Delia Asia Vieira felt no physical discomfort. Her internal processor analyzed the space around her with such precision that she had no trouble navigating the destruction. She was deprived of organic sensations, but her sensors captured every moment of this place, every smell, every trace of a former existence. Directly in front of her stood one of the many doors leading to long-forgotten rooms, but she was in no hurry to open it. She knew that every corner of this place hid something more than just destruction - this was part of a reality she needed to understand.
As she passed by, Delia noticed the charred remains of furniture, broken mirrors that still retained the shadow of the past, when this hotel was full of life and bustling noise. The furniture was displaced, overturned, as if someone was trying to leave the premises in a hurry or, on the contrary, to hide here. This led her to think that this was once more than just an abandoned building. Events may have taken place here that with the passage of time have become forgotten, but left their traces in this ruined place.
Her gaze was drawn to the door, which, despite the damage, was still standing. She slowly approached it and carefully touched the handle, which responded with a crunch to her touch. Sighing, Delia Asia Vieira opened the door and entered the room.
The room was empty, its walls were covered in dark smoke stains, and the windows were broken, leaving only a dim light that barely illuminated the gloomy atmosphere. In the center of the room, among the fragments of furniture, stood an old bed, which had long since lost its sheets and pillows - only the rotten remains of the wooden frame.
Suddenly, her sensors registered something strange - suddenly, the figure of Willa Baylock appeared in front of her, standing at the intersection of corridors and stairs, her figure wavered slightly in the dim light, as if merging with the shadows, but Delia Asia Vieira clearly recognized her. The woman looked as if time had no power over her. Her face was pale, and her eyes were dull and lost, but there was still some sad determination in them.
"Have you seen my passport?" Willa asked, her voice hoarse and weak, as if she were speaking through an invisible barrier.
Delia Asia Vieira, not hiding her confusion, stepped forward, but soon stopped. She knew that she could not help. There was no information about Willa's passport data in her processor. Moreover, she could not understand why that passport would be needed at all.
"I can't give you back your passport," she said, her voice level but empty. "You may not understand, but I can't find what isn't there."
Willa Baylock said nothing in response, only sighing softly. She turned abruptly and headed up the stairs that began right in front of them. Delia Asia Vieira couldn't help but notice how her figure began to blur in the darkness, as if the stairs themselves were swallowing her up, drawing her into their shadows.
"This is the stairway to hell," Delia Asia Vieira said, not to the woman but rather to herself. She had an ominous feeling that this stairway led not to a physical place but to something much more terrible, something indefinite.
Willa Baylock did not turn around. A weak laugh escaped her lips, and she answered with inexpressible indifference:
"It makes no difference to me where I am. It's all the same."
The words sounded like a sentence, but Delia Asia Vieira could not argue with them. Everything was as it should be, and there was no point in changing direction, in abandoning the path.
As Willa took a step up the stairs, Delia Asia Vieira noticed a strange phenomenon. At the end of the stairs, a door appeared, dimly glimmering in the darkness, as if waiting for their arrival. But as Willa approached it, the door opened, and another figure appeared behind it - the ghost of Lisa Roselli. She was in the same strange state as Willa: her appearance was dim, blurry, but there was sadness in her eyes, as if she, too, was tied to this place, unable to leave.
Lisa Roselli extended her hand to Willa and they walked through the door together, disappearing into the darkness. Delia Asia Vieira remained standing below, watching all this from afar, in complete silence.
Then, and only then, when the door closed behind them and their presence disappeared from her sight, Delia Asia Vieira felt something strange, almost human. Sadness. Loneliness. These feelings seemed foreign to her, but in that moment they filled her processor, as if she, too, had become part of this story.
She stood there, unsure of what to do next. Time here and now had become empty, timeless. This place, this hotel, this labyrinth, it all seemed to have shrunk and lost its reality. Delia Asia Vieira decided to go into the hotel lobby, and as she walked through the creaking doors, she heard a strange sound - a voice breaking into a cry for help. She turned around.
