Become Human

A Walking Ghost

I woke up. I was completely covered in snow and I was stuck underneath a fallen tree. It was almost dawn. I helped myself crawl away from the tree. I crawled towards the nearest tree stump and I sat beside it. The first thing I did was pull out the glass shards that dug onto my body. It was an excruciating process, but the cold snow helped numb my body, so It wasn't as painful as last night.

I look out to my surroundings. I see that most of the third and fourth floors of the building are ruined but the floors below are still well and intact. Although the walls were torn, it doesn't look like it was destroyed by an explosion, it looks more like as if it was melted.

The sun starts to rise and the rays of light come to fall down, from the leaves to the tree stump that I lay on. After quite some time, the sun has already risen to the point where it shines right at my face, so I made myself stand. I shook myself off of all the snow that covered my body. I picked up and took a large and thin piece of cloth from the ground and covered it behind my head and upon my shoulders.

I started to walk slowly towards the place we came from. It was weird, the security cameras were deactivated and the motion sensors were not scanning at all. After I noticed this, I started to walk at a faster pace. When I got to the fence, I saw that the van was missing, so I assumed that some others survived, or maybe the van was just confiscated. 

I tried my best at the climbing the fence, but I just kept falling down. After many attempts, I decided to look for another way to get out. I looked around and I saw a pretty deep hole. I went closer to it and inspected it, then I got the idea to continue digging through the already wide and gaping hole to the other side. 

I went down and started digging through with my own bare hands. I scraped through the dirt and rocks towards the other side. After about thirty minutes, I was losing hope, until I finally saw the light of day from a small hole. I continued to dig through the top.  Eventually, I got a hole big enough to fit me. I climbed up by adding the rocks that I dug and made a stair-like structure. 

When I got out, I looked like hell. I had dirt on my face, on my hair, underneath my nails, I even had dirt stuck in my wounds, I had dirt almost everywhere. Because of this, my wounds had a burning sensation. Not only did I look like hell, but I also felt like hell. 

I walked towards where we came from. My clothes were tattered and I only had one shoe, It reminds me of when I was on my own for the first time, when I was still a fugitive, when the police were chasing me. Well, I still am a fugitive, but this time, someone's yet to notice me.

There were hardly people on the streets. I only people I have encountered are the homeless people laying on the streets and some street cleaners who seem to think me as just another beggar on the streets. I assume that most people are still asleep at this time.

About an hour or two more of walking and I finally get into the main parts of the city. I start coming across more people, but I have yet to see someone raise a brow on me. After another hour of walking, the sun's rays now burn my skin, I wanted to stop to shelter myself from the heat, but I figured that if I stayed, I would just spend more time under the heat of the sun rather than going straight ahead.

After more and more walking, I finally reach the center of the city. I am finally making some heads turn, so as much as possible, I try not to look forward to avoid any circumstances of them noticing me. Despite looking down, it seems that I received a tail. I turn in 4 corners to make sure of that and now I am positive that they are following me.

Now it seems, every minute that pass, more police start to follow me and eventually, they got large and are now following me as a group. I kept myself calm as much as possible. After quite sometime, I decided to make a move for myself. I looked for perfect hiding spots but I couldn't, until I found an alleyway, I quickly took a turn.

The garbage would be too obvious to hide in, but luckily, I found a sewage entry. I pulled the top off and made myself fit on such a small hole. Before I closed the lid, I took an empty can and threw it off the other side to confuse the police. After I heard the noise, I immediately closed the lid.

The sewage water was high and it reached my waist. I rested upon the walls for awhile, thinking about what I am going to do. I concentrated and tracked where we came from and matched that with where I went with in the sewage. After I got my directions straight, I continued walking.

It was hard and confusing, the sewage was like a maze, I had to find other alternative ways to get to where I wanted to go. It took me another four hours walking. The water definitely made it harder to walk and sometimes, It even gets too high where I have to swim. It was disgusting indeed, but I had to do it to live.

Eventually, I got to the end of the path. I climbed back up to the surface and I found out that the sewage led me to the outskirts of the city, just about a kilometer or two shy of where the abandoned warehouses are. I was so sick of walking, I wanted to get back home. 

As I walked, I came past Rachel, who was from the market.

"What in heaven's name happened to you?!" She said with a highly concerned voice

"I don't know" I just said as I was extremely tired

It might seem weird for an android to get tired, but it just happens. It doesn't have a proper explanation. We may run on life lasting batteries but we still get tired, even I am confused about it.

"Well, let's just get you back home." She said as she saw me tired

She let me sit on the back of her electric bicycle. She took what she bought and put it on the front basket then she rode the bike and we left. I was glad, I am so close to home.

After awhile, we got to the front gates of the warehouse and I saw the van, it was parked beside the road with no damages or whatsoever. Rachel opened the gates and we entered the compound. She carried me with my arms on her shoulders. She opened the doors of the warehouse and the first thing I saw was Nathan's unscathed face with a reaction as if he saw a ghost.