It is early in the morning. The sun is shining through the trees, and Ryan hears a sound of someone walking around him. He stands up and looks around him, but Ami is nowhere to be seen. He jumps up, grabs his gun, and starts to walk around the camp in an effort to locate her. He calls her name but, after calling a few times, he hears a voice in the distance.
‘I’m here.’
He walks towards the sound of her voice, and then calls again. Once again he hears, ‘I’m here.’ He is getting closer. He pushes away a few bushes and ends up on a big open field. In the field he sees a barn, with Ami standing right in front of it, looking up in wonder. He walks to Ami and asks what she is doing.
Ami replies, ‘I was looking around and I found this house. Isn’t it just beautiful? Shall we go inside?’
‘You shouldn’t run off like that, Amu. This is a dangerous place! If you don’t look out, you could get wounded—or worse!’
‘I’m sorry,’ she says quietly. ‘I just did not want to wake you up. And I was curious. And kind of lonely and bored sitting there while you slept.’
‘It’s okay. Did you see anybody or any bots around?’
‘No, but I only just got here.’
‘Okay. I will have a look, but you stay behind me.’
Ryan grabs his gun and slowly starts to walk towards the barn. It’s an old structure, and scratching noises come from inside—Rats or mice maybe? he wonders.
Ryan takes the handle of one of the doors and throws open the door. As soon as he opens the door, a flock of doves fly out of the roof, an alert sounding from their mouths and up into the morning sky.
Ami ducks and screams.
‘It’s okay!’ Ryan reassures her urgently. ‘They’re just birds.’
Ami slowly stands up and takes Ryan’s arm. They start to walk into the barn. Ryan asks Ami to let go so that he can make sure everything is safe. He walks back to Ami when he is satisfied, and together they look around the barn, but all they can see are some saddles, tools and hay bales. There are holes in the back wall and the roof of the barn, and bright yellow sunlight filters through the gaps from the early-morning sun.
Ami walks to the back wall and looks through one of the holes. With an excited voice she says, ‘Ryan, I can see another house through this hole!’
Ryan walks to the wall and looks through the hole. A small, wooden cabin sits in the distance, a porch at the front. Clothes hang on the railings, and everything looks clean and well-maintained. He tells Ami he will have a look to see if there is something to be found there.
‘Can I come with you?’ she asks.
‘Okay, but stay behind me and stay low until I tell you it’s safe.’
They walk out of the barn and around the back, heading in the direction of the cabin. When they are a few feet away, all of a sudden, they are shot at from one of the windows of the cabin. Ryan quickly grabs Ami and they dive behind some wooden logs. Ryan looks at Ami and asks if she is okay. But she has been hit in the arm.
After a few seconds, however, Ryan watches in disbelief as the skin on Ami’s arm closes the gaping hole. In awe, he asks, ‘How did you do that?’
‘I have a self-healing function that can fix small injuries and errors so that I do not become incapacitated because of a small injury.’
‘So basically you’re immortal?’ Ryan laughs, incredulous.
‘Of course not,’ she smiles. ‘It only works for small injuries. If he had shot me a few more times it would have been a lot worse.’
‘Okay, just stay down,’ Ryan commands. ‘I’ll handle this.’
Ryan grabs his gun and peeks out above the logs. He watches as a big man rushes outside.
Ryan yells, ‘We don’t want any trouble!’ But the only reply they get is ‘Screw you!’ and the man starts shooting in their direction.
Ryan takes a few deep breaths, peeks out his head out again to look where the man is, and starts to shoot at him. The man gets hit in his leg and immediately turns to Ryan and starts shooting in his direction. Ryan tells Ami to stay put, and he walks to the left side of the logs. There he prepares himself to make a sprint to another pile of logs, and then he rushes across unseen by his enemy.
Ryan glances over the logs and sees that the man does not know where he is. He aims his gun and fires one shot. The man falls down into the grass, and everything falls quiet. Ryan waits a few moments and then walks over to the man. He looks on at the ugly guy, now lay in the grass. He wears a filthy white t-shirt that is way too small for him, and his jeans are ripped.
He approaches the guy and checks he is alive, but he is not. He calls out that it is safe, and watches as Ami appears out of cover. She looks scared, but slowly walks to Ryan.
A few feet away from him she asks if the man is dead. Ryan nods solemnly. He walks over to Ami and tells her that this is their world now and, in order to survive, they need to protect themselves.
