But most of those end with people dying! [He pauses to think then, tapping a fingertip to the lower edge of his screen.] Well, maybe there's one that doesn't...
I should probably start by mentioning the setting — that's how most stories are supposed to start, right? Imagine if you will a big, big city packed with skyscrapers and shielded beneath a giant dome of artificially generated atmosphere. That city is called New Chicago! It's where most of the humans live and it's where I was built. Surrounding the city on all sides are hundreds of miles of dried up wasteland caused by the global devastation of nuclear war.
You'd think people wouldn't live out there, but you'd be wrong! You can find all sorts of dangerous weirdos out there living underground: terrorist druglords, bands of cannibals, brainwashed religious cults that perform ritual human sacrifice. I guess when people are desperate and have nothing left to live for, they get REAL crazy and mean. Some of them are set on destroying the city so somebody's got to be there to keep them out. That's where my friends and I come in! Our job was to protect New Chicago from people who wanted to get in and blow it up.
It was me, Maddox, J. Kwon and Jael on a team. I was the only robot. Our team was called the Lightning Walkers, named after a mythical beast made of lightning that's said to stalk the wastelands. Each of my friends drove their own super-fast car loaded with weapons. Because if you want to survive in the wasteland, you've got to be fast. And if you break down or get stuck out there, you can be DOA in just a matter of hours or minutes!
[Up until now, he's told the story with an unaffected sense of cheer, but now his voice softens, his smile fades and his gaze drifts downward.]
One time my friend Jael got stuck in a sink hole and before we could get to her, she was captured by wastelander terrorists. By the time we got there, they were gone. They took her, they took her car. The only thing left behind was tire tracks. And blood.
[What he'd felt then still affects him now and 'sick' is the only way to describe it. Sick with worry, anger, failure and hurt. Even his screen takes on a dim greenish hue.]
It's the worst feeling in the world not knowing if someone you love is dead or alive.
no subject
I should probably start by mentioning the setting — that's how most stories are supposed to start, right? Imagine if you will a big, big city packed with skyscrapers and shielded beneath a giant dome of artificially generated atmosphere. That city is called New Chicago! It's where most of the humans live and it's where I was built. Surrounding the city on all sides are hundreds of miles of dried up wasteland caused by the global devastation of nuclear war.
You'd think people wouldn't live out there, but you'd be wrong! You can find all sorts of dangerous weirdos out there living underground: terrorist druglords, bands of cannibals, brainwashed religious cults that perform ritual human sacrifice. I guess when people are desperate and have nothing left to live for, they get REAL crazy and mean. Some of them are set on destroying the city so somebody's got to be there to keep them out. That's where my friends and I come in! Our job was to protect New Chicago from people who wanted to get in and blow it up.
It was me, Maddox, J. Kwon and Jael on a team. I was the only robot. Our team was called the Lightning Walkers, named after a mythical beast made of lightning that's said to stalk the wastelands. Each of my friends drove their own super-fast car loaded with weapons. Because if you want to survive in the wasteland, you've got to be fast. And if you break down or get stuck out there, you can be DOA in just a matter of hours or minutes!
[Up until now, he's told the story with an unaffected sense of cheer, but now his voice softens, his smile fades and his gaze drifts downward.]
One time my friend Jael got stuck in a sink hole and before we could get to her, she was captured by wastelander terrorists. By the time we got there, they were gone. They took her, they took her car. The only thing left behind was tire tracks. And blood.
[What he'd felt then still affects him now and 'sick' is the only way to describe it. Sick with worry, anger, failure and hurt. Even his screen takes on a dim greenish hue.]
It's the worst feeling in the world not knowing if someone you love is dead or alive.