650 Sols - Seeking Retaliation is Natural

"It seems that this body has been here since the early colonial stage. The cause of death cannot be determined."

"Is there any space for doubt?"

The man grabbed the dead body with an improvised lasso by the feet, spun around, and threw it like he was trying to set a new Olympic record. The dead body landed on the bottom of a naturally created trench a couple of meters away from 1441 and Soj. Upon impact, the body was shattered, and the limbs flew in different directions.

"What else can it be but the plague?"

With a disgusted face, the man took out the digital map and marked the spot. This ritual was far from the proper burials that humanity of old was used to.

1441 felt thankful that the only witness had been a robot, but he still felt the need to confirm that his actions had been understood.

"Hey, Soj, you do know why I did that, right?"

"Right now, we are close to the southern pole of the planet. The temperatures are low, and while the modern human body is built to resist those conditions, the dead body is still susceptible to freezing."

Freezing bodies became a huge problem during the previous pandemic. On Mars, the temperatures would drop significantly during the night, and every dead body would be frozen solid by morning. This was all the more true at the poles.

"A frozen body cannot be subjected to the decomposition process. This means that the virus that started the plague may still exist within the body of the deceased. Touching it would increase the risk of infection."

"Glad you understand it. Tsk, after all those years, when so few of us are left, it would be stupid for somebody to die from the plague." The only thing 1441 sealed and kept was a folded piece of paper with the number "7" written on it. Soj considered it a sign that he may have loved to gamble in his previous life.

During the early sols of the epidemic, the first patients of the epidemic were quickly identified and exiled. A new virus was not something that humanity could deal with at that stage. There were neither enough resources nor enough time for a cure to be created, so the safest option was to get rid of the danger by sending it away.

This course of action seemed to have worked well, as there were no new cases discovered after the first 30-40 people were sent away, but humanity never settles for the best course of action.

The colonial city was situated on the old Phoenix landing site, pretty close to the northern pole, so the bodies stayed frozen for most of the time. That is what led to a lonely man making a grave mistake.

The right to go to Mars was not necessarily earned by education or capability. In plenty of cases, it was bought with a lot of money. This was also the case for No. 4444, a man whose wife was a victim of the back then short-lived crisis.

4444 bought his place on the planet through inheritance money. He was the simple-minded kind of rich man, the type who never felt the need to learn anything because money could buy him everything he wanted. This is why he didn't have the basic biology knowledge to realize the mistake he was making.

He found the body of his dead wife months after the exile, yet in pristine condition. He did not waste a second in deciding what to do and brought her back to the city, thinking this was some kind of divine luck. He gave her a proper burial within the cemetery.

That's all it took for the plague to come back through the people visiting the cemetery.

By the time the cause was discovered, it was already too late. The spread became uncontrollable. It was the beginning of humanity's collapse.

Yet, that didn't stop the human spirit of retaliation.

"Question: Did the plague have any significant effect on No. 1441's life?"

"The plague itself? No. Both me and my wife were lucky enough to be unaffected."

The robot suddenly stopped in its tracks.

"What?'

"No. 1441 never mentioned anything about a wife until now."

"Haha, yeah, I guess I didn't."

"To be completely honest, we never went to the trouble of making anything official. We just considered each other family. I guess this is what happens when you are thrown in an unknown world all by yourself."

"Question: What happened to your partner then?"

"She was friends with that rich idiot. With 4444."

The robot understood what this meant.

There was a story about a woman. A close childhood friend of the rich man. The initial memory wipe had many gaps in it, so some vague memories remained. Their friendship was one of those.

While nothing romantical ever happened between them, they quickly became close to one another again. So close that when the blind rage of human retaliation came about, she tried to stop it.

Some would say that humanity was doing harm to itself half the time, and this was not an exception. Even after the horde ended the life of 4444, the thirst for revenge still lingered, and the only person left who was viewed as an ally of the public enemy was his childhood friend.

"The story never mentions me, I know. That is just the kind of man I am. Never around when it matters."

"I was sick of the colony. I was sick of humans, the virus, everything. So I used to go on solo trips outside for a couple of nights now and then. Maybe that's why I am still alive today."

When the man got back from his trip, he entered his house like any other time. During a pandemic, it was not weird that nobody came out to greet him. It was pretty late, so he just went to bed, expecting to find his partner there.

"I guess I got to at least see her face one last time."

Just as he slowly opened the door, he was greeted by a strange silhouette on the outside of the window.

1441 was confused at what it could be, but after turning the lights on for only one second, regret hit him hard enough to put him on his knees.

On the outside of the window, there was a round object hanging by a multitude of strands tied together. For the second he had the light on, he recognized the figure on it.

The man just stayed there, he could not convince himself that this was real.

As the story goes, two bodies were burned on pikes during this retaliation.

One of them was intact, as there was nobody to care about what happened to the person it belonged to.

The other body was missing everything above the shoulders. What was the reason for it? The man did not know. He had long given up on understanding why humans would act that way. Yet he still felt that his expectations had reached a new low from that sol onward.

"I didn't even have the guts to get her head from there. It was frozen solid. I only tried to pull on it once to take it off, and I hated myself for doing it. So, in the end, I just blew up the house and moved to the other part of the city. Nobody ever asked anything about it afterwards. Guess they all labeled me as crazy."

The robot did not answer; it just continued in silence.

"Even so, look at what a nice guy I am. For all they have wronged me with, I still risked myself to get rid of that frozen hazard of a body. A saint among all those beasts."

"Denial: No. 1441 did not do this for the good of other people."

"Why do you say this?"

"The chances of a plague spreading now with so few people scattered on the surface of this planet are extremely low. Also, if 1441 really cared about the people around, it would try to save humanity instead of walking around Mars as a form of self-isolation.

"Opinion: This must have served more as some form of self-satisfaction. Question: What was satisfying about this course of action?"

The cold look that was thrown the robots way was enough to make even a machine feel danger. Yet these cold, scary eyes quickly regained their mellow melancholy.

"Ya know, I already told you how human nature is to seek retaliation. Do with that what you will."

Soj did not try to get any more out of the man. It was not because of the danger it felt, but because it was clear that not even 1441 knew for sure what was pushing him. Hate or benevolence. If they both bring about the same course of action and the same result, does it even matter?

Still, Soj could not take its mind off the eyes it just saw.

"As cold as it was, that was the first time I ever saw light in those eyes."