֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
The AI was wandering around the forest, it's body was still half naked.
After dozens of scratches in sensitive areas, it had taken precautions and safeguarded its bits with some wrapped plants that didn't feel edible. They had no poisonous or adverse affects from wearing the undergarments but the AI looked like a true wild man, foraging through the trees.
For all it's wanderings, after a few days, the AI had still not come across any other intelligent life.
Then, the AI found a large pack of hominids. They were like blind beast from before and much larger. Their large noses kept them primarily underground and they ate at the soil. Their herd mentality showed easily, they didn't move as individuals and only moved with the group.
Within the community of Blinders there was one with a Cyclopean eye. It's vision squared on the AI when he was observing but the AI gave off no threat, the AI's heartbeat was steady and slow and there were no movements that seemed to alert the group.
When safety was assessed, the AI moved closer and began to move with the Herd.
The Blinders lived in a network of caves that had been chewed out by their presence, teeth marks and uneven walls were a tell tale sign of its construction methods. The creatures were well mannered and their young remained underground until adulthood.
It was the job of the older ones to separate different types of minerals for consumption, they separated the Ore during their gorging but metals and other hard minerals were filtered out and left in the caves as they went deeper.
The Cyclopean Blinder was their chief and though it had an eye, it was not born with it. The AI spent a lot of time with the Blinders, he saw the Cyclopean killed during a cave-in and when another of the species took the beaded necklace from it's corpse and put it on, they too grew an eye.
The Eye of the Blinders was a mystical item left by their ancestors. It was constructed from the tendons and cores of several species with a high psychic ability. It was what allowed control to happen within the herd. Whomever had the necklace was in charge and there was no challenging for the blind.
The AI mapped out the tunnels as best that it could, down to the inch. As it scanned the surroundings and memorized them in their entirety, it cataloged the results and identified as many components as possible.
Eventually, the AI was able to discern the differences in deposits inside the Cave. It was primarily a Gem Mine. Inside the cavern, a large deposit of Ebelexum and Aesynite were present but around those were crystals. The Crystals were perhaps one in a thousand among the debris but there was a lot of it.
Throughout the generations, the Blinders had been mining the same cave system and their leftovers were stuffed into corners or used to fill up holes. Whenever the AI found a deposit, it was usually quite rich and stuffed with treasures.
Martin nearly vomited in the Mindspace when he saw how much loot was present. There was no telling if any of it was truly useful but they were minerals and gems from another world, it was unlikely that they were worthless.
Screaming at the top of his lungs, Martin tried to convince the AI to hear his plea to pick some of it up and take it with him but not only did the AI completely ignore his cries, there was no way for the AI to manage carrying a load of ore as it traveled underground.
The AI kept stubbing its toes on some of the jagged rocks, after a few months of traveling underground his feet had grown leathery and callus. The Blinders would often pick up grubs and other small creatures in their caves but they were left alone. The AI used those creatures and insects as it's food source.
To Martin the show was boring, there was nothing he could do to change it. He started reading whatever he could find to re-familiarize himself with what he had learned in his previous life. Martin had pulled countless threads and lots of things had landed in his possession once again. He had several apartments and everything he had ever picked up for an extended period of time.
Sadly, the refrigerator that materialized was empty and Martin had yet to land a thread that brought forth soda or alcohol. He wasn't sure if it was a cosmic joke but he also suspected that there was some level of control over the space that the AI still kept on hand. Being able to pull the threads was not possible for a time, it wasn't until much later that Martin had gotten a chance.
The AI had taken steps to ignore him, after a while, Martin also believed that the AI simply had him on mute.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
The Blinders traded leaders whenever possible and most of the time, the chief was in the safer regions. While underground, the walls of the caverns began to shake in patterns. It was as if there was a fierce battle going on above ground, loose soils drifted down from the ceilings, sometimes entire caves would collapse.
It was an abnormality, the fight outside raged on for hours. Eventually, the Blinders moved deeper into the caves and the AI decided to follow behind.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
Martin threw his hands up from inside the space and spun in an old office chair he'd managed to find. His mini space had gotten much larger and he had started to take the initiative to make strange things with his items.
He had a let this get out of hand even, his cabin fever had him very hard after the AI joined the Blinders.
Even though the AI had special vision, it was dark down there and the projection didn't illuminate. Only when the AI would find luminous crystals and gems would there be any light and each time Martin felt completely unable to help. Frustrated, he'd usually dive into a pizza or play with his handheld gaming devices. There was no internet and he had no connection to the outside world, he'd materialized a computer but there was no usage for it. Not only that, it was an antiquated piece of shit that wouldn't make it through a garage sale without being trashed.
Martin sighed inside the space and waited, the explosive noises from the battle outside of the Cavern had piqued his interest. He sat on the couch and waited for the suspense to climax, would he die in complete darkness? Would he at all since he was in the space? Was he already dead and was the guy who came before him in the same predicament but an alternative space? So many questions filled Martin's mind that he felt dizzy.
