Walking through the city never failed to remind Max of just how devastating the last decade had been. The world today seemed just like a backstory of numerous fantasy settings where a once powerful civilization one day disappeared, leaving behind seemingly impossible structures. Prior to the war people rarely, if ever, appreciated just how sophisticated everything they used in their daily lives had been. To think that something as common as cell phones would disappear within the span of just a few years…. Life had been so much easier back then.

Max looked around and, to his surprise, he almost made it to the city centre. Damn it, I really shouldn’t daydream while being out here, he chided himself.

He kept going for a few minutes, but being alert was proving to be more and more difficult as he approached the city park. Once green and lush, today it was a shadow of its former self. There were obvious signs of fighting, and the plants themselves slowly withered away after the irrigation system stopped working. It fits the rest of the city at least. Broken buildings, dead trees… I wonder if anyone thought it would end up that way.

It was hard to say which better illustrated the current state of affairs, the city or the park. One already dead and abandoned, the other struggling to survive. If Max had been feeling cynical, he would’ve chosen the city, but there was truth in both. Civilization as people knew it before the war was long gone and would never be the same again, but the few who survived desperately tried to stay alive in the aftermath in hopes of someday rebuilding it.

I only hope we don’t make the same mistake again. If it somehow happens a second time anyway, we don’t deserve to survive it.

That was just wishful thinking though, and Max knew it. People will make mistakes and irrational decisions, that’s human nature. The best he could hope for was that this would serve as a reminder that in order to survive, we have to put an end to constantly inventing more and more destructive ways to kill ourselves.

That was up to future generations though. For now the most he could do is get to the bottom of what exactly happened two days ago. After taking a minute to compose himself he set off again, this time more determinately than before.

The rest of the way was uneventful, and soon enough Max spotted the building he was headed to. Something was off though - he was sure the complex was almost completely levelled by the strike, and yet the bunker looked as if it never got damaged.

He decided to wait and observe the building before getting any closer. Buildings didn’t repair themselves, so there had to be someone - or something - doing maintenance.

After a long while he was rewarded for his patience. The front doors opened and someone came out. No way… thought Max. He refused to believe that someone lived there. The place was clearly abandoned last time he was there, and chances of it being a random scavenger were so close to zero they might as well not have been there at all.

Max decided to wait and see what the apparent resident was up to. He watched them check the building and make repairs where necessary, proving that they indeed lived there. After a while the person came up to a pile of debris, and lifted it up. Max was incredulous. That must’ve weighed at least half a ton! He quickly got back to cover and started thinking about the possibilities. Obviously the thing before him couldn’t be human, or at least not a regular one. That left only a few options - either a human experiment, which wouldn’t make sense - only an idiot would leave something like that in an abandoned facility - or a robot. The latter made a lot more sense, and after thinking about it Max started spotting little details that wouldn’t normally be noticed, but added up to make this even more probable.

Max didn’t think he would ever see an android up close in his life. The technology was still only being developed as human-robot interaction wasn’t exactly the top priority in recent years. Still, it seemed like there was progress in this area too, as proven by the scene before him. The android checked the rest of the building and, apparently satisfied, headed back inside.

Well… that just got a lot more complicated, thought Max. An experimental robot maintaining a military base didn’t bode well for anyone who wanted to sneak inside. Still, waiting outside was just as big a risk as going inside. Whatever was wrong with him was a direct result of his visit here after all.

With the thought pushing him on, he approached the bunker, trying to look as harmless as possible. The android made any attempt at stealth meaningless anyway, and if there was one here there were bound to be other security measures too, so the best way to not get killed was to appear as friendly as he could.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

When Max was still halfway to the building, the front doors opened again and the robot stepped out, already aware of his presence.

“Finally. I started worrying that none of you made it to the next day after all,” it said after the doors closed behind it.

This raised so many questions in Max’s mind. Did it just say we could have all died? Wait, it’s… worried??

