Chapter 1
It was 9:00 AM by the time Zero clocked out of the retail store in which she worked as a part-time stocker. The sun was just getting up for the day as she walked over to her navy blue sedan that she took care to park under the tree in a particular direction to keep it in the shade. She gets into the driver's seat and sat there for a few minutes with a sigh.
Suddenly, a digital voice rings out from her dashboard. A male voice that was both calming yet annoying all at once.
"Time to fill up?" the voice asks eagerly.
"We haven't even used up a third of your tank this week, Midnight," responds Zero, taking out her paycheck.
"I just like being prepared," responded the voice. "That is what you programmed me for, isn't it?"
"I programmed you to help me keep track of maintenance on the car," Zero clarifies as she scans her paycheck to make sure there weren't any mistakes that would prevent her from cashing it in.
"Then why'd you give me an AI algorithm?" asks Midnight.
Zero falls quiet as she ponders the inquiry. It's been a year since her home was destroyed in a mysterious explosion. Since then, she's been literally living out of her car with naught more than a laptop and her external hard drive. The money she gets from her job is just enough to get her by since she doesn't have a home anymore, but the yearning for her room back still remains.
"You should already know the answer to that," answers the young woman.
She turns the car over and drives off into the freeway. Going nowhere in particular, she allows the road to take her wherever it went, eventually sending her into the more uninhabited parts of the area. As she drove, she spies a strange object in the distance and shifts gear to go towards it.
"What's up?" wonders Midnight.
"Curiosity," responds Zero.
"Heh, isn't that always the case?" retorts the voice.
The road beneath the car gradually changes from asphalt to dirt, causing pebbles and dust to spit out from under the tires. After some more time, the sedan came to a stop in front of a small gorge in which something very alien laid.
Zero emerges from the car and saunters over to the edge to get a better look. She takes out digital binoculars, which are linked to Midnight's systems.
"What is it?" asks Midnight as Zero zooms in through the binoculars to provide them both the same visuals.
"Looks like a spaceship," answers Zero nonchalantly.
"You know, humans usually would react a lot more emotionally at the sight of something like this," notes Midnight.
"Thought you would've realized by now that I'm not quite normal," counters Zero.
She begins to climb into the gorge carefully.
"Whoa, whoa, WHOA! What do you think you're doing?" exclaims Midnight.
"What does it look like? I'm going to investigate," responds Zero.
"Not without me you're not!" Midnight was starting to sound frantic.
Zero lets out an exasperated sigh and climbs back up, not realizing that she had caused the cliff to crumble a bit.
"And can you see any road around here that would lead down there?" She looks at the sedan with arms crossed.
"How about you get back in and look for a way for both of us to get down?" Midnight reasons.
Zero throws up her hands and annoyingly stomps back to the car and gets into the driver's seat, tossing the binoculars into the passenger side.
"Last I checked, you don't have arms and legs," she retorts in frustration as she turns the car over and eases it extremely close to the edge.
"What are you doing? You trying to get us both scrapped!" exclaims the sedan.
"I'm showing you there's NO ROADS to get down there!" responds Zero. "Just look with your cameras!"
"Okay, okay, I get your point!" yells the sedan. "Just back us away from the cliff!"
But it was too late as the cliff fully crumbles beneath the car, sending it sliding down into the gorge.