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XXV - Gabriel

In the few words that erupted from the pile, somewhere in the crevice among the fragments of steel concrete and glass of the gray-black block, I froze in place with only these words that sounded delicate and weak, but penetrated straight into my heart and chilling at the same time. I looked back and I see the block trying to move between the fragments without success, but still as a stone. Me scratching my head to the side, trying to wake up and think it was just something I'm imagining - a gray lump talking to me. I continued to keep my words and run away from the place, the strong wind making it difficult for me to move forward steadily with the cells I had left, but out of the wind, more things continued to emerge behind me:

"help my..."

He said it again. I don't imagine, is it?

"No, you heard me right" Rosalina spoke as she read my thoughts.

I'm trying to figure out what to do - help him or move on. I don't know if that gray lump, the same one I saw earlier in the ruins, is alive at all or not with its strange appearance. Did he speak at all from the beginning? All thoughts of them are raging like the winds outside. I continued to move forward but it spoke to me again, but in a different way:

"Human... forgive me... for this... surprise" he began to speak surprisingly but weakly and fragmentarily:

"But... I would be glad... for you to help me" Between his words, words got stuck between his lines. Sounds like he doesn't have much energy left in his body. I hesitated to respond, but my heart says I have to help him. But my body says to run away from him as far as possible. He continued to speak while the winds and petals continued to fly over him and cover everywhere:

"I got stuck... in this place... I followed... you for..." The voice stopped without continuing, and my heart jumped, trying to understand what and who was talking to me. Is this the same unidentified one? The same one since the river appeared? I don't know how to say anymore and I have a lot of questions.

"I can't identify any process that indicates it is alive or artificial" Rosalina replied.

As the wind picked up, drops of rain began to fall from the sky and slowly wet everywhere my eyes could see. I try to think more and more but in one movement, my body decided to listen to my heart. I threw away all the storage compartments and ran towards the pile of fragments. My mind screams to get away from him but it seems that loneliness and a desire to talk to someone overcame the desire to run away. When I got closer to the pile I saw how this block was designed with blue-green engravings and depressions, like a machine. I started trying to move the stack one by one. Their weight made it difficult to move them and their muscles ached as the rain intensified making it difficult for those who couldn't get out. If he is dangerous, I can try to run away, but for some reason, this feeling of rescuing someone who knows your language, even though you don't understand anything around you, how it happens, and why.

Suddenly the block started to move while I was able to move the small pieces as I could lift, I got scared and jumped backward, and in contact with the puddles that started to form between my legs, I slipped and landed on my butt. In horror I see but the pile rises from all the fragments of the concrete and the steel making room for the gray block - black for the apple. I crawled backward when I saw that on one side of the pile, something resembling a large black wing began to rise, making room and it only grew bigger and bigger. Another big wing and a few more small ones. The block finally began to take on a shape that seemed more logical, but more foreign and alien than anything else.

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His wings began to move upwards and then he stepped on the ground, pushing the rest of his body and starting to show more things while I was already advancing into a hole in the nearest structure, managing to grab my weapons. As soon as the whole pile began to disperse, something resembling a head began to reveal itself - something resembling a manta ray's head and a Paterdon's began to rise from the ground to my eye-line and something resembling blue-green eyes without pupils looked at me with a piercing gaze, but its indistinct face managed to express Something akin to an expression of gratitude before he is with his wings collapsing on himself to reveal what appears to be a large bite bitten from his back and some of his small wings covering each side of his body. I was only frightened by the fact that he was able to move despite everything on him, but his long face began to look back at me and began to take out a rudder without opening his mouth:

"Thank you very much... sorry for... my threatening looks..." He spoke weakly slowly, like a wounded animal, while the strong rain threatened to wash him away despite his large body. He tried to lift himself once more on all his wings and crawl towards me, unsuccessfully:

"I guess... that I would love... for you to stay with me... a little longer... human..." He knew I was scared but couldn't move because he started to cover himself with a thin layer of water that couldn't be absorbed through the broken pavement. I signaled to him that I would stay with him. He seems happy and lowered his head. I advanced deeper into the building where in most places water is flowing on the floor I found a quiet corner and leaned against a drywall inside one of the rooms that were there, hearing the storm only getting stronger and being mildly horrified by it all.

"Rosalina, did you manage to figure out who he is... it's this creature" I asked her.

"Negative. Due to a communication breakdown, I do not have access to complex information capable of explaining who he is"

"As I guessed"

"Indeed" she suddenly surprised me:

"I detected an unidentified energy emission at a frequency stronger than solar radiation coming from deep within it. Which could indicate that it is artificial, but not an android or some kind of mechanical robot"

"That's probably what's keeping him alive until now. I guess if it followed me, it has a reason for being mechanical"

I started to close my eyes and try to fall asleep while the storm continues to happen and the sounds of breaking a structure that didn't last were heard at least once in the background, but then a thought occurred to me:

"If it's artificial, that means someone built it and that means there's someone, like me, trying to find a way to escape this place!"

I am filled with positive thoughts and try to focus on the good side of the event instead of while I manage to put myself to sleep from most of these things. When I woke up, the storm was over and the winds had calmed down. I felt hungry and thirsty and approached the nearest puddle. Rosalina allowed me to drink from it before I moved out of that hole and I see it staying in the same place next to the pile of shards it just came out of. He began to open his eyes like an animal and looked back at me. He began to try to rise and stepped on his many wings and straightened up so that what resembled his face looked in my line of sight and began to speak:

"Thank you very much for your help" His speech sounds much better than before, and I'm just trying to understand him. No longer afraid of him, I started trying to talk back to him:

"I would love to ask you some questions" I asked him

" As I thought human, you wanted to know why I followed you. First of all, I... want to introduce myself so that you can address me... as to another person"

"Sorry for the insensitivity" I interrupted him:

"You can contact me on my behalf - Colin Clouguard"

"Colin" he stopped talking for a few moments before continuing:

"My original name has been for a long time... I don't know, but I call myself Gabriel" he stopped and tried to move his head and revealing another place that seemed like a big hole and showed something that resembled a molded bone before he continued:

"I've been following you, ever since I saw you... for the first time, to keep you safe"

"Keep me? Don't lie" I was skeptical about this answer.

"I'm not lying. I'm not programmed to lie. My original objective is to find and preserve... every human being that ever survived..."

"Does that mean there are more survivors?"

"You are the last human being"