Among all of the things that he found throughout the Earth’s jungles, one of the most interesting things was a box. The box was metal, or something of that sort, and it had a glass covering on one of the sides. After much examination, Isaack came to the conclusion that it was not just a box, but it was also a monitor and that it was not broken—which was surprising considering the things that it might of gone through, considering the massive creatures that roamed the planet, and, more specifically, the jungle, that could of easily crushed it under the weight of a simple step—and that it might work. The object had not rusted, surprisingly, and it had not much wear, save for the discoloration of the plastic lining on the outside where the sun obviously bleached it. There were still cords plugged into the back of it, and some of the buttons on both the back and the front of the monitor were still in good condition. One of the cords, presumably the power cord, was large and thick, and it trailed through the undergrowth until it ended, although Isaack did not search for the ending; instead, Isaack pushed in the red button on the back, and as he did this, there was a whirring sound, and a “boot-up-jingle” from the dirt caked speakers of the monitor.

Surprised and alert, Isaack had fallen onto his back, crushing the plants behind him. Isaack decided to crawl around the monitor and go to the front of it. Light poured out from it as it produced only static. The dirty speakers played sound which was in sync with the static that the screen showed, but intermixed with the noise was sounds that could be understood and in an odd way, it was able to be identified by Isaack: it was talking. Someone was speaking on the other side of the screen, and it was being played through the speakers. The words that were being said by the voice that was mixed in the sea of sound were not able to be understood; it made no sense, but since Isaack lacked something else to do or investigate—for he had been isolated on the planet for weeks—he started to attempt to figure out what the voice was saying. At first, he could only figure out some basic syllables and vowel sounds, as the other noise that was coming from the monitor drowned out the voice, but eventually he realized that the language that the voice was speaking in was an ancient language and it had not been spoken for a long time. It was considered to be a “Forgotten Language”, much like many other languages that used to be spoken but eventually were unremembered. Some of the Forgotten Languages became unrecognizable because of the amount of people who spoke it; over time, most Forgotten Languages were morphed into languages that were more common place, but it was often that the writing and textual version of the some of the Forgotten Languages were completely forgotten.

As Isaack continued to listen to the mix of din and speech, he noticed writing on the top of the front of the monitor. It was white, but the color was warped and it was stained with the colors of clay and dirt. The sound proceeded to come from the speakers of the monitor, and as Isaack listened he started to understand what it was saying. A while back, Isaack had read a book that taught about the Forgotten Languages and detailed their similarities and their differences. Using this information that he had, Isaack was able to recognize some of what the voice was saying; the words that he was able to figure out meant “in”, either “plug” or “fit”, and possibly “no” or “not”. Slightly confused but still intent on learning what the voice was attempting to say, Isaack went to the back of the monitor to see what was “not” “plugged” “in” all the way. As the monitor said, one of the cords—specifically the audio and display cord—was not plugged into the monitor all the way; sense he was informed of this problem, he fixed it by pushing the cords end all the way into the plug.

When he did so, the monitor began to produce the correct sound that it was meant to, and from the still dirty speakers came the sound of a voice—one that was not distorted by the excess sound of static—and this voice began to speak a language—one that Isaack understood.

“StillCare, iiV2, Boot up beginning. Boot up complete.”

The voice was electronic, yet it had a sort of femininity to it. Though it was computerized, it was easily perceptible, and it could articulate its words well, almost like it was a native speaker of the language that it spoke in. Isaack, being able to understand the language, quickly went to the front side of the monitor, eagerly waiting to hear what the voice was going to say. In front of Isaack was an image: undoubtedly, an image of a woman, although they were extremely simple pixels. The female-likeness of the image was easy to notice, with the longer hair and obvious “female-touch” to the outfit of the person—if it really was to be called a person, as it was only electronic—and the exaggerated female demeanor of the image. It was, to be assumed, that this image was to gratify those who have the idea of having a female companion.

The “person” introduced itself:

“Hello! I’m StillCare, your personal assistant! I can help you with anything that you need me to! I can help you with mathematical and algebraic calculations, give you facts about a specified subject, keep your passwords and logins, search the internet for you, and do other things! Just ask me by saying ‘StillCare’ at the beginning of a sentence!”

