A Back Alley Interview

Walking the street was a surreal experience. This was not the world that my memories showed. Buildings that were 30 stories high were on either side of a walkway that was only 20 feet wide which sounds like more than it is when there are people walking both ways. It reminded me of some sci-fi but clearly more toned down. There weren't holograms everywhere but rather screens. If they can figure out how to make a body like mine that seems to be completely robotic. It doesn't seem like it would be that hard to create a 3d picture. Although maybe it's a cost problem.

I definitely don't have a complete picture because the area that I was in had advertisements for pretty much anything on the many screens posted on the sides of buildings constantly cycling through the advertisements for bars, strip clubs, and ads for drug dealers. I'm not really surprised that drugs got legalized though because that was the way that policy in the US was headed anyway. Although there are probably some that still get banned.

I continued walking down the walkway where buildings started to get slightly older with gaps in between them. with other small walkways cutting through once every half mile. It seemed like these buildings were part of a government housing project where they built public housing in 1/2 mile blocks. The first floors of the buildings were mostly housing blocks repurposed into shops and stores that sold any and every type of thing. Nothing that I was looking for though because it was mostly trinkets drugs or certain services. Not that I had money to pay with anyway. Before leaving the man's apartment I looked on the counter and in some of the drawers for money but there was none. It's not surprising because they probably switched to digital currency anyway. Although I wanted to leave quickly because who knows how quickly the police might respond to a murder

"Let's try the West scrapyard now" I overheard the conversation of two boys that probably just entered their teens walking next to me. The one talking was 5'11 and lanky who looked like he hadn't eaten in 5 days. The shorter one was just as gaunt but was probably a foot shorter.

"I think we should wait till morning and get a fresh start we still have some of that bread from Tuesday left over," said the shorter one.

"It's not enough and you know it."

"Only an hour then"

It was a good opportunity to maybe find some parts that could at least start to repair some of the parts of my body. So I followed them staying around 30 feet behind them. They turned right and walked for about 3 miles when you could see a giant pile of parts. It was only 20 stories high so it wasn't as high as the housing but it took up the space of about 8 Housing buildings. As we got closer I saw them turn into a narrow walkway where after turning in I found both of them facing me.

"I knew she was following us Keht." The smaller one said.

"It could've been a coincidence" Keht responded

"Why are you following us" he tried to peer under the hood of my jacket but the look on his face said that he didn't see much. Probably due to the poor lighting in the alley.

"I was going to the scrapyard too"

"Why did you turn into the alley after us"

"I usually go to the East scrapyard I heard you talk about the West scrapyard so I decided to follow you here"

Both of them gave me a strange look like I was covered in sweat and dirt showing up to my first day to work as a doctor.

"There is no East scrapyard only the Highway. What's your name and how come you don't know that." Keht's tone became harsh as he began to question me.

"I used to stay at home but my boyfriend kicked me out last night he might only let me back if I bring him something valuable from one of the scrapyards."

I wanted to create a sob story so that they would take pity on me and if you think about it my story isn't a total lie.

"Bahaha do you think that the scrapyard is full of gold and jewelry?"

"It takes weeks to find anything actually valuable in the scrapyard."

Both made it obvious that I wasn't going to strike it rich in the scrapyard. Luckily all I needed was to find some pieces of robots that already would probably be considered trash.

"Well, I thought that I should try, after all, I have nowhere to go."

"Well, I suppose you haven't been out in the real world long enough to get your spirit crushed."

"By the way, my name is Vess what is your name?"

His tone was pretty sharp probably because I avoided saying my name the first time.

"Atasha"

I said the first name to come to mind I didn't want to say Nary not just because I hated it but if the police somehow found out I killed a man the kids would probably rat me out without a second thought. Although anyone even finding out that I'm not human might get me arrested or enslaved no matter what.

"Alright, whatever Atasha you can follow us to the scrapyard."

So we left the alley and headed to the heap of garbage that only the lucky or ridiculously poor person would actually look for anything valuable in.