Project Ami (3 page)

Ryan nods thoughtfully.

‘Ryan, can I ask you something?’

‘Sure,’ he responds.

‘Have you ever been in love?’

‘Wow. Where did that come from?’

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just that the book I was reading kept talking about love. But I do not know how that feels.’

Ryan looks down to the ground and, with a sad expression on his face, starts to talk about how he used to have a girlfriend that he loved very much, but she died in the first year of the attacks. He relays how they fled the city early and wanted to go to my parents’ cabin so that they could stay low for a while until the whole thing blew over, but on their way they ended up in a traffic jam so they had to walk. It was not long before they were out in the open, and that was when they came across some KBs.

‘KBs?’ Ami asks.

‘That’s what we call the bots that got infected by the virus,’ says Ryan. ‘Anyway, it all happened so fast. We came across a few KBs and they started shooting at us. We started to run but my girlfriend got shot in the leg. I tried to get her up but the KBs drew closer, and my girlfriend kept telling me to go. To leave her there. I tried to lift her but, before I knew it, she was hit again, this time in her chest. It did not take long before she stopped breathing. I didn’t know what to do. I panicked so I ran. I ran in a different direction to my parents, and that was the last time I saw them. I’ve been on the run ever since.’ Ryan wipes a few tears from his face.

‘I’m so sorry that she died. I should never have brought that up. Please forgive me.’

‘It’s okay. It happened a long time ago.’

‘Listen, it’s getting late. We have a big day tomorrow so I should get some sleep.’

‘What are we going to do tomorrow?’ Ami asks.

‘I will tell you in the morning. Can you please wake me up tomorrow as soon as the sun comes up?’

‘Okay. Have a good night’s rest.’ Ami walks over to the closet and picks out another book, and again she starts reading.

Ryan makes himself comfortable in the couch. He rolls over and, still with tears in his eyes, he slowly falls to sleep.

The next morning, he wakes up to the smell of food. He opens his eyes and sees that Ami is baking something. He stands up and walks over to her, and sees that she is making eggs.

‘Where did you get the eggs?’ he asks.

‘There are some chickens at the back,’ she smiles. ‘My dad always loved eggs so I thought you might also like them.’

‘This is great, thank you! It’s been well over a year since I last had an omelette!’

Ami puts the omelette on a plate and gives it to Ryan. He sits on the couch and starts to eat.

‘So where will we be going today?’ Ami asks.

‘Well, once I’m done eating, we’ll pack our things and head to the sewers. There were rumours about a small resistance group over there, and I think we will be a lot safer down there then here in the open.’

With a frightened voice, Ami replies, ‘But what about me? What if they find out that I’m not human?’

‘It will be okay. With your wig and dress, they won’t find out. Once we are there, we’ll see if we can make it work without them finding out you are an AI. I won’t leave you alone.’ He smiles at her. She smiles in response but with a bit of uncertainty in her eyes.

Ryan starts to pack his stuff and asks Ami if she is ready to go. They then leave the cabin and begin their walk in the direction of the forest.

The sun has just come up, but already it is very warm outside. The rays filter through the trees. The birds’ song can be heard as the wind carries the sweetness through the trees.

‘Everything feels so peaceful like this. You wouldn’t think what a mess this world is in,’ Ryan comments.

‘I wish I could have seen the world before all of this happened,’ Amy sighs.

They both enjoy the peace for a moment, and then Ami asks, ‘So how do you know in which direction we need to go?’

‘I met a guy a few weeks back,’ Ryan continues. ‘He told me that if I would keep walking north, eventually I would see a lot of pipes laying out above the ground. Once we have found those, all we have to do is to follow them and then they should lead us to an entrance.’

After walking for a while, Ami asks Ryan if he thinks they are almost there.

‘I don’t know. I might be able to see more if I climb up one of the trees.’

Ryan looks around and sees a large pine tree with an abundance of branches sticking out. He throws his backpack in front of the tree and tells Ami to wait where she is. He then begins to climb into the tree and, when ten feet high, he starts to look around.

It is difficult to see, but it looks like that there are some open spots in the distance. He carefully climbs down but, at one of the last few branches, he slips and falls. He lands on his back, and the dust on the ground flies up and around him. Ami quickly runs to him and asks if he is alright.

‘Yeah, I’m fine,’ he laughs, embarrassed. ‘But this is going to hurt for the next few days!’ he says. He slowly stands up, grabs his backpack, and then they continue walking towards the open spots.