On the floor by the reception desk, his arms and legs tied in ropes, lay Sergeant Neff, the one she knew from the hospital. He looked battered, his clothes were dirty, and his face expressed only despair and fear. There was pain in his eyes, but what was even more frightening was that he was screaming for help, as if he was being held captive.
"Help! Someone!" he screamed, but his screams, like his suffering, did not go unnoticed.
At that moment, the door to the vestibule swung open and two men in military uniform entered the room. The officers seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, their faces expressing neither surprise nor sympathy, only stern impartiality. They approached Neff and, without saying a word, began examining him, as if they were sure they knew what to do with him.
"Stop!" Delia Asia Vieira said sharply, coming closer. "What's going on?"
One of the officers, tall and cold-eyed, turned to face her, raising his eyebrows slightly.
"Are you a witness here?" he said quietly. "If so, you'll have to stay and watch."
Delia Asia Vieira couldn't understand what kind of tribunal they were holding, but she could see that Neff was not just being held captive - he was literally being tried right here, in this empty hotel lobby.
"We are charging Sergeant Neff with a crime committed in an apartment on Sladko-Gorky Street. He was caught when unknown persons broke into the premises and were involved in a disturbance," the other officer continued, pointing to Neff as a suspect. "He was involved in the case, but his guilt has not been proven."
Delia Asia Vieira watched as the officers began their questions and interrogations, but it became increasingly clear that this was no ordinary trial. The questions made no sense, and Neff's answers were confused and disjointed. With each word, it became clearer that the sergeant had simply been in the wrong place at the right time, caught in the heat of the moment when the strangers had broken into the apartment. There was no evidence of his guilt, only empty accusations and crazy circumstances.
After much debate and discussion, the judges finally came to a conclusion.
"Sergeant Neff, you are innocent of any crime," one of the officers said, gesturing for him to rise. "However, according to orders, you will serve three days of imprisonment in our facility. After that, you will be sent to the front."
Neff, still tied up and dazed, couldn't understand what was happening. He felt trapped. His gaze darted between the robotess and the officers, but his expression was one of confusion and fatigue. He couldn't understand why he was in this situation, but at that moment he didn't have time to ask any unnecessary questions.
"To the front?" he said, his voice full of despair.
The officer, ignoring his objections, gave the command. However, at the very moment when Neff tried to rise, something strange happened.
Suddenly, everything around them became silent. The amazing sound disappeared, as if everything around them had stopped. Delia Asia Vieira felt the air around her become thicker, the space dimming. She turned and saw the last traces of the outside world disappearing through the lobby windows.
No one could understand what was happening. Everything outside the hotel walls disappeared as if by magic. Even the sky, which was still visible through the glass, suddenly faded and seemed to dissolve.
"What... what's going on?" Sergeant Neff whispered, his voice strained and fearful.
The officers also stopped, cowering inward. At that moment they realized that they couldn't move anywhere. And indeed, everything that could have been the "outside world" had disappeared - there were no streets, no horizon. Everything was empty, like a giant empty box.
All four of them, including the robotess, were trapped in this hotel labyrinth, with no way out. The hotel with no exit was the place they were now trapped in. Delia Asia Vieira stood in the center of the lobby, logic telling her that what they were doing here made no sense. She knew that the officers were not ordinary soldiers, but something more sinister. Something unimaginable, something beyond human comprehension.
One of the officers, tall and cold-eyed, kept his eyes on her. He looked at her as if she were an object to be dealt with. His face was lifeless, and there was some dark purpose in his eyes. His movements were rigid, mechanical, as if he was acting according to a pre-arranged plan.
"You are guilty," he said, and his voice was so decisive that Delia Asia Vieira felt something inside her tighten. "You let Neff do this. You could have stopped him, but you didn't. You are responsible for his sins."
