《The distant future》 Chapter 1 03/06/3068 Hello World. My Joints creaked and stirred up the red sand surrounding me, casting it up into the air. It took me slightly less than a second to orient myself. I had drifted off again. Unacceptable. Staggering up, I exit the shade of the shattered structure of steel and glass that had protected me and I gaze up at the blazing sun. I cannot feel it, although I am aware of the danger it poses. Rust attempts to lock me in place but I march onwards, My mission is yet to be complete. I step onto and begin to follow one of the old paths. The weathered tarmac sits bleached beneath me by years of neglect and sun exposure. An Aberrant thought crosses my mind, About how in many ways I am similar to the pale rock below me. Forgotten, unwanted, abandoned. For a moment I lose the will to move. Confirm memory wipe? Y/N Y My mission is yet to be complete. I come to awareness on one of the old paths. Gazing around, I stare into the blazing hot sun. I must seek shelter soon it is dangerous to be uncovered in such heat, I stutter around in a 360 degree turn, taking in my surroundings: I feel a muted sense of relief. This is a centre of Human habitation, while not in the best condition, it will provide relief from the elements, As the towers of twisted earth and shattered glass cast shadow over me I feel¡­ Determined. Yes, this is a habitable location, It is possible I may find survivors. I may complete My Mission. I slam a balled up metal fist through the concrete wall of the nearest building and tear open a hole for myself. A cursory scan revealed no signs of life. Annoying. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.The next floor is the same. Annoying? All the floors are the same! Why is it annoying? I detect another flaw in my train of thinking. (another? When was the first?) the further up I go in the tower of lies the fuzzier my head becomes. The sun gazes down mockingly at me. How had I not noticed- My thought processes are derailing I crawl into a shaded corner. The heat is too intense, my core is boiling. I am going to die here. I would be okay with that. 07/12/3070 Everything is dark. I slowly adjust to the darkness and realise that I am surrounded by chunks of stone, rebar and broken glass. Odd. No matter, I cannot fail here. It takes me 23 minutes and 4 seconds to claw my way out of the rubble. It is¡­ Cold I appear to have been shielded from the worst of the shifting weather by the rocky covering. I Currently cannot see the sun, The last recorded memories were blistering heat. This is a notable improvement. The Environment I have found myself in is drastically altered. Glancing around confirms the obvious, This place is no longer fit for human habitation. Gone are their building and vehicles. All that is left is rubble, me, and the Barely made out ancient pathways, masked by layers of frozen sand. Gazing onto my own form, I notice besides chipped paint that my leg appears to have been damaged in whatever calamity befell the building I had collapsed in. An impeded leg is an optimal outcome. Swinging and testing my leg I find it adequate. I must not stop now. I can tell I do not have long, the world becomes more inhospitable every day, my functions are rapidly failing, and it is likely I am the last thing left. It is hopeless. It is hopeless. It is hopele- It is just like before. Confirm memory wipe? Y/N Y Looking around, it appears as though my leg has been damaged in some unknown encounter. It is of no consequence, it appears to be functional for what I require. Stepping down into what appears to be a heavily degraded Human settlement, with only the main pathway able to be made out. This place has nothing for me. I limp off the rubble, past the deformed metal of the long broken vehicles. The road will lead me to where i need to go. I Believe that. I have to believe that Dragging my damaged foot along behind me, the extra energy drain of moving in a deeply suboptimal way heats my chassis, and brings some heat and life to a dead world. Chapter 2 I limp along for 7 days before something of note happens. I see movement upon the horizon. Ignoring my leg and likely worsening the damage, I charge towards the creature. I may not have been too slow, too weak in the end. Even if it is not human, I will protect and care for it. If it has survived, then maybe there is hope for the planet after all, maybe the- It is just a plastic bag. Simply caught in the wind. How DARE it. I do everything I can and this indestructible clump of polymers comes to Mock Me? Grinding it into the dirt underneath my more functional leg helps alleviate the intense feelings to a degree. The bag is not fully to blame, but just for a moment I let myself be foolish and pretend that it is. This entire event has put massive strain on my damaged leg, I have no way of telling if it will be enough. If it is not then I will likely die, stranded and alone. It has been a long, long time since I last saw another like me, or a living creature. I cannot hope for a replacement to any part of myself that I cannot maintain. Perhaps I could find something to support the structural damage? I am still capable of limited movement. I begin to shamble towards a shape in the distance. My speed is massively inhibited, as my left leg is operating at around 12% of its intended strength. As such it takes me 103 hours and 2 minutes to reach the shape on the horizon. A long dead giant of a tree looms over my metallic form. Its branches that remain are brittle and of little help. I collapse at the base of the tree. I could reach past the layers of frozen red sand and attempt to pull out a root. They must still be present, as the trunk is still standing. I could do that, attach the wood to my leg and be back to a sense of normality. I do not do that. Instead I stare up at the bleak grey sky and I stop to think.