Chapter Text
Our tale begins in a vast forest, unburdened with any sign of industry or pollution. Trees and plant life expand in every direction, seemingly un-ending. The trees have a canopy thick enough to block most light from entering the forest, only glints and strands of light break through the leaves and branches, giving small amounts of respite from the dark that engulfs the rest.
Birds chirp and sing in the light, their tweets and songs ever repeating as the false sun shines as brightly as it ever has; Crickets and other bugs chirp and vocalize, quieting when the apex approached; and smooth-formed, quadruped predators pad in the shadows and tops of the trees, waiting for their prey to make a move. In the center of a small clearing and gap in the canopy, about as large as a coffin on its back, lay an unfortunate Worker Drone.
The Worker Drone had green LED coloring, with a hexagonal-pattern shirt as her clothes, with brown hair and a pair of black headphones on her head. She lied still, her systems slowly beginning their boot-up process. A progress bar shows up on her visor, her status slowly processing and righting itself as she came online.
Eventually her hands twitched and grasped, before she suddenly shot upright. Her arms went in front of her face to protect herself from the killing blow as she yelled, “stop!” The birds and bugs and other animal noises quieted, before resuming shortly after.
Janet eventually stopped shielding her head, bringing her arms down as she realized that she wasn’t going to get struck down. Her green holographic ‘eyes’ wandered around carefully; her face full of scrutiny of the environment surrounding her. Said scrutiny and fear soon turned to astonishment and confusion as she felt the grass on her hands. It was soft and bright green. Janet had never felt, or even seen grass before for that matter.
She looked at the trees that were tall, some over a dozen feet, and unlike any she’d seen in pictures. Not dead or destroyed but living and breathing. Looking up, she stared at the sun that was unlike any that she’d felt before on Copper-9. The sun she felt during the days on Copper-9 felt cold and distant, unforgiving in its cosmic radiation. But this one felt warm, comforting in a way even.
The yellow star shone almost apathetically as she took it all in from where she sat, shining glorious yellow rays onto the forest around.
She remembered what had happened seconds before being in this place suddenly. One of the Sky Demons had found a way into the building her village had wound up in. It was unlike any she had ever heard of. She was taught that they were Disassembly Drones, robots meant to kill other robots, monsters. She wasn’t taught about their open ribcages, their exposed internal gore and sharp teeth, nor about their unholy fusion between flesh and machine in disgusting ways.
She had been cornered by one of the monsters, its fangs dripping a mix of oil and blood, with its visor in a killing X and all of the organic eyes on its forehead staring at her, pupils constricted. It had raised its blade and swung… then she can’t remember anything else. She briefly pondered if this was the afterlife, but thought not, as she’s a robot, robots don’t get afterlives.
Janet stood and dusted herself off, brushing off small bits of dirt. She then looked around at the forest that expanded in every direction she saw. Her internal clock couldn’t read what time it was, but she knew it was early morning judging by the sky she saw from the opening in the canopy. Her clock began to keep track of the estimated time.
She gave a few glances every which way, before resolving to walk in a random direction. Her compass was useless here, as not even it could figure out which way was where. She quietly walked along the forest floor, somewhat entranced by the sounds of the forest around her. She’d seen none of this, only hearing stories from the oldest of her village about how Copper-9 used to be verdant and thriving. What was her name again… Bridger? Yeah, Old-Lady Bridger is what they called her. The name was out of respect, but also light fun from the younger Drones.
Her memory went back to her village and their residence within the abandoned apartment complex. She remembered how a few of their warriors were on guard near the entrance, and how all the windows had been boarded up to stop anything from looking in. She grew up there, learning almost everything there. She remembered the brief times she was allowed outside, during the day and under-watch of course, and how she was amazed for seeing snow for the first time.
The Sky Demons were only spoken in hushed tones, rarely ever mentioned in larger conversation beyond teaching. She knows why now.
She was brought out of memories and thoughts when she realized how quiet it was in the forest. Her footsteps were all she could hear. The birds and their oddly repetitive singing stopped, and the crickets ceased. The darkness around her started to feel unnatural, almost suffocating in its nature. She turned around to check behind her, taking a nervous step back in the process. Her venting increased its pace.
Seconds felt like minutes as she stood perfectly still, eye lights hollow. The silence was deafening. The once welcoming forest felt malevolent in its welcoming demeanor. It was only now that, in perfect stillness and focus, that she realized that she didn’t feel any wind. Seconds later, she started to hear the tweets and chirps of birds returning.
She still didn’t move for almost a minute after, her processor racing with ideas about what just happened. She didn’t understand why the forest quieted for a while, but she certainly wasn’t going to let her guard down. With her outlook on the forest changing from one of warmth and kindness, to one of cold and fear.
She took careful, and nervous steps from her spot. She started moving at her original pace soon after, occasionally looking over her shoulder. This place didn’t feel natural if it ever did.
