I could hear the clattering of metal on the other side as the soulless guard continuously paced back and forth from one corner to the next. Only could I hear since a grand door covered in lasers of blue kept me shut in the empty room with only a bed and a toilet inside. There were papers. My papers I tended to draw on often lied on the ground in disarray until one of the guardsmen cleaned it for me, and most of them sat in the uncomfortably warm sheets of my bed.
For a while, I stood in the middle of the room with an aimless walk to each corner with my mind sounding like it was running on a dying battery. Maybe I should've called them to check me. That was probably why I had felt so off.
Before I could press the white button on the wall, an ear-splitting screech came over the room. I held my silicon ears like they hurt. A small wire with a red light hung just where I was standing moments ago, and a woman's voice had suddenly overtaken the small space.
"System 11, Number 503," the voice called.
I sighed. "Iskil. My name is Iskil."
"You are requested for the Firadaes' field trip immediately. I believe you know why, System 11, Number 503."
Ugh. I watched as the blue light lasers had started to fall away, and the metal door creaked open with a few rusted squeaks. They needed to fix that door. They needed to fix that door. They needed to fix the entire cell, to be fair. The moment the door fully opened, two guards restrained my arms behind me with fear in their eyes. They were afraid. I knew they were scared of what I once was before my body had given out on me.
They dragged me along the floor, tugging on the coils that were squeezed between my joints. I would have hated this if I was a human. I knew they did this to humans before, too, and I shuttered at the thought of seeing their true fleshy skin being held up by others in sheer pain.
Slamming me behind old, rusted bars from back when humans were around, I collapsed onto the rusted floor. My face scraped against the metal, and sparks began to fly as the impact happened. My arms were wobbly as I sat up from the fall.
"Please bring your attention to the left."
I sat up, holding my head as my vision wasn't focusing.
"System 11s are known for their touch of humanity. Their brains, their codex, can become corrupted, and they begin to feel."
A woman, her skin glowing in blue, was surrounded by smaller machines that all listened to her as her light voice explained the facts. Firadaes. The most recent model of modern machine, pristine and humane-like more than me. You couldn't even see their coils or gears. And they were void of emotion.
"They are the oldest of the Systems," the woman continued. She wasn't a Firadae. Her blue skin gave away to an older model- a Listi. "I am almost certain that this System 11 is the last of its kind, and the claim is that his reactor will never expire."
I chuckled a bit, and her vibrant skin glowed with shock. "You best be afraid if that's true. I'm the last sign of human life you'll ever see."
She turned, her neck coils making that springy sound that older models did. "You are not human. You've never even met a human."
"Really? Is that what they teach you in school?" My fingers coiled around the rusted bars, and I pushed my face against the metal. "Well, they're wrong. They're just afraid to tell you what we System 11s are capable of. Of what I'm capable of."
"You attempted to overthrow our leader!" the woman had raised her voice. No emotion, not even a finger pointed at me in accusation. The Firadaes all sat with wide eyes. "You managed to kill millions, and they won't kill you simply because you cannot. Otherwise, you would have been dismantled along with every other System 11."
"I know that. Ugh, you Listis are too stubborn, perfect for Mavarn's stupid rules." I pulled away and sat on the empty rusted bed. "Fuck off for a while and go show the rest of the prison to the children, all right?"
For a moment, she sat there while analyzing my speech before the corners of her mouth wrinkled upwards like a human's mouth would have done. "Firadaes."
I closed my eyes, falling back onto the metal. It wasn't as nice as my bed covered in warm sheets, but it would do until I had to go back. My body was nearly in shut-down mode when I heard a whimper. A human-like whimper. My eyes opened wide, and I focused them in on a Firadae who had their tiny fingers wrapped around the rusted bars.
There were tears dropping from their metal eyes, and you could see their body falling apart in twitches from the water entering the few cracks they had.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I managed to say, lunging to the bars. My metal fingers clacked against them, and I kneeled to be face-to-face. "Can Firadaes feel?"
They shook their head. "No." The voice was that of a young girl's. "Something's wrong. My codex must've..."
"Reacted." I pushed a hand through the bar to wipe away her tears. "What's your name?"
"Firadae, Number 732."
"No, no. Your name." She looked up, curiosity drawn on her face. Real. All of that emotion was real.
A call came from down the hall. "Number 732? Where are you?"
My hand slipped away. "You should go back."
The tears had dried up, but she stood stagnant to stare at me.
"Viania."
The was all I heard before her metal feet clacked against the metal floor into another metal hallway with metal prisoners that all held the same fate. Death. Slowly, I fell back into the metal bed, waiting for the day someone would figure out a way to kill me.
Maybe one day they would.
YOU ARE READING
Release Me From Hell
Science FictionHumans are dead. They've been gone for six thousand years, leaving behind the machines they built when they all managed to kill each other. Machines do not die until their reactors corrupt, and they can go on for thousands of years before falling ap...
