I closed the door of my shack behind me, locking it before readjusting my clothes and walking through the village streets, ignoring the pair of red-clad legs dangling in the corners of my vision.
"You forgot to button the top one."
Manah whispered in my ear from her perch on my shoulders.
I murmured in confirmation and buttoned my shirt, resuming my walk, greeting the androids along the way.
"Good morning, Alan!" Marcos, a male android with black hair and green eyes, waved, smiling when he saw me.
I returned the gesture and continued on my way. I still found it strange to hear good morning during the eternal night, but that kind of phrase was uttered according to the time now.
"Hey, Alan, some friends and I are going fishing this weekend! Would you like to come too?!" Júlio, the white-skinned android with curly blond hair, the same fisherman who was nearly devoured by the giant alligator, asked from the second-story window of a small wooden house.
"Sure, I'd love to!" I replied, giving a thumbs-up.
"We'll be waiting for you! Try not to lose your fishing rod to the fish this time!"
"Hey, it's not my fault! That thing was the size of a horse!"
"Sure, sure, hold on tight next time or they'll think this is just a fisherman's tale!"
We exchanged a few laughs before the conversation ended and I continued on my way. I crossed the streets until I reached the shopping area, stopping only when I heard a surprised scream.
Looking toward the source of the noise, I spotted a female android trying to hold a stack of wooden boxes upright in front of a store.
She looked familiar to me, but I focused on the problem at hand, running toward her and pushing the boxes, making sure they stayed in place.
With that done, I turned toward the android in question, with long dark hair and matching skin.
Her eyes widened slightly when she saw me, then she quickly looked away, fiddling with her hair as she blushed slightly.
"H-hi Alan, t-thanks for your help!"
"You're welcome, Carla!" I turned around, ready to leave, but she caught my eye before I could.
"Wait! W-would you like to hang out with me later? As friends, I mean! Bruno is offering discounts at his bar."
"I'd love to, but I'll be busy the rest of the day once I get off work, but I'll be free tomorrow. How about that?"
"Okay, see you tomorrow then."
I said goodbye to Carla, and after so many encounters, I finally arrived at my workplace, approaching a wooden and metal warehouse from which various sounds and creaks emanated.
The warm air I'd grown accustomed to hit my face as I walked through the large double gates, and dodging the dark oil stains on the cement floor, I greeted the other workshop workers as I headed to the back room.
There, I removed a key from my pocket and unlocked a metal locker, changing into blue overalls, a pair of thick leather gloves, and a pair of dark boots.
I put away my things, locked the locker, and returned to the work area, seeing what I had to do today.
This information came in the form of words from Lucas, my boss and the workshop owner.
Most androids looked like someone in their early twenties, but he looked like a human in his late forties, with a few streaks of gray in his wavy hair, a sharp face, and a muscular build.
He was even my height; I was used to being taller than androids, so I was a bit surprised when I met him.
"Attention everyone, we have a busy day! Antônio, Daniel, Renato, and William, you'll be working on ammunition manufacturing. I want two crates of pistol bullets, two of rifle bullets, and two of shotgun bullets by the end of the day! Roberto, Eduardo, and Luciano, we have a new batch of jeeps in need of repair. A bunch of idiots thought it would be a good idea to race them right after the rainy season. Needless to say, it didn't end well. They were lucky they didn't disappear in the mud! Alan, José, Vinícius, and I will prepare the new metal plates to reinforce the walls. The village needs to be ready for an attack, whether from gangs or the government army!"
Well, the work is hard, but at least the pay is enough to survive. This place is so isolated that most trade is done through barter, but I don't have much to offer other than my labor.
I grabbed a leather apron and a welding mask from a table and approached the materials I'd be working with. Basically, a pile of scrap metal acquired from ruins and trade with other villages.
My team members donned protective gear and attached a large piece of metal to hooks and chains, pulling them through metal rings in the ceiling, lifting it.
Honestly, the androids' strength still frightened me. They seemed so casual about manual labor that would require several humans to perform.
"Well, Alan, show us your magic tricks!" Lucas's voice, muffled by his welding mask, echoed off the walls.
