*Hack* *Cough*
A hoarse cough escaped from my throat. There was a burning feeling as smoke invaded my lungs. Before the smoke could enter my eyes, I decided to quickly don my goggles. Taking a step out of my time machine I looked around to see rows and rows of cubes. I guess it worked? Each cube was evenly spaced apart from one another and was around the size of a car.
"It worked?"
A muttered a word of surprise.
"This is supposed to be the future isn't it?"
I looked up to the sky. What was supposed to be the sky was replaced with more rows of cubes. It looked like a colony of strangely reflective insects. In front of me was a woman. No, a woman wasn't the right word. She was merely a replica, a fake, a clone, a robot. One made with synthetic skin and stainless steel. Beneath the rows of cubes were houses, humble and simple houses seemingly built like one from the 20th century. She spoke.
"So you're another time traveler?"
I was confused.
"What do you mean another?"
"Time travelers come here all the time. In search of something greater than them. Only to find that all of humanity had already left."
The way she worded it told me something was wrong. Humanity? Gone? What could all of this mean?
"Now the world is dominated by self-evolving AI to caretake after the humans."
"Humans? Didn't you just say they all left?"
"Left this world at least. They are now individually contained in a cube®."
The cubes? Is everyone alive inside one of those cubes? This was bewildering to me. I pictured a future where everyone was happy and… well… futuristic. One where there were flying cars.
"They are happy in the cubes®. Their food stimulates dopamine. The cubes are designed to keep you forever happy."
"You just… read my mind"
"We are designed as the perfect robo assistants. To be able to predict what you want before you want it."
Ok I may have pictured that robots would be used this wa- wait what did she say about dopamine? Suddenly, one of the cubes from above started to lower. Floating down to my level.
It opened up to reveal a dried-up corpse wearing a headset. Various appliances were hooked up to its body. Slowly, the corpse began to slide out of the metal seating.
"It appears E-120239236423 has expired."
"You… you just leave them to die out here?"
"The human has lived far past its natural lifespan of 80 years. We will now replace E-120239236423 with a newly registered human. Enter, E-193526132765. I'm talking about you."
"M… Me..?"
"Yes."
It wouldn't hurt to try at least. I took a step inside the cube to try it out. Although, it seems demented to even trust these.. things.. If all the other people did then I should too. I slipped on the helmet and noticed it was loose. The machine then registered me as its user. Although the helmet was extremely loose,
---It never came off for the rest of my life.