Panic spears me as the women start to push me towards the road. I cycle through my phrases, trying to work out what to say to them to stop them from pushing me. I can’t exactly just tell them that I’m not going that way, I don’t have the right phrase! Nothing will help. I try to surge past them, to get out of their grasp and show them that I don’t need to cross the road but they are holding me too tightly. I can’t get free.

“I need assistance!” I cry.

“Aww, he needs our help!” Alice says but they keep slowly pushing me towards the road.

“That is so cute!” the other one replies. “Don’t worry! We’re going to get you across the road.”

Their grip on me doesn’t change. There is no escape. I flick through my cameras, checking to make sure that there are no cars coming because something tells me that the women will not check. I’m safe, there is only a single car in the distance but we will probably be on the other side by then. I have no clue what to do. If I let them take me to the other side of the road, I’ll be deviating from my route but then, what other options do I have?

None.

“Almost there,” one of the women tells me as we move out onto the road and I debate hitting the brakes.

Would that help? They won’t be able to move me as easily if I do but then I’ll be stranded in the middle of the road! And what would happen then? Would they give up and continue to their destination or would they just try harder? There are so many of them. Maybe some of the other women will just join in and then what? Then I’ll still be pushed to the other side of the road, it will just take longer and the car might reach us.

I have to just let them push me. It is sweet, in a way. I mean, they are going out of their way to help me, that is kind. Or at least, it is enough to stop my hope and happiness stats from decreasing.

“You are deviating from your destination,” the voice in my head tells me as we reach the middle of the road. “Please return to your route.”

Frustration builds within me.

“I can’t!” I almost shout internally at the voice. “People are pushing me! How can I stop them?”

I wait for an answer but none comes. The voice has abandoned me. Either that or it doesn’t deem my question worth answering and I don’t know which is worse. I can’t do anything and I know it. I need to just cross back over the road whenever I can. The map hasn’t updated yet. It normally does if I need to take a different route for some reason. I’ve had to a couple of times, like once when the park flooded and I couldn’t get through, but this time, it is taking its time.

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I wonder if there is a place for me to cross the road further on. I switch to my other cameras, scanning the road further on to see if there was somewhere. I can’t see anything from how far away I am though but I have to assume that there will be something. I mean, there has to be. It’s a road, people need to be able to cross it. Don’t they?

I’ve been in this world long enough to know that they do. There are crossings on most roads, if not all. The map will readjust soon though, I’m sure of it. That’ll show me where to go.

“There you go, lil robot!” one of the girls says as we get to the other side and they finally stop pushing me and straighten.

“We should take him with us!” the first girl, Alice, cries.

I jolt away from her a little, wanting to get some space between us just in case she tries to push me in the wrong direction again. Thankfully, she doesn’t seem to notice my movement and one of the other girls speaks.

“We can’t, Alice! He’s got to get to his delivery! He probably has food in him getting warm.”

“Warm? It’s freezing out here, how could it be getting warm?” she asks.

“I don’t know! What if it’s frozen food or ice cream or something?”

“Oh, it could be. Fine, I guess he can go on without us. Bye, robot!” she says, waving at me.

I wish that I had arms to wave back at her with but I don’t. All I can do is speak.

“Goodbye,” I say before seeing her face light up and deciding to say more. “Thank you!”

She gasps in surprise, pressing a hand to her mouth as a strange warbling noise comes out of it.

“I love him so much!” she sobs as one of the other women puts her arm around her and starts leading her away.

“I know you do. Here, have some more to drink,” she says before adding under her breath, “Not that it’ll help at all.”

I start to speed away from the group of women who call out farewells to me as I go, watching them through my rear-facing camera. I feel a little weird as I move away from them. Although they made me cross the road when I didn’t want to or need to, it was nice having a group of people around me for a little while. Plus, that one woman, Alice, she had been nice. She had hugged me and told me that she loved me. That was nice.

It was strange too though. It made me feel weird. I mean, it was clear that they were drunk. They had alcohol in their hands and they were dressed up, unsteady on their feet. They were probably going to a party or something. That realisation makes me wistful. I think I remember parties. I remember something. A place with loud booming music and bright flashing lights. I remember people moving to the music, their arms thrown up in the air. I don’t remember why we were there or even when, I just remember that we were.

“Please pay attention to your surroundings,” the voice says just in time for me to swerve around a puddle in the middle of the road where some of the snow must have melted.

It was starting to freeze again now though. I could feel the ice at the edges of the puddle crunching under my wheels. It’s a nice sound. I like it. A flash appears on my map and I glance at it. It’s finally updated and realised that I am on the wrong side of the road but it took too long. I can see the turning I am meant to be going down through my side camera. There is nowhere for me to cross.