I could imagine everyone's smiles beneath the equipment and couldn't help but laugh at that.
I stepped forward, and water surged into my hands, first forming a sphere in each palm, but then quickly molding them into two jets of pressurized water, cutting the twisted metal into a rectangle.
The process repeated itself for hours; we worked like a machine, cutting through metal after metal until we had a stack of roughly rectangular plates.
Afterward, I summoned wind and blew the fragments across the floor to the corner of the workshop. Then, we hammered the plates as flat as possible. The cracking of metal assaulted my ears, a sound I had grown accustomed to by this point.
Finally, we used blowtorches, or magical fire in my case, to weld the smaller plates together into a larger one, cooling them with water and stacking them at the back of the workshop to be carried away by the androids who would work on the wall.
I lost track of time as the work continued. I didn't even know if it was still the same day; after all, the androids didn't need to sleep, but I needed to keep up with them.
I simply removed my equipment and wiped the sweat from my forehead, sighing wearily.
I would have liked to join the other workers' conversation during the break, but I joined Lucas on the other side of the workshop due to a favor I'd asked of him after a few days of working here.
I felt like I was taking advantage of his kindness; after all, he'd hired an inexperienced outsider like me. However, I almost jumped with joy when he agreed to teach me how the vehicles of this distant future worked.
Trucks, motorcycles, and cars looked the same as they did back then, but inside they were completely different, as were the new tools used to repair them.
Parts that floated, conducting energy, extremely thin wires carrying absurd voltages, chips I could only see with the smallest microscope, and of course, engines that absorbed the miraculous particle known as MASO from the atmosphere, the same particle that Caster androids like me used in their spells.
I felt like a child learning to read and write again, but little by little I learned to work with something so advanced. I could even fix minor defects.
I planned to get a vehicle in the future, and this knowledge would be useful. I didn't want to be left stranded if my car broke down in the middle of nowhere.
I asked as many questions as possible, satisfying my curiosity, and jotted down everything I found interesting on the terminal on my wrist.
Class ended just as my break did, and with that, I returned to my work.
-XXXXXX-
I left the workshop, chatting with the other employees as we went our separate ways. A mix of teasing, jokes, and pats on the back.
I was invited to a round of drinks at the bar. I did my best to hide my discomfort—they meant no harm, after all—and politely declined, saying I had something else to do, which I did.
I returned to my home, opening the old wooden door that creaked on its rusty hinges, partially illuminating a dark room.
Entering and closing the door behind me, I conjured a bolt of fire from my fingertip to light a lantern on my table in the center of the room.
The new light source revealed the various papers and maps scattered across the table, with various locations in the forest marked with circles crossed by Xs, except for one area I circled repeatedly and marked with arrows.
I put on my survival gear, checked my weapons and ammunition, and slung my backpack over my shoulders, leaving my home and the village shortly thereafter.
I followed the dirt roads I was already accustomed to, staying away from riverbanks and predator territories.
However, despite the familiar path, the hard part came after a few hours of walking north. Upon reaching a rock painted with a red X, I made a sharp turn east, entering the dense vegetation.
I hacked at the leaves and vines in my path with my machete, sweating as the heat and humidity assaulted my face. My heavy breathing attracted clouds of mosquitoes large enough to fit in the palm of my hand.
I could hear their buzzing meters before they appeared. I used a trick I had developed after my first unfortunate encounter with these pests, which left me sick in bed for a few days.
The insects fell one by one as they landed on my electrically charged skin, earning me a satisfied smile.
However, I put on a serious face when I saw a crude drawing of a jaguar on a tree trunk. I took a detour until I reached a tree with an arrow on its trunk, telling me to go straight ahead.
I nodded in confirmation and continued forward, changing paths again when I found the outline of a monkey screaming in the wood of another tree.
I didn't stop to check the time on my terminal, but I believe two hours passed before I reached my destination, two hours taking the longer, but safer, route.
I reached a hedge, a great wall of leaves, vines, and branches. Walking to the left, I passed through what had once been a massive metal gate, ten meters high and six meters thick, but now nothing more than a pile of rust.
