Chapter 3: Darktown
The wheat fields continued for miles. Niko began to wonder if there would ever be an end to them. It seemed as if the trip had lasted several hours until something happened. Out of nowhere, the ground tremored and split to reveal a large chasm. Niko fell back in surprise. The ground shook as it cracked open, forming an ever wider rift with each tremor. The chasm stopped opening when it became too large to jump over. Like the fields, it seemed to stretch left and right for miles. Niko got back up and looked down. All that was at the bottom of the trench was pitch black darkness.
"Now what?" Niko wondered.
Jump.
"What?!" Niko looked around for the voice.
The only way is forward. Fall into chasm.
"No way! I'm not jumping down there! There has to be another way!" Niko began looking around for another path.
I told you no harm will come to you. And I can prove it if you jump.
Niko looked down the trench cautiously, then looked back. All there was behind was more field.
What other options do you have?
Not quite trustworthy of the disembodied voice, Niko began to walk along the chasm. Every spot was too wide to safely clear. Niko walked for several minutes, but the trench didn't get any thinner and the bottom didn't get any brighter.
You're wasting time. Unless… you want to stay here?
Niko sat down and started thinking. What other choices were there? The voice seemed to know a lot about Darkwell, but could it be trusted?
"So, just jump? And I'll be fine?"
Yes.
"Is there a bottom?"
Of course. You'll land like a feather.
Niko looked back one last time before staring into the abyss.
"Alright." Niko sat along the edge while looking down and took a deep breath. With a hard push at the edge, Niko was now plummeting into the chasm.
It took a second for Niko to realize the falling had stopped. There wasn't even an impact. One second, Niko was plummeting. The next second, Niko was standing on a path like the one with blue grass. However, the path was rocky and no fog obscured the way ahead. Not too far in the distance was a town. Well, more like the silhouette of a town, but lights of different shades and hues occasionally lit up the walls and windows of the buildings, like roaming spotlights that slowly changed in intensity. The sky and town seemed, like the rest of Darkwell thus far, to be bathed in an eternal twilight. Niko could make out dark figures walking along the streets.
"Hey! I made it!" Niko smiled, but was only met with silence. "Hello? Wait, I just remembered, I had questions!" Still, there was only silence. Niko sighed. "Well, might as well make my way into town. I wonder what's in there?"
The town was an active place. It certainly wasn't lively, but it breathed with life. People who looked like inky shadows walked briskly towards their destinations. Buildings lining the crisscrossing streets were alight with the sounds of people talking or working. Vendors on the street sat next to shadowy wares. Niko received a few stares, but most people simply went about their business. Niko decided to talk to one of the vendors, a tall male silhouette with a green eye showing
"Hi!" Niko greeted.
"Bits and bo… Oh hey, kid. Want to buy something?" the vendor asked.
"Sorry, I don't have money. What are you selling, though?"
"Money? Heh, I guess you're new here. We don't take money, we just trade for things we find. I found a bunch of miscellaneous things out in the junkyard. Wanted to see if anyone could use them," the vendor explained.
"Oh. Where's the junkyard?" Niko asked.
"No offense kid, but I'm trying to sell things here. If you want to ask questions, talk to Sammy over there." The vendor pointed to a man leaning against a wall across the street. The wall behind and just around the man was brightened to a dark, metallic grey.
"Ok, thanks!" Niko replied.
"Sure."
As Niko walked over to Sammy, it became clear Sammy was not like the vendor at all. While the vendor only had one eye showing, it was on the left side of his face as if he had two eyes with one hidden. Sammy had a single, red, glowing light in the middle of his head. Even though Sammy was a silhouette, his body gave off a weird shine.
"Hello?" Niko greeted. Sammy looked down.
"Hello." The person's voice was male, but it gave off a slight echo and sounded as if it was filtered through an old radio.
"Are you Sammy?" Niko asked.
"I am Service Automated Multipurpose Intelligence unit 276, but I guess you could call me SAMI for short," SAMI replied.
"Oh, you're a robot!" Niko exclaimed.
"I'm just a repair drone. Unfortunately, I can't do much of that here as nothing is broken, so I keep log of events," SAMI explained.
"You talk like a person. Are you tamed?" Niko asked. Although SAMI lacked facial expressions, the robot cocked its head curiously.
"Tamed? Like what you do with animals?" SAMI inquired.
"Well, I learned about it in a dream full of robots. At least, I think it was a dream," Niko began.
"A dream, a mental hallucinatory phenomenon that occurs during rapid eye movement periods of organic sleep cycles." Niko looked at SAMI, perplexed.
"Apologies. Old habits die hard. Carry on… Could you identify yourself?" SAMI requested.
"My name's Niko. Anyway, taming is where you form a special bond with a robot by acting like its friend, caring about it till it acts like a person and goes beyond its programming," Niko replied.
"I see. I imagine you could do same by waving metal bolts in the robot's face and calling it a good robot," SAMI said.
"What?" Niko asked, confused.
"That was a joke," SAMI explained. An awkward silence filled the air for a second.
"I take your lack of response as a cue to give mine," SAMI concluded. "I think I understand what you're referring to in regards to taming. However, I was produced by different means to create what I think are similar results. The operating system of a machine like I is based on organic neural synapses, specifically those in the frontal lobe of a person's cerebral cortex. This allows us to simulate both the action potentials in nerve pathways and the mechanisms of neurotransmitters. Even some hormonal receptor chemical activity was studied and incorporated…"
"Mreowow?" was the only response a very lost and confused Niko could muster.
