000:09:17:40

Emrys gently shook Zoran's shoulder. He stirred slowly, then startled awake. Suddenly staring a bot in the face under a bridge felt less real than his dream. He sat up and buried his face in his bandaged hands for a long while, silent.

Emrys brushed himself off and stretched his limbs. He hadn't slept a wink. It felt impossible with all the thoughts racing through his mind. He'd sat watching over Zoran the whole night, listening to the distant sirens, the cars passing by, bad breaks, and revving engines.

He'd learned that he could hear someone on the phone three blocks away and the scuffs of a raccoon down the street. His head had a sort of unusual display he could decipher, telling him the weather, local news, and time. While his skin couldn't feel, he could sense the slightest pressure against his plating. He dug his fingertips into the dirt and could sense that it was cold and damp. He could tell his parts were damaged or missing, both by a faint alert in the back of his mind and by the occasional numb tingle where they were supposed to be.

He felt stiff and sore, but no amount of motion or shifting brought relief. As if he now had two separate bodies and one was locked in a box. He looked at Zoran and put his thoughts about the day before aside. It was 4:36 am. They ought to find help before the city became alive again.

Emrys knelt to pick up Zoran's things. They'd grabbed his backpack from the truck, packed with a few rags, a first aid kit, and a spare set of clothes. He wouldn't have guessed he'd leave his job as a fugitive on such short notice but had at least a few useful habits for emergencies. At the closeness of Emrys's rustling, he let out a deep sigh and shook off what was weighing on his mind.

"We'll go to my sister's place." He brushed bits of gravel off his pants. "They might've checked for us there already, and at the least, she can hide you off-grid. Maybe check for coding issues and figure out what's wrong with you."

He'd changed out of his bloody clothes before sleeping and ditched his gear back in the truck. His spare flannel had gone to covering Emrys's damaged torso. He tried to shoulder the backpack, but his wounded arm stiffly resisted. Emrys gently took it from him and wore it instead.

"What if there's a stake-out, waiting for us?" He hadn't been aware of options like a sister, but he'd had plenty of time to mull over the city dangers.

Zoran rifled through his pockets for his phone and turned it on. After a few minutes of his own searching and listening to angry voicemails, he breathed some sigh of relief.

"Nothing from her, and she'd have noticed and found a way to signal me for something like that. I don't…" He stared back at Emrys, realizing he'd probably heard every word of those voicemails. "I don't think they've publicized a manhunt yet."

"She'd know if police were lurking undercover outside her home?"

"She engineers the Sentinels and K-9 bots for Arkwright. She'd know."

Emrys blinked. "She what?"

Zoran turned his phone off again and shoved it back in his pocket. "Come on. You'll be safe with her, I promise."

"I-it could be a trap. What if they come after we get there? They could be watching us through me and catch us as soon as we-"

"Do we have any other choice right now? If they could do that, why would they wait? Maybe you're too broken for that, I don't know, but we're running and my sister could figure out what to do next." He shoved his shaking hands in his pockets to hide his injuries. "Come on, before the city wakes up."

Emrys hesitated to follow, but Zoran was right. They certainly couldn't walk right up to Zoran's house and he couldn't remember anyone else. He barely remembered the name of the city they were in as he stared at the Arkwright logo etched into his wrist.

It was a long way to go on foot, avoiding major streets with traffic cameras. Dodging the occasional Sentinel that lurked across the alleys like monstrous deer in search of expensive shrubs to eat, watching the streets with their many eyes. Avoiding the people leaving graveyard shifts like zombies was easy. Hiding from the party-goers in their lavish clothes, glittery skin, costly enhancements, was much trickier.

Street lamps were dimmer than the luminescent signs, shining greens, violets, oranges across the pavement, even away from businesses. The residential areas were darker but held more eyes the further they went. Apartment complexes gave way to houses, bigger and cleaner, more landscaping than pavement. More security.

They couldn't just hop fences in this part of town. The risk of setting off alarms and K-9s was a bigger threat than being seen as passersby from the sidewalk, so that was their choice. Zoran knew where the neighbor's cameras were but hadn't thought he'd ever need to use that information like this. Signalling Emrys when to move, where to place his feet to stay out of view when they sensed movement and started to pan. For now, tripping one of Lucia's proximity triggers was their saving move. They climbed the fence into the backyard and by the time they reached the back door, a woman opened it and quickly ushered them inside.

"Is anyone here?" Zoran whispered, quickly looking around the kitchen and into the living room.

"No, they're asleep. What's happened, what's with the sneaking?"

Emrys watched her bolt the door shut behind them and wrap her wooly shawl tighter around herself in crossed arms. Her blonde hair and pajamas were a drowsy mess but her eyes were clear and sharp. They were a bit more golden than her brother's, even in the moonlight. A bit brighter and reflective. Eye enhancements. Tech of some sort that tuned her into her security system and who knew what else.

"I'm in serious trouble, Lucia." Zoran took a moment to gather his thoughts, running his hands through his short hair.

Lucia looked at Emrys. Not at his face but at his head, his exposed limbs, his dirty hands. Emrys held onto the backpack straps and shifted his weight.

"Is this a Gen-7? What happened?"

"Someone or something broke into the facility yesterday and woke this one up. We were responding to the alarms and he started running, they had me searching the offices for the trespasser when he ran into me."

"Did he hurt you? What happened to him?" Lucia rushed over to inspect him, seeing his bandaged hands.

Zoran deflected her fussing. "No, no, not the trespasser. Him." He gestured to Emrys and Lucia finally met his eyes, confused. "He's got a full AI, Lu, but something's wrong with it. He ran into me and begged me not to kill him."

