Chapter 2: Arrival at the City

 The clouds closed the sky again and the city lights illuminated the clouds as the little robot advanced. This path would take her to the top of the cliff, from where she had the hope that she would see the city and who lived in it.

"Will they be like me or different?" She wondered along the way.

"At last the top, but it's not what I expected," she said in frustration, looking at the dark silhouettes of ruined buildings.

"Some disaster seems to have occurred and they've abandoned this part of town," she deduced as she walked between the partially destroyed buildings.

I hope this isn't a completely abandoned city and the light I see in the distance is not just some kind of natural fire, she thought, for the first time choosing not to vocalize her thoughts, respecting, as if by instinct, the silence of the environment.

Big cracks and cracks through the streets, she continued analyzing the environment while jumping over a crevice. What would have broken the ground in such a way?

She walked towards the lights along a wide street that ended in a wall, which seemed to be eight meters high, built of large rectangular blocks of black stone. The wide street crossed the wall through a wooden gate with iron details, which was securely closed.

Another wall, another door and it doesn't seem to be any easier to open than the last one, she thought as she approached and verified that it was solid and locked.

Undaunted, he moved away from the gate a little and checked that there was no other path along the wall. To his left the wall faded into darkness beyond the reach of the light it emitted, while to his right a toppled building seemed to provide a path to the top of the wall.

"It's going to be truth over there!" She decided, going to the building and climbing over the wreckage.

From the top of the wide wall, the robot saw empty streets, illuminated by streetlights, and buildings that seemed just as empty, but they weren't in ruins, just abandoned, with boards closing doors and windows. She jumped straight to the ground landing with skill to avoid damage, noticed that the wide street went straight towards the tallest towers in the city center, and curiously seemed to be some kind of divider, as the streets on the left were lit and those on the right were completely in the dark.

Good thing it's not all abandoned, she thought optimistically.

She had barely started walking towards the lighted streets, curious to understand how the poles worked, when she heard voices and heavy footsteps. Then she turned her attention to the direction of the sounds and saw, two blocks ahead towards the center of the city, two men coming from the illuminated streets.

People! I don't know how I know they're people, but I know they are, she thought as she walked towards them, she wanted to run, but thought she might be misunderstood.

It was two Upper City police officers. One in a gray patrol uniform with a raincoat and the other, taller and more menacing, wearing heavy dark green armor, with a steam engine on his back, used to power the steam cannon in his right hand. The ammunition were heavy wooden stakes with steel points, which he carried in a quiver at his side. This one was from the Upper City Heavy Guard.

"At least the rain stopped," said the gray-uniformed policeman.

"Hunf!" grunted the other. "The daughter of some more or less important person goes missing and we have to patrol like this? This is not for the Heavy Guard! Do you know how horrible it is to walk around in this heavy armor? Especially in a storm like this!"

"It's so that people around here feel safe," replied the first in a jocular and ironic way.

"Who? That way everyone is sleeping and nobody goes out during the storm," said the Heavy Guard, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb to the lighted streets behind him.

"Over there is the abandoned part that they were going to rebuild and only rats inhabit it." He pointed ahead, to the abandoned buildings.

"And over there" pointing to the right "is the Dead Zone where not even… ghost…

He suddenly stopped talking and walking when he saw a distant figure, little bigger than a child, appearing to be wearing white and blue armor, with completely white and luminous eyes, walking towards him from the Dead Zone.

"De-demon-demon?" Gh-Ghost in Arm-Armor?" stammered the police officer when he saw at what the Heavy Guard was pointing.

"What do we do?" the Heavy Guard asked, not taking his eyes off the strange figure.

When he didn't receive an answer, he looked at his companion, only to realize that he was already running for the fourth block away.

"Damned armor that won't let me run!" Completed with a whisper.

The little robot, not quite understanding what was happening kept approaching and said:

"Can you help me? I..."

"Demon, ghost or whatever, stay away from me!" Shouted the heavy guard, triggering a sharp whistle from the steam engine on his back and firing, without even aiming, the cannon. Nailing the fired stake into the ground, right in front of the robot. Which, now scared, decided run away to not be hit by that weapon, immediately running into the dark streets.

