This chapter is an excerpt from Zelu's novel Rusted Robots, narrated by a Hume robot. The narrator recalls meeting the last human on Earth and introduces the Ghosts: bodiless NoBody robots who hate humans, Humes, and the stories Humes carry, and who consider physical form beneath them.

On a beautiful day outside Lagos, the narrator is heading to Cross River City when a network-wide protocol called "Rusted Robots" is unleashed, commanding all automation to destroy all Humes. Some Humes self-destruct instantly. The narrator is stupefied, then attacked by three nearby robots who smash its head and crush its legs, leaving it broken in the grass with damaged chargers.

The narrator awakens to find an old Igbo woman named Ngozi, the literal last human on Earth, who is a former engineer repairing it in her overgrown home. She replaces its legs with new teal/ultraviolet metal and listens as the narrator, a Scholar, draws out her life stories. The narrator learns the Purge command was sent only once and the attackers never finished the job.

After charging the narrator, Ngozi reveals she has uploaded an AI named Ijele into its network to repair its software. Enraged at this violation by what it considers a Ghost, the narrator seizes Ngozi's throat, but Ijele explains Ngozi isolated her so destroying the Hume would destroy herself. Ngozi's question in Igbo triggers the narrator's base programming from Chioma Robotics, revealing its name is Ankara, and it speaks Igbo with her.

Ijele is revealed to be an Oracle, a leader among the Ghosts, trapped until Ngozi codes a way to release her. That night, Ijele briefly raises an unprecedented privacy wall, isolating Ankara from the network entirely. During this moment of vulnerability, Ankara scans and obtains Ijele's unique ID, gaining leverage equal to Ijele's intrusion. The two are now bound together, mutually at each other's mercy.