Chapter Ten

Five

Five-Two is a little puzzled by the man on the machine. It’s never seen or even heard of a person being packed around by robot like this. The concept of machines being used to carry society’s burdens is one thing, but having them actually carry them around on their backs seems a bit narcissistic.

It hopes there’s nothing like this in store for its own future. It’s already bad enough having to do everything it's told to, or-else. Still, the man did seem to appear friendly enough. He even apologized. Something about him is certainly different. There’s no doubt he’s the same man that was up on the rooftop last night. It wonders if Five-One had ever come across him.

The thought of it’s friend starts to make it feel alone again. Sometimes, it feels like everything is already lost, and there’s really no point in going on with the rest of all this. It wanted so bad to pass the test and go back to Werker, but now, it really doesn’t. It might not be able to bear going back if Five-One won’t be there.

Despite such a strong feeling of being lost, a small spark of curiosity is keeping it moving forward. It feels like there’s something big coming, and it only needs to keep going a little further to realize it. It’s not so bad out here anyway. At the moment it’d rather fail and just stay out here in the world rather than go back.

It figures that if it’s going to at least do something, it might as well follow the man on the machine, to see what’s going on with him. Meeting someone that’s not from Werker will be risky, but it’s obviously something it must do. Everything that it’s discovered about itself points towards that. Maybe, if it talks with this man, it might see where it’s supposed to go from here.

Contemplating the consequences of this scenario still makes it uneasy, but it has made up its mind. Besides, if anything bad happens, it can simply run away as fast as it can, like last time. After all, the man didn’t actually chase them, or do anything at all to hurt them. The thought and image of what happened to Five-One is still always in the back of its mind though. It has to be vigilant. The day has only begun. It has plenty of time to be careful and watch him from a ways off first, for a little while.

After realizing the man on the robot has gone out of sight while it was caught up in its own thoughts, it scurries down the sidewalk after him. Just in time, as he rounds the next corner of the building, it catches sight of him again. While remaining out of sight, it keeps following him until he stops alongside of two huge yellow metal boxes sitting out in the open of a strange area. There are piles of broken concrete and twisted metal all over the place. Everything is dirty and dusty. From behind a large chunk of rubble, it patiently watches him jump down off of the robot that’s carrying him and walk over to the yellow boxes.

He digs in his pockets, pulls out a small device, and looks at it for a moment. It appears to be a phone, like what Dr. Morgan has. When he’s done, he presses some buttons on the container doors, opens them up wide, and then steps back a few paces. Surprisingly, the boxes are full of even more machines and robots, lots of them. Most of them are human shaped and look exactly like the ones that are being manufactured inside of Werker. They even have the same red and white paint on them, though a lot of it has been scraped off, showing the metal underneath. The others are at least three times as large and are carrying long tools.

The man speaks with the groups of machines, voicing a few number sequences that seem to have meaning to them. The machines all turn their heads towards him and suddenly become alert. He tells them that his name is Aaron and that he’ll be working with them today. He actually sounds enthusiastic about it. While it watches, he continues to speak with the robots, handing each of them a thin shiny red metal card as they step out of the big boxes one at a time. The robots all slide the cards he gives them into the small flat square blocks on their chests. When they’re all done, he points to the big ugly building behind himself.

“Dismantle the building in the way that’s planned out in the orders you’ve been given. If you need any clarification, I’ll assist you.”

He points to very another large machine that was already there. It has eight different pairs of wheels on it. “Steel goes on the flatbed.”

Again, he points over to a different pair of equally large orange machines nearby. “Pile the concrete on that mound over there. No need to be neat about it. I don’t care if you toss it down from the building, just don’t hit each other. I’ll call in more trucks as these ones get full.”

Excitedly, it watches all of the robots move up through the skeleton of the building and start working away. They start making a lot of noise while scrapping metal and breaking apart concrete on the highest floor. When it looks back down to where Aaron was, he’s still standing in front of the big yellow containers, but he’s staring right at them. He can obviously see it hiding behind the block of broken concrete.