‘Come, let’s check out the cabin,’ Ryan suggests.
He walks to the cabin and Ami follows. Ryan has his gun ready to shoot. He opens the door and checks every corner to see if it is safe. He quickly walks into the rooms, scanning them to see if there is anybody else in the cabin. He then walks back outside and tells Ami all is clear.
Ryan walks into the kitchen to look for supplies, and then routes through closets and cupboards. He finds a few cans of food and some bottles of water. In the meantime, Ami walks into another room. Ryan checks the entire kitchen and puts the food and water into his backpack.
Ami stands in front of an open closet looking at a dress. Ran enters the room and tells her she can take it if she likes. ‘It would be safer for you to wear a dress so that people think you’re human and not a bot,’ he says. ‘Less drama that way.’
Ami picks the dress out of the closet and, with a smile on her face, holds it in front of her and looks at Ryan. ‘What do you think?’ she asks.
‘I think it will look great on you,’ he replies.
Ami takes the dress from the hanger and slowly puts it on. Ryan looks at her and smiles. ‘You look just like a human,’ he says.
Ami smiles, and then her attention is drawn to a mirror on the other side of the room. She sees a few foam heads with wigs on them. She walks over to the wigs and picks one up. It has short black hair. She puts on the wig and looks at herself in the mirror. With an amazed look in her eyes, she starts to smile. She turns to Ryan and, with happiness in her voice, asks, ‘How do I look?’
Ryan smiles and tells her she looks beautiful.
Shyness creeps across her face, and she turns back to the mirror and inspects how she looks.
Ryan tells her they have enough food and water now and suggests they stay here for the night. He tells Ami to stay in the cabin and then he walks outside. He walks to the dead man and grabs him by his arms. With effort, he drags him a few metres and then drops him between the bushes. He picks up some branches and stray brambles, and places them on top of him. He then goes back inside and tells Ami, ‘Today we can have a relaxed day. I’m going hunting later and I want you to stay here. I’m sure there is enough stuff around here to keep you busy.’
‘Okay,’ nods Ami with a smile.
At almost midday, Ryan walks over to his backpack and takes out a can of chili that he found in one of the cabinets. He heads into the kitchen and tests whether the stove is still working; thankfully, it looks like there is still some gas in the propane tank. He takes a pan from one of the drawers and places it on the stove. He opens the can of chili and puts it in the pan. After a while, the chili is warmed through, and Ryan takes a fork and starts eating. ‘It’s been so long since I have eaten this,’ he says with satisfaction. ‘It tastes so good!’
‘I wish I could taste, but that’s one thing I can’t do,’ Amy muses.
‘Well, on the other hand, you don’t need to worry about getting food or drinking water. In this world, those two things are some of the most important things for people. And a source of worry,’ Ryan states.
He finishes eating and tells Ami, ‘I’m going to take a quick nap and then I’ll go out hunting and see if I can catch something for dinner.’ He lays down on an old couch but, before he closes his eyes, he looks at Ami and tells her that if she hears anything, she should wake him up immediately.
He closes his eyes and falls asleep.
Ami continues to walk around the house to see if she can find anything interesting. She walks over to a small closet against the wall and finds some books. She picks out a book and starts reading.
A few hours later, Ryan wakes up. He stands and looks around the room. He sees Ami sitting on her knees on the ground, reading a book. ‘What are you reading?’ he asks.
‘It’s a story about a girl and a boy. They both travel around the world and keep meeting each other in different countries. After a while they fall in love and then the boy travels across the world to find her.’
Ryan laughs and tells her he is going into the forest to see if he can catch some rabbits.
‘Rabbits? Why would you want to catch rabbits?’
‘Well, rabbits are a great source of protein. And if I can catch one, I can eat for a day or two.’
‘My dad showed me a picture of a rabbit once. It looked really fluffy. Cute. Sweet, even.’
Ryan smiles and tells her she needs to stay indoors. ‘I’ll be back soon. But remember, if anything happens, I want you to hide, okay?’ he says.
Ami agrees and tells him to be safe.
Ryan walks out of the door and closes it behind him. He then walks into the forest. In the depths of the wood, Ryan looks for few good spots and locates animal marks. He finds some good sticks and grabs some rope from his backpack. He ties the rope and sticks into a rabbit trap, and places it in a few spots he can see rabbit markings. Since he needs to wait, he walks around the forest, seeing if he can maybe find a rabbit or maybe a fox, or something he can just shoot.
