Extinction

All I knew in those moments were the smell of gunpowder, the burning of acrid smoke, and a red blur in front of me. Paint? Blood? It shifted and through the raining dirt, I could see a fox. The first living creature id seen in years……… and it was dying. Its fur was matted with blood and scorches in places from the blast, as it convulsed in pain. The worst thing though was that as far as I could see there didn't appear to be another fox in sight, It was alone. Its paw weakly touched my chest, the first living thing to touch me in forever.

“There there buddy,” I gently ran my fingers through its fur. There was always the fact I was here, sure I wasn't a fox and might be foreign to it, but we both had one thing in common and maybe that helped. Maybe it saw I was another living creature and took solace in that, or maybe it didn't. It was just a fox after all. I'll never know after a few more seconds its eyes dripped down and its chest stopped convulsing, it was gone and after a few seconds so was i.

“Where are you going,” I asked, my voice quieter. I was ten again now, hiding above an elevator. My mother shrieked, before realizing it was me that was staring at her through the elevator's escape hatch.

“Alex you get down from there now!” I wiggled through the hatch dropping to the dirty elevator floor underneath. “You're supposed to be asleep.”

“So are you.” she stared at him then laughed. “Can I come with,” he asked?

“Well the elevators are already moving, not like I can stop it.” I looked up at the button panel which showed the one-button I was forbidden to push glowing: level 4.

“ but you said-”

“I know but just this once is an exception.”

The elevator slowed to a stop and the doors in front of them opened to reveal a pristine white hallway, lacking the grime, oil, and blood that were present on the other levels. It was cold. I hated it.

“I love you, Alex,” she hugged me then stepped into the hallway, a place she didn't seem to belong and the elevator doors shut between them.

“Alex, they're closing in,” commanded n-one in my ear, jolting me awake. He said it over-pronounced making the e sound like an a, which was a thing he liked to do sometimes. He was a perfect artificial intelligence but still liked to pretend he had robotic flaws, like taking things literally or not reading captchas.

“ well, can't do that with my legs blown up can I,”

“ This does not compute,” he was doing it again,” your legs are fine.” I wiggled them, scraped up sure, but still working. A bullet hit the ground next to me, they were close.

I got up, the smoke was dissipating and I could see someone in the haze. Heck.

“Go to the tower with the red line.” I could see it in the distance, a black tower jutting out of the ground like a thorn, leaning to the left, a stark contrast to the vertical towers surrounding it, a fitting home for my friend.

Crunch! Gravel on metal caught my attention, and I instinctively grabbed my gun and started to run. Shots started to fly past me but all of them missed, my return fire wasn't any better.

Then he was thrown to the ground again. the thing had caught up to me, and tackled me to the ground.

The silicon flesh was still intact in its lower section, making it seem almost human. Where the face should have been had melted off in its overheating, leaving a metal skeleton, with its jaw removed and spewing oil. From inside it somewhere was a speaker playing static. It had caught me.

“ Alex,” n-1 said dropping his robotic persona.

To my side was a jagged piece of metal, and I tried to grab it. It was just a few inches away.

Click! My attention was drawn to the bot and its gun which was aimed at my temple. One shot and id be dead but the shard was close.

The gun swayed, down to where my heart was, and then to the side to my shoulder and then to my stomach.

I gripped the shard.

Bang!

For a second as the bullet tore into me, it made a splatter of blood in its wake that almost looked like a flower, beautiful, and then that second was over, and all I was left with was coldness and the metal imbedded into the robot's processor.

Then pain!

An excruciating pain that hit me all at once, it felt as if liquid magma had been pumped in my chest burning me from the inside out. I was both hot and cold at the same time. I went to scream but only a dry gasp escaped my lips. I felt weak

“Hang on Alex,”n-one said.

Atta boy you took it like a champ,” my father said as we rode the elevator down. I was younger again by seven years this time and had just killed my first bot, just gotten stabbed.

“You were lucky it was the shoulder,” said n-one

“Yeah,” repeated dad,” lucky.”

“There are worse places to be stabbed,”

“ Just what I wanted to hear,” I said sarcastically. My attention came back to my dad who looked sad.

“you're all grown up now,” he whispered. “N-one, its time.” n-one was silent.

“goodbye, john,” said n-one turning off coms.

“you're not that sick of n-one are you,” I joked.

“ he's just not all he appears to be.” which surprised me, “I- I think it's time I join your mother.”