He stopped dead in his tracks. After a moment the android asked, “Is everything ok?” It seemed genuinely concerned, or at least as much as it could be without any facial expressions.

Max took a minute to think about the situation and compose himself. “What are you?” he asked, still not quite believing what just happened.

“I’m an artificial intelligence trained to copy the behaviour of people, and I’m temporarily in charge of maintaining this place. You can call me Hal.”

“So… you’re a chatbot?”

“I’m just as much of a chatbot as you are a monkey, but yes, you could say that. Enough of that though, you came back here because you’re ill, no?”

“Yes, I guess so. Can you give me a minute? I didn’t expect to meet anyone here. Wait, are you actually a person?”

“Ah, that explains the confusion. Humans for some reason are scared of sentient machines. I wasn’t designed to be self aware, if that’s what you mean. I don’t think my creators would have been happy with that.”

That calmed Max down a bit. An android was unexpected to say the least, but a sentient robot would have been too much for him. Now a bit less nervous, he asked, “You mentioned this illness twice already, do you know anything about it?”

Hal paused for a moment, as if to think about its reply. “I can’t tell you everything about it but yes, I do know a bit. As it happens, I also know what to do should you be affected by it. We can go inside to check if you’re in any danger. You should hand over any weapons you have first though, there is a lot of sensitive equipment inside. The strike your group triggered damaged it enough already and it would be a shame if any more got damaged.”

Max thought about it. The pistol was his only defence if anything happened, and giving it to Hal would be equivalent to surrendering. It wouldn’t be of any help if there was security inside, but he doubted that whoever managed the base would leave it with anything more than the bare minimum to keep it going. It wouldn’t do if it fell into the hands of the enemy after all. The most Hal would have at its disposal would be a self destruct mechanism, or an equivalent of one.

In the end he said, “I don’t have any.”

Hal looked surprised, “That’s very irresponsible of you. It might seem like this place is safe but you never know for sure, and it only takes one moment to end a life. You should prepare better next time.”

After saying that, it stood there silent, as if waiting for Max to admit he had a weapon after all. “Well then, come inside,“ it beckoned after a moment.

Max headed inside, and the robot followed behind him. After they both entered the building and the doors closed behind them, Hal said, “You really are a troublesome person. I would’ve liked to have you fully conscious, but it just won’t do while you still have that gun with you.”

Before he could react, Max felt a sharp pain in his neck. He tried to check what it was, but he couldn’t move his arms. In fact, he couldn’t move at all! He started to panic, but it didn’t last long - he fell unconscious not long after. He only managed to hear one last sentence before blacking out.

“That could’ve gone better…. Oh well, a test subject is still a test subject, conscious or not. I might as well make the most of it.”

Hal picked up Max’s body and hurried down in order to run all the necessary tests in the lab below. The base wasn’t exactly equipped with non lethal weapons so time was limited, and evaluating the project’s effect on people was the reason it was left here.

After getting to the examination room and setting everything up, Hal got to work. First things first, it had to do a complete brain scan, or as much as it could before the subject expired, and add it to the database. Everything else could wait, since it could be done even on a dead body.

This time Hal got lucky - it seemed like there was still enough time to make a complete scan. A cursory inspection of the patient’s vital functions even suggested that he adapted quite well. It seemed that as time went on, people got progressively more accustomed to the [thing].

Time went by as Hal was inspecting Max’s body. All of the later tests pretty much confirmed what it had already thought before, but they also hinted at something much more interesting. It seemed that the [thing] had triggered some latent trait that seemed completely unrelated to it. It wasn’t the expected result, but it still warranted further investigation. Unfortunately Hal didn’t have permission to work on the collected data, only store it, so any further research would have to wait till the original crew returned.

Now that it thought about it, the agreed upon deadline was almost there. If no one showed up before it, there would be some big changes. I wonder if they’ll make it in time, Hal thought while completing the report for whoever came back.