Fshh, click, click, fwoomp.
I’m alive?
Fweeeeeeee…
My turbine started spinning in what felt like just a few minutes so I can’t have cooled off much. That could mean that it hadn’t been long since I lost consciousness but that may not have meant anything if I had been in a total vacuum.
Virrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…
As my senses returned it felt like I was lying on a hard somewhat coarse surface. When I experimentally opened my eyes, I could see a worn-out asphalt surface stretching away from me until it stopped against a brick wall. There were a few flecks of what must be my skin in a rough line starting from half a meter away or so. I couldn’t feel any pain though, so any damage was probably just surface level. Lilly confirmed that nothing was immediately indicating damage so she agreed that I could give getting up a go.
I carefully sat up feeling for anything wrong with the motion when I did so but not noticing anything, once I was sitting up I started checking myself over visually. I found the skin on my bare right arm torn up from where I must have hit the ground but I can’t have been going very fast as there didn’t seem to be any damage to the panels beneath. It looks like my arm took the brunt of the impact and I probably rolled to a stop here, as while my clothes had some grains of black asphalt on them, they otherwise seemed intact.
Looking around I found myself in an alley like any you would find in any of the cities in Ontario I had been to, two sets of brick buildings with the road running down the middle. AC units and emergency escapes hang off the walls while the occasional dumpster partially blocking the space between the structures, both directions seem to lead out onto roads. I couldn’t see much of the sky above the buildings, but it was still fairly bright implying it probably was either late afternoon or early morning. There’s the odd puddle in dips in the asphalt, given it hadn’t rained from my memories for a few days either it had been a while, or I wasn’t anywhere near where I had been before.
Standing up, I brushed myself off and then continued checking myself for any damage I had missed while wondering what had happened. Clearly, that was a weapon of some kind, and given I was choked out by a vacuum it would be lethal to anyone who needed to breathe to live…
Like Molly or Alica.
Panic overtook me as I tried to remember if I saw them in the moments of light, I had tumbled around a lot so I couldn’t be sure one way or another and the rush of air escaping would have stolen any shouts or screams. They clearly weren’t in this alley, but I had no idea if that meant anything, I had no idea what that weapon even did!
I lost myself in trying to remember the tiniest detail that could have said something one way or another, the moments replaying themselves in my mind endlessly. I had been looking towards the projectile so I couldn’t even know how far ahead of me they were when it hit. Nor did I know how wide an area that ‘blast’ hit; I hadn’t even had the time to think to look around me after-
Something smacked me in the eye, breaking my chain of thought as some deep instinct roared at me to check for cracks. Dragging myself back into the present I found Lilly glaring at me millimeters away from the surface of my right eye while threatening to smack me with her tiny hand again. She gestured a reminder at where I was before scuttling off to connect to the repair bus, where she requested I see to our immediate safety before letting myself panic.
I took a deep breath, while it didn’t really do anything for me given my burners were already getting enough air it was still somewhat grounding. Without any better ideas and Lilly being out of suggestions, I chose to head towards the nearest road to take a look around while keeping my damaged skin to the wall.
I knew it would probably look suspicious to sneak as I approached the corner but I wasn’t able to stop myself anyway it. I forced my burners to reduce in output and tried to be as quiet as I could, which was still loud enough to make me cringe with each step. I needn’t have bothered with the din of the city beyond. Stopping behind a decorative brick pillar at the corner of the building I was near, I paused and then looked around the corner hesitantly.
Definitely not the Orchardville I knew, in fact, I would say this isn’t even my earth.
The buildings don’t look too far off from what Orchardville is full of, mixes of modernized century-old brick structures and modern construction, but everything is a bit too crisp and hard edge in styling. The people’s fashion I could see was a bit more obviously different, it reminded me a bit of some stuff in Deus Ex, sharp lines instead of curves and a bit too needlessly complex but it was more colorful with bright pastel colors in addition to greys, browns, and blacks.
