*Canary: an android created before the Surge. A domestic model intended to sing children to sleep. 

Production of humanoid models began in 271 Golden but was halted soon after once their purpose was deemed

irrelevant to the progress of the Nation. Almost all humanoid models were scrapped

and those that remained were either thrown out or forgotten once the Capital fell.

Their rise and fall in popularity became known as the death of the songbird*.

A little boy stood still in a field of untamed wildflowers, like a photograph taken during a time long forgotten. He didn’t move as the wind danced around him, he didn’t even flinch when it tossed his hair with its wistful nature. The boy, almost oblivious to the wonders he was surrounded by, was too busy watching perfect white clouds drift across the pristine blue sky. He reached his hand up towards them, sunlight peered through his tiny fingers and his brown irises blossomed into breathtaking marigolds. As his eyelids fluttered shut, he began to hum an age old tune while he basked in the warmth of a summer sun. The calmed song made him more restless. He doesn't know why but react.

            is anyone there?

Jeongguk watched the boy from a distance with a smile, content to revel in his infectious youthful glow. Some of his best memories happened in that field, just the other day he stood beside the boy and taught him how to fish. The sense of pride that surged through his chest was immeasurable, almost overwhelming. He had never experienced anything like it. How that boy looked up at him as if he had pulled a chest of gold from the murky pond, that was his definition of the happiness.

            is anyone there?

He didn’t know the boy’s name, or he couldn’t remember it, one of the two. Thinking back, he should’ve found that strange. They’d been together for years, they should know each other’s name. When Jeongguk opened his mouth to ask—no sound came out. Confused, he pressed his fingers gingerly to his throat, wondering what could’ve possibly caused his voice to evade him. It felt—hollow. Empty. How could that—how could that be? Is that even possible? Jeongguk could hardly remember his own voice and yet that was almost normal.

            is anyone th-th-there?

The boy looked up at him then, a concerned expression tainting his childish features. Jeongguk watched his mouth move, watched words spill from his lips but for some reason they didn’t reach his ears. He tried to shake his thoughts loose—it felt like there was something preventing him from experiencing the moment fully, like his head was full of cotton. Words ran from his tongue as if his voice was poison, perhaps they knew more than he did, maybe death awaited them at the back of his throat. He wouldn’t know.

            is a-anyone th-th-th-there?

Suddenly, dark ominous clouds covered the calming blue sky and Jeongguk felt droplets of rain against his skin—skin? He watched the water run down the length of his arm, but he didn’t feel it. He felt it deep in his bones, felt it mix with his blood, felt it attempting to drown him from the inside out. Desperately, he looked to the boy for help, hoping he could do something—anything. The boy only smiled at him and it sent shivers down his spine. That smile knew something that Jeongguk didn’t. He closed his eyes because he couldn’t bear to look at it any longer.

“It’s time for us to go home.”

            is a-anyone th-th-th-th—

When he opened his eyes—eye—again, he wasn’t in the field of wildflowers, there wasn’t a boy with rosy cheeks smiling up at him, there wasn’t anything. He was alone, motionless, cold, and forgotten. Just as he had been for years.

            is anyone there?

It wasn’t a dream. Jeongguk couldn’t dream, that right was reserved for humans. What he experienced was something he couldn’t explain. For as long as he could remember visions of that little boy were the only thing that were keeping him sane. They felt like memories, but he didn’t have those either. Not anymore. Whatever they were they made his lonely nights pass by in a blur, almost allowing him to forget that he wasn’t just alone, he was abandoned. Thrown out. Cast aside like he was garbage. It made him wonder if—if he was garbage.

            is anyone there?

No, no there wasn’t. There wasn’t anyone anywhere. That was the first thing he realized after he woke up, after a building collapsed on him and tore him from his mechanical slumber. It took him days, maybe even weeks, to accept the truth. The streets of the Capital were empty, all that remained were lonely ghosts of a time before soaked into the pavement. Before the war, before Jeongguk was put to sleep. Before hope was lost and destruction was born.

            is anyone there?

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed since he first opened his eyes and realized someone had left him to rot. The only thing that told him anything was his retinal display, his one solace in a radioactive wasteland. It monitored his vitals, every waking second he had to see exactly how broken he had become, how hopeless his existence was. His salvation was also the harbinger of his death, each day the alerts grew exceedingly worse, almost to a point where he wasn’t sure there was anything left to break. Of course one day even his retinal display would fail him and he would have nothing save for the call of the void.

            is anyone there?

Looking up at the night sky, he was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the stars between clouds of smog and dust.

A small window into a universe far greater than his own. There was nothing he loved more than stars. He almost smiled when he saw them dancing across his vision. With only one functional eye left he used it and whatever programming he still had to memorize how they illuminated the sea of black waves above him. Their presence allowed a calm euphoria to wash over him, they made him forget about his dire situation, his fate. His sorrows all melted away until nothing remained except stardust and moonlight.

Until the sun chased it all away.

            is anyone there?

Then it started to rain and he closed his eye. It wasn’t because he wanted to preserve what little he had left, he knew his own wellbeing was beyond salvation. Water had already eroded his circuitry and his hardware, rust covered him like a blanket, he wasn’t afraid of a little rain. In fact, it was almost the exact opposite. Instead of looking away out of fear, he looked away out of—out of sorrow.

Seeing the sky cry makes me sad.

            is anyone there?

I — I wish I could cry.

But androids couldn’t cry, crying was reserved for humans, for people who were real.

Would they have kept me if I —

            Zzzt.

— if I were real?

            is—

            is an—anyone—

            th—th—th—th—

He only wanted to cry.

Was that too much to ask?

            is anyone there?

Silence. The only constant in his life. For years that silence, the complete lack of sound, had kept Jeongguk in a haze. He was a prisoner in his own body, trapped in a stagnant world that was cruel enough to let him live. Alone.

            is anyone there?

Alone.

A - Alone.

A l o n e.

             is anyone there?

He was alone.

            is —

            is any-anyone —

            is a-any-anyone th-th —

            is anyone there?

A hand on his shoulder suddenly pulled him from his lonely cycle. There was someone kneeling beside him, someone human. The realization made his eye open wide in fear, humans couldn’t safely travel through the Capital anymore, what were they thinking? The radiation levels that his sensors displayed were lethal after mere minutes of direct exposure. Jeongguk soon noticed that they were wearing protective gear, it made sense. But it did nothing to stop his thoughts from careening out of control.

            what are you going to do to me?

Change terrified him, especially one that put his life in someone else's hands. He didn’t know what to think, what to feel, what to do . He didn’t know anything. All he could do was lie helpless as someone hovered over him, a thick mask covering their face. Jeongguk wasn’t created during a time of kindness, the world he lived in was one of selfishness and greed. Destruction and power. Whatever was to happen to him—it wasn’t good. They could use him or throw him.      

            please don’t hurt me