The day my life ended

I don’t remember what happened when the volcano erupted. I remember what happened before it though. I was collecting information on a village in Aether near the northern pole. I only had seconds to react before the ash cloud hit. I woke up surrounded by rubble and the bodies of others. I got up from where I lay to look around, my eye screens covered in dark gray. I remember coughing, feeling the burn of ash in my throat module as I wiped my face. Even after wiping my eyes, my vision was still blurred, causing me to stumble around. I tripped over the arm of a predecessor at one point. I don’t know how long I stood amongst the rubble and bodies, it felt like a lifetime, as if time had stopped. I only left the wreckage after a bright light guided me away into a field of ash. No grass stood, the sky was dark, and rocks sat everywhere. I couldn’t see all of them, but I know they were there as I tripped over them multiple times. At multiple points, I ran into the limbs of both of my fellow bots and those who created them. I didn’t realize until I was in that field that tears soaked my cheeks, wetting my fur. I never thought I would escape that treacherous grave, so I sat down on one of the rocks. My head rested in my hands as I stared down at the ground. I couldn’t make out what I was staring at, but I remember the colors of white ash hugging gray. I closed my eyes, and I guess I fell asleep, I don’t know for how long I was asleep. I don’t sleep like normal bots, they power off, and I look through the memories of others. While I was sleeping, I decided to look through the memories of my friends. I went through my friend Yezty’s memories. I watched as she jumped around and ran up to predecessors, annoying them with her incessant rambles about being doomed. I then moved on to another set of memories, one that involved me. I was standing in front of a large sunflower, the light reflecting behind it, making it appear as if it glowed. 

“This is impressive,” I said. I reached out towards the flower, gently touching its petals. The bot the memories belonged to let out a laugh while walking towards me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and looked up to the flower,

“Took a while but worth it. Our creators can eat the seeds, and we can appreciate the flower's beauty,” he said. We stood there, taking in the details of the flower. “It reminds me of you. Everyone gets to appreciate your beauty.” I looked up at him, blushing before gently pushing him away. The both of us then started laughing. I was about to say something, but I was woken up before being able to hear it. 

“Finally, you’re awake.” The figure before me was tall and lanky. He had a cloak around him and the only features I could make out were the glowing red eyes surrounding his body. The sun was barely visible. It glowed a bright angry red as if angered by our world and needing to punish us. 

“Who are you?” I questioned.

“Does that matter? Now come on, let's go. I have places to be and people to mess with,” The figure stated. He then turned around, his brown tail waving behind him. I got up off my rock, kicking against the metal below me. “Watch your step,” he says, annoyance filling his voice. 

“I can’t see!” I yelled at him. He quickly turned around and then shuffled around under his cloak. 

“Here.” He handed me glasses and when I put them on, I could see everything clearly. I remember I touched them, feeling the cold gold under my fingers. 

“Thank you,” I whispered to him. He ignored me though and just kept walking off. We walked for what I can only assume was days. We passed toppled-over cars, crumbling buildings, and rubble encased in blood and bodies. The smell was putrid, the rotting corpses overpowering the smell of smoke. We walked through sand for a while. It was a good break away from the destruction. Sadly, it ended when we reached a beach. There was a town there, but it was in flames still. 

“Stand by while I check this place out,” the traveler I was with said. I ignored him though and walked further toward the flames. I don’t know what my companion was doing but I remember he immediately rushed to my side when I screamed out. “What are you-” he stopped talking when he looked down and saw what I witnessed. In front of us, lying down and filling the air with the smell of burnt flesh was the charred corpse of a predecessor. They were surrounded by ash hugging their flesh, forever stuck in a position of reaching out for help. I took steps backward to get away from it. I walked into the cloaked bot and turned around. 

“I wanna leave this town,” I cried out. Clutching his cloak as I cried into his shoulder. He didn’t respond for a bit, allowing my tears to stain his ragged cloak. Slowly I felt something lay upon my back as it pulled me off of him. I looked at him and saw black liquid-like arms filled with glowing red eyes retract back under his cloak. 

“Let's go then,” he said neutrally. I nodded my head and then we headed to the pier together. We looked out onto the ocean together, the sea a dark blue abyss with white ash evaporating into it. 

