Among The Living? (Niki/Vii)

The second one remembered about his companion after a while. It turned to see the other one rubbing their eyes. The other's hair was really bright, it blinked a bit and looked back at the scenery to rest its eyes a bit. Then, it got an idea. Like something ticked in its mind. It wanted to see what was in the houses.

It walked over and touched on the green eyed one's arm, leading it closer to the window and pointed at the tall houses. It want to go there. There must have been a way... To go there.
 
The other child started as its companion lead it to the window, looking out it blinked. Outside was bright... and warm. 

It wanted to be warm... 

The other was pointing, gesturing outside as well. 

It wanted to go out too...

Curious, the first child pressed on the glass, straining, its frail arms pushing for all there might.

A horrible pain shot through its stomach and a loud rumbling noise caused the child to jump and peer around anxiously while clutching its sore stomach. 

A long high pitched gurgling sounded, and its stomach churned unhappily. 

Confused, the child looked at its companion. Then down the corridor where there was more light. Maybe outside was down there?

It pointed down the corridor. then outside. Then back down the corridor, taking its companions hand and leading it down toward the light.

The corridor opened into a huge atrium with a dark river running through it. Plant grew thickly over the walls ceiling and floor, and bright warm sunshine poured in through the glass windows (at least the ones not covered in viney plants...)

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 There were several doors leading off as well as three more corridors and multiple staircases. leading to upper floors. The first child stopped and stared in open mouth wonder...
 
The purple eyed one also stared for a while. The place was beautiful. It didn't fully understand what beautiful was but perhaps that was what you call the place they were looking at. It walked over to one of the plants and touched its trunk. It felt hard, but not cold. And it was... rough? The soil below soon caught Purple's attention. It bent over to touch the soil. Soft. It moved his hand on the surface, interested in how it could make the dirt move into shapes.
 
The first child went and examined the dark river, getting down on the floor on its stomach to reach down into the man-made canal and dip its fingers in. 

Cold.

Upset, the youngster withdrew their hand. Watching the liquid glisten on their skin. The child reached back down and splashed at the water, sending it flying everywhere.

A noise rouse from the depths of its stomach again, accompanied by pain. the child sat up and rubbed its stomach.

It looked around. For what it didn't know. Sticking wet fingers in its mouth, stopping to marvel at the taste. It sucked on its fingers and looked around. 

Around the atrium there were many tables and chairs, there was also many dusty machines whit pictures of food on them. The child observed this but it meant nothing to them. Still, the machines intrigued it. So, getting up, it wandered, for the first time, away from its companion, over to the far side of the room. it then poked at the machines. Pressing buttons and petting its hand against the cool plastic exterior.

Of course without power the machines were useless,

Still it continued to press the buttons for fun...
 
The second child was playing with the dirt still. It noticed the dirt sticking to its fingers and decided to put a hand in its mouth. Immediately, the child spat out all the dirt and tried to wipe them off its tongue. It tasted bad. Eww…
 
A small cricket jumped out from one of the bushes caught its attention. The child decided to follow the insect.
 
Tiring of pushing buttons, and still having stomach pains the first child wandered over to one of the plants, looking at the green shiny leaves and impulsively sticking one in its mouth. The flavor was bland, and slightly bitter, but the leaf was soon chewed up and swallowed down. 

Its stomach gurgled again much softer, and some of the pain left. Encouraged, the child grabbed and ate more of the leaves. 

It stopped when its companion wandered by chasing a hopping cricket. Confused, the first child stopped eating, and instead moved to follow the other child after the bug.

The cricket lead the children down a dusty side hall into a room, whose door had collapsed. Inside where row upon row of little round flying saucer like units stacked neatly atop eachother, around the room was littered with wires and other tiny parts, not all of which the first child's mind had words for.

The first child ignored its companion and the cricket and went to one of the stacked things. 

The child focused on the bottom unit, there was a button on it.

Reaching up, it pressed it...

Nothing.

The child moved on to the next unit up...

Nothing.

And the next up...

Nothing...

Undeterred the child continued to press buttons.
 
