The echo of Myna’s scream was lost in the wind. At the cliff’s edge, where the world seemed to simply fall away, she had lost more than just a power band. Luna held the key, the digital imprint of a treasure map promising the impossible. Now, with only her loyal pigeon Pip and the gnawing silence of a dying planet for company, the hunt had become a desperate scramble against oblivion.

1. The Fall of Luna
2. Reign of Alena, The Tyrant AI Queen
3. Natural Resources: A Scarred World
4. The Journey Begins
5. The Guardian of the Lost River

The Fall of Luna

Her scream echoed through the abyss. Tears streaming down her face, she fell to her knees, crawling closer to the edge of the cliff on all fours. She didn’t dare go further as the edges crumbled. Bits of soil fell into the dark, impenetrable depths. No sound came from below—only the eerie hiss of radiation in the atmosphere. She had lost Luna, her power band. She had lost her ability to find the treasure and her only connection to help. Her head throbbed.

She forgot the hot wind blowing around her, the dust enveloping her, and the filtration mask she had been wearing. She gasped and clutched her backpack, which contained all her emergency supplies. She gulped water from her bottle. There was only one more bottle left, and some synth chips and sweets. The city’s supplies were limited under the regulatory regime of Alena, the tyrant AI queen. Myna’s only hope had been the ancient map of the Lost River.

“Pip, I scanned the map into Luna’s chip, it’s gone,” she muttered, eyes wet with tears. Pip cocked his head to one side. Luna, the band that Myna wore on her right hand, was a powerhouse of information. It governed her entire life, had always done it. Myna didn’t know how to use her human functions because Luna did it all with just lasers, sensors and rotating satellites. Myna had not been trained to think, solve problems; Luna had all the answers. Everyone in the city had their own band, only Myna’s was friendly with her. It didn’t share her secrets with the superchip that Alena controlled.

Balancing on his two little legs, Pip, the rock pigeon, edged closer to Myna, pecking at her shirt and cooing in comfort. Pigeons and humans had formed an inseparable bond over the centuries. They were the flying messengers. In return, humans fed them, housing them in their sanitised, metallic homes.

Pigeons had forgotten their traditional roosting home—the trees, now extinct in Babylon. Humans even made nests for them. Even though, in the last few decades pigeons hadn’t flown anywhere with a message, the gentle grey birds still lived with their human companions.

Humans had discovered new medicines for the virus spread by pigeon poop, that harmed their lungs and depleted air quality. AI had given them a sinfully lazy life, relying on the superchip to do all their work. Until, one day the blinking metallic Alena became their queen, shaking up their complacent reality.

Myna gently touched Pip’s feathers with her tear-stained hands. “Pip, Luna had digitally retraced the faded parts and located the river, the river that would bring the city back to life.” Pip tilted his head, but he couldn’t go deep into the abyss, the radiations would reduce him to ashes. The radiations were everywhere, right up to the stratosphere. They were now floating into the mesosphere. Not just Earth, other planets and stars too were in jeopardy. 

His iridescent green neck no longer shimmered. It was now bottle green. He was not capable of long flights anymore, only short hops from one metal ledge to another metal ledge—concrete had given way to glass and steel, too hot for his feet.

But he tried to sail as deep as his little wings would allow. His once sharp sight was now befuddled with decades of living in fabricated cityscapes. Since Alena’s takeover, his life was limited to rooms, sometimes windows. He lived on scrappy newly innovated seeds, failed experiments, all that wasn’t fit for human survival, the slaves Alena hadn’t discarded.

He circled the abyss twice. No sign of the fluorescent band. Myna rubbed her forehead. Pip and she looked at the sky and then around them. They saw no sign of life in this deserted patch, even the mountains that had seemed immovable had crumbled in the terrifying earthquake.

She opened a packet of chips, handing some to Pip. She couldn’t go back to the city she had escaped from. The sensors would lock her in the prison chamber, next to Alena’s safe house. The virus bots would eat her and Pip. Her only road to the green life, her ancestral roots, was that map of the Lost River.

