Waiting for my death | Horizon zero dawn fanfiction

Chapter 3: One Last Hope

Dear Ivy,
It's so much worse than I ever could've imagined. I wish you were here with me. We were meant to go through everything together. It was you and me against the world. Now you only exist in my mind and in my heart. I'll keep you there, I promise.

I've heard that writing down your feelings is supposed to relive stress. Mom did advise me to keep a diary, but I wanted something different, I want Ivy to be with me. I can't do this on my own. I'd know that if Ivy were here, she'd be more interested in the amusing advancement of this whole situation, rather than the fact that there's a high risk of us dying. She would go on for several minutes about how fascinating the peacekeepers are, how they work and why they exist. The story behind the CEO of FAS, and his underrated "assistant" that doesn't get nearly as much attention as him.

Ted Faro is only one of many successful men and women over the years. However, somehow, he managed to become the world's first trillionare by simply starting a company that would create green robotics. Why? Because the world was going down a rabbit hole. 

A horrifying event known as the die-off began around 30 years ago in 2030. Climate change had reached its consequences; the sea was rising, the atmosphere detoxicated, desserts expanding. This later led to major consequences for the poor countries, and it cost billions of lives. A huge amount of landmass was simply vanished, gone and consumed by the rising sea levels. New Zeeland, the Netherlands, Florida and many other countries, cities, states and islands were flooded by the sea and then completely gone. Many people lost their homes, and this obviously led to the largest migration known in history. My own grandparents were two of the many immigrants, my grandfather from new Zeeland and my grandmother from Israel. 

Then Ted Faro came into the picture. You see, he wasn't the only one with the idea of creating green robotics to save this world. However, he was a skilled businessman. He became the founder of Faro Automated Solutions (FAS) and immediately began competing against a few different companies with the same intention as him. The turning point for FAS was when they suddenly became exceptionally great at producing green robotics that could solve several environmental problems that eventually became evolutionary. Many wondered how he managed it. Skill? probably not. Pure luck? Possibly.

Rumor has it that Faro is an arrogant little ass that would do anything to achieve his goals. If he could have become a billionaire by selling pizza, he would, even if the world still was fighting the die-off. His intelligence isn't nearly as exceptional as other modern scientists today. So, what made him, and his company stand out so much?

Well, me and Ivy think we have this mystery figured out. After some digging into different articles and the history of FAS, we found an interesting pattern. In the year 2040, an immensely intelligent woman was hired by Ted Faro. In only two years of time, she had made some extraordinary progress for the company, inventing various green robotics able to reverse any further global damage to the environment. It was at this time that FAS became an extremely successful company. And, of course, Ted Faro took credit for it.  

It's not like her efforts were in vain, she's a well-known scientist today. What baffles me is that rich men tend to profit from other people's hard work, only because he's the founder of the company Elisabet Sobeck happened to work for. 

All these thoughts in my head just awakens the curiosity in me. I decide to carefully tap my focus attached to my right ear. As it activates, the whole world is suddenly surrounded by a purple network. The focus has the ability not only to access the media, but also to scan every possible object and give specific details about said thing. It is possible to read a book digitally, only with something as simple as a single scan. It even works on humans and animals, but we don't have that function enabled due to privacy. Those functions are only available for people that has a good reason for it.

A purple hologram, roughy the same size as my head, appears in front of me. It has the shape of a rectangle, and the color of it is in the same as the purple network surrounding me. After I quickly navigate through my apps with my cold itchy fingers, I type in "Elisabet Sobeck" in the search program. I'm instantly amazed to see what I find, 4000 results in 0.51 seconds! She must have blown up recently for some apparent reason.

My eyes widens as I scroll through the top results. 

Ted Faro signs contract for a top-secret project lead by Elisabet Sobeck – could this be the fate of humanity?

I enter the article and carelessly read through it, hastily searching for the information I'm after. It appears that Elisabet is finally getting the recognition she deserves. My suspicion was right, she is indeed the leader of project Zero Dawn, a top-secret project that appears to only by known by few. Including Ted Faro. That bastard. He truly must be desperate if he signs a contract for Elisabet, considering his striving for independence. Or as I would call it, selfishness.  

The article doesn't seem to talk much about exactly what this project is about, rather only speculations. It's also stated that Elisabet Sobek hasn't been working in FAS since a few years ago. I suddenly feel ignorant for not being aware of that. She started her own company, Miriam technologies, after FAS decided to focus on automated war machines instead of green robotics. I understand why she did it, I would have done the same thing if I were as intelligent and skilled as her. Unfortunately, I'm most likely just going to turn out as an average member of society in the future. If there's a future for me, that is. God, I don't even want to think about it.

I guess zero dawn is our last hope to survive, and I hope it will be enough for us to be able to prosper in the future. A better future, without people as absurd as Ted Faro.

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A/N:

Hello people! Sorry for the info dumping chapter. But I really enjoy writing this story so far, although I'm currently struggling a little with mental health personally, I will try to upload as often as I can, even if it's not so often. If you've read this story this far, I'm incredibly grateful! Thanks a lot! :D

PS: I hate Ted Faro. I hope you noticed that :)
/IDlindberg