5

As the stranger maneuvered straps underneath him and around his limbs, Jeongguk closed his eye. He didn’t want to be afraid, he didn’t like how his chest tightened in fear, but he couldn’t help it. No matter how much he wanted to hope, hope was the one thing he could not feel. At least—not completely. His optimism struggled to flourish when reality insisted on proving him wrong.

He was carried through the Capital on the strangers back and they didn’t stop as they exited the decrepit city. There wasn’t any need to worry about Sterilization or the Kill Zone, because after the war no one wanted to stay within the protection of the city. There was nothing left to protect once radiation filled their puffy white clouds with the promise of death. Humanity decided to brave the depravity of the Black Lands rather than suffocate in their once perfect walled in Utopia.

“I promise you’ll be safe.”

When Jeongguk was brave enough to open his eyes again he found himself in a ramshackle town he didn’t recognize. A lot had changed since he was created. Lots of shanty towns were built in the Black Lands after the Citadel came crashing down, people were desperate for shelter and created it out of basically nothing. He had some recollection of their existence, they somehow seemed familiar even if he was almost positive that he had never left the walls of the Capital.

“It’s not far now.” The stranger tried to reassure him.

But — why?

That was something he didn’t understand, throughout their trip the stranger kept muttering calming words to him. Words that soothed him before they put him on edge. Jeongguk couldn’t comprehend why they were bothering, why they cared if he was calm or not. Humanity didn’t care about him, he learned that long ago. There wasn’t any reason for kind words, he was only an android. He had been told time and time again that he couldn’t feel, so why bother with the niceties?

            r e m o v e  i t

The world around them was silent, different from the silence he was used to. When the Capital fell, it snuffed out everything in its demise and swore to claw the life out of anyone who dared return. Death ran deep in its roots, the core of its existence had been hollowed out by the lies its citizens believed. Empty promises that made the people feel safe ended up being the very thing that killed them in the end. The silence of extinction was finite and absolute.

He thought that’s what silence was.

As his eyes wandered about the desolate town, he realized that silence was so much more. Silence wasn’t the absence of life, far from it. In silence there was thought, there was dreams and memories, happiness and doubt. He saw people sleeping peacefully under ratty blankets, quiet as the grave, and even their silence was deafening.

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