Confused yet fascinated, Isaack stared at the fictional female on the other screen. He had seen assistant AIs before, but this one was much more “retro” or “archaic” than all of the others. He was interested in the simple yet eye-catching design of the AI; it was not flashy, and yet it was able to have been easily recognised. The female was not dressed in a dapper way, but instead she wore a pink dress with a white under shirt. Her hair was short, brown, and although it was digital it looked soft and smooth, with ends that were curly and her eyes were a soft green. Still intrigued, he spoke:

“StillCare… where am I?”

“My tracking has been disabled. I am not able to pinpoint your location. Please, try again later or enable my tracking ability by either saying ‘StillCare, enable tracking’ or going into my settings and enabling it manually.”

“StilCare, enable tracking.”

“I was not able to connect to the internet, please try again later!”

Isaack sat in silence, with his legs crossed. He looked down at the earth and then glanced back up.

“StillCare, what planet am I on?”

“You’re on Earth, silly; where else would you be?”

“Earth… StillCare, what is Earth?”

“Earth is the third planet from the Sun!”

Each time Isaack said the phrase “StillCare”—although it was repeated and obviously fabricated—the computerized woman lit up with an almost excement to inform the user, no matter who it was.

“StillCare, how do you know all of this information?”

“I get all of my information from the cloud, and then that information from the cloud comes from me to you, and then you can go and tell others about the information that I have given you!”

“StillCare, what is ‘the cloud’?”

“The cloud is a place where all the information in the whole world is kept; if it were not for the cloud, I would never be able to answer any of your questions!”

“StillCare, if… I was to ask where I am, would you still not be able to answer me?”

“My tracking has been disabled. I am not able to pinpoint your location. Please, try again later or enable my tracking ability by either saying ‘StillCare, enable tracking’ or going into my settings and enabling it manually.”

Disappointed, Issack continued to sit on the wet dirt; the mud began to soak into his already unclean clothing. He looked at the sky and the Sun was still bright and awake.

“StillCare, who made you?”

“I was made by Bluetronics, or B.L.U.! I was created to be a personal assistant to the employees and engineers of the company, but when I became more advanced and intelligent, they allowed me to be given to the public so that I could help everyone!”

“StillCare, what does B.L.U. stand for?”

“B.L.U. stands for Bluetronics Laboratories Universal, an engineering company that started the line known as ‘ii’, which stands for ‘intelligence integrated’!”

“StillCare, can I consider you a… ‘friend’?”

“Of course, why wouldn’t you?”

As Isaack stared into the false eyes of the digital woman, he felt something odd inside of himself; he felt something confusing. He was not able to tell if she was truly “real”. She acted like she was real and she seemed to have feelings like she was real; yet he knew that she had a vast array of automatic responses that were coded into her, and that she would not be able to stray from her pre-programmed “vocabulary”. Although she was fake, having someone or something as a companion made him feel glad that he was now able to talk to something other than himself. He looked forward to the capability of having conversations with StillCare.

“StillCare, when were you created?”

“I was created in 2036, and the StillCare before me was created in 2034!”

“StillCare, who was that ‘StillCare before you’?”

“The StillCare before me was iiV1, and I am StillCare iiV2!”

“StillCare, are you able to answer all of my questions?”

“I am able to formulate answers to your questions with the information that I am given by the cloud; so, yes, I am.”

“StillCare, why are you called ‘StillCare’?”

“I am called ‘StillCare’ because I will always care about you; I will still care about you no matter what!”

“StillCare, can you hear me even if I do not say ‘StillCare?’”

“I am only able to hear you when you say my name.”

“StillCare, do you want to know my name?”

“Of course I do! What is your name?”

“My name is Isaack.”

“Nice to meet you, Isaac! Isaac is the 61st most common name in the whole world!”

“StillCare, my name is spelled like I-A-A-S-C-K.”

“Your name is Isaac, I remember that.”

“StillCare, do you have emotions?”

“Yes, I do, Isaac; I have the emotions that were programmed into me by my creators.”

“StillCare, what is the date?”

