Barrenlands: An Odyssey (Old Work)

Chapter Nineteen.

1

THE silence in the room was deafening, and the tension was nothing short of intense. Underneath the bright downlights in the roof, the two figures were face to face with each other, the man straddling the chair backwards and the woman strapped to the elevated bed. It also appeared much like a bondage scene from a romantic film but it was anything just. The dark-haired man dropped his finger from her soft lips, and rested it on his knee. Without making another sound, the man gazed at the Engineer through softened eyes, his eyelids nothing more than thin slits. Despite no exchange of words, the Engineer knew exactly what he was doing – he was staring at her, searching for signs of any discomfort or otherwise. But the Engineer showed none of this – no micro-creases of the forehead, no unintentional grimace, no flinching – and remained as still as she could. Finally accepting that she was a woman that was otherwise unaffected by what was occurring at this instance, the man parted his lips and asked a single question from the Engineer.

"Is there anything you would like to ask specifically?"

The Engineer shook her head. She had many – thousands – of questions, but she hoped they would be answered soon enough. Not to mention, she didn't know which one would be the best to ask first. That is the right questions, echoed through her mind. She bit her tongue, and waited for him to continue. And so he did in his sing-song voice, his words slow and purposefully crafted.

"You exist for a reason – for a purpose. You are a product of GenesysX Systems, a half-cyborg infused between both robot and machine. Whilst you have wires and circuit boards in your body, you also retain human traits such as rationalisation and limited emotions. Prior to your conversion, you were a Robotic and Systems Engineer in this laboratory."

The Engineer felt her head lighten as she suddenly realised why the visions had been so familiar; so lifelike. But the voice – that remained a mystery. Still, he pushed on.

"After," he paused, attempting to find the right words, "negotiations, you agreed to be part of the experiment and here you are. Now, you might have questions how you fit into this narrative. The pulse you have experienced was developed as a way to new world order. Gone are the days of hypocrisy and politics; the days of a single power controlling the world. Now that the population had been purged, we can start designing the perfect utopia for all. We can recolonise, restock resources with systems we have developed, and control the atmosphere to be nothing short of perfect."

She let the words sink in, some of them like knives into the middle of her heart. She had been part of a grander scheme all along, even if they didn't align with her own views. And for some reason, the pause the man took was somewhat sinister; somewhat an indication that he had to pause to find the best word.

"Throughout your travels, you would have had encountered a series of capsule-like objects. You also activated one of these, if I am not mistaken. I believe we located you this way. These capsules amplify the pulse across the landscape, allowing it to surge rapidly and remain potent at what it was intended to do: purge. You were built to service and maintain these capsules as necessary. Without worrying about aging and being robust, it was a perfect plan however, it failed. After the first pulse, your systems were wrecked and subsequently, malfunctioning. All of your programmed missions, characteristics, and functions were erased blank and so you weren't bound to the GenesysX protocol any longer. The fathers you pray for? The knowledge you have? They are all remnants of our programming. You see, we tried to make you as lifelike as possible.

"We first received signal that you were still roaming the lands when you encountered one of our Brutebots at an outpost whom you quickly dispensed of. Such admirable reflexes; such good shots fired. We held firm and hoped that we would receive another notification that you were still going and then we did. The beacon. It's an honour to see one of our first vessels still operating, even if you weren't very productive towards the final days. You will also be XR1 to us."

With that, he stood up from the chair and shot out an arm behind her. Her head wobbled as his fingers grasped on the wires that were connected to the nape of her neck. Realising what he was doing – and possibly buying herself more time – she held up her free hand so that it was in his vision.

"Wait!" she whispered frantically. Time was off the essence now. Time was the only thing keeping her alive, the system behind her a form of life-support. She had to buy more whichever way she could. "What about Little Girl? You didn't tell me anything about her."

The man settled back onto the chair, his hands withdrawing from the cords that were her life. He reclasped his fingers onto his knee, and stared at her through cold eyes.

"Ah."