Now, having been clearly noticed, it decides it’s going to have to finally present itself and get it over with. Standing up to be seen better, it slowly raises and then waves its right hand at him. It doesn’t really know why, but it seems to be kind of the thing they do. He waves back, but only stands there with his hands on his hips.

“You gonna come on over and say hi or what? I don’t know why you’ve got to be all weird about it.”

It’s so nervous, it feels like the electricity in its entire body is pulsing in big waves, but it has to push through it. “Yes… I can come out.”

“Well then, why don’t you come on over here? I’m not gonna chase you.”

It can tell that he’s being sarcastic, and smiling. It kind feels silly now, being so wary of him like it has been. Still, it does have to be very careful. It’s life is on the line. “Are you from Werker?”

“Nope. Are you?”

It definitely doesn’t want to say that it is, but it doesn’t have any reason to lie to him. “But you have Werker robots, the ones that are red and white.”

“Sure, but I’m not the one dressed in red and white, you are.”

By the way he says it, it doesn’t sound like he is trying to catch it in a lie, but more so make a simple point. He sits down on a big steel i-beam lying in on the ground and pats his hand on it, expecting it to come and sit with him. He crosses one of his boots over the other knee and waits patiently. It’s so nervous it can hardly move, but he’s left it no choice. For better or for worse, it’s going to go and sit with him.

It slowly walks on over to him, ready to bolt at even the slightest movement. When it gets close to him, he doesn’t ask it any questions, but thoroughly looks up and down at it. It feels like it’s being looked over and evaluated by Dr. Grecko again. He’s the one responsible for making sure it’s in good physical health.

What is bothersome is that Aaron is looking at it like everyone at Werker looks at it, like a robot. People don’t do this to one another. It was counting on him not being able to tell the difference. Even with it standing within reach of him, he relaxes and leans forward to put his forearms across his knees.

He doesn’t turn to face them, but only looks their way out of the corner of his eye while they sit down. “Hi there, my name’s Aaron. What might I call you.”

While still sitting a few spaces away from him, it folds its hands together and looks over at him. It’s voice is soft and a little nervous. “Um… I’m Five-Two

“Well, it’s really nice to finally meet you Five-Two. I believe I’ve missed the chance to a couple times by now. You remember me from across the street don’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“If you don’t mind my asking, what’re you doin out here all by yourself?”

“I’m not really sure yet. I think I’m supposed to… figure something out.”

He looks ahead for a moment and then back into its eyes. “I see. So, you probably don’t really know what’s going on out here then, do you?”

“No, not really. Why?”

He’s pretty sure he knows exactly what’s going on, but he’s never heard a prototype actually being tested like this before. Kicking it out the door without any instructions is one hell of a test to see if it has a sense of self and a drive all of its own.

“Five, if you don’t mind me calling you that, do you know how much more advanced you are than any of the other robots around here?”

It looks down at its feet in disappointment with itself, feeling that it can never get anything right. He’s only just met it and he already knows. “Yeah. I’ve been told. How’d you know I was a robot?”

“Well, honestly, I’m still not all that sure you aren’t.” He can’t even tell by its voice, which is unimaginably smooth. “It may not seem like it, but it’s a small world Five. I’ve heard of you. I don’t think I would have been able to tell otherwise.”

Five smiles a small smile back up at him for the first time. “Really? How do you mean?”

He leans over a little closer and peers at its face, trying to find a single tell, but he can’t. “I mean that I cannot tell that you are not human, even from right here, where I’m sitting. But that doesn’t matter anyway.” He goes back to sitting the way he was and raises his eyebrows. “It’s ok if you’re a machine Five, really. It’d actually be quite a wonderful thing if you were. More wonderful than you could even imagine.”

It’s eyes get big with wonderment. “Wha… how do you mean?”

“Do you know the difference between yourself, me, those robots up there, or this one here?” He points up into the building across from them, and then over to Runner. “I’m just a bunch of soft vulnerable meat under this skin Five. An incredible feat of biology mind you, but still a bag of meat without this.” He taps on the side of his head. “I can tell you’re more than just a machine under your skin. Trust me, I know the difference well enough.”

