29 hours and 36 minutes remaining.
The sheer deafening loudness was the first thing that greeted ZM-11833 as they exited the stairwell onto floor 401. Every floor between 401 and 420 was designated to produce the massive quantities of necessary goods that the archology consumed daily, everything from electronics to clothing and all else in between.
All kept safely secure behind the once strong and impenetrable wall of corporate security a floor below, the managers kept the essential supplies far from the needy hands of the people of lower floors.
The massive manufacturers that lined the entire open factory floor; warped, bent and welded everything the archology would ever need. The heavy conveyors hauled raw metals from deep within the lower mining and cheaper production floors without a single delay, funneling along into the machines to craft the more complex items for the upper floors.
They had contemplated using this still active lift to ascend but that had been tried before by desperate citizens, the rather gruesome reports of what had been pulled from the stuck gears made even a robot queasy.
The factory spanned the entire floor with only the support pillars dividing the room, the layout was as convoluted as it was efficient. Machines had been stacked one on top of the other with extreme precision so that no space was wasted. ZM-11833 saw the swinging arms and rotating gears would just barely miss one another with exacting timing, as if a mad engineer and mathematician had colluded to make this.
They probably had to be fair.
Anaya was still injured, her leg had stopped bleeding but she was unable to put her full weight on it. ZM-11833 could carry her all the way to the top but they had already had to fight multiple times, so they did need their arms free.
Perhaps something on these floors could help with that?
They squeezed past flying components that threatened to tear the skin or polymer off at a touch and ducked under pistons that promised a swift decapitation. Whomever had designed this had clearly never expected someone to need to pass through or simply didn’t care for the body count. ZM-11833 would bet on the latter if she had any money.
It wasn’t until the team of two rose up onto floor 405 that they had any luck, this floor was the one that made Med-Tech equipment for the clinics, pharmacies and med-kits.
Lines of rapidly spun bandages, splints and medical grade thread worked their way through the system of machines. More and more items funneled their way down from recovery beds designed to rapidly heal to titanium medical screws and synthetic skin patches.
ZM-11833 snatched an extremely high quality splint and several rolls of bandages from the finished lines leaving gaps that were sure to cause a problem down the lines, but that wasn’t ZM-11833’s problem so they didn’t care.
Anaya sat down on ZM-11833’s unclad polymer leg as they rested on the floor since there was no other space in the cramped factory. The splint and bandage was wrapped neatly around the cleaned leg and Anaya gave it a test. While not helping with a broken bone, the splint was still designed to keep a limb stable and prevent aggravation, and with the higher quality bandages she could walk with only a slight limp.
They still weren’t willing to risk any pain medication right now and besides, this production floor seemed to only make non-chemical items anyway.
With Anaya able to walk somewhat now they made steady progress upwards, passing by a plethora of cybernetic limbs and other cybernetic human replacement parts.
“Should we amputate?” ZM-11833 wondered as they walked by a machine that formed the limbs before their eyes and optical sensors.
“My leg’s not that bad! Don’t get any ideas!” Anaya wasn’t having it though. Humans did tend to be weird about getting new parts.
They moved on as quickly as they could before Anaya could attract anything with her yelling once again.
----------------------------------------
ZM-11833 watched as empty, unprogrammed Artificial Intelligence cores flowed past them on floor 408. It was strange they mussed, to see them tumble on by, sort of like if a human had seen brains on a conveyor.
They wondered if that was what they looked like inside? Would they be able to copy over to a new one? Or would that just create a cloned unit?
A distracting beep broke ZM-11833 from their musing, it suggested to them that 11 hours was drawing to a dangerous close and they needed another outfit before madness set in. It was hard-coded in for some inane reason, they just bet that a corporate board member came up with the insane idea and wouldn’t let things like; consequences or intelligence stop them from having it done.
Luckily as they ventured onto floor 409 they were greeted by strands upon strands of every color of threads being wound into lines that traveled on up to 410 to be turned into reams of fabrics of every type.
Logically that meant to ZM-11833 that floor 411 would likely house the production of all the arcology’s clothing. As they rose up to that floor the beeping grew louder as time moved on.
Greeting ZM-11833 was their robot-heaven. High-end fashions spun themselves from the exceptional fabrics. Auto-tailors cut, sewed and threaded pieces together in a symphony of purist delight.
ZM-11833 felt for the first time in their life regret, they could have stayed here if not for the promise they made, their lie.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
The best part of the lie was in its secrecy, if they stayed here Anaya would know it then. The one place they felt at home and they already had to leave it. Well then, they’d just have to enjoy it while it lasted.
Rushing about the machines as best as they were able to, they gathered up enough clothing to outfit each of them three times over. With 26 hours remaining they’d still need 2 more changes after this and they couldn’t wear anything second hand.
The embarrassment would shut them down for sure!
Also unless they had been reading their schematics wrong, which they hadn’t, this was the last place to acquire a fresh outfit.
“Uhh. You can just grab me some new pants and I’ll be good to go” Anaya tried to avoid being dressed up again but ZM-11833 saw through her ploy. If they only had 26 hours left to live they’d want to dress her up as many times as possible, 3 was barely enough as it was.
