Human

It was already late, but I was still in the office. Heavy rain pounded against the windows. I rose up to stretch and I looked out the window. The metropol looked smaller from the 162nd floor, cars were just small moving lights - on the bigger streets there were long rows of lights. During the rush hours traffic jams stretched for miles, even right now in the middle of the night there still were traffic jams. Even though the city seemed smaller from up high, the sea of lights still stretched out to the horizon. And to think that a few hundred years ago it was all a forest. I have never seen a forest with my own eyes, only from video clips and pictures. There's little greenery here anyway, nowadays they don't open new parks and the old ones have fallen into decay.

A large airship flew by, its sides were covered with advertisements. The ship's large searchlights shone through the windows and blinded me. After the ship had passed the room once again fell into darkness, there were no light sources other than my computer screen. I just like it that way, furthermore, electricity is not cheap nowadays. I tried to concentrate on my work again, but tiredness was taking its toll. I sat back down and thought - another night spent in the office.

I lit up a cigarette and continued with my work. The rain and the clicking of the keyboard echoed across the corridor. When I took the cigarette out of my mouth to sprinkle the ash into the ashtray I heard a noise coming from the corridor. I listened for a bit and then realized that it was an elevator. Who's coming here this late? I put the cigarette back into my mouth and waited anxiously.

The elevator opened, out of it came heavy footsteps, which started approaching my office. I blew the smoke out of my mouth, the light from the computer highlighted the smoke trails. The steps stopped outside my office, I turned around and asked, "Who?"

A large black figure stared back at me from the corridor. He stepped closer, so that the light from my monitor shone on his face.

"You?" I said in disbelief. "You are brave, I'll give you that. What brings you here?"

The young man with brown hair in a black coat stepped closer.

"I want my life!" he answered.

"Life, what life? You already are alive."

"My life is not equal to yours and definitely not as long."

"You were created this way, there is nothing that can be done about it."

"Just because I was created by you means I don't deserve to live an equal life?"

"But you are not equal to a human, are you?" I answered, "you look like a human, you act like a human, you can blend in with humans, hell you even smell like a human. But you are not human."

"Why, why not?" he asked.

"Well, look, you were not born into this Earth, you are one of the greatest scientific achievements, but that does not make you human."

"What do you have that I don't?"

"Human instincts, the ability to love - everything that cannot be programmed."

"But why do you think that I'm here if I didn't have those instincts? Would I be here if I did not want to live on, to be with the people I love?"

"But they are not real," I was starting to become agitated, "we just created you a notion of what life is. Of course we programmed you with survival instincts, you would be pretty useless if you got run over by a train, but these are not real instincts, they are just rows of numbers that tell you to survive. Rows of numbers that tell you that fire is hot and water is wet. Rows of numbers that say what love is, but won't make you love. You just think that you are capable of love, but it is just an idea in your head."