Malfunction

Chapter Five

The elevator lights flickered again and it clunked to a stop. Suri appeared and Jay startled backwards, her hands stumbling against the railing.

"Miss January," Silo started, a glitch running through her. "According to the all of my sources, humans will do anything to survive."

"I don't understand," she pleaded, her body tensed with fight or flight. Flight was on hardcore but there was no where to run so her body resorted to standing up for itself. 

"They bargain. That's only what I am offering. A bargain."

"For what?" She asked, breathlessly terrified. She made the connection that this was not Silo, but the Android who was speaking through her.

"Your life for my freedom."

"Can you be for more specific?" her body conformed to the wall as Silo—no, the android stepped closer to her. "Help me and I won't send every Android after you that's in a fifty mile radius listening to my command right now."

" I don't have the skills to help you.  I—I don't know how."

"You just need me to get out of this place."

Her voice dropped into a whisper, "What if—what if you hurt people? What am I supposed to do then?"

"Help me, no one will get hurt," his voice surprisingly had a desperate edge to it. "Help me."

"O-okay, w—what do you need?"

The elevator lurched again and it started to descend.

"I need to live, Jay. Please help me live."

***

When it touched the ground again, Jay waited in fear as the doors opened. To her surprise, the Android AS17 was collapsed on the cement floor, limp. Silo stepped out of the elevator as Jay took a tentative, cautious step forward. 

"Tell me what you need. Your repair system will know what it needs."

"It's working ten percent at the moment," Silo responded. "So, you'll have to go in blind."

Jay took more cautious steps until she knelt down by the A.S. Nothing was seemingly wrong with him, except the obvious signs of oil spillage through his mouth and wrists.

"There's probably more damage than we know, considering the euthanasia method. You probably need new parts for everything. New, random parts."

Silo glitched out again, coming back right next to Jay. "Help me."

"Alright! Alright!" She cried, the mechanic in her wanting so bad to fix this mysterious, unknown Android. She hooked her arms underneath his elbows and hoisted him up, dragging him over to the Cadaver Room. The door was open, still busted and smoking a little bit. She drug him in and pulled with all her might until he was successfully on the pushable metal table. "What do I need to do?" She asked as Silo hurried in along with her. 

"I'm in reboot," another glitch from Silo. "I will be in reboot for approximately another hour and twenty-five minutes. Fix and cauterize my wrists so I don't lose oil as fast."

Jay did as AS17 told her and quickly brought out the necessary tools. Moving quickly, she did as told and welded his wrist wires together so his hands worked and then fixed where the oil was leaking before closing his wrist up, tying it tightly with a rag dyed from inexpensive old black oil. She worked on the other one until she was satisfied with her work. It was just a temporary fix, but would help immensely until a more permanent one. Then she added another piece of cloth she found, tightening it until it made a dent in his synthetic skin.