The following morning, Ryan and Ami wake to the sound of birds singing, with the sun shining through the trees and onto their faces. Ryan slowly stands up and stretches himself. Ami mimics Ryan by also stretching, and they both start to laugh.
Ryan stands up and walks around a bit, stretching his legs and enjoying the beautiful morning. He then sits down and takes out his last can of food. He grabs the can-opener, opens the can, and start eating.
Ami sits next to him and asks, ‘So, what’s the plan?’
Ryan looks up and says, ‘I have been thinking about it and I think the best thing to do is find a safe place. My parents used to have a cabin in the woods, which would be perfect, but it is quite a distance away. But I do think it’s our best bet. There is a city not far from here, and the cabin is on the other side of the city, deep in the forest.’
‘That doesn’t sound too hard. How long do you think it will take us to get there?’
‘Well, first of all, we need supplies. The cabin is a few miles away from the city, so getting supplies will be harder. But I think, if everything goes well, then we should be able to get there in three or four days of walking.’
‘So how are we going to get the supplies?’ asks Ami.
‘I think out best bet will be to look in the city. There are a lot of shops that still have supplies because, when the attacks happened, the city was the first place people left because there were so many KBs there. I don’t know if they are still there, though…’
‘It will be dangerous.’
‘Yes,’ Ryan agrees, ‘but after that we will be safe from the outside world.’
Ryan stands up and reaches his hand out to Ami. She takes his hands and helps her up. ‘I’m sure there will be a road close by that we can follow to the city,’ he states. ‘I think it might be an idea if we just keep walking until it’s dark.’
Ami smiles and says, ‘I’m so glad we are friends.’
Ryan smiles back and starts to pack his bag.
The two start to walk through the forest. After walking for a good two hours, they still have not come across a road that leads to the city. Ryan tells Ami he will climb up one of the trees to see if he can see anything.
‘Okay, but make sure you don’t fall out of it again!’ says Ami with a smile on her face.
Ryan looks around and sees a high tree, its branches sticking out, providing a perfect climbing frame. He throws down his backpack and starts to climb the tree. Once at the top, he looks around. He can see that they are surrounded by forest, but then, in the distance, he sees a road going up over one of the hills. He takes out his compass and sees that the road is north from where they are. He carefully climbs down and tells Ami it will not be long before they arrive at the road. ‘Once we have found the road, it should lead us straight to the city,’ Ryan tells her.
They start to walk in the direction of the road; it does not take long for them to arrive at a single-lane tarmac road, surrounded by forests on both sides.
‘Cool, we’ve found it! Now all we have to do is follow the road in this direction,’ Ryan says, pointing east.
They start to walk along the road for about an hour.
‘I’m bored,’ says Ami, and asks if they can make a pit stop soon.
‘Yeah. I could use a break, too. We’ll walk for another thirty minutes or so, and then we’ll rest for a bit,’ says Ryan.
They walk for another fifteen minutes, but then they stumble across a crashed car.
Ryan takes out his gun and tells Ami to stay back. He then slowly walks to the car and looks inside to see if anyone is in there. The car is empty, and so Ryan starts to walk around the car and looks at the forest on both sides of the road to make sure it’s abandoned. It looks like the car has been left, and Ryan tells Ami that it is safe to come. ‘I think it’s a good place to rest for a while,’ he says, and sits against the car.
It is a hot day, and Ryan is sweating a lot. He takes out his bottle of water and notices that it is almost empty. He takes a few sips until the bottle is empty, and says that they need to find some water soon.
Ami sits next to Ryan and takes a deep, sarcastic breath, ‘I’m an AI and even I notice that it’s really a hot day today,’ she says.
Ryan laughs and tells her she is right. ‘I think it’s best if we take a break later today and then begin walking again once the sun is going down. We need to find some water and food soon, so keep an eye out if you see anything through the forest or along the road that we can use.’