I crossed the main courtyard on the other side of the gate, noticing the islands of cracked concrete emerging from the ground covered in layers of earth and mud.
Collapsed buildings were all around, exposing their steel beams like the bones of a dead animal and broken glass windows like dead eyes.
To my right, several military vehicles, now nearly turned to dust, rested in overturned positions, crushed and shattered.
What I believed to be automatic turrets waited at strategic points, now hanging precariously from their mountings. As I passed them, I dragged my feet along the ground, hearing the tinkle of spent shells rising from beneath the earth.
Leaving that aside, I approached the main building, a rectangular four-story structure.
I glanced at its dilapidated appearance, which I had become accustomed to, with the roof partially collapsed and a few holes in the walls of the lower floors, revealing its interior.
Crossing the main entrance, I glanced quickly at the rusted metal door resting on the ground, still bearing the mark of my kick.
The inside of the building was little better than its outside. There were offices where employee belongings still remained, like frames with photos and badges destroyed by time; rooms filled with rows of deactivated computers that would never work again; dark meeting rooms with long tables surrounded by chairs and overhead projectors, and more.
I tried to gather more information about this place in the archives, but all the papers had turned to dust. Then I focused on the armory, but to my dismay, all the weapons were now useless. What I wouldn't give for a machine gun.
Abandoning these memories of the past, I headed toward my objective, a tiny room in a far corner, and the further I went, the more signs of battle I found.
The walls, floor, and ceiling were covered in bullet holes, claw marks, and dark stains of what I believed to be dried blood. This made me more curious and eager to know what happened here. Humans once inhabited this place.
Giant animals were the first thing that came to mind, but I don't think they could wipe out everyone in a military base. I wonder how the androids would react to that? Do they even know this base exists so close to their homes?
Inside the room, I descended a metal staircase inside a large hole in the cement floor. Obviously, this passage was hidden in the past, but those who attacked the base found it.
The metallic clang of each footstep reverberated through the dark passage. The steps seemed to stretch on forever in their rectangular pattern embedded in the walls.
There was a deactivated elevator in the center of the shaft, and occasionally I encountered doors leading to labyrinthine side corridors. Some were marked with a red X, indicating I had already explored them.
Most led to destroyed laboratories, others to chambers filled with ancient machinery.
One in particular nearly made me run away when I found it, feeling like I was in a horror movie, as it was filled with cylindrical tanks with malformed beings inside, resembling winged lizards. Fortunately, they were all long dead.
After what seemed like an eternity, I reached the deepest level the staircase would allow, and walking through abandoned tunnels partially flooded with dark water, with wires hanging like vines above my head, I reached my destination.
To say the door was large would be an understatement; whoever built it wanted to make sure no one could get through.
Those who attacked the base tried but failed to break it. The large metal structure was covered in scratches and dents, as were the floor and walls decorated with holes and stains.
There were no remains of bodies or clothing; they had probably been taken by the defenders after the attack failed, but why hadn't they repaired the damage?
So many questions, but no answers.
I approached the door, passing the small camp I'd set up in the room—basically a sleeping bag, a dead campfire, and piles and piles of broken tools.
I'm afraid to tell someone how much money I spent buying tools in the village, but the vendors must love me for it.
Now, time to work again. The door in front of me was the easiest to pass, already heavily damaged, taking only a few weeks to open a hole I could squeeze through.
That same day, the joy of my achievement faded, as there was a second door in a hallway beyond the first, completely intact.
That's when the real challenge began. I have no idea what they were made of, probably some miracle metal typical of sci-fi, but the damn door was resistant to almost anything.
It took months of trial and error, pulling my hair out, and banging my head against walls until I finally developed a technique to open it.
I dismantled the door layer by layer, using intense fire to heat it, turning the room into a veritable oven, and then freezing ice to cool it, like a refrigerator.
Hours later, I used pressurized water jets and tools to slowly dig a passage through the weakened metal to the other side. And what was my reward? A third door! And hopefully the last!
I sighed, leaning my forehead against the cold metal, mentally preparing myself for a tedious process.
"Come on, don't stop now. You want to see Novi again, don't you?"
