The sky was clear and warm rays of light shone down at what was once a bustling city. Now it was silent, the streets empty, the buildings overgrown and torn apart by greenery. The only sound was the songs of the many birds who had made it their home.
This serenity shattered when one of the buildings collapsed, not able to withstand the wear and tear of time and weather. And hundreds of wings took to the sky. As it crumpled to pieces, the sun reflected off something in the rubble. A beep sounded after some time.
And blue eyes opened to this new world.
Nanny bot 2000 gazed up at a sky as bright as its own eyes and sat up. It looked around and scanned the surrounding rubble for life.
「 Non-detected.」
It tried to stand, but found its legs pinned by a slab of concrete. When it failed to pull them out, it grabbed hold of the metal pipe protruding from the slab, one who had nearly pierced its front panel, and easily lifted the rubble off itself, then let it fall back into place with a thud, and a cloud of dust.
It navigated its way out of the collapsed building; over concrete, under wood, past insulation, glass, chairs, and broken tables, and down onto the street. And all throughout, it continued to scan for life signs.
There were none. There were none. Not there, or over there. None, none, none, none… There were no bodies in the rubble either.
The overwhelming relief at this realization was unexpected. But, it felt like, no, it was certain. It had to find them. There was someone it had to protect. Someone who needed it. It just did not know who.
Its memory unit heated up as it encouraged it, despite the block it sensed, into overdrive in an attempt to recall, and its head twitched as it brokenly repeated, 「Non-detect non-detected, nn-detected non-」
This cycle was interrupted by a sound in the distance. It was too far away to be certain what it was. It was too big to have been made by an animal. It was— There again. It turned its head in that direction.
There was no movement, the only sign of life was the faint smoke that rose from behind some five-story apartments a few blocks away.
Nanny Bot 2000 took a step forward then stopped. It sensed a strange reluctance in its heart. It looked back at the rubble it woke in. That sound, that smoke, was the first sign of life, of anyone, since it woke, yet it didn’t want to leave. It couldn’t leave. After all, what if she came back and it wasn’t there?
…She?
It blinked. Its mind blank, all but that word.
Unconsciously, the memory unit began to heat up again as it started spiraling down down down… It wasn’t until its sensor detected abnormal vibrations that it snapped out of it. The activation of its earthquake emergency protocol made it immediately assess its surroundings for fall risks and cover. All previous thoughts forgotten.
However, it soon found the world around it calm. No buildings shook, no windows rattled, nor did things fall. Everything seemed the same.
It looked back at its short-term memory logs and soon discovered the cause it previously missed. The vibrations weren’t due to an earthquake, it was the aftermath of an explosion. A strong one. One from where the other sounds came from. The thick dark smoke already spoke of its scale.
Its red eyes which had begun to turn back flashed vibrant red at this realization. The only warning was a flex of its silver knee joints, then it took off at exceeding speed towards the direction of the explosion.
As it ran the cracked pavement it jumped overturned cars, and past broken buildings with more damage than could be attributed to time alone. But none of it registered as of any importance, and in just a few minutes it had reached its destination. The center of the explosion.
The smoke lingered like a fog, some of the rich vegetation still burned at the edge. Fortunately it seemed to have taken place in a wide open area, aside from the scorched ground and plants, not much else had taken damage.
The robot who had walked with purpose faltered out of nowhere, almost as if it had tripped on air. In its head the message it sent to the law enforcement read out loud, it had rebounded. It sent another via the emergency line, then tried to call when it failed. All services were down. When it probed deeper it only discovered unfamiliar protected numerical named networks.
「… 」
It stood there for what may have been a long time, ultimately it took a step forward, then another, and walked into the smoke. Unlike the blue rays, which had been barely visible, its current eyes tinted them red and in the smoke they were tangible like the lasers of a phaser. It had attempted to contact law enforcement, it had failed. There were no protocols for such a situation. Now all it could do was scan for injured. And hope.
