by Lauren James
MyWaves05
The thing about this new IVF research budget is that it’s all too little, too late. This should have been pushed through parliament as soon as they realised everyone was infertile, not four years later.
Posted on 17 Mar 2028
Rizzz on 17 Mar 2028
Replying to @MyWaves05
Stop reading the news! It’s date night and you are NOT discussing the current global reproductive crisis while I’m trying to woo you. We will have a perfectly lovely evening and I will not stand for anything less.
MyWaves05 on 17 Mar 2028
Replying to @Rizzz
Not another word about it will pass between my lips, light of my life, angel of my soul, etc. etc.
CHAPTER 20
Inside the ward, every bed is occupied. There are endless rows of lifeless people, hooked up to beeping machines. Dr Ahmed is collapsed over the end of the nearest bed. I let out a rasping, rough breath that hurts the back of my throat, as I pull her on to the bed properly.
Shen runs across the room, crying out, “Mama!”
Jia is seated in the chair next to Feng’s bed, her head tilted back. I catch sight of Mum and Dad slumped on the floor next to her. Darkness curls around me. Leaving Dr Ahmed, I fall to the ground in front of them. Trying to keep my touch gentle, I lift them upright, pressing my ear to their chests. There’s no sound of a heartbeat. I can’t think, can’t move without my hands curling into trembling claws.
Do I need to restart their hearts? With a defibrillator? Or do they need oxygen first, so they can breathe? How do I do this? What do I do?
I twist to look at Feng. He’s sleeping on his back, eyes closed. There’s an IV running from his arm to a piece of medical equipment in the wall. The machine beeps, and something inside me clenches and then releases. If it’s beeping, it must be doing something to keep him alive. Maybe if we hook Mum and Dad and Jia up to the machines, they’ll be OK too; they’ll stay alive while we find a way to fix this. I won’t let them die. I can’t survive if they die.
“Help me,” I say to Shen, fumbling through the mass of plastic tubes spilling out from the equipment by the side of Feng’s bed. I find a spare mask and pull it over Mum’s head.
But Shen isn’t moving. When he turns to me, I see that his eyes are glossed over. He looks slightly feverish.
“Shen! Come on!”
He starts and runs to the next bed, pulling the equipment closer and carefully adjusting Jia and Dad so they’re breathing into masks too. Mitch watches us, then does the same for the other patients and Dr Ahmed.
I look back at Feng, trying to work out what to do. Hands shaking, I try to remember what we were taught in first aid. What comes next? I think I need to set up an IV drip. Dad showed us what to do, but we never had anyone to practise on. I’m not sure I can do it.
There is a tube running along Feng’s arm, so I peel away the tape to see where it’s connected. I need to find out what kind of needle we need. They should be sterilized – there must be a supply cupboard somewhere, or something I can…
I stare down at Feng’s arm.
There is no needle under the bandage. Instead, the IV tube carries on, up the length of Feng’s arm. It’s been hidden under the folds of his pillow. Frowning, I brush aside his hair, searching to see where it ends. Shen says, “What are you —?” just as I expose Feng’s scalp.
We both suck in a breath at the same time. I blink, trying to take in what I’m seeing.
Beneath Feng’s black hair, where there should be skin, is a huge hole in his scalp. Instead of blood and skull, there’s – there’s a circuit board.
The IV cable is plugged into a port in the circuit board. In Feng’s head.
MyWaves05
@Blueburnedskies Congratulations on the birth of Hailey, Ash! She’s a cute little thing. I admit it: I feel kind of left out – everyone’s babies are being born on the app at the minute! #Babygrow
Posted on 11 Feb 2028
@Unhako_neko on 12 Feb 2028
Replying to @MyWaves05 and @Blueburnedskies
Congratulations! I’m due in May, we can’t wait!
@Blueburnedskies on 12 Feb 2028
Replying to @MyWaves05 and @Unhako_neko
You should download it now, Maya. Loads of people are starting late. You and Riz would make the most adorable baby in the world!