The cars driving around or parked were sort of cyberpunk too, all hard edges and glow strips. Except the glow strips had distinct bulbs under them and the headlights were clearly incandescent sealed units like you might see on a bus or old car. Motion drew my attention as I saw a guy across the street step up to the curb and raise a hand. A taxi came to a stop a moment later to pick him up, a driverless taxi. Woah, the attempts at those things back… home, are still fucking up and ramming into stuff.
Then a robot went by on the sidewalk in front of me, I blinked and followed them with my head. They were in a postal worker or courier getup with a bag on a strap held at their waist. They suddenly stopped, then did a ninety-degree left turn and approached a door on the building I was peaking out from behind, giving me a better look at them in the process.
They looked, well, simpler than I do.
Their face was all hard surfaces with a dull grey paint scheme instead of skin, without even a fully defined mouth. Their eyes were just lenses in gimble mounts, without an attempt to look human at all. They had a hat on so I couldn’t tell if they even had hair, but they did have roughly masculine proportions although the styling of their uniform kind of made it hard to tell.
I hope they have it ok like that, it seems a bit dehumanizing to design someone to look like that. Although maybe it was a choice, I don’t know what synthetic life is like here.
\Access code rR1SELzUzx – parcel 0670632\ They said.
I think anyway.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
It didn’t really seem to be audible and with how loud the road noises were, I shouldn’t have been able to hear from here. The code sounded weirdly overlaid with other… notes? Numbers? Text? If I tried to remember what each piece was it came to mind easily but didn’t really align with how I thought of speech.
\Access granted\ The door responded, prompting a blink of surprise from me. Does the building have a mind too or something?
The door opened then the courier went into it before it closed behind them. I tried sounding out a few of the words the two had said in the interchange but it felt weird on my tongue, like it didn’t line up with what I heard.
Huh, well that’s interesting.
I took another look around and noticed a newspaper stand of all things on a corner across the way, with customers and everything. Weird.
The various signage I can see seemed to be in English so far as I could tell, although I wouldn’t be able to tell if there was anything unusual about it from just this much. I thought the robots had been talking in English, but I wasn’t certain given it wasn’t even through a normal sense. The names of the streets still seemed to match what I expect for Ontario, King Street is crossing Keelegate, but I don’t think we were anywhere near where King Street was on the other world.
\Purpose\ A not-voice asked from beside me, I jumped and turned to see another robot having rounded the corner to look at me past the decorative pillar. They didn’t even look humanoid, their body was a bevel-edged box on wheels with a turret-like structure atop it with a pair of simple arms, a single lens peered up at me in between the arms.
\Just looking around.\ I responded unsure what to say before realizing I was unconsciously using the same not-speech.
\Unable to classify task - Just looking around – Redefine\ They asked after a few moments during which their brain audibly ground away.
\Uh, as in I don’t recognize where I am, so I am just seeing what’s here\ I tried to answer, what did he mean by task, am I supposed to have one?
\Unable to classify task – Error Name Length Limit Exceeded - Redefine\
I am increasingly worried that I am talking not talking to a person, if they are then they seem rather limited. What’s a simple thing I could say then?
\Surveying\ I tried experimentally, it wasn’t inaccurate and at least.
\Task Accepted\
They turned around and disappeared out of view around the front of the building, maybe they were a security guard or something? None of the people walking by had even glanced in my direction even with the other robot talking to me. It was genuinely weird not to even have one stare, surely someone would have noticed me at this point.
I didn’t really feel comfortable despite the lack of response, and I chose to head back to look out the other end of the alley.
There was a little park over there, some people were sitting around with newspapers or books reading on benches. A robot with a humanoid upper body on the front of a little dump truck was emptying garbage cans into the container on their… back? Looking up the street I saw a construction site with robots sitting idle in a parking area, they had only the crudest imitation of the human form. None of them had clothing, which made me feel a little weird to see but they had even less going on than me down there. Everything about them was crude, simple limbs strung with massive pistons ending in claws, tools, or what I guessed was a mount for other options.
