Chapter 6: An Unexpected Rainfall

Celia was too stunned to speak, still not processing what was going on, and even Tabby was having a hard time trying to figure out how a robot had survived out in the landfills.

The design of the robot that stood before them was strange, even for outdated robots such as itself. Like other older models, its design was humanoid, but not exactly humanlike. Its limbs were more bulky and much more rigid and box-shaped, and on its rounded square-shaped face were a pair of blue, beady, circular, eyes. Unlike the other older robots that she had studied however, its entire body was seemingly closed off with no visible gaps between its limbs or other body parts. It was as if the robot was shaped from metallic clay rather than multiple parts like most robots were.

Seeing the confusion on their faces, Alto tilts his head and asks, “do you by chance, know where I am?”

After a brief moment of silence, Tabby manages to recollect himself and replies in a methodical matter-of-fact manner, “we are currently in the landfills near the borders of Amsterlin, approximately 100 miles northeast from the Hohe Tauern National Park.”

“Amsterlin…?” Alto asked in a confused voice, “I do not seem to remember that city. Do you by chance mean Amsterdam or Berlin? But even so that would be impossible. According to my m-m-memory drives, Berlin is in Germany and Amsterdam is in the Netherlands but the Hohe Tauern National Park is located in Austria. Was a new city founded in Austria while I was asleep that combined the names of Amsterdam and Berlin for some reason?”

Austria? Germany? Netherlands? Celia thought to herself, aren’t those the names of the old countries in Europe? All of the European countries combined into a single country called Euracia about 100 years ago to make it easier to manage the political problems that the Tropodome imposed, as did the other countries with their respective continents… Just how old is this robot anyway? And what did it say its mission was?

“I’m afraid none of those countries exist anymore,” Tabby explained, “all of the countries in Europe combined to form a single country known as Euracia approximately 93 years ago.”

“I see” Alto replied, “I shall update this information inside of my m-m-memory drive.” He stood still before saying, “now updating information… update failed… retrying… … update failed… … rebooting…” Alto turned himself on and off, the same bright blue light blinding Celia once again before saying, “Now retrying… update failed… it seems that my m-memor!@#4 driVes have been corrupted.”

“Celia… I think we should leave,” Tabby sent a private message over the Neurolink that only she could hear.

She wanted to agree, but no matter how weirded out Celia was about the robot, she just couldn’t bring herself to abandon it in the landfills, especially given that it seemed functional outside of its corrupted memory drives.

After taking a brief moment to recollect herself, she asked, “so uhh… Alto was it? I don’t know how you survived this long inside this landfall, but uh… I can show you the way out of here if you want.”

“That would be most helpful,” he said, “and as for surviving out in this landfill, I am powered by the new revolutionary power source; solar power. All I need is a little sunlight on any part of my body and I can always stay powered on.”

“Oh…” she said, ignoring the way he called solar power a ‘revolutionary power source’, “that's not the problem I was referring to. The problem is —”

Suddenly, she felt a drop of water splat on top of her head. What…? Rain? she looked up at the sky, but if it’s raining here then that means… crap! The acid rain!

Celia and Tabby had never actually measured nor kept track of the times the acid rain fell upon the landfills. They just knew that it never rained during the times they typically scavenged through the place. As far as they know, the timing was completely random.

Celia frantically took off her Neurolink and placed it securely inside her backpack. She wasn’t really worried about herself, since the acid rain didn’t really dissolve anything besides the non-biodegradable parts of electronic devices; instead she was worried about Tabby, who was in fact, an electronic device made of non-biodegradable parts.

As she looked over to Tabby, she saw her fears come true as he slowly began to collapse onto the ground, the frequency of the droplets steadily increasing as time went on. Surprisingly, but not completely unexpected, Alto stood there completely undeterred by the rain.

Weird, she thought as she picked up the now unconscious Tabby and placed him inside her backpack, of course he would have to be immune to it somehow if he’s still able to function after almost a century, but I’m not really sure how.

Suddenly, she began to feel like she was slowly sinking, as she looked down to realize that the soles of her shoes were dissolving.

