The Divided World
CHAPTER 70: The Divided World
Dr. Elena Cross - POV
The numbers won't stop moving.
I've been staring at my screen for three hours and the vote counter just keeps climbing, shifting, changing every second. Option One. Option Two. Unknown. Three choices that will decide if humanity survives, and we're clicking buttons like it's a social media poll.
My eyes burn. I haven't blinked enough. The blue light from the monitor makes everything worse but I can't look away.
Thirty-eight percent voted for Option One. Give up free will, keep magic.
Mostly young people. Kids who grew up watching the world fall apart. They want peace even if it means being controlled. I get it. I understand wanting someone else to make the hard choices. But my hands won't click that button.
Because I've seen what happens to species without free will. I studied the biological data. They exist but they don't live. Just meat following programs.
Thirty-five percent chose Option Two. Give up connection, keep choice.
Older demographics mostly. People who value independence over everything else. They'd rather be alone and free than together and controlled.
My throat gets tight watching that number climb. They're choosing to never feel love again. Never have friends. Never touch someone and feel that warmth of not being alone. And they think that's acceptable.
Twenty-seven percent voted Unknown.
The gamblers. The desperate. People so terrified of the other two options they'll risk everything on a mystery box.
I still haven't voted.
My cursor hovers over the buttons but something feels wrong. Something I can't name yet. Like when you're doing an equation and the numbers work but the answer doesn't make sense.
The global summit audio is still going. I should have muted it an hour ago. Everyone's screaming over each other. Not even using words anymore, just noise.
"This is your fault!" Some man from Tokyo. His face is purple from shouting. "The awakened did this! Sacrifice them first!"
"We didn't choose this!" A woman responds. American accent. Tears running down her face. "We're suffering too!"
"Suffering? You have power while we die helpless!"
I mute it. My head throbs from listening. Three hours of people tearing each other apart with words.
Three hours gone. Three left.
My second monitor shows raw transmission data from the Regulator. I've been analyzing it when I can't stand watching the vote anymore. Looking for patterns. Anomalies. Anything that explains what this thing actually wants from us.
The code scrolls past. Meaningless strings of data that might hide something crucial or might just be noise.
My phone vibrates against the desk. Text from Klaus in Berlin.
RIOTS. OPTION 1 VS OPTION 2 FIGHTING IN STREETS. AT LEAST 30 DEAD.
My coffee mug slips. I catch it before it falls but cold coffee splashes on my hand. I barely feel it.
I pull up news feeds. Multiple windows. Different cities.
Berlin isn't unique.
Tokyo has bodies in the streets. São Paulo's downtown is burning. Cairo. London. Los Angeles. Every city I check shows the same horror. Violence erupting between people who voted differently.
Blue armbands for Option One. I watch them beat a man wearing red. Watch them kick him when he's already down.
Red armbands for Option Two. They're throwing Molotov cocktails through windows. Don't care who's inside.
People who voted Unknown are hiding. Both sides call them cowards. Hunt them.
My stomach turns. I have to look away from the videos.
This is the actual test. Not the vote. This.
Whether we'll destroy ourselves fighting over the choice before the deadline even hits.
I lean back. Close my burning eyes. My neck aches from hunching over the keyboard.
Test One tested cooperation. Working together despite differences. We barely passed.
Test Two tested sacrifice. Mrs. Rodriguez volunteering when she didn't have to. We passed through her selflessness.
So Test Three tests...what?
I sit up too fast. My chair rolls backward and hits the wall.
Division. Unity. Whether we can make a collective choice without collective destruction.
My fingers shake as I start pulling up every Regulator transmission. Every message. Every word choice. There has to be something I'm missing. Some pattern buried in the communication.
I search for anomalies. Inconsistencies.
There.
A reference I almost scrolled past. Labeled SPECIES_COMPARISONS_TEST_THREE.
My pulse speeds up. This file shouldn't be accessible. The encryption around it is military grade. But I wrote half of this network's security back when magic was just theoretical physics to me. Before the world changed.
Breaking through takes fifteen minutes. My hands sweat. My coffee goes cold in the cup.
The file opens.
I stop breathing for a second.
Records. Forty-seven species that faced Test Three before us. Their choices listed. Their outcomes recorded. Their survival rates calculated.
Thirty-eight species chose one of the three options offered.
All thirty-eight went extinct within a single generation.
My vision blurs. I blink hard and read it again. Same result.
But nine species passed. Nine survived Test Three.
I scroll to see which option they chose.
