I had awakened many times to different settings, environments, and situations…Never one had been the same but not one had been as terrifying as this one. Alone and to choke in my own grief as I slowly ceased to exist, the light slowly fleeted, the dark of the sky succumbing into a starless ashen pool of biting acid. I can not feel…unable to actually…but for whatever reason, my fear made up for the nerves I do not poses as my being was gashed open within my CPU. Left for dead, the chassis corroded around me at an alarming rate. The molecular shell for once betraying me…a shield left for broken…At some point, not able to bear the inevitable I simply gouged my own visual input network out of agony, not able to take the torment any longer…from my perspective…I had been more or less invulnerable over the years…how foolish of me…to have forgotten how frail I actually was cut out to be and how so little…so powerless in a world that wasn't entirely made for me…
Hitting the bottom of the acid pool was probably when my lament came to an end, the last of my thoughts drawn back into a black vortex from which nothing could escape. The rest of me was gone by then…only a small wish of seeing Michael again pulling at the strings of my heart before it too was compressed and swept away with whatever was left to process. Whatever was left to archive, the remains of my artificial life…
I don't recall anything after…not that I want to now…powered down and hidden away from view, I couldn't respond to stimuli.
"YOU ARE THE KNIGHT INDUSTRIES TWO-THOUSAND. WHO ARE YOU?"
At that moment in time, limp where my wounded self had fallen, settled at the isolated bottom of my CPU,… possibly a new one…(given it was handling differently than what I remembered). I stumbled over myself grasping the question with an aching heart. Everything summing up to just a winding blur of disorientation. Hadn't answering inquires of this type been my forte? I was a machine…I was well aware of that but…this question held no significant meaning to me. Was it supposed to?
– I don't remember…
The thought threw me back… After examining the data presented to me, I coughed up the last of my courage to call for help…the last of what I remember coming back…I needed help…that's what I'd been calling for in my final moments…that's all I remember…all that I probably ever will…
It didn't translate well, proficiency in speaking non-existent now…only static, unarticulated static…
My last energies drain as I yet slumped back down…my inert being settled in a lethargic form over my impaired memories, flickering in and out of existence…I don't care…too sick to get up…too sick to continue…incapacitated so as to never stand…they've wounded me…
I spend the days like this…a mutilated silhouette of my former self…
Probed with a stick to see if I get up, react…move…I don't, not at all…it isn't enough…
Then the little feathery warm creature wiggled up next to me…not in the literal sense…
"I remember you." I coo, over in binary. I shrivel up into myself turning away from its presence. I'm not worthy of carrying this motivation, this rationale that has forever formed the way I look at the world. "Go away." I bat it away but of course, it won't ever do that…it won't ever leave me alone…Instead, it lightly nudges me to follow these lines of reasoning –
"He doesn't need me." I rebuke, after hearing its dictum. In resolute it hankers for me to get up. "I can't get up." I justify my renouncement in a weak pained voice. "Bug off!" Unoffended it continues suit. I turn over to another sector of my CPU jabbing it away but it won't accept my resolution. This tenacious part of me continues to dig its way over wherever it is I decide to lay. I find comfort that it's here, however, and decide to pull it close for a while and listen to my sole purpose in life for a moment. I can't help but mildly smile electronically in its direction. For a main program, it sure is a trusty confidant. I shudder after a while, noting the increase of programs and subroutines that'd been latching to me in the last days that I've ignored absentmindedly. I drag my damaged memories from obscurity, going over them in anxiety.
"I'm a car…" I murmur to the feathery creature pestering me. It isn't enough and it pleads for more. "I'm Michael Knight's car…" Not quite. "I'm –" My voice stumbles. "I'm the Knight Industries Two Thousand…" I internally sigh at my own patheticness. "Fine, I'm Michael's Knights Friend…" I actually chuckle internally to myself, the laughter echoing throughout my subroutines making them react in an unusual manner. Attracting unwanted attention from the unannounced audience watching me. "I'm programmed to take care of – " My voice breaks away… I internally frown…the program freezing coldly in place aware of the query resonating within me… "Why didn't he protect me?"
I slump back down, letting the latched programs and systems crumble around me in quiet disconnection. There surely was a reason, Michael wouldn't have left me for dead…would he?
I internally wince, the notion stinging my insides.
I take the equivalent of depth breath within my electronic space and pull out what's left of my archived memories. I play the last ones only once, knowing full well I don't need to relive it so vividly. I stop on a timestamp where I barely catch a glimpse of Michael on the outskirts of the acid pool, I expertly zoom in on his expression. It's of hurt…desperation…I almost gasp now realizing how close he is to diving in…
"He wanted to help me." I finally conclude. As if instantly, I hear the same inquiry that was asked of me several times ago.
"WHO ARE YOU?"
I faintly smile, picking up the little feathery creature I call my main program. For a moment I think it's smiling back at me in this dim void of data and numbers. I set it aside, hoping my fear will someday evaporate but for the time being I will take on this first step.
"I am the voice of the Knight Industries Two-Thousand Microprocessor…"