I know everyone thought it was weird at first, but it really does help. I’ve always been broody and this just … I can’t describe it. It feels real. I love Hailey already, and I don’t feel sad about never being able to have a biological baby any more. The app has honestly changed my life. Give it a try. You can always delete it if it doesn’t do anything for you.
MyWaves05 on 13 Feb 2028
Replying to @Blueburnedskies and @Unhako_neko
Maybe. I’m just not sure what I’d
do with it? I’ve seen the videos of
people singing to theirs and stuff,
and I don’t know … it feels strange.
I guess it’s not realistic enough yet for me to connect to it.
@Blueburnedskies on 14 Feb 2028
Replying to @MyWaves05 and @Unhako_neko
I get that. You should look here, though: Babygrow modifications. People are uploading add-ons and mods to make the graphics and movements of their babies more realistic. There’s an adorable “peekaboo” mod that we’ve installed for Hailey.
MyWaves05
Happy trans day of visibility! I am dating the greatest and most underrated trans boy in the world and I couldn’t be more proud of him.
Posted on 31 Mar 2028
Rizzz on 31 Mar 2028
Replying to @MyWaves05
This post has rendered me immobile and stunned. Please delete it in case someone attempts to woo you away from me before I have a chance to propose and lock you down for good.
MyWaves05 on 31 Mar 2028
Replying to @Rizzz
I just let out a squeal like a rat trapped in a fully stocked fridge.
MyWaves05
Just found out that they’re making one of those doomsday storage vaults in the UK – in Snowdon! It sounds like something from a film!
Posted on 10 Jun 2028
Redcello1 on 10 Jun 2028
Replying to @MyWaves05
Is this a vault for seeds, like the one in Norway?
MyWaves05 on 10 Jun 2028
Replying to @Redcello1
No, it’s for everything, I think! It’s for future generations, in case there’s a war or something, so they can get supplies and internet data and stuff afterwards.
Redcello1 on 10 Jun 2028
Replying to @MyWaves05
I’m not sure I see much point in that. There aren’t going to be any future generations to find it at this rate.
MyWaves05 on 10 Jun 2028
Replying to @Redcello1
They are going to solve the sterility, I know they are.
Redcello1 on 10 Jun 2028
Replying to @MyWaves05
Agree to disagree xx
MyWaves05
So @Rizzz is having a sweaty meltdown because he forgot my birthday. Jokes on him! I never told him when my birthday was.
Posted on 29 Aug 2028
Rizzz on 29 Aug 2028
Replying to @MyWaves05
I vowed to love and protect you, and a vow is a sacred thing for a gentleman like me. Ignorance is no defence for such unfeeling treatment.
MyWaves05 on 29 Aug 2028
Replying to @Rizzz
I refuse to engage in this shameless bid for attention.
MyWaves05
Me at myself: oh do you have a boyfriend maya, I hadn’t realised because you haven’t mentioned it lately
Posted on 29 Aug 2028
MyWaves05
@Unhako_neko It was so great to see you yesterday!
Posted on 9 Sep 2028
Unhako_neko on 9 Sep 2028
Replying to @MyWaves05
You too!
Riz dropped me off after you went home. A right good one, he is.
MyWaves05 on 9 Sep 2028
Replying to @Unhako_neko
Trust me, I know. I won’t be letting him go any time soon. I aim to be a millstone around his neck for decades to come.
Rizzz on 9 Sep 2028
Replying to @MyWaves05 and @Unhako_neko I don’t see any problem with that.
MyWaves05
@Rizzz Good morning! I woke up wanting to kiss you.
Posted on 6 Mar 2029
Rizzz on 6 Mar 2029
Replying to @MyWaves05
I’m leaving work right this very moment and I will fight and kill anyone who tries to stop me.
MyWaves05
Oh dear…
RT @Rizzz My car just broke down on the way to see @MyWaves05’s parents. It’s taking every ounce of my over-inflated self-confidence not to take that as some sort of sign.