Manah smiled at me, a smile so wide it seemed to split her face.
I glanced at her, wondering how accustomed I had become to her presence. The devil in child form knew exactly what I wanted, and it didn't take much convincing.
-XXXXXX-
Day 200: I don't know how to feel. I've enjoyed living here, even though it's in a forest in the middle of nowhere.
I miss the modernity, the cinemas, the malls, the movies, the video games—what I wouldn't give for a burger and a soda, but all of that is made up for by the people I live with now. They are, they are... Kind.
They accepted me, an armed stranger. They accepted me after I showed them I meant no harm. It wasn't an instant process, of course. Me being a CASTER" model didn't help, as they feared what I might do.
However, I used my skills to help the community, not out of the kindness of my heart, but because it would advance my plans. I needed a place to stay while I searched for the newly discovered military base.
It took months of planning and exploration as I got to know the villagers, learning their names, quirks, likes, and dislikes.
I laughed when I needed to laugh, smiled when I needed to smile, and waved when I needed to wave. Like an actor in a play, I won over my audience, and before long I was considered a member of the community.
Soon, I'll open the last door, see what's on the other side, and then I'll leave with my treasure, or so I thought.
I feel a tightness in my chest whenever I imagine myself leaving or how I infiltrated these people's lives for my own benefit. I… I don't know if I want to leave. I've grown accustomed to the small village in the middle of the forest; I don't want to be alone again.
I want to maintain the connections I've made. I know I shouldn't have gotten attached, but I allowed it anyway. I want to wake up every day hearing that there are people around, I want to talk to my friends, I want to work with my colleagues, I want to live.
-XXXXXX-
"I GOT ONE!" I screamed as the fishing rod's string was pulled into the water.
Julio and the other androids cheered and rushed to my side, yelling at me not to let the fish escape. I gritted my teeth and dug my heels into the ground, pulling with all my might, but I was the one being pulled instead .
I felt a pair of arms close around my waist and soon found myself being pulled in the opposite direction by the androids. And with a cry of effort and a final tug, a huge shadow appeared in the water, breaking its surface.
When it was over, our eyes widened and our mouths dropped open, for a gigantic yellow fish was standing on the new pier, opening and closing its mouth big enough to swallow a person.
"SOMEONE TAKE A PICTURE!" One of the androids screamed and I soon found myself staring at a photo of me and five androids lined up, smiling and lifting the large fish.
We all saved the photo to our devices and prepared to take the animal back to the village, stopping when we heard the sound of a boat's engine approaching.
It only took one look to know; we dropped the fish and ran toward the trees, hiding with weapons in hand. We heard the boat stop, and a tense silence filled the air, broken by an arrogant male voice.
"WE KNOW YOU'RE THERE! WE WON'T HURT YOU UNLESS YOU GIVE US A REASON! WE JUST WANT TO TALK!"
No one dared respond or reveal themselves. I slowly pulled back the hammer of my revolver and let electricity course through my arm. I glimpsed my friends bracing for the worst as well. Fortunately, this didn't end in a shootout.
"Fuck it, we're wasting our time with these guys! Here's a gift for you!"
We heard the engine roaring again and waited for the sound to fade into the distance before we emerged from our hiding places.
When we returned to the fish, we found something on the riverbank: recruitment flyers for a gang, and they didn't even bother to disguise the fact that it was too good to be true.
The flyer promised money, freedom, power, men, women—basically, anything you wanted—just join a gang and fight against the government forces.
Apparently, my assumptions were proving correct; this will end in civil war one way or another.
-XXXXXX-
Day 220: Sometimes I would lie in bed and spend hours listening to the few radio transmissions my terminal could pick up. Most of them were nothing more than news and propaganda from the Human Heritage Recovery Management Organization, essentially the androids' central government located somewhere in Europe.
They told us not to worry, that everything would be fine and that order would soon be established in the Kingdom of the Night. These were nothing but lies. Here, things were very different. We heard news of villages being attacked while others joined the gangs.
