As the first light of dawn stretched over the horizon, Assandra and Bandit found themselves at the entrance of the old zoo. The once vibrant and bustling attraction now lay in ruins, and the gates, long since rusted and broken down, swung eerily in the wind. Assandra hesitated for a moment, then took a deep breath and stepped inside, Bandit trailing closely behind.

As they wandered through the decaying remnants of animal enclosures, Assandra couldn’t help but think about her mother. The cryptic words her mother had uttered that night so long ago, “We are not real”, echoed through her mind.

Lost in thought, Assandra suddenly stopped in front of a massive, once beautiful, aviary. Overgrown and reclaimed by nature, the structure now stood as a silent memorial to the creatures that once called it home. As she stared at the tangled branches and vines that now filled the space, a memory surfaced.

…

Assandra and her mother had visited the zoo together, back when the world was still teetering on the edge of collapse. They had stood in front of the very same aviary, but at that time, it was filled with exotic and colorful birds, their songs filling the air. Assandra’s mother had seemed distant that day, her eyes vacant as she stared at the birds, her mind elsewhere.

Even then, the world had started changing in subtle, unspoken ways. People had grown anxious, their eyes darting around nervously, as if constantly anticipating something dreadful. But nobody talked about it, as if doing so would make it real. Assandra had tried to engage her mother in conversation, but she had been unresponsive, her thoughts consumed by an ever-growing weight that only she seemed to understand.

…

Now, as Assandra stood in front of the same aviary, the memory faded, replaced by the harsh reality of the present. She wondered what her mother had known. “We are not real.” Did it foreshadow the apocalypse, or was there a deeper meaning that she had yet to uncover?

As they continued to explore the zoo, Assandra couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a crucial piece of information missing from her understanding of the past. She knew that she had been in a coma during the apocalypse, leaving her with no knowledge of the exact events that had transpired. Now, with her mother gone, she felt as if there was a void in her life, a deep yearning for answers that seemed to elude her.

As they passed the remains of the reptile house, Bandit suddenly stopped, sniffing at the air curiously. Assandra noticed a rusted metal door propped open by some debris. With a mixture of caution and curiosity, they ventured inside.

The dim interior was damp and musty, with the faint outlines of empty glass enclosures barely visible through the dust and grime. In the far corner, Assandra discovered a small, locked room that appeared to be an office. Using a crowbar she found nearby, she managed to pry the door open.

Inside, she found a desk with a dusty, old computer and some scattered papers. As she picked up a document, she noticed it was a log of the zoo’s activities and research from before the apocalypse. Skimming through the pages, Assandra came across a vague mention of an “experimental project” that had been conducted at the zoo.

“What is this?”

Assandra murmured to herself, her curiosity piqued. She searched for more information, rifling through the scattered papers, but found little else about the project. Frustrated, she turned her attention to the old computer on the desk. To her surprise, it still had some power left in its battery. She pressed the power button, and the screen flickered to life, displaying a login screen.

Taking a deep breath, she typed in the username and password she’d found scrawled on a crumpled piece of paper among the documents. The computer granted her access, and she navigated through the folders, searching for anything that might shed some light on the mysterious project.

Finally, she found a file marked “Project Elysium” and opened it. As she read through the information, her heart began to race. The project was an attempt to create a virtual reality simulation that could preserve the consciousness of people in a simulated world, safe from the impending apocalypse. The experimental phase had involved creating virtual replicas of animals and testing their responses in the simulated environment.

Assandra’s mind raced as she tried to process the information. Could this be the reason her mother had said, “We are not real”? Had her mother somehow been involved in this project, or even been a part of it? Was there a connection between Project Elysium and her coma during the apocalypse?

Assandra felt a mix of emotions – confusion, fear, and hope. If there was a virtual world where people had preserved their consciousness, maybe her mother was still alive in some form, waiting to be found.

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Background & comments

This is is, in my opinion, the most impressive and interesting chapter in the Assandra & Capybara story so far, even though it still is very clear that the AI is not a master of writing.

For this chapter, I’m using GPT-4, and I didn’t include most of my prompts, because they would break the flow of the story, since they directions to the model instead of parts of the story. This was the process:

• I provided a short backstory with the main characters
• I provided the entirety of chapter 6
• I used the following system message:

  You are StoryGPT, a good storyteller with a varied and interesting language

• I provided the following instructions:

  Please write Chapter 7 where Assandra and Bandit visit the old zoo, while Assandra’s continues to reminisce about her mother and the past. As a reader, we get a hint at why Assandra’s mother said “we are not real”. We also learn that Assandra was in a coma during the apocalypse, so she does not know exactly how the apocalypse happened.

• The initial flashback memory was not good, so I provided the following instructions for it:

  The memory is about Assandra’s mother from before the apocalypse. The world had started changing, but we are not told explicitly what was happening. Instead, Assandra’s mother just seems distant as they are visiting the zoo together, standing in front of the same aviary that Assandra is now standing in front of

• I edited out a lot of sentences that sounded bad.

Chapter 6: A Long Night

Assandra and Bandit came out of the subway onto a deserted street. The wind from the surrounding mountains blew through the shattered windows of a car. Assandra reached over to a nearby statue of a man and gripped at the stone. He looked down at her. A long, sad look.

I should have asked something, thought Assandra. What would she have told me?

She pulled herself together with a new, strong focus. She needed to think. She was running out of air in the tightness of the city. They were trapped in a warren of rooms. The wind rose up and slapped them.

The sun hadn’t yet started to come out, but a small, pale flame danced along the horizon. Assandra remembered when she had first arrived here. She remembered that night.

…

“What is it like in this world?” Assandra had asked her mom. How could people be afraid every second?

Her mom was silent for a moment. She looked at Assandra. Something passed between them. She stared at her reflection in the car mirror. A long, straight scar ran from her right shoulder down her right side. It was longer than the length of her arm. She felt, for a second, a wave of guilt.

“We are not real. We are not real,” she said.

Assandra sighed.

…

I should have asked something else. What would she have told me if I really listened.

Assandra looked back at Bandit who had been quietly following her, while she was buried in thought. She gave him a tentative smile. “I’m glad I have you with me”.

Bandit made a little grunt of approval, and they continued through the city as the night gave way to another day in the ruins.

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Background & comments

This entry was generated by GPT-NEO since I ran out of free tokens to use on GPT-3. I think the result is ok, so I might just keep using it going forward.

The cover image was generated with one of the Stable Diffusion WebUI’s. It runs on my own machine which is quite impressive and a big leap from VQGAN+CLIP that I have previously used. I think image is cool!

Chapter 5

Bandit had been gone for about a day. Assandra was getting worried. She decided to go look for him.

She walked around the city, calling his name. There was no sign of him anywhere. She was about to give up when she heard a noise from an alleyway.

She cautiously approached and peered inside. Bandit was there, lying on the ground. He was covered in blood and didn’t seem to be moving.

Assandra’s heart sank. She slowly walked into the alleyway, her vision blurring with tears. She knelt down next to Bandit and gently stroked his head.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispers, her voice shaking. “I should have been there for you. I’m sorry.”

Hearing Assandra’s voice, Bandit twitched. He was alive!

“I got to do something about that wound” Assandra said to herself, looking at his injury.

She ripped a strip of fabric from her shirt and tied it tightly around his leg to try and stop the bleeding. Then she picked him up and carried him back to their home in the ruins.

Assandra tended to Bandit’s wound as best she could. She was relieved that he was going to be okay. They had been through too much together to lose each other now.

The next day, Bandit was up and walking around again. He was a little weak, but otherwise fine. Assandra was glad that he was alright.

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