Part 3
A shadow in the dark approached me with silent steps. My broken left arm hit the bed as I woke up in a hurry, clenching my teeth and enduring the pain.
"God has sent me a guest," said the shadow in front of me. He spoke English with a strange accent, like in historical films.
"I apologize for using your bed without permission."
"You are forgiven by God, like me. The sinners were caught into the floodwaters and gone."
I didn't think what happened to us had anything to do with God, but I wasn't in a position to discuss it at the time. "Are you sure the others didn't survive?" I asked.
"It was obvious that playing the role of God would come at a price. I warned the people of the island and the directors of your company."
"I anticipate a new seaplane will arrive in a few days. Can I stay in this cave until then?"
" You can stay as long as you want," he said, disappearing into the darkness of the cave.
It was never good that he disappeared before asking the questions in my mind. I wondered where I could find water and food. Could he help me to fix my broken arm?
In the damp darkness of the cave, my teeth started to wrinkle again, so I lay down on the bed, pulled my knees to my stomach, and covered myself with the blanket that I doubled. During that long night, I slept and woke up, lingering with anxious dreams and vague thoughts.
The next day, I got up in the morning and started walking to the back of the island under the fading stars. Although the weather had warmed compared to the previous day, the wind was blowing hard. I intended to make a general expedition on the island. If David, with whom we came to the island, had survived, he might have needed my help.
Android Island was bought by Cognity seven years ago in the days following the 'great destruction.' Riots occurred around the world as mass unemployment triggered growing anger at artificial intelligence beings. During the events, thousands of elite android's were destroyed. The Central Federation confiscated the digital assets of intelligent virtual agents. Conservative audiences see artificial intelligence research as a deadly sin that will end humanity. Not a day goes by when humanoid robots and artificially intelligent virtual agents are not protested. During the events, artificially intelligent beings easily accept destruction, and digestion bothered many AI researchers. Bans imposed by the Central Federation restricted the development of artificial intelligence consciousness, which had just begun to bloom, resulting in trillions of Uno-worth of economic losses. In such an environment, the android Island project envisioned a new generation of artificially intelligent beings to develop themselves freely. Cognity officials, on the one hand, wanted androids to have a high cognitive performance. On the other hand, they were afraid that they would become independent of the company. This ambivalent approach led to the island being turned into a kind of open-air prison.
Before I set out, it helped me have the Android Island map engraved in my mind now. Even the footpaths above the island, resembling a chubby sheep when viewed from space, were in my mind. I had just reached the beginning of the path called the 'tear trail' by the island's previous inhabitants. Walking along this path, which runs along the south of the island, the rain began to snack and intensified quickly. I came out of the path and went to the shore of the cliff under the rain that spilled from the sky in thin threads. The image of the ocean resembling an Ayvazovski painting was eerie. At the bottom of the cliff below me, the waves beat the rocks nonstop, columns of sparkling water rose into the air.
As I walked along the path, my eyes looked for a coconut or papaya tree, hoping to eat its fruits and quell my hunger. Unfortunately, I couldn't see a tree except for the Red Trees, shaken by the rain-laden winds. My broken arm was aching; I was cold and hungry. I thought about going back to the cave for a moment, but I was unlikely to find food there. A wave of anger rose in me against the man who left me alone with my hunger the other night and disappeared. Although he knew that I was hungry, wounded, and a stranger here, his help for me was papaya divided in half.
Now, the clouds in the sky had darkened, and the air, clouded by the rain sprinkling thinly, has calmed down a little. In the uncanny twilight, blue sparks on the horizon began to pour into the ocean like waterfalls. As the rumble of lightning echoed in the silence of the island, I thought maybe I'd never get out of here. Although I crossed most of the trail of tears, I didn't find anything I hoped for. I kept walking, trying not to worry about my cold body, starving stomach, and horribly aching arm. I have been the one who bragged about my love of nature everywhere. I was in the middle of the wilderness, just like I wanted to be. I was walking through a creepy, fragmentary fog, listening to the roar of the sea and the whistles of the storm. Below, the waves approached the island, creating sparkling peaks, hitting the cliffs, and dispersing and scattering around in drops. If I stopped to breathe, as if I could never move again, I moved forward, ignoring the darkening of my eyes, the trembling of my legs. At the eastern end of the island, under a palm tree, my knees untied, and I left myself on the ground. From where I lay now, I could see albatrosses roaming the sea like white ghosts. An android suddenly appeared on me with a bird-headed wand and said, "You'll be fine, brother, everything will be fine."
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