I Bleed

Chapter One : Vertical

The radio sizzled as it switched stations. A female voice churned on about the latest nuclear spill. My GPS binged as it told me a red-light camera was nearby. I switched of the radio and GPS. Silence; only to be broken by the ding of my phone. Purity was hard to find these days. I lifted up my phone, holding the thin, transparent screen in the palm of my hand. It was Doctor Mackenzie. He wondered where I was. I put my phone down ignorantly and looked upward from my windshield. The tall, green-blue tower shone in a short distance. Where did he think I was?

I yawned. For 6:00 am, I was still quite tired. I guess I don't normally work 'till ten. It still seemed as if the idea of watching Doctor Makenzies test fail again was what tired me. He always 'promised results' but never delivered. At least they were usually a few months apart. If it was more often, I'd be sick of it already; but the chance of an occasional good story is to much to pass up at the moment. Work is (in the most cliche of ways) running dry.

I soon arrived at Lexicon Industries. The place is apparently 'decidated to scientific study', but most of it's operations are for money making purposes. I've watched it grow from greed over the years. Perhaps the original owner intended for the corporation to be true to its word, but the owner now must be a greedy bastard.

The elevator dinged as I reached floor 332. I stepped out of the elevator, confident this was a waste of time. Doctor Mackensie rushed around the corner, and smiled openly when he saw me.

"Mr Curtis! You are just in time! She has woken up!" The old man cheered gleefully.

"I will be impressed when I see this android myself, Doctor." I say sternly, and followed him to the 'test chamber viewing room', as he called it. The lights switched on, and I could see her through the cameras and the one-way mirror. She sat motionless on a comfortable looking bed, her hand on her lap. She was desolate and cold, inhuman. What did Mackenzie think was different.

He walked up to the microphone and said: "Verity, could you please say hello to Mr Curtis?"

Her eyes lit up and she smiled, looking up at the mirror.

"Mr Curtis, you came to visit again? It's been so long!" She said happily. She seemed more alive then usual. Perhaps Mackenzie had a break through...

"Yes, hello Verity, I came back to see you. How are you?" I said into the microphone.

"I'm very good, thank you! But these walls are awfully bland. Don't you agree, John?" Verity said. I was about to speak before I noticed a panic in the room. There was audio transcript being recording, number flashing on the screens, a diagram of Verity's robotic module chip with highlighted parts. I turned to Mackenzie.

"Something wrong?" I said. He inhaled.

"No everything's perfect. Wonderful! She isn't just responding to stimuli anymore. She is showing emotion and conversational interest."

"Yes, these walls are very bland. Do you like any color in particular, Verity?" I asked quickly, looking for response.

"Blue. I like blue." She said very robotically.

"She is programmed to say that..." Mackenzie sighed.

"What color do you really like Verity?" I asked her, prodding.

"....yellow...." she said quietly. I smiled. Mackenzie did have something here, and this meant work for me. But Mackenzie also seemed as surprised as I was to see Verity act this way. Perhaps something just didn't add up, I laughed to myself.

A short sigh came from Doctor Mackenzie. He shook his head and walked over to the door, opening it to reveal solider with rifles pointing my way. I glanced at Mackenzie before holding up my hands in surrender. I froze as they forced my hands down into the handcuffs. Mackenzie and his fellow scientists continued work like they were unaware I was being dragged away.

"Mackenzie! Did you do this?!" I yelled once my mouth decided to open. He turned and glanced at me before returning to his computer. Asshole.