As she walked, memories soon wrapped themselves around her thoughts again. This time of one trip outside with a few friends and a warrior. They were playing and building in the snow, while the warrior taught them how to survive outside if they ever had to. She remembered seeing a Worker Drone in the distance staring at them with a colorless visor. Since the warrior wasn’t paying attention to her at the time, she called out to the odd drone. When she did, it simply turned around and walked away.
When she told the warrior about the Worker he simply ushered them back, saying it was getting late even though their clocks said it was early afternoon.
She also remembered her times being told stories by Old Lady Bridger, about what the planet used to be like, and how their old human masters could be immensely cruel and yet also unmatched in their kindness. Bridger told her old folklore as well, such as the crow and the dog. Oh how she liked those stories so much.
She was lost in memories for so long she didn’t realize just how long she walked.
She wandered for what felt like and was hours according to her clock. The forest never quieted again like it did a couple of hours ago. Her demeanor was still nervous, and her guard unrelenting. With no clue on where she could be wandering, she eventually stopped and sat down into the grass. Strands of light illuminated this part of the forest. She looked about, checking that nothing was around. She briefly pondered again about how she got here but drew blanks.
Something she’d noticed was how repetitive the birds were, and that she had never seen one in her walking. She hadn’t seen any insects either, or any creature really. She sat down in silence, surrounded by false sounds from creatures that didn’t exist. As she focused on the sounds, she heard in the distance what sounded to be a river or something of the sorts.
She thought about heading towards it, after all she had no other indication about direction. She decided on walking towards it, read previous point on why.
The walk took another thirty minutes to reach the stream. When she reached it, the river sparkled and shone a perfect reflection with no ripples as it flowed calmly down to its destination, wherever it may be. The canopy wasn’t present above the stream, letting sunlight freely clear away the dark.
Janet approached the stream and got onto her knees, putting her head above it and looking at the reflection staring back at her. She watched as the perfect stream moved and flowed. The reflective water making brilliant renditions of the scenery around her.
As with most of the forest, she had never seen water flowing like this before, only stories. Against better judgement, and out of curiosity, she stuck out her hand and carefully lowered it into the water. The water was cool to the touch as it engulfed her hand. There were no ripples as it happened. She slowly reached downwards into the water, expecting to hit the bottom eventually. She reached her wrist in, then her forearm, then her elbow, then she reached down up to her shoulder. That’s when she realized there was no bottom.
Slowly and tentatively, she brought her arm out of the apparently endlessly deep stream. She looked at her hand for a moment and shook off a bit of water before something at the corner of her eyes caught her attention.
The time was mid-afternoon, her clock estimated it after how long she spent walking. In the reflection was the sun. Looking exactly the same as it had when she first saw it. It hadn’t moved.
Janet’s attention was thoroughly focused on it as she wondered why the forest was like this. She hadn’t noticed how quiet the forest got as she did. Only when she heard a menacing snap from across the stream did she notice. Confused and slightly startled, she looked up. Standing on the other end of the stream, with a snapped twig under its foot, stood a large quadrupedal being with an eyeless conical head. Large claws were protruding from paws that looked like graspers. And it looked like it was about to pounce.
Without thinking for a second longer Janet got up and ran. She heard it pounce to the other side of the stream seconds after she ran. Running as fast as her legs could carry her, she hoped in vain she could escape the pursuer. She heard a howl and rustling in the canopy behind her as she ran deeper into the forest. She yelled for help, but it echoed as she ran. Her cries of fear went unanswered.
Unbeknownst to her, in her fear powered stupor her run began to become less and less coherent, eventually she stumbled as one of her legs caught the other. She hit the ground hard and rolled for a second before coming to a stop. She saw the leaves above her rustle and move, the thing must be up there somewhere. It sounded like every tree around her was rustling. Terrified, she started to back up with her arms until she hit a tree. From there, she fearfully watched the canopy as it shook.
Eventually it calmed, but she had yet to hear the birds return. She didn’t dare let out a vent of relief or any such action. Her core raced as she simply watched and observed.
That is until a singular leaf fell down, swishing back and forth in the air as it passed Janet’s visor. Morbid curiosity overwhelmed her sense to run as she looked up. She saw the conical head of the monster looking down at her from the canopy.
All she did before it dropped down on her was let out a terrified whimper. A short scream followed when it dug its claws into her chest and ripped the metal apart, but it was silenced when its conical head opened and bit her throat, shredding it with hundreds of razor-sharp teeth.
The birds began to sing again as the apex predator of the endless forest feasted upon another unfortunate soul lost in the In-Between. Dark black oil seeped into the perfect green grass as the Drone’s body finally ceased its twitching, going still as the beast mauled its meal.
There were many monsters like this one, feasting upon the poor Worker Drones that end up here. Where neither heaven, hell, nor purgatory have meaning. With another death, another soul is added to the pyre that will let The Bringer of Answers rise again.