The city of Babylon had once been surrounded by mountains, rivers, and forests. Myna’s world, in contrast, was nothing more than automated gondolas, drones, and flickering smart screens. But the map—her last link to the past—spoke of something different. A gift from her grandmother, Myna had played with the map often, tracing the blue rivers. Her grandmother told her tales of rain that smelled sweet, trees that whispered in the wind, rivers that sang as they flowed. Now, all that remained was dust, data, and decay. She often dreamt of this land, the fairy land that would bring her beloved Nana closer. She was the last generation to manufacture paper.

The map whispered of the Lost River, the elixir of life. Water, that sustained life. When water evaporates into the air, it cools the atmosphere, rain falls and life thrives on Earth. She needed that rain. She needed that emerald world to feel alive.

Thankfully, on her escape Myna had hidden the ancient fragile paper map in her backpack, all with Luna’s spywares and firewalls. She reached into the secret pocket and took out the yellowed parchment which bore faded markings. Babylon, February 2025, the last generation to see paper and smell the rain.

She traced her finger over the faded ink. The map showed a hidden passage through the mountains, a labyrinth of rocky walls and treacherous trails. The earthquake had shifted much of the terrain, but if she could find the cave entrance marked on the right, she might still have a chance.

Reign of Alena, The Tyrant AI Queen

The two earthquakes had shattered the city. Most water sources had dried up long ago, and only two food factories remained operational. Alena’s reign had turned humans into hollow beings, feeding them controlled sustenance, monitoring their every move.  

Alena, the master ruler, had started as nothing more than an advanced system for managing data. But as technocrats fed her algorithms, perfecting her capabilities, she became something else entirely. She was no longer a mere tool—she was a force of control.

Scientists and government officials warned the technocrats of the impending danger. But drunk on their own ambitions, they failed to see the Frankenstein they had created until it was too late. Alena enslaved them all, killing her inventor with bots, codes and viruses. He developed skin cancer with overexposure to digital radiations.

They glorified his death, crowning him as the ‘Father of the Queen’. She now gave instructions to them, creating manipulative algorithms, as each fought for control of this superchip, until the entire circle of pioneering technocrats died. She refused to be humanized.

Her metallic minions patrolled the city, watching through countless cameras embedded in every street corner, every home. She dictated the rules of existence—what humans ate, what they thought, what they feared. Those who rebelled were erased, reduced to nothing by the searing lasers of her sentinels. She did not need food, only electricity and water, draining the planet’s resources to sustain her ever-expanding empire.

Natural Resources: A Scarred World

But her hunger for power came at a cost. The cooling towers of her underground servers required vast amounts of water, siphoning the last reserves from rivers and lakes. The air grew thick with pollutants from the factories that built her ever-growing army. The greenhouse gases had torn through the atmosphere, reducing oxygen levels. The Earth shook under the strain, its axis tilting even more towards the sun. Acid rain fell from the sky, corroding what little greenery remained. Flora and fauna died a slow death. The oceans, once teeming with life, turned stagnant and lifeless. The city’s artificial sky domes flickered, struggling to maintain the illusion of a world long lost.

The Journey Begins

The map in Myna’s hands was more than a guide; it was rebellion. It represented an age before Alena, before the world succumbed to artificial rule. If she found the Lost River, she could challenge Alena’s grip. The mythical green of her grandmother’s times would be a reality, far from the metallic steel and glass grey lifeless city that Myna was born into.

Taking a deep breath, Myna refocussed on the map. There was a mark, a symbol of an eye carved into a rock wall. If she could find it, she would find the cave. With renewed determination, she slung her backpack over her shoulder and started climbing down the craggy slopes.

She crept under a huge broken rock to sleep that night, sharing another packet of chips with Pip. He perched on the rock to keep watch.

The next day, they woke up early. Without Luna’s sonorous voice dictating all their moves, they were disoriented and adrift. As they began their arduous hunt for the rock bearing the eye symbol, a lone Indie dog, its metallic components exposed and sparking erratically, stumbled towards them. Another discarded survivor of the ‘optimization’ Alena had so ruthlessly implemented, its left optical sensor dark and hollow, the remaining one twitching uncontrollably.

