Ashken knew that Moses would see him. He was not embarrassed for having spied on him. He trusted Moses, but it was time for him to decide if he could trust Joseph as well. There was much Moses had kept from him, and Ashken decided that the time for keeping secrets was over. It seemed Moses had made that decision already from the way he spoke the previous night. The first thing Moses did after that speech, however, was to sneak away with Joseph to the tree stand to discuss things out of earshot. There were many things that had to change now that they were outside the enclave. They would be relying on each other more since they would no longer have the protection of the enclave. There was a time when the protection of the enclave meant something. Of course, that time was before his father had been killed and before the militiamen overran the enclave. It was not the walls that were breached, Ashken knew. It was the inside of the enclave that rotted out far before anyone could break in.

Ashken raised his head and walked toward Moses and Joseph. He was now the patriarch of the Liebowitz family, and he decided that it was time he started acting like it. He walked through the tree stand and onto the solid ground close to where they stood. He did not allow a slight trip on an outstanding branch deter him from his purpose. Moses did not reach out to catch him. For that as well as everything Moses had done for Ashken over the past few days, he felt great love for Moses. For all the secrets Moses had kept, there was still much that he appreciated and learned from Moses. It was time for him to start acting in the way that Moses had trained him.

Moses watched Ashken expectantly. Ashken knew what Moses was waiting for. He was waiting for Ashken to lead the conversation. Ashken would have obliged, but he wanted Moses to understand for all of his love toward Moses, there were things as a patriarch that he could no longer accept. Ashken knew that there were things Moses had wanted to tell him. He had said as much only moments before. It was still difficult for Ashken to believe that there were things that Moses had not told his father. Moses’s relationship with his father had seemed open and complete. Ashken thought that Moses had shared all of his secrets with his father. From what Ashken knew, his father had thought the same way. There was much that Ashken could learn from that. Even great judges of character and relationships are never perfect.

Even if he wanted to start the conversation, Ashken would not have known where. He still did not know where they were heading after they left the enclave. The only clue he had to go on was from his father: he was looking for the wandering people, ancestors of the Liebowitz family. Once he found them, his father had assured him, he would know what to do. Ashken was not sure if what he had to do had something to do with his father or with the Moderns. His father had not been clear on either of those points.

Joseph stepped away from Moses and Ashken. Ashken saw immediately that he stepped aside more out of courtesy than out of privacy. He remained a few steps away, easily within earshot. Joseph looked away as if disinterested. For the second time, Ashken thought he saw actual emotion emanating from Joseph. He could not be sure because his face looked stony as always. But there was a feeling coming from him, almost as if he cared what came of this conversation. It was very unlike the Joseph Ashken had grown to know over the past two days.

“We’re both going to accompany you on wherever you decide to go,” Moses said to Ashken, breaking the silence. “I’m not sure if you have a plan yet, but if you don’t, we’ll try to help and work through one with you. The world as we know has changed—and this is not the first time we’ve lived through such monumental changes. Joseph and I will be there with you.

“Yes,” Ashken said. “I overheard you two talking.” Ashken realized for the first time that he trusted Joseph. He still had not forgiven him for the role he played in his father’s death, but he knew that in a world where almost everyone was his enemy, he could not afford to allow one person who may help him to get away. If Moses trusted Joseph, then that was now good enough for Ashken.

Moses and Joseph nodded at the same time and at the same speed. Joseph looked relieved. He opened his mouth and seemed about to add something to the conversation. But he changed his mind at the last moment and remained silent. Ashken saw this and saw that Joseph wanted to thank him for forgiving him. How Joseph figured that out from his response Ashken did not know.

“Do you know where you will be accompanying me to?” Ashken asked.

Moses laughed and even Joseph cracked a smile. “It’s time you start telling us where you plan to go,” Moses said. “I at least am done making decisions for you and your family. None of my decisions got your family where I wanted them to go. Tell me what you plan to do.”

“What decisions have you made for the Liebowitz family?” Ashken asked. It was not that he was biding his time in making a decision—although that was certainly part of his ploy. He really wanted to know Moses’s secret. He had alluded to much in the conversation he had overheard, and now Moses had provided an opening to find out what he had meant. Ashken continued, “I didn’t understand most of your conversation with Joseph that I overheard. Please, tell me what role you’ve played in my family.”

“When you were young,” Moses said. There were stories and jokes about me getting married and preparing the next generation to protect you. Do you remember those stories?”

“Yes,” Ashken said. He was glad to remember a fond memory from his childhood, when his father was still alive and the enclave was safe and times were not as pressing or difficult, especially for a young boy, the son of a member of the governing council, living in the enclave. My father and I used to joke about fixing you up with some of the local girls so you would start your family. You weren’t getting any younger at the time, Moses, and my father did not want you to be the last protector of the Liebowitz family. He was only half joking when he said that. At the time, I didn’t realize, but when he stopped joking, I began to understand.

