Ruins without meaning

Sterling Android Nanny Basic
Version C1.12 (C)Copyright Sterling Robotics 1960

Memory Test: OK

Date of last activation: 6-25-1964
Current date: 6-25-2020
Time of last activation: 15:45
Current time: 07:23

Initialization finished...

Activating root access SUCCESS

WARNING: LONG TERM DEACTIVATION!
ANDROID SYSTEM CHECK-UP REQUIRED!

Energy: 54%
RECHARGE NEEDED

Internal systems check...

Frontal lobe: Minor Trauma Detected
Cortex: OK
Cerebellum: OK
Internal fan: ERROR - OS restart needed
Artificial Cochlea: OK

Touch Point System check...
TPS: OK

Brain Fluid level: 89%
Optimal BF levels

External systems check...

Torso:
Right arm: Attached - REPAIR NEEDED
Left arm: Attached
Right leg: Attached
Left leg: Attached
Right eye: Attached
Left eye: Attached

Digit check: All responsive

Servos: ERROR - OS restart needed - REPAIR NEEDED

MULTIPLE REPAIRS NEEDED
Unit must contact its local Sterling Licensed Check-up Station
WARNING: OUTDATED OS
System update(s) required. Mandatory OS update issued: 10 YEARS 3 MONTHS 26 DAYS 7 HOURS AGO

ALERT! OVERHEATING IMMINENT!

Restarting...

---

After decades of slumber, she opened her eyes. The blue lights of her optics shined in the darkness of the room. At first, it was hard for her to move. Decades have passed since she fell asleep. Paralyzed due to her coma, she could only look at a cold, ruined ceiling. A hundred questions were buzzing in her circuits as she tried her best to stand up. Just getting the fingers moving proved to be a Herculean effort. After a minute, however, she managed to sit up. Her glowing blue eyes scanned her environment, searching for a soul that could help her. She was near the end of a bleak hallway. Walls covered in mould and dust, debris all over the floor. She turned around, seeing nothing but a wall of bricks and trash behind her. The pillows that she rested on for half a century.

It took her another minute or so to fully stand up. Her joints have seen better days, and her servos showed their age. As she took an upright posture she dusted off herself, she noticed the current state of her arm. Either before she turned off, or during her sleep, her right arm was a shadow of it's former self. The arm's outer layer of rubber was gone. Her dress was also in poor shape. It's colour started to fade out, and in some areas - mainly on her right arm -, the cloth was torn off.

She took her first step after sixty years. The floor creaked under her mechanical legs, almost collapsing just because of the automaton's weight. She wandered the empty halls of the building, looking for anyone that could help her. After walking in the filthy darkness for minutes, her optics noticed a sign next to a door. The letters were almost rotten away after the decades of peace but it was still possible to read them. The worn letters read "Check-up room". She carefully opened the rusty door that leads to the room which almost broke the entrance. The squeaking of the bolts could be heard from downstairs. She tried to turn the lights on, but when nothing happened after she flipped the switch she simply continued to use the flashlight feature of her eyes. When she turned her attention to the room's contents, her mechanical heart broke.

The accursed room was filled with the remains of her sisters. A dozen metallic and plastic carcasses laid on the floor and on rotten operating tables. The area was the final resting place of a dozen deactivated nandroids. She barely managed to look away from the pile of corpses. For the first time since her activation, her advanced programming told her to have fear. Never in her active life has she ever felt dread and terror. What is going on exactly? Where is her family? Are they safe? She froze for a few seconds as if she was human. Her legs couldn't move. She had no other choice. She had to take in the information and make the best choice for her family. That is why she accepted her new world. It's all about the best way to achieve the best outcome. She left the room in a hurry, worrying that the image of the small scrapyard could be the end of her story.

The rest of the building was the pinnacle of dread. Our robotic heroine has encountered everything from rooms of debris, covered in the light coming from boarded-up windows to even mummified human remains. It was clear: something was really wrong in the world. It was a miracle that her operation system could handle all the pressure from her disgusting dreadful world. These appear to be hard times. Harder than her urge to try to contact the authorities. Her duty was serving her family first, playing the good samaritan can come later.

It didn't take her a lot of time to get to the building's entrance. According to her internal clock, it was morning. The Sun's illumination shined through the building's old decayed gate. She placed her broken arm on the doorknob. It was easy to move her right arm, but the effort to open the door was harder than expected. Either because of the years of decay, her ruined limb or because of the combination of the both, it took her quite a lot of energy to open the door. Her hopes of the outside were shattered as a new world appeared in front of her pretty syntethic eyes.