Posted on 2 Oct 2029
MyWaves05
Everyone put on something comfortable, because I have a story to tell you!! So this weekend @Rizzz and I went to Prague, and he was acting kind of strange. Then I realised he was NERVOUS. I cleverly deduced this because while we were eating dinner on a river cruise, he got down on one knee and proposed. With a ring and everything! So, surprise – we’re engaged!
Posted on 18 Nov 2029
Rizzz on 18 Nov 2029
Replying to @MyWaves05
Now you’ll have to stop replying “just lucky, I guess” when people ask you why you aren’t married yet.
MyWaves05 on 18 Nov 2029
Replying to @Rizzz
Now that can be my answer for why I am married!!!
MyWaves05
So when I took @Rizzz home to see my parents last month he apparently ASKED MY DAD FOR PERMISSION TO MARRY ME (!!!!) and my dad said, “You’d need my permission not to.” So now I’m going to spend the next week in tears. Thanks a lot, Father dearest.
Posted on 19 Nov 2029
CHAPTER 21
We stare at the circuit board in Feng’s head in shock. “Baba?” Shen says, lost.
I’m just as confused. I can’t understand why Feng would have this inside his head. Have they done something to him, to try to stop the seizures?
What is it? I reach out and touch it, feeling the cool smooth surface of the silicon chip. It looks so natural, like it’s always been there. What could it possibly be for?
“What...?” Shen asks.
“It must be some kind of pacemaker, or something,” I say, but as I’m speaking, my eyes drift to Mr Fisher, the patient in the bed next to Feng. He’s also hooked up to an IV and when I look more closely, I see that it is going into the gap underneath his hair as well. Has he got a circuit board too? How can they both have the same thing in their heads? What is this?
I go over to Mum and push aside her grey hair, fingers scraping at the skin. My nail catches on a latch and I tug it open. Circuit boards. Inside Mum’s head, where her brain should be. She’s – there’s…
I scramble over her lap and claw at Dad, scratching until I find the latch. He’s…
I stare at their unconscious bodies, twisting my bottom lip between my fingers. My head buzzes with improbable and unlikely explanations, but even the unlikeliest and most improbable one doesn’t seem unlikely or improbable enough.
Mum and Dad haven’t been treated for the seizures, so whatever this is, it wasn’t put there today. It’s always been there. They’ve all got computer parts inside their heads.
How can they all – how can every single one of them…?
“What is this?” Shen asks, sounding sickly and small.
“I think – I don’t…”
I look around the ward, at the rows and rows of people I know and love, and then at Mitch, who is standing near by, red lights flashing at our distress. The metal sheen of the robot’s head glints in the yellow light.
Robots.
They’re – they’re robots.
They aren’t real.
None of them are real.
They’re all—
Our parents are robots.
Time seems to stop.
“They’re robots.” The words come out small and unsure.
Shen’s eyes are wild, so I say it again, repeating it until I see it sink in.
My parents are robots. Mum. Dad. Jia. Feng. But how? How can they be artificial? How can they not be real? How can any of this be happening to us?
I pinch the skin of my throat, worrying at it until it hurts.
Shen is clearly struggling with this as much as I am, because it’s only now that he says: “No. No. What? I don’t believe it.”
I make a weak noise of agreement. It’s almost too impossible to believe, even when I’m staring right at the evidence.
How can we not have noticed?
I am human, right? How do I know for sure? Maybe Mum and Dad don’t even know about this themselves.
“Are we robots too?” I ask, panic weaving through the words. How can we tell? How is it possible to know for sure? There’s suddenly far too much saliva in my mouth. I swallow, but I can’t seem to make my throat work.
I must be human. I must be. I have periods. Who would make a robot with period pains? Or ear wax? Or curving toenails which press into the skin? Or bacne? Nothing about my body is designed to be neat and tidy. It’s the result of nature, not design. I’m human. I am.
