Further North

Doctor, I think I'm bleeding out from my circuitry

The light seemed to pour into the room—bright as the heavens above—before Julian realized he was laying on the cold, concrete floor.

He groaned, "what happened?" His head throbbed. Reaching behind his neck, he felt a huge divot in the back of his skull. It hurt like hell.

When his senses came to him—finally—he saw the doctor running frantically, silently muttering curses as he went. The world swayed beneath his feet as Julian stood up with a grunt. He began moving towards the door when a man, huge with stone-like muscles, blocked the way and grabbed Julian by the neck. There shouldn't have been any need to breathe, but his fight response triggered his brain to feel fear—nothing else seemed to happen. It was in an instant after that brief pause of fear before his head whammed against the metal door frame, and everything went dark.

—-

Past the plastic brush, a young woman Julian recognized sat on the edge of a fountain. The brilliant, deep sapphire blue water gurgled behind her with a whooshing sound of the water gallantly falling into the pool below. She had lovely yellow hair and was oddly familiar. In an instant, as she turned her head, Julian was before her, slowly sitting next to the beautiful goddess.

Words were exchanged, but none were recognizable.

A smile, a laugh...and soon, it all faded.

—-

Bright, harsh lights blinded him, and for a second Julian thought he was in heaven—if there was such a thing as robot heaven—but soon blue curtains came into view, and he realized he was in a hospital bed. A loud machine whirred next to him, and as he turned, he saw an enormous tank filled with bubbling clear green liquid, and a small brain that bobbed up...and down...up...then down...

"A real—live—human brain?!"  The exclamation was met with harsh whispers.

"Listen...the government would be all over our ass...can't do anything about it...ignore it..."

Julian tilted his head toward the door and gasped: a young blonde doctor was standing over him.

"You weren't supposed to see that." She sternly said as the world began to melt.

Julian immediately lost consciousness.

—-

When he opened his eyes this time, Julian was in his bed, at home, and alone as always. He didn't have any visions after the hospital, or if that was just one continuous vision—he never had any visions where he woke up multiple times. Nonetheless, he got up to face the dark morning, changed, and had breakfast. Then, he went to the warehouse where Doctor Shawl worked—maybe he'd have answers as to what happened after the security breach.

Poor Rachael was at the front desk when Julian walked in. She became rather spooked at his appearance, ducking under the lip of the white table, letting him pass without another glance towards her.

"Doctor!" Julian raised his voice. He was speedily walking down the hall when a loud clanging noise echoed from one of the research labs. "Doctor?" He ducked his head in through the door.

Behind what appeared to be thousands and thousands of clear test tubes and lab equipment, Doctor Shawl's face hid; His face was warped by the round bottles.

"Julian! I—" the doctor jumped at the robot's sudden presence and began to stutter, "I—what're you doing here?"

Julian straightened himself, hardening his voice, "what are you doing?" He crossed his arms.

"Well,  Julian," the doctor spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, almost mockery, "if you must know, I work with a drug syndicate. Those packages I wanted you to deliver are designer drugs."

Julian opened his mouth to start speaking. "What happened the other night? Wasn't there—"

"No. No, there wasn't anything to be worried about." The Doctor spoke quickly and loudly. He awkwardly smiled and huffed before he turned around and fumbled to another table with more lab equipment. He rambled on about how he was helping people—making them feel happy.

"They've lost a true thing to this world—a world without happiness." He pivoted on his heels, "but I can help! Not to mention the amount of money I'm making with this."

But no matter what the doctor said, or how crazy he was or sounded, Julian's mind kept asking the same question over and over again:

"Who was I before I met you?"

The doctor stopped and muttered out almost unintelligently, "well...I'm mean...you—you were you! Always a—a robot if you will—you never had a life before working with me...other than your military experience..."

Julian pressed, "what about me? Why am I so special? I know it's not because of my grafted skin—that's—that's been done before..." he paused, "at the hospital, that wasn't a dream, was it?" The doctor silently stared back.

"Ahhhrggg!" Julian clutched his temple as his head began to throb—no—it began to burn. He roughly got to one knee before pushing himself off the cold tiled floor, launching himself at the doctor.

"Who made me?!" Julian grabbed the doctor by the shoulders and pushed him to the ground so that he was on top.

The doctor grunted, "no one made you do anything, fool! You're capable of making your own decisions!" He spat in Julian's face and attempted escaping by trying to shift his weight. Alas, it was to no avail.

"Not like that!" Julian vehemently shouted. "I want to know who my creator is."

"That is highly classified!" Doctor Shawl squirmed from underneath Julian, but he was pulled back to the ground—face first.

"Tell. Me. Who. My creator is. My parents!" Julian dug the sharp end of his metal plating into the crook of the doctor's shoulder blade, speaking every word with clarity.

Howling with pain, the doctor pleaded, "ah! They're a team of researchers that—oh—manufactured you—"

"Their names."

Grunting, the doctor first swallowed before he shakily spoke: "Doctor Thomas Walker and Doctor Hailey Auburn."