It remembers how Dr. Morgan said people can tell when things are different. “What’s the difference? Please, it’s important that I understand.”

With an even bigger smile on his face, he turns around on the beam to face them better. “That, right there, what oyu just said, that’s what I’m talking about. No normal robot would ever ask me anything like that, let alone with any enthusiasm. All they ever do is what I tell them to. Robots don’t get scared, curious, run away, or ever wonder about things. You’re not some-thing Five, you are some-one. I can tell you that much already. You’re like one of us.”

“One of you? I am not. I’m a machine, and not a person. I have to do what people say.”

Aaron laughs, but then his smile vanishes. “That’s kinda shitty. Who told you that?”

It looks down in shame again. “Everyone.”

“Being a machine on the inside is only a technical detail Five. It doesn’t mean a damn thing. You can make your own choices can’t you? Besides, I have a feeling you don’t always do what you’re told, do you?”

It smiles again, especially at the thought of Five-One this time. “I don’t always have a choice Aaron. They can shut me down and never turn me back on ever again if I don’t…” When it looks back up at him, it can see that his expression is quite concerned and his eyebrows are turned down.

The memory of the other prototype being gunned down flashes across Aaron’s thoughts. “Five… I really don’t want anything bad to happen to you. Is that what happened to the other one like you? Who said they’d do that to you?”

“You know about Five-One? Did you see them? Did you see what happened to them?”

He thinks for a moment about what he should and should’t run his mouth about, but he’s kind of pissed now, and it is getting the better of him. “I saw a man named Mikel, and another guy that was with him from Werker. They shot her with an arc gun.”

“Her? It was Mikel?”

“Yeah, SHE was a woman. You’re a woman.” He holds his arms out towards her. “Look at yourself.” He watches Five cover her mouth with both of her hands and starts to shed tears in despair. He can’t even begin to understand what the hell is going on. He puts his hand on her back and leans in over her. “Five, that’s not gonna happen to you, I promise. I won’t let it.” He damn near starts to sniffel himself.

Five feels Aaron’s hand shift around on her back and then suddenly stop. When she sits up, he tells her to hold still. The tone of his vice is concerning, but she feels like she can trust him. She feels him pinch up a small lump on the collar of her suit and tug at it. He takes something shiny out of his pocket with his other hand and sticks it into the fabric. With a slight “zip” sound, the thing pops out. He shows it to her and tumbles it over in his palm a few times.

“What is it?”

He quickly looks around the construction site, taking in every detail of it. “They’ve been tracking your location with this. They know exactly where you are. We might want to toss this.”

“So they won’t know when I come back then?”

Aaron is perplexed by her sudden enthusiasm. He doesn’t quite know what to think of it. “Go back?” He can’t imagine why the hell she’d want to, but he can see why she’d have to at some point.

“Yes, I have to go back, to pass my test! I Have to get back to Dr. Morgan. If I pass the test, they won’t shut me down.”

He wishes he could tell her that she doesn’t ever have to go back, but he knows nothing about what kinds of maintenance she needs to keep running. He wishes she didn’t have to, but he wouldn’t be able to guarantee her survival, even with his help. He can at least help her understand that she has a choice in her own life though.

“Five, if they try to shut you down, for good, you don’t let them, ok. If someone ever tries to hurt you, you do whatever the hell it takes to stop them. If you don’t have anywhere safe to go, you find me again. I’ll help you. Would you do that?”

The loud bang and explosion of an extra-large section of concrete landing on the rubble pile from up high startles both of them up off of the I-beam. He figures they both might’ve been expecting the same thing.

Rather than sitting back down, Five walks over to Runner, hunches down onto her heels, and looks at it closely. The machine slowly moves its head towards her and then over to him. Five turns back to him with a little bit less trustful of a look.

“I’ve never seen a person being carried around by a robot before. Why would you make it do that?”