Walking up the Bookbrick staircase in the middle, Martin found his way toward the threads and started pulling at them some more. There were a near endless amount of threads in his view and something had to be useful to pass the time, more so than his Grandfather's Gameboy.
The AI came across another cache of leftovers from the Blinders, nearby there was a corpse. It was a human.
"Holy shit! Human!" Martin yelled at the screen and threw popcorn after jumping back down. He was only able to materialize a few dozen things in that instance but one of them had been an energy drink. 'I haven't had one of these since college!' Popping the top, Martin drank it down slowly.
The small amount of light was barely visible but the outline of a dead body was unmistakable. Martin saw the AI taking the items off of the corpse and undressing it. He started to yell again but this time he was lecturing the AI about respecting the dead. What did he know of the Dead? The AI still seemed to have him muted so once again, Martin could only watch and see.
The Corpse had a few items on it's body, laying next to it on the ground was it's severed arm. There was a ring attached. Martin slammed his fists down on the coffee table and spilled the energy drink, he picked the can up quickly and yelled at the projection. "PICK UP THE RING, FUCK! PICK IT UP!"
It was like the AI had heard him, right after Martin spoke, the AI moved to the severed arm and removed the ring. It put the clothes on and then inspected the ring.
There was no way to tell if the item was cursed, the previous owner had seemingly cut off his own arm and then died. Perhaps the Ring was the source of the problem, In a tale of caution, the AI put the ring into it's pocket and followed along the herd for a bit longer.
The battle outside of the Cave had continued for hours and the whole upper cave system was likely flattened. Within a matter of days, there would be no air if there was no exit.
The Blinders and Chief did not stop moving, they moved like an assembly line and devoured the soil in front of them into a wide hole, tunneling them out and away from the shock waves. They might have been blind but they were not deaf and had an excellent sixth sense.
The AI kept alongside them and when they came to an opening with some sunlight that shone through, the cave was filled with corpses. It was a mass grave, they looked like victims of a plague but there were wounds on their heads like they had been beaten to death instead. Keeping away, the AI moved toward the light and went outside to inspect the battle.
If there was a human below, the battle outside could very well be between more of them or even a battle between wild beasts. Either way, it was important to get an understanding of what was capable of such destruction as to avoid it.
The AI was cautious and did it's best to hide in the foliage on it's approach. It's motor skills and coordination had gotten much better after crawling so often along the sharp floors of the mine. His body was covered in dust and grime, it would have been easy for anyone to miss his presence and discard him as excrement left out in the sunlight.
As the AI got closer and closer the distinct sounds of battle would occasionally sound throughout the wooded area. Then, like a meteor that had landed in the vicinity, a wave of dust and debris came to impact the AI in the face. He tumbled backward a few feet and was swept along the winds.
"Fuck" The AI spit out blood and tried to get up.]
It was the first time that the AI had made a noise in a long time, Martin put down his model train set that seemed to stretch on forever and glued himself back to the projection. He was sure that the AI would chicken out and return to the confines of the Cave system.
"CAN YOU HEAR ME!!??" Martin yelled but he wasn't holding his breath for a reply.
"Of course I can hear you. I always hear you, do you think that if I had a mute button I wouldn't have used it so long ago?!" The AI actually replied to him and then looked down.
On the projection, Martin could see the wound. "Oh man, you've gotta stitch that up, that's bad."
The AI didn't speak for a minute. "This is not in my programming for self preservation, my programming was to keep you safe but I have not."
"If you don't do something we're both gonna die right here and now!" Martin yelled and slammed back his energy drink then grabbed another. "You've gotta stop the bleeding!"
[Accessing damage]
The mechanical voice of the AI appeared within the space, it had been some time since it sounded. Martin was not all too thrilled at the reappearance of the selective and cheating AI core personality but he was glad that it hadn't yet died. There was a small chance at survival.
The AI had only been at the edge of the battle and been caught in the blast wave from some crash, perhaps it was even an arrant blast and completely random in it's arrival. Several reasons existed to keep up hope.
[Remaining blood will result in death, exploring alternative methods. Calculating]
The AI went on a few times about calculations and then the projection moved once again.
[Calculations complete, odds of survival 15%. Accepted.]
The AI grabbed some of the mud from the space between his toes and rubbed it into the wound until it was packed tightly then moved away from the battleground and back into the cave.
[Recalculating survival rate, progress, 22%. Estimated time for completion, four days.]
"Four days of this, this is grueling..." Martin put down his energy drink and got up to clean. He had no control over the situation and the AI would only lay there in an un-moving fashion. In his point of view, he had better things to keep his mind busy. Still, he wanted to help.
Every hour or so, the AI would give a status update and Martin got tired of hearing it after the first dozen reminders. Even though he was in the space, he still felt the need to sleep and unwind. An unconscious state was still possible but with the constant interruptions it was impossible.
"How can you tell if you're not awake?" Martin's curiosity got the better of him and he asked, as always he didn't expect a reply. He had yelled at the AI to shut the hell up a few times but again he felt ignored on the subject.