The data field is blank. Just says: ALTERNATIVE_SOLUTION_ACCEPTED.
Alternative solution? What does that mean?
I dig deeper into the comparison files. There has to be more detail. Some explanation of what those nine species did differently.
The files are corrupted. Or someone erased them deliberately. All that's left are the outcome labels. Survived. Found alternative. Test parameters modified.
The species that lived didn't choose between the three options. They found something else. A fourth path the Regulator didn't explicitly offer.
My mouth goes dry.
This is how we survive. Not by choosing which horror to accept. By refusing the premise entirely.
But what's the alternative? What did those species do?
I reread Jake's description of his death vision. His fragmented memory of three futures.
Lose free will. Lose connection. Lose something unknown.
What if the right answer is refusing all three? What if we're supposed to reject the test?
But the Regulator said non-voters choose extinction. That feels like a threat designed to force participation.
Unless the threat is part of the test too. Unless everything the Regulator says is designed to manipulate us into destroying ourselves.
My phone explodes with notifications. Summit members demanding updates. Demanding leadership. Demanding I tell them which button to push.
I have no answer for them.
Two hours twenty minutes left. The vote has shifted. Thirty-six percent Option One. Thirty-five percent Option Two. Twenty-nine percent Unknown.
We're splitting almost evenly three ways. Which means no matter what wins, most of humanity voted against it. Most people will feel betrayed. Angry. Willing to fight the outcome.
More messages flood in. More cities reporting violence. The death toll climbs.
Jakarta: forty-three dead.
Mexico City: sixty-one dead.
Moscow: ninety-two dead and rising.
We're killing each other before the test even completes. Before any choice becomes final.
My hands shake as I start typing. A message to everyone. Every leader. Every voter currently watching their screen and agonizing over which button to press.
STOP. STOP VOTING. STOP FIGHTING. THE REAL TEST ISN'T WHICH OPTION WE CHOOSE. IT'S WHETHER WE SURVIVE THE CHOOSING.
My cursor hovers over SEND.
What if I'm wrong? What if this theory about a fourth option is just desperation? What if I convince people to stop voting and the Regulator kills us all for non-participation?
Moscow updates. One hundred fourteen dead now.
I hit SEND before I can talk myself out of it.
My face appears on thousands of screens. Maybe millions. Every device connected to the summit network broadcasts my message.
"Listen." My voice shakes but I keep going. "I analyzed the Regulator's historical data. Forty-seven species faced this test before us. Thirty-eight chose between the three options. All thirty-eight went extinct."
Silence. Everyone listening now.
"Nine species survived. Nine found an alternative solution the Regulator didn't explicitly offer. I don't know what that solution is yet. But I know mutual destruction isn't it."
"We have two hours!" Someone shouts from their screen. "You want us to waste them?"
"I want us to survive them."
My screen splits without warning. Maya's face appears. She's in the bakery still. Her eyes are swollen from crying. Jake stands behind her, those glowing blue eyes visible even through the camera.
"Dr. Cross." Maya's voice sounds steady but I can hear the tremor underneath. "I need to say something."
"Go ahead."
Maya turns to face the camera directly. Looks at millions of people watching worldwide.
"Stop voting." Her voice cracks on the words. "All of you need to stop right now."
The vote counter slows. People hesitating mid-click.
"I know what the Unknown option is." Maya's hands come up to grip the edges of the screen. Knuckles white. "I remembered what Jake couldn't. What the Regulator hid from his vision."
My heart hammers. "What is it?"
Maya takes a shuddering breath. "The third option. The one that lets us keep free will and connection both. I know the sacrifice it requires."
"Tell us."
"Memory." The word breaks coming out. "We sacrifice one person's memory. Their entire existence gets erased from all of time. From every mind. From every photograph and document. Like they never lived at all."
Cold washes through me. Through everyone watching based on the sharp intake of breath I hear through multiple audio feeds.
"And the person who gets erased." Maya's crying now. Tears streaming but her voice stays clear. "If humanity chooses the Unknown option. It's me. The Regulator will remove me from existence completely."
The vote counter stops moving. Frozen.
"You'll all forget I existed." Maya speaks faster now. Desperate. "Forget I awakened your magic. Forget I fought for you. Forget my name and my face and everything I ever did. Everyone I love will wake up one day and I'll just be. Gone. From their memories. From their hearts. Forever."
The feed cuts to black.
And I sit in my dark laboratory with two hours left, knowing we have to decide if saving humanity is worth erasing the woman who gave us magic in the first place.