2001..

As I walk, I can feel the metal dust dragging at my feet. Every step I take stirs dust that might not have been touched in years—maybe decades. The thought that I’m the first “living” thing to move it in who knows how long is… strange. I keep walking and walking, hoping to reach the heart of this world, yet every step feels like a single drop in a vast ocean. Nothing I do makes me feel any closer.

Yet I keep pushi—

13 freezes as a voice cuts into her thoughts.

“I–I–Id not recognized.”

The words loop over and over.

A human? 13 wonders, sprinting toward the sound. But when she reaches it, she finds only a broken-down mechanical contraption sputtering its last lines.

Weird… I’ve seen mechanical beasts and machines that reach the sky, but this one is different, 13 thinks, poking the droid cautiously.

Hm… this is quite fascinating. No reaction when I poked it, yet it keeps rambling the same nonsense: “Id not recognized.” I’ve never heard a mechanical beast—or anything in this world—speak actual words. But this one does. And its shape… it’s almost human. Obviously it’s not human and doesn’t look like one, but it has two arms, two legs. Wires stick out of its neck, its joints are exposed. In all my time traveling through this Waltz, I’ve never seen anything like it.

13 studies the droid more closely. There are deep scratches carved across its back. Taking a better look, she asks herself: Could this be from an animal? No… that’s impossible. There’s nothing alive anymore—no humans, no animals.

So did something mechanical do this?

If it was mechanical, it must’ve been years ago. This thing is weathered and rusted—looks like it’s been here way longer than just a few years. So whatever made those scratches is probably long gone… or rusted out just like this one.

13 says this out loud as she rises from inspecting the droid and continues on her way.

I will say… if something like that existed, I wonder if I could find another. Maybe even one that’s still intact.

Then I walk—maybe a few hours, maybe two—and I see something in the distance. What is it? It looks metal, like everything else, but there are stacks rising into the sky, smoke curling out… almost like a complex. I’ve seen buildings, crumbled buildings, abandoned buildings, but something with smoke coming out of it? I’ve never seen anything like this. And being so close to that mechanical humanoid… I feel like I’m stumbling across something forgotten by time.

13 thinks this as she approaches the structure. Four hours pass, and though it seems closer, the building only reveals itself to be enormous—and even farther away than she thought.

As she looks across the open field between herself and the enormous structure, she sees droids—like the last one—scattered everywhere in the sand. Destroyed, rusted… but they fill her with a strange hope. She quickens her pace.

I’ve never felt so hopeful for something, she thinks. Seeing these mechanical humanoids must mean something—a sign of life, or maybe humans.

She walks past hundreds… no, millions of droids.

A few hours pass, and she finally reaches the structure. Its walls stretch upward like they go on forever.

If I hadn’t seen this from so far away, I would’ve really thought it reached infinity, 13 murmurs, staring up at the towering metal.

Something else makes the building unique: a number etched on one of the walls. 2001. What could it mean? Maybe it’s the 2001st of its kind… or something else entirely, she wonders.

From what she can see—even from afar—the building has no doors.

The air around her is dead silent, only the wind adding a hollow echo.

There must be an entrance to this building, she thinks. It could be on the other side, but checking every corner would take days. Yet the smoke rising from the structure means something is happening inside.

Could that bot I saw a few hours ago—the one that said, “Id not recognized”—be connected to this building? And what about all the others?