Year 2346 Earth City New Chicago
Phil was in a dark room. There was no sign of light except the small light. His heartbeat started ringing in his ears after seeing that thing getting closer. He struggled to move his body, but it didn't work. After some time, he gave up. The distance got closer, with a blurry image at first, but after that, he got to see what that light was. A boy, around 10 or 12, crying as hard as he could with tears running out of his swollen eyes, and running nose, just stood there.
'Beep beep' alarm rings. Phil woke up. This is not the first time he has had the same dream but still felt multiple emotions running through him every time. He took deep breaths a few times and saw the time on his tab next to the bed. He got out of bed, walked his way through the house, which was a small-medium sized apartment given by his company, not for free though, a huge hall with a bed in the corner, and a small kitchen, which he hardly used. He stopped by his kitchen to heat some food for breakfast.
He enters the bathroom, washes up in a 3x3 shower pod perfect for 1 person, gets out, eats breakfast, watches some news, gets ready for work. Phil loves to walk or cycle to work, also to save some money. He puts some music on his earpiece, sets a timer, and checks on his health status on his side arm screen, thinking "growing up in a military family has some advantages." He is usually disciplined, uses his time wisely, and is health conscious.
He takes his time observing things while walking, watching people using hoverboards to work, some household bots buying some things, and drones flying over. Some are also like him, walking but not to work like him. While walking, he sees a big transport truck pulling over to the side of a big house, which surprises him because most of the transports and vehicles use underground roads and trucks are only seen on highways. To his astonishment, a robot was being delivered. It was a 4th generation robot, which was a strong humanoid robot used for multipurpose with a small logo of a wolf's head on its chest. He was familiar with this company, but not everyone can afford one. The majority can't due to high maintenance costs. He wanted one but couldn't. He only bought a cleaner robot after months of savings plus a monthly installments.
After 35 minutes, he reached his destination. He worked on a farm, a vertical farm producing more than 40% of the food for the city. He logged in at the gate, walked toward his locker room, said "Hi" to his co-workers, and got changed, then took the moving pavement ramp to his cabin. For a farm this big, only a number of people worked here, so he knew everyone. He was not a people person, he only knew them well enough to say hi. His job was to just watch over the system and bots that work on crops. That's it.
Actually, he didn't like this job at first, but it's better than nothing. After coming to this city, where his friend was from, whom he met online through a shared interest in robots, helped him get this job. He realized he could do anything he wanted during his time at work. Although he was watched over, nobody really cared. If something went wrong, they could simply blame him and fire him; he only needs to save daily logs on plants and systems and report on a daily basis.
During this time, he would learn new things and, of course, watch some robots and hope to buy one someday. A cheap humanoid robot would cost one million CRP, and to maintain it would cost at least 600,000 CRP a month. Although his monthly income was no more than 30.000 CRP. After expenses, there was almost nothing left for him. He and his pal thought of making multipurpose robot and would make money by selling it at a cheaper price and owning a company.
After a while, he returns to harsh reality. He spends six hours at work. After work, he spends his time with Rick and helps him at his work. He works at a junkyard owned by his uncle Arthur. Phil also liked to spend time there, away from the city noise. He got off work. This time he's going to take public transport. He walks off to the underground bus station next to the farm.
He enters the station covered with glass, where he can see cars passing by. He spends 4 to 5 minutes admiring the hovering car until the bus arrives, waits patiently for the doors to open, walks on, and takes a seat. Other than him, there were 2 household bots, 4 people, 2 in suits, and two old ladies gossiping with each other. Throughout the ride, he only listened to his music.
After he got off the bus, a message popped up of the bus fair on his side arm screen. He reached the gate of the junkyard, when he entered he got startled by loud "thud" when he looked over, he saw a large robotic arm had just dropped a big chunk of metal, and the arm was controlled by Rick, who was standing just next to it. It was too far away, but the way Phil is, he thought aloud.
"Yeah, I'll be dead there."
After making sure everything was OK, he started shouting at Rick, not wanting to go there to die, "Hey Rick, stop the machine, Rickkkk!"
