Crying Metal

Chapter 8: Crying Metal

The blade whirred and groaned, millimeters away from The Girl's neck. I shut my eyes tight.

Instead of hearing the expected splatter and gushing of blood, I heard high-pitched wailing, like metal scraping against metal. I slowly opened my eyes.

Gleaming silver scale-like shells reflected the sparking blade as it scratched in vain against her neck. The Girl had grown scales on her neck to protect her. And yet she still looked asleep! My adrenaline reached its high point as my eyes locked on the girl's face again. My face.

With a whir and a click, the hologram faded. The lights returned to their original harsh glow. I squinted against it painfully.

"Now, now, 407, who was the girl in that hologram?" Dr. Salle strode into the room with an air of superiority.

"It looked like me, Dr. Salle, but -"

"Good. It was you. I am aware you hold no recollection of this. This was our attempt to Upload you. Before you were sedated, you struggled and squirmed unnecessarily, which resulted in the bruises on your knees. However, we injected you with a memory serum so that your vision of this footage would be accompanied with raw emotion."

"You... You tried to Upload me?!" I sputtered in shock. "My father will -"

Dr. Salle sighed. "Your father will be arriving in one hour. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. This was a test to find out how your body would react, seeing that it is so... reminiscent... of First Earth creatures. It reacted amazingly. Uniquely, in fact. Your ability would provide heaps of information for our studies. However, an Uploaded team is descend- er, traveling- to First Earth tomorrow to investigate the remains of that sad planet. You know why we have little emotion," his voice grew softer, "It's because those bloody, barbaric creatures who inhabited First Earth and its messy, sickly plant life left no room for improvement or efficiency. You will be sent down with our first Uploaded team to scout out the area."

My blood boiled with anger, my eyes tearing up. I began to feel a difference in my arms - rather, I didn't feel the electrowires maliciously rubbing against my skin. Instead I felt a hard casing over the areas where the electrowires coiled around me. Glancing at my arm, I saw a blur of molten silver solidifying over my skin. The electrowires were thin and tore as the silver formed into the scales I had watched in the video. I reached up swiftly to rub the tears away from my eyes. But glancing at my fingers, I saw a thin metallic liquid in place of the salty water. I was crying metal, and I was angry and lethal.