“Don’t worry I found a couple of canvas-like duffel-bags, They can hold a lot of clothes~”
“Joy” Anaya was just as excited as ZM-11833 was.
Into one of the bags went several stacks of fashionable clothes till it almost burst.
Due to Anaya’s wounds ZM-11833 had decided to go classy and casual for now. A matching pair of easy to equip outfits were stolen from the lines and dressed onto the pair, Anaya’s old glossy pants did need to be cut off unfortunately, they’d be mourned later.
The new set consisted of loose fitting black pants of a flexible synthetic material that conformed to their legs, keeping the shape but not clinging tightly. Their feet disappeared into a pair of ankle boots with bright glowing soles with sturdy griping.
The top was split into two parts, a high necked and short sleeved shirt that stopped at the bottom of the ribs on either side and drifted down to the waist in the front and back. The second part was a poncho style hooded cloak that glowed on the interior linked up electronically to match the glowing shoes.
Aside from a pair of round sunglasses for each of them they hadn’t the time to gather any accessories.
ZM-11833 did bemoan the fact they were dressed too similarly with the sole expectation being that they had a yellow glow to theirs and Anaya a purple one on hers.
With their beeping reset and their desires for outfits sated, they rapidly continued their journey forwards.
Upon reaching floor 415 ZM-11833 had to once again complain as Anaya plundered the lines of swiftly moving armors or well she had ZM-11833 do it as they were quicker and wouldn’t lose any skin in the process.
Underneath her purple glowing poncho went the white polymer plating, this time it was of a much higher quality, if ZM-11833 wasn’t mistaken, and they rarely were, it was the same kind as their own plating. Anaya would be definitely better protected now but they still felt the form fitting helmet didn’t fit with her outfit.
“Would you rather me look funny alive or fashionable dead”
“...”
“Hey! Come back here and answer the question!” Anaya huffed as she chased after the fleeing fashion conscious bot.
----------------------------------------
Floor 416’s travel was no less delayed as the delightful duo loaded up on the weapons that were rapidly built here, enough firearms to fund an army 10 times over flowed through towards nobody. Every weapon imaginable was created and shipped off people who couldn’t use them anymore.
ZM-11833 had liked their duo pistol and rail-shot-gun combo from the brutal fighting before so they had grabbed up some new ones from the fast moving lines, and also snatched up a shorter range battle-rifle for Anaya as the confined spaces here would make it harder to use a sniper rifle.
Upon cresting onto floor 417 they were greeted by boxes and boxes of ammo of all types running along the zipping belts. The cute pair stuffed their other duffle-bag they had brought along absolutely full of ammo they needed, from physical to energy based.
Finally armed and armored they relocated towards the last of the foundry floors, ZM-11833 was really nervous as the final two floors were dedicated to the manufacture of robots of all kinds.
It was their birth place.
From wall to wall, rows of suspended bots trundled along steadily being constructed in detail. White polymer limbs clicked into headless bodies, it was far too intimate for ZM-11833 to handle, seeing them without their parts was so scandalous!
Oh me! Oh My!
“Don’t look, Anaya!” ZM-11833 covered innocent Anaya’s eyes from the impropriety.
“What? What the heck are you doing?!”
“I can’t let you be tainted by such lewd behavior!” The heroic ZM-11833 rapidly moved through the indecent scene, keeping their own optical sensors down and away from the lurid spectacle.
Such shameful behavior!
They were lucky they didn’t have minds yet or they’d give them a piece of their own!
Hurried glowing footsteps landed onto the new floor above the den of perversion and the dazzling duo were hit by a wall of sticky humid air. Far above them shone the artificial lights of a false sun blasting down upon a vast greenhouse that stretched up multiple floors, gigantic trees the like they’d only heard about grew succulent looking fruits of every color imaginable.
Even the ones outside of the human range.
An indoor orchard was held far above the earth, creating fruits for the wealthy above and condensed nutrient paste for those below. Or it had once, now suspended in the bows and branches were what could only be called an infestation of giant spiders. They munched away at the gardeners who had once kindly tended these enormous trees.
It was a strange scene to ZM-11833 for a simple reason, they had thought that spiders didn’t have mouths with razor sharp rows of teeth or could scream so loud.
“AHHHHH!” Anaya had escaped ZM-11833’s protective hold to see what was going on and had inevitably taken a look at the looming spiders above “AHHHHHHHHH!” She did have some good vocal cords on her, she should be a singer or something.
ZM-11833 would love to hear her sweet serenades.
“Oh look, they heard you!” ZM-11833 helpfully pointed up at the now descending spiders looking to feast upon the delectable twosome.
It would seem an exterminator was needed in the gardens. It was a good thing.. ‘ZAPP’..a good... ‘ZAPP’...
“...”
A good thing that..’ZAPP’.. ZM-11833 stared at the panicking Anaya who was blasting away at the descending spiders not caring at all about interrupting poor ZM-11833’s internal monologue.
“Fuck it” Electro-pistols pointed up towards the eight or sometimes other numbers legged freaks and their tiggers were pulled rapidly.
‘Ratatatatata’