The Hope Of Humanity (Discontinued)

Chapter 9: Humanity's Only Friend

The sky seemed more blue than normal. Petro and I were walking to our next destination in the middle of nowhere. I knew my one normal eye was red from crying so hard the other night, but I refused to let that bratty assassin give me eye drops.

Little bratty son of a mother. I'm amazed if he has any friends, with the comforting skills he's got.

A blurry shape appears in the distance. I move my bangs back and was it a moment for my cyborg eye to focus on whatever is ahead.

It is a town, or it was a town.

I glance to my side, at Petro. His eyes are cast down, watching the many sand particles on the ground. He is shuffling slightly, and his eyebrows are knit together. What could he possibly be thinking about?

It wasn't too long before we entered the town. Unlike previously thought, the town was bustling with life. A couple sane ghouls walked around, but many more normal people occupied the area. A dude with weird goggles was selling healing potions, but I ignored him. He looked shady, and a bit of an idiot.

I followed Petro into a large building that I assumed was a hotel, of all things. He talked to the owner in hushed tones and handed over a couple of... bottlecaps?

We walk up some stairs and enter a room. Petro sits on a ratty bed and turns to me.

"What's your story. All of it."

He caught me by surprise. This wasn't something I expected him to ask in a million years.

"Oh." I simply say. Petro pats the bed next to him, and I sit down. "Everything?" I ask. He nods.

So I begin my tale.

Long ago, when the Earth was whole, I lived with my little sister, older brother, and my parents in a small town in Utah. My parents were mechanics, and they worked full time at a repair shop on main street. I was twelve at the time.

One day my father started coming home only to head to the garage. My mom brought him meals, and occasionally they would work together. They hardly got any sleep, but they didn't seem to care.

My brother would try to come in to knock sense into them, but he was always yelled at and sometimes came back with a bruise.

One time, when both of my parents had been in there for three days straight without any rest or food, my brother and I noticed my sister was missing too.

We went into the garage to ask our parents if they knew where she had gone, but when we entered all we found was blood. So much blood it was unbelievable. And in the corner stood three animatronics. One looked exactly like my little sister, who was five. When I came over and touched it, I felt skin, but underneath was metal.

My parents had stripped off her skin and placed it over a robot, like a sick costume.

My mother and father were nowhere to be seen, but we noticed that the other two robots were about the same size and shape as us. We quickly realized the true purpose of the robots, as sick as it was, and ran.

We ran straight to the police, but they didn't believe us. Who could ever be so sick as to skin their children and then put their skin on robots?

The robots came in. It was terrifying. My little sister opened her mouth and screamed, and inside her mouth was a sharp drill. She ran to an officer and drilled into his chest. Blood was everywhere, and more came when the other two robots changed their hands and heads into killing machines. One of them had turned their chest into a laser cannon.

Me and my brother hid for so long until we were found and evacuated. The robots only stopped when the found my parents in the garage, using screens and remote controls to make the robots kill so many people.

At first they thought we were part of it too, but my little sister and the security footage from the police station helped our case.

Our parents were put on the death row, but it was so backed up that they were never actually killed. They just sat in jail. Who knows if they are still alive today.

Because of them, I have always been afraid of killing, and afraid of machines, but I became what they always wanted anyways, didn't I?

Petro was silent for a long moment. I somehow managed to keep tears from falling. In fact, I had a slight smile on my face.

He stood up, a poker face masking his emotions. "You need to be careful around here. Some of the gangs that thrive in this town don't like Sam, nor do they like that sign on your eye. Stay here and get some rest. I have to run some errands."

That was it? No, I'm sorry or... something? But what could he say? That was probably the most gruesome backstory ever heard, even for an assassin.

I lower my head as he leaves. Maybe he didn't answer because he cause people to have back stories like mine. Filled with murder and blood... So much blood.

A loud sound resonated through my head. I bolted upright, the memories still fresh in my mind, and looked out the window. Petro was pointing a smoking gun at someone. He had missed the guy in front of him, but the guy beside him wasn't so lucky.

I slapped my hands over my mouth in horror.

No... How could he... Right after hearing my story...

But then I noticed the other three guys right behind the first. Petro was outnumbered.

I battled with myself on what to do. To help would mean to kill, to not help meaning Petro would be killed. What could I-- no, what should I do?