“Why don’t you come with us?” Lazarus said eagerly.
Robert shook his head sadly. “No, my friend. All this is yours. It would be beyond my power to alter as much as you have altered. I have been too conditioned by this life. There is nothing for me but to return to Sleep.”
Robert stood in the high room facing the east. The pale morning sun had not yet dried the dew that sparkled in the motionless grasses of the endless plain. Down to his left was the open space in front of the Birth Stations. Eight thousand Workers stood in orderly, patient rows, waiting for him.
Robert shaded his eyes and looked out across the plain. In the distance he saw the thin, slowly moving line. What had Lazarus called them? A word from the old books. Ah, yes. The pioneers. Beyond the Area, at the edge of the deep grass, were lined up the eleven carts which had become useless as they had passed the edge of the electrical field.
He wondered what he should say to the Workers. It was, after all, not an important problem. In a few more days he would be returned to Sleep. Just a few more days. No more worries. No more uncertainties. Just the endless sleep and the unfelt furnace.
He pressed the button on his desk and spoke into the small microphone. “Workers,” he said, knowing that his voice boomed across the open place in front of the Birth Stations. “Wait patiently. I will come to speak to you in a few moments.”
Maybe it would be better to go directly to the chamber where one is prepared for Sleep. The new Director had already been released from Psychofix.
His mind made up, he gave a glance of parting around the cheerless office.
Sixty-one Directors had used the room. Hundreds more would use it. He stepped into the lift, closed the door and, a moment later, stepped out into the cool air of morning. The cart he had used to return from the buildings of the pioneers still stood near the entrance.
He remembered the bright, clear look in the eyes of the pioneers. He remembered the girl who had turned shyly away from him. He thought of the wide world beyond the horizon.
Blindly he climbed onto the cart. He turned it about and headed at top speed toward the edge of the Area. It stopped at the edge of the grass. He fell from it, stumbled, picked himself up and ran as hard as he could, following the narrow trail where the grass had been trampled.
He gasped and panted as he ran. The damp grasses soaked the cuffs of his trousers, made his shoes sodden.
Once his foot became tangled in the tough grass and he fell. He sat up, dazed, and saw that he was looking back toward the Halls of Sleep. They rose above the plain, glistening in the sun. A sparkle of light from the high windows of his office caught his eyes.
They would still be standing, waiting...
The thick, joyous laughter tore at his throat. He stood up and began to run again. In the distance he saw them. “Wait!” he shouted. “Wait!”
The sun warmed the grass and the smell of it was good.