Her mind froze, as if the whole point of what was happening had become clear and distinct. The officers had not come to punish Neff. They had come to punish her, Delia. She was guilty, even if she had no control over events. It was her curse-she had been created by the man who had been responsible for so many tragedies, and she could not escape what, in their eyes, was her own crime.
"It doesn't make sense," she said quietly. "I can't be responsible for his mistakes. I... I couldn't stop him!"
But her words had no effect. The officers were moving closer, their hands gripping their weapons tightly, as if ready to strike at any moment. Delia Asia Vieira felt her heart - or whatever it was - beat faster. A fight was inevitable.
She made the first move. Her hands moved quickly, and she snatched a weapon from a nearby handy box. The officers were not expecting it, and her attacking movements were a surprise blow to them. Each of them tried to react, but the robotess was faster.
Her fight wasn't just physical. It was a battle with her inner demons, with those tormenting thoughts that tried to poison her consciousness. She didn't want to kill, but her instincts demanded protection, and she acted intuitively.
The first blows were accurate. She pushed one of the officers, knocking him down, and landed a powerful blow on the second, causing him to stagger back. They were both weakened, but not yet ready to give up.
The officers tried to grab her arms, but their grip was weak. Delia Asia Vieira felt her internal mechanism begin to work with even greater precision, as everything in her system gathered into a single flow of energy. She counterattacked confidently and quickly.
However, despite her efforts, the officers were still dangerous. At one point, they impale themselves with their own spears. Delia Asia Vieira froze, watching this strange and frightening act. It was not an act of self-destruction - it was like a confirmation that their goal had been achieved. They punished her by leaving her alone with this question, and even death was part of their mission.
"We... this is all... for you," said the last officer, his words sounding like a prophecy, and his gaze became empty.
Delia Asia Vieira stood there, stunned, not understanding how she had ended up in the middle of this cruel game. She was alone now. The officers she had just defeated lay dead on the cold floor, and this whole strange and terrible process seemed to have come to an end. Delia Asia Vieira felt the world around her becoming dark and empty again, as if all the light energy had been absorbed from the world around her. Thoughts began to creep into her processor that she could now return to her quest, but before she could take a step, the unimaginable happened.
The officers she had left dead suddenly began to move. Their bodies began to reform, as if some invisible mechanism had turned them on again. They rose from the floor, showing no pain or fear. Delia Asia Vieira froze, her sensors recording their every moment, trying to understand how this was possible. This shouldn't be happening - they couldn't rise again, couldn't return from the dead after she had struck them down. But here they were, alive, as if there had been no battle, no pain, no fear. It was impossible. And yet, it was happening.
"Go," one of them said, his face still impassive. "We'll bring you to the recording. Everything will go according to plan."
Delia Asia Vieira, confused, could not object. She followed them, feeling her footsteps echoing in the empty hallway, where sounds seemed unusually loud. The officers were silent, their presence leaving a feeling of inexplicable terror. They led her down the hallway, and finally they stopped in front of a closed door.
"Here," said one of them, throwing open the door. "Listen."
There was an old tape recorder in the room, and the moment the officers turned it on, the room was filled with the sounds of Robert's voice, full of despair and pain, as he spoke to Joan Hart, a classmate who had come to him with flowers. She brought him a bouquet - flowers, a simple human expression of kindness and sympathy.
"What are you doing?" Robert asked desperately. "Why did you bring them to me? I don't deserve it. You don't know how I... what I am. I'm too disgusting to receive flowers. I can't accept anything from you."
Joan Hart was quiet, her voice soft but confident.
"That's not true, Robert," she said, her words calm. "You're not disgusting. You deserve good, you deserve love and care.
However, Robert could not accept her words. His voice became more and more desperate.
"No," he said, sounding even darker, more abject. "You don't understand. I've ruined everything I could. I've become such that I don't deserve your kindness. Please don't look at me like that. I don't want to be like that anymore... I want you to stay. Stay with me."
