I came across stone ruins, tall and broken, a memento from the past. Crumbling arches, covered with wilted vines, seeming to be a monument from long ago. A gust of wind blew up a cloud of sand, obscuring the stone momentarily from my view.
"Darius," I said into my radio. "Am I on the right track?"
"You sure are, Mr. Akiya," he replied. "Just go right through the ritual place ahead, and you'll be at Shuijing soon."
"Ritual place?"
"That's what it is on this map. Here, I can look it up for you if you want…"
"Sure." I waited for the wind to die down before entering. The stone was stable, albeit crumbling. Whoever had set these up must have had a very special purpose for them…
So special that there was some grass growing in the center of the ritual place.
I bent down and ran my gloved hand through the soft greenness. Little flowers bloomed, faded yellows and pinks, all gently swaying in the wind. How could such things grow in a dying world…?
"Tell me more about these ritual places, Darius."
Darius cleared his throat and began.
"Ritual places: places used by Magic Users in the olden days for performing group abilities as well as other magic. These locations are chosen because of the strong magic underneath them, and the magic there is further reinforced by the Magic Users' activities there. However, these places have been abandoned, as expected, since the Magic Users have gone away."
"Magic…" A thing, a beautiful thing, that I had only heard about, that didn't exist anymore…or so they said.
But looking at these flowers in the ground, I could almost believe that…
But as soon as I breathed out that word, a shot rang out, like this word was a trigger of some sort. I jumped aside, and the wind grew again, sweeping sand forth through the ritual place, covering what green and colors there had been with sand. And I looked up, and I saw the androids.
There were two of them, sitting on top of the stone arches, long shotguns in their hands. Their clothing was torn, and the wind whipped around the brown hoods and scarves around their faces. Their hands had long scratches on them, tearing away the artificial skin and revealing the wires and machinery beneath it. Scratches from the dog from earlier? Were these the ones who had done it?
When the android on the left lifted his gun, the wind blew his cloak aside, revealing that he was damaged beyond repair.
"Mr. Akiya? Something wrong?"
"…Androids."
"Mr. Akiya!"
"I'll talk to you later." Shoving the radio into my jacket, I pulled out my pistol. I still needed to save a bullet for [him], but…
"Human." An electronic buzz came from the android on the right. "You may not pass this point."
I turned the pistol on him. "I have to."
His golden eyes flickered, and one of them went out. This one, he too was damaged. Too damaged. He tried to say something else, but his vocal system had given out at this point, and there was only a guttural buzzing.
These were two dying androids.
I probably wouldn't even need to waste a bullet.
"Are you from Shuijing?" I asked.
There was no answer. Their systems were shutting down…
I should only assume that these two were cast out from Shuijing when they had been discovered to be broken, and had been left out here to die. But while they were out here, they might as well complete a few missions.
The one on the left leapt down from his position, but upon impact with the sand, his right knee buckled and broke off. He tried to support himself with his gun, but sensing that I was more of an urgent matter, he pointed his gun at me and fired.
His system must have been shutting down…this was a sniper-trained android. Why was he on the ground…?
I jumped to the side, but the android had calculated the bullet's trajectory, and it hit me in the left shoulder. Pain didn't come immediately, merely shock from the impact of the bullet. I would deal with that later. Right now, though…
Seeing a large branch sticking out of the ground, I grabbed it with my free hand and pulled it up with some difficulty. I had to avoid using my bullets here….one swing should be enough…
The android's system was down, so there was a delayed reaction from him. He staggered, his hood falling off, the skin on his cheeks and forehead torn, his black hair uneven. His eyes flickered over, and in that moment, I swung.
The branch made direct contact, sending his head flying. His body stood there for a moment, before collapsing, sparks flying from his wires.
The other android immediately fired, and this bullet caught me in the shoulder. I stumbled back, falling into the sand. The android advanced, his single lit eye focused on me. Once he stood over me, he raised his shotgun and cocked it.
"By…the order…of…" these few words were forced out, and the rest of his sentence dispersed into buzzing. He was in better condition than the other one had been, most of his parts still attached. He was of the same model, though. His system may have been up and alert, but it was also fading into nothing but 0s and 1s.
Perhaps he would be less of an android and more of a human.
Perhaps, in his dying moments, I could speak nonsense and reason with him.
And so I put a hand on the end of his gun's barrel. "On whose order?"
His eyes widened, just a fraction. Clearly no one had dared to do this before…
"I am going there right now," I continued. "I am going to where you came from."
He opened his mouth, trying to speak. But nothing came out.
"If you androids…have some kind of soul…well, if you happen to go back to Shuijing, go and tell [him] that I am coming."
The mention of [him] seemed to trigger something in the android, and he jostled the gun, trying to move it. But I clamped my fingers around the barrel.
"I need a bullet," I said. "I need a bullet for [his] head."
Ah, the android's system was back up again. His dead eye flickered, he closed his mouth, and shook his head, violently. And once more he attempted to tug his gun out of my grasp, this time succeeding.
"You don't want [him] to die?"
The android pointed the end at my head in response.
"Why not?"
"Or…ders…"
I let out a short laugh, and pressed my free hand on top of my wounded shoulder, blood spilling out onto the sand. "Of course…"
And then I looked back up at him. "I have orders too. You understand, don't you?"
And his emotionless eyes showed conflict, because here was a being, a machine, that had only ever known orders, and knew that orders were not to be broken.
Conflicting orders were to be exterminated.
"You don't want [him] to die?" I asked again. "Even though [he] cast you out?"
The android shoved the gun against my head, forcing me to lean backwards. Did androids have emotions? This one here clearly did.
"Why do you do the things that you do?" I grabbed hold of the barrel again. "If you were really to shoot me, you would have already done it."
Blood had soaked through my clothing. My wounds needed to be bandaged soon. I couldn't drag this on any longer.
"Android." I looked up at him. "Do you have a name?"
He moved to place his finger on the trigger, but at that moment, his system completely gave up. His other eye flickered and burned out, and he fell over onto the sand. The questions…must have overridden his system…
I collapsed back onto the ground, breaths coming up heavy. I needed…oxygen…
Somehow I fumbled through the mess of wires on the ground and found the oxygen mask, and held it up to my nose and mouth, closing my eyes. Inhale…exhale… Blood seeping out of me with every second. The shells of two machines lying next to me. Two too many guns for me to handle.
And part of me just wanted myself to lie there and die, along with the androids. Along with the flowers and the land and the sky…
But the voices of my instructors came back to me. And in the mess of voices, the loudest one was my own:
"What would an android do? An android would follow orders to the grave."
And my order was to kill [him]. No matter the cost.
So get up, bandage yourself, and grab your gun. You are going to kill [him], whether you want to or not.
And part of me wished that I was an android, so that I would have an excuse for not following orders: because my system gave out.
But most of all, I wished I was still asleep.