Early in the morning, the fountain was deserted. Even the robots and non-living things knew when to go outside, their schedules ticking like clockwork.
The only thing that caught their eye was a man sitting in a rocking chair, not too close to the fountain but noticeable enough. He was singing something and rocking back and forth.
“Let’s go over to him.”
Daniel wasn’t sure if Jasper was asking or telling him, but he was already heading that way.
“Good morning, old man.”
If he were real, the old man would’ve been at least eighty. He had a mustache and a slightly stubbly beard. His hair was white and medium-length. The skin across most of his body sagged and drooped. His veins were wide, and Daniel could see the blood moving through them—something typical in any elderly hand. But the fluid serving as blood in these ones moved oddly. That’s why his vein was more reddish than the usual blue. The old man looked up at Jasper.
“Aaron?”
“Jasper. I’m Jasper.”
“Aaron? Is that you?” The old man raised a hand toward Jasper.
“No, old man. My name’s Jasper,” Jas repeated.
The old man fell silent. A dog barked somewhere nearby. Daniel turned and saw Silver. He’d forgotten about him, but the dog clearly remembered them. It came over and sat off to the side.
“Where’s Aaron?” the old man went on. “I haven’t seen him in a while.”
“We don’t know Aaron, old man. We’re from another town.”
“How’d you get here? With the big iron thing?”
Jasper shot a quick glance at Daniel.
“Yes, old man. With the train,” Daniel chimed in to help.
“The big iron machine. He got on it and disappeared.”
“He’ll come back, old man. That happens sometimes.”
“Aaron, is that you?” The old man grabbed Jasper’s hand again.
“This one’s a lost cause, brother. Let’s head to the sheriff,” Jasper said.
“Aaron? You leaving?”
Daniel and Jasper slowly walked away, occasionally glancing back at the old man, who watched them for a long time. The path from Violet’s bar lay behind them. If the fountain was their central landmark and they’d come from the bar’s road, they now took the other fork leading to the sheriff’s office.
The house with a five-pointed golden badge hanging above it sat at the end of the road. Beyond it was nothing but wasteland. The farms were on the other side of town, and the closer you got to this end, the emptier it became. In the distance, past the sheriff’s house, only sandy mountains were visible. If Daniel had his bearings right, beyond them lay the modern era where the train had last stopped.
The windows on the ground floor of the house had bars, and behind them, a few wooden desks and chairs were visible. One table had a stack of papers, but it seemed empty otherwise. The second floor jutted out a bit more and looked like a normal house from afar. Up there, no bars were in sight, but the windows were boarded shut with wooden shutters.
Jasper approached the door and knocked—first lightly, then a bit more boldly, with a harder rap.
“Problem?”
The voice came from behind them.
They turned almost in unison. Standing before them was a big man, even bigger than Jasper. He had a large beard, rolled-up sleeves, and thick hair on his arms. He wore black gloves, and one hand held a revolver. His shirt was unbuttoned, most of the buttons missing. From where they stood, he reeked of alcohol.
“We’re looking for Jake,” Daniel said, trying to get ahead of Jasper. He knew what’d happen if Jas spoke first.
“Jake a friend of yours?”
“No. We met yesterday.”
“Then it’s Sheriff Jake to you. Only his friends call him Jake.”
“Brother, let me handle this,” Jasper said anyway, pushing him aside.
“Hey, fatso. Where’s Jake?”
The big stranger let out a booming laugh.
“Your mouth’s too big, kid.” The stranger raised the revolver at Jas. Jas widened his eyes and threw his hands up. The hefty stranger slowly stepped closer. Daniel didn’t know what to do, so he froze. The man reached out and pressed the barrel to Jasper’s forehead.
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“Go ahead and pull it, tough guy,” Jas said, clearly unfazed.
From the side, the scene was almost surreal. Two men over a hundred kilos, inches apart. One holding a revolver to the other’s forehead, the other grinning in his face, daring him to shoot. And as the sun dipped behind clouds in the dim light of dawn, only their shadows remained, merging into one hulking figure that nearly filled the road.
The stranger was sweating in his fury. It looked like he was straining with all his might to pull the trigger but couldn’t. His face grew redder and redder. He was starting to look truly human. The veins in his arm bulged, and his skin began to crack in places. From the splits in his flesh, wires appeared first, followed by other strange components. The man kept trying to pull the trigger. His whole body shook.
The dog Silver barked beside them.
A loud bang sent Jasper stumbling back. His fall kicked up a cloud of dust on the sand. Daniel waved a hand to clear the dust from his eyes. When everything settled, the sight was worth it.
The bang hadn’t come from the gun but from the big robot’s head, which had exploded into all sorts of pieces. Iron parts were scattered around him. Some of the debris had grazed Jasper too. Jas was screaming and clutching his head. Daniel rushed to his side.