Violet followed the cricket all around the room. It tried to catch the bug to study it, but the creature was always one jump ahead of the child. The cricket hopped onto one of the units. The child slowly moved one step at a time to get near it, then jumped.
 
Violet once again missed the small insect but its hand hit the unit’s button by accident.
 
The saucer like thing shook and made a strange sound.  It began to light up.
 
A whirring and beeping noise from the far side of the room caught the first child's attention, turning it saw the other chid had pressed the buttons on one of the other units only for it to respond.

The saucer like device hovered up into the air and beeped and clicked, two orange lights like eyes turning on and began blinking.

"Personal Assistance Tinyunit #0005477-831004 activated. Please register verbal identification."

Both children just stared.

"Please register verbal identification." the floating saucer repeated.

"Please register verbal identification."

"Please register verbal identification."

"Please register verbal identification."

The thing repeated over and over.

"Veerrrr...?" the first child finally said, trying to copy the sounds the strange flying thing was making.

The second child also tried, to much greater result, "Pees!"

"Verbal Identification complete. Detecting Duel ownership. Is this correct?"

"Vaaa???" the first child said again.

"Doo." the second said profoundly. 

"Duel ownership confirmed. Visual Identification commencing." The flashing orange eyes turned red, and suddenly there was another whirring sound, and the floating thing turned first to the second child, and then to the first.

"Visual Identification complete. Now activation Personal Assistant A.I." 

The voice changed from tinny and strange to soft and pleasant.

"Greetings, I am P.A.T unit #0005477-831004, how may I be of assistance?"

Both children stared. 

"Pees?" the second child ventured.

"Initiating cooking module. Cooking Peas." P.A.T replied. A blue beam shot down onto a nearby table, and a plate of steaming green stuff appeared.

"There are your peas. May I be of any other assistance?"

The children just stared, the first child went to the plate of "peas" and went to touch it.

"Please do not touch that. They are hot. It will burn."

The child touched the hot food and pulled its hand back with a yelp of pain. Tears welled in its eyes and it started wailing.

"Sound registered. Initiating Child Care Protocol." P.A.T responded. Zipping over and shooting a blue beam at the childs scalded fingers. There was a cooling sensation, and the pain stopped.

The child stopped and stared at its fingers in confusion.

"Healing complete." P.A.T said.

"Hee-IG" the first child articulated.

"Activating secondary Child Care program: Education Module on." P.A.T stated. 

The children just stared.
 
And so for the next few weeks, the little robot taught the child simple words and phrases. They were doing fine so P.A.T decided to move on with the lesson. The two children sat in front of the hologram of the alphabet generated by the A.I. They stared as the robot pointed to one of the letters.
 
“This is the letter A. Please say A”
 
“Aaae?” The violet eyed child repeated.
 
“EI” P.A.T corrected the child.
 
"Ei... Ei... Ei..." the other child murmured softly. It was playing with a piece of machinery it had found in one of the rooms.

Over the past few The children, under the watchful eyes of P.A.T had explored a lot of the rooms on this level. P.A.T used the word level, or Floors, P.A.T explained that stairs lead to other levels. But P.A.T didn't let the children go on stairs. Though their motor skills had been improving, they still were far too unbalanced to risk on narrow steps.

The children had been fed, learned to bathe themselves with heated water P.A.T produced. The warm water was nice. The child liked baths. They had also been given more cloths. Including things that went on ones feet to keep them warm, called "Socks" The child loved socks. It just wished it could have more than one pair to wear.

The child glanced back up to see the letter had changed.

"Please say B." P.A.T intoned.

"Bee... Bee... Bee..." the child murmured, going back to playing with the metal and wire bit.

They'd been taken to a room with soft big long chairs called couches. Which P.A.T had called a lounge. There were more "Vending Machines" there, but they didn't work cause of "no electricity". The child still had fun pressing the buttons.

This was the room they "Lived in" now. They slept and were fed, and taught lessons here. They could play in the rest of the level. (just not too closer to the water in the atrium) but this was where they usually stayed.

It was nice. There were windows that let in the sunlight during the day, and let them see the "Moon" and "stars" at night.

The child liked it here. With the other child and P.A.T.

The other child though... they kept looking outside. They still wanted to go out...
 
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