An hour later, he is empty handed, and so he decides to wait one more hour before checking the traps. He walks through the forest and then stumbles across a very big but low-hanging tree. He decides to climb into the tree and rest for a while. Enjoying the peace as he lays in the tree, time quickly flies and, soon enough, the sun going down. Ryan stretches himself and climbs out of the tree, and then walks over to the rabbit traps, but he finds it empty. ‘Damn,’ he curses to himself, and starts to walk back in the direction of the cabin.
When he arrives at the cabin, Ami is nowhere to be seen. He calls her name and then sees Ami coming from a different room. He asks what she was doing, and she tells him she heard someone so she was hiding.
‘Ah okay, it was just me,’ says Ryan.
Ryan tells her that he was not able to catch anything and so he will have to open his last can of beans. He tells Ami that if she could put a pan on the fire, he will get some wood for the fireplace.
‘Sure,’ says Ami, and she walks over to the stove.
Ryan walks outside and grabs a few logs of wood. ‘The logs are way too big,’ he says to himself. ‘We need an axe. Perhaps there’s one in the barn.’ He walks over to the barn and looks around. Sure enough, there he finds an axe and takes it with him. He chops up some wood and takes it into the cabin. He throws it in an old fireplace, together with some newspapers, and lights it up.
He asks Ami, ‘How is the food going?’
‘I think it’s almost done,’ she replies.
Ryan walks over to Ami. He looks at the beans and sees that they are indeed almost done.
‘I did not know you could cook?’ he says.
‘Yes, my dad taught me. He taught me a lot of things’
‘Like what?’ Ryan asks.
‘Well, when he created me I already knew a lot of things, like how to speak, how to read and how to walk. He told me that humans do not know how to do those things when they are born so I guess I was lucky. He taught me on how to keep my room clean and how to cook dinner. He taught me on how to take care of myself or other people, just in case anyone ever got hurt.’
Ryan smiles and looks at the food. ‘I think the beans are done,’ he says.
Ami picks up a plate and serves the food. She gives it to Ryan. With a smile on her face, she says ‘Bon appetite!’
Ryan laughs and takes the plate and walks over to the couch. Ami sits next to him, and they start to talk.
‘Ami, can I ask you something?’
‘Sure. What do you want to know?’
‘Well, I have been wondering. How do you keep running? Don’t you need some sort of power supply like the other bots?’
‘My body works just like yours. I have a heart that transports fluid through my body. And it will keep me running forever.’
‘Wow. It’s amazing what your dad did. He didn’t only create a bot; he created life. I’m still trying to wrap my head around how it can happen that you have emotions. I just can’t seem to understand it.’
Ami smiles and says, ‘Even I do not know how it happened. I have felt emotions since the moment I was created. At first, everything felt so weird. I did not know what it was. But after a while, the emotions just started to come out. One night, my dad was really angry about something and I got scared. He started to throw things around the room, and I asked him to please stop. I told him I was scared. He looked at me with so much surprise. The next day, he put me in that room and we started to talk for many hours, day in and day out.’
Ryan nods thoughtfully.
‘Ryan, can I ask you something?’
‘Sure,’ he responds.
‘Have you ever been in love?’
‘Wow. Where did that come from?’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just that the book I was reading kept talking about love. But I do not know how that feels.’
Ryan looks down to the ground and, with a sad expression on his face, starts to talk about how he used to have a girlfriend that he loved very much, but she died in the first year of the attacks. He relays how they fled the city early and wanted to go to my parents’ cabin so that they could stay low for a while until the whole thing blew over, but on their way they ended up in a traffic jam so they had to walk. It was not long before they were out in the open, and that was when they came across some KBs.
‘KBs?’ Ami asks.
‘That’s what we call the bots that got infected by the virus,’ says Ryan. ‘Anyway, it all happened so fast. We came across a few KBs and they started shooting at us. We started to run but my girlfriend got shot in the leg. I tried to get her up but the KBs drew closer, and my girlfriend kept telling me to go. To leave her there. I tried to lift her but, before I knew it, she was hit again, this time in her chest. It did not take long before she stopped breathing. I didn’t know what to do. I panicked so I ran. I ran in a different direction to my parents, and that was the last time I saw them. I’ve been on the run ever since.’ Ryan wipes a few tears from his face.
‘I’m so sorry that she died. I should never have brought that up. Please forgive me.’
‘It’s okay. It happened a long time ago.’
