Rise and shine. An incessant beeping rang in Silver's ears, she muted her hearing but it was too late, the very sound is now haunting her mind.

"Damn it..." She got up from her bed and searched her room for the alarm. She would never subject herself to the tyranny of an alarm clock but Catherine had other plans, she planted multiple alarm clocks in her room with each one set to ring on a different day.

Turning her hearing on again, she managed to track it down. Furiously grabbing a hold of it she quickly turned it off and breathed a sigh of relief. She no longer felt like sleeping and was now forced to face the new day.

She walked out of her room and checked the time, it was 8:24 A.M., which was a waste of good sleeping time Silver thought as she continued down the hall.

She had barely recovered from yesterday's basketball game and now had to pitch in to fix up the exposed hole.

"Good morning." Engie caught Silver by surprise.

"Wah!" She stumbled backwards before regaining her footing.

"Oh sorry didn't mean to scare you..."

"D-don't worry about it." It was just Silver and Engie here, the others should've gotten up earlier and started by now. "Did you see anyone else around?"

"Uh, no..." Engie responded, she shuffled her feet around for a bit before she gained the courage to speak up. "Miley did stop by my room earlier and borrowed my scanner."

"WHAT?!" It felt like a bolt of lightning had shot up Silver's spine, after hearing that she sprinted to Miley's room. She opened the door to find no one there. "Miley, you bitch..."

"W-what's wrong?" Engie had caught up to Silver.

"She's gone. Miley left us to clean up this mess." Silver walked to Catherine's room which was a few doors down from Miley's. "Catherine is gone as well."

"Where's Annie? Did she leave with them?"

"I got lost!" Annie abruptly appeared behind the smaller android almost causing her to faint. No one would ask where she has been but it was true. Annie had lost her way around the base and wandered around all night, she did spend some time talking with Samantha but she had to eventually go to sleep.

"Alright the gang's all here, except for two traitors, we can get to fixing the wall." Silver smiled. "Since I've been here the longest I'll take the role of leader." She looked at the other two to see if any of them would argue but, as predicted, they nodded their heads in agreement.

"Someone should retrieve our guests and have them help out, since they promised." Engie suggested to her leader.

"That's right! You two start working on the wall and I'll go get them." Silver planned to ditch them and go nap after telling the cultists to go help, it was the least she could do.

"I-I think it's better for me to go get them since I have to go get some of my machines as well." Engie said.

"I agree!" Annie agreed.

"Well... that's fine and all but..." Silver tried to come up with something that would make Engie back down.

"Also I'm much less physically capable as you so our work time efficiency would be cut down if you were to go." Engie spoke before Silver could think of something.

"Y-yeah... I guess you should go..." Not really feeling that she could come up with anything, Silver decide to just let it go and have Engie do it instead.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

After getting the confirmation Engie hurried to the gymnasium, as she turned down the hall she crashed into Doogledert, knocking him to the ground.

"O-oh my, I'm sorry Mr. Doogledert." She helped him up and brushed the dust off of him.

"It's alright." Doogledert laughed it off. "Hey if you're looking for Miley and Catherine they decided to fix the other side of the base, apparently the US soldiers also vandalized the south entrance."

"Um, we already know Miley and Catherine left the base." Engie paused for a brief moment. "So you don't have to cover for them..."

"Ha ha ha.. he he... oh..." Doogledert nervously smiled as he was caught in the middle of his lie. "Well it was a good try, where are you rushing off too?"

"I need to get the others in the gym to help out."

"Mind if I join you for a bit?"

"I don't mind. It's a long walk so it will be nice to have company."

The two slowly made their way to the gymnasium, it was quiet at first because both of them didn't really know each other too well and couldn't think of a topic to discuss. Making small chat wasn't a priority feature for Engie's android type but she still knew how to talk to people, it took a bit but a perfect first time topic came to mind.

"How did you come to be a paleontologist?"

"Hm? Well I suppose it came naturally, I always loved history even at a young age, I even have a minor in it." Doogledert's expression brightened up as he talked.

"Really?"

"Yeah, really! I was born a bit after World War 3, at the end of the Rebuilding period. I became enamored with history at the age of 9 and it just snowballed from there. Do you know what they call the 21st century?" He asked Engie, who just shook her head. "The Dark Century."

"This may sound... weird but it's oddly romantic." Something about that name filled Engie with curiosity, like it was a long lost period of time.

"Ha ha, yeah I guess it is. Human's really are the romantic type, they tend to obsess over objects or time, giving names or human-like traits onto it so that they can better understand it."

"The Dark Century... was it really that bad?"

"There really isn't that much information about the world before the third war, much of it was lost or hidden away, but the war really was a black stain on human history." His smile died down and he took a more contemplative expression. "The beginning of the war isn't much to talk about, just countries staring each other down and small battles breaking out here and there. But near the end, droids were deployed and the massacre that ensued cause every country to fire their Betelgeuse nuclear bombs almost annihilating humanity."

"I didn't know about that... I'm surprised humans risked another world war after that."

Doogledert chuckled at Engie's remark. "Humans are quite good at surprising others. World War 4 lasted from 2099 to 2101, remnants of the Dark Century leaking into the 22nd century."

"This might be embarrassing but can you tell me a little about the fourth war?" Engie asked, androids were equipped with common knowledge of the present, the past isn't of much use to them but Engie's curiosity got the better of her.

"It was when androids were first created and deployed into battle, countries followed rules and regulations much more closely in order to not be sent back into the stone age or worse." They were getting closer to the gymnasium so Doogledert took a moment to think of something interesting to close their conversation. "The formation of the western US and the eastern UCNA, this is related to you guys, do you know about it?"

"Not really... in fact, I don't think I know anything about it."

"Hm, well it has to do with the influx of refugees from an old country called Mexico. The country was hit by a massive number of bombs forcing people to move north or south to escape the radiation. The alliance between the US and Canada were already shaky after the war, but the debate on what to do with the refugees caused it to snap. Prior to 2099 Canada and the US butted heads, it just so happen that the Union of New Australia, Kingdom of Britain, Empire of Africa and Russia Supreme also decided that they wanted more habitable lands which led them to World War 4."

"So it was just happenstance that the world powers decided to make a move at the same time." Engie was perplexed at the event that unfolded.

"Ehhh, I guess so." Doogledert shrugged and smiled. "Long story short, the US managed to takeover the west of North America, while the east rebelled and joined with Canada to become the United Countries that we know today. The middle of North America became a no man's land where neither the US or UCNA had full control over it."

The two finally reached the gymnasium and stopped at the front of the entrance.

"Ah, we're here." Doogledert pointed out.

"Thank you for your time Mr. Doogledert." Engie bowed her head at the professor.

"It was no problem at all!" As he started walking away, he stopped and turned around. "Just one more thing, I'd look out for that Paul fellow, if history has taught me anything it's that men like him tend to be trouble." And with that he continued on his way.

Engie thought about what he just said and opened the door to the gym. She could see that everyone was getting ready for the day, some were still nervous about yesterday. It was better to ask Saint Paul to tell his people to help with the repairs, she tried to spot him in the crowd but he was nowhere to be found.

Engie sighed. "Rise and shine... this is going to be a long day."