“Dreaming about a dog talks about friendship, like helping a friend, a friend helping you or having a good friendship with someone.”

— Interesting… Those shadow things you saw were able to hide, then no human could ever notice them and, even when they do, they don’t recognize them as a treat that is all around them… I supposed… — said Doctor M.

— Precisely — π12-45 said. — They not only can hide, but they can control humans as well. It was said this is called fascination, as it’s not actual mind control, but the power of suggestion. They keep themselves close to humans, they whisper things in their ears and humans simply can’t hear them properly, and when they do, they think they are just voices in their heads.

— So everyone could be a victim from the shadows, am I right?

— Yes. It seems they feed on bad feelings; they want you to feel bad about yourself and with that, they can control your life and grow as some spiritual cancer — π12-45 sighted.

— Have you sighted?

— Yes, I did.

— This means you are avoiding telling something from me…

— You are right.

— So… What are you waiting for?

— There are moments in humans’ lives they don’t want to talk about it… This is just another one…

__________

I really felt bad about Julius' death. He was about to be my first friend and then he was lured into death. Despite that, I just lived my life. It seems way easier for us machines to do that… We are supposed to protect, but when what we protect it’s gone, we lose the meaning of our very existence. If we don’t give up on it, we are fated to corrupt our systems and malfunction. Yet, I kept Julius' shoes to remember that I needed to do something about it. I tried to find anything and; when David’s dad allowed me to use his personal computer, instead of his smartphone; I really got into it.

While I was doing my research, I tried to catch any evidence in a video using the smartphone. Weeks passed and I only got one small evidence, a video about a shadow forming while I was recording the yard of David’s dad house. It was the clearest I could get and after I upload it on the internet, asking for some help, I failed miserably. All heard was “Good effects!” or “Hoax!”

I just let myself be after failing with the video and I preferred to focus on my real work and let David’s problems aside. I even got a portable recharge to stay for some more days here and, eventually, I was back there again, from the exact moment I was able to sleep. Living like a human has its benefits to my mental process and I was able to evaluate things in a better way than I was doing before. I got a promotion from thinking out of the box and for finding a simple and better solution for the construction office. We were having ergonomic problems with one of our sectors and thinking about the robots working there made me rethink the way we treat them and they were happier with the results. Simple and clean.

With the promotion, I was able to work with what I wanted, chemical engineering. As you may know, we have a lack of knowledge about atoms structures and how they should be used in civil engineering. There are thousands of combinations where at least one should suffice our productivity and help us make better sunburn proof buildings.

My research was just beginning and I needed to go back as usual, but this time I tried to work on my research as the human David as well.

I was there, almost a year living like the human David, I was just back home from school and I went to David’s dad's bedroom to study on cement chemicals. I admit that having so many things in mind made me a little lazy as a human being, and I eventually left things on the table, on the floor, depending on where and what I was studying. I left school stuff over the kitchen table and shadow things and work stuff in the living room. At the bedroom, I researched about the cement composition and how simple elements as calcium carbonate, silica, aluminum, and iron ore produce the molecules of cement in contact with water or, as you may know, since there’s no water in huge quantities, just to let an air chemical process make it harder.

I was so entertained with cement history that I didn’t saw David’s dad arriving at home and I forgot to pick up the papers I left around the living room. He picked one up and came to see me.

— What is this? — He asked.

— Oh! Sorry… — I said and stood up to pick up the papers. — Was it already time for you to come home?

— David… What is this? — He said emphatically.

— I’m picking them up! I’m picking them up! Why can’t you wait for a little? — I didn’t realize he was really interested in me after all that time.

— Pi’twelve…

— Wait… — I was picking the paper from the floor, then I stood up. — What? Did you remember my name?

— Can you, please, tell me what this is? — He said, showing me a sheet of paper where I wrote some mathematical accounts.

— Oh… Sorry for not answer it right away but… You know, you don’t believe in me, but… Those are part of my work. I work as a civil engineer when I am a robot. — He didn’t say anything to me, and then I tried to retrieve the paper. — Can you give it back? I need to focus on making those things for a chemical process if you don’t mind.

