Human Code

10 || T E N

"Only a human heart can depend on simple feelings. The brain depends on logic. Requires it."

*

The sirens never ended. In fact, they went on and on down streets, over onto the next blocks. Mary managed to sneak me back across the parking lot and into her car, but I wasn't like the broken androids. Despite my battery levels, I was functioning and gave off a signal. Passing by the squad cars proved it.

Every officer looked at us as we passed. They watched us.

As they threw broken Androids into the back of their paddy wagons.

"Mary..." I leaned the passenger seat as far back as I could to keep from being seen. But with them scanning the area, I knew we were a moving beacon. It was only a matter of time before they stopped us. I only needed to find Wendy first. After that, they could do what they wanted to me.

"Yeah?" Mary was uneasy in the driver's seat. I knew she tried to keep her eyes forward, but she scanned our surroundings, stared at the cops. And her temperature spiked.

"Do you know where you're going?" I pressed my palms against my face and blew hot air against my skin. My core was on fire. Sparks kept going off deep within my chest. It made me sick. "Do you know where she is?"

"I think so." Mary tapped the steering wheel nervously as she turned right down the street. I felt the pull from the scanners outside while she did it. Police knew I was inside. They had. "There's only one place they could be..."

"You think?" I wasn't trying to sound angry, but it rang in my voice. Every word. Every sound. A pitch that elevated and deepened without me meaning to do it.

Emotion. Pure emotion.

"Yeah..." The car stopped, and I pulled my hands away from my face. Looking over at Mary, I watched as she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, as her hands fell from the steering wheel. The nervousness on her face slid away, relaced with disgust. The sound she made. The gasp.

Pushing my hands against the sides of my seat, I sat up, just enough to see over the dashboard.

"They can't do this," Mary whispered as I stared out the car's front window.

She hadn't stopped because she wanted to. She had no choice. Squad cars blocked off the intersection, leaving traffic with nowhere to go, but to sit and wait. Wait and watch. Watch as officers of the law pulled Androids out from their place of programmed employment, but these droids weren't broken. I felt them.

We synced.

Confusion. Disrupted orders. Bionic laws.

They did not retaliate against law enforcement. It was against every programming they'd ever receive. And because of it, they accepted death.

"They can't..." Mary shook her head, gripped the steering wheel, and leaned forward. "They're not broken..."

Guns fired, bullets aimed right at the Bionics symbol on their necks. Blue liquid spilled out from their forced wounds and the light in their eyes died. One by one, I watched twenty or more Androids go out like blown-out candles. And one by one, their bodies were dragged across the street.

Onlookers didn't stop the police. Some sacrificed their droids.

"Mr. Anderson?" A young android with a boyish face turned and faced his owner as he was forced to stand in the street. "What about the grocery list?"

Mr. Anderson, an older man, pulled his red sweater tight around him before he turned and shook his head. Without question, taking the push as permission, an officer pointed her gun at the android's neck and fired.