The Millennials (ON HOLD) #Wattys2016

Chapter 9

"Little guy, how did you find me the other night?" I ask Sav as he plays with a chrome army tank that I bought him from the store. The tank came with Solid soldiers. I specifically chose the pack with the Black soldier who reminded me of Midu. I didn't realize it was creepy until I was walking home with a miniature Midu in my hand.  

Sav continues playing with the chrome tank and making shooting noises. 

"You look like my sister." He finally says. 

I freeze for a moment. Of course.

"I thought you were Sammi, so I followed you here but then" Sav continues but is distracted by the chrome tank which he finds out makes shooting noises. 

"But then what?" I call him back to attention. 

"Hm?" He questions confused and seeming to forget what we were talking about. His big eyes stare up at me. 

"You followed me home but then what, sweetie?" I ask. 

"Then you left  and didn't come back until a few hours and then I had to hide from the bad people." Sav seems sad as he plays with one of the soldier action figures. He twists the arm up. 

"What bad people?" I allow him to continue but am cautious not to upset or scare him. I had to see exactly how much Sav understood about his circumstances. He was still very smart for his young age. 

"The bad people trying to take me away from Grandma." He answers. 

His head swings down. 

"Do you miss, Grandma?" I ask. 

He nods. 

I pull him into my lap. 

"Do you want to go see Grandma and Madie?" I ask. His face lights up and he smiles. 

I kiss his cheek. He smells just like my body wash.  

Everything in me wants to take him to see his family but I know for a fact that they are watching Sammi, even though she has returned home. Mostly for her disruptive behavior. I think of a better plan. 

I spend the evening piecing my maidbot back together, I rewire her software and delete news notices and warnings from her memory slot. Tampering with a maidbot was illegal, mostly because they are meant to keep us safe and warn us of any threats. 

But they were also meant to work with our government in keeping scavengers or anyone dangerous out of our company. After fixing the maidbot, I teach Sav how to use it and he begins to enjoy the company of the robot. 

I call Izzy and ask her to pick up 2 old cellphones from the garbage tech warehouse and we take an hour or two to rewire them as well. Izzy is faster with the technology than I am, which surprises me because I'm pretty damn fast. 

"If you put the chip in backwards, you still get service on the phones but the GPS and other tracking benefits are forfeited." She warns as I am finishing up the device. 

I do as she says. 

We finish the two black phones and look them over. A moment passes and I watch as Izzy purses her lips. She picks up the phone she just finished and slams the screen on the floor swiftly. 

The screen breaks with a zig-zagged line sliding diagonally across it. 

I stare at her confused and she points to the crack which also runs through the middle of the front camera. 

"Disabled face recognition." She shrugs. 

I crack the screen in the same way that she did and we dressed in black, in the middle of the night and headed to 251 Canva.