Okay so I played through the entirety of Nier Automata and never noticed that night doesn't exist, just, just ignore all the yesterday stuff I'm dumb
"...maaan why are the lights oonnnn"
Groaned Nathan as he covered his line of sight with his arm, so that y'know, the sun light would get off his face. His bed was... abnormally rock hard and uncomfortable today. maybe it's just the fact he had just woken up or maybe his back is sore for some unknown reason. He sat up from his bed, and noticed the fact that here was no blanket laid on top of him or even near him. Nor did the bed make any noises when he moved on it. He rubbed his dry eyes as he then opened them only to see he was in the middle of the road... surrounded by gigantic ruined and dilapidated buildings. It was overgrown with wildlife and plants.
"WHAT THE FU- "
He quickly covered his mouth cutting himself off mid scream, as even though he was currently panicking like hell and his heart was running twenty marathons per second he could still think correctly, as in, he knew not to call attention to himself in such a place as THIS. Anyways he's still on the middle of the road and even though it probably doesn't matter due to the fact the world seems to have... crumbled apart? He has no idea what the actual hell happened so he can't say for certain about what the hell just happened. So he got up from the ground dusting himself off and calmed himself down, before looking around to get a good look of this place.
It's just more of the same, giant destroyed buildings, overgrown everything and no signs of life, human life that is. There's a moose directly behind him eating some grass. mooses are absolute beasts and can destroy cars so he nopes the hell out of there, it's a river, does that mean there's fish? Hopefully that means he can catch those fish that he hopes there might be in the river. Cause if there isn't any fish, then he will definitely starve to death. Not like he's ever gone fishing before... oh well he'll have to learn one way or another. I mean the alternative is starvation so yeah it's safe to say he's gonna have to learn how you fish. Right now survival is way more important to him than his questions being answered. Knowing why he's here right now won't do him any good if he's dead.
So then, he's not hungry currently but he doesn't have a safe place to stay at, he just slowly walking over to the side of the river and just... sat down. He was ignoring the horror that had happened to him but it was all really weighing down on him. He needed a moment to think and recollect what happened to him. "I have absolutely no idea what I could've done." He really had no idea, he just woke up here. Maybe there just isn't a reason as to why he's in this situation. He closed his eyes and sighed, he was still absolutely filled with dread and dying from anxiety. But his existential crisis was cut short by sounds of machinery. What. Machinery? Okay this is asking for some investigation he opened his eyes and when he did he heard several loud explosions, he stood up quickly in recoil due to said explosions.
He quickly and frantically looked around, seeing that behind him and where the moose was definitely where the sounds came from, due to the fact he can see the fire and smoke. "Did, did the damn moose cause the explosion?" Nathan thought to himself, but theres no way that's possible, mooses may be absolute forces of nature but they definitely arent able to just cause explosions. The mechanic noises werev still loud and indeed very apparent that they were still there. He wanted answers as to what the hell was going on over there but he definitely couldnt just walk over there, he'd definitely die if he did. So instead he ran over and then straight into the building next to the road where the explosions came from, he ran up the stairs of this building that was definitely breaking apart. Still, he'd take the risk for now. He ran over to a window and looked down at the ground, only to see odd robotic beings.
They were no bigger than a dog, they didn't have a neck instead their round spherical head was just attached to its torso. they would just hop around like bunnies on their small legs, their arms were the opposite. Quite bug unfact, thoii they didnt seem like they could pack much a pun-
The robot he was watching then proceeded to trip amd fall punching the ground with it's arms, making a small crater as it cracked the concrete and while doing such launching itself back upwards. Okay, so, nevermind, these things are definitely powerhouses of destruction. Don't judge a book by its cover I suppose. Anyways what the hell are these terrifyingly strong robots even fighting? Well he looked around and he finds his answer, a single blindfolded human carring a sword with some odd thing floating behind it was attack these robots. He crouched down and tried his best to watch while not being found out as he listened in and watched the fight. The stranger eas somehow destroying these machines even though that those machines should definitely be the ones winning. No human no matter how strong would realistically be able to do THIS, he watched as they sliced a robot in half, dashing towards the second one snd theowing it in the air and shooting it into the third and last robot. All of this within the time span of a couple seconds at that, there is no way they arent human, or at the very least a super human. They kinda scared him to be honest. He took a closer look at them now that they were just standing there, they were dressed in a black dress that ended in a skirt that hang to about a couple centimeterd above their knees. They had black syockings on their legs with black heel shoes, and also black stockings on her arms with black gloves on their hands. Now this is where he got puzzled, the stranger was blindfolded. He wasnt gonna dig into that because thats another entire confusing thing in this story of super confusing and terrifying things. Remember the floating box with arms? It started talking!
"All machine units terminated, Proposal: Scan immediate area for remaining units."
"Yeah yeah hang on I'm on it."
