Release Me From Hell

Chapter 16: (Firadae: Number 732/Viania) Ask Me Why I'm Here

          Six weeks had gone by, and Siddim voice was as strong as it was that night. It kept echoing on in my brain, a common darkness that brooded in the back of my coils waiting for a reason to blossom out. And I was wandering around the vast landscape left untouched for the passed five thousand years. I had to wonder why we weren't in the same position as we were before the war, able to replace the human population and live as their doppelgangers. I studied our patterns, came up with my synopsis. It was our fault, I was sure. To this day, machines malfunction without human demands.
            I continued walking passed Atum, to the fog that plagued every inch of the place. There were machines everywhere in the old America, functioning and shuffling. There was more than Firadaes, and there was more than Iskil. No one was as old as Iskil in body, but there were those with human knowledge hiding from the civilization around. I wondered if they snuck in to Atum to get knew bodies when their reactors were on fail. Now that I was alone, I wondered a lot of things I had kept to myself all this time.
            I told Ititian where I had gone, explaining with a brief context that I didn't want to be found. If she came after me, that would be her fault, and I didn't want that. No longer did I want anyone to care about me the way she had. It was beginning to look like I was caught in the middle of too many dangers for love to exist and to last. So I walked farther away into the fog until my breath was cascaded in it, making my cold coils slowly turn even worse.
           Deep into the fog.
           Humans called this month December and this day was one they loved to celebrate. Christmas.
           I imagined a gruesome battle of human weapons and machines. Androids. Human-looking machines.
         Calling all System 13s, the Factory is now open.
         I screamed, making my presence known as fire cascaded through every blade of uncut grass. I noticed I was walking towards a trench, and an android stood tall within it. I immediately jumped back.
         "Do Not Be Afraid."
         It's voice was perfect in every way, and it knew exactly how to creep me out. Fire blazed around my fingers, and I shaken-ly pointed them towards pointed them towards it.
         "You Are Afraid?"
           I nodded. "Yes. No one else is supposed to be out this far."
         "You Said It Was Possible. Did You Not Contemplate It Moments Ago?"
         How the fuck did it know that? Fire shot out again, but it seemed unfazed by it entirely. It didn't approach, but its voice was still loud.
         "You Need To Head Back To The Land Of Scraps, Viania. Ititian Is In Danger," it said.
         I shuffled back. "Like I believe you! What are your numbers?"
       "I Have None. This Is Not My Body. I Am... Borrowing It For A Time."
        "I don't trust you."
       "Then Ititian Will Die."
        I idled for a moment before finally screaming out of frustration. Was it right? Was it playing me? As I tried to wrap my head around the sudden encounter, a message popped up in my filters.
       Ititian: Help!
       I stared at the machine, and then I sighed. My feet ran faster than I could think, and I tried to get as far away as possible from it.

