The Hunt Chapter 9: The Dream

“In 3… 2… 1…”, said a robotic voice.

Everyone smiled and posed as a smartphone flashed brilliantly on the robot No 2’s hand.

“Nice! Let's see it!”, said No 4.

The taken photo was shown in front of the family. Robot Number 2 had half of its face seen on the bottom of the picture. No 4 was lying in a weird pose - probably as an attempt to flirt with others - on the floor. No 3 and No 5 had their heads on the side to be in the photo. Dynamo and Setuh were sitting on the sofa, while Byrd was kneeling behind it. No 1 just jumped in the air like a kangaroo with its arse on fire.

“No 1… What did I tell you about staying still?”, asked No 2.
“What? It ain’t my fault I was hyped.”, argued No 1, “Besides, look at where you are!”.
“At least I wasn’t moving a lot!”.
“Oh shut up, “Mr Boss”!”
“Man, I’m gonna kill ya!”.
“I’d like to see you try-“.

No 1 was cut off by a yellow punch in its metallic face. No 2 was also strongly struck in the face. The two then fell on the floor.

“Ugh… you guys…”, scowled Setuh scornfully, “I’m gonna have to reconsider both of your existences.”

She picked up the phone that No 2 dropped while being hit. The rest of the group looked at the photo.

After a thorough search, Setuh deactivated the phone. With satisfaction, she looked at everyone, and said with honour, “I think we all look good in this.”

“I quite agree!”, gladly stated Dynamo.
“I just can’t believe that this 1st take went well.”, said Byrd.
“Neither can I.”, agreed No 4.

Then, everyone told each other jokes and celebrated. While that happened, Dynamo giggled with glee and stood around. To him, happiness never felt this good before. To him, it felt warm. Warm and welcoming. Overall, he felt happy to feel happy again. Happy…

All of a sudden, the whole living room faded into darkness, as his joy slowly converted to the feeling of emptiness.

“Yes…”, he said.
“I remember this place… This event… was the time when I, Setuh, Byrd, and the robots gathered for a “family” photo. Two days after our first meeting. To this day, I still take this as a good memory.”

Another place lit around him. This time it was just him standing on the wet sand of a beach. Vastly, the cold wind blew in front of him. He began to hear the waves crashing with each other, and smell the salt from the sea mixed with heavy air. He closed his eyes to try and mesmerise what had occurred here. His eyes opened. He then sighed.

“I know this. This… this was before the time I first met with the others. My first universe! During this time, I met someone else… Her.”, Dynamo reminisced.
“Apparently, this beach was the first location where I’ve seen her. She was walking with her dog. And then, we bumped into each other. I should have rechecked the look on her face. She seemed really kind at the time. Even with that face of hers… How the hell could I ever forget that?”.

He kept thinking about the woman until a tear fell down his face. Then, he got a full hold of himself. Weirdly, the place distorted and converted back into the mansion. In his own bedroom, the red man walked towards his bed, only to find a badly drawn paper on the soft, wide blanket.

The drawing was a crappy rendition of the photo which the OPT were taken of. Not much shadings were there. The people illustrated were labelled with their names (Setuh, Byrd, Dynamo, No 1, etc). The eyes of the characters were blurred in pitch black, leaving the rest of the details open.

“Oh… I think I made this.”, thought Dynamo.
“Damn. I really do draw shit. But why did I scribble over those eyes? Surely, I couldn’t have messed up that badly.”

While paying his attention to the illustration, he sat on the bed. Observing everyone’s faces, he grinned as he felt much better. He put his finger on a word, called “Me”. Me. Me…

A rush of thought jogged around in his medium mind. His fingers softly pinched his unseen chin.

“There it is again! “Me”. Ever since I had a talk with my previous generation, I had a bit of confusion with my existence. Perhaps, there must be something more to my species. Maybe, there are a lot more people like me and my siblings.”, brainstormed Dynamo.
“There is a chance that I might be wrong about the population of my people. There may probably 100 Observians out there in outer space, sipping on peppermint tea.”

Dynamo went to a window and looked at the big, blue sky with the paper in his hand.

“ I guess we’ll never know.”, Dynamo assumed to himself.

A creak of a door was heard. Out popped Byrd’s head out of the door, as he said, “Lord Dynamo! Lunch is ready!”.
“Good! I’ll come downstairs in a few minutes!”.
“Don’t take too long!”.
“You know I won’t.”

As he walked to the door, the whole room faded into darkness once again.

”Eh?”, he blurted.

Due to the blinding darkness, he wasn’t able to see anything yet again. The least thing he would do is lift his arms up to feel something. After a little while, a light strung out in front of him. Below the light, a table between two chairs appeared, with the sub-conscience sitting on one of them. Like a statue, the sub-conscience looked at Dynamo, and told him to sit down.

Dynamo did as he was told. With good care, he pulled the chair out of the table and comfortably sat on it.

Our history is intriguing, don’t you think?”, asked the replica.
“Yes. Yes, it is.”, replied the original.
“I feel like we should explore more about the past before ours.”
“I don’t know about that. Maybe we should just stick to the present.”
“I think that too.”
“So it’s decided?”.
“Obviously.”
“Very well.”
“… I think this discussion is getting a bit stupid and awkward.”
“No shit, Sherlock.”
“F**k you Watson!”.
“Okay.”
“Have you ever even wondered what’s happening right now?!”.
“Sorry?”.

The lookalike quickly slammed his palms on the table.

“You wouldn’t believe this! You tried to kill your family!”, he exclaimed.
“What?!”, he shrieked.
“I’m not kidding!”.
“Oh no… what can I do to come back?”.

The sub-conscience wildly scoffed at the question.

“You must be joking! There is nothing you can do to come back! It is up to them to save you.”, he replied.

“Right... Why are you enraged about this?", the red man queried.
"WHY? You sound like you don't give a damn about the other two!", he shouted.
"Wh- No! I do care about them! They know me! They know how to save me!".
"And how will they do that?".
"You are the sub-conscience! You're the one who should know!".
"You're the one who said, "ThEy KNow hOW To SaVE Me!".

The two abruptly stood up, jumped on the table, and smacked each other on their faces twice.

"Wow!", acclaimed a shocked Dynamo, "Do I really slap like that?".
"Definitely!".
"Damn."

The two then touched the pain gained in their facial cheeks.

"Alright... I believe you. If you're the original, then you may be right.", confessed the sub-conscience.
"Of course! After all, I created you.", the original said.
"True."

And without further reason, the two guffawed and hugged each other. After letting go, the first Dynamo's hands glimmered blazingly. The other noticed.

"What's going on now?", Dynamo asked.

The shine spread onto his arms and then his chest. In confusion, he looked at his sub-conscience, who calmly smiled.

"I believe that you are now beginning to return.", he responded.
"Return? To where?".
"The surface."
"The surface? That means-".
"Yes. You are saved."
"Heh. I knew they could do it."
"I'll probably see you then."
"Right, farewell."

The sub-conscience then saluted him away, as Dynamo floated upwards in the darkness, slowly disappearing with the light fully coating him.

END of Chapter 9