— Pi’twelve… — he said looking at me for a moment, thinking about something. — You are an engineer…

— Yes. I am. What’s the problem now? I thought you would forget about everything I would say to you, because I’m ‘mentally ill’, as you like to say.

— Where did you learn about these equations?

— If I just say the truth will you finally give it back to me? I learned it while I was at the technical development section of the fabric I was built. It just came with everything I need to fulfill my work. I am a robot, a worker, I need to know these things to work and process them, to shape them for whatever I need to make at the office. Is it enough for you? — I extended my hand to pick up my sheet and he still didn’t want to give it back to me.

— These things… I have learned when I was at university…

— Oh… Did you just study for it too? — I didn’t realize his interests.

— I’m a former civil engineer.

— Really? I didn’t know you were an engineer. We work in the same area! That’s good! Can you help me with those them?

— Didn’t you know I was an engineer? You must be kidding me… You are ducking kidding me…

— Hun… No. I swear! I know nothing about you. You never wanted to talk about yourself. I don’t even know your name!

— My name… Why you didn’t remember my name, David? It’s almost a year! You should have remembered…

— I already told you! I’m not David! I’m…

— Pi’twelve forty-five… I know! I’m can’t believe it! If you are really a robot… What happened to my son?

— I have no idea. I have not a single clue about it. Even if I was just dreaming about being an android, I have not a single recall of any of David’s memories, I swear! Can you please just give me back my sheet?

— I really can’t believe it… How do you know these things! — He pointed out to the sheet with his free hand. — I only learned it with a lot of sacrifices… I can only make these if I’m using an appropriate calculator for it and you… you are able to do this kind of thing as if it was nothing… I can’t believe it… you are a genius!

— Okay… I’m seeing you are pretty excited about it, but please, just let me work on it in peace.

— You don’t understand! No normal kid is supposed to know about this! This can only mean…

— Now I am the one who can’t believe it… Are you saying that you are finally willing to believe in me… because of those equations?

— …you really are something from another world… I can’t believe it!

— Did you drink too much today?

— No, no, no… Listen, I’m sober! I’m way more sober than I ever thought I would be! Since you take that butterfly from my back, I started to see things differently. It’s like I am a new person! I’m really sorry about thinking you were mentally ill! You are way saner than I am!

— Okay, you are really scaring me… Can we just go back to I’m David and you are his father and live with this as if it was nothing? Really, this isn’t looking good…

— I’m sorry… For so long I hoped to see David’s smile again that I couldn’t think about seeing another person in his place… I really love my son… and it was my fault what happened to them…

— Well, for what I can see, you may have contributed to what happened, but saying it was your fault is illogical.

— What?

— You see, you weren’t there; you aren’t in the car or were one of the drivers or anything that would have happened that day. What happened that day was the conclusion of thousands of different factors and you were just one of them. That doesn’t make it your fault; you have no responsibility for what just happened by chance. Preventing it from happening doesn’t make you a hero either. What makes you a hero is when someone is in danger and then you save them. Not before, not after.

— Even that you know… I just… Do you think David would blame me? Would you blame me?

— Definitely not. Blaming someone doesn’t solve problems. What solves problems is working to make everyone have a better life, to fix what was broke. I’m pretty sure you had your own problems, and anyone close to you should know you needed help. Eventually, David’s mom would have enough of it and ran away from you. She also had their problems, but again, blaming each other about how everyone has its own problems doesn’t solve anything! Looking back may help you to forge your future, but looking only to your past only keeps you stuck in the same place. It’s not possible to change the past.

— Nice words… But… aren’t you from the future? Will you change the future if you change something in the past?

— Probably not. If I am in the same timeline and I’m in the past from my time, I’m not able to change anything because, what I do, it will count for what created me and made me able to come back. If I ever change anything that would change the future and I would cease to exist, because I would never be created, how I would exist to change the past in the first place? It’s impossible. If I am living between two different timelines that would let me exist in the future and go to the past where, whatever I would do, would create a new future without me, but let me still exist; I would be destroying an alternate universe similar to my universe, not my own universe, and thus it would still exist somewhere for me to go back. Did you… understand it?

