by Dena Nicotra
When the last guard fell, she turned very casually and walked to join us. I had a strong urge to high five her, but decided against it when I realized how ridiculous that would seem. As if reading my thoughts, she turned toward me, and smiled slyly. I remained silent as the elevator doors closed. Mic, on the other hand, had plenty to say.
“That was really well done, Two!”
“Thank you, Mic.”
“It was rather impressive to watch,” muttered Ben, as if trying to justify to me why I should be congratulating my double. I grunted and stared at the ceiling until the elevator doors opened again. We were met with a cool breeze that carried the acidic scent of wet concrete. The sky overhead was bruised with dark clouds, and the rain was falling steadily. I scanned the area warily. There were two silver hovcars parked side by side, and one older dark blue smart car with a missing tire. The driver’s side door was open, and the remains of a man in a business suit hung out grotesquely. From where we were, I could see that his mouth was wide open in what must have been his final attempt to scream for help. I couldn’t smell rotting flesh, but I had to assume it wasn’t a recent kill, because there was no reason for anyone to be dressed in business attire anymore. I knew we would have to pass him to get to the hovcar, and I dreaded that. The thought of it snapped me from the sappy sentiment I’d had toward Two only moments before.
“It looks clear,” said Ben, as he stepped around me to exit the elevator. I instinctively grabbed his arm to stop him.
“Wait,” I whispered urgently. Both Ben and Mic looked at me for an explanation. I pointed to the dark blue smart car. I could see what looked like shoes, and when they moved, I knew for sure that someone (or something) was crouched behind it. Two suddenly pushed me aside with enough force to cause me to slam the side of my head against the elevator wall. When I recovered, I let out a string of cuss words but all I saw was a blur of motion as she darted across the parking lot. A young female with dark, soppy hair appeared from behind the vehicle. Her hands were held up over her head in the surrender position.
“Please! In the name of God, don’t hurt me!” she shouted. Two wasn’t moved by her plea. In one fluid motion, she had the girl by the throat. She had elevated her off the ground, leaving her pink tennis shoes dangling a few inches from the concrete. The rest of us seemed immobilized by this display.
“She’s not human,” Two called out flatly. I looked at Mic for clarification, but he just shook his head. Obviously, he was equally baffled by this. I’d never in my life seen a simp beg for mercy…from another simp. It was perfectly clear that this was a first for Ben as well, because his mouth hung open in disbelief.
“You can’t let her kill her, Mic,” Ben blurted.
“The fuck you can’t. If she’s a simp, she’s a risk to all of us,” I said, making my way out of the elevator. The rain splattered my hair against my head as I moved forward. I had to see this for myself. The girl gurgled in a desperate attempt to…breath it seemed.
“Destroy her?” Two questioned, looking me dead in the eyes.
I nodded yes. “No!” Mic shouted. I could hear the sound of his shoes smacking hard against the wet cement, and knew that he was running up behind us. I couldn’t take my eyes off of Two. It was as if she was daring me, or maybe she was daring herself. Her glassy eyes narrowed as the footsteps behind us fell silent, indicating that the men had joined us.
“Two, hold her still, but do not harm her,” Mic commanded.
“Why in the fuck?” I shot back.
“Because, don’t you see? She’s not infected! Her responses are conditional, learned behavior. She’s got to be an upgraded child.”
He turned his attention to the simp. “I.D.E. Alpha, Echo, Dataset, Composite…Simply, identify.”
The simp’s eyes rolled upward, revealing only the whites. Her arms went limp at her sides as she spoke, “I am infant upgrade 9035 Alpha Composite registered to IHSIR number 33276944957511. Status…deceased.”
Mic nodded, as if this meant something significant.
“Identify your human profile,” he said softly.
“Deraline Faith Roberts. Age simulated…sixteen. Daughter of Keith and Marietta Roberts. Residence…destroyed.”
“Well?” I nudged impatiently. We were all soaked for the sake of a synthetic love child who’d lost her mommy and daddy, and now I was supposed to feel sorry for it?
“Well, we need to take her with us,” he said matter-of-factly.
