[... Calm down, your stomach is still in one piece, but something definitely happened up there,] answered Genna with concern.

I looked around the hallway, and I could see a few people peeking out of their rooms. Disaster tourism has never been my thing, but I had to admit the strong pull of curiosity behind it. I wanted to know what happened and my nice meal combined with my good mood gave me that little push to act on that curiosity.

[Genna! Is there stairs or something I can use to move between floors other than the lift?]

[There are emergency stairs at the other end of the hallway. If you are planning on checking out what happened, I would strongly suggest you against it. It might be dangerous. It sounded like an explosion, and there can be numerous hazards. Please just go back to your room.]

[I’m touched by your concerns. I promise I’ll be careful.]

She made an excellent point, but then again… curiosity. I quickly reached the other end of the hallway. Behind the green door, I found a narrow, spiraling staircase that had some weird asymmetric steps. In the middle, it was separated, and one side was higher than the other. It felt strange using it at first, but when you didn’t think about it too hard, it was fairly intuitive if you got into the rhythm.

[Why are you using the stairs?]

[You can’t guess?]

[I have my guesses, but I'm curious about your reasons.]

[Well, if there’s something wrong I wouldn't want trouble to find me in an electric box suspended in the air. Plus, if someone needs help, I don’t want to occupy the fastest way for them.]

[You can be quite mindful when you want to.] She sounded impressed by my response.

After arriving on the next floor, I took a peek inside the hallway. Just like on my floor there were a few people talking with each other. It wasn’t the floor I was looking for.

Reaching the second floor and taking a peek I saw at the end of the hallway a small crowd gathering. Jackpot.

I rushed up to them. They were gathering in front of a room. I looked inside above a smaller mushroom person’s head.

The room was twice as big as mine with a separate bedroom, but currently, it was a complete mess. On the left side of the living room where the couch and the table were supposed to be there were bent desks and all kinds of electrical gadgets and equipment thrown around in pieces. Even the wall of the room was missing parts. On the other side of the room, a Human guy was collapsed at the wall. My heart skipped a beat because he wasn’t moving. The guy’s arms were bleeding, and the wall above him had a small dent in it. He was obviously thrown against the wall by an explosion.

I could feel my stomach contract. All these people here and no one even went inside to check on him?! Fucking sheep! How could they just watch the guy lying there? He could be dying.

I rudely pushed my way in and hurried up to the guy. He was lying on the floor unconscious. I didn’t dare move him around. If he was thrown against the wall with enough force, his spine might be damaged. I checked for his pulse and breathing. There were none. This was serious. This wasn’t a joke; the guy was literally dying in front of me. I checked the wounds on his arm. There were a few metal shrapnel and bleeding, but it wasn’t an immediate danger to him. He must have protected his head with his hands.

He was a skinny guy with blonde hair and dark skin. He was wearing a red overall.

I looked back at the gawking crowd in the door with more anger than I was comfortable with. I looked directly at a small goblin girl at the front.

“You there! Call for help immediately!” I shouted while pointing at her.

I nearly scared the living soul out of the little green creature.

“Er… er…. Rupert already called for help,” she stuttered while turning into a shade of paler green.

That was good enough. I had to concentrate on the guy now. I checked his mouth for foreign objects that might block the way, but it was clear. I looked around the room searching. Without a better idea I took off my new shirt and tried to rip a small hole in the middle of it but I wasn’t strong enough to tear apart the fucking future shirt. I stood up, rushed to the kitchen and used a knife instead.

Running back I put the shirt over the guy’s mouth. It would have to do.

I kneeled beside his chest and put both of my hands on the center of his chest over the sternum.

I started pushing.

“Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother,” I sang under my breath quietly while doing steady compressions.

“You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin' and we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.” I continued the song while doing the compressions.

When I reached 30, I leaned over the guy while holding up his chin slightly so I could give him rescue breaths, but someone interrupted me from the crowd.

“Stop it! What are you doing to him?!” It wasn’t a question; it was in a demanding tone.

I didn’t even look back while answering him.

“Shut the fuck up, or I’ll break your face,” I growled.

There was no response.

I was furious. Not only they didn’t act; now they wanted to even stop me from helping? Imbeciles!

I gave the guy two breaths and continued on with my song and compressions.

I couldn’t tell how many rounds I did, but after a while, I heard a scratching noise from the wall that had the now offline fake window. I looked up and saw as a dark gray circle started to expand on the wall. It took me a while to realize that it was a dark room on the other side.

After a few second I heard a voice coming through.

“Bridge stabilized. Please stand aside.”

Following that two goblins jumped in wearing gear similar to a SWAT team. Black, full bodysuits with visors on the helmet. For a moment I thought they were here for me.

[Aium, you can stand aside now. They’ll handle it,] said Genna suddenly.

I didn’t even question her and just did as she said.

Both of them were barely half my height, with far too long hands compared to their bodies. The goblin in the lead had bright green eyes with vertical pupils that could drill holes into anybody’s soul with a single stare. He had a wrinkled face, and I could see white hair at some places behind the visor. Despite his small size, he was oozing authority. He didn’t even spare a glance at the crowd or me at the door; he was fixated on the guy on the floor with those scary eyes. Meanwhile, the other goblin was casually checking out the room.

After a few moments, he took off something from his belt, held it for a few seconds and gently threw it towards the guy. In the air, the thing unfolded itself, and when it landed on the guy’s chest, it quickly enveloped him in a dark silver cocoon with green pulsing lines in a net pattern. The old goblin then walked up to the cocoon, kneeled beside it and laid his hand on the chest area.

He spent half a minute there, then stood up.

“Take him away junior,” he said in a gravelly voice.