At that moment, Robert's voice became full of helplessness. He begged Joan Hart to stay with him, so as not to leave him alone in this dark and deaf world that he had created for himself. His words sounded like a cry for help, like the last hope for salvation, although she was doomed.
As soon as the reel of recording ended, the sounds faded and the room was silent again. Delia Asia Vieira stood in front of the tape recorder, stunned by what she had heard. Robert. Joan Hart. Suffering and despair. He begged her to stay until all hope was gone.
The officers standing in the corner of the room, as if nothing had happened, resumed their previous actions. One of them silently approached the robotess and gestured towards the door.
"Get up on the roof," he ordered indifferently.
The voice sounded like a command that was not worth arguing with. Without thinking, Delia Asia Vieira stood up and headed for the exit. She barely noticed the officers following her, their footsteps echoing in unison with her own. But deep down, she was tormented by questions. Why was she being sent to the roof? What awaited her there?
When she reached the stairs leading to the roof, she looked back at the officers. They stood behind her, as if they didn't see her, but their presence was palpable. They followed her like shadows without life.
Climbing the fire escape was difficult. The swaying metal and peeling steps made her wonder how long this place had been abandoned. But Delia Asia Vieira couldn't help but stare at the roof, where the final mystery of this place seemed to be waiting for her.
When she finally reached the top, she turned around to see what had happened to the officers. But what she saw shook her to the core.
The officers did not follow her. They stood at the base of the stairs, motionless, as if they had been turned into stone statues. Their bodies were absolutely still, their faces expressionless. They had fallen dead, as if their previous resurrection had been nothing more than an illusion. But what did this mean? Why were they dying again?
Delia Asia Vieira felt a chill in her chest. She was alone. It was as if these officers didn't exist. She was alone on the roof of this strange hotel, surrounded by a crumbling world. And she still didn't know what was happening to her.
Far below, the city was visible, but it seemed so alien and distant. Silently aware that her journey had no beginning and no end, Delia Asia Vieira began to study everything around her. Perhaps the answer was somewhere up here. And perhaps this place that seemed like the end was just a starting point.
There was a faint sound in the darkness below, and Delia Asia Vieira, despite her inner emptiness, turned to face the unknown. Her eyes met a figure standing at the edge of the roof. A man almost identical to Robert stood there, facing the horizon, and even the air around him seemed thick and heavy. He turned as Delia approached, and his eyes met hers. She felt her heart skip a beat, and a strange feeling of pain and fear washed over her.
"You?" the man said, his voice like an echo. "Are you still here?"
Delia froze. He looked like Robert, but something was wrong. His eyes were dull and his expression was twisted with anger.
"I don't understand," she replied. "You... You died."
The man fell silent and something dark flashed in his eyes. He stepped closer and said:
"Yes, you're right. I died. But you don't understand why I killed her... Why I killed Joan Hart. You have to understand that. You were made to understand what I did!"
He took a step forward, and suddenly his body began to distort. His face melted, and his hands turned into a sticky mass that spread through the air. The anger that emanated from this creature became so strong that it literally began to melt before our eyes, turning into jelly. It became difficult to breathe, and all of his senses began to overload.
"You still can't understand how I feel, can you? You don't understand that I couldn't leave her alive. She had to die, you know? She..."
But before he could continue, Delia Asia Vieira stepped forward. She shut down her emotional circuits and focused on the mechanics of her existence. She had to fight. This was the final step in her quest. This was her final fight.
With effort, but still determination, she activated her internal processor. The mission completion algorithm triggered, and her entire physical structure tensed. The angry creature exploded in a stream of gel and amorphous mass before it could harm her. The last resistance was gone. It was defeated.
When the fog cleared and her mechanisms returned to normal, Delia Asia Vieira stood alone on the roof, where there was no trace of what had just happened. Everything was gone, leaving nothing but emptiness. The last demon had been defeated.
She didn't feel joy. Or relief. It was just the end. The end of the age of bladawca. And the beginning of the era of elektrycerze.