“What-the-fuck-ever. Can we get in the stupid hovcar and go, then?” I just wanted out of this. Whatever it took to get my ass back to the desert and away from the city was all I cared about at the moment. I’d destroy her myself later, and if she so much as blinked at me wrong, I intended to carve out her pretty plastic heart.
The five of us settled into the hovcar, and within moments we were out of there. I refused to sit next to the simps, and claimed the front seat for myself. Ben clucked with the simps in the back and I had to bite my tongue as the teen chattered about how frightened she’d been, and how she’d tried to save her parents. Parents? I would have tossed the bitch out and let her fall to her death if I could have. As it was, we weren’t hovering high enough to have done her any damage. As we climbed, the roof of the building below us grew smaller. I watched as a swarm of simps appeared. They looked like black ants. Shifting my attention, I watched the rain ripple in sheets across the windshield. The wiper blades did little to help.
“So why hasn’t Deraline been infected?” asked Ben.
“I’m not entirely sure,” Mic said, keeping his eyes straight ahead. I had already begun to accept the fact that he didn’t have all the answers, even though I knew he needed to believe in his ability to end this. Every man has his pride. I crossed my arms over my chest and let my head fall back against the seat. I fought hard to resist it, but eventually the rhythmic tempo of the blades lulled me to sleep.
I woke to the whir of the doors opening, and immediately jerked my head around. Mic’s eyes met mine and he smiled. “We’re home.” I yawned and collected my pack. Giz appeared at my door. His eyes were wide with excitement.
“Well?”
“See for yourself,” said Mic. My double leaned forward from the backseat.
“Nice to meet you,” she said. Some moments are priceless. The look on Giz’s face was one of child-like delight and wonder. He was so distracted, in fact, that he didn’t even ask about our other two guests. Ben and Deraline were both leaning against each other for support. Ben was clearly asleep, and it appeared that Deraline was in some sort of sleep mode too. It had grown dark, but the overhead light in the hovcar offered enough light for me to see the smile spreading across Mic’s face. If nothing else, he’d impressed Giz. As for myself, I wanted a little distance from this little reunion. A hot shower and a soft bed would do me a world of good.
I climbed out of the vehicle and extended my arms over my head to stretch. As the others appeared to meet Two and congratulate Mic, I distanced myself by moving away from the vehicle. The black sky was clear and filled with brilliant twinkling stars. For a moment, I marveled at that. The city was far behind us, and I felt safer in the desolation of the desert. The excitement escalated as they learned about Deraline, and Alice was squealing over it as she squeezed Giz’s arm. Great. She’d have a friend to play with. Maybe they could even do each other’s hair. It was strange to watch a mirror image of myself interact with the others. Her smile looked so friendly.
“I’ll see you inside,” I said, not caring who heard me. I pulled the door open and sighed with relief as I walked down the hall toward my room. I’d done my good deed, if you could call it that. I was done impressing people. My double could take that job for a while. Inside my room, I pulled my shirt over my head and let it fall to the floor. I sat on the edge of the bed to unlace my boots and kicked them off one by one. Leaving a trail of clothing behind me, I made my way to the shower and I stayed there until the water ran cold. I did not intent to join the others, s
o when I finished, I dried myself off and climbed in bed nude. My stomach rumbled in protest, but I didn’t care. No one came to disturb me, and as I lay there in the dark, a part of me theorized that Mic had just used me to get me to agree to his plans. I didn’t linger in this thought for very long.
I threw the covers back, and rummaged through my pack for a black tank top and a pair of worn out sweat pants. I didn’t bother with shoes, and I didn’t take a weapon with me. Instead, I stomped down the hallway toward the light I saw in the lobby. I fully expected to see the ‘other’ me engaged in a conversation with the group. What I came up on was the dork duos silently clacking on their laptops. Mic and Giz were sitting across from each other at a fold-out table they had pulled in from somewhere. Deraline and Two stood motionless to the right. They looked like giant dolls with their glassy eyes staring off in the distance and nothing. My footsteps did nothing to distract either of them, so I cleared my throat. Mic looked up at this. His lips curved in a gratuitous smile. Giz grunted, which was the equivalent of acknowledging my presence.
