Human Code

19 || N I N E T E E N

"And like humans, we want things we can't have."

*

I looked everywhere but at him. I focused on the monitors, the ceiling, the floor, anything other than the facts that stood in front of me. My mind couldn't understand, Rory wanted to be rid of me, wanted Axe to take my place. The idea of the two of them releasing Government droids out into the city to destroy, to kill, was... against every digital law implanted in each and every one of us.

How could he do this? Why? Because he was angry. He was an android! What was there to be angry about?

Pulling at the straps around my wrists, my head shot up, and I looked at the largest screen. This time, I only saw Will. No Mary, no Wendy. My eyes danced around, watching every monitor, in search of them.

"Javi." Rory rolled his head around his shoulder. "Do you remember just sitting in Mary's room, talking to me. Typing away and waiting for my responses."

I didn't look at him, though I know he wanted me to. I needed to make sure Mary and Wendy were safe. Paying attention to him wouldn't let me do that. Clenching my jaw tight, I kept my focus.

"Did you know that everything you said to me, every response you typed, was how I learned? You taught me."

Slowly, my gaze moved to his. And numbers appeared over my eyes. Letters. I wasn't sure which to look at him-him, or the data.

"I mimicked you," Rory laughed and looked at me, his eyes bright blue. "I studied you. I wanted to be you. See you. Love you."

My chest rose and fell. Love me. Was that what he said?

The numbers and letters came together, forming messages in my eyes. Timestamps. Seconds. Hours. And Names.

Mary.

"I couldn't wait out there. We're in here. We have Wendy. She told me what happened. I can save you."

I wanted to let out a sigh of relief. Mary was always good at not giving up. But the way Rory looked at me, the way his smile faded into a flat face, lacking emotion, scared me. I, an Android, was frightened to my core. And I couldn't explain it. I only knew it by the way my hands shook, my knee bounced, and that pressure...

A rock on my chest.

"When I got my first body, Javi, I was so happy. Happy. Me, a bot with no concept of emotion or feelings. It was supposed to be a distant idea for me, or not an idea at all. I'm forever evolving, always learning. I'm everything a human should be, and yet, no one paid me any attention. Yet-"

I saw them. Mary and Wendy ran down one hall and along with another. They hid against a pillar beside a room and Mary, with her wrist band to her lips, whispered into it.

What are you saying?

"-I just wanted to try."

Looking at Rory didn't ease my fear, but changed it because emotions never stayed the same for me. It left, flying out the window like a flock of frightened birds, and a swarm of bees took its place.

Anger. Disbelief. Betrayal.

I leaned back in my seat. My fingers dug into the leather. "You wanted to try? To what? Hurt me? My sister?" I shook my head as he frowned, deep lines on his face. "Wendy loved you and called you her Uncle, Rory, and yet you... you kept her here."

Rory looked around the room as though he saw nothing wrong with it. And Axe looked away, a frown on his face, too.

"All of this-the droids, the attacks-it's one big tantrum. Can't you see that? You're breaking everyone's hearts!"