an extensive array of solar panels above ground and that collected rainwater and recycled its own water to use as nourishment. Karachi barely received any resources as pay for this job, but it was enough to continue surviving day to day. Her childhood had been relatively spoiled compared to most children in the underground communities due to Gaia’s wealth from selling the simulator, but Gaia had wasted most of the resources on herself and did not give much to Karachi. So Karachi had started working as soon as she could to help keep her grandmother and herself alive. 

         “Oaky, where is everyone?! Did something happen?” Karachi asked her friend. The Home Screen that came with most tunnel houses, and also where the water screen was located, provided catastrophe alerts and big news events, but nothing on a daily basis. Karachi was sure she would have seen an alert on the Screen when she was filling up Gaia’s water if something big had happened. 

         “Dude, you haven’t heard?!” Oaky was shocked. 

 

~

 

         Gaia sat on her couch, smiling smugly as tens of people started coming by her tunnel home with packages of food, water, fans, and other various items to give her in exchange for the newest update on the simulator. People were getting bored of the older version of the simulator. They were using them less often and no one was purchasing them anymore because those who didn’t already have one just rented from or shared with their friends and neighbors. Gaia had been working on an update so she could recapture the attention (and resources) of the neighborhood. Capitalism in its old form did not exist anymore, but Gaia remembered it fondly, and she was selfishly taking advantage of people so she could be resource-wealthy again. Gaia was old. Her joints ached and her body couldn’t regulate her temperature like it could when she was younger, and that was becoming especially painful in the heat. Even underground in insulated tunnels, the heat above ground managed to weigh down on everyone. If one were to go up and out now, depending on the day and the person, one could die on impact with the sun and intense heat or last only a little before dying from heat stroke. Those few rainy days allowed safe exit from the underground, and there were plenty of celebrations and happy people on those days, but the land around was desolate and mostly desert. Being up there was especially sad for Gaia, seeing people celebrating on the land their ancestors had killed, land Gaia herself had contributed to killing. But more than that, it was sad for her to be outside because it reminded her of the day she lost her daughter and husband. 

 

~

 

         Over thirty years ago, when the underground project was finally finished, just as the hottest and deadliest summer was creeping up, Gaia and her husband, Gale, were frantically migrating to the tunnels with the rest of the surviving country, or at least those who could afford it. People were so afraid. Gaia was beside herself: where was her daughter? 

         “Solace knows to come to the tunnels. She will make it, Gai. Don’t worry!” Gale assured her. “You are exerting way too much energy panicking like that. Can’t have you getting heat stroke on me now!” Gale took her hand and gave it a squeeze. Gaia smiled at him, but she couldn’t keep her mind from fearing the worst. 

         Gale himself was quite worried, but he knew there was no use alarming Gaia even more. At nine months pregnant, Solace was due to give birth any minute. Going into labor in this heat was certain death, not to mention that most medical equipment and personnel had already moved into the tunnels, preparing for the arrival of the new citizens. Once Gaia was safely in the insulated tunnels, Gale would go out and look for Solace and her husband, if they were not yet in their home in the tunnels. 

         Once inside their new home, Gaia settled into the couch as calmly as she could, plugged in her walkie-talkie and bit her nails as she waited for it to turn on so she could try to contact Solace or Charlie. 

         “I’m going to go check if they made it to their home, okay Gai?” Gale called to her. Gaia grunted her assent and got up to start pacing around the room. Gaia and Gale were able to afford having an air conditioner, and the cool air felt more pleasurable than any orgasm she had ever had, no offense to Gale.

         About fifteen minutes later, the walkie-talkie beeped on and she ran over to connect to their channel. 

         “Solace? Charlie? Status? Over.”

         Nothing. And then…   

         “Gai, it’s me. I’m wi– them. It’s all gonna b– okay. I– l–ve–ou–” Gale?! Through the static, Gaia could hear muffled sounds of a very distinct screaming that she recognized instantly. Labor. 

 

~

 

         Now, Gaia’s joints ached, and in her old age she had become selfish. All she wanted was to finish her life living in comfort. And boy, was that a luxury in this world! Somebody came by with an air conditioner, and she asked him to install it right away. She sunk into the couch and awaited the precious feeling of goosebumps on her wrinkled skin. She gave the man the code to install his update, and he walked away giddily. A line had developed outside her door, and she giggled with pride and excitement. She had found a way to connect memories of people into the simulation so that users wouldn’t be in there all alone. Instead, users could be there with their perished family and friends. 

         She didn’t do it because she thought it would sell. She did it to try to bring back her husband and her daughter. She could bring them back at any age or moment as long as it was part of her memory, and she could explore the world she built with them. When she had first tested the update that morning, she had enjoyed a few joyous moments with them before their presence started to make her sad instead, so sad she almost couldn’t look them in the eyes. But she had known that it was her opportunity to finally give her loved ones the goodbyes they deserved. Gaia had given Gale a long, tight hug and a lingering kiss, relishing the memory of the feeling of his lips. She had held Solace one last time, first as a little baby and then as a grown woman.

         “I love you,” she had whispered as she turned away, the river guiding her through her final stage of grief. 

         Suddenly an alert for an unexpected rainfall rang through the tunnels, startling Gaia from her reminiscence. Gaia’s customers didn’t budge at the sound of the alert. 