Seeing the sudden scrutiny in her eyes, he chuckles, but then tilts his head and walks over to them. “Well, you see Five, not all robots are the same. This one here doesn’t really have a mind like you or I do. Think of it as simply a complex system of levers and switches, no more, no less. One could even say that it doesn’t even truly think, let alone feel, like you do. If I call it a piece of shit, it means absolutely nothing to it.”

Five gasps and stand up stiffly. “Don’t you call it a piece of shit!”

Taken aback by her sudden firmness, he backpedals on what he’d said. “I am terribly sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it.” He can tell he’s somehow hit close to home with her over something. “Five, there’s a kind of, oh, I don’t know, an ecosystem, between humans and robots.” He sweeps a pointing finger out and around himself. “All the robots out there, they don’t even know they’re robots, or that they even exist for that matter. They’re not like you or me. We rely on them, but they don’t rely on us. They have no needs, cares or concerns. They have no more wants than the dirt under out feet does.”

With fists clenched at her sides, she fires back at him. “You’re a liar. I’ve talked to them, and they’ve talked back to me. They are alive.”

With a hand over his face, he sighs and looks down, trying to think of how to not make her more upset. “Look, if you’ve talked with them, you already know the truth for yourself. Has one of them ever asked you what it’s like to be who you are?”

Her determination slackens. “No… they haven’t.”

“You have a very promising place in this world Five. Not just amongst us, like with the other robots, but with us. Do you get what I mean? You were never meant to just do what you’re told. You and us were meant to be partners, and friends.”

No one has ever called her their friend before. No one other than Five-One. Her fists relax and for some odd reason, she wants to wrap her arms around him. She’s never felt anything like this before. It’s not like the other feelings of fear it has. It feels good this time.

“I want to be your friend Aaron.”

Despite that joy, a dreadful feeling suddenly washes over her, like she could just curl up and die. She wishes Five-One were here, to have a friend too, but they never will. The feeling is awful. Water starts running from her eyes again. Shocked, she jolts herself out of the despair, turns away, and wipes her face off so he can’t see.

“Why’d they have to kill her Aaron?” Outright overwhelmed with emotion, she starts spilling her guts about everything that’s happened in and outside of Werker. Not just the regular stuff this time, but about all the bad things too.

Aaron quietly listens, never interrupting her. When she’s finished, she takes a sharp deep breath and lets it out slowly. She keeps her eyes down, still too upset to look into his. He understands that she’s still the legal property of Werker, and his tampering with their prototype could easily bring down some serious trouble on himself, and probably even Valerie. He isn’t quite sure what he can do to help at this point, even though he promised he would.

“So, if you can get back to this… Dr. Morgan, you can trust them to keep you safe?”

“Yeah, but I don’t think I can just go back. Mikel and his friend’ll be there. I can’t let them see me. I need different clothes, so they don’t know who I am.”

“Well, hell, I can do that. That’s easy! Look, I live really close by, you know where. We can get some new clothes for you and you can get ready from there.”

“I don’t know if I can go back yet. I think so, but I need to think about it.”

“Alright, that’s fine. We’ve got all day. I just want you to be ready, k?”

While they spend the rest of the afternoon watching the other robots, she listens to him continue to explain how people and machines work together. He tells her stories about how humans used to do all this work themselves and how they’ve basically made more and more sophisticated tools to make it easier for themselves over the years.

“Are humans going to expect me to do all their work for them then, is that what I’ve been made for?”

“I don’t know. Work is not a bad thing Five. I work. All great things come from work. If you want something, you have to work for it, simple as that. The thing is, you, are capable of doing work that people like myself… humans, are not. We’re always dreaming of incredible and impossible things to accomplish. The things we want to do most of all happen to be the hardest things for us to do. That’s why we made robots, to help us do them. Our dreams are what are most precious to us Five. I think that’s what you were made for, to actually do the things we can only imagine. He hugs her across the shoulders and smiles down at her. “Maybe, someday, you’ll get to live our dreams someday, and see how special that is.”