Imitation

The evening in South Ville was enraged, the clouds keeps pouring heavy rain, thunderclaps shouts like a god screaming in wrath, and sends lightning that strikes like a piercing arrow. Upon the arrival of bad weather, the big plaza which was packed with people earlier became empty and lifeless.

This day should be a joyous occasion for human beings, yet, the sky does not permit them to celebrate. The year 2076, where everything has gone into chaos. Technology became more advance and androids were almost everywhere, it can be also called the peak of androids. Every household in that time had one android, and those androids were made to do the labors for them, of course, few people bought androids and made them as their lovers or friends. 

Humans and androids live in peace and harmony, until one day, androids start to act funny and crazy. Androids turned their back on their creators, berserk like a wild animal, and beat every human that they see until the person would not able to breathe. It is said that a specific virus named KM-21 was responsible for the actions of every android, it invades their core memory and changed their programs. Some androids self-destruct in an instance and exploded.

The war between humans and androids continued for five years and guess what, humans prevailed and ended the reign of androids. Even though the war has ended, they were not able to get rid of the androids completely, some humans are still hunting the remaining androids. We still have some devices and robotics such as the machines for medicines or the one that is used in factories but androids and making androids were banned to avoid this event to happen again. Up to now, no one knew who made the KM-21.

“Ulteer, what are you still doing there looking out from the

window?” my mom asked as she pushes the button on her wet coat to dry it, when it was dried she hanged it on the wall. Modern technology is indeed helpful, just one push of the button can dry your wet coat.

“Nothing mom,” I looked at her and smiled sweetly. I headed to the kitchen and got a bowl of soup and served it on the table. “Mom, I prepared you s---soup,”

“You still have this picture?” she looked at me with pity in her eyes and feel the picture with her hands. I rush to get the picture from her and hid it on my back.

“I was about to throw it,” I said and laughed half-heartedly.

“You should eat your soup before it gets cold, I’ll just throw the garbage.” I excused myself and hurriedly grabbed the trash. I borrowed the coat that mom was wearing earlier, then set out to throw it on the dump, which is four blocks away from our house. I pulled out the crumpled picture in my pocket and gently caress it. Five years had passed, yet, the wound is still fresh like it happened yesterday. It was a picture of me when I was a child and my nanny which is an android, despite being a machine, who is made up of steel and metals, I loved and care for her like she's a real human person. My mom destroyed her when she almost takes my life. And before she was completely destroyed, her last words pierced my heart, “I apologize, master,” she said with a faint smile and then shut down. Tears escaped from my eyes, I grew up with her, and witnessing her struggling in that situation and was destroyed right in front of me was the most hurtful thing that I’ve experienced in my life. She was burned to ashes and this picture that I am holding right now is the only memento of her.

“Help,” I snapped from reminiscing and immediately became wary

when I heard a man’s voice in a normal tone calling for help. I wandered my eyes around the dumping place and saw a silhouette of a man lying on the cold ground bathing in the running water caused by the heavy rain. I quickly inserted the picture in my pocket and rush towards his direction, “Let me help you,” I said and tried to pull him up by encircling my arm on his waist and hang his hand on my shoulder. As I was grabbing his hand, I felt a cold sensation like the feeling when you touch metal. My heart starts to beat faster than normal, this sensation made me feel nervous, I slowly look at his hand and when I finally got a full glimpse of it, I panicked and stayed away from him without giving it a thought, causing him to slam on the ground again.

“Help,” he said without any hint of emotions and stretched his robotic arm in my direction. Looking at his situation, this android is in no state to kill, he is missing a limb and a hand. Also, its power supply is running out, and anytime he will shut down. I was confused about whether to help him or just report him to the authorities. They said that androids are still dangerous but looking at his situation, he is pretty harmless.

“Should I help it?” I asked myself. I let out a heavy sigh the moment I listened to my conscience. “Ulteer, hope you won’t regret it,” I said to myself.

I pulled out my cubies (cubies is a gadget that can be turned into any material thing like a shovel or case) and press it to become a case, I put him inside and dragged it all the way to my deceased father’s warehouse. When I got there, I struggled to put him on the top of a table, should I fix it? Of course, it’s a no! I will end up sleeping in jail, but—no one will know if I tried to fix it. There’s no assurance that I can fix it but should I give it a shot just for my pass time?

“I will surely regret this,” I said as I shook my head. I headed to the attic of our house and get all the equipment and apparatus that should be used in fixing that android. I carried three boxes full of heavy things in the boxes, I put all of them in my cubies which are shape into a wheelbarrow.

“What are you doing?” I looked in my mom’s direction only to find out that she was hiding behind the door but her head protrudes from it.

“Nothing, I just have to put these things on the junkyard. I’ll be back later mom,” I said and exited in a rush manner to avoid raising her suspicion.

“Ulteer, lock the door when you leave.”

