“Rejoice! For the fear we have festered in our hearts for countless generations will soon be vanquished! No more will we cower behind the walls, hoping to see them standing the next day. No more will we experience the anguish of being unable to strike back at the heart of the monsters.” Countless cheers drowned out the charismatic voice along with shouts of excitement and thunderous clapping.

“No, today is the day project Caricare commences! For years our top researchers have toiled away, doing their best to crack the code, searching for the ultimate solution to empowering humanities best towards an unimaginable level.” The voice quiets down for a brief moment.

“Synthetic manipulation, limb replacements, virtual links and countless others. But now, they found it. Full transference.” Another pause followed the short statement.

“It is now possible to give a person complete control over a body designed to withstand the harshest of climates, survive any situations and eradicate all hostile lifeforms! Elite squads will be formed and sent out to clear the surrounding area.”

“Together, they will form an undefeatable platoon of warriors awarded the highest honour the city can provide and in turn, grant freedom and seek vengeance for us all!” A final round of applause exploded outwards overwhelming everything else.

The 5th mayor’s governing speech, July 4th, 2054.

Located in the city’s underground vault, accessible only by those with the highest clearance or upon the mayor’s approval.

********

Our group of three walked towards the others who were clustering around each other. The flare of pain that came from my arm before had died down to a dull ache. Even then, I could only tell that it came from my entire arm, not a specific point. It felt odd, the body I am in is never felt anything before. So why was there pain?

As we merged with the group, I noted that all of them had varying degrees of injuries, but none as severe as mine. Perhaps I could consider myself lucky to survive, but compared to them, that luck was rather rotten.

[What are you so on edge for? We’re in this together, no need to be so suspicious.]

That jovial manner of speech, must be Gash. I just shook my head and ignored his comment.

[Seems like you are ready, those who wish to leave will do so. The rest, follow.]

After the announcement everyone faced towards the source of the voice, or what felt like the source. I was not sure how I, or anyone else for that matter, knew where to look, but it mattered little. Right before the dense rows of trees, stood the monk-like robot and his companion. They held the same weapons, scanned over our ranks and entered the forest.

‘We’re going back in there? But what about those things?’ The memory of courting death was still fresh in my mind. And I wasn’t keen on reliving it…

The others didn’t miss a beat and followed without a second thought.

‘Ugh!’ A massive wave of pain crashed over me, whiting out everything. I clutched my arm on instinct but that only sent another jolt. Letting go and taking a few steps back cleared my mind, the agony disappeared without a trace.

[Woah, you OK?]

‘What in the world was that?’ I looked over at the source, my arm. Gash had just bumped it to get me moving, but instead, released an unbearable pain.

I straightened out my posture and looked at them,

‘Yeah, no worries!’ ‘Send 50 cm. Gash doesn’t seem to have any problems with his leg... does he not feel anything or is he just pretending?’

‘Say Gash, does your thigh give you any trouble?’ ‘Send half-a-metre.’ With the pain out of the way, I took my place walking beside him.

[Not at all, if not for the few messages I wouldn’t have even noticed it!] Despite the monotone voice I could swear I heard the chuckle at the end there. However, Nicks gave me a sideways glance and continued forth. I haven’t heard him talk since we first met and even then he did not seem happy about Gash’s decision to let me join.

[Why though? Was that your arm acting up?] There’s the one-million dollar question. One that I didn’t know the answer to.

‘I’m not sure. Something just blanked me out for a second, it probably won’t happen again.’ ‘Send half-a-metre. Or at least I hope it won’t.’ With their stoic faces reading their expression was impossible. Gash looked at Nicks with a slight shrug and said no more.

As we trekked through the forest after the duo I got a rare moment to think about the previous two days.

‘Or was it just a single day? No, today marks the second one.

God, had it really been that short? There was just something about the way I woke up that made little sense.’

Crack!

I stumbled onto an arm-thick branch which snapped and threw me off-balance. ‘Oh sh-’ A quick stumble, wild grasping for support and near fall later I regained my footing.