The other goblin rushed up to the cocoon which lifted off from the ground, and it floated back through the hole in the wall with him.

The old one watched them leave and then turned towards me. He eyed me quietly for a few seconds which made me really uncomfortable. This was the second person that gave me a real feeling since I arrived. He wasn’t a phony like everyone else around here. Size really didn’t matter, at least not in this case.

“What were you doing to him?” he asked in the same gravelly voice. There wasn’t any hostility in his voice.

“I gave him CPR, to keep him alive,” I answered honestly.

“CPR?” he asked while slowly releasing a horrifying grin. He had a perfect row of blindingly white, razor-sharp teeth. “Never heard of such a brutish way before but you most likely saved the kid’s life with it. I guess even this withered bone can learn a thing or two.” With that, he turned away and walked back to his exit.

“Come by the Regional Health Center sometime. Ask for Randall. I’ll fix up your right side for free kiddo,” he said without turning back. With that, he went through, and the hole closed up.

I stared numbly at the wall for a while. I wanted to just sit down and take a few minutes silently to myself, but unfortunately, I was interrupted.

“Okay. The crisis has been handled. The injured is in good hands now. I’d like to ask everyone to leave the area. I’ll handle the room from here,” said a female voice. She tried to sound confident, but her shaking voice obviously failed her.

As I turned around, I saw the girl from reception at the door while the crowd was dispersing behind her. She was looking at me with an even uglier frown than before. Even though she could be considered a great beauty, those frowns while looking at me made her look ugly in my eyes.

I realized that I was half naked. Which was probably the cause for the disgusted look from the girl. I quickly put my shirt back. I wasn’t some circus monkey.

“You can go, too. I’ll take care of this here,” she said.

“Sure,” I replied shortly and left the room. I used the same stairs to go back down. I didn’t feel like possibly sharing a lift with others.

Getting in my room, the first thing I did was throwing my shirt away and washing my hands and face. The last thing I needed was catching some future plague.

I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge that was more brick shaped than an actual bottle and sat down on my couch.

[Are you okay Aium?]

[Yeah, I’m fine… just… this was the first time I actually tried saving someone.]

[You said what you did was called CPR, right? Is it supposed to keep the circulation going in the body?]

[Yeah. It’s something I learned. My work required me to participate in a yearly first aid course. Since I experienced on my own skin what an accident can be like I was probably the only one there that actually paid attention. I guess it was worth it after all,] I said slowly while taking a sip of water. [Now that I think back… why were you quiet the whole time? It’s not like you.]

[I could hardly guess what you were doing, but I trusted your intentions. Your body and mind was going overdrive and it was better for me to stay quiet and let you focus.]

[I’m not sure what else to say, but I’m sure that what you did was an incredibly brave and respectable action,] she said. [Before getting implanted I was in a half-stasis mode. Barely conscious, but I still believed that I’ll have a nice and quiet life with my future host. I was so wrong. So far it has been a rollercoaster ride being your A.I. and it’s been only a few days. What I’m trying to imply is that this is a high on said ride. I’m proud of you.]

[Hehe. I hope to avoid boredom in the future too,] I said with a chuckle. [Thanks, Genna. I’m glad to have you too.]

I was genuinely happy to have Genna with me. If I had to handle this new place on my own I would have probably failed miserably. I should appreciate all the help she gives me more in the future.

[One thing I’m clueless about… Why the singing?] she asked.

[100-120 compressions a minute. Singing the song helped me keep the rhythm.]

[Nice! That’s an awfully smart solution to overcome your racial shortcomings.]

[Thanks... I guess?] I wasn’t sure if it was a compliment or an insult. Maybe both.

[Before something like this happens again, you should practice a little, though.]

[Hey! My voice is a national treasure! Be grateful that you had the luck to bask in its glory!] I said with a hurt ego.

[Pffff… sure.]

Following our conversation, I continued enjoying my ice cold water while trying to find something enjoyable on the computer to take my mind off of the recent event. I tried watching a show which description said it’s something funny, but I just couldn’t understand what was supposed to be funny about it. Little did I know that if I took the time to read the description fully I would have known that the show wasn’t for humans.

I went back to the safe bet and found a nice documentary for myself. It was about a moose like predator in a desert environment. The guy could get information like where to find water or where to find other animals from merely drinking the blood of its prey. Crazy nature.

I was dozing off on the couch when Genna woke me.

[Aium, there’s a call to your room.]

[A what?]

[A call from reception.]

[What the hell do they want from me so late?]

[Perhaps you should ask this from them.]

[How do I pick up? Moreover, what do I pick up?] I asked while looking around the room.

[Computer.]

I looked at the holoscreen, and there was a blinking sign at the corner. I touched it.

“Sorry for disturbing you Mr. Aium, but there are numerous requests from news sites requesting an interview with you concerning the earlier accident,” said the reception girl’s image that appeared on the screen.

“I’ll pass. Anything else?” I refused immediately.

She didn’t expect my response because she froze for a few seconds, searching for words.

“But they are really insistent and -”

“I said I’ll pass. Good night,” I said and cut off the call.

[You could have said a few words to them. You most likely saved someone back there,] said, Genna.

[I didn’t do it because I wanted a pat on my back. The guy was dying. I didn’t want anything from this; I just wanted to save the poor idiot. I’m not sure what he was doing, but I don’t think he deserved death for it.]

Our conversation ended there, and I went to bed.

“Could you order better food to the fridge?”

[Done!]

“Thanks! Good night, Genna.”

[Good night, Aium.]

Early morning, as usual, I woke up to Genna’s voice.

[Aium… Aium! Wake up! There’s a call to your room. It’s high priority.]

“The fuck now?!”