FICTION|FANTASY|SCIFI
Awakening —On The Loose
Searching...
The soft hum of machines and distant, distorted voices quietly flooded her subconsciousness as they slowly grew in volume and intensity.
Through the darkness of her eyelids, she searched her memory. Nothing.
She quickly realized she could not feel anything. Literally. What had happened?
Attempting to lift her hand, she found it tightly bound.
Her eyes shot open, the mechanical implant glowing a radiant orange.
“Doctor, she’s awake.”
A plump, middle-aged woman stepped into view holding a medical tablet. “Do you know who you are? Where you are?” The robotic scientist didn’t bother to look at the young woman bound to the medical chair.
She stared ahead, expressionless. “No.”
The scientist nodded to her assistant while tapping on the tablet. “Begin the upload.”
The woman’s eyes fluttered with the barrage of information being transferred.
When the upload was complete, the scientist again asked, “Do you know who you are?” This time, her gaze bore into the cyborg.
She turned toward the woman bordering on mad scientist. “I am Fully Automated Intelligent Tactical Humanoid. You may call me FAITH.”
Stubby fingers rapidly thumped away on the tablet. “Upload the mission.” The scientist clutched the tablet to her chest as she stared at her creation. When the transmission was complete, she gave the order to release FAITH’s bonds.
A rare smile graced the scientist’s lips until she saw FAITH’s eyes fluttering again. Her eyes bulged in their sockets before narrowing to mere squints on her assistant, lips tightly pursed. “Carl! You bumbling fool! What have you done?!”
She raced to the console and shoved the man aside — not caring that he tripped on cables and lay sprawled on the floor. She slammed her fist on the kill switch.
Her forehead riddled with deep furrows and eyes like moons, she stared at the chair. Empty.
Taking a deep breath, she pinned a stray strand of hair in her processor-decorated hair comb. Hire your nephew the family told me — he’ll be a big help, they promised.
As one, they both turned and looked at the open door.
FAITH stepped from the building, her ocular implants unfazed by the blinding sunlight. Like an immovable statue on the laboratory steps, she stared at nothing as she accessed the uploaded files.
Passerby who saw her scrambled to the far side of the street. Their eyes barely parted from the dominating cyborg. Those that were lost in thought or consumed by their devices, ran recklessly into parking meters and vehicles to escape the view of the intimidating machine seductively intertwined with a young woman.
The second update required FAITH to sift through unnecessary memories since her newly created existence and mission. She opened file after file, quickly closing each as they lacked her mission, and moved to the next.
Several of the unnecessary memory files housed images of a young couple. She closed those files as well.
She opened and scanned Shadow.
Her mechanical eye seemed to glow more intensely as she strode down the steps.
Next in the seedling: Awakening — Something Familiar
The dribble grew into a drabble, then into microfiction, and again to this in postcard fiction to Bradan Writes Stories’s Seedling Challenge.
Tagging those that have read past issues of this growing story: Tovah Rainsong, Kathy K, J.C. Lovero, May More 💜 Tales, Sieran Lane, Stephen Kramer Avitabile, Jonathon Sawyer, JF Danskin, FJCMontenegro, Jay C Wells, Christopher Granholm Jr. If you haven’t started your own seedling story, why not??
I invite Nerdishwrites to join the fun!!
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