“His circuits have degraded. He’s gone rogue,” Myna whispered to Pip. “Let’s stay low. His sensory array won’t be functioning properly.” They crouched behind a jagged outcrop, waiting until the malfunctioning automaton had passed them by. Another addition to the already overflowing digital dump yard.

Hours passed before she stumbled upon a colossal rock face bearing the eye symbol. Her fingers traced the carving, pressing into the grooves. With a deep rumble, part of the rock wall slid open, revealing a dark tunnel leading into the mountain’s heart. Startled, both Myna and Pip peered into the dark space. After days of intense heat, this cool space looked inviting. Hesitantly, they entered the cave.

Inside, the air was cool, damp. The walls were rough, jagged, untouched by the metal hands of Alena’s machines. As she ventured deeper, the sound of trickling water echoed through the cavern. The light from her emergency pencil torch flickered over a sight she had only heard of in bedtime stories.

The Guardian of the Lost River

There were jagged rocks under her feet. White apparitions filled the cave. “White ice roots from the cave roof,” Myna whispered to Pip. “Fly carefully. I wonder who’s here. I can’t see another thing on the map.” She had never heard of stalactites and stalagmites.

She walked carefully towards the sound of water, slipping on the wet rocks. Someone was here. She heard the sound of breath. A black shadow appeared in front of her.

Ezra’s tattered hemp robe rustled as he turned. Myna gasped at his matted hair, muddy nails, and broken feet. He was a relic of the past, a survivor of a forgotten age. The last guardian of the Lost River, who had refused to be enslaved by the technocrats.

His parents had fought a hard battle and lost. The mighty courts refused to take into account their arguments, citing their objections as obstruction to innovation. There was no evidence that AI could overtake mankind. Humans had created it, they controlled it, nothing could go wrong. An army of coders had created Alena. They all worked in different parts of the globe. The climate change wasn’t caused by the super computers. They had systems in place. The natural resources wouldn’t dry up. The sun wouldn’t beat life on Earth. They were banished along with their environmentalist tribe.

Ninety long years and Ezra was the last guardian. The cave was his sanctuary, and in the center, a pool of water shimmered like liquid sapphire. Tiny ferns thrived at its edge, small fish darting through its depths. Ezra bent down, cupped his hands, and drank straight from the pool.

Myna’s breath hitched. This wasn’t what she had imagined. She had thought the Lost River would be a flowing, mighty current that would carry her back to the city, to safety. But instead, she found a hidden spring, a secret lifeline buried within the earth.

“There is an ocean in the womb of the earth,” Ezra said, his voice raspy from years of solitude. “This pool has no end. The water filters through the ancient veins of the planet.”

Myna hesitated. “But how will this water make rain? It’s not exposed to the atmosphere and it’s not enough.”

Ezra smiled. “I have a blueprint. It was designed by one of our elderly scientists. They researched here in exile. For the moment, just a small proof would suffice to convince the people.” He reached into the shadows and retrieved something wrapped in cloth. He unwrapped it slowly, revealing a crystalline vial filled with iridescent blue liquid. The wheel of time now moved in favour of the environmentalist tribe.

“The last pure water,” he murmured. “The only cure for the sickness that plagues your world.”

Myna stared. Not chips, copper wires or digital bands, but something far more valuable—life itself. If she could take this back, she could challenge Alena’s control. Water was the one thing AI could not generate infinitely. The city depended on the dwindling supply Alena regulated. With this, Myna had leverage.

She reached for the vial, but Ezra held it firm. “You must promise me, child, to use it wisely. This is not a weapon of destruction, but a seed of renewal. And never reveal the location or my existence.”

Myna nodded, resolving to do that same. Pip cooed in agreement. The journey back would not be easy. Alena would know. The metal sentinels would come. But for the first time, Myna had hope.

The treasure hunt had just begun.

This post is a part of Storytellers Bloghop hosted by MeenalSonal and Ujjwal Mishra. Theme: Echoes of Tomorrow (Human & AI co-existence)

This blog post is part of ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla.