- 2324 Outskirts of Capital City, Texas. [Post-Event]

On our way to the promised land, we walked through broken and lonely roads. Eventually we reached that one city the loli kept talking about; Dallas.

“Is this how Belisarius felt when he caught sight of Rome, 200 years after its fall?”

“Belly Zaorious, who?” The loli asked.

“Forget it.”

It was unlikely that anyone knew how Dallas used to be, and let alone know references to ancient roman history. For people of this era, my civilization must look as distant as the egyptian pyramids of Giza and the Mayan pyramids in yucatan.

“The city is walled now? huh.”

The imposing fortifications towered over us as we approached the only visible gate among the never ending walls.

There was no human manning the walls. Instead, the lonely gray walls were armed with automatic turrets and barbed wire.

“How do we get in?” I asked. The loli responded by grabbing my hand and taking me to a marked spot on the pavement. It was a yellow rectangle.

“You’ve never been to Capital City before?”

It was a long story, and I rather kept it short.

“Perhaps not,” I said.

As we stood on the rectangle, a small signal went off. Then a flying drone appeared in front of us. The drone scanned the loli.

“Specimen #AX042 Identified, no anomaly detected,” said the drone. “Age: 306. Sex: Female. Height: 4’11. Name: Lily.”

“Hey, Lily is a cute name.”

“Shut up.”

Then, without warning, the drone scanned me too. Blinding me with its laser.

“Anomaly detected.”

The drone flew back into the walls for cover. Then its green lights turned red, and a siren went out.

“what’s going on?” I asked.

Lily did not respond. Instead, she threw herself onto the floor and covered her head.

“Lily.. come on.”

Without explanation, the gate to the city came down. Flying drones came out like a swarm.

“I don’t know him!, I don’t know him!, I don’t know him!” Lily shouted.

The drones charged me, and I briefly heard a feminine voice.

“Welcome to Capital City.”

Before I got tazed down.

***

- 2324  Unknown.

“Wake up.” a feminine voice said.

A blinding light flashed over me. I tried covering my eyes, but I couldn’t raise my wrists or feet.

“What’s going on?” I asked. Still disoriented from the electric shocks. The menacing figure standing next to me was shrouded in darkness. It did not look human at all.

“Oh, you are awake, excellent!” The figure said, fully revealing itself. She seemed like an automation of sorts, like an android, but more sophisticated.

“Hmm? Wait….” I was naked and bounded to an operating table. But more than anything, I had breasts. “This is not my body!” I shouted.

The woman only smiled, giving me no response.

“What have you done to me?!”

“I only twisted your gender a bit,” she said.

“What is that supposed to mean!”

“It means that you are now a woman but with a surprise!” She said, making no attempt to hide her mockery.

I tried my best to break away from my restrains, but my new body was extremely fragile and I got winded really quickly.

“Changing your gender was a good way to kill boredom while I ran the calculations to understand the Anomaly.”

“Is that why I am here?, your stupid drone said the same thing.”

The android responded by pulling a lever and sending a high current through my body. I was soon swallowed by darkness.

When I opened my eyes, I was still tied to the table. But there were no signs in my body that I had been electrocuted.

“It seems I stopped your heart, killing you. But don’t worry, a new body can be made as quick as pancakes,” she said.

“Let me go!”

“I am sorry Dave, I am afraid I can’t do that. You will first need to answer a few questions, but I don’t want you to see this as an interrogation. You understand?”

“Then what would you call it? You are holding me against my will!”

But the android did not respond. Briefly, the lights in the room turned off, and the emergency lights kicked in. Then the android smiled, and the lights returned.

“Apologies for the small inconvenience. I was micromanaging a war in Alaska when suddenly one of my sisters thought it would be funny to launch a cyberattack on my mainframe.”

I had no way to respond.

“Anyway, this is mostly a friendly survey, and surveys always have rewards.”

The android was rather smug. Something felt wrong.

“I doubt a survey can be fun,” I responded.

“I can also torture you to death, swap your brain into a new body, and torture you again until I get bored. Now think about it again, doesn’t a survey sound fun?”

She is ruthless.

“I-”

“Excellent, now without further due. The records show that you were at work when the omnicide began. Is this information correct?”

“Omnicide?” I asked.

“The day human civilization collapsed,” she responded.

“How would I know?”

She did not like my answer, for my body received an electric shock.

“September 23, 2032. Were you at work that day?”

“That was supposed to be today,” I said.

Another electric shock was sent through my body.

“Yes! I was at work that day,” I replied.

“Are you 23 years old?”

“Yes.”

“See, it was an easy survey,” she said. Giving me another of her smug smiles.

“Just… Who are you?” I asked.

“No Dave, who are you? After the omnicide, you fade without a trace from all available records known to man. That is more than sufficient evidence to corroborate your death. Yet if you didn’t die, Where have you been for the past 304 years? Why haven’t you aged one bit? Your radiation levels are low, and your phone’s metric data has the same parameters as the ones picked up by ECHELON 304 years ago.”

Crap, she knows.

“So tell me, who are you?,” she asked. “My calculations indicate that there is a 99.99% chance that you are a clone with fake memories. But the only person with cloning technology should be me, my sisters or Catherine.”

“No idea. How about you just let me go?”

The android just laughed. “Sounds like a fun game. But it will cost you dearly. Very dearly. Stupid Human.”