7

            please don’t

“Holy hell—what’s—what’s going on here?”

Closing his eye, he wished that he could somehow lose the ability to hear. He didn’t want to listen to his prognosis, he didn’t want to know the truth. The stranger mumbled to himself about faulty wiring, broken parts, fried circuits, damaged power cells, and everything in between. Things Jeongguk didn’t want to hear. He tried to think of anything to distract himself, he thought of the boy and the wildflowers, he tried to remember the stars, he delved into his eroded memory files for anything— anything. Because his own fate terrified him.

fear is temporary, hope is eternal

For a brief moment, Jeongguk’s turbulent thoughts were lulled into a serene silence. That voice, whoever it belonged to, was one he trusted. Those words were once said to him in a time of terror, a time when the sky was burning and sirens screamed long into the night. A time when children had never known anything other than fear. When his whole world was coming to a fiery end. He believed those words then, when hope was forgotten. He knew—he knew that he could believe in them again. It—it would take time, but he had to try.

“Wow, okay, this is insane. How the hell did you incur this much damage? This—this doesn’t make any sense. You don’t look like you’ve been scavenged, so why—”

He tried to remain calm as the stranger directed his attention to Jeongguk’s modular port. Soon he would learn the very thing he had been trying to forget for decades. A moment that stripped Jeongguk of his very identity.

            r e m o v e  i t

“You—you’re a Canary?”

            Processing Data Retrieval…

“I thought humanoid models were discontinued decades ago?”

            Model: Canary, Humanoid

            Name: Jeon Jungkook

            Value: None

            Demand: None

            Status: Discontinued

The stranger stood over Jeongguk in awe as realization hit him, and he didn’t know why.  Why did it matter what he was? Why did the stranger care? Why, for the first time in a century, did his identity hold meaning? It made no sense to him, the gears in his head were turning, his synapses firing, neither of which provided the answers he was searching for.

Was there an answer to be found?

“I can’t believe what I’m seeing. You’re not just a Canary, you’re one of the originals. From before the Surge, so why— how are you even still alive? No humanoid models were saved once the Capital fell. Someone had to take care of you. But who? Who—who saved you?” He can't recall. The sounds are vogue now.

            saved me?

No one.

            who saved me?

No one saved Jeongguk.

            s a v e  m e

Because he wasn’t worth saving.

A desolate wasteland, marred by blood and fire, lost to the carnage of a war long passed.

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