Automatons ✔

Chapter XXV

Even with her system shut down, her face was pleasing to touch and her eyes still held a stubborn spark that refused to diffuse. Her front face was still intact, but the back of her head was totally cracked open and pieces of her artificial brain spilled out like a waterfall. His fingers traced over her cheek ever so lightly like a sheet touches naked skin. Her Father verily sculpted her to remain beautiful even when she wasn't turned on.

She wasn't the kind of beauty that poets of old would sing songs about, but she was the kind that painters spend months to recreate her colourful cheerfulness that'd beat through the painting frame.

He looked around to find the culprit who has caused this mess, but even the tanks were torn into pieces and so were the commanders who cowardly hid inside of them. Someone needs to pay for this! She had so much life in her, even more than most humans, and it wasn't fair for her to be stolen from him in this manner.

"Can you bring her back?" He asked Nerezza who kneeled beside him.

She shook her head, "I know how to control their systems, but her wetware brain has been destroyed."

"What if I find an Automaton engineer? Or, or what about an Automaton mechanical shop?"

"Yoel, most people have fled the country to safer areas that have less technological development. Look around, we're the only ones in this city." She sighed.

"No, Cloyd is still somewhere here. We need to find him!" He got up.

"It's over, Yoel. They won both the battle and the war... We have no army, we own one gun and Éloa's sword, and no artificial intelligence that we can use for precision targeting." She tried to talk some sense into him.

"I owe a promise to the Automaton who sacrificed her life to save other humans. I will fulfill my oath to her, and I will save her kind from this cruel regime."

"And how do you plan to do that?" She raised her eyebrow.

"I know you said you can no longer control Mega, but can you still track her?"

"Yoel, that's a crazy ide-"

"Can you or can you not?" He clenched his fist.

After few seconds of silence, Nerezza finally nodded.

"Good, you will locate her and we will find a car to drive to where Cloyd is keeping her." He demanded while picking up what was left of Éloa's body.

"Are we taking it with us?" She pointed at the motionless Éloa.

"It's still a her. She's not dead, we can turn her back on if we fix her wetware brain."

"You can't fix something that's broken into pieces." She shrugged her shoulders, "but fine, I'll try to collect all the pieces of brain, just in case we do find a way to bring her back."

                                 "How does it feel knowing that you're staring at the same man who killed both your Father and siblings?" Cloyd said while his tongue traced over Mega's collarbone.

"Data cannot be processed, please try again." She replied in a raw robotic voice.

"What a shame that my wheel has destroyed your consciousness, I had so many other ways in mind to torture you." His words created webs of insanity that begotten her sadness.

"Data cannot be processed, please try again." A single lonely tear, as lonely as her, trickled down her cheek.

She was strapped to a couch inside a cinema with Cloyd, the creator of her nightmares, by themselves.

"Which of these videos shall I play for you again? The one where your father was begging for mercy before my bullets went through his head, or the CCTV that shows your siblings explode like millions of stars?" He grabbed her chin and brought her lips to his.

"Data cannot be processed, please try again." She mumbled against his lips.

She hasn't totally lost her consciousness as Cloyd believes, thoughts still twirled inside her head and sadness still lingered inside of her like a ghost. It has been haunting her body for days since she learned that Cloyd was the same agent who had killed her Father, and made her watch the video multiple times.

She stopped enjoying the things she has learned to enjoy as a conscious Automaton. The starry sky no longer fascinated her, for its darkness has turned into an alarm that reminds her every night that Cloyd is home to torment her. The innocent doves who created nests at the window of her prison no longer symbolized hope, they symbolized the freedom that has been stolen from her. Depression has held her tightly in its grip, and she could barely breathe relief or exhale worries. It bequeathed her joy to nothingness and made her numb.

Cloyd continued to shameless kiss her as the video of her father being killed played in the background. His screams and last words have casted her in a dark room, darker than her mind, and isolated her with inner demons that couldn't be compelled by God or Satan.

Cloyd let go of her and her body relaxed once he stopped the kiss. A voice from behind has warned him that an unwelcomed presence has entered joined them.

"Who's there?" He pulled out his gun and aimed at the dark hallway.

The video stopped playing and the darkness covered the whole place with fear.

"It's been a long time, my friend." Yoel's voice echoed.

"Who the fuck are you? I swear I'll shoot you motherfucker if you don't show me your face!" Cloyd could not hide the fear in his voice. He has certainly made a mistake tonight by not bringing a bodyguard with him.

"You already forgot the voice of the man whose first love you just killed?"

"Yoel? How did you find me, you little shit?!" Cloyd's legs wobbled as he started following the voice.

"You kill a man's love, and he'll follow you like a shadow. You left a hole inside of me that I can only fill with broken dreams." Yoel started tearing up, "You stole a masterpiece from me, a wild Automaton who tamed me and gave me a reason to stay in this world. Now, I will honour her death by killing you the same way you took her from me."

Suddenly the lights turned on and out of nowhere, Yoel jumped from behind him and kneed his face when he turned around. Bood spewed from his nose, and he screamed from the agonizing pain. He tried to shoot but Yoel twisted his hand until and the gun fell. Nerezza calmly approached him and grabbed his other hand and handcuffed it to one of the chairs.

"This handcuff is protected by a password, you have five minutes to figure it out and free yourself to turn off the bomb on the other chair." She pointed at the ticking bomb that was placed few feet away.

"I wish there was a way to watch you die, but it'll help me to sleep to know that unburied pieces of your body will remain scattered for wandering animals to feed on." Yoel whispered the last words in his ears.

He walked out of the cinema while Nerezza struggled to carry Mega who could barely move by herself. Cloyd screamed for help while entering random passwords on the handcuff's tiny screen. After three attempts, a red text popped up warning him that he needs to wait fifteen minutes before trying to enter a password again.

"What? No, I can't die like this!" He yelled.

His screams cracked around the cinema like a little bird's first chirp at dawn. Karma no longer turned her back on him, she turned around and looked at him straight in the eyes. His life's narration can only be conjugated in the past now, for the only future he will know is the darkness of the afterlife that will ravish his soul. He sounded like a broken piano keynotes as he screamed for help, but the only two humans nearby have already got in their car and started driving to California.

He was left alone to die, and his screams became mere vibrations to the deaf ears of the walls that surrounded him. He fell to his knees and tried to recite a prayer, but he didn't have one memorized. He could no longer feel his heart that was just beating loudly few seconds ago, and words froze inside his throat as his body turned cold from fear. He covered his face with his hands and continued to shed tears before he heard the last deadly tick, and his body touched the fire of the explosion.