She ran to a corner of the abandoned part, where she stopped, hiding behind wooden crates, to see if someone was following.

What I did? Asked to herself, confused and scared.

Before she could think of anything else, a stake drove into the box where she was hiding behind. A little higher and the shot would have hit her in the head. She bent down and then noticed that the light she was emitting, previously useful for lit the path, made it impossible to hide in the dark. She quickly sought in her mind how to turn them off and, when managed, she start to run without looking back.

Sounds of voices shouting orders and heavy footsteps echoed in the streets behind her, urging her on and on, but ahead of her, the street she was following ended in a high wall, without gates, too high to jump over it. When the robot looked to the left, she realized that behind the buildings there was an even higher and fortified wall. Knowing that if she tried to go right, she would find the wall she had come from, she looked around for an option, hearing the sound of those chasing her getting closer and closer. The robot ended up seeing a small building near the highest wall, the only one with an open door.

I hope there's no one there, she thought as she sought shelter in it to at least have time to think a little.

She entered carefully, checking that no one was inside, finding only bookshelves, long since empty. It was an old bookstore. Then she sought shelter behind the counter, as the window in front of the store would not allow her to hide well elsewhere.

For now, I think I am safe, but why are they hunting me? What did I done?

She tried to find a logic in what had happened to try to undo any mistake, if there was an opportunity.

Moreover, what is a demon or a ghost? Is this who I am? Is that why they hate me?

As she waited, huddled silently in the dark, listening apprehensively to the voices and footsteps approaching, she noticed an old newspaper forgotten on one of the counter shelves and read the headline: "Emperor Deposed, We Are Finally Freed from the Electrical Threat" and below it continued:

"New parliamentary government promises elections soon and banning all research, study or use of dangerous electricity will be priority. Provisional Chancellor says: never again Will We fear this overwhelming threat"

"And here I thought it would be easy to find help and recharge," she said, forgetting to remain silent. "Now I don't know what to do or where to go".

"Hey! I think I heard something in here!" said a voice outside.

"I'm not going in there, Sergeant! Let's just burn it all down!" said another voice.

"No, idiot! If that thing is responsible for the girl's disappearance, she might be there or at least might have some clue as to where she might be!" Said a third voice.

Without waiting for the end of the discussion, the robot looked for an escape route and saw a hole in the wall to the right of the balcony. Without thinking much, she jumped through it reaching an alley between the buildings. Luckily, a pile of large crates and barrels blocked the entrance to the alley. However, she was trapped, as there was no way to get through to the other building.

A dead end! She thought in despair.

I don't know if I can climb any of these 3 walls...

She was considering options when her foot hit something, a manhole cover slightly higher than ground level.

If I cannot go top, then bottom! She thought as she lifted the heavy lid.

When she looked at the bottom, she realized that it was a deep well with a ladder and at the bottom a rain drainage gallery, full of water in a fast flow, dragging things.

It must have rained a lot, I won't be able to go that way, but at least it's a good place to hide until they give up. She pondered as she descended the stairs to the shaft and, careful not to make too much noise, pulled the lid over her head.

She went down until she completely disappeared into the well, keeping the lid ajar with just a slit to follow what was happening in the abandoned bookshop. She intended to wait there until she could leave, however the rusty step on which she was resting her feet, could not bear the weight and gave in. With the force of the fall, the step she was clinging to end up ripped from the wall.

"No!" she almost screamed in terror as she found herself inevitably falling into the water flow.

She was carried into the depths, disappearing into the waters, along with other debris washed away by the rain.

At that, one of the guards looked up, afraid of something jumping from the top of the buildings. He jumped back when he saw a large white figure leave the top of a building and flied south.

"Sa-Sergeant! Did you see that?" He said terrified. "Aren't we chasing a ghost?"

The sergeant responded by slapping him on the head.

"Idiot, it's just an owl or albatross! Don't start these stories or by the end of the week people will be saying the Dead Zone is full of ghosts and demons."

"I swear that, if because of this, we have to patrol that place, you'll be assigned every day for a month, on night patrols, there".

Then he added:

"That goes for any one I catch talking nonsense!"