"Simplifying explanation. My programming is designed to act in every way like an organic brain, capable of learning new ways to approach problems and adding new lines of code. Of course, I cannot alter my initial protocols," SAMI elaborated.
"You mean the laws of robots?" Niko asked.
"I guess they really are universal, then," SAMI replied. Something puzzled Niko, though. Taming was only reserved for special robots, wasn't it?
"Wait, why would they spend all that time creating a person-like robot if you're just a repair drone?" Niko asked.
"My units are general purpose, capable of performing a wide variety of tasks. I simply was designated for maintenance. Now, I think that's enough about me. Have you other questions, Niko? Perhaps about this town?"
"Oh, right! What is this place?"
"This town or the world in general?" SAMI replied.
"Both, I guess."
"This is Darktown, named such because this world is Darkwell. The town was founded as a refuge from the monstrosities that roam the surrounding forests. They won't approach a large enough group of people. With Darktown came the junkyard, a pile of a wide variety of random items that seemingly falls from the sky near the settlement. It began to appear once enough people arrived. Don't ask for a scientific reason as to why or how. I lack a satisfactory one. As for Darkwell, I know no more than you do," SAMI elaborated.
"Wow! What kind of things are in the junkyard?" Niko inquired.
"Everything and anything. Food, clothes, tools, bandages, cameras, computers, etc. Ironically, it all comes to a place where it is unneeded. For whatever reason, the people of Darkwell require neither food nor drink and any injuries but the most severe heal rapidly and cleanly. You should visit it, though. You may find something of use. Any other questions?"
"Do you know who Gregory is?"
"A deity, or god, of this realm. That is all I know," SAMI responded. Niko tried to think of more questions.
"Do you ever… hear voices in your head?" Niko said meekly.
"No and I have no record of such incidences. Would you like to file a report?" SAMI responded.
"No… just curious," Niko replied. "Why don't people have to eat?"
"There is insufficient experimental evidence available for me to provide an abstract of the circumstances, much less a plausible hypothesis. It has simply been observed that energy requirements, sleep cycles, hydration, and other necessities of organic life are not necessary to sustain metabolic functionality. Even electronic battery supplies maintain an infinite charge." It seemed like SAMI was waiting for Niko's confused expression at the explanation. Once it showed, SAMI spoke again.
"Simplifying explanation. I don't know. Any more questions?"
"Which way is the junkyard?" Niko asked. SAMI pointed down the road.
"Follow the road. The junkyard is at the center of the town. Is that all?" SAMI inquired.
"Yeah, I think that's all. Thanks!"
"Stay safe." SAMI resumed looking straight ahead.
Niko walked down the road in the direction on the junkyard. It was then Niko saw something peculiar about the shifting lights on the black buildings. Niko looked at the wall of a nearby shop. What looked like red and yellow spots of light illuminated the wall above. However, the lights did more than illuminate the wall. They revealed the material and texture of it, but it was as if each light was on a different wall.
The red light revealed the wall to be made of brick while the yellow light revealed the wall to be made of wood. A blue light appeared above, revealing the wall to be made of a rough plaster. Niko went over to touch the wall, reaching out to place a hand on it. As Niko reached forward, a tan light appeared as if emanating from Niko's hand. The light revealed the wall to be made of plaster, like the blue light. Niko felt the wall's surface and noted how it felt just like the outside wall of a bakery back home. As Niko moved the hand away, the tan light faded before disappearing altogether.
"Strange," Niko commented. "Then again, everything here has been strange." Niko kept walking to the junkyard.
The junkyard was a large clearing in the middle of the town. People entered and exited the area at a consistent rate. In the arms of the people leaving were all manner of items ranging from fruits to power tools. The piles of so-called junk were piles of black, random objects. There were objects occasionally appearing from thin air a short distance above the piles which subsequently fell into them. Niko walked along the piles, receiving some confused glances from others in the junkyard. No one said anything, though, and they quickly resumed their business.
"Where do people find those things? All I see is black junk…" Niko muttered. Then Niko saw a young girl, or at least what appeared to be one, reach into a pile and somehow pull out a green notebook. She tossed it back in and looked in another pile. Niko ran over to grab the notebook, noticing its color beginning to darken. As Niko reached for it, a light appeared again, coloring it blue. The objects in the pile around the notebook lit up as well.
The objects around the notebook were mainly office supplies like pencils, pens, notepads, glue, and paper clips, big ones. However, what was peculiar was that Niko recognized them from memory. One notepad was decorated in orange flowers, exactly like one that Niko's mom used when writing reminders. A pencil had patterns of cats and dogs on it like the one Niko panicked over losing when it rolled under the drawer.
Niko saw what appeared to be a black flute. Moving a hand over it to revealed it to be a wooden flute like one Niko had seen on TV. Some objects didn't light up. Strange, foreign objects with unusual silhouettes would flicker, but never fully brighten. Only objects Niko could definitely discern revealed themselves. It was then Niko heard a beckoning voice.
"Hey you! Yeah, you with the funny hat and scarf and, like, glowing yellow eyes! I know you can hear me!"
Niko looked around for the voice before finally settling upon a seated silhouette not too far away. Half the person's face and part of her dress was visible, but the rest of her was enveloped in darkness. Her hair and eyes were a light brown. The girl wore a tan dress and had what appeared to be mouse ears. She was waving to Niko and smiling. Niko decided to walk over.