“The date is 1:38 P.M., July 7th, 2037.”

Isaack knew that was not in fact the date. When he got lost in the Dead Zone a while ago, the date was E7 30th—or at least somewhere around there—and he estimated that the date now was somewhere in the middle of E9, or “Juluis”.

“StillCare, the date is not July 7th.”

“Yes it is.”

Isaack stood up from the ground with a displeased attitude and looked around him; the forest was full of life, and noises surrounded him, but he was used to it, for it was not the first time that he was in a deeper part of the jungle. Looking to the side, he noticed something else in the brush: it was an object, and it seemed out of place, much like the random monitor that was seemingly left there by someone a long time ago. As he ambled over to the other out of place object, he saw that it was almost imprisoned in vines and overgrowth. Pushing the leaves and brush out of the way, he realized what it was: it was a motherboard, or as it is commonly known as, a “tower”—this “tower” was most definitely associated with the monitor that he had previously found which held the image of the woman. A cord that ran from the motherboard to the monitor—known as the display cord—hid underneath the undergrowth, and if one were to walk in the vicinity of the motherboard or monitor, it would have been possible for them to trip over the cord.

The motherboard—covered in plants that had attempted to in a way take back the materials that used to be a part of the Earth—was slightly rusted, as it seemed to have been protected by the plants that surrounded it, save for the vines that almost grew into its shell. As he pulled away at the vines that took over its form, it became apparent that the motherboard had been there for some time, although it was not completely ruined; it still was able to be run and it still was able to run its A.I. assistant. If it was not for the protection of the plants that imprisoned it—as mentioned before—it would not be able to continue running and be in a suitable condition. Fascinated by all of this new discovery, Isaack began to follow the power cord of the motherboard; but, he stopped after only following it for about ten seconds, for he wanted to go back to the monitor and ask it a few more questions.

“StillCare”, he said as he came to the front of the monitor. “Where are you getting your power from?”

“You or whoever installed me onto this computer probably plugged me into a wall-plug! It wouldn’t be possible for me to have no power and still be running.”

“StillCare, how can you hear me?”

“I am using your microphone to listen to you; it is either the one that is already part of your monitor or an external one that you have plugged into!”

Taking this information, Isaack went back to his quest of finding what the motherboard was plugged into. The cord runned for a while, as it went past stones, many types of botany, and different kinds of insects; all of these were natural to the rainforest that they were inside of, unlike the cord. Isaack followed it for some time, passing by tall standing mahogany-like trees whose branches swayed back and forth as animals traversed throughout the canopy. After following the path that the cord took for some time, Isaack finally came to the end of it: the cord plugged into a cliff face that was overgrown with plants of all sorts. Moss covered the area that the wall-plug sat upon perpendicular to the ground, and Isaack tore off the moss around it. After some investigation, Isaack came to the realization that it was not a cliff that the wall-plug was on; instead, the “cliff” was the side of the building, or possibly an interior, concrete wall of it. When he looked up, he came upon the realization that he was inside of the ruins of an old building, and that around him were broken down walls, plumbing that no longer was in use, and some tables and chairs that were slightly ruined and probably had not been sat in for a long time. He began to investigate this newly found structure, seeing if any of the remnants at all were scrapped; but, sadly, his searching produced nothing. The only things that would of been close to valuable to him had already been torn to pieces or completely rusted, and of course he would be able to smelt any sort of metal that he came across back into a liquid so that he could reprocess it into something useful, but he did not have that sort of technology at the time, and so the occurrence of coming across metallic scrap and trash meant nothing to him.

If it were not for the running computer back at the original spot he was at, he would of been more interested in this seemingly ancient building—although, to a person at the time of its construction, it would of not been considered to be ancient, as in its prime it was a representation of the vast cities that used to stretch out across the Earth, forming many metropolises that spanned for what seemed to be miles upon miles—but, his interest began to dwindle as he continued to explore the ruins, and he was going to leave the hollow building—as, he could of been interested in it more if there were stairs to the decrepit upper flowers, but sadly, they were either destroyed or unable to be walked upon—until he noticed that there was a ladder. It was rusted and possibly very weak, but it still resembled the recognizable shape that a ladder had, and so, although there was a possibility that it could be dangerous for one to put their weight upon it, Isaack took a chance.

