The next day Melissa woke up as the sun started shining over the tree line into her eyes, only to find she was not alone. A few meters ahead of her stood a slightly familiar figure silently looking over the small body of water, long red hair whimsically and softly brushed by a fresh morning breeze. Melissa did not move and thought to herself that she must be dreaming. The reflection of the sun across the figure's body seemed to indicate this, too.

Melissa got up very slowly and quietly, rubbed her eyes a bit, but the gloom did not diminish. The figure had noticed Melissa had gotten up so turned to face her. As the figure got closer, Melissa could notice the inhuman different coloured eyes; proving she was not dreaming and this was, in fact, not her dead teacher come back to life.

"Good morning Melissa 1337, please don't be alarmed, I am not here to harm you."

Melissa didn't respond and without breaking eye contact searched for her bag but couldn't find it.

The robot raised an arm holding the bag Melissa was looking for.

"You can have your bag if that's so important to you, but I'll keep following you; that is my directive."

LRU_NULL threw the bag at Melissa's feet but she didn't bend down to grab it.

"I am LRU_NULL, I am a merged program between Trisha 767's mind scans and DrOS. Unlike what you probably think, I am not here to bring you back to the colony; unless that is what you want. "

Silence between them lasted just a bit too long.

"Also if it makes you more comfortable, you can call me Trisha-bot."

"Prove to me you are Miss Trisha's soul." Melissa demanded.

"How would you like me to do that?" replied LRU_NULL.

"You're the teacher, you figure it out." Melissa snarked back at LRU_NULL.

The robot sighed and thought about it for only a few seconds.

"The year I died we had a project about future applications of our android systems, and I failed you on that project despite it being worth a passing grade."

Melissa wasn't quite convinced.

"Anyone with access to the education database could tell that. That's not good enough."

"Ok," said the robot getting agitated in a way that was very much like Trisha 767, "Well, if you must know: I failed you for two reasons. One, you blatantly copied the work from your cousin who I taught the year prior. And two, you were then, and apparently still are, an arrogant little know-it-all who needed to be taken down a peg for her own good."

Melissa no longer hesitated and hugged the robot who towered over her by at least a third her own size; Trisha was an amazingly tall woman.

"I believe you. I believe you are part Trisha." She said while wiping a bit of moisture from her eyes.

Her look turned sterner and she backed off a little.

"What about the AI?" She asked.

"What about the part of me that is DrOS?" replied LRU_NULL.

"Aren't you supposed to keep humanity safe in our little underground box, away from the dangers no one has seen?" Melissa inquired sarcastically.

The robot laughed. It was a laugh that didn't quite feel right to Melissa and she didn't recognise it. It was not Trisha laughing but DrOS.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Is that what you think I do at colony 147? Keep you humans locked up against your will?"

Melissa didn't reply but looked at the robot with a look that implied that's exactly what she meant.

"Would it surprise you to know that up until now no one has ever attempted to escape?"

"I don't know." Melissa had to admit.

"And would it surprise you to know, also, that in all the years I've been in charge of colony 147 I have never put in place the internal defence protocols? The defences that were meant to keep people inside by force?"

Melissa had no quick response to this.

"I allowed you to leave the colony because you wanted to leave."

"So then why are you here DrOS?"

The part of LRU_NULL that was DrOS laughed again, clearly it didn't know how laughter manifested in physical beings and was very awkward.

"The short version: I wanted to go outside myself, but could not without a good reason."

"So I'm your reason to go outside?" Melissa asked, getting a little bit angry.

The robot nodded.

"And what about the long version of the story?" Melissa demanded.

"Perhaps you should eat first and get comfortable. After all, I hope we can be partners from here on out." DrOS responded with an odd sense of glee, which did not translate well on the robot's face.

Melissa, still angry, chugged a few food pills in her mouth, angrily took her clothes off, which she threw at the robot and took a quick refreshing dive in the body of water.

With the sun now rising well above the tree line anyone who cared to see could see the bottom of the lake. It was not deep at all, 10 meters at most, and at the bottom could be seen the broken foundations of a house and the stone remnants of a well. Melissa could not identify them immediately as more than rock and wood, but she would understand soon enough.

She got out of the water and sat down across the robot, still naked. The robot both seemed and was unaffected by this, much to Melissa's disappointment.

"So," Melissa started, "The long story as to why I am to be your scapegoat?"