‘Damn branch.’ At this point we have walked for several hours and still not found anything.

Gash kept our boredom at bay with a game he made up. A cheerful one which was rather fitting. He would give a colour of something he could see and we had to guess what it was.

‘I see something green’, or sometimes it would be brown. There wasn't a lot of variety in a forest and the few times a tower or a unique landmark popped up, it was easy to guess.

Regardless, it was the few times I heard Nicks talk. Except those moments were short lived as he only made one guess per round and was never wrong. I mean he always waited for me to make countless shots at the answer beforehand.

It was nice to take turns but it lasted for a few hours at which point that nagging thought returned. Of something missing.

‘If I could remember what happened the day before, why couldn't I remember anything the day before that.’

As in there was nothing, no recollection of how I got there, what happened before. Nothing.

Would I forget all yesterday’s events as well? Or will it take a few days? Perhaps it won’t happen at all… I hope.

‘I should see what Nicks and Gash know.’

‘Hey guys, do you remember anything before when you first woke up?’ ‘Send one metre. Here's hoping.’

[Before? Nah, nothing. Woke up in a cramped cell, door opened revealing a white hallway and you know the rest.] Gash then faced Nicks,

[What ‘bout you?]

Nicks turned his head by the smallest amount and resumed looking forward.

[Same as you.]

‘As quiet as ever...but then what the hell do I do?

The pair haven’t told us anything but to follow them. On the first night most of us died, and who knows what will happen today…’

I looked both ways before sending the message, making sure they weren’t nearby. ‘What do you guys think of the two?’ ‘Send one metre.’

[The monk and his follower? They seem like a strong pair, I’d hate to fight them.]

As Gash’s message came through, Nicks’ followed right after, [You wouldn’t even be able to fight them, we just need to follow them and see what they want. I’m sure they have a reason for filtering out the best of us.]

‘The best of us... but why? Why not train everyone? Well I can think of several reasons, lack of resources, time or them just not needing such a large number.’

‘What do they need us for though?’ ‘Send one metre.’ Another million-dollar question.

Only Nicks replied, [We’ll see.]

‘Well that was a new record for number of words he said. But doesn’t really help me figure this out. At least I can be fairly certain that everyone else is just as clueless.’

After the short conversation there was nothing else we could discuss, so we kept travelling through the identical, bleak landscapes for the remainder of the day in silence. Not once were we attacked by stray monsters or met anything else like us.

‘If there were others, shouldn’t they take us to them? Or are there really none? Maybe they aren’t on good terms with the others and need spare hands?’ Not like I got a working pair anyways.

Questions. There were so many questions I did not have the answer to. There was nothing to do but think and think and think. It wasn’t until the stars twinkled in the sky that we made an abrupt stop.

[We shall tell you more once you are ready. For now, know that out of you fifteen, we need only seven.]

The monk’s voice transmitted with the usual deep raspiness,

[Make camp here tonight. We shall protect what we must, the rest is up to you.]

‘What?’ I struggled to process the second sentence over the shock from the first.

‘He wants to have even more of us die!’

[Did I hear that right? He wants to get rid of half of us?] By now everyone learned to control their conversations, meaning that it was Gash or Nicks who asked.

[That’s right. It’s best we are more careful from now.] The curt wording tells me it's Nicks this time. The three of us looked at each other, pondering what to do next. We weren’t the only ones, the others also looked around with suspicion.

[As worrying as it is, why don’t we ask around to see what the others think. There’s no need to attack each other.] Gash motioned with his hand for us to join him.

[As stupid as that is, there is little chance of others attacking right now.] Nicks seemed to have agreed with Gash and followed him. The two dropped off the spare limbs they were carrying and left.

‘I think I’ll just hang back here and watch camp then, you guys can let me know what you find out later.’ ‘Send two metre.’

I scanned the cramped clearing, everyone took a position along the perimeter, huddling in their own groups. No one seemed enthusiastic about being approached.

