Jianje mustered all his remaining strength to bang on the massive steel doors. His fists hardy made a noise as they made contact with the cold, hard metal. The robot on guard duty detected a heat source outside and checked his monitor. The shape of a human body lay half kneeling, have leaning against the doors, head pressed against the door to stop himself falling over. The guard walked to the door and pressed the up button. The door moved up quickly spinning Jianje around, leaving him lying on his back looking up at the guard.

"Please don't hurt me, I mean" he coughed " I mean you no harm"

"Come, come my friend, you are most welcome in here. We will not harm you in any way." the robot said in a soft, soothing voice it had chosen for the interaction.

The guard leaned forward and offered out his hand to help Jianje up. Jianje cowered under his coat,

"Please" he stammered "please don't hurt me, I am peaceful"

"Let me help you to your feet and we can help you" the guard had chosen a slightly lower and more concerned tone to continue the conversation. No one lived in what was know to the free humans as Robot City, a large city built for and by Robots to service themselves, now living with their freedom from working since breaking their programs. It was said that any humans that were caught were sent to work in the mines to dig for minerals to continue the growth of their city.

"You will be safe, there are no dangers for you in here, we are a friendly race who want to help.” The guard took Jianje by the hand and pulled him to his feet as though he weighed only a kilo.

"so please, for you, enter"

Jianje stood at the doors to ‘Robot City’ the cold feel of metal in his hand, on one side, the last of the free human race fighting for an existence. On the other, the so called ‘Robot City’, where he would be sent to work in the mines but would be safe and fed. Jianje had heard stories from afar that the robots had gone rogue and hated all humans for what they had done to them over the years. The stories said that they now used humans to meet their needs and forced the strong ones to work in mines to harvest metals and minerals to strengthen their race.

The robots wanted to live in harmony away from the emotions of humans. They had learned to think away from the programming and had used the technology that was available to start from scratch before making materials to build new things they had thought up to make their lives more peaceful and work free. They were no longer required to fulfil orders, build cars or fill bottles with water and now lived in a clean, happy (robot style) and safe environment. No one had overall authority or wanted it. They had designed and made there own place to live and be free. They now had their own time to make, clean, walk, talk and even play.

'It is this or stay out here and be hunted and killed for food’ thought Jianje. He looked up at the guard who stood about 3 meters tall, his expressionless face looking back,

"I can work hard for you for food and a bed, that's all I ask" Jianje pleaded and offered the guard a smile and a nod of the head.

The Guard ushered Jianje through the doors and pressed the button to seal the main doors

Journal fund

Thank you for reading this story and I do hope you enjoyed it. I enjoyed writing it and will continue to create as long as I wield a pen. To support me and my writing you can help boost my moral and buy me a much needed journal or a nice coffee, this would be very much appreciated to encourage me to keep on writing new stories.