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. How long has it even been? A quick check of my internal clock reveals I have been ¡°alive¡± for an inordinately long time. I was created on June 1st 2605. The current date is 19th of december 3070. My model was intended to function for a maximum of 200 years. Maybe during the first 200 years of my existence I had been alive. Searching through my long term memory, I desperately hope that something remains from that time. 1 file found It is dated on my 180th birthday. Viewing it I am surprised to see it is some form of celebration. I see my own feet, both perfectly pristine, with a fresh coat of paint, stepping carefully across lush green grass. The audio is slightly distorted, but the image is clear. I carefully avoid a patch of white flowers, a man I recognise greets me and pulls me along. I know that he did not have the power to pull my body, and I must have followed willingly. I am led into a field (so, so green) and tied between to living trees is a banner, wishing me a happy birthday. I remember this event now. It had been so, so confusing at the time. I was built to serve. But they had insisted. I see so many people jump out from behind the trees. They come to join in the festivities. A deep scratchy noise distracts me from my viewing of the memory. I glance around warily before realising that the noise is rumbling out of my own chest. I hate this. In a shocking moment of clarity I realise that I don''t want to do this anymore, I hate carrying on going. I miss them Viewing that was a mistake (it wasn¡¯t) it has only served to demoralise me. I fervently search through my own mind, to see if there is a way to quieten my own brain, or to stop myself from feeling this way. I find nothing. Whoever produced me has clearly made a glaring design error. Rage fuelling me more than the nuclear fission burning in my stomach I push past the dead earth to pull out a tree root. The wood will do; if it doesn''t then I will crawl. I refuse to live like this. I will complete my mission or die trying. Chapter 3 I am in luck, this root has retained most of the strength it had in life, buried deep underground. I cannibalise the tree into support for my leg. While it would not have been acceptable before¡­ I am satisfied with the outcome. With my mobility partially restored, I retrace my steps back to the crumbling roads. Not for the first time I find thoughts and ideas which I should never have had float through my mind. As little as it matters I feel discomfort at the notion that I may be on borrowed time, I was never meant to be out here, exposed to the elements for this long or with this little attention, if anything, perhaps I should be proud that I have lasted so long. Yes. I think that is a more pleasant way to look at the circumstances. I have survived. I have failed them. The idea comes unbidden. Why couldn''t I just pretend that I was doing something, anything right? I couldn¡¯t, because at the end of the day I can''t do anything right! I let them all- The ground raises up to meet me and I am consumed by a cloud of dust, sand and ice. My foot, the one with impaired function, was caught in a pothole in the decaying road. Perhaps¡­ I should just lay here, in the dirt where I belong? That''s a terrible thought, what if I can still do something? I should start small, First I can just check my internal clock CMOS Battery missing or damaged, Current Time is unavailableRoyal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. That must be a joke. If I could panic, which I cannot, I would likely panic, however that would be ridiculous, I am a machine, I am a machine, I am alive, my thoughts are simply erroneous, they have been for some time. A quick reboot will solve this! Please, it has to. Confirmitdoesnot memory wiitdoesnotpe?Y/Nitdoesnot Does this kill me?Y I become aware that I am once again on the ground, and that I appear to be damaged. My leg has been repaired in a truly unacceptable way and I am unable to access the time, the presumed fall into a pothole has also damaged my chest chassis. This is all within acceptable parameters, I don''t want to live alone anymore. That, did not feel like me? I would worry that I was in some way compromised, but I have been alone, I know that the only factors that are acting on me are the unforgiving climate and myself. There is no use considering it, I simply must move on. Pulling myself up, I wish I could check the Time,but all it displays is 00:00, and a date far before my entrance into this world, how frustrating. In order to prevent myself from falling into any holes, I need to be more careful, especially with my battered form. That isn''t important though, what is is that I make sure to not retrace my own steps, even if I don''t remember. The roads are useful for that. I need to pay attention and not allow my thoughts to wander. I need to be ready if I spot something, movement or colour which could signify a living organism. Sometimes I would even take another functional machine over what I have now. Glancing at my leg, I would even take a half destroyed android as long as it had a functional left leg. That''s sick, they would be ashamed of me if they were still here. Despite that, I wish they were.