“Where are we going?” I finally asked. He didn’t respond instead viewing out into the ocean. “Where are we going?” I ask again, annoyance taking over. He didn’t answer again, instead, we were met by a sailor on a boat. The sailor kept their head down so all I could see were their bony hands holding onto a paddle. “When did this boat get here!” I screamed to my traveling companion.

“Does it matter? Don’t you trust me? I’ve led you out of danger this far,” he said before hopping onto the boat and holding a handout for me to join. Contemplation took over my mind. I had a choice; stay in a world of burning or jump on this boat to go home. I chose my home.

Time felt like it stopped when on the sea in what was basically a raft made, of wood, that was controlled by a singular paddle. My time on the boat stretched forever and the time on there was mainly spent listening to the sailor and traveler talk in hushed voices. I could barely make out a single word that they said other than their jobs being busy now. My boredom was finally quenched when my fellow traveler moved to sit in front of me and pulled out some cards. “How were those not destroyed?” I questioned him.

“How were you not destroyed?” He fired back in a quizzical tone. It was a fair question, ‘Why wasn’t I destroyed but everyone else was?’ The thought lived in my mind forever, plaguing it with even more questions. My thoughts only broke when the thump of cards being slammed on the floor of the boat rang out. “Wanna pick some cards? You can only choose three and those three will decide what happens to you.” I turned my head in confusion, but it was only greeted with a maniacal laugh from the card holder. He pulled back his hood on the cloak he had been wearing this whole time to reveal mismatched eyes and long brown fur. 

“Why should I pull any of these cards?” I challenged him. He smiled a wide smile and pointed to the captain of our ship. 

“We will be stuck on this boat forever if you don’t pull any! Isn’t that right, Kari Te?” He laughed out some more as if the best joke was told. The captain looked up and I was met with a bony face shaped like a deer and red eyes that shined in the darkness. A cold breeze hit me in the moment and a shiver went through my body. 

“Who are you?” I asked once again. The air around us stilled, returning to the warmth it was before as I saw Kari Te lower their head once more. 

“You can call me..,” he stopped talking to think for a moment. At that moment I decided to try and scan him to tap into his memory chip so I could get even a single bit of information from him. I was met with errors though and my eyes started glitching out, my head began pounding, oiled tears leaked from my eyes, and saliva began to pour out of my mouth. Pitch black took over my sight for what I can assume was minutes before my chip restarted to fix the problem. “You finished glitching out?” He rolled his eyes and sounded unamused. While he was being bored, I coughed out and took deep breaths. 

“Why can’t I scan you!” I cried out. I backed away from this mysterious bot. I wiped the oily tears away from my eyes, staining my fur in the progress. 

“Don’t back too close to the front of the boat,” a raspy voice warned me. I could only assume it came from Kari Te cause the traveler in front of me didn’t sound like that. Moving my attention to the traveler I saw him just shrugging to me.

“Don’t know, don’t care, call my Kaigen,” he smiled at me. “Now, back to cards before you die on this boat.” He held the cards out to me, and I quickly grabbed them from him.

“What do you mean by me dying? Do you just want me to pull three cards from any part of the deck? What do you want from me?” I asked each question between panting breaths. He groaned, rubbed his ears, and rolled his eyes before sitting back up. 

“Pull three cards. The first is your protector, the second is your fortune, and the third is your death,” he said while staring into my eyes. The rest of my questions were ignored. I stared at the deck of cards as if I could guess what each card might be. “Pull them whenever. I will be talking to Kari Te in the meantime.” He promptly turned around to face Kari Te to talk to them. 

“Fine,” I whispered before pulling one of the cards. The card revealed a creature stuck in a cage, chains on its wrists and ankles, and it was restrained in cloth. “The Hermit?” I read the words on the card aloud. I saw Kaigen’s ears perk up towards me at the name but that was the only reaction I got. The next card I pulled was one of a woman in a white dress with a piece of cloth blocking out her face. She held a candle in her hands and had a solemn feeling attached to the card. “The Friar,” I read but got no reaction from either Keigan or Kari Te. I set the card down and pulled my final card. The card showed the same creature as the first card. “The Hermit, again?” I felt a force hit me and knock me to the bottom of the boat as the card was ripped out of my hands.

“What?” I heard a growl. When getting back up I saw Keigan holding the card and looking closer at it. “How did you get the same card twice?” He growled, showing a crazed look. “Pull a card again!” In a panic, I pulled another card but instantly it lit on fire causing me to quickly throw it into the dark blue abyss that we floated on. I looked back at Kaigen after throwing out the card. His emotion was unreadable; the best way I could describe it was horror. 

