Binary Cycle - (Part 1: Disruption) by WJ Davies Read Free Book Online Page A

two until finally, at fifty-years-old, he donated his camera to the Museum of Film, hung up his hiking boots, and retired to his condominium in Alexendia.
    Reggie was content, in a way. He had all the luxuries that a celebrity lifestyle could afford and more money than he could have asked for. And yet, part of him still longed for the feeling of being
out there
. In the real world. That’s where the true adventure lay. However, his rickety joints and back pains told him otherwise. The aches and pains in his joints were nothing compared to the old wound in his leg, the one that caused him now to limp and to occasionally have to resort to using a cane.
    Ever since that Spindroth had raided his camp and got a hold of him, he had been prone to severe pain and immobility. As he got older, instead of healing, the old wound always seemed to be on the verge of getting worse. The fact that his faulty leg might cost him success in a mission to go after the Spindroth was an irony he was very much aware of. But if he was successful, perhaps the completion of this project would finally give some worth to his old injury.
    It was after five years of retirement that Reggie finally went stir-crazy. He was done with sitting around all day, watching the world pass him by. It struck him to do one last holo-shoot, before he became too crippled to go on. This would be the final cap on his career. Even Reggie admitted he should end with something more provocative than his last film about Andelusian butterflies and their migration routes titled, “The Flight of the Butterfly”. Breathtaking, to be sure, but lacking a certain suspenseful intrigue.
    Reggie checked his packing list, nodding his head as he went through the inventory in his mind. His old yellow travel pack—polymer mixed with Spindex fibres—lay on the redwood floor before him. He ran a withered hand over the canvas straps, smiling as he noticed the stains and frays that marred the surface of his old life lines. The wear and tear said this pack had been through its share of ordeals, just as its owner had.
    He filled the pack with food bars and water purifiers and tied the top off in an expert knot, thankful that he still remembered the complicated weave. He pictured the girl who had taught him that, remembering her as if it were yesterday.
    He ran through a forest, the girl laughing at him, beckoning him to follow her through the jungle maze. His bare feet sunk into the mossy ground, spongy and soft.
    She was naked, but her long hair flowed down well past her belly button, covering her breasts. She reminded Reggie of Eve from the old bible stories. 
    Together, they ran through the underbrush, dodging branches and bushes as they stumbled along clumsily, lost in the intoxication of young love.
    They reached the tree line and found themselves on a sandy beach at the edge of a great lake. She helped him undress and then pulled him out into the cool water, gasping and laughing as she dove in—carefree. He chased after her, launching himself in a dive, his senses coming alive as his head broke through the choppy water.
    Swimming up to the surface was like breathing new life, washing away the past and future, bringing him into one single moment of perfection. He pulled her close, kissed her as waves tugged at them—their lips warm and bodies numb.
    Hands clasped together, they hurried back to the shore. With solid ground beneath their feet, they tripped and fell into each other on the sandy beach. He pressed his body into hers as gentle waves lapped against their feet. Wind moved water, water moved bodies, and bodies moved the earth—
    Reggie broke himself loose from memories of his past and looked up at the wall, along the rows of holo-pictures shining out at him. His beaming face peered out from half a dozen portraits. 
    Looking from left to right he saw himself age, the youthful enthusiasm turning into hardened acceptance and then to exhausted reluctance. He wondered when was that