Part 1

Part 2

Before I get into the meeting Ram story there's a couple of things you should know. I'm not trying to reason what I did when I was with him but I'm trying to make you understand. I need you to understand. I know the Techno's did some horrible stuff but hopefully I can show you that I didn't know about it and give reasons for why I went along with the stuff I did know about. I'll give you the short version of my reasons: Ebony. She tried to have me and Java wasted so she could claw her way to the top of the Locusts and get what she always craves – power. Funny thing is when she got rid of me and Java we got what she'd always wanted, power and a lifestyle unimaginable in this new world. Anyway, when your own sister tries to have you killed it kind of makes you go a bit, crazy? I don't know, hopefully by the end of my life story you'll understand. I guess if you're still listening now that's something. So lets talk about my husband. Ram.
At first life with Ram was brilliant. I admired his genius, his will to survive and make a better life for everyone in this new world, and that's exactly what me and Java agreed to help him do. It wasn't until I saw how far he was willing to go to make this better life that I doubted my decision to join him. Ram found me and Java alone on the outskirts of the city, alone and desperately in need of food. In those days he wasn't too high and mighty to be out on the ground with the troops. He stopped and showed us kindness, something unheard of in them days. He took us to his HQ not too far outside the city and gave us food and shelter. He didn't even ask for anything in return. That's the man I admired, the man I agreed to marry and before I knew what was happening I was marrying him. Not a normal marriage by any stretch of the imagination, but a marriage none the less. One kiss, that's all I got off him and then he rushed off to work on our wedding present, that's when that kind man changed, changed into what he was when I died. A psychopath.
Early cyberspace experiments caused him to become a cripple. The loss of his legs changed him, warped his mind. I wasn't sure whether it was because of the cyberspace or the shock of becoming paralyzed that did it to him but whatever it was I pitied him. I still do, or did. This is going to get really confusing isn't it? Lets just keep talking in the present tense, at least for my sanity. So as I was saying I pity him. That poor man. I can still hear the screams when something went wrong. He never told me what program he was working on when it happened, but part of me felt guilt. It was a wedding present for me that caused him to end up that way. That's the story of how Java married him. I was so guilt-ridden over what had happened to him that I avoided him for weeks. Java cared for him, as he had once cared for us, and before I knew it I was being bridesmaid to Java as she married my husband. How did that one happen? I guess I'll never know what happened with her and Ram while I avoided him, I don't think I really want to know either but her marrying Ram didn't bother me, because it wasn't my Ram anymore. The man who helped me, cared for me when I needed it most wasn't him. This Ram was a man with a terrible temper. I feared what might happen to me if I objected to Java marrying him so I went along with it. Besides, it wasn't really a marriage in this world beyond whether or not we said we were husband and wife. During the months that followed any trace of the man I married disappeared. I became more of a nurse than a wife. Why I went along with it I don't know, I suppose I felt like I had some debt of gratitude to pay, as well as guilt. I didn't admire this man though, far from it. I feared him. I'll admit that now. Being with Ram terrified the living hell out of me. I longed to be touched in the way he used to touch me, to be admired for my body, to be wanted. After his accident I saw him look at me once in that way before his fixation on cleanliness and germs eventually took a hold of him and completely destroyed my Ram. Just before we invaded the city I realized every trace of the man I loved was truly dead, sure he still looked like the man I'd fallen in love with but not a piece of him remained.
During the months after the accident the Techno's plans quickly changed. At first we were going to invade the city on peaceful terms, not scare away the "virts" – Ram's term for any non-Techno – we were going to come and help. Liaise with the tribal leaders, form a tribal council with the Techno's providing the technical knowledge, restoring the power and the water. Making the streets safe through law and order, maybe even making it safe for people to return to their homes. I longed for the chance to go back home, see my old room once more. I don't know how the plans changed so much, I think it lies in the zappers. The weapon that killed me. Ram's father was in the military and had been working on experimental technology – stun guns. That's what the zappers started off as until Ram discovered through early tests he'd enhanced them enough to kill people. Suddenly the device he'd perfected to help enforce law and order through stunning those who were seen as a threat was transformed to a weapon that could kill those who were seen as a threat. And that's exactly what they were used for. We invaded the smaller towns and villages outside the city first, rounded up the virts and shipped them off to work camps, or so I was told. I later found out Ram performed sick experiments on them. Please understand I didn't know about any of that. If I'd of known your friends and family were being used as guinea pigs I'd of done my best to stop it, to send them back to you. I know I helped take them prisoner but I didn't know that's why they were needed. While all this was going on the city was under control of The Chosen, we didn't want a city full of brainwashed virts so Ram decided to wait. Wait for the city kids to fight back against The Chosen and get their lives back to normality, wait for them to drop their guard once more before we came and took over. I tried, so many times I tried, to make Ram change the plans – make the tribal council he planned, have us there as a service for the city kids, but the Ram that planned that had gone. He hated the city now, he wanted vengeance for what they'd put him through before the virus and the only way he was going to get that was through a takeover…