MACHINE

5. Old Worlds and Ancient People

We had stayed with Juliet for several weeks. We still planned to escape, but it was hard to communicate with one another because of the limitations regarding our speech and our movement, even though Juliet often granted us as much freedom as our programming allowed. We still couldn't talk about our past or that we were human, for the most part.

Life with Juliet was easy. There were parties a couple times a week, where her peers would come and gawk at us (her 'fancy new Bots'), causing several of them to consider purchasing their own. It greatly unsettled me and Lucas to realize that we were unwittingly giving Botulinum inc. more business and incentivising them to keep doing what they had done to us to more people. There was nothing we could do about it, though. If Juliet commanded us to chat up her guests, we had to.

Other than the parties, we were allowed to do as we pleased and explore Juliet's mansion with the exception of her private wing. I spent most of my time in her large library, amazed at the plethora of books she held in her possession. Lucas would often stay with me, though he usually just sat by the window and sketched the birds he saw flying by as he was not an avid reader as I was.

Juliet's library was fantastic. There were more books in her library than I had ever seen in my life. As a lower ranked citizen, physical copies of books were impossible to afford. I never saw Juliet in her library though. She seemed to be almost comically clueless about many things, despite the air of regality about her. I supposed that the collection of books in her possession went largely unnoticed by her, and must've been a hand-me-down from a more scholarly dead relative.

Those days I spent reading I learned much about what the world used to be like, from yellow-paged books with cardboard or paper covers. Most books nowadays were e-books, as wood and paper were very expensive. Juliet's library of paper books was the Teran equivalent of having your bookshelves filled with bars of pure gold.

As I read, I learned the Old World was vast, people lived on every continent. As far as I knew, there were only three countries remaining in the world currently, all of them in what used to be North America. Tera, Erde, and Lurra. I knew very little of Erde and Lurra, and even in Juliet's fabulous library it told very little of our neighbouring countries. In Tera, you hardly knew anything about what was happening between your country and others, and even within your own country. Apparently it was not always so. The old books spoke of presidents and voting, among other things, and it amazed me that people once knew who was ruling over them. In Tera, you never knew who your leaders were, all you knew was to follow what the Deathmongers commanded of you, or face the consequences.

I often sat next to Lucas and told him of all I had read about. He seemed slightly interested, but Lucas had always been concerned with the here and now, and he was right. He kept reminding me that we needed to get out of here. I knew he felt smothered, and caged. Lucas hated being trapped, no matter how beautiful the trap was, but I had started to wonder if we really would be better off if we left. I had run through all the scenarios in my mind nearly hours after we had first arrived, and escape didn't seem safe.

"We need to leave." Lucas reiterated.

I lifted my head from the old world map I was reading, crossed the room to the window seat Lucas had been resting on, and sat facing him in a glossy wooden chair. "How? We can't go against our commands, we've tried constantly. She told us not to leave the property, and now we can't."

Lucas nodded somberly. "I know." He said with slight irritation in his voice. "But I can figure out a way to override it, I just need a time when Juliet is gone to figure it out."

"Juliet is leaving for a vacation in Lurra next week." I said. "But Lucas-"

"But what?" He said, annoyed. "Don't you want to leave?"

"Yes, of course I do. Of course I want to be in charge of my life and do as I please, but did we ever really have that? Will we have that anywhere?"

"We can't stay here! I can't live being a thing!" Lucas said, clearly angry at me now.

"Lucas..." I said, my voice calm and diplomatic. Lucas often lashed out at me in anger, but it always meant he was afraid and that he didn't feel safe, and for that I couldn't blame him. "Where would we go?" I asked.

"Well I-" Lucas started, but he couldn't think of anything. He avoided eye contact with me, he knew I was right.

"Even if we made it out of here, we couldn't just run off and live in the forest for the rest of our lives, we'd need somewhere with a charging station or spare Bot batteries to keep us running. We would be easy to catch for Deathmongers in that case." I tried to explain.

Lucas lowered his head into his hands. "You're right. I know you're right..." He said in a small voice. "What are we going to do then, stay here forever?"

"No." I said, standing up and wrapping my arms around Lucas in a supportive manner. He buried his head in my chest. "We just need a plan. I'm working on it, I promise. We'll find somewhere to go, then we'll get out of here, alright?" I asked him.

Lucas looked up at me with his pink robotic eyes. They showed no emotions, but I could feel the warmth of his soul despite the cold metal of his body. "Alright." He said. "I trust you. I'm sorry about getting mad before...I'm just frustrated."

"You don't need to apologise." I said. "I understand."