Colin heard a man opening the storage room door and perked up, seeing him shuffle around a bit before heading off in a different direction. The boy took the opportunity to slink out of the room and onto the boarding dock. It seemed this ride had passengers too, so he managed to blend in decently. After finally reaching the stony pathway off the dock, he felt that strange sensation of sorrow from before momentarily shoot through him. He clutched his chest and bent over, but only for a moment. All the passengers passing him stared with a mixture of concern and confusion. He didn't notice... or maybe he didn't care, he just wanted to go to the town he saw down the road.
Yes, bright shining city on a hill. That would be the new place, he was certain of it.
He trudged down the cobbled road glancing around at the buildings speckled around it. They were much taller and more complicated than the old house he lived in. They looked very methodical, angled, clinical, professional. It reminded him of the laboratory, and he smiled. At the end of the road, he spotted a large gate-like building that blocked the entrance to the walled-off town. Everything here seemed so grey and warm. He liked it immensely.
The gate-building arched over his head menacingly as he watched others buzz about through the rooms halls and offshoots to rooms deeper inside, most already knowing what to do but some having to ask for help. The cacophony of people speaking to each other blended into one great sound that he loved. It was like the buzzing in his skull from when his creator was building him. He noticed that the 'helpers' to all those poor, confused souls all wore the same clothes: blue overalls with a gray shirt and another blue hat. Therefore he easily identified one and walked up to them.
"Excuse me! Where am I supposed to go?"
"Are you trying to enter the city?" the man in overalls mumbled gruffly.
"Yes!"
"Is this your first time entering the city?"
"Yes!"
"Alright, we'll need some identification, follow me."
Colin and the mystery man entered into a hallway to the left and trailed off to the right into a room with long lines of people and metal gates at the far end. More workers with nicer clothes were sitting in glass boxes and talking to the people at the front of the line, before letting them pass through. The man dropped Colin off and he waited in line patiently.
Very... very... patiently...
Two hours later, the little object reached a lady behind the glass.
"Identification please," she drawled out in a sleepy tone.
"...Er- I don't think I have any." Colin felt a strange anxious feeling creep through his head. No, stuff it down, this is nothing to worry about.
The woman glanced at him in annoyance, before finally noticing his appearance and sitting up straighter. "How old are you exactly?"
Colin reached into the dark recesses of his mind for a number. Ah, yes! He remembered a number on his creator's papers! Eighteen. She was saying something, something he didn't understand at the time. "Built to look eighteen," so therefore he must be eighteen!
"You gonna say anything kid?"
"I'm eighteen!" he finally shouted out, a silly grin spreading across his face.
She looked at him like she didn't believe a word he was saying. She muttered, "Damn short for a..." then cut herself off and continued louder, "Well your parents should have made you get some form of identification by now..."
"Well, I'm not so sure about that. My creator abandoned me and then I had to leave the nice lady's house because she died," he stated matter-of-factly.
"..."
Colin's smile faltered. He didn't like that face the lady was making, not at all. It was... really scary.
"You're an object, correct? What's your name?"
"Colin!"
The lady's face flashed with fear for a moment before calming herself. She did think that something about this... child(?) seemed extremely unsettling, but he didn't appear to have any malicious intent. He did have black ink, not blue, but still...
"Strange. You don't look corrupted... So I'm assuming Colin the..." she raked her eyes over his odd, colorful appearance and functioning shirt screen, "Computer?"
"Hm, sure!" Lets go with that.
"Wh- what's your birthdate?" she glanced at the calendar on her work computer. 17/01/15
The answer tumbled out of his mouth without a second thought. "Hmm... I think it was about- THREE DAYS—SIX MONTHS—THREE YEARS- ago."
At this point the woman had no idea how to handle the situation. What even was this... thing standing in front of her?! Somehow she had the feeling that it was not fooling around when it said all these things. All she knew that it was decidedly NOT an 18-year-old object. Everything it had said up to this point had to be a lie, or... misinformation?
She laughed nervously. "Well, listen, young man... It looks like you don't have any... identification so I'm going to have to call in someone to help you. Is- Is that quite alright?" She was unsure whether this thing was dangerous or not, so it was best to be extremely polite.
Colin stared blankly at the woman behind the glass. This was wrong. He didn't know why but everything felt wrong. He felt his eyes shift out of focus as he tried to grasp his 'emotions.' Why was his progress being impeded upon? That was unacceptable. He had done nothing incorrect, had he not? He'd told the truth and nothing but the truth.
The next thing he knew, he was in a small, gray room with another man in blue overalls.