“Just a few scratches.” He pulled Jasper’s hand from his forehead. “Can you open your eyes?”
Jasper slowly opened them.
“You’re fine. But I can’t say the same for this guy.” Daniel pointed at the robot.
“Does everyone who picks up a gun blow up like that? Mr. Barnes dropped the ball here,” Jasper said, still holding his forehead. “Screw that guy.”
A loud blare of sirens echoed across the whole place. At first, Daniel ignored them, but they grew so loud no one could miss them. After the sirens came red lights. One of the lights flashed from the sheriff’s house.
Then everything stopped. Even Silver froze in place. The animals flying in the sky landed and stilled. The red light turned green, and the alarms ceased.
Daniel and Jasper first exchanged a glance, then started looking around in every direction. In the distance, they could only see the fountain at the town’s center. The old man was by his chair but had fallen to the ground.
The door to the outhouse next to the sheriff’s shack opened. Two people stepped out. Both were dressed in outfits that didn’t fit the Wild West. Daniel wasn’t sure if this was part of the game or if something had gone wrong. The newcomers wore goggles with big plastic visors. One was a woman, her black hair tucked into her suit. The other was a man.
The woman went to the fallen big guy on the ground, while the man approached them.
“Stay where you are.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a card, holding it up in front of them. “We’re from FutureRobot. Please be patient.”
“El, this one’s heavy. I’ll need help,” the woman called.
The man slipped the card back into his pocket and went to his colleague.
“Turn on his backup power.”
“Backup?”
“Yeah. Right panel by the hip. You’ll find the seam with tweezers. Open it, and you’ll see a red switch.”
The man glanced back at them. Daniel and Jasper stood still, almost in a daze.
The woman pulled out something sharp, tugged down the fallen robot’s pants, and started poking at him with the tool. After a few seconds, she jabbed the sharp metal in and yanked off a square patch of skin. Beneath it was a real panel. She opened it and pressed the red button.
The big man opened his eyes—or what was left of his face.
“Step back from him.”
The woman listened to her colleague and stood up. The robot’s one remaining eye stared blankly into the distance. His gaze was empty. He used his arms and legs to stand. The rest of his body seemed atrophied. His waist barely held, forcing him to stay slightly hunched forward with limp arms. Springs jutted from his face.
“Brother, this guy’s done for,” Jasper said.
The man from maintenance overheard.
“He’ll be good as new. Don’t worry.”
“Brother,” Jasper pointed at the big guy, “this jerk wanted to kill me but couldn’t.”
“We figured. I mean, we saw.”
“You saw?”
“Well, there’s a team watching everything.” The man glanced at the dog beside them. “You even named one of our cameras—Silver.” The worker laughed.
“Ah, we should’ve guessed,” Daniel said, raising a hand to the dog. “Come here, Silver.”
“Don’t bother trying to spot the camera. The mechanism’s complex. And even if you manage to chase it off, we’ve got at least a hundred other ways to track you just in this town.”
“So it’s not total freedom here after all?”
“You’re completely free. No one’s holding you here or getting in your way. The cameras are more to prevent stuff like this.” The technician pointed at the big robot.
“Was that a bug?”
“Absolutely. And just in him. Most of the robots, especially the ones with weapons, can shoot at birds or inanimate objects.”
“Even at each other?”
“Oh, yeah. But don’t pit them against each other. Let it happen on its own. Trust me, before your tests, we ran others—us technicians. If you play right with them, you’ll be more than impressed. The problem is, a week won’t be enough for you. But they really are special.” The man glanced at the barely moving robot. “Even this one. Just some glitch.”
“So this big shot was supposed to lower the gun?” Jasper pointed at the lifeless robot standing like a gorilla next to the female technician.
“No. Truth be told, he played the scene well. And so did you—congrats. We were hoping for people like you for their first interactions. But maybe he shouldn’t have tried to shoot. His effort to pull the trigger clashed with the system blocking him, and this happened.” The technician gestured at the damaged robot.
“Did you shut down all the robots?” Daniel asked, looking at the old man’s body sprawled on the ground in the distance.
“Exactly. We stopped them to retrieve this one. The other guests have been informed too and told to stay put.”
“Will you always step in like this for glitches?”
“No. So far, we haven’t seen any major anomalies. I’d say this is the only big one. Last night we almost came in, but…”
“El… Time to go,” the woman behind him called.
“What happened last night?”
“We’ve had a nice chat, boys, but we’ve got to head out. Need to fix this troublemaker. Expect him back in the next few days.”
“El?” Jasper called after him. “Can we tell Jake we killed this guy?”
The technician turned, glanced at his colleague, and shrugged.
“Don’t know. I’m just a tech. You’re in the story. Live it.”