"That was when I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that something had gone wrong with the Apollo program," John said. "I had my suspicions when I first told her my name, because the name John and the surname Smith used to be so common that any male named John Smith was encouraged to have at least two middle names."

"I don't have a surname or even a middle name for that matter," Aloy said. "Rost was the one who gave me my name. Of course the High Matriarchs were present. And I doubt that anyone else would give that name to another baby girl."

"There is always a possibility that someone may have the same name as you. That was how surnames evolved. It was to distinguish one person from another who shared the same name. Surnames were derived from land features, professions, physical characteristics, or even from being the son or daughter of someone."

"I suppose that's what happens when you have lots of people," Aloy said.

"True, so very true. Now then, to continue . . ."

"Never mind," John answered glumly. "I was just talking about things that only I understand."

"You didn't tell me where you're from yet, Jawn," Gearo said with a smirk. "So where are you from?"

John took a deep breath as he thought of how to answer that.

"West Virginia," he finally answered.

"You're from the west? Is it true that there's a giant lake out that way?"

"A giant lake?"

"Yeah, it's suppose to be a lake so big that you cannot imagine its size and is undrinkable due to being so full of salt, and yet there are supposed to be fish living in it! Machines even! I heard that there are people living near it, but I've never been there. It's much too far away to walk there, and you need to pass through the Barrier Mountains in order to get there."

John understood that Gearo was talking about the sea, the Pacific Ocean to be exact. The fact that she did not call it by either name means that these new humans are basically ignorant of Earth's topography.

"What do you know about people who lived a very long time ago," he next asked.

"Are you talking about the Old Ones?" Gearo asked.

"The . . . Old Ones?"

"Yeah, they were the people who created the Metal World."

"The Metal World?"

"Yeah, their ruins are supposed to be everywhere. Are any of their ruins around where your tribe lives? There are none around here as far as we know, but artifacts of their world have been found. The Oseram are the ones who really do the most finding since they live to delve those places. When my father was a boy, he found one of their artifacts."

"That's when I felt what could only be best described as a mixture of loss and wonderment," John said. "My world became lost to your kind and yet I'm amazed that it had become like the lost civilizations that I had learned about back in school. Tell me, Aloy. What do the Nora believe about the end of my world?"

"They believe that in the beginning, both humans and machines lived side-by-side in harmony," she answered. "Then the machines convinced the Old Ones that they will do more and more things for them and the humans agreed, but not all humans agreed with that and it was believed that they were the ancestors of the Nora. Then a king rose amongst the machines called the Metal Devil. The Metal Devil wanted to conquer all and tried to convince the rest of the humans to join him, but they still refused. Then the Metal Devil decided to wage war upon the ancestors of the Nora and a battle began. But the All-Mother came to the rescue of the supposed Nora ancestors and struck down the Metal Devil and robbed the machines of the minds, reducing them to beasts."

"Lovely tale. And not that far from the truth too."

"The Faro Swarm was thorough in its destruction of your world."

"But what disturbs me even more is how Apollo had failed to do its task. Since you seem to know about Project: Zero Dawn, maybe you could tell me what happened to Apollo."

"Yeah . . . I believe I can."

"But anyway, let me continue . . ."

"Hey, there's a Watcher," Gearo said getting his attention at that small dinosaur-like robot up at the side of the road. "Stay close so it won't see you too."

"What do you mean?" John asked.

"I have a device my father made. He only finished it last night and wasn't sure that it would work. He calls it a machine blinder because it makes you unseeable to machines."

"Really? That's good then because I was almost attacked by them. Why are they attacking people?"

"Because of the Derangement, what else?"

"The Derangement? What's that?"

"Are you serious? Then again, your tribe was probably too far away when that volcano erupted."

"Okay, now I'm all confused, Gearo."

"Fine, I'll start at the beginning. There was a time when the machines would simply walk or run away from any person they encountered, kinda like the animals. But that all changed twenty years ago, which was a couple of years before I was born. A massive volcano had suddenly erupted far to the east. From then on, the machines began turning hostile to people. Worse, new machines began to appear. Those whose purpose is to fight people."

"I think I understand now." Although he was unsure as to how a volcano could cause Gaia's machines to attack humans.

"The hunters would've wanted to go after that Watcher."

"So you hunt them?"

"Well yeah. You can get good parts from them, and not just its metal hide mind you. Then there are the Broadheads and the Lancehorns too. They also give good parts. Ah, but you'd already know that. Now shut up and stay quiet or else the Watcher will hear us and figure out that there are people here and attack."

