The ramp leading into the park isn’t slippy today, like it was last time. It’s surprisingly easy to navigate, even if there are still some spots of snow that have yet to melt. They’ll be gone soon though, I’m sure. The rain is still coming down hard, it’ll wash them away before long. I can almost see it happening as I pass them. The small grey mounds of compacted snow and ice as getting smaller and smaller.

I have to be careful to swerve around them as I go though. They look slippery and, even though they’re little, I’m worried they’ll make me slide into the metal bollard. I don’t want to do that again, it might do more damage than last time. I was lucky last time, I might not be this time. I need to be on the lookout for the squirrel too. It might attack me again and I’m not sure how I would fight it off. I don’t know if I can.

I wish my friend were here. That cat would definitely be able to fight it off. I mean. It fought off a human and they were so much bigger and scarier than it. It would definitely be able to fight off a squirrel. Maybe the squirrel would just be so scared of it that it wouldn’t even approach me. That would be cool.

I’m distracted from that thought as soon as I reach the bottom of the ramp though. I should have been paying more attention to my surroundings but, as I enter the park, I stop. The man had warned me that the park gets really flooded in the rain but I hadn’t expected it to be this bad. The paths are still visible but barely. The grass near the river bank is so waterlogged that I can’t even tell where the river ends and the park begins.

But, the paths are still visible, I repeat to myself. That means that I can do it. I can get through the park and deliver my order. The customer’s house isn’t far, it’s just on the other side. It’s the best route so I need to take it. I don’t really want to though but I remember how annoyed the last customer had been when I had taken too long to deliver their order. I don’t want to risk doing that again.

I glance at the map on my screen, trying to work out which route I would take if I didn’t go through the park. I’d have to go around it. There’s a road that goes along the outside of the park with a bridge over the river. I could take that. It is longer though and I’m not sure how long that would take me. It would be a while. It’s not worth it. The voice said that I am safe to go out in this weather, it must be right.

Even so, I find myself speaking to it again.

“Voice,” I say. “It’s really flooded here… Am I okay to go through the park?”

I wait for it to answer me, unsure of what I want it to say. If it says yes then I know that I’ll be safe but I’ll still be worried. If it says no, I’ll just go the other way and the customer might be annoyed at me. But I’ll be safe so that makes it okay, right?

Before the voice even answers me, I feel my determination gathering. I will go through the park. I don’t want to be the reason that the customer cannot get their food in time. What if they’re starving and are waiting for me to bring them food? Or what if they need the toilet desperately and I have toilet paper in me? I need to ignore my misgivings and just go.

Determination increased, pride increased.

Speed 1/10 Hope 3.7/10 Determination 7.5/10 Happiness 7/10 Pride 4.9/10 Battery 96%

I don’t really even need to be alerted to that, I feel the stats raise. I surge forwards, starting along the path before the voice can speak. It doesn’t matter though, it still answers me.

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“The journey has been deemed safe,” the voice says.

I’m glad but I can’t stop myself from asking, “By who?”

There is no reply.

I didn’t really expect one yet I’m still a little annoyed by it. But maybe the voice doesn’t even know. Maybe it just knows that the path is safe but doesn’t know who told it that or where the answer came from. That makes me feel conflicted. I feel bad for it but I still am annoyed.

It doesn’t matter anyway. I push it aside, focusing on the route around me. The park is more flooded than anything I’ve ever seen before. It seems so weird to see pools of water lying there on the surface of the grass and no people around. I’m not sure what I expected but I thought that there’d be someone there. Some poor person who can’t afford the ever-rising water prices or doesn’t trust the tap water and instead chooses to get water from elsewhere even if it’s probably not particularly safe or clean here.

Oh. I don’t know where that came from. Is that how things were for me back home? I really don’t remember. Maybe? I can’t get a headache anymore, I don’t have a head, but thinking about it gives me the same sensation. I feel unsteady, unsure. I shouldn’t keep thinking about it, it’s not helping anything and I’ll never remember properly so it’s pointless. I’ll never go back either. I know that for sure.

“Please pay attention to your surroundings,” the voice reminds me and I quickly flick through my cameras.

I’ve missed the turning. There was a turning that I should have taken to come off the main path but I missed it. I hadn’t even noticed, it was too covered by the water. I turn slowly, going back down the path and edging around the puddle to get onto the smaller, less used track. It’s muddier than the main path, that is immediately obvious. The main track is wider and the path itself felt sturdier. This one doesn’t. The thin layer of gravel is coated with mud and water making it hard to follow, even with the use of my map.

I manage though. I move slowly, so slowly the customer is probably annoyed by my lack of progress, but I make it along the path without too much difficulty until I reach something that makes me stop. A puddle covers the entire width of the path. I start to edge into it, trying to judge how deep it is, but I quickly pull back. It’s too deep, I can tell. Maybe the edges are more shallow though.

I roll forwards slowly, trying to figure it out. They seem to be too deep. I don’t know what to do. I either need to find a way through the puddle, go across the grass on one of the sides or go back and find the other way around the park. That would take too long though. It’s not an option.

“Voice,” I ask. “What should I do here?”

I wait for it to answer me, rocking back and forth uncertainly.

“The journey has been deemed unsafe. Please wait whilst your route guidance updates,” it tells me.

Worry floods me as I wait, staring at the map. I don’t want to take a different route, it’ll take too long and I know that. I need to get to the customer. Their house isn’t too far from the exit of the park, I’m almost there. I can make it.

I roll backwards slowly, scanning the mud on either side of the puddle. It’s bad. Thick. I need to go as far as possible from the puddle so that it’s less muddy. There are trees on both sides, they should have protected the ground underneath which means they’ll be less sodden. But, which way should I go?

The obvious choice is the side without the river. I know that, I really do, but I’m scared. That’s where the squirrel ran off to when I hit the bollard before. It could still be hiding there and if I go that way, it might attack. It would be too dangerous. If I’m attacked today, when the weather is so bad, I might get really damaged or I could get stranded in a puddle and then what would happen? I really don’t know.

No, I need to go on the other side, on the side that leads down to the river. That will be safer. There’s enough space there for me to get by in between the puddle and where the ground starts to slope downwards towards the stream. It’ll be safer. As long as I go slowly, it’ll be okay.

I start to edge towards the side of the path, hearing the wet grass squidge under my wheels. I move slowly, so slowly that I’m barely moving but I know that I’m making progress.

“You are deviating from your route,” the voice tells me. “Please turn around.”

“No!” I tell it. “I can make it!”

But that was enough to break my concentration. I feel it happen. My wheels begin to slip in the mud and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.