by P K Stadnyk
“Can we talk for a moment?” my dad asked.
“Sure.”
They walked away a few meters, but their talk turned into an argument, and we could hear almost every word.
“I didn’t agree to this! It was supposed to be a no-harm project, an ethical experiment! It went too far! What did you do?! And who the hell were those people in black?!”
“Who? What people?”
“The people who came and took civilians off the streets after those meteors or whatever they were hit.”
“John, I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, right. You don’t know! You know everything!”
“I’m pretty sure it wasn’t us. We might have a sabotage or conspiracy going on.”
“Well, you should choose your people better!”
“Maybe you’re right. If you can, come to my office anytime you want, and we will speak about it.”
My dad returned to the table and said, “Anna, get ready. We’re leaving.”
“I’m not leaving without answers,” my mom said firmly, folding her arms. “I’ve been waiting for you to tell me the truth, but you haven’t said a word. Now is the time.
“Right. You know that I was in an orphanage. When I lost my parents and was at the adoption center, they noticed I was smart, far smarter than other kids at my age. At least, that’s what they told me. Nobody wanted to adopt me because I was sitting alone in a corner reading books instead of playing. No one wants a kid who’s a loner and has problems making friends. One day, a man came to the house and started talking to me. He came another day and the day after. It became a daily visit, and I started waiting for him every morning. He enjoyed what I was doing and was interested in it. One day, he asked me if I want to go with him. He told me there were more kids like me and it could become my new home. I agreed. I found true friends there and adapted very quickly. Somehow, I couldn’t remember my parents, so I didn’t miss them. When I was a teenager, they started training me and I learned advanced technology. I could enter all the files I wanted to. Whatever I needed for my work was given to me. It was like Christmas every day for me… before I met you. I fell in love and they tried to talk me out of it, but I packed my things and was ready to go. Then they made me an offer. They promised a house, good earnings, and a safe future for all of us. We’ve never had to worry about money, right? All I had to do was still work for them. We all were part of the same company…”
“John, what was your work? Experiments on wife and kids?”
“I was working on different viruses, diseases and cures for them. I also worked on weather weapons and stuff like that.”
“Are you trying to say that this disease, which just killed all the people in Weymouth, was your job?”
“No, that wasn’t our job.”
“Where did you do all this? I mean, all the time, you were in the…
“shelter, yes. Behind the metal door. Max found me there when the earthquake struck.
“Were those weather anomalies the results of your experimenting as well?”
“Er…Some of them. We had to try them outside and note the reactions of normal people like you, who didn’t know. It was just an easy experiment that didn’t do any harm. At least before it ran out of the control.”
“But why would you do this?”
“The world is at war, Anna. Not officially, but it’s happening right now. I bet this disease was engineered by another country or private company. That’s how I happened to get a cure. I wasn’t 100% sure it would work. That’s why you got the fever and hallucinations, because it wasn’t completely ready yet. We don’t test our biological weapons or any of our people. Other companies do. We did this because we don’t have a choice; we had to be ready. In the beginning, we were trying to make the world a better place. We didn’t make weapons or anything bad back then. It was getting harder because we were running out of money. Our company was sponsored by good millionaires, but soon there weren’t enough of them. Most of these guys were old, trying to fund good causes to make up for all bad they did in life. Everything changed when more kids like me were brought there. Some of them realized what they were doing and took advantage of it. One boy stole information and sold it to another company that used our research in a very bad way, making diseases, cancers even. We tried to stay good as long as we could, but we didn’t realize how dangerous the information he stole was… Now, we don’t have a choice. We must work on defense or we soon won’t see anything left around. Until now, we almost always won… being only a step ahead.
“Whom do you work for, John?”
“Government mainly, but it will never trace back to them no matter how hard you try. It will be private companies, one after the other.” She shook her head in disbelieve.
“How long did you plan to hide it from me?”
“I’m sorry, Anna. I couldn’t tell you before.”
“Couldn’t tell me what? That we were part of your experiment? And how about your parents? How did they die? Somehow, I never heard what their job was or anything about them.”
“I didn’t say they died. Only that I lost them.”
“Well that means the same, right?!”
“NO, ANNA! IT DOESN’T!”
“The argument stopped right there. Mom sat on a bed, crying and hugging Sophie to her chest. Dad went outside and smoked a cigarette. Since when was he smoking? I felt sorry for Mom, but what could I do? Tell her about the guns I saw in the basement or that I was sorry?”
We moved to our new house the same day. It was huge and full of things I had never seen before. It was placed in secured area and surrounded by woods. It looked like we were outside the city, again. My parents didn't talk to each other unless I was somewhere near.
My room was very big! It was about three times bigger than our living room in the first house and was already furnished and full of…everything. It had been painted blue, had a big bed for me and smaller one for Bella, lots of toys for her and everything that I would need for next year. Even the closet was filled with clothes for every time of the year. I found books, notebooks, mini laptop, toys, 42-inch TV, a console with the latest games, and lots of other things I didn’t know how to use. After I played with a remote controlled helicopter and car, I noticed there was a door at the other end of the room. It was a bathroom with a very big bathtub. It was all clean and shiny. The choice of soap, shampoo, conditioners, bubbles, soaks was endless. I didn’t know such fragrances existed: chewing gum, chocolate, grass, and more.
