by Jack Quaid
Shelby didn’t stop on the red carpet for photographs. She was keen to find Suzy, take the meeting she had to take, and hopefully get back to Axel before the end of the New Year.
Olympus knew how to throw a party. They boasted that eighty percent of their workforce was under the age of thirty and as a result their parties were legendary. Forget Vegas, Olympus headquarters on News Year’s Eve was the hottest ticket in town. Half the crowd was already drunk and the other half was working on it, and all of them were dancing to Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” At first Shelby thought the song was being played by a DJ, but then she caught a glimpse of the stage and saw Billy Joel hammering at the piano.
“I just love this song!” someone yelled.
“I think it’s going to age,” Shelby said.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Shelby yelled and the party continued.
She spent half an hour looking for Suzy and was just about to give up when she spotted her over by one of the bars. Her agent grabbed her by the shoulders and gave her a dramatic shake. “Thank God you’re here, just thank him.”
“Okay,” Shelby said. “I’m here.” She leaned in toward Suzy so she didn’t have to yell. “Now tell me why I’m here.”
Twenty minutes later they were sitting in a boardroom on the 40th floor. Like the rest of Olympus Industries, the boardroom wasn’t the typical boardroom the rest of the world was accustomed to. This resembled more of a cocktail lounge, with a sunken floor, a jukebox in the corner and a retro arcade machine on the wall.
Shelby and Suzy sat with a champagne-filled ice bucket between them and a whole assortment of exotic foods.
“You’re just going to love this, darling,” Suzy said. “Just love it.”
“And just what am I going to love?”
“You’ll see.”
The double doors of the boardroom swung open and in strutted Harper. He was one of the prettiest men Shelby had ever seen. Harper was tall, his jaw line was perfect and his skin was the shade that usually took three hours of photoshopping for Shelby to achieve. At a glance, Shelby would have sworn he was an android, but after a double take she could make out the slight layer of sweat on his forehead and the smell of expensive tobacco that came in with him.
He extended his hand and Shelby shook it. “Wow, you really are amazing to look at,” he said.
“I could say the same to you,” she said.
He gave her a smile. It probably wasn’t the first time he’d been told he was pretty. “I’m Harper, head of marketing here at Olympus, but Suzy probably already told you that.”
“I sure have,” Suzy said.
Harper turned his gaze back to Shelby. “Thank you for coming out, I know you must have had many other plans.”
Shelby motioned to a weedy little man standing behind Harper. “Who’s he, your Smithers?”
Harper laughed. “Hardly. This is Larry Coleman. He used to work at Sony until we wiped them out a couple of years back.”
“So, tell me, what am I doing here?”
“Please, have another drink,” Harper said, and was the first to accept his own offer. He poured himself a whiskey and leaned slightly forward, poised to say something, but then had second thoughts. He leaned back onto the couch and crossed his legs. “I had a big speech prepared for this. A big spiel that was meant swoon and woo you.”
“And I’m usually so easily swooned and wooed,” Shelby said.
Suzy frowned at her.
“Not usually,” Shelby said.
“I even had our advertising department take a look at it,” Harper continued. “But sitting here with you now, I think it’s best we just show you.” He turned to Larry. “Smithers, bring her in.”
Larry hurried out of the room. The door closed behind him and they sat in silence for a moment.
Suzy clapped her hands together. “Ohh, I’m so excited,”
When the door opened again, Larry was standing there with an ear-to-ear grin on his face.
“Is Larry with a silly look on his face what I’m here to see, because I have to say, it’s rather disappointing,” Shelby said.
“Larry! Enough with the suspense,” Harper said. “Bring her in.”
Larry stepped aside and in walked a familiar figure. She was tall and slender with long blond hair past her shoulders. She didn’t so much as walk, but strutted, and her posture was perfect. She stood in the middle of the room and was completely at ease with being the center of attention. Shelby climbed to her feet, took a couple of steps, and came almost nose to nose with what she could only describe as a perfect copy of herself. Except for the simulated breathing, the android didn’t move an artificial muscle.
“I know, it can be a bit unsettling for some people the first time,” Harper said.
“You think?” Shelby said.
“It’s so pretty,” Suzy squealed.
Shelby gave her a dirty look.
“But not as pretty as you.”
“What the hell is this?”
“It’s a prototype,” Harper said.
“For what?”
He was in complete salesman mode. “Our plan is to roll out thousands of these androids all over the country to every major department store and premium brand boutique.”
“It’s a model?” Shelby said.
“Not just any model, but a model made in your image.”
“You’ll be everywhere, darling,” Suzy said. “In absolutely every store. It’s perfect.”
Shelby circled the android. Paused behind it. “My ass isn’t this big.”
Nobody said anything.
“Is it?”
Again, nobody said anything.
“I sense that you’re not happy,” Harper said.
“Really? How perceptive of you,” Shelby said.
“This will make you famous.”
“I’m already famous. This will make me common.”
Harper poured himself another glass of champagne. “Britney Spears has one.”