‘Listen, it’s getting late. We have a big day tomorrow so I should get some sleep.’
‘What are we going to do tomorrow?’ Ami asks.
‘I will tell you in the morning. Can you please wake me up tomorrow as soon as the sun comes up?’
‘Okay. Have a good night’s rest.’ Ami walks over to the closet and picks out another book, and again she starts reading.
Ryan makes himself comfortable in the couch. He rolls over and, still with tears in his eyes, he slowly falls to sleep.
The next morning, he wakes up to the smell of food. He opens his eyes and sees that Ami is baking something. He stands up and walks over to her, and sees that she is making eggs.
‘Where did you get the eggs?’ he asks.
‘There are some chickens at the back,’ she smiles. ‘My dad always loved eggs so I thought you might also like them.’
‘This is great, thank you! It
’s been well over a year since I last had an omelette!’
Ami puts the omelette on a plate and gives it to Ryan. He sits on the couch and starts to eat.
‘So where will we be going today?’ Ami asks.
‘Well, once I’m done eating, we’ll pack our things and head to the sewers. There were rumours about a small resistance group over there, and I think we will be a lot safer down there then here in the open.’
With a frightened voice, Ami replies, ‘But what about me? What if they find out that I’m not human?’
‘It will be okay. With your wig and dress, they won’t find out. Once we are there, we’ll see if we can make it work without them finding out you are an AI. I won’t leave you alone.’ He smiles at her. She smiles in response but with a bit of uncertainty in her eyes.
Ryan starts to pack his stuff and asks Ami if she is ready to go. They then leave the cabin and begin their walk in the direction of the forest.
The sun has just come up, but already it is very warm outside. The rays filter through the trees. The birds’ song can be heard as the wind carries the sweetness through the trees.
‘Everything feels so peaceful like this. You wouldn’t think what a mess this world is in,’ Ryan comments.
‘I wish I could have seen the world before all of this happened,’ Amy sighs.
They both enjoy the peace for a moment, and then Ami asks, ‘So how do you know in which direction we need to go?’
‘I met a guy a few weeks back,’ Ryan continues. ‘He told me that if I would keep walking north, eventually I would see a lot of pipes laying out above the ground. Once we have found those, all we have to do is to follow them and then they should lead us to an entrance.’
After walking for a while, Ami asks Ryan if he thinks they are almost there.
‘I don’t know. I might be able to see more if I climb up one of the trees.’
Ryan looks around and sees a large pine tree with an abundance of branches sticking out. He throws his backpack in front of the tree and tells Ami to wait where she is. He then begins to climb into the tree and, when ten feet high, he starts to look around.
It is difficult to see, but it looks like that there are some open spots in the distance. He carefully climbs down but, at one of the last few branches, he slips and falls. He lands on his back, and the dust on the ground flies up and around him. Ami quickly runs to him and asks if he is alright.
‘Yeah, I’m fine,’ he laughs, embarrassed. ‘But this is going to hurt for the next few days!’ he says. He slowly stands up, grabs his backpack, and then they continue walking towards the open spots.
After another thirty minutes, they see a few small pipes protruding up from under the ground. As Ryan was instructed, they start to follow the pipes and, not long after, they come across some bigger pipes. They look badly damaged, with large holes gaping through them. It looks almost like some of them have been blown up.
Ryan looks around and, in the distance, he sees another big pipe—big enough for a person to fit in.
They walk over to the pipe, and Ryan finds a spot where there is a hole big enough to get in. He tells Ami that he does not know what will be on the other side and to stay close to him.
He climbs in the pipe and then grabs Ami’s hand to help her to get in too. It’s dark and smells bad. Ryan takes his lighter from his backpack and allows the flame to burn. They then start to walk through the tunnel created by the large pipe, and not too long after, they stumble upon a large metal frame, behind which seem to be underground sewers. Ryan tells Ami to hold the lighter, and he tries to open the metal frame. It is stuck and struggles to open, but after a few kicks, it comes lose.
‘Okay, I’m going to lift this up, then you need to crawl under very quickly and try to hold it for me from the other side,’ Ryan tells Ami. ‘Do you think you can you do it?’
‘Of course,’ Ami replies with a smile in her voice.
‘Okay, on the count of three. Ready? One, two, three. Go!’
Ryan lifts up the gate and Ami crawls through it. She then holds up the gate from the other side, and Ryan quickly makes his way through and into the sewers.
Chapter 3
The Sewers