         “What’re you all standing there for, huh? Why aren’t you celebrating? Go outside, goddammit! It’s your one chance!” Gaia angrily barked. The people waiting in line started whining and begging for the update; they would do anything, they were saying. Gaia slowly and carefully rose up off of the couch and hobbled to the door, slamming it in their faces. I’ve created monsters. What did they have to live for outside the sim? What did Gaia herself have to live for outside the sim?  

 

~

 

         “Gaia released an update for her Earth sim today. How you remain unaware of her tinkering never fails to astound me,” Oaky was saying. “I’m guessing everyone is flocking your house right now to get the code from her.” 

         “What! Why does she hide these things from me?” Karachi was annoyed. She had given her adulthood to taking care of Gaia. Imagine if she lived on her own, imagine who she could be, what she could do... She could, well, she didn't quite know what there was to do otherwise. Adulthood's responsibilities were as necessary and mundane as they had ever been, she guessed. Who didn't have someone sucking them dry? Independence was a luxury one dare not demand in this world. Too many lives had been lost. 

         “So what is this dumb update anyway?” She had never supported the Earth sim. Oaky started tending to the plants around him, while Karachi stood with her jaw tightened. 

         “It’s pretty cool, actually… ” Oaky explained, and upon seeing Karachi’s glare, he continued, “...Not that I support the concept of the Earth simulator. I’ve heard your arguments and I agree, it drains our energy and we should be focusing on the present, not getting lost in the past, yada yada.” Karachi threw some soil at him. 

         “Hey! I’ve only used it once, okay? How could I not! My brothers wasted quite a bit of good seed on it. Hope you're enjoying those sweet, sweet strawberries, Karachi. So anyway, the update claims to be able to wire your memories of people and recreate them in the simulation, so you can hang with them while you’re there! Not only can you bring back the friends and family you’ve lost, but you can also connect with other people’s sims and hang out with them inside the sim,” Oaky finished explaining. 

         “Oh, that’s so fucking awesome, Oaky! I’m just so excited to hole up in my tunnel and virtually hang out with a simulation of you all the time! It’s gonna be so great,” Karachi said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. And who could blame her for being upset? After all, she had no memories of anyone she was supposed to have loved. And she had no desire to pine after a world long gone and full of idiots. 

         “Woah, there, Kara!” Oaky put up his hands in defense.

         “Don’t you understand, Oaky? People are actually gonna die from these stupid sims. Why would they leave the sim to eat or drink or engage in real activities when life is so much better inside where you can’t feel the heat or hunger or thirst or pain? We have to stop this now before we lose people to this monstrosity.” With that, Karachi stormed off to go back home. Oaky stumbled behind.

         “Wait, Kara! I’m coming with you!” He shouted after her. 

         The tunnels were still relatively empty now, but they usually were during work hours. Karachi still didn’t want to run, even though she really did want to run, because she knew it wasn’t worth the exerted energy. She tried to calm her breathing for the same reasons, but she couldn’t stop her nostrils from flaring angrily. 

         “You are really on a mission!” Oaky said, trailing behind her to stop and catch his breath. “You think we could maybe walk a tad bit slower?” Karachi wasn’t running, but she was walking pretty fast. 

         “We are not obligated to walk at the same pace. You can walk as slowly as you want,” Karachi called behind her, a small smile pulling at her lips.

         The line from Gaia and Karachi’s tunnels extended well beyond their entrance area, and Karachi had to physically push past people to get to her own home. Just as she was finally nearing the rounded entryway, the alert for unexpected rainfall blared. The sound was beautiful in her ears. Oaky had caught up to her, and they hugged each other, rejoicing in the good news. They then turned to celebrate with the people around them. But nobody else seemed to have noticed. They were all dead set on getting their update codes. Before Karachi could even react to their slack-jawed unappreciative faces, she heard Gaia yelling at them, and it made her smile that her grandmother felt the same frustration at the people she had influenced. 

         The people in line started to complain before finally dispersing dejectedly, grumbling. Karachi continued pushing past them to her home. When she and Oaky entered, the cold air embraced their ever-hot bodies, welcoming them. Karachi couldn’t help but let out a pleasured giggle-moan, and Oaky whooped. They looked at each other, smiling, and Oaky grabbed her and kissed her. When they pulled away, they both froze. This was an unexpected development! And yet, it felt like the only right thing that had happened on that crazy day. They both started laughing. 

         “How long have you wanted to do that for?” Karachi slyly asked Oaky. He blushed and shook his head. 

         “Too long,” Oaky said quietly. Thirty-six was no young age anymore. Oaky wanted to create a child; he had hope in the future. But would misanthropic Karachi be interested?

         Meanwhile, Gaia had gone straight from slamming the door to attaching herself to the sim in the other room for the second time that day.

         “Karachi,” Gaia managed to croak loudly enough for Karachi to hear, just as the simulation started up, sucking the last bit of energy out of her. Karachi took Oaky’s hand and pulled him along with her as she walked to Gaia.

         “See how leisurely I'm walking to you so as not to exert too much energy? I’m finally learning!” Karachi said, excited to help Gaia to the surface where they could all enjoy a moment of real, unsimulated release and communion with the earth. 

         But it was too late. When Karachi saw Gaia slumped over in the sim chair, she sank to the floor. The tears wouldn’t come, and she was quiet for a long time. Oaky went over to Gaia and gently lowered her eyelids. Karachi finally spoke.

         “Destroy it,” she said. 

         “What?!” 

         “Destroy the sim. Destroy all of them.”

 

~

 

         Outside, above ground, Mother Earth laughed heartily, rain pouring down her cheeks.