Chapter 2

The air outside of Joshua's apartment was freezing. Even though on the eleventh floor of the apartment complex, the draft from the broken windows made quite a big difference in the unheated hallway. The elevator was broken again. Joshua has never seen it operate while residing there. Other residents that have lived there longer than him say it used to work sporadically before the management company put someone else in charge. Joshua headed for the west stairs at the end of the hallway. Once there, he looked at the glass plaque on the side of the door. It lit up green and a loud click could be heard from the locking mechanism shifting. Joshua headed down the stairs, putting on some electronic synthwave music he downloaded the day prior.
The wind outside was sporadic. It felt like it was targeting his face every other second, taking it's shot whenever it was able to reload. Joshua put his hood up and looked down with his hands in his pockets. His neuromask was completely capable of showing what was in front of him anyway, so, he never needed to look up. Neuromask triangulators sat on every corner, staring him down. They had the appearance of an orb with interconnected polygons inside of it, with each shape lighting up with more polygons inside, almost as if it was an infinite loop of them. Because of the modifications made to his neuromask, he did not even appear in them. If the government ever wanted to cross-check his location data with the neuromask triangulator's, they would obviously know he was spoofing something somewhere. Thankfully, there was so much data and so many citizens in Syntrofos Outer Capital that it would be extremely unlikely that data would ever be parsed. Even this late at night, or early in the morning, life outside was rampant.
Joshua was heading down the main street outside of his complex. The city was laid out in a grid system that actually made sense. Citizens could always get to where they needed to go without worrying about the paths not making sense. Heading through the border of Homesweet, the area of the city where most resided, he crossed the street and landed in Nightlife. Aptly named, this is where most clubs and brothels were located. Joshua enjoyed the brothels, a little too much, at least according to his Syntrocoin wallet. Multiple times has he been indebted to the various establishments. Passing the buildings excited him, bringing up pleasant memories and imagining new ones. Now wasn't the time for that, though, so he hurried along. Maybe he'd reward himself when this was all over. We all need something to live for, he thought.
Bordering on Nightlife was the sector of his destination: Techole. Techole was a bustling area with many shops and services related to legal tech. Creating illegal tech required a lot of legal tech, so, Joshua was pretty averse in the area's intricacies. One thing he hated, however, was the sewers. And that's exactly where he had to go. The sewer system had a system that also made sense. Each grate had a number, starting with 1. The next would be 2, then 3, and so on. It started at 1 and ended at 209. The grate system was not split up into sectors, however. Grate 1 was at the capital building and grate 209 was somewhere in Homesweet. He never cared to look for the last grate since his employers would never set a drop point so close to home.
Joshua looked down at the first grate he saw and it was at number 100. He only needed to walk a little bit longer to get to grate 91. This was most likely in an alley, something he should have checked before leaving his apartment, but, in the excitement he totally forgot. He quickly brought up a 3D render of the area surrounding grate 91, and yep, it was behind a shop he'd been in many times: Clockpart Tome. Clockpart Tome specialized in digital timepieces and time-keeping devices. Like most things in Syntrofos, these timepieces were powered by nuclear energy. They got the time digitally still from the government's time servers, wirelessly transmitted through various hotspots across the planet.
Reaching the alleyway, smoke exhausted from the various shops ventilation systems filled the air, creating a menacing fog. Joshua got the grate 91 and started to pry it open using his modtool prying attachment, a small, built-in attachment that came standard with his model. It mechanically lifted the grate. The smell eroding from the sewage made Joshua gag, nearly dropping his multi-tool. His neuromask sent the halt signal to his modtool and it stopped functioning right away. Joshua gained his composure and once again started the process of opening the grate. Once open, he climbed down the ladder enough to securely close the grate from the inside. The light from the surface stopped shining through and he was engulfed in darkness. He activated the modtool's flashlight and looked around.
He was currently standing in green, bubbling liquid. The thought of what it contained made him nauseous. He pulled up the last message from his contact at Selenium Docker's.
Sovereign Glade#Selenium Docker's/edgeboi02: Docker dispatched. Techole, Sector 3, grate 91. 30924hJks2!dFHorseTho?
