Act 10: Tunnels

Stacked like books in a library, the pods reached up to the ceiling of the tunnels. Every one of them contained a humanoid body covered in frozen water crystals. But he could not tell if those bodies were real humans or mechanoids like him. Taking his time, Silus walked down the tunnel observing all the sleeping faces rowed on each side.
"Is it fine for you to be taking your time like this?" Asked the voice in his head.
"What do you mean?"
"Your hope is still up there with enforcers roaming the streets ready to kill the both of you." A brief moment of silence prevailed in his head. "But it seemed that there is much more hope here and it doesn't even require any effort or to risk your own life. Depending on whether those are real humans or both though.
"Get out of my head once and for all!" His scream echoed across the whole tunnel system and came right back to his ears.
"Why that? Because I'm speaking the truth? We both know that this would be the most effective way and it would have the highest success rate at that."
With hesitant steps, Silus started to walk toward an exit, staring at all the frozen faces. His hand grazed over the pods as he passed by them.
"You will only die if you go to central with that child. And when that happens all this here will be for nought. Their only rescue will never come, condemning them to remain in this state forever." The voice spoke.
Silus stopped in front of an old ladder which led back up to the surface. His only functional hand was already wrapped around one of the rungs and his eyes were fixated on the hatch at the top.
"If I don't go and protect her and break my promise to Zero and her, I wouldn't be any better than a calculating mechanoid. My body might be like one of those machines but my wife gave me the possibility to behave like a human, so it's up to me to act like one." He threw a look at the pods shining at the beginning of the tunnel and climbed the ladder.
The moon had already come up again outside and it shone through the broken walls and windows, illuminating the room in dim light. Cowering in a corner of the run-down room, filled with dust and mould, was a trembling figure, sobbing and whining.
"Is that you Spes?" He asked zooming in his eyes to recognize the person in the darkness.
"Yes..." She sniffed. "Why did it take so long? I already thought you left me behind."
"I said I would hold my promise to you and Zero."
Spes came running towards him and wrapped her arms around his waist.
"What happened to your arm ?" She asked while drying her tears with the sleeves of her shirt.
"It malfunctioned. After all, Zero only made the bare minimum of repairs on it." He patted her head. "Anyways, we have to get away from here now before the enforcers find us. Come down here." Silus held the hatch open for her.
They both ascended back to the tunnel, leaving no trace that they have ever been in that room.
"What is this place?" Spes asked with her mouth gaping wide open.
"It was on the map my wife gave me. Otherwise, I would have never found it. Apparently, this tunnel system stretches not only across the whole human district but also to-"
"Central." She finished the sentence. "And what are all of those? Are they humans?"
"I can't say for sure, not to mention that I wouldn't even know how to get them out of there. But I just can't imagine them being human." He spaced out while looking at one of the faces. "I just can't."
Together they continued their path through the tunnel maze under the observation of the frozen ones. An unnatural silence filled the air around them. It felt like all the people left and right of them would listen, even though they were frozen and locked up.
There seemed no end to their walk, with one tunnel resembling every other one they had seen before until they finally reached a giant room. Neither the top nor the other side of it could be seen by Spes or even Silus' enhanced vision. What seemed to be mountains of trash blocking their way to the other side, proved to be a giant pile of mechanoids after a closer inspection. Some seemed to be still functioning and sat around crying without shedding any tears.
"What is this place?" Uttered Silus and Spes at the same time. The girl grabbed his cold steel hand.
"Welcome to the hell of mechanoids." A destroyed robot walking on his arms as he had no legs greeted them. "Where the only sin you committed was being different."
"So here is the place where all the deviant AI's hunted down by enforcers land." Said Silus.
"And even enforcers themselves if they are found to be faulty." Answered the stranger. "You two are the first arriving here not by flying down from above. So I wonder, what brings you here?" The rust on his face flaked down as his mouth opened and closed.
"We are on our way to settling a debt with the devil of this hell." Spouted Silus, adapting the way of speech from the robot. "Do you perhaps know the way?"
"Ooh, I see. Yes, indeed I know. In fact, I had been ordered to lead the way for the two of you." The robot took a closer look at Spes before he gestured for them to follow him.
Arms, legs, chests and heads crunched under their feeds as they walked behind the mechanoid who guided them through the countless mountains of disposed robots.
"Can we trust him?" Spes whispered.
"No. But we have no other choice. The map I've become ends here." Silus looked around.
"Don't worry as we can't get against the orders of our ruler even as deviants." The crawling mechanoid halted in front of a small gate in the wall. "That's why we are condemned to this place until our end, even though the exit would be right here and easy to cross." He demonstratively opened the two doors blocking the way with a simple push. "You know humans are not the only ones hoping for your salvation Silus!" The robot screamed after them as they passed the gate.