‘I’d rather leave it to them for now.’ As I leaned back on a tree, I remembered about the night vision, ‘enable night vision.’. The world was drained of any remaining colour and replaced by a brightened, black and white version.

Now I could keep an eye on Nicks and Gash, the latter was making a comment about his thigh while the former stayed a bit behind him. They were talking with another group made up of three members.

‘Wait, along with night vision I also have that automated defence and... what was it?’ I racked my brain trying to remember that last command I gave.

‘Lore, no why would that be it? It was... a list! Some kind of list? Action List!’ I paused, hoping for something to appear. ‘That’s not it, action, act, action - command? Command List!’

An enormous blue window opened up before me. At the top was ‘send message’ and ‘automated defence’. Those two I knew, but there were some others. I scrolled through the list with my eyes and opened the more interesting ones:

Scan

Scan a target to get miscellaneous information such as height, weight, composition and store it in the data bank. The more information in the data bank from ‘Examine’, the greater amount of details can be distinguished.

Examine

Inspect a material or object to learn its properties and composition. Adds it to the data bank.

‘Scan and examine seem like two abilities I should use together... being able to glean information at a glance is helpful.’

Private Message

Send a message to a friendly target.

‘Friendly target? How would I-’

Add Friendly

Select a target to add as a ‘Friendly’. They must accept a notification to succeed.

‘Well that explains it, but what is this notification that they must accept?’ Let’s try it later.

Locate Friendly

Send out a wave and wait for a response from the selected Friendly. Detection range of 10 kilometres.

‘Ten kilometres is a generous area, and should make exploring or splitting up safer.’

Edit Existing

Modify an existing function, be it passive or active.

‘Well… that sounds like a lot of work, but I could get something useful out of it. Probably.’

There was just one more left,

Create New

Open a console to create a new command.

‘Create a new command? That sounds amazing, I wonder what the console looks like. Create Ne-’

[Hello?] The sudden voice snapped me back to reality. Immersed in the action list I didn’t notice a pair of robots approaching me.

‘Uh... hello?’ ‘Send one metre.’ I sent out the message and watched one of them tilt his head.

[Hi, we just wanted to extend our greetings and ask a few questions, if that is alright with you?] I had no idea who of the two was talking to me.

‘Yea, go ahead.’ ‘Send one metre.’

[Well, first, how did you change your voice? Everyone we talked to had the same tone.]

‘Sorry, I really don’t know. It was this way from the start.’ ‘Send one metre.’

[Are you sure? You have no idea-] The voice got cut off, something I was not aware of being possible. The robot on the left jabbed the other and looked at him. They asked a few more questions about what I remembered and if I knew anything else. Afterwards they excused themselves and moved on to a different group.

They were others like them, walking in pairs or three’s, gathering information around the clearing. As I looked for Gash and Nicks, I noticed three more approaching me, they came from the largest group of five.

‘I just hope they’ll leave like the rest.’ They stopped a few metres from me. The one in the middle waved his hand and transmitted a message.

[Hello, we hope you wouldn’t mind answering a few questions.] Being part of the biggest group gave them confidence, and now they wanted to demand answers, not even ask.

‘I’ll answer anything I can.’ ‘Send two metres. I just hope they won’t bother me because of my stupid voice.’

[Do you remember anything from before…] They asked the same questions as all the others. What do you remember? Do you know anything? Did you see anything in the forest, how did you survive? And so on. When they winded down, they turned to leave when the one the centre took a step closer.

[Before you go, you wouldn’t mind telling us how you changed your voice? Hearing the same one over and over and over again really bores the mind. What do you say? I’ll even keep it a secret.]

He did not stop approaching me as the message came through. His ‘buddies’ followed suite, interested in what I had to say.

‘Sorry, I really don’t know. It was this way from the start.’ ‘Send one metre.’ I raised my hands and took a step back.

[Come on now, no need to pretend. Out of everyone only you did something different.] The leader matched my pace and the distance between us closed.