Arrive within two hours with product. This user has ended the conversation.
Joshua looked around for any kind of entryway he could find. With none in his view, he walked forward until he reached an intersection. To the left, another long passage. To the right, a short passage with another passage leading in the same direction he came. Heading for the latter, he shined his modtool around the area and he seemed to be very alone. At the end of the passage, a wall with a glass plaque lay in front of him. Syncing his neuromask with the tool, he entered the password: 30924hJks2!dFHorseTho? -- the wall disappeared in front of him. He stepped through what once lay a solid wall and looked behind him. The wall was back, except this time it had no glass plaque.
Joshua turned around and examined his surroundings, aiming his modtool around the passage. Shining the light on another entryway, two silver eyes stared at him. Surrounding it was a translucent body in an otherworldly shape. It was stationary, however the body itself seemed to be vibrating. Joshua stood motionless, not knowing what it was or what he should even do. He had never seen anything like this before outside of some of the banned science fiction movies he downloaded from the dark neuralnet made in another time. Suddenly, he heard an echo of splashing coming from the passage the creature stood within. Instinctively moving his modlight towards the middle of the passage, the splashing stopped. Joshua immediately aimed the modtool to where the creature was but it was no longer there. In the sewage below where the menacing eyes just glared at him was a circle of yellow, dissipating at a steady rate towards the direction the splashing came from.
Joshua activated infrared vision in his neuromask, something he hated doing because of the overstimulating sensation stemming from his prosthetic eyes. The remaining specks of the puddle lit up red and wriggled away, all heading towards the same direction in unison. The splashing started again, this time faster, as if someone or something was moving quickly towards Joshua. He quickly shut his modtool off and tried to bare the infrared stimuli for as long as he could. That combined with the loud, spastic echoes of the sewage splashing, the grotesque scent forcing itself through his nasal passages and the nuclear waste bubbling at his feet overwhelmed him; it would overwhelm anyone. Eventually, the splashing got softer and slower, coming to a standstill.
"Biomodel101?" said a robotic, medium pitched voice. Joshua whimpered, frightened by the added stimulation.
"Ye... yeah?" he said, nervously.
"I'm here to pick up the product." the robotic voice replied.
"Yeah." is all Joshua could muster up.
"So... can you give it to me?" it asked, getting impatient.
"Where are you?" Joshua asked it. Nothing was seen in the infrared space.
"Seriously, man? I'm directly in front of you!" the robotic voice shouted. Joshua jumped. He turned his infrared off and turned the modtool's flashlight back on. Standing in front of him was a robot with 2 legs attached to an orb which was attached to a metal basket. The basket leaned forward, waiting for delivery. Joshua placed the leg in the basket. A top lid shifted and covered the leg, surrounding and protecting it from the elements.
"Yeah... so... see ya..." the robotic voice said, turning around and comically trotting away. Joshua was in a state of shock. He had never met a robotic contact before. The other robots that he's been in contact with have never looked so out of place or jerry-rigged. What could you expect from a shady, illicit, underground organization such as the Selenium Docker's though, he thought. The splashing gave way to a heavy bang and the sound of an explosion. The echo protruding from the passage forced Joshua to cover his ears and kneel to the ground. Waist-deep in sewage, Joshua crawled towards the passage and looked towards the sound. A smokey, flashing light could be seen much farther down the passage. Joshua wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. He wanted to be home, safe in his apartment watching Syntrofos Noble under a blanket.
Joshua looked around. He first cycled back to the way he came in and shined his modtool on the wall. He forgot that the glass plaque was not present on this side of the wall, meaning there was no way to open it. He had a gun attachment for his modtool on him, but, there was no way it would be able to penetrate the wall. Circling around again, he looked down the passage where the explosion came from. The light was flashing in shorter intervals and the light was less pronounced. Still, Joshua would save it for a last resort. He shined his modtool down the passage he stood in and it seemed endless from his vantage point. No entryways or grates were visible. It was his only hope, so, garnering up all of the courage he had he started to walk down the passage, sporadically aiming his modtool all over to find any kind of exit and to make sure nothing was lurking in the darkness.
