Unnatural

  * * * *

  “This man needs a bone fracture repaired, doct–”

  There was no doctor. No friendly receptionist bot to greet them, no nurse-droids or mechanical pharmacists milling about, not even a busy janitor robot keeping the lobby and halls respectable. It wasn’t quite like a robo-Housekeeping, for the comatose humans hadn’t disappeared. This was a phenomenon exponentially more frightening.

  “No.” Uriah released himself from the Homunculus’s support, knowing well that he should anticipate pain and a fall.

  “Uriah, you’re only hurting yourself.” She approached him but he fended her off, clutching his pained body with the other hand.

  “Oh hey, robots, you too? Decided to leave me in the pisser? Jesus, everything’s slipping away from me and yet I’m not surprised.” He said this with serenity that seemed bizarre even to himself soon after, almost with a laugh. The Great Punch-line in the Sky had come to kick him in the ass. ‘First world problems’? Screw you.

  “I’m not slipping away from you,” she said quietly.

  And he could only wonder why she wasn’t. Uriah sat, doing nothing but stretching and burying his head in his hand for half a minute. Breathing royally, he reached for the Homunculus’s hand as Jane said, “So what do we do now?”

  “Don’t make me say it, Jane.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, I only have one option, and it involves going back on what I said just a few minutes ago.” He looked away from her. “I have to get an exoskeleton.”

  “Oh. Well, it is just a different body, right?” She leaned in an attempt to get him to look at her. “You’ll still be Uriah. Not like becoming a Transhuman will turn you into someone you hate.”

  “That’s not what I’m worried about,” he said rapidly. “It’s whether inoculating myself against physical pain will make my mind weaker.” He knew that was a lie the moment he said it, but ego is as ego does.

  Now it was her turn to be at a loss for words. She turned around and left the building, returning to the old-fashioned car. The other android followed with its burden.

  “Are we going to Everett?” asked Uriah.

  Jane didn’t look at him at first, her hands on the wheel. “Not ‘we.’ I am, but you need either someone who can put your brain in a Libertas or a doctor. I’m neither, and I think it’d be best if I went to do something for myself right now.” She now turned to him, looking somber. “You’re still no friend of mine, Uriah. My loyalty is to Marshall, forever.” She unlocked the side door. “Take your girlfriend and get some help.”

  Uriah told a Homunculus to take the body, and as Jane drove off, he realized Pat still smelled like a dream. Crazy as it seemed, there just might be a shade of a hope that he could bring her back, that they could run away together for their dream. In paradise.

  Not about to leave himself at the mercy of the man who had abused her, he directed his escort down Sloan Road – I’ll be damned, there is such a thing – to the east. Fortunately, Homunculi had excellent night vision.

  Not that they needed it. About a mile into their journey, by which point Jane was likely barreling down Interstate 15, Uriah and his Homunculi witnessed an orange light peeking over the horizon, which was the top of a small hilly road. Either dawn was coming very early, or …

  Prepared as he’d made himself for the worst, he felt a plummeting sensation somewhere in his chest when he saw over the hill. Straight ahead was a fortress of flames, no fewer than a hundred feet wide. It cast everything else into murky contrast, including the distraught face of Uriah, whose party had turned around as he realized, He knows. He knows I’m alive, and he’s trying to cage me.