Bella seemed overwhelmed with her stuff, especially the chewy chicken and dried big bones. She was always greedy with food. That made her lying in bed with a full stomach, and her bowls were still half-full. Somebody must like dogs… fat dogs.
I got a little bored. My friends lived not far away; that's what I was told, at least.
I decided to explore and get to know my room better. It doesn’t feel good when you’re in your room and don’t know what’s where.
CHAPTER 25 - STRANGER IN MY ROOM
I wondered if anybody lived in this house before us. If yes, who were they and what happened to them?
I found a little shiny cupboard next to my bed. It was a fridge and was full of things Mom would be mad about. Sweets, pops, desserts, milk, sandwiches and even my favorite jellies. I took a tuna sandwich, sweet corn, and milk. I felt too guilty to eat the other things. A piece of bread fell on the floor, and when I was just about to pick it up, I heard a beeping noise and some piece of metal ran out of my closet with a red light on its “head.”
“Don’t touch! Don’t touch!” it said in a computerized voice as it rolled around the place where the bread was. Freaky. It looked like a little robot I had seen in a movie. It had eyes and hands but didn’t have legs. Instead, it had wheels and could hover I guessed; when it moved away, the bread was gone.
“Wow,” I said and it turned its head my way but didn’t say anything or move.
“Don’t touch!
” it said with a voice too human for a robot and ran away to the closet. I didn’t know such a thing existed. If there’s one in Mom's room she wouldn't be impressed. She liked to do the cleaning herself and got satisfaction from it. She even wouldn't let me or Dad do it for her. If we washed the dishes, sometimes she would wash them again. That’s how obsessive she was about cleanliness.
I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to go outside or spend some time with parents. The tension coming from them could be felt a mile away. I noticed some interesting books on my shelf but wasn’t in a mood for reading. I lay on my bed. Then I noticed the ceiling was painted as a blue sky with little clouds and a sun. Whoever decorated and stocked this room knew far too much about me. Just think about it: jellies and sky. Those were things only my parents and friends knew about. Then I remembered something else. My backpack! I had it all the time with me. It should be somewhere here. They told me some of my private stuff had been moved here.
I found it thrown in the corner. It looked like somebody already checked my things. I found my teddy bear in there. I got it from Dad when I was born and had kept it since. There was my compass, some clothes, and the book from Cedric. It looked like somebody had been reading it in a hurry. I opened it and found some pages missing. Something else was missing too. The file from the plane! How could I be so stupid and forget about it?! I should have kept it with me all the time! Oh! I wanted to bang my head on the wall.
I tried to find out what was so important on missing pages that somebody took. Maybe Cedric wasn’t as crazy as we all thought? If one of these men took it; it had to be important! But there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t tell Dad about the file, I couldn’t tell anybody and if I would tell him about Cedric book, he would throw it away. He wanted to do it soon after I got it, but Mom let me keep it. Why did he give it to me anyway? Was he part of the same organization Dad was working for? They said everybody who lived with us was, but perhaps he wasn’t. Who was he then? I felt sorry he died; I couldn’t ask him any questions now. It was too late. Its happens to a lot of people. They think somebody (a neighbor, member of family, or friend) is crazy or they simply don’t listen to them and ignore them when they have something really important to say. When they’re suddenly gone, they miss them and feel sorry, but there’s nothing they can do. It’s too late. That’s how I felt now. So many questions came to my head, but they’ll stay unanswered.
I opened the book and still couldn’t understand what it was about. Pictures, some of them very old, showed some people, places, planes... that’s what caught my attention. The photo was a very old black and white, but the plane looked super new like the latest model they showed on TV not long ago, invisible to all radar and even to the human eye if high enough. There was the date under the picture:1945. Wow, that’s long time ago. I didn’t read the book, just looked at the pictures. Some of them showed the people dressed in black. I hadn’t see any of them here; I hadn’t see them for a while now. I turned the page and found some horrible pictures of sick people, piles of bodies in the streets, laboratories, and people in big jars connected to some tubes with liquids in them. Next to them were people in long white coats smiling to take a picture. Something was disgusting about them. I turned the page and found another bloody picture. On the table was a leg cut in half lengthwise showing the muscles, but instead of bones, it had cables and metal. All these pictures were old too. Some were repeating, and people in coats were getting older. On one picture, they didn’t smile, but someone wrote, “So many lives and hard work. Gone forever. We will die here. 1998” Another photo looked new and said, “After so many years, it finally worked. We will be free now. 2015.” What were they working on for so long? One of the men in the pictures looked very similar to my dad. Maybe it was just a coincidence.
The next pictures showed things I didn’t recognize. they weren’t like anything I knew. Unfortunately, I didn’t find out what information the torn-out pages held.