“I thought you’d gone to bed. There’s some fruit and sliced bread and cheese up there on the table,” said Mic.
“I wasn’t as tired as I thought,” I replied, crossing the room to the table. The assortment there surprised me. I hadn’t seen purple grapes in a while, and immediately popped a few in my mouth.
“You need to eat,” he said without looking up this time.
“Yeah, probably.” I took a slice of the bread and a small cube of cheese, then tucked my feet up to position myself comfortably on the couch. If there was going to be some code-genius breakthrough, I wanted to be there to see it happen in real time.
“So Giz, where’s Alice?” I asked, shoving a torn piece of bread in my mouth before biting a piece of cheese to go with it.
“She’s gone to bed, Lee. She knew that we,” he gestured with his thumb at Mic, “would be very busy, and she didn’t want to interrupt that.”
“Well, that’s real sweet,” I said with deliberate sarcasm.
“Can’t you see we’re busy here?” The annoyance in his voice was laughable because it caused him to sound like a squeaky geek, which was exactly what he was.
“Oh, I’m sorry Giz. I didn’t mean to interrupt,” I belched and flipped him off.
“Lee, you are quite possibly the rudest bitch I’ve ever known.”
“And you are the whiniest little asshole I’ve ever known,” I said with a yawn. His opinion of me didn’t hurt my feelings. There was no love lost between us, because that was just the way we’d grown to communicate together. There was truth in how we felt about each other, but that was a given in our situation. People who would never gravitate toward each other under normal circumstances found ways to coexist now. Giz got on my nerves, but he was growing on me in a way I couldn’t explain. Maybe his determination reminded me a little of myself.
“Why couldn’t you have just found another hole to go crawl in?” Giz snarled.
Mic interrupted our banter before it could escalate further. “Lee, come here. I want you to see this,” he said. I shuffled over to stand behind him and watch while he brought up a new screen. “No, don’t watch me, watch Two.” I turned to stare at my double. Her smile caught me off-guard. It was so…not me.
“What the fuck?” I asked, ignoring Giz and his loud chuckling.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” Two’s voice sounded softer than mine. I took a step backwards, certain she would pounce and attack any second.
“Don’t freak, Lee, she’s not going to do anything to hurt us,” Mic said, as he leaned back in his chair. I turned on Giz in that moment. “Shut your mouth, Giz, or I swear on all that is holy, I will do it for you.”
“Would you prefer that I leave the room while you have a private conversation?” Two’s question made me blanch. “I’d never say that, Mic. I’d never fucking say something like that! What the hell did you do to her?”
“I reprogrammed her.”
“To be what? A retro housewife?”
“No, it’s not like that. She’s reconditioned to be dynamically different from your core psychological persona.”
“Translation: he gave her manners and compassion,” Giz muttered.
“Stick it up your ass, chicken boy,” I spat.
“Please don’t allow my presence to cause dissension in your relationship. I’m merely a compilation of synthetic flesh and electronic sensors. I’m sure it is distressing that my image mirrors your own, but be assured that I am not you, Lee.” She reached out and patted my shoulder, and all the while that sickly sweet smile remained on her face.
“Oh Jesus Christ, now I’m being counseled by me. This is sick, you guys.”
“Perhaps you should take some time for yourself and have some sex with Mic. That would make you feel much better, and you know it,” Two said through that ridiculous smile. I turned to glare at the guys, but they were unable to keep straight faces. Giz was laughing so hard he was snorting, and Mic was pretending to hide behind his monitor. Two was still now. I looked at her and that stupid frozen smile. She was paused now. Her doll eyes stared at nothing. Obviously, he had shut her down following the floor show.
“Was all that just for me?”
“Yeah, we figured you’d show up eventually,” Giz chirped between cackles. “Man that was priceless!” He added, as he wiped his eyes. I wasn’t laughing.
“Okay, c’mon Lee, we only did that to lighten things up, and to show you that she’s nothing more than a sack of wires, as you say.” Mic was doing his best to justify this, but I wasn’t biting. I didn’t find it funny that my new lover was playing with a life size puppet of me. I had risked my life to go with him to IDE. I had put my trust in him and his idea to create a simp version of me that could somehow change things. Instead, I got boy humor. To say I was pissed off would be an understatement. I was so worked up that I didn’t hear Barb walk up behind me. When she placed her hand on my shoulder, I whirled around and almost decked her.