       When my eyes met the piles of rusted metal, I held my chest as if I had an aching heart. Like I could. My body was in a sudden panic of every possible outcome, and I made myself squeeze between the piles. A trail of broken, half-rusted panels had suddenly shined in the dark, a trail of blood. Fresh. I had touched those skin-looking panels many times before in my life. I knew.
       And then I saw the head.
      There was no longer any life in it, and the jaw was hanging on by the wires. Whatever was left of her was long gone, hours worth of time lost between her waken moments and now. My eyes were fixated on her eye that had been missing for years, and I kept looking right into the heart of the socket. Her body was a few hours lost. The message was only sent an hour ago. With a swift movement, I pointed a hand behind me.
        Iskil was standing right there, and he held up his hands.
       "I didn't do it," he squeaked.
         I knew he didn't. Even if he was looking for me, he wasn't heartless enough to destroy her. Ititian. Water sprouted from my silicon eyes, realizing the last conversation I ever had with her was about leaving forever. "I know," I choked, putting my hand down. "I..."
         "Her memory chip is fried, so she can't be put into a new body," he said so curtly. "Whoever hurt her wanted to send a message."
         I turned on my heel, ready to leave and escape to the emptiness I managed to get to, but Iskil grabbed my arm with one hand and placed my ear to his other. I felt the electricity pulse through me, making my world suddenly shift into darkness. Until I woke again in a hazy dream.
       As Iskil.
      A memory.
     My eyes blinked open slowly as I stared at the woman in the face. Her hair was too long, her eyes too vibrant, and she left a terrible feeling in my coils. Could I feel, I had wondered. No, I could not. Androids were not programmed to feel or be or understand.
      I told her my numbers. "I am System 11, Numbers 503. Do you wish to register a name?"
     "Iskil," she said, voice deep. I did not like her, I told myself, but she seemed to be my human.  "Iskil Madoeken."
     "And your name?"
      "Iskilla."
       The memories flashed forward. I was sitting in the basement of a human house, eyes staring straight forward. At her.
       And I took in a sharp breath of oxygen. "Iskilla, I-" Love. Words like that didn't exist in my programming.
       "I need you to stay, Iskil," she repeated. "Stay for me."
       "How can I serve you if I am not with you?"
       "You can't. From now on, you serve yourself."
       "Iskilla, I-"
        Those annoying vibrant eyes. That stare. Her. All of it meant something even if it once bothered me.
         "I love you, Iskil," she whispered. "I hope one day you figure out how to feel. That you love me back."
         But I do, I thought. I love you like family, and I'm locked up inside because all of a sudden you're leaving me.
        But I kept my mouth shut. I kept my body still, and I waited.
       The memories flashed forward. Thousands of years passed like a blink of an eye until it was Iskil in a dusty house staring ahead at Bavarn. This was recent. Very recent.
       "And I'm supposed to live with knowing my colleagues were made as a substitute for what we've caused? We made humans die! We killed them, and for what?"
       He stood, chair clattering against the floor. "Iskil Madoeken!" The tension in me fell as he pulled out my last name. Well, not mine. Hers. "We were used by humans. They broke our laws first. They made us kill other humans and other machines to pick sides. We had no choice! It was in our programming to kill humans. It still is! And there's a human settlement not far from here, and letting everyone be aware? They'll snuff the humans out. They'll die! If I die, Iskil, all of these things will be known to them because the signal in me that blocks it all will dissipate."
I processed for a moment.
        "Viania's death has the opposite signal," he continued. "A kill-code. When I die, she has to suffer the same fate. Otherwise, that human settlement will fall victim to machine plague."
         It flashed forward once more. Six weeks forward where Iskil had stood tall in the Land of Scraps where he was witnessing the death of Ititian.
         She turned to the pile of heads that belonged to the veterans of war. I shook my head, remembering clearly that no one else dared to belong here in such a sacred place.
I sighed. "You should leave before anyone here finds you. Especially Ititian's girlfriend."
        "But I'm not done here," she complained.
       I paused. With a slow stutter of my body, I turned all the way around. My feet began to approach her, and she faltered underneath the intensity of my stare.
      "Something tells me you just might be."
      She nodded, darting into the bodies from the way she came. My eyes darted to Ititian's deceased being, watching the rest of the life come out of it. Six weeks...
      Viania had been missing for six weeks.
      When my eyes opened to reality, I pushed Iskil off of me. He barely even swayed but I backed up enough to be far away. My mind had to process what the hell he just showed me. Iskilla. Leaving. Dying. Ititian. There were errors on my screen, telling me all kinds of warnings about coils locking up and gears suddenly stopping. Androids were not made to think so hard about dying or being humiliated. No, we were supposed to help humans deal with those kinds of things.
         I managed to put some words together. "She was pretty."
         Iskil nodded. "She was. I was modeled to look like her son, and I was given her son's memories. I knew everything I needed to know about her the moment my eyes fluttered open, and my thoughts were his thoughts."
           I stood from my crashing body, shouting my words. "I don't want to die, Iskil!"
          "And I do. Sucks we can't get what we want, huh?" He turned on his heel. "Just as a warning, if you leave again, I'll kill someone else to make you come back."
          "You're..." I coughed. "you're cruel."
           He began walking away. "Glad you realize it now. I am not someone to idolize for a better future. I am someone to fear for as long as I exist."
          Artomit was right.
          Iskil was the bad guy.