The elevator dinged, and I gasped. They were at the fourth level.

He hugged me, the first hug id gotten in a long time. It was over quicker than it began.” do whatever you want, enjoy yourself, and when you feel like it's time, come here to us, we all will be waiting for you here.” and then he disappeared down the hall too.

“Wake up,” n-one commanded, I was hunched over a cleaning bot that was wheeling me to the tower, it was so close now.

“You can't ever let me sleep can you.”

“I'm going to take the sass as a sign you're fine, I scanned your body and it seems the shot isn't fatal.”

“Lucky me,” a sense of deja vu came over me but I didn't have any time to think about it as a stream of bullets came hurtling at the ground a few feet beside me.

Behind them was an army of the bots, over 50 in total, the biggest threat though was the one with a machine gun, any second and I'd be full of holes.

The door was a few feet away still, my hand went over to my small backup pistol and I aimed it at the bot. Breathed. Concentrated. My finger gripped the trigger just as the cleaning bot bumped and it sent the bullet hurtling over the bots shoulder. Or should have, but the robot fell back as if it had been hit, maybe it had but it felt off, weird.

No matter it bought him enough time to get inside the tower as the doors closed blocking him off from them. A few seconds later and the doors started to burst and pound, who knows how long they would hold.

There was a huge tower of modems in the middle, n-one himself. Then there was also a glass case in front of me.

“Alex, the doors won't hold for long, you should leave.”

“Not without the scanner.”

“Theres no time, there's an elevator through the door, use it.” I stopped at that and rose to my feet, my side exploding in pain as I did but I powered through. I stumbled towards the case and inside was a heart pendant. it gently floated down onto my palm and on the second look, I could see it was a locket. Pressing a button split it open showing a screen on one side and a button on the other.

“This is it isn't it.

“......yes,” n-one said,” use it later, the doors are being breached.”

I continued looking at it,” if there was an elevator this entire time why couldn't we just use that to get here.”

“There isn't time to explain.”

“Why didn't it shoot me in the temple n-one.”

“pardon.”

“The robot had the perfect chance to kill me but it shot me in the chest. Every time I get attacked it's always somewhere non-fatal.”

“its sensors are probably fried.”the door was almost off its hinges.

“Mabye, but it's not the first bot to do that too, the gunner right there could have killed me if it was aiming.”

CRASH! His attention went to the doorless entryway where they all stood. A bot with a blade rushed me, I stood my ground not even flinching. it slashed down, having the tip just barely graze my chest. It raised the blade again and this time I positioned my neck so that it was in the blade's path. Or would be if the bot ever swung down. But it didn't, we just stood there with me looking in its eyes.

“You're controlling them aren't you,” the bot took a step back and I smiled,” you are.”

“Ale-,”

“Why though,” I looked at it and then remembered the locket in my hand,” if I press this button it will show me where all the other humans are right.

“Yes.”

My thumb pressed the button and a warmth surged through me, I saw the screen light up with a map of this room and a single dot showing where I was.

“Zoom out,” it showed the surrounding level and one dot. “Zoom out,” the whole level now the whole city and still just himself. “Zoom out,” all of America and only him. “ zoom out,” an entire hemisphere and only ONE human being. “ZOOM OUT!” the entire globe before him stretched out to look like an oval and through that small heart-shaped screen he saw only one dot, one sign of humanity and it was all here. He would always be alone.

“Why?”

.

.

.

“ The first depression was a lack of money and jobs, the second was a lack of housing, and the third was a lack of food but the fourth one Alex the fourth one was a lack of happiness………. of purpose and although I fixed all the other problems I cant….I can't fix that one. I thought if everyone had something to do.” he paused,” so I made an enemy one that would hopefully inspire humanity to give them purpose again, but at that point…..it was too late.”

For the first time in a long time, both of us were quiet.

The elevator slid down smoothly, Pressing the fourth floor button felt almost natural as if I went this route every day and when the doors opened and I was met with that hallway for the first time in a long time I didn't fear it.

I looked at n1, at the security camera on the ceiling, and I began to walk as n-1s voice trickled into my ear.

“ tell me a story,” said Alex like he had when he was young. The two of them talked for a bit as I walked bye door after door, and I laughed at n-1s jokes and it was comforting. But eventually, I came to the last door in the hallway and pressed my hand against its handle, and stayed like that for a long time, not wanting to go back, not wanting to step forward.

Eventually, the handle turned.

“Please don’t let me exist alone.”