And So, I Cried Alone

“Alright, Radio Jam,” said a silhouette, turning off the examination light. "Here's your first assignment.”

A holographic profile of a woman and a man in their mid-forties flashed before me. The woman had dark brown hair and eyes whereas the man had amber eyes and black hair.

“I want you to eliminate these two. Their names are Ronan and Lily Floryn.”

I scanned their features, names, addresses, occupations, and all other information on the screen. It seemed that the couple and their son had recently been involved in a car accident. Lily had suffered a fractured arm whereas Ronan only had a few bruises and scratches. As of now, the couple had mostly recovered and continued to rest at home, anxiously awaiting updates on their son, who was hospitalized with more life-threatening injuries. The descriptions didn’t mention the son’s name, so he was most likely irrelevant.

In any case, the more I analyzed the targets, the more my head rang and throbbed. The pain was inconvenient but not a concern.

“Understood,” I croaked, uttering my first phrases. “How should the procedure be executed?”

“Kill them however you want, but make sure to leave no traces. I’ll provide you with all the supplies you need.” The silhouette I assumed to be my creator pressed a remote and released me from my restraints.

I carefully got off the examination table and followed a silvery drone floating toward another table scattered with various tools and weapons. I scanned them all, briefly processing their value before taking a pair of levitation boots, a watch, gloves attached to coils of wires, a handful of pocket-sized explosives, and a simple neon gun.

The drone guided me toward the exit while my creator stood quietly in the shadows, observing me as I walked out the door and departed into the night sky.

With the boots and the watch's radar system, it didn’t take long before I swiftly arrived at the Floryns’ house and landed in their front yard. I took note of the lights still on before quietly approaching the front door.

Reanalyze the environment. I rubbed my left eye and scanned through the building, spotting one target in the living room, sitting on the couch and watching TV. The other stood in the kitchen, most likely cooking dinner.

Targets located. I reached for the front door’s electronic doorbell and slithered a wire into a hidden port, silencing the house's security system and welcoming myself in.

The closer I approached my first target, the louder the TV grew. At the same time, something in my chest began to gnaw at me, but I dismissed it as a simple muscle cramp. Though, by the time I stepped inside the living room and spotted the target, I… froze?

My grip on my gun wavered, and the ache inside me spiked, sending painful sparks through my system. I ended up hitching my breath, my arms shaking.

Barely noticing my presence, the woman jolted and turned toward my direction, widening her eyes. Without realizing it, I also flinched and squared my shoulders.

“Who’s there?!” she called out. She squinted through the darkness before gasping. “Wait, you’re—”

Target is on full alert. Initiating immediate execution. Ignoring the turmoil inside me, I pulled out my gun, aimed straight at her head, and fired.

“Honey?!” The other target hurried out of the kitchen and arrived in the living room within seconds. “What was...”

He paused the moment he made eye contact with me and bulged his eyes, but his shocked expression warped into horror when he spotted my sizzling gun and his wife’s body. He cupped his mouth and turned pale.

“Oh my god. Lily, wh-what…” He took a step forward, face torn with despair. “You... Wh-Why did you—?”

I promptly shot him without a thought, letting him crumple next. The couple sprawled on the floor, pooling the carpet in dark crimson patches.

The scene… gradually illuminated pure red by the second.

…I calculated that by eliminating them, it would clear up the entropy swarming inside me. Instead, my vision grew blurry, and before I knew it, something wet trickled down my face.

I failed to comprehend the malfunctions happening inside me, but I still treated it as no more than a glitch in the system. I left the room, damaged the stoves, and destroyed some circuits. After filling the house with fire hazards, I promptly set it all ablaze and left the scene, hastily returning to my creator to report on my mission. Throughout the entire time, though…

“Are you crying?” my creator asked. “What's wrong with you?”

I slid a finger across my face. “This… I concluded that this must be due to a glitch.”

“Clearly. You shouldn’t have emotions, so how did it happen?”

“I… don’t know.”

With my creator's face still concealed in the shadows, I could only assume they made a disappointed glare. With a groan, they shook their head and waved me off, crossing something off their clipboard. “No, no, this won’t do. He’s a failure. Dispose of him.”

I widened my eyes, barely processing their words. “Huh? What?” I tried to step closer to them, only to be snatched by another android.

Without warning, the robot shocked me with a taser gun, and all faded to black.

⫿⫼⟁⫼⫿

There was a saying among humans that staring into the night sky would grant peace, and I wondered if some androids out there in Nexus Pratum thought the same. I could imagine it’d be true for most of them.

But out here? In this rotting, ashen wasteland? How could anyone find peace by staring at the equally freezing and dark emptiness in the sky?

“H… elp,” a skinless android buzzed. One of its metallic limbs with missing fingers stretched out of a pile of fabric scraps and rusted metal. “It’s… so cold…”

“Master,” croaked another, half of its head missing and flickering with static. “Master, I-I-am—I a-am sti-i-ill of service—p-p-please… Whe-e-e-ere are you?”

“Mama,” a child android sobbed, crawling around with missing legs. “Ma-a-ama… Mama…”

I remained sprawled on a pile of metal scrap, wholly paralyzed as I listened to the dozens of cries of the abandoned, all withering in body and mind. With my head facing the sky, the only silver lining in this situation was that I didn’t have to see the abominations crawling around the junkyard.

Androids weren’t supposed to have emotions, so why did they cry with so much pain and agony? Was this a graveyard for androids or hell on earth?

“My beloved, whe-e-ere are you…”

“I can’t see anything! Who took my eyes?! Give them back!”

“Step right up to o-o-our one and only ma-a-a-aagic—”

“I don’t want to diiiiee! I don’t want to die! Aaahh! Please, I want to go home!”

“My only frie-e-end abandoned me… Why?”

God only knew how much time had passed, and the longer I lay there, the more their voices flooded my thoughts to the point that it was all I could think about. The screams of those getting shredded into pieces started searing into my mind, so much so that I could swear I almost lost my sanity. That was until…

“Ah, there you are.”

I twitched and shifted my gaze toward a man with gray hair and eyes and wearing a standard, silver business suit. I tried to speak, but all I let out was a pathetic croak.

The stranger scanned me through his tinted glasses and tipped his fedora. “Pleasure to meet you, Radio Jam. You may call me The Director. I have been looking for you.”

He pulled me up by the scruff of my neck and turned me toward the horizon.

“Look upon this city, Radio. Beautiful, isn’t it? They promise every civilian absolute fairness, but here you are, still alive but decaying in a junkyard. Your creator disposed of you here because they thought you’re dysfunctional, a walking defect that deserves no chance. Don’t you think that’s unfair?”

Still paralyzed, I stared at the city through crimson filters.

“You see, your creator told me that they may have judged you too early and discarded you on impulse. Despite your flaws, you still have extraordinary talent in swiftly completing your tasks. Therefore, I’ll grant you the fairness you deserve. If you work for me, I may vouch for you to reunite with your dear creator and start over. Well? How about it?”

Another chance… I gradually widened my eyes as a tiny spark of fire stirred within me, faintly glowing like a distant star in the sky.

I might not have known this man's name, goals, or anything about him, but the fact that he'd given me a second chance was all that mattered. I didn't give a damn about anything else. I’d burn down Nexus Pratum, and all he had to do was ask.

Mustering up as much strength as I could, I gave him a weak nod of compliance.