Synthetic Survivor: Machine Age

"Huh?"

The sound of water dripping onto a puddle echoed.

"Where am I?"

The scenery was black, void and empty. There was nothing for him to see but his n.a.k.e.d body.

"I'm.. human again?"

He could see his n.a.k.e.d body float inside the abyss he was trapped in. He was alone and cold. For some reason, despite there being nothing, he felt a shiver run down his spine and a cold breeze blow through his skin.

"Wind," He said. "There must be something here."

Suddenly, the scenery changed and the void in which he was in just now was enveloped by a flash of light. The light was so bright that he covered his eyes and cowered in fear. He screamed and screamed, begging for the light to stop. His skin could not stand the light, it burned him thoroughly.

Then he felt himself fall.

He fell from someplace high. He felt the air gush through his body and gravity pulling him downwards. Where was he? The scenery had once again changed and the light that showered and burned him was transformed into the sun.

The sun was blazing that day. Scorching him though the air was cold. He could not move his body, he could only look ahead of him and he saw only the building from where he fell from. The very top of the building he noticed a silhouette of someone watching him.

"Who is that?"

And then, darkness. He felt his body jolt. I must have hit the ground, he said in his thoughts.

"Where am I?" He asked the same question again and again nobody answered him.

He then felt weightless and began to choke. He held his neck as a reflex to the situation. He was getting choked by the lack of air.

He lost his vision for a second and thought that he was dead. Only for him to find out a few seconds later that the void that engulfed him a second time was once again replaced. This time, he was inside a space station. The space station was in bad shape, littered with holes and malfunctions. Wherever he looked, there was only destruction.

He then realized he was inside a spacesuit. A tight spacesuit with a big hole on his c.h.e.s.t.

"AH!" He screamed when he saw the hole. He could see his internal organs. To his horror, his left lung came out of the hole and stuck directly on his helmet where he could see the entire thing up close and personal.

He was no longer choking, or so he was until he realized that he was no longer breathing. He then felt another jolt of energy kick him back into motion. This time the space station was swallowed by a black hole, he witnessed the entire thing. Time seemingly sped up and then suddenly slowed but once they passed the event horizon, he felt a stinging pain envelope his body before he found himself back to where he started.

In a void.

"Again?" He said softly. He was rather lax even though he was just tremendously tortured just a minute ago. He once again floated aimlessly in the void in which he started. He was waiting for to change, for something to light it up. But many minutes passed and there was nothing.

He noticed that he could no longer see his body. He could still feel it and move it as if it was there but he could no longer see it, unlike last time. Maybe the darkness has finally consumed him? There was nothing left for him to do but to wait.

He did wait. He stared at the void for hours on end until he felt tired and fell asleep. He then slept but he dreamed of nothing but darkness. The human mind would dream of anything it has seen in its lifespan but even though he saw a lot of things just a few hours ago, his dreams were empty. A blank slate.

He woke up to the same void, but this time he felt different. He felt somehow refreshed. His mind began to rumble, he could feel it rumble like his stomach. Now he was experiencing a stomach ache while his mind rumbled as if it was hungry for something.

"Gah!" He screamed as the rumbling of his brain turned violent. It was now shaking, trembling and he felt it explode but the pain would not go away. Though he could not see, he felt his hands bash his head in reflex. He bashed his head repeatedly, screaming for the pain to stop before trying to pull out his hair.

Then the pain stopped and another flash of light burned him. It was the same light, but somehow felt different than the last. This time, though he could not see, he felt that he was standing on solid ground. He moved his feet, they were b.a.r.e meaning that he was barefoot.

He felt the ground beneath the soles of his feet and to his surprise, it was burning. He did not feel pain although it was burning. The flash of light slowly got dimmer and what appeared before him was nothing short of a nightmare that he hoped was not true. He hoped he was dreaming instead.

He was standing on a hilltop where the grass all around him has been set ablaze and in front of him was a city. The city had been destroyed and what's left of it was a demolished skyline with fires that burned and puffed out smoke that covered the sky. In the middle of the city, he saw the mushroom cloud.

The mushroom cloud was still rising to the upper atmosphere, judging by the size of the city and the distance between him and it, it wasn't far off for him to conclude that the mushroom cloud was visible from space and was undoubtedly responsible for the destruction that he was witnessing.

"No, this can't be!" He shouted.

No! No! No! No! No! He repeated himself. He repeated his wails, he shouted curses at the mushroom cloud and cursed himself.

"I should have done better! I should have done better!" He said to himself.

Then, he felt his skin slowly peeling away.

"eh? What? No!" His skin peeled itself off, exposing his flesh to the world. After the last pieces of skin were stripped from his body, out from the ground came the roaches. They were by the thousands and they swarmed him in an instant.

"No! Get off me! Get off me you bugs!"

The bugs were not gonna listen to his pleas or his cries. They started to devour his exposed flesh and organs, he felt their tiny mouths slowly nibble away his being. He screamed a,d wailed as if he was in much pain but he actually was not. He felt fine, he only felt the nibbling but no pain. His screams and his wails were just him at the peak of human fear. He feared for his life as if he was going to die. But he did not feel that he was going to die. He could still breathe although his lungs were getting nibbled off, he could still see although his vision would be covered by the roaches.

While the roaches swarmed him, he got pushed back by a strong blast that sent him to the ground.

"Ah!" He shouted.

He opened his eyes and found himself into yet again an unfamiliar situation. This time, he was a fallen soldier.