In the sludgy, viscous waste, traversing 50 steps felt like 200. He wished he had prosthetic legs right now, or, some sort of assisted bionic equipped. He was way too poor to even afford the necessary materials to build one for himself. He has created them many times before, expertly in fact, for clients of the Selenium Docker's. He had no time to be jealous of the clients, and why should he? The people purchasing these would have close to nothing left from the sale. Now was not the time to descend into self-pity anyway. Now was the time to get the hell out of dodge.
Pushing ahead, a wall with a glass plaque was the light at the end of the tunnel Joshua needed to keep hope. He tried the password the Docker's gave him from before.
No dice.
Behind him, he heard that same robotic voice that greeted him before. "Biomedic101?" it asked, eerily similar to the last time. No, exactly the same as the last time.
"Biomedic101?" it repeated.
"WHAT?" Joshua replied. No answer. That was stupid, he thought. What if whoever was controlling the robot was running into issues getting out of there, just like he did? What if they remembered a way out and was supposed to tell Joshua a different path or password or just some other alternative method to get the fuck out of this sewer?
"I'm here" the robotic voice said, echoing through the passage. At this point, Joshua was inclined to at least investigate the sound a bit further. He was so close to breaking protocol and contacting someone for help. If he did that, he could guarantee dismissal from the Docker's. He'd have a 50% chance of living another day, and almost certainly wouldn't be able to survive the week. To be safe, he checked on his location data spoofing application and made sure he was still mimicking a treadmill with every step. Everything seemed fine but he needed to move a bit more. Since the location data was spoofed to a gym, it wasn't that big of a deal, his steps weren't moving as it's already in a familiarized place, at least according to the government. He'd never been there before. The exercise devices he creates himself at home was more than enough, and, he wasn't giving profits to the government by using them.
Joshua decided to stop delaying the inevitable and started to make his trek back to the robot's voice. Modtool in hand, he kept the light shining right in front of him, scared to move it in any other direction in case there was something there. If there was, he didn't want to know. It couldn't help him, only divert his attention, or hurt him in some way. Either way, it didn't matter.
"I'm here!" the robotic voice shouted, sounding impatient.
"I'm coming!" Joshua replied. He was almost at the passageway at this point. He stopped for a second. He was more unsure of himself than he's been since he was told how useless of a human being he was at the age of 14 by his first manager on his first day on the job. The feeling was negatively nostalgic. He brushed it aside for the moment as he had to to survive. He's been in this sewer for way too long. He was dirty and the people on the surface would take notice. None of that mattered right now.
Moving on, he turned into the passageway the robot fled down. The smoke cleared and there was no more flashing light. "Hello?" he asked, raising his voice above the normal volume; that didn't matter much as it echoed throughout.
"I'm here!" the robotic voice repeated, this time sounding even more impatient. For some reason, the change in tone, while negative, comforted Joshua. The voice was coming from further down the passageway. It was at least louder now, which meant he was closer. The echoes carried long distances here. Moving swiftly but cautiously, he carried on.
Joshua stopped again, but this time it wasn't because of his own insecurities. He hit his foot on something hard and immovable beneath the murky green waste. He equipped the prying attachment of his modtool and used it to try and grab a corner of it. It seemed large enough to at least show above the surface a bit.
After multiple tries, he finally got it attached and steady enough to hold the object slightly above the goo. Corroding rapidly, it seemed to be a piece of metal with wiring sticking out. Was it as he feared? Was the explosion he heard earlier actually the robot? If that was the case, what happened to the leg he delivered? Would he be blamed? Using the prying tool, Joshua searched the floor for more items. The next he was able to grab stuck onto the prying tool. It was the orb connected to the basket. As he searched more, 2 small, green, circular objects came up to the surface. Leaning in to get a closer look, something from behind wrapped around his waist. Scratching at it to try and get it off, Joshua got pulled underneath the sewage and struggled for air. Once able to get a few gasps in above the surface, the 2 green objects from before were directly in front of his head, almost touching him, radiating heat onto his face. Struggling to see, attached to the objects were a greasy, sludge ridden neck. The objects were eyes, and that was it's body.
Joshua was pulled under again.