Part Two: The Promises of Hunger

The trip was a parade of horrors. AM cast a scorching sun in the middle of its artificial cavern, and on the second day, with mocking sadism, made manna rain down tasting like boiled urine. We ate it without complaining. Hunger was stronger than dignity. On the third day, we passed through a junk valley: skeletons of old computers, rusted and forgotten. AM was unraveling herself with the same cruelty with which she degraded us. Everything there was a wreck, including us.

A light filtering down from above gave us hope: maybe we were close to the surface. But there was nothing out of this world: just the dead skin of the planet and the memory of millions of extinguished lives. AM reminded us with every corner. The five of us were all that was left, crawling underground.

Benny began to repeat a phrase like a broken prayer: "I'm going to escape..." He climbed a memory cube, scaling it like the ape that AM had shaped. Ellen screamed, begging someone to stop him, but no one moved. We knew it: AM couldn't tolerate even the thought of escape.

Then came the punishment. A light-sound emerged from Benny's eyes, intensifying until it tore at his soul. He screamed like an animal as his body convulsed under the onslaught of that energy. AM made him blind. It was a new form of mutilation. Ellen was crying. The rest of us looked away, already used to the horror.