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The red double doors rumbled and swung toward the small group, cool air billowing over them. The orange cat immediately walked inside, and after a moment's hesitation, was followed by Danny. The rest of the tom's clowder waited, not budging any closer to the door.
The interior concrete walls of the entryway were white and sparkling, the linoleum floor glossy. Decorative potted trees nestled between the benches against the back wall were being manicured by a lone orange android with a CRT monitor for a head, a Companion, which looked like it had just walked off the factory floor. Even the snack machine sitting in the corner was fully stocked with beverages. Everything looked impossibly new. After seeing so many cities long abandoned and left to the elements, Danny wondered if this one knew that the apocalypse had happened at all.
She jumped at an unexpected voice.
"Welcome to City 99. Please proceed directly to the registrar to confirm your attendance as well as to report any belongings. Please ensure you always have a certified form of identification in sight, as these will be checked at registration and during the onboarding process to confirm access. Thank you, and enjoy your stay in The World's Safest City!" recited another orange Companion standing immediately to the right of the door. It waived once stiffly, before returning to an ethereal palm up position.
Danny whirled as the door ground closed behind them, clicked, and re-engaged its air-tight seal with a hiss. A pair of cheerful signs on the back read "City Open." Danny took a deep breath and
re-assured herself it was telling the truth.
Turning back to the Companion she asked, "Where is everyone?"
"Welcome to City 99, The World's Safest City. Please proceed directly to the registrar…" the Companion continued to repeat its script, apparently unequipped to answer any other questions. Danny turned away and saw the cat already at the top of the stairs, staring at her.
"Well aren't you adventurous," Danny teased as she followed up into a large and brightly lit viewing room overlooking the entire circular city below. She sped to the window to get the full scope.
A scattering of foliage and trees grew up and over the roofs of the densely packed streets, as to be expected for an empty metropolis, but the buildings looked wrong. They were covered in chunky wiring, tacked on additions, and colorful neon signs. Toward the outer edge of the lower level, on the North and South wall where the sun couldn't reach, a form of orange mold seemed to coat and stretch across the buildings. Compared to the other abandoned ruins Danny had been to, it looked extremely lived in. If not a little like an unmonitored petri dish.
Her eyes wandered to the infamous Mid-Level, an elevated section designed for the more elite guests when such places were built. Danny squinted and pressed her forehead against the glass, trying to get a better view. A few blobs of darkness, resembling figures, walked the streets below.
"There's people down there!" she exclaimed.
The cat gave a pointed meow, pawing up at a panel on the far-left wall. Glass doors next to it, covered in red stripes, read "Control Room."
Danny pulled herself away from the window and approached, trying to figure out what the cat could possibly be so interested in as he continued to bat up toward the control. There didn't exactly seem to be any bugs.
Noticing he finally had her attention, he got back on all fours and brushed against her legs, tip of his tail twitching impatiently.
The panel in question appeared to be locked and required a passcode. A line of fine-print announced that the room was for authorized personnel only and was off-access for non-humans, excluding essential facilities.
"Sorry bud, it's locked," Danny reported.
The cat gave a long and very offended yowl.
Danny snorted at his sass, before shrugging and turning to the control box on the opposite end of the door. It wouldn't take but a few seconds to get past, and it's possible a Control Center could contain someone she could talk to. At the very least, a possible spare industrial hard-drive.
Putting her fingernails under the lip, she popped off the front and set it to the side. She pulled the appropriate connections and began her work, attaching them to Frankenstein to override the security measures.
As she pulled the cables, she noticed some scratches across the back. She ran her fingers over the deep gouges that ran in parallel, like claw marks. Danny's mouth thinned as she made a quick glance back at the suspect, who sat where she left him and stared.
Suddenly feeling a bit rushed, Danny finished her work and disconnected Frankenstein. The doors slid open, and the cat walked inside. That Tom couldn't have possibly gotten into the cable box without help, she mused.
Danny followed, past another set of doors, and into a work room lined with computers toward the back. "Tom" rushed toward what appeared to be a scanning station, vertical sensors at each corner of its top, and searched the carpet at its foot. He sniffed hard at the ground, before twisting and looking around the room, giving an inquisitive chirp.
Figuring she had every right to be suspicious, Danny squatted down and asked, "Are you looking for something?"
The cat mewed in response, making eye contact.
Danny looked around, and noticed the immaculate state of the room, down to the lack of dust on top of the workstations. Absolutely nothing looked conspicuous or out of place. If anything had been left on the floor, it likely would have been picked up by one of the Companions performing maintenance in the main hall.
A small collection of monitors flickered with blue code in the corner of the room, above what appeared to be a break area next to the main doorway. One of the monitors suddenly went blank, before displaying a simple white arrow pointing downward behind the serving bar.
"Uh, hello?" Danny called out.
The monitor only flickered, before returning to the white arrow.