"What?" A heartbeat. "Was Mattix there?"

"He's always there." Zoran closed his eyes. "They saw me alone with the droid and thought I had something to do with it. Mattix tried to kill me."

"I- I protected him," Emrys spoke up.

The cut of her stare silenced him again. Zoran grabbed her hands and she started to fuss over his injured arm instead.

"He saved my life and we got out but…" He shook his head. He swallowed. "I… killed two guys. I- I don't know what happened, we left the building and I blinked and they were both dead on the ground and I'd shot them. I'd killed them, Lu."

Emrys watched Zoran bury his head in his hands again and felt queasy. He recalled the image of his rescuer standing still, knuckles white on his handgun. The odd wording of his voicemails. Somewhere deep he knew Zoran's terror was not for being caught. Not for police, or Mattix.

Lucia wrapped her arms around her brother. She kissed his head. The moment was quiet. Emrys listened to their heartbeats until Lucia softly whispered.

"We'll figure it out, okay, you're gonna be okay. I'm right here, I won't let anything happen."

After a short while, Zoran straightened up and let out a deep sigh. A grasp at fresh air despite the weight in his chest. Lucia readjusted her shawl and looked at Emrys, her face set.

"So you helped get him out of there, huh?" She went to the counter and started a pot of coffee.

"Yes ma'am," Emrys nodded. "I patched him up with what we had and we stayed hidden overnight so he could rest."

"Do you remember anything about waking up? The Gen-7's weren't supposed to be done yet. Something about the software and security updates."

"No, it's like I was dreaming and then I woke up and they started shooting. I know I came from somewhere else, though, I have these... I know they're memories."

She looked to her brother for confirmation and tucked her hair behind her ear as she thought.

"Maybe some orientation simulation went haywire and wasn't reset correctly. Or maybe the AI was being recycled and wasn't wiped." Her eyes flitted back and forth to a million possibilities in her head. "How did it get to a Gen-7 though? Someone must've been screwing around with company resources. Maybe an experiment went wrong. Someone working on the security screwing around. I'll need to get in that head and see if it was a manual install, and maybe I could track down its source."

Emrys shifted uncomfortably. None of that sat right in his gut, but would anyone be able to tell simulated memories from real ones? He wanted to sit down.

"It's… nice to meet you, Lucia," he said before he could think of anything else. It felt insincere. "Is Zoran safe here? What's gonna happen to him?"

The siblings exchanged glances.

"No, they haven't shown up here but this is the next place they'll watch if they don't find him. He'll have to stay with someone else while I figure out what happened with you. With any luck, I can say I found you on the street and return you with information that proves his innocence on the matter."

"W-where? I mean, who else?"

"A friend of ours. Or rather, a friend of a friend. She's got a place off-grid," Zoran said. He looked up at Emrys's screen to see furrowed brows and a look of betrayal. "We can't stick together. Worry about yourself Emrys, I'll be fine."

Lucia poured a cup of coffee with a lot of cream and set it in her brother's hands, then poured herself a cup, black.

"I'll see if I can let her know. You'll have to hide here until tonight. Get cleaned up, stay in the guest room, but under the bed if you need to rest." Her voice was steady and soft but her mug quivered slightly in her hand. She rubbed her eyes. "I have to get my kids ready for school, please don't let them see either of you, yet. They can't be involved."

Kids. Emrys glanced back at the door. He shouldn't be putting any kids in danger like this. He couldn't. Whatever happened to him could wait, he could find someone else to help. If he had just kept running, they'd be safe, Zoran would've been safe.

"Shit, it's already 5:30. My droid's coming to make breakfast. Go now, get into the guest room."

She ushered Emrys and Zoran further into the house and shooed them down the hall just as another android appeared from upstairs and the room lit up.

"Good morning, Lucia," it chimed as it passed her, unaware or uncaring of the presence of strangers moving just out of sight.

"Good mooorning, 23," Lucia yawned in its direction and then gestured aggressively at her visitors.

Zoran pushed Emrys down the hall into a pristine bedroom and locked the door behind them. As Zoran took up temporary residence in the bathroom, Emrys listened to the sounds of footsteps, showers, door slams, a teen asking where his notebook was, a mother giggling with younger children. Breakfast time together, bacon and eggs it smelled like, then with just the youngest as the teen caught a bus down the street. The door of a van opened and closed and drove off, and then there was just the android cleaning dishes in the kitchen. A whole morning routine played out around them as if they didn't exist. He felt like screaming.

"Emrys?"

Zoran's whisper made him jump.

"Have you just been standing there?"

He glanced down and realized he hadn't moved an inch, his hands still wrapped tight around the backpack straps, standing just beside the door. Zoran, meanwhile, had cleaned up. The dirt was mostly gone. His boots were washed clean and set aside. His hair had been washed and tousled dry. The worst of his wounds had fresh bandages; he'd replaced the wraps of his upper arm with proper gauze on his own, his sleeve still rolled up. He would've seemed refreshed if it weren't for the slight redness around his eyes.

"Yeah, I think so. Sorry."

Zoran's brow furrowed. "It's okay, give me that stuff. Get cleaned up."

He handed over the backpack and stuffed the soiled flannel in with the bloody uniform. Quietly, he cataloged more minor scrapes and cuts and bullet holes than he'd thought, and his body felt more foreign. By the time he was done wiping dirt and oil streaks clean, Zoran had fallen asleep under the bed, hidden by the sheets and skirts. His coffee sat, cold, on the nightstand.

Emrys patched his greasier wounds with some large band-aids and settled in under the other side of the bed to think. To listen to Lucia's android, cleaning. To wait for another rescue.

[new memories have been added]