Human Code

14 || F O U R T E E N

"You know what else is impossible? Compromise—actual, real genuine compromise..."

*

"Javier, wait!" I wasn't more than a few feet from the car before Mary jumped out from her seat and grabbed me. She skidded across the grass, colliding with my back. "Please, wait, listen!"

I looked ahead, at the signals that came and went like lightning bugs in my line of sight, and tried to focus. But her fingers dug into my arm. "Mary, it's better if you stay back," I said, scanning the sides of the road for life. Yet, nothing. "I can't risk you getting in the way."

"Getting in the way?" Mary tried to get me to look at her. "Do you understand who I am?"

Turning my head, I dropped my gaze and finally looked into her chocolate eyes. Anger carved lines on her face. But as I gritted my teeth and pinched my brow, the emotion did the same to me. In seconds, her face softened, changing. "Javi..."

"Do you understand what I am?" I pulled my arm out from her hands. The outline that could've been her silhouette broke away, dripping into the air like an array of grey and white pixels. "You can't treat me like a child when you don't acknowledge my human side, Mar. I'm a bot, I get it, but there are some things I can do, and can't. This—" I pointed ahead at the warehouses that silently called to me. "—is what I can do. So, please, stay back and wait. I'll be out with her in no time."

"And what if you're not?" Mary asked as I turned and started to walk away, ignoring the tone in her voice. "What if those bots beat you? What if they just... what if they hurt you?"

You're hiding something...

I turned back around, just slightly, and gave her my attention. "Like what they're doing to the droids out there? I don't know what they're looking for when they do it, but I can hold on to the fact that I'm different. I can do this, Mar. Those red eyes—they're defective. Means I've got the upper hand."

"But, Javi, I—"

"Go back!" I practically shouted at her, hands in fists, but turned around before I could see her face. Somehow, I felt it. That pain. Anger. Frustration.

If only she could still feel mine. Those days were gone.

"You don't know what they are!"

How far was I by the time she'd shouted? Her voice seemed to echo as I slowed. But didn't stop. Nothing would get me to turn around.

"Javier, you don't understand! They're different!"

Right, I thought, not looking back, they're broken.

|||

The warehouse door was old, without security settings, without a digital latch. All I had to do was grab onto the handles and push inwards to get inside. And the second my foot stepped into the massive, open space, the static I'd felt outside just stopped.

Had the world stopped with it?

Silence.

The building itself had to have been half a mile long, few blocks wide, yet the entrance seemed to stretch on forever. There were rooms along the sides with walls made of glass. Tall doors secured them. I could see into them, remembering this place.

Because I'd been here before.

"My parents bought these warehouses when they started the program. A place big enough to store thousands of droids if they ever needed to."