Still, I scrabble at my scalp, searching for a panel, scratching at the skin. Surely I would have felt it before, if there was something there? I keep looking. I’ve never noticed anything before, but maybe I missed it. I need to be sure. I need to know, I need to —
“Hey, hey,” Shen says, holding out his hands. “Stop.” He takes hold of my head. His eyes are glassy.
I tighten my jaw, making myself hold still while he gently tilts my head to the side. His fingers work over the skin of my scalp, pressing along the edges of the bone in search of a panel. For the first time, I notice his bloodshot eyes and the sunken depths of the circles under them. “Anything?” I ask between my teeth, keeping my mouth still.
“Nothing. You’re human.”
I let out a breath of relief.
Shen tilts his head so that I can check his scalp too. When I don’t find any sign of a panel, something dense and cold inside my stomach eases slightly. We’re human. Right?
I drop my hand from his neck. But when he steps back, I reach out and take his hand to keep him close. I need the warmth of his skin against mine right now. I need human contact.
I turn back to the rows of patients, and it strikes me how much they look like a line of corpses waiting to be taken to a morgue. They are so motionless and sterile that I can’t look directly at them. It makes horror crawl up my spine, at how completely wrong they are.
“It doesn’t change anything,” I say at last. “They’re still our parents.” Do I mean that? Yes. Yes, of course I do.
“I know that,” Shen says. He sounds angry, but I know it’s not at me.
“Is it everyone, then?” I ask, the realisation hitting me, all at once. “Everyone in London? So many of them are sick … and does that mean they’re all … robots? I mean, all of them…?”
I swipe at my tablet, checking the newsfeed to see if anyone is awake. There haven’t been any new posts in hours, and even those before that were just automated emergency warnings telling people not to leave their homes in case of infection. I do a headcount, looking in all of the wards. Everyone in London is here. The entire community. But does that mean they are all robots? I walk from person to person, checking their scalps. All of them have the panel, the circuit board, the cables. It’s everyone. Shen and I are the only ones still awake. More than that, we’re the only humans left in the whole world right now.
“At least we’re together,” Shen says, his voice trembling like he’s realising this at the same time as me. “We always knew this might happen eventually, that we’d be the only people left. It’s just h
appened sooner than expected. Right?”
“Right.” Except this is nothing like we expected, because our parents, everyone, is a robot. Aloud, I say, “This is nothing we can’t handle.” I hope.
Incredibly, there’s a part of me that still believes this is all a terrible, dramatic and tormented dream of some sort. My brain insists on being an optimist, even when the evidence is undeniable.
I brace my arms on the bar at the end of Mum’s bed, looking at her closed eyes and calm expression. I can feel tears forming again, even as I try to blink them away. “Why would a bunch of robots want to pretend to be humans? Why would they want to raise the two of us? What’s the point?” I wipe the tears away from my eyes, trying to control myself.
Shen isn’t crying. Shen is stronger than me. He knows that this isn’t the time or the place for tears. He knows that we have to control ourselves.
“Lowrie, you know what this means? The seizures – they aren’t caused by a disease at all. They can’t be, if no one is human. It’s something different altogether. Maybe it’s, I don’t know, a malware or something.”
A malware? That doesn’t sound too bad. We can fix that, surely.
That’s when it hits me. “They aren’t dead!” I shout, sobbing with relief. “Shen, they aren’t dead! They’re not really dead! They can’t die, because they aren’t alive!”
“They aren’t dead,” he says to himself. “They can’t die?”
“They can’t die,” I say.
Our parents are robots. They can’t die. They can’t ever leave us. They’re ours, for ever – if only we can get rid of the malware. No wonder our parents weren’t worried about us catching it. It’s a computer virus, and we’re human.
And then the panic sets in again. “A malware? But how – how are we possibly going to fix that?” I find my voice has gone high and anxious, stretching and morphing without my permission. “I don’t even know what a malware is!”