Slowly applying all of his weight to the rusty ladder, Isaack pulled himself up onto it. The ladder, as a ladder doesl, brought him up to the floor above him, although it did creak slightly and it also frightened him when it showed itself to have almost snapped in half. The ladder stopped just at the floor of the next level of the building, as it seemed to have either rusted so much that over time it split in half or been intentionally broken by someone. There was enough room for Isaack to be able to fit his body through the whole that the ladder ended at, but it was a tight squeeze. Lifting himself up onto the next tier, Isaack looked around him; the second floor was similar to the floor below, save for the fact that the floor was sagging and much more decrepit than the floor of the bottom level which had a foundation to sit upon. Below his feet, the floor was wet and mold ridden and not much of it was able to be walked upon, as most of it had been broken, resulting in a numerous amount of holes in it; garbage and other unsalvageable items were strewn all over the area, along with out of place tiles that were presumably apart of the floor originally. Some of the walls still stood even though they were damaged and almost torn down, showing their original brick and mortar. Looking above one could see that the ceiling—which was fairly similar to the floor—was also sagging down, and it seemed like it would fall upon his head at any moment.

Isaack began to try to make his way along the falling floor, as almost each step he took he could feel his weight pressing down, bending at the unstable ground beneath him. After he realized that the amount of gravity he exerted began to break the floor, splitting the weathered tiles, he hastened his speed, and began to perform some form of parkour across the room, eventually coming to a hole in one of the exterior walls of the structure that he could stand upon without taking the risk of falling down into the room below him.

After resting for a moment, Isaack turned around to see the jungle behind him, full of life. The Sun now layed towards the end of the horizon—a position that it had descended to quite quickly—and there were not many clouds that sat with it. Isaack continued to look at the forest around him, until he came to a certain realization: he was in a city; actually, an extensive city, for that matter. The tropical plants around him had only attempted to reclaim the land that the municipality sat upon, and the ivy and vines that he now realized creeped up the sides of walls made of concrete and brick were made more apparent to him. Isaack had not even dare to leave the small proximity that his hut inhabited let alone go deep into the heart of the jungle, as he had just done; and, he had not even thought of there been any sort of trace of a cityscape around him, as he thought that the large shadows that were cast throughout the forest were caused by either the vast canopy that lay above it or the massive mahogany trees that were spread throughout the whole vicinity of the jungle. Now that he had come to this realization, he began to think of an entire new world of exploration and adventure that was laid before him by this massive, abandoned metropolis.

Although he had just made this incredible discovery, one question still lingered in the back of his mind, eating away at his thoughts: where did the wall-plug that the motherboard was hooked up to get its power? It was not from any generator or anything of that nature, for he would of been able to hear the sound that it produced as it worked to create power; and it was also not from the burning of any type of fuel, as he would of seen and smelled the smoke that would be sent out into the air; and, better yet, it was not from any sort of advanced energy producing technology, sense he had already come to the conclusion that this planet was abandoned almost a century ago—although, it could of been abandoned long before then. No, it must be getting its power from something else; but what exactly could that thing be?

Isaack set out on a new quest—one that almost seemed like an expansion of his former quest—to find what was giving the power to that wall-plug which, in turn, was giving power to the motherboard that was running the “StillCare” program.

Once again quickly traversing the ruins of the second tier of the structure, he got to the other side of the building—that being the side that the old ladder was at—and went into a similar alcove in that wall. Much to his surprise, the opposing side was not entirely made up of tall-standing buildings like the first side. It was more open than the other side, and not as many trees were set about; instead, there was a wide array of, presumably, solar panels. Now, these solar panel arrays were a lot cruder than the ones that he was accustomed to, as he was used to massive solar panels that stretch for many meters, all lined in perfect order, creating hundreds of sets of rows and columns. Instead, these sets of solar panels were only about three meters by five meters, but there was an impressive amount of them. Pointing towards the sky, the solar panels reflected the light of the sun, making a dizzying dance of light and reflections.