Artificial Tears

Chapter 41

I finally found her, the robot known as Edith.

At first I feel hesitant, knowing full well what she did just a couple of minutes ago to those guys I met before.

She's not human.

She's not human.

She's just a machine, making it look like a human being.

My mind keeps telling me.

It's a machine.

It can't feel.

It can't be human.

It's like that thought experiment about some Chinese room.

A robot with a strong AI 'pretending' to be human, because it can't do anything else.

The robot before me sits slumped over against a door.

I heard it slam shut before.

I heard an alarm before.

An arm has been wrapped in cloth, probably to stop it from 'bleeding'.

It 'breathes in' raggedly, almost as if having difficulty to.

A sob follows.

One filled with despair.

Is this before me really just a machine?

Just make-believe?

Another sob and then she starts to shake, almost as if truly afraid.

Without thinking I reach out to her to gently tap her shaking shoulders.

She screams, readying her arms to hit me.

"Edith, it's me." I quickly answer.

The girl drops her raised arm and starts to shake even worse.

"Detective North?" Her voice sounds like that of a human girl that has just witnessed the worst one could.

I nod, even though she might not see it in the faint neon light: "Yes, I'm here you get you out."

I reach out my hand to her, knowing full well what she is.

She's not like what is believed to be.

Or at least, I refuse to believe it.

If she truly was just an AI would she be programmed to show emotions like that?

From what was told to me, the experiment was much more limited.

Emotions like these should have never been necessary for a simple project like this.

Edith evolved.

She did and she became human.

Edith reaches out her arm to me that hasn't been wrapped in the makeshift bandage.

I can't help but feel bad for her, still I ask her the question on my mind: "I met two guys before who said that you attacked them." In the back of my mind I remember the smell of the room I had been held in before.

A smell one never forgets one first smelled.

The question is, what did Edith have to do with that.

She shakes her head: "They at-tacked me, I didn't know what to do..." Her voice quivers as she speaks.