Spirit Harvester

Chapter 5

Spending a night in that town was good. I was able to restock. Why the past tense?

Because I have already arrived at the capital. The time skip is staple for a story. So I thought I would omit the rest of my journey.

Not like anything special happened in between anyway. I just found a few dead bodies and buried. Like usual.

The capital is totally a mess. Most humans lived here. So the damage is mostly visible. But fortunately, one place was unscathed.

The city center. Though it's the capital, calling it the capital center was weird. So they named it city center.

It was the administrative building that oversaw the capital and its inhabitants.

But it was mostly automated. A highly computational A.I. program was created so that it would be automated.

And not that many humans worked here. So the building is still standing.

But the thing I am after is underground.

The data center which stores the worlds knowledge is here.

But this stuff is classified. You would ask then how do I know that?

Because my father was the lead of that project. And I saw the plans albeit by chance.

But it caught my interest and I always snuck in and out to check the progress and if any changes have been made.

Although I haven't been there myself, I should be able to get in.

If the plan wasn't changed then I should be able to do it.

Then you might what would I do if there's a lock?

Of course there's a lock. But the lock is supposed to open automatically if a human arrives. That's a fail safe.

It is programmed to search all over the world if something happens to humans. And I am the last human left. So it should open.

You might think this is too good to be true. But the thing is that my father couldn't think of anything else.

And if it's too complex then it would be impossible to open. Inside that is the cumulative knowledge of humanity.

Over 10000 years of knowledge and technology is preserved inside. The government was adamant on making that.

If something like this happened then humanity would be done for. We would have become a footnote in earths history.

I didn't notice that we have already arrived at the building.

The city center. A building which is not too tall. Just 40 floors. That's only on the surface.

It has another 20 floors below the surface. All of them are full of supercomputers and stuff.

I enter the building. It is still operational.

The energy source hasn't been cut yet.

After the war a hundred years ago, we changed.

We banned the use of nuclear technology and started using solar energy. We became dependent on it and made new machines.

They could operate for a week if charged once. It might sound underwhelming when compared to nuclear power.

But it doesn't have adverse effects on earth. A completely green energy source.

The building is still standing and no dead bodies are seen.

Probably they were not present during the attack.

It happened during lunchtime so the building only had the minimal of staff.

That's my deduction. I don't know what happened actually.

I enter. With me is my partner Hazel. It feels reassuring that she is with me. Without her I would have been dead.

She helped me search for edible food and drinking water.

I could get those at a town too. But when on road, it's better to have some left for emergency.

I take the stairs and go down. Then I reach the lowest floor. It is just 20 floors down.

Then I press the button. It's a red button.

I knew it would be easy. But this is way too simple. At least have some guards.

The door opened and I enter the room inside.

It is a big room with a console in the middle.

The main storage devices are down below.

I operate the console. It's directly linked to the satellites.

Maybe I should take a look at the invaders as well.

Luckily the satellites and the comm links are still in one piece.

Was it just a miscalculation or were they that confident?

Maybe they were confident. Well I cannot blame them.

The attack killed everyone perfectly. Even those who were hiding died.

Maybe I was just plain lucky or something else is at play.

I look at the screen. A big spaceship is approaching. A warship that was used in the movies.

But then it stopped just above the atmosphere and released a lot of smaller ones. Just like drones controlled from a mothership.

And then it happened. They explicitly targeted humans.

Other animals were left out. But then how was I spared.

That's when I look at Hazel who was sitting beside me.

She is staring at me with her eyes and seemed sad for some reason.

Or it was just me reading too much into it.

I pat her head to ease her. She just closed her eyes and let out a relaxed bark.

I then finish my main work. I store most of the useful knowledge and leave the room. Then I take a solar phone with me. It is a phone which can work with solar energy.

It has a GPS function as well and it'll probably help in my journey.

I leave the building after scavenging a little.

I load up and decided that I will stay here for a while. I don't have another destination in my mind. So let's rest for now.