The village I live in was being prepared. The walls and gates were reinforced, weapons and ammunition production intensified (I took the time to learn how to make ammunition; I hope to set up my own workshop someday), training areas were formed, and militias, patrols, and lookouts were built.
The pleasant atmosphere was slowly dying. Why is this happening? Of all times, why now? What if someone finds the base? Will my efforts be in vain? What will happen to the village? What will happen to these people?
-XXXXXX-
I approached Bruno's Bar, spotting the light shining through the windows and front door. Minutes later, I heard music, voices, and laughter coming from inside.
On the way, I glanced at a small house where the owner's pet lived, finding a dog-sized frog.
The red and yellow colors on its skin indicated it was extremely poisonous, so I kept my distance, but when it raised its head to look at me, I could read the name written on its collar.
Kermit
I was surprised the name had survived.
"So Kermit, how's life?"
"RIBIT."
"Indeed "
I continued on my way and stopped in front of the door, debating whether it was a good idea.
I was clean of my addiction, and to say the last time I'd been to a bar ended badly would be an understatement, but I'd been invited, so it would be good to show up.
Taking a deep breath, I walked through the door and found myself in a completely different world. Unlike my last experience, this place was more pleasant, with a clean and tidy appearance that contrasted with its supposedly old exterior.
I walked through its softly lit interior, spotting faces both new and old.
"Alan, here!"
Looking toward the source of the noise, I saw Carla waving at me from her seat next to a square table.
I approached with a smile, noticing that of all the other androids at the table, she was the only one I knew. Pulling out a chair for myself, I sat down and was introduced to everyone else by my friend.
We chatted for a long time, never stopping on a single topic. We talked about our lives, our daily lives, recent news, likes and dislikes.
Eventually, it was time to choose our drinks, and surprisingly, there were several options made with various types of fruit. After minutes of deliberation, I ordered a non-alcoholic fruit gin.
I don't know how much time passed; I was lost in the moment.
The sea of voices, laughter, and jokes brought me a happiness I thought I could never feel again. The diverse faces made me forget that I had lost my old life. The hands around my shoulders pushed away my loneliness, particularly Carla's, who was now glued to my side with a red face and a drunken smile.
In that moment, I let go, I laughed and smiled, raised my glass and toasted. There was no pretense or hidden agenda, no magical powers or dystopian future. For a few hours, I was just Alan, the human having fun with my friends.
However, amidst the whirlwind of emotions, I caught sight of the little blonde girl, and the grimace she was making was anything but pleasant.
I returned the gesture in kind, and the little devil scoffed before disappearing.
-XXXXXX-
Day 250: It's happening. We're under attack. One of the gang militias has targeted our village! I can hear gunshots and screams outside as I write, and I'll be joining the defense efforts soon! But why now?! The last door is almost open; I could see light coming through the cracks! What if the gangs find the base?! What if they loot what's on the other side?! I need to go back and see if everything's okay! I'll sneak out of the village when the attack is over and return before everyone notices, just to make sure my efforts weren't in vain.
+++NOTE+++
+++ THIS DIARY IS CONSIDERED A RELIC, RECOVERED FROM A COLLECTOR'S PRIVATE ARCHIVE. EVEN THOUGH CENTURIES OLD, THE RECORDS OF ITS ORIGINAL OWNER REPORT HIS ARDUOUS JOURNEY. THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT AND ITS PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL COPIES MAY ONLY BE ACCESSED WITH THE AUTHORIZATION OF THE HIGHEST-RANGING MEMBERS OF THE HUMAN HERITAGE RECOVERY MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION DUE TO THE FOLLOWING REASONS: IMPLICATIONS OF ITS AUTHOR'S IDENTITY, THE FAILURE TO IDENTIFY HIM IN ADVANCE, THE DAMAGES THE AUTHOR SUFFERED AND THE DANGERS HE FACED, AND HIS PROBABLE RELATION TO THE "REBIRTH" INCIDENT IN THE AMAZON RAINFOREST. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THE NECESSARY AUTHORIZATION, CONTACT THE NEAREST RESPONSIBLE AUTHORITY FOR YOUR FUTURE DEACTIVATION+++
END OF CHAPTER