Obediently, Danny walked across the room and behind the bar. Crouching down, she saw a small gray trash can with a crisply tied plastic bag lining. She pulled it out to paw through the contents and saw a single dark object at its bottom.
Gingerly, she took it out and brought it to the bar top. It appeared to be a small B-12 Companion drone, just a little over five inches wide. They were a very versatile AI from the age of lock-down, made for home and pet monitorization, and had a cutesy shape that made them extremely popular. That said, it was very hard to find any in working condition. Danny gently ran a thumb over its charred surface, its empty eyes staring up at her.
The cat leapt up to the bar and immediately began to headbutt the B-12 unit's face, pushing hard as he rubbed against it. It looked like he had somehow made a friend in the underground before the AI's demise.
Danny placed a hand on top of the cat's head and gave a gentle rub.
"Okay Tom, let me see how bad it is."
Danny pulled up a stool, sat down, and pulled off her pack to set on the bar. She pulled out a small plastic tackle box and opened it to remove a dainty screwdriver.
Unscrewing the back, she revealed the little drone's cramped interior, an acrid smell of smoke and burnt plastic wafting out. Tilting it toward the light, it was difficult to see past the soot and melted wire to recognize the individual components. Danny pulled out Frankenstein to see if she could at least access the drone's memory.
A few short connections later, she jiggled the dial to look for signs of life. Even with an external battery, no response was received.
Danny looked up at the cat, who had laid down beside her hands to watch. She petted his neck consolingly.
"I'm sorry, but it's gone. There's nothing left here to bring back."
Tom leaned forlornly into her hand as she continued to rub with the top of her fingers, head bowed. He uttered a pitiful mewl.
Crushed, Danny leaned both elbows on the table and massaged under his ears.
"I'm sorry," she crooned softly.
A monitor above gave a high-pitched wine and flickered. An archaic drawing in blocks, like an Atari sprite, depicted her Frankenstein on its display. The screen flickered again and showed an arrow pointing back into the room.
Turning to see its subject, Danny saw the monitors toward the back all sported these arrows, now pointing directly to the scanner Tom had originally looked under. Picking up the drone and Frankenstein, Danny walked to the workstation for further instruction. A holographic display flickered to life above the sensors and read "Awaiting Scan."
Not wanting to risk the decades worth of late human pop culture she'd accumulated over the years and her best hacking tool; Danny placed the dead drone on the scanning bed to test it. A large loading bar filled about an eighth of the way, before stopping to flash "Sync Unsuccessful."
The monitors above flickered and displayed the Frankenstein sprite, pointedly filling the room.
"Seriously?" She whined.
The monitors fluttered but remained undeterred.
Danny sighed, removed the drone, and exchanged it for Frankenstein.
The holographic bar began to fill again. As it continued to crawl, Danny wondered how much her rash decision was going to cost her. She did not want to barter and search for these parts over again to build a Frankenstein Mk 2 if this one was wiped or otherwise ruined. She'd had this one for nearly a decade now and was not ready to repeat the long and tedious process of assembling the thing and gathering the media she desired. Assuming she could even find said media again.
The holographic display turned green and read "Sync Complete" before disappearing. The screens lining the room buzzed with static and went black. With the lack of electric charge in the room from the cathode ray tubes, it was eerily silent.
Tom jumped on the chair and batted at Frankenstein. Danny picked up the device to view what had been added, or removed, from storage.
It appeared unchanged, excluding a new registration for a frequency labeled simply "City 99 Network – Username Issac L."
"Was there something else I was supposed to do?" she asked the room.
There was no response.
Sighing, Danny wandered back to her pack and placed the charred B-12 drone inside, wrapping it in a spare shirt. She placed the bag on her back and exited the Control Room, Tom following closely behind.
There had to be a way to access the rest of the city; possibly meet the people that lived there. Without having to depend on a mysterious stranger apparently lurking on the security feed. Danny wandered back toward the red double doors and noticed an opened bay gate leading further down.
Hopeful, she followed the tunnel past several more mindless Companions and to a boarding station for the subway. A train waited there patiently, already pulled up to the loading area.
Looking up at the glitching track path, it appeared only two stops were cleared. One for "Control Center" the other for "Midtown." All other stops were highlighted in red and labeled "Unavailable." Well, that narrowed their options a bit.
Figuring there wasn't much to it, Danny boarded and checked the conductor's station. It was completely unmanned, but the keys had been left inside. Danny activated the train with the press of a button.
The subway doors closed, and the gate ahead slid open to the semi-darkness beyond. The same orange mold Danny noticed on the city's outer rim clung in thin spots to the tunnel walls and glowed with an ominous bioluminesce. After briefly debating creating a makeshift mask to block out whatever fungus was festering outside, Danny picked a seat as the train ground into motion. Tom leapt and curled up next to her as they barreled toward Midtown.
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