4 Chapter 4: New home

After a few good minutes they finally stopped descending, they were in a grey, dome-shaped, room. The room had two doors each guarded by two men wearing some sort of armour that covered their bodies from head to toe.

Davis without wasting any time grabbed Max's hand and started to walk towards the door towards the south.

"Lemme in," Davis said while looking at the guards

"Your badge number please" the guard responded in a robotic tone that sounded similar to Bella's tone.

"You guys know me, we see each other almost DAILY" Davis spoke, he was quite annoyed

"Your badge number please" the guard responded

"Ugh, 7342"

"You may enter" the guards stepped aside and let Davis approach the door.

The door was no bigger than your average door, but unlike a normal door, it was made out of some sort of grey metal. As they approached the door, a ray of light immediately scanned Davis from head to toe.

The door made a swoosh sound as it slid open. There was a hallway on the other side, and unlike the dome-shaped room it wasn't grey but it was blindingly white.

"Alright you guys can go now I'll deal with the kid and come back," Davis said while looking at the men standing behind him

They all nodded and left.

Davis and Max walked into the hallway, the hallway branched off to many different doors

"Damn it why does it have to be so bright in here" Davis groaned as he rubbed his eyes

"What is this place?" Max asked

"This is where people under the age of 16 stay until they 'grow up' Davis said while emphasizing the word 'Grow up'

"Mr Davis... please, please let me go," Max begged one last time Max was expecting Davis to shout at him but what Davis said surprised him

"Kid, I can't do that, not in this fucked up world. Sorry" Davis's words didn't sound cold and heartless neither did they sound fake. They sounded genuine.

After walking for a while they finally arrived at a door, it was white, made of metal there was nothing special about it. Apart from the fact it had a handprint scanner next to it.

Davis placed his hand on the scanner, recited his badge number and the door opened up.

*PLEASE ENTER, SUBJECT* A robotic voice spoke

Davis let out a long *sigh* and said "Alright kid, our journey ends here" Davis's had returned to its original cold and heartless state

"Please God help me" Max voiced his thoughts

"Won't happen kid"

"Now get in" He pushed max through the door in a stark white room and the door immediately closed behind him.

Max looked around himself, only to see nothing but white, there was no other colour except white in the room. The entire room was made of white metallic tiles

All there was, was a small toilet, shower system and a board that had "RULES" written on it

*HELLO SUBJECT OMEGA* A loud computer voice boomed through the room

The voice startled max and he jumped. At the same time, tears started to flow from his eyes

*RULE NUMBER ONE: CRYING OF ANY SORT IS NOT ALLOWED*

*PUNISHMENT WILL BE DEATH*

As soon as the robot finished its sentence a small robotic arm like limb came down from one of the numerous tiles. The limb had a hand that held a gun, the same energy gun that Davis had. The robot immediately pointed the gun towards Max

Seeing the gun Max couldn't help but kneel to the ground with his eyes closed and his hands covering his face. He also kept seeing flashbacks of when Davis pointed the gun at his mother.

*GOOD JOB* The robotic voice said and the arm went back up

*SUBJECT OMEGA SEEMS TO BE INJURED*

*STARTING LESSON: BASIC FIRST AID*

The same robotic arm that had a gun again dropped down but instead this time it had a case with a red plus (+) symbol on it

Max understood what the robot was telling him to do.

*PLEASE REPLACE YOUR BANDAGES AND MAKE SURE TO USE THE ANTISEPTIC TO CLEAN THE WOUNDS*

Max did just that he took off his bandages, he now had two wounds, a claw mark from his mother and a medium-sized cut on his upper arm. He quickly followed the computer's instructions. After cleaning up his wounds the robotic arm picked the medical supplies back up and returned through its tile.

*PLEASE READ THE RULES*

Max looked to the left where a saw a large whiteboard with "RULES" written on it. He immediately started reading them one by one.

*RULES:

1) Subject will be referred to by his/her system generated name or code and not by his/her real name.

Your name is: OMEGA

2) Crying of any sort, whether it be due to emotional or mental pain is forbidden

3) Subject must follow everything HUE says

4) Subject may not ask for the following

*Food

*Water

*A Phone

*Any sort of entertainment

*Permission to leave

*The time

5) Subject must ask HUE before doing anything, this includes, using the toilet, taking a bath, sleeping, eating, drinking, talking, sitting down, standing up.

6) Failure to comply with any rules will result in punishment, which may be death

7) Asking questions is allowed only if HUE agrees

END OF RULES*

'These are some weird rules' Max thought

"Is your name HUE, uh Mr robot?" Max had never talked to an A. I before. A.I's didn't even exist on Kepler. His teachers had told him that A.I's were all evil and talking to them is a great sin. But Max decided to ignore those rules for now.

*YES, I AM HUE*

*THE WORD H.U.E IS AN ABBREVIATION FOR HEURISTIC UNIFIED ENTITY*

"Oh okay" Max nodded

'What does heuristic mean?' He thought

"What do I do now-" before max could complete his sentence a tile on the ceiling retracted and a familiar robotic arm hold a gun dropped down and pointed the gun towards Max.

*YOU DID NOT ASK FOR PERMISSION* HUE said in quite the menacing voice. It seemed as if he had multiple downloaded voices that he could use to switch between tones

"I'M SORRY I'M SORRY HUE!" Max cried while trying to hold in his tears

*APOLOGY ACCEPTED* HUE said in his normal but still creepy tone

'Phew' Max thought

*YOU HAVE BEEN BROUGHT HERE TO BE MODIFIED AND BE MADE USEFUL*

*YOU WILL HELP CROSS AND THE HUMAN RACE REGAIN ITS LOST CONTROL*

*BE PROUD. YOU ARE BEING MADE USEFUL. YOU WILL BE A HERO* HUE said although he was an A. I he sounded quite patriotic

"B-but my family what about my family? Mom, Dad, Alex?" Max asked in desperation

*LIFE GOES ON. THERE'S WILL TOO. THEY WILL FORGOT ABOUT YOU. AND YOU WILL TOO.*

Max cried but tears wouldn't come out. He was crying internally.

*GOOD, YOU DID NOT CRY. CRYING IS A WASTE OF MINERALS*

"Permission to ask a question HUE?" Max spoke softly

*PERMISSION GRANTED*

"If we manage to take back earth. Can I go home?" It seemed as if this was the only choice Max had if he wanted to go back home.

*YES, NOT ONLY THAT YOU WILL BE REMEMBERED BY EVERY HUMAN AND WILL BE GIVEN THE STATUS OF HERO*

'But, I didn't want to be a hero, I just wanted to live a normal life...' Max thought

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