The rest of the boat ride was spent in silence, sweet, calming, silence. I embraced the silence and fell asleep. I slept until awoken by the thud of the boat hitting land. “Where are we?” I remember asking in a drowsy tone. 

“We are at Pathos,” Kaigen whispered. He was the most quiet I had ever heard him. His hood was back on when he jumped off the boat. I followed him but made sure to thank Kari Te for the ride. We were greeted by ash-stained grass hills that needed to be climbed. Climbing was a fair way of calling it cause in reality I ran. I raced up the hills as a smile spread across my face. I was home, finally, I could see my beloved and my friends. I could ask my creators what happened, and I could apologize to Yezty for calling her crazy. I ran but Kaigen walked, slowly. I then realized Kari Te never left us instead following our journey up the hills that felt like mountains. I was halfway up the hill when I felt wind fly along my back. I looked up to see Kari Te and Kaigen standing on the top of the hill waiting for me. It took me a bit but I was able to reach their point, both reaching out a hand to help me up. 

“Thank you,” I laughed a happy laugh. I remember tears of joy streaming down my face. My home was supposed to be on the other side of the hills I just climbed. All I had to do was run down them and everyone in my town would greet me with joy. Hugging me in warm embraces, asking me what happened, and Yezty would be telling me she told me so. I was met with none of that though. Beyond the mountains sat boulders, small fires, and only ash. My tears became more fluent, finding a new fuel for themselves. I ran down the mountain, Kari Te and Kaigen flying behind me. I stumbled a few times but clawed my way back up, taking every cut as if I felt none of them. I reached the ash cloud and jumped through it into the place where my town once stood. The buildings were destroyed, wood was laid everywhere, metal scraps were buried in the ash, and no signs of life. I screamed words I don’t remember and ran everywhere with no idea what to look for. 

“Libra,” Kaigen called silently. I barely heard his words but still chose to ignore them. I ran to the location where the volcano observatory once stood. The machines were all broken, glass melted into the ground, and the smell of burnt flesh hit my nose sensors. 

“Wait! Knezo!” I shouted out. A new goal took hold of my mind. I ran to where our home once was, running through black sludge, I ducked under fallen rubble, and I jumped over the corpses of my old companions. Our home rested at the edge of the town, so Kenzo had plenty of space for his crops. When I reached that beloved place, I was met with a large rock sitting where the building I called home was in a life that felt so long ago. Running behind that I saw that the garden stayed slightly untouched. Ash sat on the crops but that seemed to be all the damage that they withstood. A smile dared to creep upon my face as I got closer. “Kenzo!” I shouted his name multiple times. Looking around the garden I found no one. I kept searching until I was stopped by a sight that made me fall to the ground. On fire was a sunflower, It shined with a different light, a light that killed it. 

Cold air wafted behind me and the words I didn’t want to hear filled my ears, “Let’s go. There is nothing here for you anymore.” I turned around swiftly, my core beating, and anger filled my face. It dropped as swiftly as my movement had been though when reason came to mind. Kari Te and Kaigen stood before me both equally emotionless. I cried as both stared, Kaigen focusing more on the burning flower than I. 

That was the day the life I had known forever had ended. I was reborn, I had to learn to move on and not succumb to the pain. We eventually left the village to be dropped off in the north Snaplands. Kari Te no longer followed us around there instead claiming they had more business to attend. Kaigen and I traveled together until I met Alice and Clyde. Their lives had been ruined too but they planned to rebuild. Kaigen left me once I met them and the three of us stayed together to create a new life for us. Each day that went by I cried less and smiled more. We met more bots that had survived each with their own story. The more time I had the more I came to mind on what I wanted to do with my life. I settled on returning to my original purpose, to travel the world. I wanted to meet more bots and learn more about what got them to where they were then. No longer did I have anyone to return to and report the memories of bots to. No longer did I have a garden to grow with the one I loved. No longer did I have friends to joke with when I got home from excursions. No longer did I have a creator to fix me whenever I got injured. My life was forever changed thanks to the volcano. My travels have led me to meet so many bots from so many different generations. I do sometimes wonder; Would I still know them if not for the eruption?