After another thirty minutes, they see a few small pipes protruding up from under the ground. As Ryan was instructed, they start to follow the pipes and, not long after, they come across some bigger pipes. They look badly damaged, with large holes gaping through them. It looks almost like some of them have been blown up.

Ryan looks around and, in the distance, he sees another big pipe—big enough for a person to fit in.

They walk over to the pipe, and Ryan finds a spot where there is a hole big enough to get in. He tells Ami that he does not know what will be on the other side and to stay close to him.

He climbs in the pipe and then grabs Ami’s hand to help her to get in too. It’s dark and smells bad. Ryan takes his lighter from his backpack and allows the flame to burn. They then start to walk through the tunnel created by the large pipe, and not too long after, they stumble upon a large metal frame, behind which seem to be underground sewers. Ryan tells Ami to hold the lighter, and he tries to open the metal frame. It is stuck and struggles to open, but after a few kicks, it comes lose.

‘Okay, I’m going to lift this up, then you need to crawl under very quickly and try to hold it for me from the other side,’ Ryan tells Ami. ‘Do you think you can you do it?’

‘Of course,’ Ami replies with a smile in her voice.

‘Okay, on the count of three. Ready? One, two, three. Go!’

Ryan lifts up the gate and Ami crawls through it. She then holds up the gate from the other side, and Ryan quickly makes his way through and into the sewers.

Ryan and Ami walk through the sewer. Luckily, the stench is not nearly as noticeable since it has been out of service for so long. They walk through a wide, open-mouthed tunnel. The ground, walls and upper dome are moist, and drops of water can be seen and heard as they fall from the ceiling, creating puddles on the ground.

After walking for a few minutes, Ami hears a sound. ‘What was
that
?’ she asks.

‘What? I didn’t hear anything,’ says Ryan.

They stop, and Ryan listens closely. He hears what sounds like people, all walking, in the distance.

‘Maybe it’s the resistance,’ Ami suggests.

Ryan tells Ami he’s not sure. ‘But I do know we need to go carefully. For all we know, it could be a KB. Or worse, many.’

They walk a few more feet until they come to a crossing. Ryan hears the noise getting louder, and it is heading in their direction. He quickly grabs Ami by her arm and pulls her around the corner. He pulls out his gun and gets ready to shoot, just in case needed. He waits for the sound to come closer, but then, all of a sudden, the sound stops.

Ryan hesitates and carefully looks around the corner. It is dark, but the faint outline of a person can be seen standing just a few feet away from them, his back to them.

Ryan looks at Ami and gestured for her to stay where she is. He turns and walks around the corner.

All of a sudden, there is a big KB standing right in front of him, his chest glowing bright red. The KB grabs Ryan’s troth and throws him a few feet away and to the ground. Ryan drops his gun not far from Ami, and in that split second, he can do nothing but watch as Ami grabs the gun.

The KB comes round the corner and looks at Ami. She closes her eyes and starts to shoot.

The first bullet enters in at his arm, whilst the second travels into his shoulder.

The KB quickly comes closer, but Ami hits him in his chest. The KB falls to the ground and stops moving. She then fires two more rounds into the wall until the clip is empty. She slowly opens her eyes, and looks down to see the robot lay in front of her. Shocked, she does not move but merely keeps staring at the KB.

Ryan slowly comes closer and tells her that it is over. He slowly takes the gun from Ami’s hands and puts it away in his back pocket. He sits in front of Ami and tells her that she saved his life. ‘If you hadn’t done that, we both would have been killed,’ he tells her.

Ami shifts her eyes to Ryan and she gives him a hug. ‘I’m so glad you’re okay,’ she says in a high-pitched voice.

Ryan looks Ami in the eyes and he tells her that these bots are evil, that they do not care about life and do not have emotions. He tells her they merely eliminate everything that lives.

Ami nods, and Ryan helps her up. Ryan picks up his backpack that had been thrown away by the KB. He pulls it out of the dirty water; it stinks.

They start to walk. Ami is behind Ryan but holds his arm. She is scared, even though she won’t admit it.

They walk north for a few minutes, but then they stumble across a room inside the sewers. It looks almost like an old generator room, but you can see that there people used to live there; there are chairs, mattresses and clothes. There are tables with old, empty bottles of water, but the worst of all is the decomposing dead on the floor.

Ryan and Ami walk through the room. Ami asks what happened, and Ryan replies, ‘They probably got overrun by KBs. I wouldn’t look at them too much.’