“Whoa! I’m sorry, Lee. I didn’t mean to frighten you. I thought you knew I was here.”
“Well I didn’t. You should announce yourself; that’s dangerous Barb.”
“She said she was sorry,” said Mic gently.
“I know what she said! Jesus Christ!” Just then, Alice poked her head around the corner. I looked up and sighed. “You might as well come in Alice. They’re not busy working, like Giz wanted you to think. They’re playing with their dolls.” The look on her face told me that she was completely confused.
“It’s okay Alice, come on over here and sit with me. Lee’s just being a bitch as usual,” said Giz.
“I’m not being a bitch. You want to see me be a bitch, Giz? Keep making jokes at my expense, and I’ll show you just how much of a bitch I can really be.”
“Is that a threat, Lee?” Rooster boy was puffing up in front of his lady. Who knew he had balls?
“You bet your damn ass it is, Gizzard shit.”
“Lee, easy, easy now.” Mic was out of his chair and holding up both hands in a surrender position. “We didn’t mean to upset you. Seriously, our intention was only to show you how inanimate simps are, and how successful our attempts are to modify the genetic coding. I know you’re pissed right now, but what you haven’t stopped to realize is that our demonstration proves something. We’ve modified Two’s coding.”
“Well, what does that mean exactly?” I asked reluctantly.
“It means we’ve created a warrior that can fight back, at a minimum. You saw how beneficial that was to us back at IDE. My biggest concern was infection, but not only is that not happening…we think we’ve found the string that was the entry point, and we’ve locked down her coding.
“Geek speak rambling doesn’t help us, Mic. What does that mean in plain English?”
“It means we’ve succeeded beyond our initial hopes. It was fortuitous that we found Deraline, but she really held the missing piece to the puzzl
e.” I glanced over at the simp teen. Her skin looked so dewy and perfect. Everything about her radiated innocence and youth. I absently wondered if she looked like her mother. That is to say, I wondered if she was fashioned after the genetics of the woman who bought her.
“What was the missing piece?” I asked.
“She’s an infant upgrade 9035 Alpha Composite, and all Alpha Composites were fitted with vector DNA code,” said Mic.
“It was the way we replicated traits through the upgrade process,” added Giz.
“Exactly, and what we’ve hypothesized is that this code strand is what kept Deraline from becoming infected.” I twirled my wrist to nudge him toward the point faster. “It appears unreceptive to Yen’s virus,” said Mic.
“That’s good news for us, right?” said Barbara.
“Yes, but that’s not the best part. We think we can manually replicate the vector coding, and if we can do that…it’s transferable,” Mic said as a slow smile spread across his face.
I didn’t say anything for several moments because I was literally trying to process what this meant.
“Everything that we’ve been working on has been close, but not quite right. The closest we’ve come to a solution has been the pause, which isn’t more than a temporary solution, as we know,” said Giz. He was standing now, and his animated body language was a clear indicator of how big of a deal this was to them. Barbara was perched on the arm of a nearby chair, and I heard her giggle with excitement.
“This is incredible news!” she said.
“Yeah, it really is,” I said, biting back my doubt. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in what they were telling me. It was more about not wanting to be disappointed. A million questions swirled through my head, but I didn’t have the strength to go into them. Besides, doing so would fuel my own sense of hope, and I’d learned not to allow myself to do that. Mic rose from his chair and pulled me into a celebratory embrace. “I’m sorry I upset you,” he whispered in my ear. I gave him a tired smile and listened as they continued to explain their plans. Not all of it made sense to me, but it sounded promising. From what they said, it should only take them a solid six months of work to isolate the vector code. From there, they planned to inoculate Two first. Giz explained that they could not consider this an accurate test because she was already genetically and programmatically unique. To properly test, they would have to capture another simp. I wanted to argue this, but it was late and I was dead tired. Besides, it would be a month before they were ready for that. We left Two and Deraline standing motionless in the dark, and went to our rooms to get some rest.
