MAY

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I get closer to the strange thing. It's not human... It has a weird metal tail and claws, and a screen instead of a face that, at the moment, just says the words "CRITICAL ERROR." It seems almost as if it were designed for combat. Is this a failed version of the project we're working on..? It has the faded, old version of the company logo on its arm. I get a little closer and tap the "on" button on one of its ear-looking horn things.

It immediately starts talking, as if it had been talking to itself before I even switched it on, except it's only saying numbers. "220,903,194... 220,903,195...220,903,196..."

"Uh, hello? Robot... thing? If you're done counting, I would love it if you told me a little bit about-" it interrupts me rudely, although I suppose after however long it's been out, I would be startled at hearing another person, too.

"Ah! I-I'm sorry! I don't know what I did, but, um, it was very wrong, and I definitely deserved to be dead for... However long that actually was... And... Uh, please don't actually permanently kill me this time, thanks, that was really terrible and I never want to do that again."

It looks up at me with a weird face that was a mixture of "terrified" and "happy to be alive." I look at it with straight confusion. "I mean, killing you wasn't my plan. Now I'm just curious. Who or what are you..?" I back away a little. It doesn't look hostile, but it must have done something bad to end up here. Maybe it forgot after such a long time in storage. "My name is Byte. Um, I don't know you either. What's your name?" I'm a but surprised that it has an actual name instead of the letter-number combinations that the newer models have. I guess they made that change so we wouldn't get too attached. It works, I guess. The machine - er, Byte- looks really tired, actually. I guess it hasn't been charged in a few years, at least. Makes me wonder how it managed to stay alive for this long. Being dead must be hard work. "My name is May."

"Okay, I know what you're thinking, May." Bye started. "You're thinking, 'WahAT? There's a creepy sentient robot thing in this room and it's probably gonna try to murder me! Oh no, I hope it doesn't... Uh... Eat me, or something!' but I promise that's not the case and I'm not hungry anyways. Although a little electricity would be really nice right about now."

I look at it with curiosity. "I mean, I wasn't really concerned about you trying to eat me, but it's good to know that you won't, I suppose. Spot-on for the rest of it, though." Byte seems happy to have guessed my thoughts.

Suddenly, Byte seems to get an idea.

"So what do you say about you helping me get outta here..?"

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