Some Beauty and the Kind-Of Beast

- 4 -

4 — The Beast

"Let them go," I tell Alfred. Donna barely glances back before she leaves. Alfred stares at me.

"But . . . why?"

I frown at him. "Why not?"

"You said . . . you said they couldn't leave . . ."

I shake my head. "Just because I'm stuck here . . . I can't force them to stay."

"You were ready to make their parents stay," Sec-C says.

Sec-C . . . what a stupid name, but then again, Logan was the one that named her. I don't answer her, but I do give her a glare. She shrugs and slowly walks away.

I leave as well, refusing to leave my room. Nova was snooping where she wasn't supposed to. She deserved the fright she got, but not her sister. Her sister appears to be level-headed, while Nova is free-spirited. She shouldn't have been where she was told not to be.

Alfred — the only one of my robots that doesn't care when I say 'leave me alone' — enters my room. "It's night," he says.

"Thanks. I thought it was morning."

"There are wolves in the forest."

"All forests have wolves. Some have bears too. What am I supposed to do?"

"Adam." He is also the only robot that scolds me. "Donna and Nova are rather beautiful girls, the Wolves are in these trees."

I scowl. "What must I do? It's not like I can leave."

"I can," Sec-C says, walking in.

"So go," I tell her. "What good will it do? They'll strip you apart for your circuit board."

"Adam!"

I scowl at Alfred. "What?"

"You're going to let the Wolves get them? Because you're a sorry and hairy asshole?"

"I'm a what?!"

Alfred blinks. "Well, you are. No point sugarcoating anything. I mean, if you save them, one of them might be smart enough to break the system."

I glare at the blue and white robot. "I can't go past those gates."

"DONNA!"

Alfred pauses in the middle of his argument. The three of us look around, but Nova is nowhere near. Besides, the voice sounds sort of electronic. There is the sound of a scuffle, and sharpening knives and guns being cocked.

"NOVA! RUN!"

"Adam!" Alfred shouts. "It's the AI system!"

I don't care. Until now, I didn't really think they'd actually run into the Wolves. But they did, and as annoying as Nova is, I'm not actually an evil person.

Surprisingly, the gates do not close as I race through to find Donna and Nova. I hate snow, have I ever mentioned that? It makes it increasingly harder to run. I decide to jump the cliff while it's still not too high and run along the ledge, because no snow manages to collect there, so I'll be faster.

I can hear Donna's horse whining, and then I see Donna, right above me, ready to jump backwards. If I yell for her not to, she'll lose her balance. "I got it," Sec-C tells me, scaling the cliff with little to no effort. Perks of being a robot, I guess. I make it to the top just as Sec-C pulls Donna to the ground.

Years and years of imprisonment makes a guy bored, and somewhere in the first five years, I took up fighting with the AI system. It's advanced and can create semi-holographic enemies. Now, I am extremely glad I decided to use that all those years ago.

They have weapons! And I don't!

I manage to get my hands on one of their rifles. Thankfully, I know how to use it. I fire at least six shots before I get shot myself. It doesn't stop me, though. It's just a flesh wound across my arm. I'll survive, but not if these guys are still here when I pass out.

Fate lends me a hand and they give up, leaving with hateful glares. Donna's horse is still nearby, so with Sec-C's help, we heave an unconscious Donna up and I mount the horse behind her, letting her head rest against my shoulder. I think the only reason her horse hasn't bucked me off is because Donna is still breathing.

To my great displeasure, Alfred forces me to bath in those stinky healing oils of his and then to sit and actually trust him with a blade.

And I thought I was screwed when the house shut down by itself.