Something was nagging at me as I glanced around, it struck me when I was looking over the people going about their evening on the sidewalks. The crowds flowing up the streets were doing everything you might expect when watching a busy street in the evening. There was a tall dark-skinned man with a smiling short guy next to him going into a restaurant, over there a young woman was rushing out of a small store loaded down with bags of groceries while heading for a driverless bus waiting at the curb.
You know, normal things, just like the hundreds of other humans on the high street.
There were lots of synthetics around, but they all were doing defined tasks. I didn’t see a single robot that seemed to be just heading home, no synthetics wasting time shopping or reading something.
None of them were being treated as people or acting like them either.
Fuck.
I can consider the implications of that later. My bunkers are on the low side, so I need to find something to eat. I had a snack earlier, so it wasn’t like I was in any danger, but I couldn’t exactly go home to have dinner with my roommates…
I shook my head to get my mind off the topic before wiping a few tears away as I went back into the alley to prepare.
I hope Molly and Alica are ok.
----------------------------------------
I took a deep breath to psych myself up, then walked out into the foot traffic focusing on appearing deliberate. I am going somewhere to do… something, no reason for anyone to consider me. Lilly and the others had already patched up my skin and we had brushed my skirt and tank top as clean as we could.
So far it seemed to be working, no one looked at me from what I could tell while looking straight ahead. I stopped at the crosswalk with the other foot traffic, then proceeded across as the light changed. I did a sharp right turn to cross again once I reached the other corner, willing myself to keep looking straight ahead. No one cares that I am here, they don’t even seem to notice that my grey skirt and blue blouse don’t look anything like what anyone or any synthetic is wearing. After another crossing and a sharp left turn, I was closing on the construction site I had seen earlier. I did a final sharp turn to go down the alley between the construction fencing and another building.
I relaxed a touch once I was well into the alley, the unlit break in the buildings dim in the darkening evening. After a quick glance around I used a bobcat-like machine sitting in the alley as a method to get over the fence, there didn’t seem to be any cameras watching the site from what I could see. I know they have all those construction robots over there, so hopefully there must be some fuel for them somewhere. I can’t imagine they would be hauling the stuff in every day and then taking it back at the end.
A quick search had me in luck, what looked like a fuel tank on a trailer was left unhitched in a corner. Once I got over to it, I found there was a row of jerry can-shaped containers sitting on a rack beside it. A quick look over my shoulder confirmed that they matched the ones mounted on the back of some of the synthetics in the parking lot. I picked one up and shook it finding it full, I pulled the cap off and took a sniff. Gasoline.
Once I got my fill, I recapped the container and considered if I wanted to bring it with me, feeling weird already about stealing the gas. I elected to keep it with me given it would be a few days worth for me when I have no idea what I might need. I went looking for water and was rewarded with a tray of plastic bottles sitting next to a shed. I grabbed a couple of extra ones after emptying one before jumping up a pile of cinderblocks to get over the fence again.
I paused in the alley while I considered what to do next, I will need to find somewhere to sleep or something at some point and I don’t want to be found while unconscious. Maybe up on a roof somewhere?
After forty or fifty minutes of slipping from alley to alley under the dim glow of twilight and the odd unavoidable streetlight, I found a building with a ladder up the side where I could just about see a good-sized overhang to shelter under. The rest of the building continued for quite a ways up past that, so it was probably just for aesthetics but it would probably offer me enough shelter anyway. It took a couple of trips to bring everything up as I didn’t have a bag or anything and I still needed a free hand to clamber up, it was quite a few stories up too, so I am quite glad I don’t seem to be afraid of heights.
I flopped down against the wall under the overhang as the last of the natural light faded away, there was plenty of light pollution so I could see a bit still, but I had no idea what to even look for. Without an immediate drive of needing something, I felt the buzz that had been keeping me going dropping away.
Everyone I had ever known was probably an entire dimension away, I felt tears well up again.
Kat, my parents, my roommates, Molly…
Anna.
they probably don’t even think I am alive at this point. It’s been hours and we weren’t exactly in the sticks when we were attacked.
I couldn’t hold back sobs any longer, all I could do was try to muffle myself in my arms while hoping no one would notice the sound.