“What does the Britney Spears one do?”
“Plays live shows,” Harper said. “It’s meant to be quite good. Some say better than the original.”
Shelby took another lap of the android. “Destroy it.”
Suzy slinked up to Shelby and whispered, loud enough to be heard by the room. “You are getting on, sweetie.”
“I’m twenty-seven.”
“Which is like, fifty-five in model years. It’s thirty million dollars!”
“No, it’s not,” Shelby said. “It’s brand saturation. If you put an Eiffel Tower in every major city in Europe, nobody is going to travel to Paris to see the original.” She looked back at her synthetic copy which still hadn’t moved since it walked into the room. “Besides, it’s creepy.”
It was just before midnight by the time Shelby got back into her auto-car and was on her way home. Harper and Suzy had tried to convince her to unleash the Shelby-bot on unsuspecting shopping malls across America and despite the promise of more money Shelby wouldn’t do it. She stared out the window and thought the whole night was a bust.
The streets of Los Angeles were as quiet as they were ever going to be on New Year’s Eve. She cruised past Bob’s Big Boy, busy with people either heading out to a party or coming home from one. Shelby thought about pulling in and getting Axel something chocolaty and sweet as a treat but then remembered it was late and he should be in bed. Though it wouldn’t be the first time he snuck around Alice and was found asleep on the couch with a late night horror movie on the television.
Shelby leaned back into the chair and flicked a switch on the dashboard. The world beyond the windshield faded to black and the television came on. The ball was about to drop in New York, and Times Square was as packed as it always was. News anchors and musical guests huddled around wearing earmuffs and overcoats as they counted down the seconds until it was the year 2000.
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
People were liberal with their kisses and hugs and cheered as streamers and confetti were fired into the sky.
Shelby switched the television off. “I guess the world didn’t come to an end after all,” she said aloud. Then she felt it before she understood what was happening. The auto-car picked up speed. She clocked the speedometer display on corner of the windshield.
40
50
60
70
And it kept on climbing.
“Slow down!” Shelby commanded. “Vehicle, slow down.” She tried to keep her voice calm like the manual said to do when giving commands, but with the world rushing past in a blur, staying calm was difficult.
“Disengage. Disengage! DISENGAGE!”
But the auto-car wasn’t showing any signs of slowing.
Five
Shelby saw the intersection and its red light before she could do anything about it. The auto-car sailed straight into traffic. It missed the first car by inches but T-boned the second and Shelby’s car was sent into a spin. It scrapped along the concrete and took out a vending machine droid and a small fence before coming to a stop in the middle of a Taco Bell.
Water leaked out of the radiator with a hiss. A fluorescent light hung from the ceiling, then flickered a couple of times before falling and smashing on the floor. The auto-car’s indicator flashed. It was the only light on in the family friendly fast food chain restaurant, until a couple of moments later when it too died.
Shelby swung the door open with a metal on metal grind and stumbled out. She fell hands first onto the floor and cut herself on a piece of broken glass. She was beat up and banged up but she was alright. She pulled herself to her feet beside the napkin counter and then stumbled out of the rubble and into the street. Except for the firecrackers and cheering crowd Shelby heard a couple of blocks away, the road was quiet with not a soul or auto-car in sight. She found her phone in her purse and dialed 911.
It rang twice and then she heard the overly cheerful digital voice of the operator bot on the other end. “Welcome to Los Angeles emergency response. Unfortunately all our lines are busy at the moment. If you please wait on the line, one of our operators will be with you as soon as possible.”
Shelby sighed. “Shit, really?”
“Now, there’s no need for that type of language, young lady.”
Shelby instantly sobered up and any haziness from the crash disappeared. “What?”
“It’s just not called for,” the android said.
“Well, my potty mouth aside, I’ve been in a car accident.”
“If you go to the Los Angeles Staples Center, there will be somebody there that can help you.”
“Why would I go to a sports arena? Don’t I need to go home or to a hospital or somewhere?”
“No. There’s no need for you to go home anymore, Shelby.”
Shelby pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it. Shock stumped her for a moment before she did the first thing that came to mind and threw the phone as far as she could. It hit the a storefront on the other side of the street and clattered to the sidewalk.
Shelby looked down the road. She couldn’t see anything in either direction so she headed toward the sounds of firecrackers and celebrations. She didn’t make it far before all the street lights dimmed to nothing stronger than a match and darkness fell over everything. Then, as if somebody somewhere turned a dial, the lights all brightened until she reached the end of the street and then the lights went out altogether.
Down at the end of the road a pair of headlights emerged. Shelby stepped onto the sidewalk just in time to watch the auto-car barrel down the street and take a corner at ninety miles an hour. The ass end swung out sideways, a tire clipped the gutter, and the whole car flipped into the air and crashed into a line of parked vehicles. Shelby ran over to pull any passengers out, but when she got there, she saw the car was completely empty.
“What the hell is going on?”
