The Soft Ones Live / They Came From The Walled City

They Came From The Walled City

A few days ago, an low, thunderous rumble was heard for miles. Something huge made the ground tremble. When we looked out in the distance, we witnessed a sight we never thought we'd see; the ancient Walled City 99 was opening up...

Many centuries ago, during one of the darkest eras of humanity, some people hid inside those perfectly sealed walled cities, hoping they could escape from all the problems humans had to deal with back in those times.

The humans that couldn't afford this luxury, like my ancestors, were left outside to rot... But little do these Walled City people know, the humanity left outside managed to survive, even if barely. And that brings us to me.

Today, one could only wonder how these Walled City people were now. A whole city of people cut off from the world for so many generations... Did they all turn into darkness-dwelling savages resorting to cannibalism to survive? Or did all their resources and fine technology allow them to become more advanced than us, the outside people?

For these questions, people were hesitant to go greet who, or what, would come out of the freshly opened Walled City 99...

As for me, I just wanted to take a quick peek...

I was still traveling through the woods on my way to the walled city, when I spotted an orange cat ahead of me, calmly staring at me.

I smiled and put a knee to the ground to go "Pspspsps."

To my delight, the cat casually approached me, without any noticeable fear, and after a sniff, even nuzzled my hand. Wow, this one was pretty friendly for a wild cat!...

But eventually, the cat ran off to the woods. The cat stopped to glance my way and meow, then ran away for good in the direction of the Walled City.

What a loveable cat. If I didn't know any better, I'd say this cat wanted me to follow...

Good thing the cat left the way I was already heading. Although the cat was already out of my sight, I trailed behind, secretly hoping I'd come across that little guy again.

After just a few minutes of walking through the woods, a sound caught my attention.

Some kind of repeated mechanical whirr. Someone using machinery, maybe?...

Staying hidden behind a tree, I tried to peek at the source of the sound...

At first, I saw a human-like silhouette stepping into a clearing, apparently searching for something. This person was wearing some really funny clothes.... A long coat with a pattern of exotic leaves and flamingos... an old conical hat... and... Some kind of armor?... Or...?

What was that, covering the rest of their body?...

This person turned their head my way, and I finally saw their face... If I should even call it a face.

It was a screen. A rainbow-colored screen with just two white circles and a white line to supposedly resemble a simplistic 'face'. It even sort of blinked, by making the two circles turn into a straight line across the screen for a split second...

I knew what this was. I've seen old photos of it before. It was one of those robots designed to serve the people inside the Walled Cities. What were they called again?...

That was not a human, and yet... The way it moved so naturally, keeping its arms close and glancing around like an anxious person, without being clunky... It almost fooled me into thinking it was a person! It looked so expressive, by its movements alone...

But suddenly realizing I was actually spying on a cold machine made me gasp as a shiver went down my spine like a static shock.

At the sound I made, the machine suddenly froze, the screen suddenly flickering to display a sad frowning face, and then... It slowly turned to look my way.