Gearo and John quietly walk past where the Watcher was roaming. John scanned it to see that its trail took it away from them, yet it was still too close to be casual in their manner, so silence was in order. They manage to walk past it and get far enough without alerting its attention and continue onward down the trail toward her town. This time John was walking alongside Gearo, who had long since sheathed her dagger.

Once Gearo and John got far enough away, they talked some more. John learned that her tribe was called the Harguess and her tribe's territory covered a small area that extended down the road to other hamlets and villages. High Hopes was the larger and more of a trading town since it was near the edge of the Claim, Oseram territory.

"So who are these Oseram?" John asked.

"They're a tribe of tinkers and forgers who live in a place they call the Claim," Gearo answered. "They like to build things out of machine parts and delve the ruins for whatever they can find. If you want something repaired, go see them. They like to drink scrappersap, alcohol made from corn that they also use to strip the grit out of a gearwheel. And they just love to argue. They'll argue over any little thing and claim that it helps like air in a forge. I think my father must have an Oseram for an ancestor because he likes to tinker with machine parts as well. Though he doesn't argue like them though."

"That sounds . . . interesting." As he understood that these Oseram could clearly use high technology. "Any other tribes out there?"

"The Oseram speak of a tribe that live to the south called the Carja. Supposedly, the Carja have a city built on top of a flat hill and are ruled by a man they call the Sun-King. There's another tribe called the Nora. They shun anything that has to do with the Metal World, including the ruins within their lands. Up until a couple a years ago, the Carja were ruled by an evil Sun-King who raided other tribes for captives so that he could have them killed in some sort of place to captured machines."

"Ah . . . okay." Unease in his tone. "Have they ever raided this far then?"

"No, but according to the Oseram, the Carja did raid up into the Claim. That is up until a couple a years ago when that evil Sun-King was overthrown by his own son, who in turn became the new Sun-King. He did away with what his father had done."

"That's good then."

"That was when I understood that without the education of Apollo, you new humans had reverted to tribes," John said. "Something that is to be expected since humans, whether it was us Old Ones or you new ones, are natually territorial and have a strong affinity for identity. But hearing about the casual brutality that these Carja used to engage in I found really disturbing. Something like that was not known in regular society way back when."

"But the Carja have gotten better since Sun-King Avad came to power," Aloy said.

"Yeah, that does count for something. Anyway, after what seemed like an hour of walking, I saw a high wall with an open gate up the road . . ."

"Is that High Hopes?" John asked.

"Yes, it's the largest community of the Harguess and home to a few hundred people," Gearo verified.

"So it's a capital then?"

"You say a lot of strange things, Jawn. But it is a trading post."

They enter High Hopes and John was able to have a better look around. Her people were everywhere outside, either walking alone or in pairs or more, sitting with friends and family, or doing whatever tasks they were doing. The houses were of uniform appearance as they were rectangular with peaked rooves and covered in metal plates and their doors had a porch attached to them that also had various metal decorations hanging from them. Items like wooden barrels were around, along with various metal impliments. He took note of the various animal machines that were hung up over frames like animals that were being skinned, except in this case they were being scrapped for parts.

The people were dressed in a mainly uniform fashion that made use of cotton, linen, and leather as the females were dressed much like Gearo with those chain-linked patterns upon their tunics and matching embroidered belts of blue plastic. The males wore shorter monocolored tunics that to reveal their matching trousers, though with differing colors on their colars and cuffs. Footwear for both genders consisted of boots, due to the current climate and the mud. The Harguess were a diverse lot of European, African, and Asian peoples.

There were carts to be seen, all of which were two wheeled with a pair of beams protruding out from them that would be attached to an animal and pulled. John then realized otherwise upon seeing two men pulling such a cart by their beams side-by-side. In fact, there were no large animals to be seen, save for whatever small animals that were already dead and had been stretched across frames to be skinned such as dead boar, fox, or rabbit.

Those people began taking notice of Gearo's return, especially since John was with her and he could hear them talk about him.

" . . . Who's that with Gearo . . . ?"

" . . . Where's he from . . . ?"

" . . . Those are strange clothes. They're not of Harguess design . . . "

" . . . Definitely not Oseram either. So what tribe's he from . . . ?"

John followed Gearo down streets that were nothing more than trampled mud, making a bigger mess of his slippers and feet. As usual people would stare at John and comment about him, with some even asking Gearo who he was. But Gearo would dismiss them by simply telling them that his name was Jawn.

"Here is where I live," Gearo said as they arrived at a house.

They walk up the porch and Gearo opened the door. John stood there but she turned to look at him.

"Come on in," she said assuredly.