"Sh*t sh*t sh*t, she'll find me" and god knows what's gonna happen the second that she does find him. He doesn't know who to trust so he's going to trust no one. He quickly got up and bolted down the stairs which was extremely loud, and in his defense he was under extreme fear and panic... which doesn't really defend him all that well does it now? Whatever, either way that stranger now definitely knows he's there and he needs to f*cking bolt for it. So he got out from the exit of the building and began running, hurriedly looking behind him every few seconds, and of course each time seeing that stranger and see how absolutely fast she was gaining on him. What is he supposed to do oh god oh f*ck- Idea! Okay this is a gamble but uh either way he's getting caught. He began running slower until he could directly hear the stranger behind him, at which point he'd stop dead in his tracks for a second before side stepping to the left and into an alleyway, and just as he had hoped the stranger continued running infront of themselves for a couple of seconds which probably just saved his life! He bolted across the alley way and into one of the building, jumping up the stairs as he went up three steps at a time before stopping on the third floor and waiting there in the corner trying to quiet his breathing as he held his mouth. He heard the echoes of that gravity defying robot from before.
"Quarry: did you see where the anomaly went?"
"..No."
"Proposal: search for the anomaly and report to the bunker."
"Again? That guy will just run again if I find him. I'm just gonna report back to base, maybe one of those searcher models can find the dude."
Thank god. Nathan could feel his heart rate loosen as he let go of his mouth so he could breathe, if only just a little better it helped him breathe still. He just sat in the corner thinking to himself for a couple minutes, "what was that lady's problem?" he thought to himself as he looked out a window, he could see that very same stranger in the far distance now. For now this floor of this very unsafe building seemed to be his safe space. Kind of ironic, but oh well. He was getting hungry but he was our of energy due to the running, for tonight he will simply sleep. It was starting to become evening, hopefully with his refreshed brain he can think of what to do and what happened to him.
Nathan woke up to the sun being in his eyes again. Great, this is infact reality. He sat up from where he was sleeping, his entire body aches due to the fact he slept horribly yhe last night. Who couldve known sleeping on hard cold concrete would be uncomfortable? But the cincrete is the least of his worries, these buildings are falling apart snd already not safe, so he definitely cannot stay here unless he wants to risk dying due to the ceiling probably collapsing in on itself and crushing him in the process. So he'd need to find a safer space than this safe space. He got up and looked out the window towards where the lady from before ran off to, just more destroyed and dilapidated apartment buildings and what not. He began slowly moving down the stairs as his stomach began to grumble and make sounds you'd expect the monster under your stomach to make.
He walked over to the river from before, he took a closer inspection to it and indeed luckily there were fish in this pond. He rolled up his pants as to not get them wet, and walked in the water chasing after and trying to catch fish. This, unfortunately wasn't very successful in practice. And it wasn't like he hsd any means to catch them otherwise, he doesnt know where to find a fishing rod nor does he know how to make tools to mske a fishing rod or go spear fishing.
"The trees must have fruit right?" He thought and hoped to himself as he began looking around for trees, or anything that could have food, the only few trees he did find didn't have fruit. There were barely any trees around this area in the first place and none of them have fruits or anything at all! At this point those mooses he msde sure to steer clear of were starting to look delicious, not like it'd matter as if he'd even try to kill one of them hed get decked and destroyed. That crazy strong lady from before, she must need to eat right? Well then wherever she was going had to of had food right? There were no other options as this place was completely empty snd devoud of anything!.. Although, he did come across a few of those machines. He made a big effort to stay away from them, and up until now his efforts have been paying off.
key words: until now He continued walking up the path the stranger had went, but he was caught off guard when one of those machines jumped off the ceiling of a building next to him, it was screaming "DEATH TO ALL ANDROIDS!!!" Androids? the hell does it mean android? Well actually that doesn't matter right now as it's about to fall on Nathan and if that were to happen he'd look like road kill. So he super man leaped Infront of him and managed to get out of the robots way, he quickly got up and turned around to look at it. The damned thing had punched the ground with such utter forced that it once again cracked the concrete and had made a crater!
"HOW?!?!"
"ANDROIDS MUST DIE"
Nathan began bolting in the opposite direction hoping to all of god that the robot was slow. Well god decided that Nathan deserved to die because this thing was fast okay, running doesn't seem like it's gonna work out too well lest he wants to become meat pulp. So how the hell is he gonna kill this damned thing? It negates any and all damage from falls as seen by it creating a crater in the ground and being all but f i n e. "Okay then.. WHAT THE F*CK CAN I DO?!?!"
