Akito Shinonome 33

The resistance? It collapsed. It had been destroyed by misunderstandings and stricter rules in the cyber city that forced people to scatter across the world. 5 years have passed since the incident. Who were the rebellions? The left over humans that rejected becoming basically half robot. It was a coalition between all nations, held in underground tunnels. Many across the world had decided that they still want to cling to their humanness and restore previous order. There were many disagreements about how to take over, who rules and many others organisation problems. They got raided and the lack of teamwork forced them to give up.

A few stayed low in forests, jungles and deserts, the latter two being the safest, since it’s a harsh terrain for robotic bodies to navigate in. Many got captured by state police and imprisoned, later sold off. In this world, humans are considered pets. They comply to the whims of their owner and prove that they’re of higher social status. It’s expensive to have them, but to the synthetics, it gave a boost to their ego as they could treat them as poorly as they wanted to without any consequences. Humans had no rights, asides from the rights to exist and breathe, though taken lightly.

A loud, disturbing noise can be heard from the land of dunes. It was filled with screams, commands and panic. They’re on a chase, as it seems. You can tell by their constant running and huge terrain coverage. The bonus of being one of these humanoids is that they can’t feel fatigue, and what they seem to be chasing is something vulnerable to that exact flaw. It was an actual human being, they got caught whilst hunting for food at the borders between the rainforest, dune fields and pine tree forest. The victim got taken by surprise, they had been preyed upon for quite some time, the predators planning out every route of escape and blocking the pathway to the rainforest. The terrain would be impossible for them to scatter around with ease, for humans it’s their last hope.

As the individual fled, they realised they had been outsmarted. They quickly change course. The troupes are closing in and a huge chunk of the dune border had been occupied. To break through means that they risk the chance of getting caught, the probabilities of such reaching 90%. Time wasn’t on their side either, the longer the human runs, the slower they become, and the chase is relentless from the enemy side. The only advantage for this poor person is their understanding of the terrain and all possible shortcuts and opportunities to snatch. To the surprise of the hunters, they took an extremely odd route, the pine forest.

'Are they dumb?!' one shouted.

'They probably think that all the troupes are focused here, they might be heading to the abandoned village. It’s on their trajectory.'

'Boss, what’s the plan? You understand the psychology of humans best! Do we surround the area? Inform the closer teams?'

The leader of the mission took the lead and was running head first. His messy ginger hair swaying in the wind as he picked up his tempo. The passing moonlight through the trees can show how organised he is; no panic, just pure analytical strategising, if you’d look into his eyes. That sharp glint in his eyes suggesting he finds this entertaining.

"I’m actually impressed by this creature, no one in my years of service had ever went for this retreat. They always barge into any hole of the troupes that had been left unguarded or just hope for the best and run towards the rainforest, thinking we’d never set up our men there. But foolish is to think they can outrun us. No human has ever escaped my wrath. Never under my leadership. This mouse can run, but cannot hide~" he felt mischievous and added a slightly playful tone to his cunning speech.

"Be confident, my men. Contact and locate every person in the radius of our radio and say to them we have a small pet heading to the west coast, near the abandoned village. We shall prepare for a feast when we’re done. Make sure the forces stay hidden in the shadows and send a few to observe them. They might set up traps or try to mislead us. Cover the entire west, north and east coasts. They’re cornered."

'Roger!' the closest men shout while saluting mid sprint before reaching to their walkie talkies implanted into their ears to send out signals. One contacts the western coast, the other the eastern, the other the southern and the closest one to the captain, running toe to toe, reports to the HQ about the turn of events.

The others, once received the command, spread out to cover the village, they occupied it from a 20 mile distance. Some took the caves, some hid within rocks or between statues, and the rest were perched in the crown of the trees. The forest fell into absolute silence. It was unusually silent, borderline nerve-wracking.

The human was aware of the presence of troupes as soon as they passed the outer circle radius of the 20 miles. It was impossible to see them, but after years of staying low, it was easy to sense their whereabouts. Then a realisation struck them. They were all planning to launch an attack when I reach the village. They assumed my shelter will be there, since I’m heading straight towards it. They were deadass wrong. Their eyes widened in shock, their lips spread lightly forming a smile and a chuckle followed suit. They are overconfident, these piece of metal.

"That was never my plan" the human whispered to themselves.

After approaching the distance of 10 miles until the village, they took a drastic turn left. A few nearby observers were struck by such suddenness. They thought for a second if they had been noticed—no, impossible. They couldn’t fathom what had just happened and for a second they didn’t do anything. Once they snapped back, they basically screamed into their mics about a rapid change of plans.

