"I'm going to die, Jeff."
Dressed in an expensive suit, Finch lay calmly on a beach chair prepared for California beach, facing Jeff, who hoped to pull himself together and set off again for San Francisco.
The robot suddenly fell silent, even though its database contained most of the world's languages, it didn't know what to say at this moment.
It could only stand there blankly.
Finch turned his gaze to his old companion beside him, gently stroking Goodyear's head. "When I die, will you continue to do the right thing for Goodyear?"
Jeff remained silent, but nodded slightly, all the mechanical parts of his body working in coordination for this movement.
Finch showed a faint sense of relief.
He just wanted his dog to live, even though it was an old dog, just like him.
Irish Terriers have an average lifespan of only eleven or twelve years. Although Finch couldn't remember exactly how many years he had owned Goodyear, it must have been a very, very long time.
This was his emotional anchor; only by looking at this dog could he feel that he was still human. He just hoped someone could carry on the legacy of Goodyear, regardless of whether it was a real person or a robot...
With that in mind, Finch continued playing fetch with Goodyear for a while, also taking the opportunity to build up its bond with Jeff.
The desert wind, carrying the fragrance of earth and a hint of grass, is irresistibly captivating.
Finch sat weakly on a beach chair, like a kind old elder, watching his children play happily.
Suddenly, a strong sensation surged through my body, so intense that I couldn't suppress it.
Cough cough cough cough!
Accompanied by a series of coughs, bright red blood stained his white suit.
Jeff frantically helped Finch up and prepared to take him back to the car, but halfway there, Finch broke free of his support and took a deep breath to calm himself down.
"I'm going back to the car to lie down for a bit, you guys keep playing."
"Let's go play..."
After shaking hands and hugging Jeff one last time, Finch practically scrambled back to the RV, while Goodyear had already jumped into the vehicle and was waiting for him by the bedside.
He took off his expensive suit and top hat, lay back on the bed, and with his last bit of strength stroked Goodyear, who was lying next to him, while waiting for his own...
My own fate.
In his dazed state, Finch's mind was unusually active, and he began to reminisce about his life.
He had never met his father, but when he was 15, he received a postcard from him, inviting him to meet on the Golden Gate Bridge...
He dreamt that he hadn't hidden that day, and the mother and daughter had stolen the supplies he had found. They survived and weren't killed by the shotgun.
He dreamt again that he hadn't adopted Goodyear that day, and he cruelly stewed it. Then he started killing and robbing.
He also dreamt that it was all an illusion, that the apocalypse never happened, that he had been dreaming all along, and that he was living in a world full of love...
Outside the RV.
The robot Finch cannot receive Finch's brainwaves.
He quietly packed up the parasol and beach chair, then sat on a box, lost in thought, watching the sun slowly set.
They are now only 700 kilometers from the Golden Gate Bridge, but they can't go any further.
The sunlight gradually dimmed, dusk slowly approached, and the outside temperature began to drop, but this did not affect the robot; Jeff remained seated on the box.
Its database of life and death information is constantly being read; it always feels it can do something, but it can't find any supporting data in the database...
Only then did it realize what it felt like to be powerless to do anything.
So it could only wait quietly outside.
Whew~
Another gust of wind blew by, Jeff shook his orange-red head to make sure the dust wasn't blocking the camera.
But it was this tremor that made it discover something unusual.
On the road in the distance, many points of light are moving rapidly!
It stood up, carefully analyzed the data using a high-speed camera, and quickly came to a conclusion:
"That's... a car headlight?"
"A convoy is approaching us... Finch!"
" Finch!!!"
Jeff rushed back to the car immediately, like a bewildered teenager going home to seek help from his father.
Unfortunately, Finch didn't sit up in bed to respond as he usually did, frantically yet rationally instructing it on what to do next.
" Finch..."
Standing by the bedside, Jeff looked at Finch, whose eyes were closed, and Goodyear, who looked bewildered beside him, and his voice suddenly became softer.
Its chest heaved rapidly like a human's.
It is deliberately mimicking human actions; it is contemplating what Finch would do if he were in Finch's shoes.
Without a doubt --
escape!
Jeff rushed to the driver's seat and quickly started the car. The vibrations from the engine were transmitted to the steering wheel, and Jeff, who had installed a lot of sensors, knew that this was a sign that the engine was ready.
"Let's go, Finch, let's leave now!"
The lights of the Southwind RV came on, Jeff quickly turned the vehicle around, heading back the way he came.
But when it glanced at the rearview mirror again, it discovered that the convoy it had just seen was only a few dozen meters away, and the other vehicle's headlights shone a white haze on the rearview mirror.
Their speed far exceeded previous expectations.
" Finch..." Jeff was still worried about his master behind him, glancing back every now and then at his body swaying at high speed. The database told him that he should continue to accelerate; since Finch was about to die anyway, it didn't matter how much he swayed.
But Jeff didn't want to do it; he felt he shouldn't.
"To the vehicles ahead, we are from the Parallel Spacetime Mutual Aid Society. We are not criminals, and we will not harm you. On the contrary, we can provide you with necessary assistance. Please pull over and communicate with us."
The car behind us was blaring a loud message through its Horn.
Jeff turned his head again and saw that the other person was now right behind him on the right and was about to overtake him.
It glanced at Finch again, Finch was now barely breathing and exhaling more than he was taking in. In the violent shaking, he instinctively let out a painful groan.
"Please stop the car immediately, we promise we won't hurt you..." The large black vehicle drove alongside them, from a completely overhead angle.
Jeff couldn't retrieve information about this car model from the database, but the other party had formed a long queue of such cars.
These people were different from the car that followed him at the Denver Hospital.
Jeff made his deduction, glanced one last time at the pained Finch, and finally began to slowly slow down.
One minute later, the RV came to a complete stop.
Jeff shrank back as he got out of the car, facing the convoy outside alone.
But outside of the RV.
Robert and Wang Lei also saw a tall, dark figure slowly approaching the car door from inside...