Nano Bytes - A Collection of Short SciFi Stories

World behind the veil by storieswithsoul

World behind the veil

Life was not always about happiness, sometimes it was more about survival, and surviving was not always easy. That's how it had been, for us, living in a world where humanity was bent upon completely obliterating itself. Life had become unsustainable, while artificial intelligence was evolving much faster than humans ever could. It happened gradually, but soon we ran out of options. In the end, all we could do was fight for our survival even when the end seemed near, we decided to keep fighting, clinging to life, because Earth was the only planet we had got unless we were wrong. That was the thing about humans, they never gave up hope. If there was even a remote possibility of discovering another habitable planet--in some far-off galaxy--we were going to take that chance and venture into the unknown.

#

Earth Year: 2065

Planet: Unknown

Even though I had no clue where I was instinctively, I knew I wasn't supposed to be here. There was something about this place which chilled me to the bone and made me fear for my life. It looked like a wasteland. As far as I could see there wasn't another living soul present. Then I wondered who I was, perhaps I was a part of this wasteland--but no that felt wrong. I was sure that I was indeed alive, for how long though--that was anyone's guess.

#

Earth: Year 2066

Planet: Earth-ish

It all started three months ago. I found out something I wasn't supposed to find out. That's my biggest flaw--I keep finding things that had been long forgotten, lost in time and space. It was one of those secrets, that humanity kept close to its heart, something with the potential to destroy our carefully crafted world.

"I think our work is done here, Morten," I said to my partner in crime.

"Not quite, there is one last cabinet we haven't searched," he replied, "we don't want to miss anything."

"Can't argue with that," I said.

In this day and age, it was already very difficult for us to find anything worth stealing. Yes, you guessed it--we were indeed thieves. It wasn't by choice though, nothing was by choice anymore, we weren't allowed to choose anything at all. We only did what we were programmed to do. So, Morten and I were thieves, because that was what we were designated as. Don't ask me who chose it though, I was as clueless as anyone else. In any case, it was our job to plunder and steal anything and everything we could find in the Land of the Dead. That's what we called this part of the city. Everything here was dead, no plants grew, no animals roamed the wilds, no life form could survive for more than a few hours at a time, nothing except the dead could live in this place.

Every day the two of us would rove, steal whatever we could find, and then return to our part of the Walled city. It was supposed to be the most difficult job of all. Not many of us survived past few years. Sooner or later they all vanished without a trace. By the way, in case you were wondering, we were all humanoid robots.

"Please, hurry up. I don't want to be found by the dead," I said impatiently.

"Oh, chill. There is no such thing as "the dead." They are just stories. Besides, there is still time before it gets dark. We'll be out of here by then," came his reply.

"Thank heavens for the light," I said.

"All done."

"Did you find anything interesting?"