‘I really do not know.’ ‘Send one metre.’ Something shoved me from behind, I turned to look. It was a tree. There wasn’t anymore space for me to retreat.

[Well that’s a shame. In that case we’ll be taking these spare parts as repayment for our time wasted.] The robot turned away from me and approached the spare limbs that Nicks and Gash carried.

‘You’re the one who came to me, so it was you who wasted your own time.’ ‘Send three metres.’ I increased the range to make sure all three of them heard. However, all of them ignored me and crouched to steal from me.

‘I said stop!’ ‘Send three metres.’ With the shout I leapt forward to use my good hand and yank the nearest back. There was no trace of emotion on his face, instead he got to his feet and threw a lightning-fast jab at my stomach.

[Defence Mechanism: Activated]

It was as if everything began travelling through molasses, in slow-motion. My body moved at perfect angles, intercepting the punch with the good arm, using my elbow as leverage for the rest of my weight and his momentum to throw him onto the ground next to me.

This got the other two's attention who charged me in unison. The defence mechanism was still activated, doing the work for me. It stepped me away from the leader and faced the other jockey. He had one fist behind him, ready to bash me in. Except his strike never connected as my left arm deflected it and then bent inwards, exposing my elbow. I then got into a wide stance and braced for the impact as he ran into my exposed elbow.

Several messages flashed following the collision and my left elbow indicator turned yellow in colour.

[Major Strain on Right Elbow Detected]

The counterattack kept going, from my low stance I twisted to the right and threw him onto the ground. There was a severe dent on his chest, no doubt damaging anything underneath.

‘Holy shit. That was amazing!’ The leader had just stopped his charge,

[Why you…!] Except he was too late to get at me as Nicks and Gash had made it back.

[Markon you okay buddy? We saw them attack you and rushed back as fast as we could.]

‘Yea I’m fine, just a bit of damage to my elbow.’ ‘Send one metre.’ Gash nodded at my response and turned towards the assailants.

[Good job protecting our stuff.] The curt message must have been from Nicks.

[Cunt, there is nothing here that’s yours. It is best you leave now.] There was no way for me to tell who said that, but I could only imagine it was Gash. With the momentary pause, I took note that everyone in the clearing was looking in our direction.

‘That message must have been sent to everyone. Even then, at least some of them must have seen what had happened.’

The leader, Jake, must have had the same opinion as he looked around and stomped his way back. As they rejoined their group on the other side of the clearing, I relaxed.

[Defence Mechanism: Deactivated]

With the deactivation the same feeling of fatigue washed over me as when I fought the rodents.

[Mental Exhaustion Detected. Initiating Sleep Protocol.]

Maintaining upright became difficult, I took a few steps back and sat down in haste.

[Woah, you sure you’re good?] Someone’s voice echoed through my mind, reverberating several times. It took me a bit to understand it and respond.

‘Now hold on, not like last time-!’

[Sleep Protocol Delayed: ETA ????]

‘Yea, just somewhat tired. That fight took a bit out of me.’ ‘Send one metre.’

[When they came up to you I thought you were a goner, with your damaged arm and all. But then you pulled out those sick moves.] Gash looked towards Nicks, [Come on, tell me you weren’t impressed.]

With crossed arms and a silent glare, [Not bad.]

[See? Where did you learn that anyway?]

‘Do I tell them about the systems…? No, not yet.’

‘I’m not sure, my body just acted on its own.’ ‘Send one metre.’

[Instinct?]

I shook my head, ‘Not quite, it felt like the process was automated - done for me.’ ‘Send one meter.’

[Don’t worry about it, we’re just glad to see you a-okay! I don’t think your body can take much more of a beating.]

[Probably not.]

[Sleep Protocol Resumed.]

The weakness increased exponentially, ‘I need to sleep.’ ‘Send one metre.’

[What do you mean sleep?] It was too late. As the message played out my eyes closed and the world blackened.