He tried to stand up but to no avail. There was nothing he could do, he could not feel his entire ody yet he could see through the soldier's eyes. Faintly, he heard the distant echoes of battle. Gunshots and explosions echoed in the hallway where he lay.

"What's happening." He felt like sobbing but how could he? The current body that he had had neither the capacity nor the life to sob! He felt miserable, absolutely miserable.

His body suddenly moved to the side but it was still dead. Someone actually shoved him to the side to turn him into cover. He saw the soldier, he looked like a pilot that had just escaped a crash. He was wounded, badly bruised and his legs looked crooked. He held in his hand a small pistol that he fired. He was firing at something that he could not see.

 He watched as the young pilot's expression changed to that of a desperate man. He fired his pistol but judging by the way he was reacting, it was of no use. Whatever enemy that was approaching him was clearly not being stopped. He then stood and howled in pain as the crooked leg of his impeded him. He then watched as the pilot dragged himself out of his sight, never to be seen again.

"Gah!" The body suddenly sprung awoke and he was forced to feel its pain. He coughed an alarming amount of blood before he regained control of his motor skills and his limbs. He could now walk and he wanted to run. He moved his head and saw only a seemingly endless hall that was riddled with debris.

There were bodies all over, all of them were soldiers and all of them had the same injuries. He slowly walked through the death and destruction that surrounded him. He did not know if he was hallucinating or inhaling something toxic but he could have sworn that he saw some of the bodies move and tried to reach his leg. He shivered at the thought of the dead and tried with all his might to get out.

"Shit, why is this part of this crazy f.u.c.k.i.n.g nightmare not ending!" He screamed his annoyance and wanted to commit suicide there and there. But, he found himself not knowing how the guns that lied on the floor were triggered!

Suddenly, there was a cackle.

A radio was receiving a transmission. The radio was attached to one of the soldiers. He hurried to where the cackle came from and took the radio.

"Shit, shit, give me something good!" He now desperate, he did not want to endure the pain anymore.

The radio was trying to receive the signal but it was having trouble, adding to his frustrations.

"Damn it, damn it damn it all!! damn it all to hell!" He screamed. Out of frustration, he bashed the radio.

"I repeat~" The radio faintly received the message/

"Yes, yes that's it! Come on now! Come on!" He began to bash it repeatedly. He was unsure if it was the adrenaline or the desperation he was experiencing but he the pain he felt all over his body began to diminish and time itself seemed to be slowing down.

Then, the radio finally received the entire transmission.

"Repeating this message. This is General Philip, soldiers if you are hearing this right now. I am sorry to inform you that despite your best efforts, despite our best efforts, the battle for Earth has ended in failure. It pains me to inform you that the enemy has somehow managed to transverse the gulf of space and attacked the fleet.

The attack has been called off and the battle for Earth is lost. If you are hearing this message, I inform you, I do not intend to comfort you with lies or slash the truth. We are abandoning you, all of you. Your deaths will be in vain, your deaths will be meaningless, and so were the billions who died when the war first began.

But I am ending this message with hope, we have hope. Though you may most likely be dead by then, we have hope! If you have families that you left on mars, promising them that you will fight for our lost home, that won't be in vain! Your promises will be fulfilled. Our brightest scientists lead by none other than Johann Gardner have discovered a breakthrough! They are now working on a weapon that WILL, I tell you, WILL win us this war! We may have lost the battle, we may have lost you but even in death, hope! We WILL win!"

He was silent.

The message began to repeat. It was a repeated message, it was made, practiced and done. Using only his b.a.r.e hands, he crushed the radio into a thousand pieces. He slumped down onto the floor and was silent.

"It's over," He said to himself. "It's f.u.c.k.i.n.g over,"

It wasn't him who was saying these words but the soldier whose body he gained control. The memories of the soldier flooded him and it made him feel as if he was the soldier himself.

"I'm sorry, I failed you. Margaret, I love you, please take care of our daughter, please. Raise her up to become a strong girl, daddy has always loved the both of you." He had lost all hope. He felt the sadness rush through him like a tsunami. It enveloped him, caught him and drowned him. He was at his end. There, the soldier grabbed hold onto a gun. He could no longer control the movements of the soldier as he did before, he was now merely a spectator.

"I am sorry. If heaven is real, I'll see you both there soon." Those were his last words before pulling the trigger.

"There was a trigger!" He was back into the void.

His mind was again calm as if the past experiences meant nothing to him. What were they? What did they mean? Was he shown them? Why did he react the way he did with the mushroom cloud?

He vaguely recalled that during that specific scene, he was invaded by memories that he did not recognize. Memories that seemed to be locked away inside the very depths of his mind, locked behind impenetrable walls. The memories made him react the way he did.

He faintly remembered being swarmed by roaches. He did not remember, though, the memories that invaded him but only his reaction to the memories.

"I should have done better! I should have done better!" Was what he said back then. He remembered that he said those words but could not remember what pushed him to say those words.

then, another bright light shined but this time, he was not blinded. the light slowly engulfed him until all he could see was white. then, he woke up.

-

One opened his eyes, feeling a bit dizzy. he was unsure what the cause was but shrugged it off as something of a normal thing. He remembered that he would regularly fall 'asleep' and wake up without remembering anything of note.

He then thought, isn't it normal for humans to fall asleep when they are tired? Maybe I am just tired. Maybe, I am still a bit of a human after all.

He thought of this as he and his drones were nearing the Freetan Capital. The final battle to decide the fate of the Freetan Theocracy once and for all, was about to begin.