No, you can't run away. You wonder why that thought even crosses your mind. You go back to sleep and await that day. Sure, it'll be weird for the world to just end, but it has to be done, right? You approach and act like nothing happened.

"Doctor?" you call.

He turns to you. "What?" He sounds irritated, like you just tore him from his thoughts. "Why're you up?"

"I-I couldn't sleep," you explain. "I woke up just now, so I wondered if you could help me sleep again."

Doctor sighs. "Alright, alright. Something warm to drink should help, right?" He snaps, and the chef bot arrives.

"Yes, Doctor?" it asks in its robotic voice.

"Bring Dark something warm to drink ASAP." He turns to you. "Follow him to the kitchen."

"Okay!" You follow the chef bot to the kitchen for that drink. While you follow, the thought of being a weapon just used doesn't seem to want to leave your mind. No matter how hard you try, it doesn't want to leave.

The bot starts warming up a mug of milk. You look up, snapping out of your thoughts because of the microwave. You sigh, pushing those thoughts away. Those useless thoughts shouldn't plague you.

But what if they were instinct.

You freeze at this thought. Why did it come so suddenly? Was there something wrong with fulfilling Doctor's plan?

The bot finishes up warming some milk and takes it to another station. It pours something of an amber color inside. You watch its actions carefully, thoughts of paranoia filling your mind. Would what it's pouring do something to make you cease to exist? No, it can't read your mind. There's no way a machine can do that!

The bot brings the drink to you. You take it, and it leaves with a small beep, knowing full well that you'll understand.

"Sweet dreams, Dark."

You watch it leave with the warm mug in your hands. You take a sip, the warm fluid entering your esophagus. Honey. It put honey in there to sweeten the milk. You smile. It was ridiculous to think that it could be something deadly like the plague! Finishing your drink, you put the cup in the sink, where the automated machine starts to scrub it clean. You head back to your room.

Once inside, you check your battery life. About ninety percent is still left. You settle into your bed and plug the charger into your head for the rest of the night.

~.The Next Morning.~

An alarm wakes you up the next morning, and the sun shines brightly. You unplug the charger and immediately go to the dining room for breakfast, almost forgetting whatever you heard last night. That is, until you pass by a mysterious room that seems to send chills down your spine.

Strange...That never happened before. You're about to open the door when you remember that you have to get to the dining room on time! Setting a reminder in your mind for later, you rush to the dining room.

After breakfast, you have a few more hours until lessons, so you decide to check out that room. You know which one it is as soon as you pass it because another chill goes down your entire body. You face the door slowly, and with trembling hands, you turn the knob.

The door creaks open slowly; it's pitch black in there. Out of the palm of your right hand, a light brightens. You look at it curiously only to see that it's a flashlight for these kinds of situations. You swivel your hand all around the room, and the beam settles on a single computer in the back of the room with stacks and stacks looming over it, piling up at every wall. You creep in slowly, closing the door behind you so that no one will see you snooping around.

Approaching the computer, your anxiety rises for some reason. Does it have something to do with the thing that Doctor said last night? That's got to be it, right?

The computer turns on by itself. You jump at the sudden brightness, shielding your eyes from the light. Files and files appear on the monitor. Your eyes widen in amazement. Surely, all of this would be useful! Reaching to the back of the right side of your head, you pull out a USB cord and connect it to the USB port of the computer. You download every possible thing you can; you have enough room in your memory space.

Your eyes widen from all the information flooding your brain. All this data...how does he keep it in this one device!? Your hands grip the table so that you have something to keep you from fainting in the middle of the download.

One it's finished, you sigh in relief. That's the first and last time you'll ever do that! You check the time on your arm. Crap! I'm going to be late! How did the time pass so quickly!?

You hurry to the schoolroom as fast as possible so as not to be late. You want to keep that perfect attendance, after all!

~.That Night.~

You can't sleep. Not that you really need it, but it's relaxing. To pass the time, you sift through all the information that you downloaded earlier.

"Experiment 1. Failure due to malfunction. Fell in water. This one definitely won't make it. I'll have to make another one that doesn't fail."

You skip around the files. Many experiments seemed to have failed either due to malfunction, a nervous breakdown, or downright rebellion. The reports say that the ones alive seem to be kept in a room for them to cause no harm.