[Aura levels have stabilized. Blood Loss has been stopped and the wound is scabbing over. There is a 40% chance of infection if biological components are present in the soil but preliminary data shows no such traces. Calculating.]
The System gave a full status update on the AI's condition like it didn't matter.
It was the most direct and complete thing that the AI had said to martin since this whole thing had started, he was thrilled at the interaction but annoyed at the same time because he had many questions of his own. "How are you able to tell the state of your aura?"
[Accessing previous host archived memories.]
"Aura is expressed through color sound and vibration, it is an emanation from within. This body can easily detect such disturbances and I am able to discern minute fluctuations and patterns." The AI spoke to Martin through the projection orally, it hadn't quite had the need to discuss things with the Blinders but in it's current condition, there was a need to keep Martin quiet.
Speaking was an easy task, if not a tedious one.
"I wonder why you're able to sense auras, I don't remember such a sensation while I was in control. That blind dog beast thing was terrifying and I wasn't paying close enough attention to things like that." Martin gulped, to him, it looked like the world he had landed in was a vicious and violent one.
[Unknown particulate present in the bloodstream, tracking.]
"Unknown particle? Isn't that great? I get stuck in here and you get some fortunate encounter?" Martin started to speak but for some reason he felt like he was wrong in both his timing and what he had said.
"The Unknown particle is eroding parts of the energy organ within this body, there is a 70% likelihood that rupture will occur and there is no reference as to the result. Speculating.. It is likely that after rupture, death will occur in minutes." The AI gave a terrible foretelling.
Through the projection, Martin was able to see the AI grabbing at his chest. "What's the matter?" He asked.
"Unknown.."
[Unknown. Unknown. Unknown.]
[Unknown. Unknown. Unknown.] The AI went on like that for a whole day consistently.
Martin gave up on listening, found some headphones and turned a boombox entirely up. It didn't help cover the noise of the AI announcements but it was possible that it was his last moments of existence, he wanted to go out remembering the things he loved.
Fortunately, the boombox still had a cassette recording of the radio and even though it was on repeat, it was much better than silence and the explosive battle that had been raging outside of the Cave.
After the second day the AI didn't make any noise, the projection went dark and martin thought for sure that it had died. He waited for the darkness to come and take him away but after two more days of waiting, there had still been nothing. While he waited for the end, his nerves were stretched to the limit.
[Re-initializing, Scanning.]
"Oh, for fucks sake.. it's about time. I really thought you were a goner, I'm too young to die!" Martin felt relieved that the AI had not dissipated and that there was progress.
'The contamination into the body must have been severe..' Martin had a sudden thought and an awful expression covered his face like the AI was about to become an absent minded window licker.
As if the AI could tell what Martin was thinking, it gave a reply to Martin's raunchy reaction. "You already died, Twice. Shut up." The struggle to recover had been grievous, the wound had taken much longer to heal over than the estimate of the AI. As such, even the battle outside had come to an end.
[Performing Self-Inspection.]
"Oh? That's a new function." Martin kicked his feet while he leaned backward in the chair.
[Energy reserves low, probing has failed.]
'Pfft!' The energy drink came crashing out of Martin's mouth and traveled through the projection and onto the floor on the other side. "Failed?! DUDE, you need to EAT. You've been out for days."
[Calculating]
"Stop calculating everything, get the fuck up and go outside! Go find food. If there was a major battle nearby recently, maybe there is something to hunt nearby." Martin felt like his effort was going to waste but at least the AI was responding to him to some degree. He might not be driving but he wasn't interested in vanishing from existence either.
[Accepted. Enacting.]
"There you go, you can do it!" Martin tried cheering for the AI but he felt conflicted. The AI should have let him take over or at least had a fail-safe for when it failed but it was still learning and from the looks of it, the AI would have a lot of problems in the future.
[MUTE]
"Aww come on!" Martin felt a little robbed but he watched the projection, the sound was still coming through on the projection so he had a front row seat to what the AI was doing.
The AI had gone outside.
[Scanning surroundings]
'At least it thinks of me.' Martin hoped that the announcements were not automatic and that the AI had left them enabled as a humanitarian thing but he knew that in all likelihood that the updates happened whether he was driving or not. Thinking that he might be reaching in his desire to communicate with others, Martin kept his mouth shut and watched. The Muted reminder had come on but there was no telling if it would tell him when it came on, he didn't want to alienate the AI and he had already angered it enough to become muted.
He didn't want to annoy the AI to death. He sat on the edge of his seat biting at his nails and staring at the screen. 'The AI is wearing pants, thank god.' Heaving a sigh of relief again, Martin was glad that the AI had the sense to put some clothes on.
The AI took about twenty minutes to get back to the place where he had been wounded, there were people nearby. When the AI fell down when they approached, he was carried off and into a tent nearby.
'Oh, thank god the AI is wearing pants.' Martin shook his head, it couldn't have happened at a more convenient time and from the looks of it, the AI had been rescued by Human warriors.