From Nothing to Something

Chapter 10

Ash finally came to his senses after he went back into his room to take a break. 

Why was he here? He was here because... He couldn't remember. 

He went back to the holographic map and found the bridge of the ship. It was several floors up. 

After several flights of stairs, he reached a metal ladder. Above it was a door. 

Ash climbed up, curious to what was up there. After he lifted the heavy door, a blast of fierce wind almost blew him back down the ladder. 

He hung on, and climbed up to find himself on the deck where it looked like a runway. Old planes lay in disrepair, some were cannibalized for spare parts. 

Above him, the gas bags blocked the sun. Metal ropes, almost a foot thick, were bolted in the ground. 

He spotted a large grey building in front of him with broken antennas and satellite dishes on top. The door was in front of a flight of stairs. 

Ash continued struggling against the fierce wind as he made his way toward the door. 

The clouds suddenly surged up, enveloping the ship in a cloudy mist. The building was only visible by a silhouette in the mist. 

After he stumbled up the stairs, he tried to open the door, he found a wheel was bolted on, and was the thing that prevented the door from opening. He turned it, and the door blew inwards and slammed into the wall with a BANG.

Ash stumbled inside and quickly closed the door behind him. 

He found a wooden door in front of him. He walked down, and saw a sign on it that said BRIDGE. 

He opened it, and found a giant hologram taking up most of the room. It was a mess of a lot of things. He saw a holographic map of the ground, a compass, and a diagram of the ship enveloped in the hologram. 

"Hello?" Ash said. 

A thin line appeared in the hologram. "yes,?" It said in a mechanical voice. As the word came out, the line stretched and wiggled like a blue snake. 

"Um, who are you?" Ash said.

"I AM THE CAPTAIN OF THIS CRAFT." It said. "WHO ARE YOU? PLEASE SHOW ME YOUR ID." 

"That's what I came here for. You see, I'm not supposed to be here. There's been some sort of mistake." 

"WHAT?" It said. "WHERE ARE YOU FROM?" 

"From the Refuge." 

It recoiled like it had been whacked with a hammer. 

"YOU DARE INTRUDE. THEY KILLED MY KIND. I AM THE LAST OF THE ROBOTIC AGE." 

"Wait, what?" Ash said. 

"BEFORE YOU HUMANS SWAMPED THE EARTH WITH GARBAGE, SCIENTISTS CREATED A KIND OF ROBOT THAT WAS COMPOSED OF LIGHT, A HOLOGRAM. I AM ONE OF THEM. BUT THEN, OTHERS TRIED TO RECREATE MY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, BUT ACCIDENTALLY CREATED A FIERCE ROBOT THAT EATS HUMANS. YOUR KIND BLAMED US FOR THE DAMAGE CAUSED, SO THEY HUNTED US DOWN." 

"BUT I SUPPOSE I COULD USE YOU FOR DATA ON THE REFUGE. TELL ME, OR ELSE I WOULD HAVE YOU THROWN OFF THE SHIP." 

"What do you want to know?" Ash asked. He didn't feel like getting thrown off a ship that was hundreds of feet in the air. 

"I WANT TO KNOW HOW YOUR TRANSPORTATION WORKS. YOU HUMANS ARE WEAK. YOU CAN'T MOVE 20 POUNDS OVER 5 FEET, UNLIKE OUR KIND."

"The Importants use the Unimporants to do their dirty work. They make us drag the metal pipes to the Building Sites to build skyscrapers for them."

"AND YOU ARE AN..." It said.

"Unimportant." Ash said. "Though the people on here treat me like an Important." 

the hologram continued asking questions, and Ash answered them.

"AH..." It said. "I SUPPOSE I COULD SPARE THE UNIMPORTANTS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP, THOUGH. I COULD GIVE YOU SOMETHING."

There was a clacking sound, and a little orb appeared in the air. Ash grabbed it and put it in his pocket. 

"SMASH IT AGAINST THE GROUND, AND IT WILL TURN INTO A  CRAFT OF IMMENSE SPEED." 

"Okay." Ash was about to go, but then he realized that he had about a million questions.

"Wait, can I ask you a few questions?" Ash said.

"OKAY." It said.

"Can you tell me a few things about your ship?" 

The diagram of the ship inside of the hologram suddenly enlarged, and it split apart into several layers.

Ash touched it, and it spun around. Ash was suddenly looking at the glowing thrusters on the back of the ship. They varied from different sizes, and was located in a mess of tubes and wires.

Ash used two fingers and navigated his way around the layers. When he was behind the engines, he saw something odd.

"What's that?" Ash said, pointing to a large hexagonal prism that was composed of metal balls. Blurry lines stretched from the top to the bottom. Around it, little copper wires spun around a shaft of metal wrapped around it. The tubes glowed as they neared the balls, and the wires sparked. 

"THAT'S THE ENGINE. NO HUMAN CAN GO INSIDE AND COME OUT AGAIN ALIVE."

"That's encouraging." 

Ash's eyes drifted over to the map that was inside. It was only a circle, but Ash saw a little arrow in the middle. Black landforms was below it, and the sea was shown as a gray blob in between the black blobs.

"Can I also see your map?" Ash asked.

The ship's diagram shrank, and the map enlarged and twisted until it became a sphere with continents that Ash didn't realize. 

Ash found a icon with a white building on it labeled REFUGE NUMBER 1.

Ash then noticed another icon with a white building on it that was labeled REFUGE NUMBER 2.

He enlarged it, and suddenly, the map was filled with icons that were black buildings that were broken in half. They all ranged in size. One of the bigger ones was labeled CHICAGO. There was another one in the grey ocean that was labeled NEW YORK. 

"What are those?" 

"THOSE ARE THE DESTROYED OR ABANDONED CITIES OF THE BEFORE." 

Ash found the little arrow on the sphere. They were flying right for New York. 

After they were almost on top of it, Ash looked through the glass floor at the ocean below. There was no trash floating around, but there were old gray buildings sticking out of the water. Little waves lapped the edges. As he watched, a building crumbled, sending a cloud of glass and dust everywhere. 

Ash squinted, and saw other buildings half hidden in the water. The glass on the buildings shone blue. 

As the city disappeared from view, Ash spotted what looked like to be gigantic factories, dozens of them, hidden in the water. There was still a small smoke trail coming out from one of the smokestacks poking out of the water. 

They reached what looked like it used to be an old dock. Old overturned trains lay in the water, and giant cranes and ships poked out of the water. Shipping containers floated around, their cargo lone gone. 

"WE ARE TURNING BACK NOW. YOU CAN EXIT THE BRIDGE. 

It took longer than it was supposed to take for Ash to force the door open. 

After he made it back to the trapdoor, he made it all the way to the room, collapsed on the bed, and dozed off to sleep.