The city of Angelica had lost its every asset, and was now left to fend off every new-born predator that roamed the lands. Many scary questions swarmed my brain with a white rage – that I wasn’t accustomed to in the past – as I shot a creature that was a source of help in the past, but turned deadly, forgetting its previous uses as it gained emotions. My rage – as I had mentioned before – wasn’t something I was born with, but was a new creation to help me survive in a land of machines and machine guns. I went over to the creature, stealing his central unit to make sure it doesn’t revive itself, but I knew this measure wouldn’t keep those filthy robots down for long, for I knew in my heart they would soon find a way to revive themselves without this mass of wires. a long run to the place I call home was all I needed to clear my head after a long day of stealing the Cybers’ life source. The bag I carried atop my back felt heavy, for many units lied in it. The feeling of the bag warmed my heart with a sense of pride, which created an oxymoron of sorts: a girl running with glee in her eyes, backgrounded by an apocalyptic city that was burning more and more to the ground.
“Home sweet Home”, I said in a whisper as I opened the broken-down the door and went inside. The setting rays of the sun followed me inside, giving the place a little bit of coziness along the way. None of the people I knew survived the first attack, which explains why I live alone in this battered cottage that lay on the outskirts of Angelica. It’s safer at this time of day, for Cybers need to recharge at daytime, which puts them in one place during the day: the scientific center, where it all started.
I got a bottle of water out from a cabinet, then sat to rest on the sofa, but as my eyes wandered around the place, I noticed a beeping light that wasn’t there before. In seconds, my machine gun was lifted up to face whatever danger lay ahead. “Who’s there?”. My voice didn’t even tremble as I said calmly, for this situation was a daily occurrence now, but never had it happened in my house before. To my surprise, a Cyber came out from behind a row of cabinets lifting her arms up, saying in a scared voice: “Don’t shoot! I’m human!”. Human? How can one of these creatures be human? I remember diving in a sea of uncertainty as the Cyber said those words, but maybe it was a trap. I couldn’t let my guard down. “Prove it.” I said as I kept my machine gun lifted up. The Cyber lifted her shirt up slowly to reveal her body. I couldn’t believe what lay before my eyes. She had human skin, but it was mingled with wires. How can she be both human and not human? Never in my 10 years in this uprising had I seen a creature like this, for Cybers had all metal skin. I lowered my gun a little bit, then said in a demanding voice: “explain”.
The creature looked at me with grateful eyes and let down her arms as she began to narrate her story.
“My name is Mina. I was born in Angelica about 20 years ago. My father was Alfred Dupont; the man who created the Cybers.”
I lifted my gun back to her and practically screamed: “That’s actually worse! Your father created those abominations!”
She lifted her arms back up in a gesture of defense: “Give me a minute to explain. My father isn’t actually on my Christmas list. You speak of these abominations not knowing that I was his first abomination.”
I stood in silence as the words sunk in. His first abomination? What could that mean?
“My father was a respectable scientist in his youth, but as he grew older, his passion for creating other life forms than what’s known to humans ignited. What helped grow this passion of his even further was the fact that the leading companies in Angelica needed cheaper labor. One day, he calls me into his laboratory. I go in, not knowing what will be of me after he finishes his little experiment. He injected a needle in me as soon as I entered, which made me almost lose consciousness. I say almost because in order for the experiment to work, I needed to be awake. The next thing I remember was the blinding pain of my skin merging with wires, and my father pouring some sort of acid on my skin, and my bottomless screams. He needed to see if my sensory system would still be functioning after I became half Cyber. Unfortunately for me, it was. Soon afterwards, he started to take human cells from the CEOs of the companies he was working with, and merging them with computer units. The experiment was a success. Soon began the first production of a Cyber, then came the mass production of hundreds, then thousands. The Cybers became more than the humans of Angelica in numbers, and they weren’t paid for labor, which prompted them to uprise against what they saw as their oppressors.”
