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Warm light filled the cave as a new day dawned. The metal exterior of the body had been warmed by the rays for a few months now, damaging it gradually, but not enough to put him out of commission. The creatures that entered the cave, curious as to what was within. It was a deer that started it all when it approached the robot.

​Sniffing hesitantly at the kneecaps which dangled from the hanging robot. The skin and meat having decayed several hundred years ago, leaving only the skeleton of a false man. Before the deer was a creation it would never understand. However, the deer would give it a second chance.

Curiosity kept it investigating, touching parts of the machines with the end of its nose. The deer continued until a certain button was pushed. A shock ran through the deer, not enough to kill it, but enough to knock it to the ground, shaking. Fighting to stand up, twitching and convulsing, the deer made to leave the way it came. Crossing paths with the robot is what saved it.

The electricity within entered the robot as the side of the deer grazed it. Leaving the deer, attracted to the more conductive body. The deer bounded out the cave into the forest, having learnt a lesson from the strange cave.

“Hgh,” the voice choked within.

Lights shone before movements were made. Eventually, the left hand of the robot lifted into the air, feeling the hooks that held it up. With strength that would never entropy, the robot pushed itself off the hooks and it fell to the ground.

While the strength of the being would never leave it, the grace of its mind to move and control itself seemed all too human. The robot fell, stumbling as it touched the ground to collapse. It was slow, but determined, pushing itself to its feet.

“That could have gone smoother,” the tinny voice of the machine muttered.

The eyes drifted from the cave walls to the entrance of the cave. Appearing to be no more than blue lights, closed by a spiral aperture every time the robot mind blinked, the robot now stared with two blue headlights at the wonder ahead of it.

“Whoa,” another grated word from the static lips.

The robot pushed itself to its feet and soon was walking towards the forest ahead. The sights of green filled the robot with more than wonder. To see life once more was incredible, but to see so much was surreal. Everything appeared so natural, unlike the farms and reserves established in his time.

His time. The robot was a he and remembering this fact seem to ground it a little more in reality. Secondly, what time was he in?



As hard as it was, the robot spun on the spot and walked back to the equipment half-buried beneath rock. Nearing the central computer he began tapping a sequence of buttons. There was nothing. Not even a slight buzz. The machine now lacked any sort of power, so with that in mind, the robot began to estimate.

“Life needs centuries to grow to this extent,” he concluded. “However, the amount of damage that earth endured for so long ensured that no life would grow for another millennium. Estimate is around one-thousand-five-hundred years have passed.”

The robot fell silent for a moment, a mind now full awakened to the reality it was in.

“I need power,” the robot concluded. “Scavenging it the only option in this environment...or is it?”

With survival falling into the first priority, the robot stepped out of the cave and into the forest.

“Flore variety is minimal,” the robot noted. “However, some species have yet to be catalogued. Possibly due to mutation and lack of human entity that the flora has evolved into a new state.”

No humans, that much appeared evident from the world’s state. Everything was covered in green, form a vast maze of trees and rocks. Ages had long since past since the world was ruled by man. The human race must have been wiped out, or optimistically, their numbers lessened, still maintaining existence in the wild.

The thought crossed the robots mind and it decided that it was more likely that the humans had found a power source, so it would seem only right to locate them instead of conduct a wild search.

“Initiating human life scan,” the robot buzzed, it’s semi-human mind taking the backseat as logic took control.

Like an internal radar, the robot released signals into the air that took stock of every rocks placement, every tree, for miles. The scans revealed a broad number of life. Several species of fauna glowed in mind, but only one had the same DNA of a human.

The robot focused on the point and began following the internal guide towards it. For a long moment it seemed like he was growing closer, but then the light bounced suddenly and at great speeds. Checking the records within, the robot could not recall a human moving at such speeds.

Proceeding far more carefully, like that of a predator stalking prey. The robot crouched low and soon neared the target. Raising his head above the foliage, the robot saw a creature that appeared human, but like the flora, it was mutated.

Standing tall on legs which had an exoskeleton, the mutant held a spear in one hand mottled with tiny horns. The head seemed a strange shape, but once it turned to the robot, the mouth bore fangs and the eyes were not a pair, but three pairs.

“Interesting,” the robot murmured.

“Who is there?” the semi-human asked.

The robot stepped out from the bushes and the mutant widened it’s stance.

“You still speak english?” the robot asked. “That suggests society still persists in-”

The mutant screeched a voice so terrible and charged towards the robot. The human aspect took over. Being it was too late to flee, the robot narrowly avoided the spear and with powerful strikes, tore the mutant apart.

“My mistake,” the robot murmured, staring down at the squashed bug. “Although it may contain human DNA, the intelligence is primitive and the ability to speak is only a mimicry.”

All this the robot analysed from the broken parts of the creature that lay before him.

“However, mimicry requires something to mimic,” the robot murmured. “There are humans still alive.”

Choosing a direction, the robot continued its journey, scanning the forest for life that contained more than thirty-percent human DNA.

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