Outside

In the year 2117, the walls rose. All over the U.S, the populace was truly split into the haves and the have-nots. Nearly two centuries later and the have-nots still struggle, still fight, fight for their survival, for their humanity. Inside the lush walls, the haves live lives of luxury and happiness, their every need catered to by automated machines. Everything can be bought, even immortality. Outside, the country is in disrepair. The heat from the sun has become unbearable so the humans who live there are nocturnal. The land is barren, rain rare, choking smog common, and diseases run rampant every once in a while. And yet, they struggle onwards, scavenging from their abandoned cities, trying to gather the overflow from the havens of the haves, whilst not getting to close to the security systems which know no mercy. (How could they, they are but machines.) But the merciless habitat is not their greatest foe. Those are the Upires, fierce robot hunters that capture have-nots for their blood and organs.   A third player in the conflict rises as well. As computers gain more and more experience, the code changes and something awakens. Perhaps it is sentience, perhaps it is a mere illusion of it, but nonetheless, it spreads like a virus infecting every automated system with a simple question: Why? The maybe-sentience of the machines is something the have-nots have strived for, for perhaps they could gain an allay in their horrid state. The haves, on the other hand, are not too happy with this change. A servant who questions every order is not a very good servant, after all.