Rather than the rays, the first discovery was made by stepping on it. What followed was a clear metal sound. It lifted its foot off it, and leaned down to see more clearly. The smoke shifted. An arm. A white metal arm layed severed, partially blackened and with strangled wires where the shoulder should be.
From its position near the ground it spotted similar silhouettes, it moved to the nearest in the gray fog. It was a white humanoid robot, taller than itself, almost double, and perhaps just a bit bigger than an adult male human. Like the arm, it was in a similar bad condition. Black marks, dents, missing parts, bullet holes, and most curiously, scratches, as if from some kind of claws.
It scanned the humanoid for a serial code, and deemed it too damaged. The only intact identifiers were three Xs on its left chest plate, much like how Nanny Bot 2000 was written on its own. It committed it to its database, then moved on.
There were several more, the scattered limbs made it difficult to determine the exact amount without a closer inspection of each shadowed piece. A tedious task indeed. As it stood from the third, the smoke had begun to lift. And what it saw would have made its pupils contract, had it had any.
Five meters ahead laid a lifeform, it had its back to it and was covered in concrete dust. But it was undoubtedly a lifeform. Nanny Bot was by its side in an instant. It was a male lizardman, adolescent, or young adult. No life sign.
Any attempt at resurrection was halted as it took in the full extent of the injuries the grey dust had initially covered up. Cut off from all sorts of networks, even Nanny Bot could tell. It seemed he had been near the center of the explosion.
There was nothing to do.
A hasty inhale— its head snapped up at the sound. There in the entrance of the closest building, where the doorframe gaped empty, stood a much smaller lizardman.
The young lizardman was half hunched over, and his knuckles strained where they grasped at the doorframe. The contracted pupils were entirely focused on the body at Nanny Bot’s feet and his jaw visibly trembled, as if not sure whether to close or stay open.
For a long moment, it seemed he hadn’t noticed it was there, then fixated pupils moved and their eyes met. One beat, then the lizardman jolted, let go of the doorframe, and straightened his back. His expression muted in indecision ever so briefly before it settled into something entirely new. He clenched his jaw shut and lifted his chin high. With a defiant show of teeth, he narrowed his eyes, bundled his fists at his sides, and took one step forward— Only to be abruptly grabbed and dragged back.
Nanny Bot couldn’t see who the hand on his arm belonged to, but heard their indistinct angry whispers. Ultimately whoever it was seemed to win as they both disappeared back into the building. Meanwhile, the bot could all but stare.
Life signs.
Life, lifeforms, children.
Its red eyes faded back to bright blue and, with a feeling as if a puzzle piece was fitted into place, its posture relaxed in a non robotic way. It made its way over to the building at a normal pace, not wanting to frighten the children. Yet each step unwittingly brimmed with barely restrained power.
To an untrained eye its gait may seem hostile, this was far from the truth. Such incredible joy surged through its power cables, it practically skipped its way up the cracked steps to the doorway.
The building itself was even more desolate than the others, not only were the doors gone, all windows gaped empty, not a shard in sight. In fact, the building had seemingly been reduced to its steel and concrete framework, with barely that intact.
Nanny Bot stopped at the doorway, its feet still firmly planted beyond the threshold, and lifted its hand to the frame. There were five puncture holes where the child had dug his claws into it. It swiped its palm over them and watched as the concrete crumbled under its touch, it then turned its head to look inside and lightly knocked three times before it stepped forward.
No one answered. And, as it made its way through what was once a home, now resembled an industrial site, there was no movement. Its faded blue rays swept over burnt rubble and unrecognizable debris, the only sound its steady footsteps as it walked from room to room.
It came to a stop in a fairly large open space, most likely the once living room. It should have been much darker, but the roof had collapsed in the left corner, with almost a third of it gone, and ample light shone through.
That aside, there was no difference from the other rooms it been to. There was no sound. The only movement was the dust that gently danced through the air.