I changed into my astronaut pajamas and got ready for bed. I threw my clothes on the floor and heard the beeping again. The freaky robot came out of the closet and started folding my clothes with its little hands and took them with it to the closet. It freaked me out so much, I jumped on the bed. I was soon to miss my mess. I couldn’t fall asleep easily, feeling its eyes on my back.
CHAPTER 26 - FREAK IN MY ROOM
“Good morning!”
“Mom, a few more minutes, please.”
“Good morning!”
“Mom...”
“Good morning! Good morning! Good morning! Good morning! Good morning!”
It sounded like the beginning of a nightmare and it was only six in the morning, so, yeah, it was a nightmare. The worst part of it was standing before me. A woman, holding a tray with my breakfast I guess, was staring at me and kept repeating those two polite but now so annoying words. She didn’t stop for a minute.
“Good morning!” I said. I thought she didn’t stop because I didn’t reply. But when I did she still didn’t stop.
“GOOD MORNING!” I yelled. I couldn’t listen to this anymore. If a suspect were held in the room with her for few hours, he’d accept all charges just to get away from her.
“Gooooooooddddd MMMMOOOUUUURRRRRRR...”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” I ran out the room, but she ran after me.
“Good morning! Calm down, Max. I see you’ve met Bet. She sometimes freezes but she just needs a good knock in the back of the head and she's fine. Let me show you,” said a man who was dressed in a very nice suit. He hit Bet sharply in the head and she stopped. She didn’t even try to hit back. Instead she stared at the tray she was still holding but the breakfast was all mixed up together, and she went... somewhere.
“She’ll get you another one. I’m Ben,” he said, extending his hand and shaking mine. “Nice to meet you. I’m responsible for all staff in your house. That, as I said, was Bet, and she works for you. I’m sure you’ve met the older model.”
“The one who lives in the closet? Yeah, a bit freaky.”
“We can replace her with the one you just saw.”
“No! No! Please leave the old Bet where she is.” For some reason, now I liked that little thing in my closet; it was definitely better than new Bet. I wouldn’t sleep in same room with her in a... would she sleep in a closet too? Maybe people were comfortable with robots here in NY. I heard that somewhere, they sleep in coffins, on tables, or in caves. There was something funny about old Bet.
“Okay, thanks but she’d still bring you breakfast and other duties. How do you like—”
“TAKE IT AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER! GO AWAY!”
“She's just trying to help, Anna.”
“SHE CAN HELP YOU! I DONT NEED ANY HELP! KEEP THEM ALL AWAY FROM ME OR I WILL LEAVE!”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Max. I need to go.” Ben ran to the room where my mom was shouting. I followed because I had simply nothing to do and was interested in whom she was yelling at.
“Bat, what’s wrong?” Ben asked to a medium height girl standing in the corner. I looked like she was crying.
“I tried to do my job and dress Sophie, but she wouldn’t let me.”
“Ben, it’s okay. Keep all of your humabots away from Anna and Sophie,” said Dad.
“But...”
“Do it!”
“Yes, sir.”
I quietly went to my room before anybody noticed I was there. Humabots? Were they not humans? Bet definitely wasn’t; that’s why she froze before. And all their names started with the letter B, why? Somebody wasn’t very creative.
Bet got me a new breakfast and apologized for the one before, but she couldn’t remember how it happened or how she found herself to be with us in the corridor. While I was eating the breakfast, she stood in the corner and waited. Then I heard beeping and old Bet came to me, holding my clean clothes to dress.
“Thank you, Bet.”
“You are very welcome, Max.” I noticed the new model was laughing at the old one. Th
at made me sure I wouldn't like her.
“Why are you looking at her like that?” I asked her.
“She’s so stupid, old, and ugly.”
“Stop that! You should talk; you’re freezing up and sounding like a broken record!” I protected old Bet but she didn’t look upset by what the other said.
“That's temporary and I'll be fixed,” she countered, protecting herself.
“Or recycled,” said the old one. That made the new Bet cry, and she went out of the room. “Weirdo,” said old Bet, making a funny face, pulling her eyebrows up before returning to her place.
I was shocked by this humabots fight. It looked so realistic! It was usual and unusual. Usual in the way that girls always fight, unusual in that they were robots. No, what was the word? Humabots. Anyway, I was definitely on old Bet’s side and decided to hold it no matter what. I started to like her and decided to give her a new name. Mom wasn’t going to like that I hung out with humabots, but I didn’t have much to do anyway. I wondered why she was so freaked out about them being around.
CHAPTER 27 - MAKING VISITS
In the afternoon, I went to see my friends. I didn’t find any of them outside, so they had to be at their new homes. I found Alvin at their house. It looked exactly like ours. His dad looked upset and insisted that Alvin didn’t want to see anybody. I gave him condolences and asked nicely, so he let me in. Alvin's room was exactly where mine was. The only difference was his decorations, food in the fridge, and books. His room was plastered with pictures showing forests full of animals. Maybe I was wrong, but I asked just in case.
“Do you want to be a hunter?”
“No.”
“A reindeer?”
“No.”
“Are you sure? You could work with Santa?”
No answer.
“Oh, I know. You want to be this little rabbit here with... only one ear? He looks bad, just like you.”