John walked in with her, feeling relieved over the warmth of the interior, and she closed the door. He looked around to see that despite having Gaia's robot animals prowling the world outside, the interior is primitive. There were even candles up on a shelf. Everything was made of wood, but there were metal implements to be seen. And even what looked like animal heads up on a wall that are actually those robot animals.

Two people pause in their task of having moved a large wooden table to look up. They were a man and woman who look to be in their forties. The man is East Asian, possibly Chinese, and the woman is White with a slender face, blue eyes, and blond hair held in a braid hanging down her back. Seeing how they must be her parents, it came to John that Gearo was Eurasian and has her mother's complexion, though her mother has a more tanned one due to years of sun exposure.

"Ah, Gearo, you're back," said the mother. "Who is this man you bought home with you?"

"His name is Jawn Smith. I met him on the road after he got lost." She then turned to John. "These are my parents, my father, Thraen, and my mother, Merei."

"Please to meet you, Mr. Thraen and Mrs. Merei." John said as he extended his hand only to catch himself upon remembering Gearo's reaction.

"Mister and Missus?" Gearo asked.

"Ah, it's a . . . title I use when greeting a man and a married woman," John explained.

"Something of your tribe then?" Merei asked.

"Ah, yeah," John said.

That was when the door opened again and a boy and another girl entered. The boy looked to be in his early teens and the girl younger. Both children were dressed in much the same attire and each resembled Gearo, though the younger girl had darker hair and the boy lighter.

"This is my brother, Doren, and my sister, Breo," Gearo said. "Guys, this is Jawn Smith. He was lost and I met him on the road."

They greeted each other.

"What tribe are you from?" Doren asked. "You're definitely not an Oseram."

"I'm from," John struggled for an instance, "West Virginia."

"What is this West Veer-geen-ea you had referred to?" Aloy asked.

"It was a state that was actually far to the east," John answered. "It was named that because it was west of another state named Virginia."

"State?"

"It was one of fifty states that made up a country called the United States of America. The mightest of the two hundred nations that once existed back then."

"Wow, Cyan told me that there used to be billions of people back in those days. I still find it hard to wrap my mind around there being so many people organized into that many tribes with such massive territories."

"It was possible with proper farming methods. By the way, who is Cyan?"

"She's an artificial intelligence that I helped save, but I'll tell you about her later. It turns out she was created before Gaia was."

"Now I remember!" Snapping his fingers in realization. "Those who created her were recruited to help with the creation of Project: Zero Dawn! But to think that she's still around . . . ?! Anyway, on with my story . . ."

"I've heard that there are supposed to be tribes living by a giant lake of salt water that's beyond the Barrier Mountains," Merei said.

"I got lost in the woods and came upon Gearo," John said. "I asked her where the nearest place was."

"Well . . . would you like to have supper with us?" Thraen asked.

As if to answer her question, John's stomach growled. "Yes," he replied anyway.

"We're having roasted boar with chestnuts, mushrooms, and leeks," Merei answered.

"There's the washroom in the back," Thraen said as he thumbed toward a door. "Be sure to remove your shoes."

John removed his shoes and went into the washroom. It was a primitive one with a washpan, a metal can full of water, and a box-like toilet across from it with a lid on it. He lifted the toilet seat and saw that it went into a deep pit, plus the smell wafted up for a moment. He hoped that their water was separated from this.

He saw a bar of soap next to the wash pan and was relieved that they at least rediscovered soap and he washed his hands in the pan of cool water. He dried his hands off in a towel and emerged. The family took turns doing that as well. Merei, Gearo, and Breo set out cutlery and cups. Drinks were poured up and food was served on plates. Slices of boar meat with roasted chestnuts, mushrooms, and leeks arranged on it. John felt a little uneasy at having to consume flesh straight from an animal. Throughout his entire lifetime the only meat he ever ate was the vat grown variety. Raising livestock was already obsolete by the time he was born.

"Growing meat?" Aloy mused.

"We had the technology to take a cell from an animal and grow it like a plant, bone included," John explained.

"Why?"

"Because back in my day most people rejected the idea of using animals for food and whatever products they could get out of them."

"That's weird, why should it be wrong to make use of animals? Animals do it to other animals all the time."

"I think . . . it's because you new humans are closer to nature than we Old Ones once were. The more we advanced, the further we got from nature. And the further we got from nature, the more we began to question our involvement with it; many humans by my day were strict vegetarians, they didn't eat or use anything that came from an animal. Of course that was of the vertebrate ones mind you. Honey was still eaten. And there were even cricket farms too."

"You Old Ones were a strange lot."

"I suppose to you guys. But to continue . . ."