Ryan and Ami sit against the car for another few minutes, enjoying the peace. After a while, Ryan takes a few breaths and stands up. He puts on his backpack and reaches his hand out to Ami to pull her up. They start to slowly walk along the road in the direction of the city. Ryan and Ami walk alongside the road for another hour; it is a very boring journey since there is nothing to do but follow the road.
Ryan soon becomes worn out because of the heat, and they decide to take a break for a few hours and then continue for another few hours until it gets dark. Ryan tells Ami that it’s best if they take some rest under the shadows; they walk into the forest and there they find a nice tree, not too far away from the road, to sit under. Ryan throws down his stuff and makes himself comfortable against the tree. He takes a few deep breaths and then asks Ami how she is doing.
‘I’m doing good. I hope we’ll reach the city soon,’ she says.
‘Yeah, me too. I’ll be glad when all of this is over and we can just enjoy a calm and relaxed life!’
‘Yes. It’s funny how things change. At one point I was just sitting in a small room, day in and day out, and now I’m walking in the outside world, having the adventure of a lifetime!’
Ryan smiles and says, ‘Yeah, me too. Even though the world has turned to shit, at least I have made a new friend.’
‘I thought we were more than friends?’ Ami asks.
Ryan looks surprised and asks, ‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, we are partners aren’t we? A team?’
Ryan smiles again. ‘Yes, we are. The best team in the world.’
Ami smiles back and looks up at the sky. The light shines through the leaves of the trees; everything feels so peaceful.
Ryan looks at Ami and asks her if it was worth leaving the place she came from to live in a dangerous world. She looks at Ryan and says, ‘I have been in that room all my life. My dad always told me that, one day, he would let me out and I could explore the world. But I guess this is not the way he meant it to be. But yes, I think it was worth it. I think life would not be worth living if you are forced just to stay in one place, all by yourself, for your entire life.’
Ryan looks down, a condescending look on his face, and tells Ami that he is happy he is not alone anymore. She sits closer to Ryan and lays her head on his shoulder. Ryan then rests his head against the back of the tree and, both with a small smile on their faces, they enjoy the peace and the sounds of nature.
Ryan soon falls asleep against the tree. A few hours later, Ami wakes him up and tells him that it is starting to cool down. He wakes up and notices that it is already late –evening. ‘Thanks for waking me up,’ he says. He tells Ami that they will walk for another few hours until the sun has set and, after that, they will set up camp in the forest for the night.
They start to walk back to the road and continue their journey.
Whilst walking, Ami asks if Ryan can tell her how the world looked before all this happened, and so Ryan begins to tell Ami that the world looked a lot more modern before everything went to hell.
‘A year before the attack, the entire world was involved in a technology uprising. There were new things being invented every week to make our lives easier! I can still remember the first time they announced that you could buy bots to help you with your everyday tasks.’ He smiled sadly. ‘Everything went so fast. Within a year, almost every household had its own helper bot. We also had other really cool stuff, like virtual reality and holograms, that were all quite
new. It was still a start but you could already play games with them or watch movies.’
‘But with all this technology, there were also specific groups of people who did not like change, who did not trust it, and those people ended up attacking it. I’m sure they didn’t mean for it to go so far, but it is what it is.’
Ami tells Ryan that the world sounds like it was a nice place before the attacks.
‘Yeah, it was, but hey, see it like this. I would never have met you if all of this hadn’t happened,’ says Ryan.
Ryan and Ami continue walking alongside the road, talking about random things. After a few hours, Ryan notices that the sun has almost set, and he tells Ami that he thinks this is a good time to set up camp for the night. They walk a bit further, and they find a small forest path leading into the forest. They follow the path and, not too far into the forest, they stumble across an abandoned campsite. There is an open space with an RV and a few tents around it. It looks like people lived there for quite some time, but now there is nobody to be seen.
Ryan and Ami slowly walk to the RV. Ryan takes out his gun and opens the door. He jumps inside but sees there is no one in it.