She took a couple of steps back then looked down the rest of the street. It was littered with auto-car wrecks. Some were crashed into front yards, others into houses, and many just into each other. As if they all put pedal to the metal and ended up where they ended up.
Shelby knew something wasn’t right and had to get home quick smart. She pulled her heels off and turned her walk into a jog and that jog into a run and with every block she crossed, the sounds grew louder until they didn’t sound so much like firecrackers and celebrations, but more like gunfire and screams. Shelby slowed as she reached Sunset Boulevard and inched around the corner.
People were being herded, dragged and pulled into the back of trucks by droids. They weren’t all military droids and they weren’t all police bots. The majority of the droids dishing out violence on the people of Los Angeles were the domestic droids. The ones that cleaned their houses, cooked their food and made their double soy lattes. Shelby would have laughed at the absurdity of it all if she wasn’t so scared.
A fat man with mustard on his shirt broke free from the group and took off running as fast as he could, which wasn’t very fast. A McDonald’s fry droid raised the machine gun in his hand. He pulled the trigger and the fat man collapsed onto the concrete. The rest of the mob cowered. If there was any rebellious spirit among them, it dissipated with that one single shot.
Shelby took a step back. “What the hell is going on?”
“It’s not the first time.”
She turned. A couple of teenagers with faces pale from shock stood behind her.
“They’ve glitched out,” the boy said.
“Where are they taking everyone?” Shelby asked.
Both kids shrugged and shook their heads.
“Do you live around here?”
The boy pointed to a block of condos. “Just over there.”
“Go home,” Shelby said. “And lock the door.”
“Where are you going?”
“Home.”
Six
It took Shelby an hour to make her way back to Brentwood. The kid was right. The androids had glitched and something in them had gone very wrong. They’d done the exact thing that Olympus Industries had promised they wouldn’t, and that Cormac Henry predicted they would. They’d broken their programming and were no longer friends. Shelby saw another three herding points where people were being pushed like cattle into the back of trucks and school buses. Those who resisted were met with the same fate as the fat man with mustard on his shirt running down Sunset Boulevard.
Brentwood was quiet and Shelby made it down her street with ease. She cut across the yard but when she reached for her keys, she stopped dead. She’d left them in the auto-car. Shelby stepped up to the front door and then looked over her shoulder to see if there were any droids in the street. It was empty and quiet and looked like a normal street on any regular night.
Shelby raised her fist to the door and knocked. Alice’s heavy, robotic footsteps thumped down the hall in slow, deliberate steps. Shelby shifted back as the door opened. Alice stood in the doorway and blocked it completely. She looked the same as she usually did. Warm, homely, placid. Only there was something different about her. It took a moment for Shelby to put her finger on it—it was self-assurance.
Shelby lowered her voice and spoke very slowly so that she’d be perfectly understood. “Alice, step aside and let me in the house.”
There was a pause from Alice, and then she said, “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I just don’t think I can do that.”
Shelby saw movement in the hall behind Alice. “Mom!” Axel called. “There’s something wrong with Alice. I think she’s broken.”
“I know, baby,” Shelby said. “I’m coming to get you. Just stay there.” Shelby shifted her gaze back to Alice. “Let me in.”
“No,” the android said. “You are not a good mother.”
Shelby took a step back and ran her eyes over the
droid. “Listen, Short Circuit, I’m getting in that house and I’m getting my son.”
Mock surprise crossed Alice’s face. “You’re a rude, rude, girl.” She stepped back and slammed the door.
“Bitch,” Shelby mumbled under her breath.
She didn’t have much of a plan. In fact, knocking on the door and asking to be let inside was about the extent of her plan. Shelby turned and faced the street. She scanned the road and looked for anything that could be used as a weapon, but since Brentwood was an exclusive burb there wasn’t exactly a hell of a lot of weapons just hanging around. There wasn’t exactly a hell of a lot of anything hanging around. The roads were always clear of rubbish and the gardens were always manicured within an inch of their life. And that’s when Shelby saw the vehicle that usually transported the gardening droids around.
She quickly crossed the street. The gardening droids must’ve left everything that they were doing once the uprising started. The rear of the transport was open, all their tools were up for grabs. Shelby took the first thing she saw—a shovel—and marched back over to her house.
She’d never used a shovel before, let alone held one as a weapon. She tried a couple of different grips before she settled on one that felt comfortable. She stepped forward and rang the doorbell. A moment later the door opened and Alice stood there as if she hadn’t just seen Shelby a couple of minutes before.
“Yes, sweetheart?” Alice said.
Shelby swung. The shovel clanked across Alice’s face. The blow took off half her cosmetic rubber skin, exposing the metal face underneath like some sort of housekeeping Terminator.
Alice slowly turned her head to look at Shelby. “That’s no way for a young lady to behave.”
“I’m not the one missing half a face,” Shelby said as she swung the shovel again. It connected with the android but the head of the shovel snapped off and clunked on the ground. Shelby looked at the useless wooden handle in her hands, and then gave Alice a smile. “How about I give you the weekend off?”