Nathan makes a turn and jumps in through a broken window, landing luckily not face first but still going "oof" upon landing on his stomach. He got back up and still heard the robot absolutely hauling a* so he needs something to help! Wait, some of the walls in this broke apart building were broken which made the pipes that were hiding inside them.. not hidden- and these pipes were rusty as hell and falling apart and although he might get tetanus it's a better risk than death by robot annihilation. So he ran over to the exposed pipes and grabbed it around the part that was already falling apart and pulled at it with all of his might, ripping it off the rest of the pipe system and falling on his back. At the very least now he had a weapon right?
Well right on time the robot jumped in through the window and into the building! Nathan got up from the ground and waited for the robot to make the first move.
"DEATH TO ANDROIDS!!!"
"WHAT EVEN IS AN ANDROID?!"
He screamed as he watched the robot leap at him, he waited a second before doing his now signature super move! SIDE STEPPING! and moved out of the way right before getting hit, or really two seconds before getting hit the robot is just stupid. Anyways the robot smashes into the wall which would've been Nathan if not for him getting out of the way. And Nathan ran in and proceeded to bonk it in the back of the head several times. Until the dents in it's head turned into holes infact, and then the robot slumped over and fell on the ground... Wait don't they explode? "FUUUUUUUUUUUUU-" He jumped back out that window and began running out of the alleyway, the robot then proceeded to explode destroying and collapsible the building. Luckily it fell backwards so it wouldn't set off a chain reaction in the rest of the falling apart buildings.
Nathan still hid behind the building next to the one that just collapsed dye to shrapnel that would hack him apart if he got hit by any. He continued to hold onto the pipe as it was pretty effective as a blunt weapon. Well then, he may of just set off an explosion that lead to the destruction of an entire (gigantic) building so it's safe to say he's definitely put at the very least some attention to himself. So then now he became very cautious and frankly, paranoid of wherever the hell he's going. Hopefully that insanely strong stranger went to some sorta hideout or something, he is starving and in absolute need of food.
Nathan continues walking, his legs feel like little tree twigs that you'd hit against a wall to watch them break into smaller pieces. He sat down, or well, practically fell down onto his knees and sighed out of tiredness. It was afternoon by now and he was so tired of walking, Nathan was very a sportsy person. Infact he was the polar opposite hating any and all sports. Except for swimming of course.
"fuuuck running man"
He said tiredly as he looked forward, there couldn't be that much left to go right? Food is right there! Pain is temporary but the pay off is definitely there! Wait. That tree over there. There's something hanging off one of its branches.
"HOLY SHIT FOOD"
He screamed as he instantly got up, now mind you Nathan has never climbed a tree before, so he just kinda scraped at the tree trunk for a couple seconds before taking a step back. He then just reached his hands up and grabby the branch with one hand and plucked the fruit (which was an apple) from the branch.
"Haha the pros of being tall."
He said as he chomped down in the fruit, now then it definitely didn't fill him up but for god's sake if it didn't taste delicious. But, while eating the apple he did notice something that sent intense dread straight into his heart. A group of about five people who wore similar clothes to the stranger from yesterday were running in the direction of where he was going. They were all also equipped with and holding weapons. Was his simple presence seriously that dangerous to these people? Whatever, he needs to continue on. This tree only had that one fruit and he needs food. Staying outside doesn't work because of the murderous robots roaming around, so he needs to stay inside.
He walked over and peeked over the corner and to his worrying self yes, indeed the people all ran over to the destroyed building to inspect it. He needed to get the hell out of here before they find him, so he began continuing down the path. Maybe if he went to them without them knowing he was the one watching the lady from yesterday they wouldn't try and kill him. hopefully.. Anyways he continued running, occasionally looking backwards to see if he was being chased after luckily he wasn't. yet.
He stopped running when he couldn't see them anymore, deciding to simply walk instead and actually preserve his energy. But due to him now walking and being alone to his own thoughts, he couldn't stop thinking about his life. He wouldn't get to see any of that anymore, he wouldn't get to finish college, he wouldn't see his parents again, he wouldn't be able to go on that date with his crush! That one really hurts... He.. He wouldn't.. music. He wouldn't get to listen to music again. Oh god music, maybe they had music? Hopefully this place had music..
"HALT!"
"HOLY SHI-"
Nathan turned around in complete shock, he was deep in thought and this person here screaming "halt" startled him. And when he turned around he was only faced with horror. The tip of the sharpest sword he's ever seen in his life pointed directly at his face. He put his hands up above his head immediately as he looked at them. The person holding the sword was wearing similar clothes to the woman from yesterday, except she had longer hair and had odd wrist bands on her wrists. There were also four people behind her, one of them being the lady from before. His attention was fixated on the sword Infront of him and the lady holding it.
"You are the anomaly who caused that, yes?"
She asked as she pointed towards the direction of the collapsed building with her other arm.
"...y-yes"
"State your reasoning ad to why. And, why were you watching unit 12B in battle yesterday?"
"I.. er.. Well"
And that's where we are leaving off friends. Haha. I know I know classic annoying cliff hangers haha. See you next chapter!