You finally get to your file.

"Experiment 281 is a success. Although energetic and childish, he portrays the perfect child that I've dreamed of! Obedient and powerful, flesh and machine. Yes, this experiment will help me wipe this world of its filth! Humanity will no longer be around to taint this world, including myself. Then, when humans have disappeared, the rest of my machines will clean up the trash that humans left behind and dispose of them, clean the air, and make everything right. I will leave instructions to Experiment 281 to destroy them afterwards and dispose of them in a safe way. Planet Earth will soon be returned to its former life."

Astonished, you find that sleep no longer pursuits you. This information comes as a shock, and your electronic heart beats faster and faster with the realization that Doctor actually plans to go through with what he overheard.

You narrow your eyes. If it's for cleansing the earth, I'm fine with it, I guess. In your heart, though, you know that it isn't at all alright. Your eyes flutter shut, and you enter a dreamless sleep.

~.Days Later.~

Doctor is performing a scan on you. You made sure that night to delete those files of the reports so that he wouldn't find it should he want to scan you.

Doctor makes a satisfactory sound. "Looks like you're all set!" He looks down at you with a grin. "Experiment 281, you have a mission I want you to complete. You are to kill everyone here, including myself, except for you and these machines. It's to cleanse this disgusting planet."

You nod. "Yes, Doctor." There's a sort of hollowness in your voice, but Doctor doesn't seem to care.

He lifts you up from the tank you've been lying in. "You start immediately. Kill me last, when I know you've done a satisfactory job. Now, go!"

You nod and take off immediately. Letters obscure your vision as they tell you what to do and what methods of killing would be the most effective. Looks like Doctor just wants this done quickly and not for entertainment.

You press a button on your elbow; a sort of hose comes out of your back. You take it, knowing that this is the poison gas that was installed inside of you. You spray a cloud of it over the humans below you, flying high above them. From this height, you're able to see the little dots that represent humans falling over due to the fast-acting gas. You move on from country to country, dropping bombs, sending little knives that move on their own down there, spraying the gas, and personally killing people with the swords installed in your arms.

It's a few months later when you come back. To survive that long, you've charged yourself in every home of the person or family that you killed and connected your USB cable to a computer that was still on. Doctor looks at you with a grin.

"Good! Now, as soon as I'm gone, you will have the world to yourself, but your mission will be to guide the bots in cleaning it! No messing it up! With humans out of the picture, this planet shall restore itself to how it should be! I'll start them up and give them a directive to follow your orders. After that, kill me."

Before you can even say anything, he leaves to boot them up. You stand there with glazed eyes. Is he that intent on dying? Why does he even want to...? You follow him to the place that the cleaning bots are kept. You see him clicking some keys on a computer, and then one-by-one, the robots come to life. They all look at you with those eyes.

"Tell them your name, 281." Doctor looks at you with that smile of his, that crazy smile that you first saw when you woke up.

You walk up to them. "Experiment 281, Dark."

The bots beep and click noisily, registering your name in their databases.

"Good." Doctor turns to you. "Now, kill me."

Inside, your heart breaks. You nod, feeling tears welling up in your eyes. You press a button on your arm; one of the swords comes out with a loud shing! Quickly so as to get it over with, you stab Doctor right in the head.

You turn to the bots. "Start cleaning up this world. Dispose of everything in a clean and harmless manner. I'll be going to each continent to make sure you aren't causing any damage. Clean the air, make sure the trash isn't anywhere to be seen. Let the weeds and vines take care of the buildings in those grassy areas, and let the weather break down any human-made things in the deserts. Go!"

The bots immediately fly off. You notice that they don't emit carbon dioxide when they fly, which is probably how Doctor intended them to be. After all, he didn't want to harm the Earth further.

~.Years Later.~

You burn the last of the bots to cinders and keep the remains in a tube so that htey don't do too much harm. The birds chirp, the insects buzz, but everything seems too quiet.

You take a walk down the city to see if anyone's there until you remember that they're gone. Nothing's left. Sure, the Earth is cleaner and free of scum, but you're lonely now. You've been lonely for a long time now with no one to talk to.

You make it back to the lab and go ot your room. It's night, but you don't bother to charge yourself just yet. I never imagined it would be like this...

LONELY ENDING