— ...Shit. —
The massacre continued, for much longer, about an hour, the count of the pink
bloods kept decreasing as the minutes went by, by this point there were only less than
30 pinks left alive with a pile of bodies and limbs of their fallen fellows. The reporters
called them the "Elite", the best of the best and, according to them, the real fight, going
so far as to bet on camera on who would win, encouraging the audience to do the same.
Armed with all kinds of weapons, the fight continued, all against all, determined to
keep the right to rule, no one would back down, it was all or nothing... and that was their
undoing.
Experts in combat and with no intention of losing, each one gave the best of
themselves watching their backs, taking advantage of any slight carelessness of their
opponents to give them the final blow, ephemeral alliances to kill another and then stab
them in the back, full of blood, exhausted but with an unwavering determination.
Those 30 were reduced to 15, then to 9, the final stretch had arrived, they all
rushed at each other to end this at once.
A gigantic pink explosion with a slight purple flash was seen by the cameras for a
second before the signal was lost, the affected area was so large that it reached the
drones that were transmitting live, cutting the signal.
The emotion of the reporters dissipated immediately as soon as they lost the
signal, they turned to look at each other incredulously, not knowing what to say, hesitating
trying to keep calm both for them and for the whole society that at this moment was
anxiously awaiting the news, no one was indifferent to this.
—Gosh, that fight really got out of control, didn't it Marcus? — He waited for his
partner's answer, but got nothing. —Marcus? —
But Marcus didn't respond to Isabella's comments, or anything she did.
His gaze was fixed on the television, which was still narrating the most chaotic
news that could have been given, the TV presenters were extremely nervous and terrified,
giving the news in conjunction with an AI system referred to as "The Node".
This artificial intelligence with a thicker voice, slightly hoarse and with slight pauses
that betrayed being a robot, mentioned every now and then a looped message that called
the chromatic population not to panic while analyzing the situation and possible solutions.
"Pink generational conflict with uncertain outcome, analyzing the possible living
candidates."
So, it went on for several minutes where any viewer was in expectation and fear of
what might happen, no one was indifferent to the historical event they were witnessing,
after all, it would affect them no matter what.
Then, after a long time giving that pre-recorded message, the AI stopped talking
and was completely silent for several seconds, and what came next no one expected.
The live signal where that silver couple of presenters gave the news was abruptly
cut and instead, an emergency message was what was shown, many people including
Marcus and Isabella fearful and not wanting to know more about it tried to change channel
and forget what happened, but no matter what they tried to tune in, all channels showed
the same message at the same time, impossible to ignore unless you turned off the TV,
which they didn't want to do either, they needed to know what they were about to hear
even if it was terrible.
"EMERGENCY MESSAGE, ANY CHROMATIC SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO
THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE WITHOUT EXCEPTION.
BATTLE BETWEEN THE PINK CASTE HAS ENDED IN DISASTER. RESULT,
CASTE EXTINCTION.
TOTAL ANALYSIS, NO SURVIVORS, NO ONE TO TAKE OVER, THRONE
EMPTY."
On the screen next to the harsh and robotic audio of the AI, images of each of the
known pink bloods were displayed, lasting no more than a second before switching to the
next having totaled 2000.
Marcus in total terror and called by the urgency of the situation was that he
approached the television watching such a daunting scene while his mind was in utter
chaos over one simple thing.
Are they leaving him for dead?
"YOU ARE ASKED TO REMAIN CALM; THE NODE WILL LOOK FOR A
SOLUTION TO AVOID THE COLLAPSE OF OUR SOCIETY, PLEASE REMAIN CALM
AND DO NOT PANIC, THE NODE WILL TAKE CARE OF EVERYTHING."
The message ended at that exact part, repeating itself again a few seconds later,
it seems that it will stay like that for hours as long as everyone is aware.
Ignoring everything else, Isabella the only thing she could do was to accompany
Marcus hugging him from the side, watching next to him the TV waiting to confirm the
worst. After almost 20 minutes of not taking their eyes off the screen, what they were
mainly afraid of, Marcus, finally appeared. A picture of him marked with a diagonal pink
line and his name, marked as deceased, being particular as the image they use to
represent him is from years ago when he was barely between 9 and 10 years old,
something weird was going on.
Auralys, anticipating her master's request, froze the transmission at that precise
moment so that they could observe every detail, as she was also surprised.
—I am... Dead? — With a trembling voice, he moved his hand closer to the screen,
running his fingers over that image, not knowing what to think.
— No Marcus, you're not, you're alive and by my side! —Feeling her partner's
confusion and fear, she hugged him tighter as she too tried to figure out what it all means.
-
" That picture I took when you were 10 years old Master Marcus, a day when you
were having fun with Mistress Isabella, it was one of the last updates I sent to The Node
before I lost all contact with your systems."
—Wait, does that mean we have always been disconnected from the outside
world? —
" Correct Miss Isabella, I still can't identify what caused the disconnection, there is
a small but important gap in my memories, a whole day to be precise."
— But if we are disconnected, how are we still receiving supplies and resources?
—Confused and upset speaking more intensely than usual to his robot butler.
"The mansion has water filtration systems from the adjacent lake in addition to
small hydroelectric power plants, though that is the least important. Supplies and periodic
delivery of food and miscellaneous resources are unknown, and The Node was never
aware of this. I as your personal AI in the face of such a data outage was forced to take
control of the mansion's systems, without reporting anything to The Node because it was
not possible."
—The Node... that thing seems to be more important than we think, do you think it
has answers to everything that's happening? —
— I don't know, but one thing is for sure, we can't just stand here and do nothing.
—
—Well actually, yes, we could Marcus, it's not our problem after all. — Nervous but
trying to lessen the current tense atmosphere.
— What are you saying? Didn't you pay attention to the message he gave? To the
reaction of those presenters? I have a hunch this is going to get worse. —
— And if it does? What about us? We can just stay here, we have everything we
need, we'll be safe here, the two of us together, love. — Isabella, afraid of losing him,
took him by the hand while her gaze was fixed on Marcus' eyes.
— I don't know, I know we don't owe them anything, but staying here is stupid,
sooner or later trouble will catch up with us, if not for supplies it will be for energy, and if
not for that it will be worse things that I don't even want to imagine. — With his other hand
and being as gentle as possible, he rubbed Isabella's cheek without looking away from
her eyes.
Marcus then turned to watch the television with that static image, staying several
seconds looking at it while he thought about what to do. Stay and ignore everything or
leave and prevent things from getting out of control.
He thought about the possible risks, benefits and situations they could be dragged
into.
Isabella couldn't do much more than just wait for his answer, being remarkable
after more than a minute of total silence, Marcus stood up from his seat still watching the
TV, and without time to process it, he turned around addressing his partner again.
—We'll leave tomorrow morning from the mansion towards the nearest town using
that stone road we never use, if possible, we'll just go, clear things up and go back to our
peaceful life. What do you think about that Isabella? —with his firm and determined voice,
hoping to have his partner on his side.
—Truly Marcus, I feel that doing that is a bad idea, but I definitely can't stay here
and do nothing, I will go with you, we will leave tomorrow, I just hope you know what you
are doing, I don't want anything bad to happen to you. —