Damn it! She panicked as she remembered she had taken off the aluminum from earlier and that the soles of her shoes were not biodegradable meaning it would wash away with the acid rain. To make things worse, the entire landfill was filled with sharp objects like tiny pieces glass and exposed wires that she could risk stepping on.

She looked around the place, wondering what to do, until she saw Alto again.

“You!” she called out, pointing to Alto, “do you speak German?”

Alto tilted his head and asked, “was that not what I was speaking the entire time? Did the languages change over the years too?”

Celia winced from embarrassment as she shook her head in response to his question. Because of her Neurolink, it was hard to tell who was actually speaking the same language as her, since it automatically translated spoken words.

“Nevermind, ignore that question. You probably don’t understand what’s happening right now, but the rain that’s falling right now is meant to destroy things that aren’t biodegradable. That includes robotic parts like what you’re made out of, but you seem to be immune to it somehow,” she explained and then pointed to her half-dissolved shoes as she stood in the muddy rain in her socks. “As you can see, that also means the soles of my shoes, which unfortunately means I can’t walk out of here without a high risk of injuring or losing my leg, so I’m going to need your help carrying me out here. In exchange I’ll show you the way out.”

“Well of course I’ll help you,” he said, “after all, it is in my programming to help out and assist humans”

He reached his hand out and lifted her onto his back. “Don’t worry, despite my seemingly human sized frame, I am capable of lifting up to 20,000 kilograms of weight,” he assured her, “now which direction should we head in?” 

Celia didn’t remember the exact direction they entered from since she mostly relied on Tabby to handle the direction, but she wasn’t dumb enough to not at least have a general idea. Using the best of her memory, she pointed over to the right, as Alto began to carry the two of them out of the landfill. Despite being an older robot, she was surprised to see how sturdy his frame felt as he carried her and she began to grow more curious about his origins.

After about half an hour trudging over piles of trash and glass-laced mud, the two of them make it out of the landfill, making a final jump over the acidic river and landing onto the other side of the grass. Once they make it over, he kneels down to let Celia hop off his back.

“Pleh!” she spits out the water that got into her mouth as she jumped off his back, her feet landing onto the soft grass as she was reminded of her missing soles.

She took a deep sigh of mild annoyance at the inconvenience and took off her ruined shoes before rummaging through her backpack for a sharp piece of metal.

“Well, I guess this is where we depart,” Alto said as he stood up. Celia began to nod, but then realized that she did not know the way back home without Tabby. Not only was his absence inconvenient for her, she was already missing the company he provided as her sole friend.

“Wait!” she shouted over to Alto who had just begun to leave, “I don’t actually know the way back to my house… do you have a GPS by any chance?”

“Let me check,” Alto says, making a weird buzz-like humming sound inside of him as he looks up at the sky.

The night sky was now lit up by an unrealistic amount of stars; a holographic illusion that the countless numbers of nano drones created to simulate the real stars. Although the sight was beautiful, there was something about its artificialness that made it seem uncanny to her.

While Alto was trying to generate a signal, Celia quickly got to work on her shoes. Using her shoe laces and what looked to be a knife with its handle dissolved, she flipped her shoes on its side and punctured a hole at the top of it, using her laces to string everything together into a makeshift sandal. It wasn’t much, and it certainly wasn’t comfortable, but it was much better than walking around in her socks.

After a few moments of scanning, Alto apologies. “I’m sorry, but it seems like the satellites I use to triangulate my location are no longer in commission. What system do you use nowadays?”

Celia sighed. Right, if this robot was created about a century ago, they would still rely on the old satellites up there. Since rocket launches were now illegal, they couldn’t recommission any satellites, meaning any previous service he was using was no longer in use.

Alto looks up at the sky again as if trying to generate another signal, but looks back down and shakes his head.

“Dang it…” she muttered.

The only solution now was to walk back to the city and ask someone to use their drone to help her. She ran her fingers through her hair, brushing some of the excess water off as she considers her options. Suddenly, question pops into her mind; where was Alto heading to before she stopped him?