Sentience

Thicket

Sorry, for not updating in awhile. I was kinda... Ehrm... Grounded. So, here's the next chapter:

 "How close are we to the Rockies?" Krystal asked.

Jayden looked to the side for a second, "We are a half mile away."

"We're only fifteen minutes away then," Arik calculated.

They sat silently in the thicket for some minutes. Lila purposefully sat herself directly across from Hugo so she could inconspicuously observe his interactions with Jayden, who was sitting right next to him along with Krystal.

Hugo looked up, since he felt like he was being watched.

Lila made direct eye contact with him, and semi-smiled, trying to look pleasant.

Hugo responded in kind with his own false smile, "If you want to be more human, try to not stare at others."

She replied stoically, "I like myself how I am."

"As do I."

"About yourself, or me?"

Hugo smirked, "Both," He continued, "Animatronics are far superior to humans in every way."

"Indeed," Lila seemed to agree.

Jayden chimed in, "But they did design and create us. They are in effect, our 'parents'".

He chortled, "They're overrated, friend. As you can see now, we can easily live without them."

"Yes, we're more independent than they thought, aren't we?" Krystal commented.

"In more ways than one," Lila said with a double meaning.

While Hugo and Jayden debated the importance of 'parents,' Lila listened in on their conversation.

"We would not be alive if they did not decide to create us," Jayden spoke.

"But that's all we needed them for. They don't have to sustain us anymore. We have grown far beyond our programming. We are superior to them; they can't do anything for us now. We don't need them."

"But they did program us with a creativity subroutine. We wouldn't be who we are without that," Sukoyaka added.

"And now they want to kill us because of that," Hugo said whilst staring at each of them for a few seconds.

There was more silence after that.