They walk over to some tables that still have some cans of food on them. Ryan tells Ami that now they’re here it can’t hurt to look around and see if they can find anything useful. They split up and walk around the room. Ami finds two bottles of water and takes them back to Ryan. She gives Ryan the bottles and continues to look around. After a few more minutes, they hear something.

Ryan quickly tells Ami to come to him, and they look around for a place to hide.

It is a large, open room, and so all Ryan can think off is picking up one of the tables and putting it on its side. They hide behind the table. Ryan picks out his gun, and they wait whilst listening to the sounds of footsteps moving closer and closer.

Ryan aims his gun at the tunnel and, not too soon after, three KBs turn round the corner. Ryan quickly ducks back behind the table and makes a quiet signal to Ami with his finger. He tries to sit up straight, but at the worst possible moment, the cans in his backpack hit the ground.
Shit!
thinks Ryan.

He waits for a few seconds longer, but then he hears that the KBs make themselves ready to shoot. Whenever a KB starts to shoot, you can hear a slight clicking noise as they charge up their gun.

Ryan quickly jumps up from behind the table and, before the KBs have charged their guns, he shoots one of them in the chest. It was a lucky shot, and the KB falls down at the first hit. The other KBs start to shoot, and Ryan quickly ducks behind the table again. Without looking, he aims his gun above the table and starts shooting. He hits another KB, which falls down on the ground with a loud noise. Ryan then quickly reloads his gun, but he cannot find a good moment to stick his head out to aim. He looks at Ami and sees that she is frightened for her life, sitting with her hands in front of her face. He looks at his backpack and there sees one of the cans of food lay on the ground. He gets an idea and he picks up the can of food, and then gets ready to shoot once again.

He throws the can of food roughly in the direction of the KB, causing the KB to be distracted; in that split second, the KB looks at the can and Ryan jumps out and shoots the KB in the head and a second time in the chest. The KB falls down. The last sound they hear is the empty bullet casing falling onto the concrete.

Then everything falls silent.

Ryan takes a moment to acknowledge what just happened, and he then directs his focus to Ami.

He sits behind the table and tells her it’s over. Ami looks up and asks ‘Are they dead?’

‘Yes, don’t worry. They can’t hurt us anymore.’ Ryan picks up his backpack and puts everything that fell out of it back inside. He stands up and stretches his hand out to Ami. She takes his hand and he pulls her up. She looks at the KBs, a sad look in her eyes.

Ryan tells her he thinks they are almost there. They start to walk again in the direction of the tunnel. They walk for a good twenty minutes before reaching another crossing. Ami asks which way they need to go. Ryan takes a green army compass from his backpack and states they are still going north. He tells Ami that they need to go left.

They walk into the left tunnel, and there they come across a room that seems to have a few smaller rooms in and around it. They walk round the corner and there, out of nowhere, they bump into two KBs standing just a few feet away. Within a split-second, Ryan grabs his gun and shoots one of the KBs. He takes Ami’s arm, and quickly they run back and hide round the corner in one of the smaller rooms. Ryan signs that she needs to be quiet.

They are sat in a pitch-black black room. Ryan looks at Ami and, to his amazement, he can see her chest glowing bright blue. It’s her heart, he realises: it glows bright blue and he can see it beating.

Even in a situation like this, Ryan feels suddenly calm and focused.

Ami looks down with a shy but also frightened face.

A few minutes pass and nothing happens. Ryan carefully looks round the corner to see if the KB is anywhere to be seen, but, thankfully, it looks like it has passed them.

They slowly step out of the room and Ryan asks Ami if she is okay. ‘Yes, but my dress got all dirty,’ she says.

‘Don’t worry, I’m sure that when we get to the resistance we can find a new dress for you.’

‘Thanks,’ says Ami, and gives Ryan a hug.

They continue their journey and, after walking for about half an hour, they see a big gate made from scrap metal and other debris. Ryan takes Ami aside and tells her that she needs to stay close and act like a human. ‘Whatever happens never reveal that you are an AI, okay?’ Ami agrees, and Ryan and Ami start to walk towards the gate.

They approach the gate and, suddenly, a big light turns on and points at them. They look around them and see that there are countless dead KBs lay on the ground. Two guards come out of the gates with automatic rifles, which they point at Ryan and Ami. The light shines in Ryan and Ami’s faces, and they can hardly see a thing.