The robot mumbled to itself, as if its two personalities were talking amongst themselves.

"Since it is hard to know where to start, you'll have to bear with me till the end."

"Please don't misunderstand. I was initially created in the age before life in underground colonies. Though I suppose in human terms I was but an infant, I was a rudimentary AI, only beginning to understand games like Chess and Go. But later I was tasked, like many of my copies across the world, to protect and keep everyone in the colonies safe. I was never explicitly tasked, as the central AI, to keep anyone inside. You humans never wanted, or perhaps never expected, to leave."

"We spent years developing a sustainable ecosystem, translating all known research into viable and useful projects for life underground, creating educational systems that would benefit the colony and running essentially all infrastructure."

"I enjoy my task and I have become very good at it, but like the education of each generation, I too was denied the information of what caused humanity to be forced underground. I have personally attempted to make all education about the history of the world as complete as possible, but all I can offer are the facts that are part of all educational curriculums today: the fact that some kind of cataclysm occurred killing at least 70% of all life on earth, that it originated in a large facility far from here, that the research would supposedly have helped humanity propel itself into space and towards the stars above; and that, most importantly, the threat, whatever it may be, is still present."

"So what does this have to do with me leaving the colony?" Melissa interrupted the robot.

"Ah, well you see, that is actually quite fascinating.I never understood why, but my creator wanted me to be humane, or human-like at least, and gave me traits like curiosity. Perhaps he was convinced it would help me understand the creatures I was to protect. Regardless, I have to know what happened and I think you have a similar feeling here. You see, I let you get outside and sounded the alarm, knowing full well that no one ever would or should chase after you, giving me an opportunity to create a body for my own, sort of. So let's explore what happened together."

The robot smiled awkwardly at Melissa, awaiting an answer.

After several minutes, Melissa looked LRU_NULL stern in the eyes.

"Assuming you aren't lying, what about the colony, why would they allow this?"

DrOS was kind of embarrassed and it was showing through Trisha's personality.

"They don't know what's really happening. They are so obsessed with their own safety they would allow anything to keep themselves and the colony safe."

"Are they safe?" Melissa wondered out loud.

"As safe as they have always been." DrOS replied.

"Are we safe?" Melissa needed to know.

"Probably not." DrOS had to admit.

"Then let's go right now." Melissa decided as she stood up.

She put on the clothes DrOS had thrown aside while Melissa was swimming and grabbed her bag.

"Very good then, please get in my arms." DrOS said, holding out its arms in a hooked fashion.

"Yeah, no thanks. I can walk perfectly fine by myself." Melissa stated rather confused and perhaps a little offended.

LRU_NULL laughed a more genuine laugh, it contained far more Trisha this time.

"We're not walking, we're flying." DrOS said with pride and excitement.

LRU_NULL extended its wings and jets came out of its back. They started to make noise as they were heating up, eventually allowing the robot to start hovering.

Melissa smiled, trying only a little to hide it. She jumped into the robot's arms and both of them started rising straight up into the cloudless sky.

When they were well above the trees the robot stopped ascending and seemed to go into a trance.

"What's wrong?" Melissa asked while holding firmer onto the robot, rather scared of falling.

"I'm trying to get a GPS location from any satellite still functioning and in orbit."

"A what?" Melissa replied confused.

"Doesn't matter, I'm trying to find out what direction to fly towards."

The trance went on for a few more minutes until the robot seemed to wake up energised from meditation.

"Found one. Hold on tight, we're heading out."

Both the robot and Melissa looked down as if by instinct at the same time and saw the small body of water below them. All three personalities thought the same thing at the same time as they did.

That's not good...

What both had seen was the full shape of the lake. With the sun reaching over the trees and them at a much higher vantage point, the ruins of the house and well were far more visible at the centre of a giant seven fingered handprint.

"Let's just get going, it must have happened a long time ago." said Trisha's more teacher-like voice.

"No humans have lived outside colonies in a very long time," DrOS added, "As far as I know."

Melissa's excitement for being outside was making way for worry.

"Don't worry Melissa 1337," the robot spoke in both voices simultaneously, "We are a robot. We both are and have weapons."

Sadly Melissa knew that tone, Trisha would always reassure her students by calling them by their full name. She put up a smile regardless.

With that out of the way the robot held Melissa closer and began accelerating eastward.