The city was silent. Between the skeletal remains of buildings and the scattered rubble, Erik walked alone. His companions had vanished. He didn’t know why. They had spoken of a “paradise” before they left, but no trace of it remained.
A faint sound broke the oppressive stillness, emanating from a heap of scrap metal. As Erik approached, he discovered a battered, boy-shaped AI slumped against the debris. Its body was worn, its joints stiff. Erik crouched down cautiously.
“Can you move?”
The AI remained silent for a moment, then gave a small nod.
“What’s your name?” Erik asked.
“…I don’t know.”
Despite its damaged state, Erik decided to bring the AI along. Perhaps it held some clue to the elusive paradise. The boy-like AI had lost most of its functions, but one remained intact: its ability to sing. Its voice was hauntingly clear, carrying melodies Erik had never heard before.
As they journeyed together, they traversed the desolate remnants of the city. They passed a crumbling park, a fractured bridge, and a lifeless market square. The AI marveled at everything they saw, as if it were witnessing the world for the first time.
“Do you think paradise is real?” the AI asked one day.
“I have to believe it is,” Erik replied. “I need to find my friends. If paradise exists, they’ll be there.”
Their search eventually led them to the entrance of an underground facility. Inside, they found archives of immense data, detailing the fate of Erik’s companions. The truth was laid bare: his friends had chosen a form of immortality, sacrificing their physical forms to become pure data, stored and preserved within the facility.
Erik’s hands trembled as he read. They were “alive” in a sense, but not in any way he could understand or accept. Despair began to take hold of him, until the AI boy gently placed a hand on his shoulder.
“If this isn’t paradise,” the AI said softly, “then we can make one ourselves. I’ll stay with you until we find what you’re looking for.”
The boy’s words sparked a faint light in Erik’s heart, one that he thought had long since been extinguished. With renewed resolve, the two began collecting fragments of hope from the ruins around them, piecing together the shards of a future that had seemed lost.
Together, they walked onward, determined to create their own paradise in the shadow of a broken world.
