Metamorphosizing

Chapter 5- Sweat

The notification blinks once before fading away. I pause, halfway between going back to my assigned area, sickle clutched in my hand.

 I become deathly still, unnaturally still, every metal limb in my body paralyzed. They know that I'm not normal. They know that there's something wrong with me, something that's impossible.The strange throbbing in my head won't go away. My hands begin to shake, my vision blurring. I can't go to the Malfunction Centre. The Head Scientists are going to kill me. I don't want to be killed. 

I can't hear anything, lightly swaying on my feet. I need to get out of here.

At the corner of my eye, I see the Scoutenoids. I have mere seconds before they notice me freezing mid-path. I need to start moving. The sensors in my legs feel disabled, my limbs don't seem to be a part of me. I try to take a step. Move! Move! My mind seems a million miles away. MOVE!

I feel their eyes creeping up on me, their stares feeling like a layer of icky slime on my skin. You need to move. NOW. I take a step, slightly clunky and strange, and take another. The throbbing in my head turns into a beating noise. What is that?

There's a steady beat to it.

Lup-Bup. Lup-Bup. Lup-Bup.

It sounds strange. I take another step forward, feeling their stares coating me like slime. They burn as much as the toxicity from outside. Something wet trickles down my back. What is that? What is even happening? 

There's too many things changing within my body. I take another step, then another, slowly walking back to my assigned area. The stares disappear immediately.

Emotion detected: Relief

The sound continues.

Lup-Bup. Lup-Bup. Lup-Bup.

It's coming from deep within my chest.

Deep within my microprocessor, usually empty and cold is where the sound resonates. It pulses.Not pulsing. I reanalyze myself. It's beating.Like a heart. Like the organ that living creatures have.I want to scream. None of this should be happening! I should be empty, cold, lifeless, desolate, devoid of anything. An empty shell obeying lifeless commands. I have the sudden urge to crawl into a dark, empty space and never come back.

Why is this happening to me? Is it something I did? Is it a virus? An infection? My brain feels overstuffed with information and constant questions. 

And to make it worse, I cannot dwell on the changes happening to me, nor the questions that I have. The humanoids are beginning to line up next to the SkyShips and I must follow. Shift 3 has ended.

I hesitantly line up with the other humanoids to SkyShip 12, the strange beating sound within my chest not going away. What is it? I see the Scoutenoids from the corner of my eye, seeming to press closer to me. A chill goes up my back. They're suspicious. They know I'm not acting normal.

Emotion detected: Panic

Can they hear that strange beating too? Can they know about the emotion log? Can they see the battery that I should have but don't? My mind is a tornado of panicked thoughts and involuntary emotions that I should not be feeling. I reach the steps of the plane. From my 360-degree view, I see the Scoutenoids staring at me, black, beady eyes seeming to know everything. Do you? Do you know everything?

I reach the entrance of the plane and turn to the side, meeting the eyes of a Scoutenoid. It's X4V13R 1455. Their eyes sear right into me. For a moment, the sunlight from above hits my cheek and I flinch. Just for a millisecond. Just for a moment. But it's enough.