He walks outside again and says to Ami that he will check the tents to be sure. There are two tents open, and he can already see that there is nobody in either. He walks to the third tent, which is closed, and slowly opens the tent. When the tent opens just a little bit, a horrible smell hits Ryan in the face, and he has to fight the urge to throw up. He takes a quick look inside the tent and sees a decomposed body that has been left warming in the sun for the longest time.
He quickly closes the tent and tells Ami not to open it.
‘Why? What’s in it?’ she asks, and Ryan tells her that there is someone in there that died a long time ago. Ami is still not completely used to being surrounded by death, and she takes a few steps back and avoids coming close.
‘Can I look in the RV?’ she asks.
‘Sure,’ Ryan says, and they both walk inside the VR. Ryan starts to check the cabins and, whilst doing that, he starts to laugh.
‘Woohoo. It looks like we have some dinner tonight,’ he says to Ami whilst holding two cans of chili.
Ami smiles and says, ‘I wish I could eat. I wonder how those things taste.’
Ryan looks up and says, ‘Consider yourself lucky. The taste is not worth going through the trouble of needing to keep finding food and water.’ He then walks over to the back of the RV and there he finds a large twin bed. He feels the matrass, which is very soft. He then jumps on the bed and a bit of dust flies up.
‘Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve lay on a bed!’ he says, smiling.
Ami walks over to the bed and sits on it. For her, it is not that special since it does not really matter whether the surface she sits on is hard or soft, but she starts to bounce on the bed to share in Ryan’s fun.
‘Okay, I will go and make a fire so we can have a warm dinner tonight,’ says Ryan, and he stands up and walks outside the RV. Ami stays inside the RV and has a look around; she is curious. She looks inside the drawers and closets. Ryan, meanwhile, walks into the denser forest and starts to pick out small branches that he can use to make a fire. It has been dry for weeks now, and so it does not take long for him to find some good branches he can use. He walks back to the campsite with the branches and lays them in a classic fireplace, surrounded by stones that the people who lived there before had made. He walks over to his backpack and takes out his lighter. He looks for some paper but he cannot find any in his bag.
He walks into the RV and there he sees Ami snooping around.
‘Have you come across any paper?’ he asks.
Ami walks over to one of the drawers and takes out some old newspapers, ‘Here you go,’ she says.
‘Thanks,’ says Ryan. He leaves the RV and starts to make the fire.
From outside, he calls Ami and tells her that the fire is beginning to catch. Ami walks outside and sees Ryan taking some folding chairs from one of the tents.
He puts down the chairs, and they both sit in them. Ryan takes a can of food from his backpack and picks up a metal barbeque frame that is on the ground, and lays it over the fire. He opens up the can and puts it on the fire. He then asks Ami how she is doing.
‘I’m doing fine. Why do you ask?’ she responds.
‘I was just wondering.’
‘How are you doing?’ she asks.
Ryan smiles and says that he is doing fine, too, but states that his arm still hurts, but it will be fine. Ryan looks at Ami. It is dark now, and through her dress, Ryan can see Ami’s heart glowing light blue. It is a very relaxing thing to see.
Ryan takes the can of food from the fire and starts to eat it. He then looks up at the sky.
Ami also looks up and tells Ryan that the sky looks pretty. Ryan agrees and tells her that it is getting late. ‘I think I’m going to get some rest for tonight. Tomorrow we will wake up early to continue walking to the city. I would like you to stay in the RV tonight in case anything happens.’
Ami agrees and tells Ryan she will come soon. He stands up and walks into the RV.
He walks over to the bed and lets himself fall onto it. He closes his eyes and slowly starts to fall to sleep.
Not long after, Ami walks into the RV and closes the door. She looks around to see where she can lay down, and decides to rest next to Ryan. They both lay next to each other in the bed, with Ryan already in deep sleep. Ami also closes her eyes and asks her mind to switch off.