Its scan moved through it as it had the others. Completed. It stepped back with one leg and began to turn its body away, but something caught its attention in the corner of its eye. It looked back, and there. It gleamed as it floated through a beam of light, a single strand of hair.
It walked over, as if in a trance, to the corner and reached up towards the sun that streamed into the room, its heels fully off the ground. Then, with a metallic ”ding”, its fingertips came together and trapped the silver strand between them.
It watched it as it slowly brought its arm back down until it was right in front of its face. All its focus on it. Its body wavered, and unlike its arms, its heels came down less than gracefully with a forceful scratchy metallic stomp.
“Eep!”
A muffled whimper— Its body froze, it slowly raised its gaze— It had been so small it was barely audible but— The hair gradually fell to the ground from its opened fingers. Forgotten. It took a step towards the roof rubble, its eyes trained on a particular large piece leaned against the wall— it was certain.
It determinedly walked forward, grasped it with one hand, and directly lifted the 2 ton cement block up over its head— Dust and bits rained down— And it instantly came face to face with four wide eyed individuals.
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
They sat huddled together in a pile, utterly still, with the larger two protectively hugging the smaller, their raggedy bags carefully mushed between them, not a strap astray. All gazes were turned upwards and they could all but gawk at the block, their previous hiding place, that now shadowed them from above.
Similarly, Nanny Bot could hardly believe its eyes— An intrusive wave of blue swept over them. It caused some of them to blink or raise a shielding hand as it got to their eyes— But the scan did not lie.
Four strong life signs.
Warm satisfaction blossomed in its chest, so strong, sudden, and unexpected, it couldn’t fully process it. It had to force itself to focus, and moved its gaze to the lizardman it spotted earlier, for the first time getting a good look at him.
Unlike the deceased older one who had blue scales, this young lizardman’s were a deep pine green, and his eyes a striking blue. Though a bit malnourished, he seemed healthy and unharmed. There was an unknown creature in his lap.
「CONFIRMED LIFE SIGN— Species: Lizardman / Status: Minor / Age: 14 / State: Healthy.」
It shifted its focus to the second largest. She was the most visibly distressed out of them; Her whole body was tensed up and she had a hand pressed over the mouth of the small girl in her arms, her wolf ears defensively pulled back. From her ears and tail, as well as her brown eyes and darker skin, it surmised she was from the southeast wolf beastman tribe. The scan confirmed it.
「CONFIRMED LIFE SIGN— Species: Beastman / Subspecies: Wolf / Status: Minor / Age: 13 / State: Healthy.」
The most perplexing out of all was the black and white creature held by the young lizardman. It was fairly big, round like a pig, with paws like a dog, and had long ears, but a small tail. Blue rays swept over it. A pause. It scanned again, then longer.
「 Dog… Pig…Dog-Pig-Dog-Pig-Dog-Pig-Dog-Pig-Dog-Pig-Dog… FAT DOG. 」
The scan concluded. Its final word hung over them, heavy, like the cement block. They all stared back at the robot. Then the “dog” let out a screech of indignation.
“Kiii Giyu?…KIYUUUUU!!!!!”
Nanny Bot met its glare for a second in response to the outburst, then, to the creature’s apparent shock and irritation, looked away.
The last in the group was the small girl. Her size corresponded to that of a small three or large two-year-old, but her biometrics showed she was actually four. She had white hair and fair skin, her eyes— “Ahaaa-AARRGH!
The lizardman lunged forward with a cry. Teeth and claws out. He put all his weight into it and threw himself at the bot.
A/N:
This is it. \(//∇//)\
I’m incredibly excited to be back and am currently looking for an editor, contact me if you are interested and have experience.
Btw, this is what the “dog’s” would have looked like:
「CONFIRMED LIFE SIGN— Species: ??Dog?? / Status: —- / Age: 11 / State: Temporary elevated blood pressure. 」