The leader paused for a moment, like literally, physically. This behaviour… something is wrong. He looked around, no traps, no nothing. The road before them was set by stone which allowed to not get caught in muddy paths—it rained a few hours ago. Everything seemed perfect. To dump it all now? Why?

"This human… they’re good… too good… Whatever is on their mind, don’t allow them to reach their destination" he connects to all nearby radios. "Drop the previous plan, things changed. Leave hiding spots immediately and FUCKING RUN AFTER THEM!" he lost his cool which sent an obvious message that things are spiralling out of control. They’re on the losing side, as of currently. The commander bites onto his long thumb nail with his front teeth while releasing a sound oddly similar to a 'tch' or 'tsk'. Then he just sprints into said direction their prey had taken. His men follow suit.

The plan the human worked out worked! Unbelievable! Dawn is arising, it means that the dunes will be heating up to higher and higher temperatures, which means that by the time they cross the border, they’re actually safe. Though, they didn’t celebrate yet, there was one thing left to do; to actually get there without eventually getting caught. After turning towards the path of the dunes, they pulled off their last stunt, they bolt north. To the direction the first hunters were. Why? It’s simple, it’s the least guarded area and to slip through one hole is easy peasy. When the commander gets delivered the news, his brain felt like it’s overloaded with conflicting signals. He doesn’t understand how catching one person can derail him so badly. Whilst running, he realises his greatest mistake, this person knew what they were doing. They know the terrain and all possible paths. Shit. He had been played! He reroutes again, also heading north, he realises the goal was to thin out the amount of people at the northern side to then slip through basically gracefully.

The person takes a secret tunnel that had been created for the underground organisation and headed straight to the finish line. Amazing.

Now it was a battle of speeds. Who will get there first? The commander’s team was closer to where the exit is and he specifically sped up the pace to be first.

The underground tunnel had this floor that turned into mud. One has to put on these specific skis and use the boosts that were placed to achieve greater speeds. It was messy, but efficient for escapes. This tunnel was specifically meant for fleeing. Obviously thanks to the method they got there first. They resurfaced and took a breather. Unfortunately to them, shouting can be heard again.

"Stop there! You pest!"

At that sudden noise, they instantly crossed into the slowly scorching dunes.

'Sir, we officially lost them. That’s a place we’re at a disadvantage at and since the sun is rising up, we can collapse and die. Our bodies aren’t ready to handle such climates.'

'We better let this one slide, it’s impossible. The problem is that they all, the ones that are still left, will have their guards up even more. What a pain.'

"No!" his voice echoed. Before anyone could say a word, he stupidly ran in behind them. He was determined to not ruin his status quo. No one outruns a Shinonome. He was a proud one. "When I catch you, I’ll deal with you personally, you freak of nature!"

/ / /

The sun rose higher, sand was getting into his metallic system, he felt like he was dying. The more time he spent in the raw sunlight, the more his processors would start overheating and need cooling. There’s absolutely no water source in at least 50 miles, he guesses. He never came out this far before. The adrenaline was slowly dying and slowly he also began to realise he was acting irrationally. He wanted to turn back, but as he tried, he couldn’t. He felt locked in place. The sand got in too deeply, the metal was slowly reaching a point of no return, his eyes got foggy and hazy. Before he realised, he fell into the sand. Now it completely infiltrated his body, he’s ultimately useless. The realisation that this might be it dawned over him. His men won’t come here to the rescue, he’s too far gone. The sun won’t set in hours from now and it’ll only just get worser. His pride took a hit. He began to lose his consciousness, accepting his fate. That was before he heard footsteps. His heart raced with hopefulness only to be met with the realisation that his prey now stood over him.

He didn’t say a word. To admit he needs help means that he has to trust an enemy, someone he wanted to take down. Someone that was absolutely beneath him in his eyes. It felt ironic and just unfair. Then the thought of possibly being shunned upon came up into his mind. His people are probably dying from laughter, they know he’s a goner. It was either accept help and form a truce, which if he breaks, he dies, or die anyways.

Akito: "Hey…" his voice is rusty from dehydration. It’s a flaw that never disappears. "I know that, well… I wasn’t exactly someone you can consider a friend… I was ready to kill you if it meant your annihilated… But please, please help me…" his voice cracked many times, the vulnerability was obvious. "I… I… I promise on everything I own, on every title, on every position and possession that if you will help me… I’ll force myself and my men to stop chasing you. I know you might assume I’m a liar who wants to use you, but I’m between death and death here. I have nothing left to lose, I… need your help, human" such honesty that can be heard from his mouth was staggering to say the least. His kind was not the one to submit to anyone beneath them. This was absolute submission to a being stripped of any rights. No one cares even if they live. They’re only toys for sadistic people. Here was the man with pride skyrocketing over the roof asking for forgiveness for his previous actions and swearing to protect them from harm.