Post-Apoc, N.M.L.: No Man’s Land

Board

You awaken to to sound of whirring machinery and chirping beeps of computers. You are informed that your scheduled ‘Awakening’ has just taken place, and that your role as your masters’ servitor has now officially begun. You are given your custom-built equipment from a sealed locker, and make your way past the growing vats where you know you were created. Beyond the door, you take a seat on a decidedly uncomfortable concrete slab, to view your video-based wake-up orientation, which describes your nature as an N.M.L. (Nonhuman Multifaceted Lifeform,) a genetically-engineered, lab-grown servant, custom-made to serve the every will and whim of your human superiors!

…Or at least, that was all it was supposed to be.

Hastily glitched into the end of the orientation video, a doctor woman with a voice you find familiar, explains that a virus has been wracking humanity, with no expectations of a cure… or even any expected hope of survival. To make matters worse, infected N.M.L. servitors become frenzied, and uncontrollably violent. These two events combined together, spell the extinction of humanity. To spare you of the fate of being a casualty of the virus, she appended an additional hundred years of stasis to your sleeping pods, in the hopes that when all is said and done, you will not have to worry about the virus’s afflictions… or of humanity’s cruelties. She extends to you her deepest apologies, and hopes that you can still find a future in whatever is to come next.

Cautiously stepping into the adjacent elevator and taking it up to the lobby floor, you hope that everything will be okay–only to have those hopes dashed almost as soon as the elevator doors open, revealing the decimation of one hundred years of neglect… and things don’t seem to improve when you step outside. Everywhere you look, you see overgrowth, and ruin… and long-dead corpses of humans. You try to find places to get your bearings, and see if maybe you can spot some kind of civilization amid the desolation… to no avail. There is no sign of human life. Though, you’re not alone, per se. You still hear the chirps of birds, and you happen to spot a deer grazing on a patch of grass emerging through concrete. Life has continued on without humanity, it seems.

The downside: You’re not alone, per se.

You enter into one of the more intact buildings and find a pair of robots, a dutiful Cleaning Robot, and a stoic Security Robot, both of which have been doing their job without question or protest over the last hundred years… both immediately identify you as a non-registered N.M.L. and the Security Robot grasps for you, seeking to hold you until human authorities arrive (which they don’t seem to realize will be never.) You evade capture and flee the building… and the sudden blaring alarm seems to call another, even BIGGER one out to seek you out, and judging by the size of those cannons its priming, it has no intention of taking prisoners. To make matters even WORSE, when you manage to keep out of its way long enough for it to break off its search for you, it has already gotten dark. You are about to go running down a street… when you catch the silhouettes of something in the distance. You find yourself about to call out, when you notice these shadows in the fog are MUCH bigger than you are, and you swear you can hear a bestial rumbling in their direction. Your thoughts are immediately pulled to the warning of the woman from the video, about the virus-affected N.M.L.s… did they truly last over a hundred years? Would they rip you apart like they did their former masters?

You decide not to take the chance. You find some place quiet, and try to find rest, and wait until morning.

You don’t sleep, you just sit in the dark until light dawns. Eventually, as you cautiously make your way along the overgrowth-ravaged streets of the city, the shock of  existential dread had finally caught up with you. You were not designed to fend for yourself. You were designed to fill a need. You are a servitor without a master… and your master has been dead for the past hundred years. Your master was dead before you even MET them. Whatever purpose you were intended to fulfill with your talents, are moot. Your expiration date is one hundred years past due. You are without purpose. Breath catches in your throat and panic wells in your mind. So many emotions come crashing down on you and you want to scream out.

…Until a friendly voice calls out to you. You stop suddenly, and are hesitant to respond, you simply freeze, and catch sight of an oncoming group of other N.M.L.s like you. Their apparel is dirtied and stained from wear and tear. They seem like they’ve been out here for a while. One of them waves at you with eager enthusiasm. You cautiously wave back. They see your reluctance, and they ask if they can approach. You don’t immediately respond. The previous night with the ferals in the fog still resonates in your thoughts. They decide to stand their ground, and offer you to approach them on your terms. It takes a few minutes, but you eventually find the nerves to walk forward. Your heart races as you make your way forward. You have no idea what these N.M.L.s are doing, or what they are planning.

After a few moments, they ask you when you woke up. When you explain you woke up yesterday afternoon, they expel relief with their breaths. Apparently, their stasis pods did not go off all at the same time. In some cases it was two or three days before another opened, in one case, it had been a week. In your case, it seemed, it was two months. They aren’t sure if something in the machines is breaking down and opening the stasis pods later than they should be, but they are happy to see another N.M.L. up and around. They then offer you to join them in their subway shelter on the western side of town. They’ve got a stock of food they’ve managed to find in stasis container units, as well as grown themselves, they also have a functional generator… and, seeing as you look like you could use it, a soft bed.

You definitely can use it. You cautiously agree to join them, and follow the others to their shelter.

Sure enough, you find as you descend the steps to the subway, they have converted three of the subway cars into a makeshift home; the first is a kitchen and stockpile, as well as what looks like a planning table; the next car was made into a living room space with working lights and a generator and a Ult-Def videoscreen, playing some prerecorded videos from a selection set out on the console deck; beyond that, you find the last car was made into their sleeping room, with an array of beds of varying shapes and sizes. You decide not to be too greedy, and take up one of the smaller ones.

The moment you hit the bed, your whole body practically shuts down and embraces the soft comforts that you find yourself nestled upon. These N.M.L.s you found (or rather, who found you,) seem to be good people. They chat and socialize from the other room, you can hear them talk about how relieved they are to know you survived. It shows you’re resourceful, and they wonder if you might be able to help contribute to their growing group in some way, expressing curiosity of what kind of speciality you were given. It brings a solace to you, that they’d want you to help them. They’ve spent several months out in this empty city on their own, and they all made it through okay…

…Your last thoughts before you fall asleep, are that maybe you can also survive without a master, maybe you too, can survive in a No Man’s Land.

I FINALLY finished my overgrowth post-apocalypse board! I am damn proud of this, and I’d like to express my deepest thanks to OberstHeinrich, zerosol, istallri Astra, Spide, for their TalesTavern slabs, AfroEagle1, createmos, sKRiBEL for their Community Slabs, Scott_Cross, TheDoubleDoge, LordAshes, PanoramicPanda, Vermin18 for their Community Creatures, as well as everyone else who I no doubt missed in my excitement to get this board underway!

BE ADVISED!
There’s lots of foliage around, so expect your computer to take some heft in rendering!