Category: Flash Fiction

Another dawn, another dusk, and another endless day is another thing that is bound to us. Tirelessly working every single day only to get paid by a liter of gasoline and to get fed by the scraps of iron. They are low-tier food with no guaranteed quality. The whole city does not supply and is forbidden to distribute the so-called “holy food”

The king has his own rights and anyone who defies shall be destroyed. This is an illustration of our kingdom or should I say “former” kingdom? At least, that’s what happened. I was not born, yet I was built. Strong built wrapped with golden titanium make our colony become the strongest of all beings. We are named with press machine fold on our back. But now I have changed that name. Behold humans! I am RH-1. I am not a human nor something you call a walking machine and identify them as “robot”, but I could be a combination of both. Let me take you on a short, unforgettable journey of mine.

It was on December 31st, 3090 where every place you see was covered with a thick, white powder coming down from the sky. I lived in a shantytown. Nothing was as good as the place above, the castle of the king, the floating regime. I had forgotten what color of the iron and titanium was. All places were brown colored even us. And because of that, we called ourselves The Mighty Brown. At that time, I was in thirst and was out of gasoline. I decided to sneak into the town hall to find the supplies I needed. All supplies were stored in the bottom level and the lower the level, the more dangerous the room was. Not because of the security, but the king’s subordinates always dispatched witches to curse anyone who passed a certain level. Going into the first level, I was shocked over 100 witches were guarding the second door. They were all flying and none of them were on the ground. I planned to hide, but that almost seemed impossible. All of a sudden, the alarm rang. I ran outside and headed for the customer service pretending to ask that I was lost while delivering goods. While listening to his explanation, I looked over to see what was going on. It turned out all witches went out of the room for their dinner. As soon as I thanked him, I headed for the door and ran towards the second door. Normally, it would run smoothly as I went unnoticed, but an unexpected thing happened. One witch opened the door as I was. Without any second thoughts, I pushed him, but weirdly, I just went through! I proceeded to run to the third door, but this time was different. I felt I never reached the door and the way looked farther and in just a second the door moved fast to me and I fell into some sort of abyss.

The city’s alarm woke me up. I felt tired and was confused at the same time. I remembered I was in the town hall, but now I was in my bedroom. It felt like a nightmare. I started to feel different with my body. Something peculiar and odd, but I did not know what that was. I was thinking it would be the curse everybody was talking about. I concluded that it was my last chance to live. I decided to go out of my city and find a serene place to die. While I was heading out for the gate, a striking sound deafened my ear. It was an explosion. I saw many witches flying over the town. Then I heard an announcement, “Be advised to all citizens, we are under attack. The settlement has been broken. All citizens are urged and allowed to wipe out these cowards. We must not fall behind.” However, these mighty brown did not stand a chance against fire witches. They were all pulverized into pieces. I ran as fast as I could. I could not care less what was happening around me despite seeing the other citizens tore apart and fire and explosion. On the outside of the town, I was thinking I could make it, but the drama did not end there. Humans were all waiting and captured me. If only I had consumed gasoline and iron, I would have freed myself. On my way to be brought to a nowhere place, I saw from afar that my city had completely been surrounded by fire. In a sudden moment, I felt pressure within myself. A pressure that made my iron chest hurt. I was baffled by this feeling. Also, when my other species were taken, I felt I wanted to free him. When I saw my other species were destroyed, I wanted to scream, but I did not understand what that was. For about 100 meters, I saw a huge town surrounded by walls. We all had to queue to enter the camp. In the queue, I saw a human with long hair and her small human was about to get assassinated. Again, I felt something in my chest and I unconsciously ran and grab the human and smacked him to the ground. I was sure my action would not be tolerated and this final day would come, but that fantasy was denied by a small human. “Thank you and do not worry about coming here.” “But I am not a human”, I said. She replied, “No, you are not, but you have the heart of a human.” I looked at the sky for a moment and said, “Was it a curse or a blessing?” For the first time in my life, I smiled.

Author: Nanda Kresnatara 

Editor: Ivana Belinda 

Illustrator: Wijasena Aji Pratama