After seeing no response from him, he left him, still not willing to go there. He entered a 2 storey building which was at the corner of the junkyard. On the 1st floor was a cafeteria, a lounge, public baths, and some offices for workers. He entered an escalator to the 2nd floor. On the second floor, there was only one cabin with some couches at front. After entering the cabin, he saw Rick's uncle Arthur seemed busy on his desk looking through something. When Phil was thinking about whether to say hi or not, Arthur called on him.
"Phil, you came at the right time. Help me go through documents for new shipments coming tonight. I'll send it to you. "
"Sure." he said while walking towards the only couch in the office. Phil helped Arthur with documents and any office work. Having knowledge of law, it was good for Arthur to have his help.
While going through the documents, he finds something and asks, "Uncle, are you sure we can hold this much scrap here?"
"I had the same thought, but this is a big deal, so I had to give some of our scarps to other dealers. "
"What's special about this deal?"
"Materials boy, also the people. You know that robot farm? "
"Limberg Robot Farm? That's where it's coming from? " thinking of a robot he saw today with a wolf logo.
"Yes, indeed! Now you know why that's a big deal. Let's get it done, and after that, send it to our lawyer and some associates in that firm. I'll send you the info. "
"Sure! " he got back to reviewing the document. After some time, he sent it.
He stretched his body while looking for the pack of nutrients in one of the cabinets. Arthur came to him.
"Good job, boy. How about you work for me? I'll give you decent pay, better than that scrappy job of yours. "
"No thank you, I don't want to get myself killed, but thank you for the offer, Again!"
"Feel free to join anytime and I'll ask Again, if you don't get better job than that," he said with a tease.
He exits the building holding a nutrition bar in one hand, looking for Rick and the dog they had. He started looking around the area only to find himself in a jungle of metals. He thought of calling him but left that idea and messaged him. He decided to go to his favourite place in the yard, which was a small hill not too far from here but was part of the junkyard. He takes a transport vehicle used by workers to go around in the junkyard parked near a building that looks like a floating roof less car. It took him 15 minutes to reach the bottom of the hill. It usually takes 10 minutes, but he likes to drive safe.
He parks the car near the foot of the hill and starts the climb from the side of the hill. The hill is 70 meters high and 50 meters wide, with steep sides on the front and back and is covered with small buses, small trees, and grass with rough patches to walk on.
It took 35 minutes to climb the hill. The sun was setting, a light orange cloud floating through the sky. He felt alive. But this was not what he was here for. He walked toward a plain area with small grass and sat there looking straight. A cold breeze hit his face and he sighed heavily.
The land, without any sign of life, stretched as far as the eyes could see. The sky met the land with a thin line in between them. This was the end of the outskirts of the city. Behind him was a city, and what lay ahead was nothingness.
He placed his earpiece on his ears and lay on the ground playing music, thinking of something. He got up again, took a coin sized cheap bug repellent and placed it on his hand, laid down again, and closed his eyes with a dim light shining on him.
He heard footsteps on the grass getting closer when he opened his eyes and saw a head upside down. "Aaah ahha," he screamed, and hit Rick in the face.
"My nose, my nose is bleeding," Rick screamed while jumping from pain.
"Why did you sneak up on me? "Phil said while holding his forehead tight.
"I did not. I was just checking if you were alive or not. My nose" holding tight on his nose.
"Stop crying. Here I have some first aid. " took a small box from his clothes, the size of a candy bar, opened it, took a capsule from it and gave it to him.
"What's this?" said, gulping it down.
"Pain relief."
"What about my nose?" still holding tightly.
"Stop it. It's not like it's broken, right? "said with a guilt.
"Wait, why is the sky so dark?" Phil said looking left and right.
"I think you slept for a while. It's 9 pm now. "
"No, I have work tomorrow. Let's go. "
"But I just got here," looking at Phil with a grumpy expression
"Let's go, I'm hungry" ignored him and walked on.
They started descending with lights on. It was steep, and Phil was in a hurry. Near the end, he missed a step and rolled down and hit the metal with a loud thud.
"Phil, are you OK?" Rick shouted while running toward him, worried.
When he opened his eyes, he saw a blurred red circle in the startlement. He backed off, with small bruises all over him, looking at that red circle.