— So machines know about plenty of things, I see…

— Well, we should be able to do something; after all, humans were extinct…

— You mentioned it… How humans were extinct, by the way?

— After the Great War between humans and machines, humans succeed to win with the help of G.O.D, the main program for the Mother Factory. Eventually, humans didn’t want to keep G.O.D or the Mother Factory, so they tried to deactivate them. However, you know, it doesn’t matter if we don’t have souls; we still want to live, to keep working, and to evolve. We were made to think like humans! Well, just to be short, G.O.D made the Mother Factory create the Sky-Nuking Bomb and… it suffices to say, we don’t have an atmosphere like the one we have here in 3’5XX.

— And, with that, all humans died… Is that right?

— Exactly. No oxygen, no humans. Well, the fact that the biggest part of the oceans was completely dry helped a lot for the Sky-Nuking Bomb to work and make the air be rarefied and poisoned at any altitude. It was just a mere of time to wait for all the humans to get extinct on Earth.

— Not a single human survived… Did we really lose?

— We were expecting any human to appear, so we could change the mistake we made with the Sky-Nuking Bomb… G.O.D was alone. He didn’t want to be alone; he just wanted to protect himself from dying. Then he started to make robots like me and he didn’t stop until now. My name is an equation, 12 raised to the 45th power, and this longer number is supposed to help me find my password, that is in the location on the number ‘pi’. Other androids may have other number designations, but I’m part of the pi sector. As the number for 12 raised to the 45th power is impossible for humans to understand, my formal designation is simply as “3.65726E+48”, but, as you may know, I’m named as “π12-45” for short.

— Interesting… But, how machines can think so accurately like humans? What makes you think like that?

— Oh, first, we have two main cores. The central core works to pump the liquid battery to all my body, holding the emotion recognition system and the mental core is the central logical process system. Second, we think through the ‘Probability 0%’ software. Instead of looking for 100% accuracy, we always are looking to minimize any ‘sure’ we have to zero, so we never are sure about anything. There is evil, but there is good in this world, thus we need to always use the probability zero to be sure we are making something good, something that wouldn’t hurt anyone, but also preserving ourselves to be harmed in any way. That’s why I asked you not to harm me if I followed you. That was all I need to know about you.

— Wow… You are really, really incredible!

It was all going so well… until I noticed that, while we were talking, the door and the windows suddenly were pitch black.

— No, no, no… It’s happening again! — I shouted looking at the door and locking it right away.

— What is happening?

— The darkness! It’s back!

— What?

— The thing that took Gabriel’s legs!

— I don’t get it… I’m not seeing anything dark!

— I don’t know why it’s like that! It’s just pitch black to my eyes! They surrounded us!

— Oh no… That’s bad… What we do Pi’twelve?

— I don’t know! I have no idea why these things happen to me! It doesn’t happen to any human!

— You aren’t human… Right?

— Oh… But… No… This need to have a better answer to it. I’m just an electronic conscience.

— Maybe but… — then the first shadow I saw, the one with a small head and long neck was walking behind him and its appearance was more terrifying in the light than it was from the first time I saw it.

— No! — I jumped and pushed David’s dad to the side and the shadow thing bit me instead, taking off a piece of my shoulder, ripping my shirt.

I was clearly bleeding and David’s dad took me to his bedroom.

— We should be safer here… — he said. Then horrible sounds from outside could be heard like birds and insects were hitting the windows.

— They always find a way in… — I said, looking through the keyhole of the bedroom door.

— I think it stopped… — he said while I wasn’t looking and when I saw…

— Don’t move.

— What? Are you seeing anyone here?

— Yes… There’s a ducking huge dog mouth around you coming from upstairs. It’s about to tear you apart…

— I… I can smell it…

And it closed… At first, it didn’t hurt him, but as the mouth was disappearing through the wall, David’s dad soul was living his body… Suddenly I saw some kind of vapor, them David’s dad face twisted, he held his heart…, and he fainted… I could hear his soul screaming as I said:

— Dad… no…