Life as an object

Chapter five

When Kate woke up the next morning Allie became nervous and didn't know how to behave. When Kate got up and started talking, the android couldn't take it anymore: "Kate." She said quietly: "You know this house, this neighborhood, right? I'm sorry, but I looked around that night and found this." She gave the photo to Kate, who looked shocked, even though she did not want to do so. Slowly Kate sank back onto the bed with the photo in the hand. A tear ran down her cheek: "Look...That woman next to me, that's...that's Isabella, my mother." She started sobbing: "And that's my...my brother, his name was James." Her head sank into her hands and she needed a moment before she could speak again. Allie waited patiently. Kate raised the word again, albeit in a shaky voice: "Okay, I will have to tell you everything, for better or worse." She took another deep breath and then began to talk: "Before it happened, my mother, father, brother and I were a happy family. Of course there were arguments now and then, but never as bad as on the day it happened." Kate looked desperately out of the window and opened her eyes: "Allie! Aren't they Win..." "Kate, stop it! All the time you're trying to distract me so you don't have to tell me how your story began. You have to come to terms with your past, talking about it is the most sensible thing!" Meanwhile, Allie got angry because Kate kept avoiding her questions. But Kate didn't seem to talk any further, she tried to explain to Allie who she had seen out the window, but she couldn't get a word in, because the android was still trying to elicit her story.

After a minute, which seemed like an hour to Allie, Kate whispered: "Now it's too late!" Allie was just about to speak up when she heard a muffled sound. She looked over at Kate, who was staring pale and straight into her eyes. Tensely the two listened and could hear a voice they knew: "I don't think the android is hiding here, but it's worth a shot. We haven't had a coordinate since that little beast destroyed the tracking device. Let's see what we find here in this shabby hut." Allie and Kate looked at each other and knew that Winston had entered the house. Desperately they were now crouching behind the door of the bedroom and stopped breathing just to avoid making a sound. Allie could clearly feel Kate's tension as Winston entered the room. He stood with his back to them and the android seized their chance before it was too late. She took a step forward and tried to outsmart the professor, but he turned around and hit Allie directly with the stun gun. The android sank to the ground and remained lying. Winston looked down on them with satisfaction and called for his assistant Hank. Kate made a sob, Winston whirled around and looked at her in complete horror: "Kate?!" Tears rose to her face and she said softly: "I'm sorry!" She pulled out a knife, stormed towards the confused man and stabbed him. Moaning he sank to the ground, blood spilled on the old wooden floor and Kate collapsed beside him. Her tears ran down her cheeks inexorably and she looked Winston in the still open but staring eyes, which she closed carefully after a moment. Slowly Allie regained consciousness, sat up and froze when she saw the professor lying there with a knife in his chest: "Kate, what are you doing?" But she didn't get any further, Hank stormed into the room and also stopped in shock at the sight of his boss. However, to Allie's amazement, he replied: "I'm so sorry, Kate. I should have prevented this!" The young woman wiped the tears from her face and shook her head: "You did the right thing at the right moment! It was the only way we could finally stop him." She got up: "We must bury him, even if he does not really deserve this honorable deed." Hank just nodded, helped Kate lift the body and disappeared through the door first. Allie was only noticed again when Kate was already standing in the hallway: "Come on, I have something to show you!" Together they left the old house. The sun was quite high by now, but Kate and Hank just walked through the alleys of the village as if it was completely normal to have a dead body with them. Allie decided she would rather not ask if they were afraid of being seen. In general, the village seemed to have been abandoned for a long time.

After a few meters of walking they came to a stone wall that fenced off a collapsed church. Hank and Kate, still carrying Winston, walked the narrow paths until they came to a large gray gravestone. Allie came closer and realized that it was a family grave. At the very top was the name Winston, which frightened the android, but she remained silent. The three of them laboriously dug a hole in the sand that lay around the gravestone. After an hour of hard work in the blazing midday sun, they let Professor Paul Winston sink into the finished hole and sealed it with sand again. Kate closed her eyes, folded her hands and murmured: "Wherever you may land, may your path to eternal life be safe, Dad!" Allie let her eyes wander over the grave, then she recognized two familiar names on the stone Isabella and James. She turned her head to look at Kate: "I'm sorry! I didn't know that they are..." Kate looked into her eyes: "It's all right, I should have told you."

The young woman sat down on the path, theandroid did the same for her: "Five years ago, my father thought, as you knownow, it was Winston; he had created an android that would help him in his plan torule the world. But he was wrong, very wrong." Tears ran down Kate's cheeksagain, but she continued: "The android could fight, but it was uncontrollable.One day he went into business for himself again, you must know that he hit orkicked at us several times before. Stealthily this thing ran from the trainingroom into the kitchen of the laboratory where you were created, causing completechaos. I had only run out to get some milk for the breakfast we were going tohave in the lab, but when I entered the kitchen I saw what happened in the timeI wasn't there. My mother Isabella lay motionless on the floor; a huge woundgaped at her side. My brother was leaning heavily injured against a wall, theandroid lay in front of him. James was able to remove his technology; I still don'tknow how he managed to do that. I ran to him, let myself down to him and lookedinto his dull eyes." Kate had to pause for a moment before she managed to talkfurther: "He was such a good boy! When he was fourteen years old, he apologizedto me for not being able to save our mother. Even today I see him lyingbloodied and dying before me and hear him say these words. My father wasshocked, together we buried them in that grave, but I could never forgive him.When he yelled at me one evening at me one evening that I was to be blamed for theirdeath because I didn't look after the android, it became too much for me. I ranaway, hoping he'd never find me, never look for me. The only one who stayedwith him was his assistant Hank, but he too stabbed him in the back when herealized that Paul Winston could succeed in ruling with you and spreading fearand terror. He informed me and I came back. Hank taught you everything youwould need for your escape; he knew you would see what Winston was up to.Everything was planned; even in your conversations he unconsciously shared ourplan. Everything was planned. Know the rest of the story, we met in this littleshop and got to know each other. That's my story." Allie suddenly felt verybad: "You have no one now. You don't deserve this, all because I and mypredecessors were built. All those who were important to you had to die! I willbetter go. I'm sorry for everything!" The android stood up, Kate did the sameand put a hand on her shoulder: "Stop it; it's not your fault. After all, you couldn'tchoose to being build!" Allie raised her eyes: "But now you're all alone!" Katelooked at her with her tearful eyes, smiled and took Allie in her arms: "That'snot true. I have you!"