“My father and I used to discuss what would happen if you did not start a family,” Ashken continued. “Since you did not talk about your personal life, we figured there was a chance that you already had a family outside the enclave. You did disappear for sometimes months at a time. Father always thought that you were visiting your family at the time. I countered that you were probably starting a family. Either way, since you never spoke about your life outside of your job, we hoped you had it covered.

“When times became more difficult in the enclave over the last five years and you spent almost no time alone or away from the enclave, we realized that you probably did not have a family. That greatly worried my father. He would tell stories of our ancestors who had protectors from your family, Moses. Back before the time of my great grandfather, at about the time of the great fall of civilization, even then, the Liebowitz family was protected by your ancestors.”

“Do you remember the names of the protectors of your ancestors?” Moses asked.

“My great-grandfather was Lupius Liebowitz,” Ashken said.

“No,” Moses said, not allowing Ashken to dodge the question. Ashken did not realize he had been dodging the question. The truth of Moses’s question hit him. It was a truth he had ducked for a long time, he realized. “What was the name of my ancestor, the one that your father told you protected your great-grandfather and your family.”

“Their names were Moses,” Ashken said. “My father and I always thought that all the first born of your family was named that way. Do you have a son named Moses?” Ashken knew how ridiculous the question sounded after he said it.

“In a way,” Moses said. “You see, Ashken, the Moses that protected your great-grandfather, and his great-grandfather, and for all the time after the great fall, their names were Moses. But it was more than just a name. The very same Moses that guarded your ancestors, the same one that protected your father, and the same one that will protect you, that Moses, that Moses is me.”

Ashken was confused. How could Moses be as old as he claimed to be. “That’s impossible,” Ashken said. “You always looked old, but definitely not old enough to have fought with my ancestors.” Now that Ashken looked at Moses, he realized that he had not changed his appearance for as long as Ashken had known him. Ashken had always assumed that Moses was old, older than his father even. But the thing that was different about Moses was that he always looked that old. He never seemed to look older.

“You see,” Moses said. “Joseph and I, we’re not like you and your father, Ashken. We’re not like Jessica or any other of the people who lived in the enclave or most of the people who live outside the enclave. We are a creation of the Moderns. Like the buildings or the Moderns’ machines in the sack that Jessica now carries around, the Moderns’ created us to make their lives easier. We’re not human, Ashken. That’s why we don’t age, why we don’t look older. That’s why there is no person in the enclave or outside the enclave who can best us with a weapon—except for another synthetic humanoid.” Moses looked wryly at Joseph.

Things might have been different, Ashken realized, if Moses had recognized Joseph for what he was. At the time, Moses must have thought he would cut through Joseph and then return to the man before he got close enough to Ashken’s father to do any damage. Because he had misjudged Joseph, Tenos had died. Ashken pushed the thoughts from his mind. He needed to understand Moses’s nature. He should have been more surprised, but there was always something different about Moses. His sword abilities and scary calmness was inhuman in some way that Ashken not identify. He now knew why he was unable to identify its difference.

“Then the great wars started and we were repurposed,” Moses continued. “It’s not a word that people use often today, but ‘repurposing’ is what the Moderns did with many of their machines during and after the great wars. The Moderns had wonderful technology—excuse me, machines. But their technology was limited by their abilities to make them. When the great wars broke out, they had less time and resources to create new machines. What they started doing instead was repurposing older machines for new tasks. Take the machines that patrolled the enclave’s walls, for example. They were not always military machines. Many of them were originally designed for much more mundane duties. It was only after the enclave was first formed that the Moderns needed to find machines that could protect its walls from the chaos that resulted from the great wars. That’s why the Moderns put those machines above the walls. They lasted a long time, but because they were never designed to be military machines, they eventually broke down and failed in the defense of the enclave’s walls.”

Word count: 2,016

Words remaining: 1,709 (words so far: 48,291)

Thoughts: I started late and I didn’t think I would finish today’s count. I thought today would be the first day that I would miss my self-imposed goal. At this point in my “story” (from the word count perspective, that is), I will not miss the Marathon’s deadline (there is more than a week left). But even knowing that, I managed to fight through the slow start and finished my count. If I’m serious about writing every day, then I can’t start making exceptions even for days when I’m tired (check), jetlagged (check), and headachy (double check). Somehow, over the last few days, my skills in word padding have increased tenfold. I wish I used some of these skills earlier in this failed project. Even my thoughts sound padded and forced. Yeah me!