“Aye!” I whispered to myself.

After fixing his robotic limbs and arm, I renewed his face and

changed his battery. I tried to look at his system through the tablet that my dad made, especially for androids but I wasn’t able to access it because of a passcode. I frowned when I realized that I can’t fully fix it, this is not cool.

Two days passed since the incident happened, the news announced that there is an android lurking in the city, if ever that we see it, they said that we should report it. The picture of the android was all over the city, good thing I changed his appearance. Still, it doesn’t matter, for the reason that he was not fixed but if the authorities find out that I tried to fix it, then—I’ll be dead.

“ULTEER!” a horrified shout was heard in the entire house that also made my whole system awake. I panicked and ran over in the direction of my mom’s voice.

“What? Mom, what happened?” I checked her from head to toe, “Are you wounded? Where is it?” I hysterically asked out of concern. She shook her head at me and pointed in the direction of the warehouse. I quickly glanced in the warehouse and I saw a half-naked man looking back and forth in the surroundings, “It was just a half-naked guy mom, what’s wrong w---wait?!” my mind buffered for a while.

“Who is that guy?!” My mom asked me furiously. I slapped my forehead, “I--- I will e-explain it later.” I left my mom and headed to the guy, I dragged him inside the warehouse and locked it as fast as I can. My mom forced herself to get inside but she’s not strong enough.

“Open the g*dd*mn door Ulteer!” I leaned on the door when I successfully locked it. “Ulteer, open this door or I’ll behead that guy!” I bit my nails and walk back in forth to think of a solution to grasp this situation. But I stopped when I felt a hand holding my wrist and the next thing I knew he was strangling me. “Did- you- kill- me?” he asked with a serious face and using the robotic voice. Damn, this is what I’m talking about, I really regret fixing him. I tapped his hand to stop him, “No- you- save- me,” he slowly let go of my neck. I coughed several times, “I- apologize—“

“I should have left you,” I whispered to myself but I suddenly

remembered that androids like him can hear 5 Hz which is very lower than the average hearing of a human person which is 20 Hz.

“Help- me- to- find- Dr. Sanis Gaspar.” My eyes suddenly became

bigger just by hearing my father’s name.

“Why do you need him?” I curiously asked.

“Protect—her—daughter.” He uttered in a robotic voice.

“Protect—the—daughter of Dr.—Gaspar.” he repeated.

“What did you say?” my mom asked in surprise while holding her cubies shaped in ax. My mom can easily break-out that door huh, “Ulteer, what the hell is an android doing here? Did you brought him?” I can sense the madness in her facial reaction and voice.

I bit my nails as I try to find my words to explain to my mom. I got a hundred scoldings from her, she asked me why did I bring an android inside our house? I was asking that question to myself too, mom. We both decided to keep the android with us to know, what does he mean about, ‘protect the daughter of Dr.Gaspar’. We tried to search in his chip about its functions, programs, and anything that we can get but the annoying passcode was a hindrance to access it. Its security is unbeatable. At the end of the day, we were able to change his voice.

“Ulteer, you should focus on practicing him to act more like a human, in order for us to deceive the authorities, while I’ll try to figure out how to beat its security system.”

“Don’t worry, this android is smart.” I said as I hanged my arm on his shoulders, “His AI is unmeasurable, I’ll make the perfect imitation of a human.” I said as I smirked at this android, “Right?”

“Right,” he answered with a straight face. I frowned at him, “you should smile like this,” I showed him my smile.

“Seeing both of you like this made me think that the two of you have a thing,” I pull myself away from him and looked at my mom with annoyance. What nonsense is she saying?

“Follow me,” I ordered him but he was stuck standing right there. I let out a heavy sigh and dragged him towards the theatre room in our house. I handed him the VR (virtual reality) glasses. “Copy me,” I said and showed him how to put it. He copied me obediently. We watched the movies entitled, ‘A Walk to Remember, After, 3 Idiots’ and many more that show how human lives. When we finished watching, I told him a lot of things on what should we do like he should just write in an average manner and not that fast. I told him the different kinds of emotions, such as smile, frown, angry, and concern.

"Show me a smile," I said and he let out a forced smile. "Make it more genuine," he reformed again his smile.

"Ok," I smiled and gave him a thumbs-up. "You saw how James Bond does his thing?"

"Gun?" he said and flashes his hand like a gun. I burst out laughing, he looked hilariously, in between of the laughs I heard him laughing, "ha-ha-ha-ha-ha," I stop laughing and looked at him with deathly gaze and he returned me a deathly gaze too.

"Stop," I ordered him and he stopped, making his expression blank again.

"You're awesome," I said and patted his back. "Is one of your systems have the ability to eat?" I asked. It took a while before he answered, "Yes,"

I smiled and headed to the kitchen, he automatically follows me, “Name,” he uttered that made me stop from walking. I slapped my forehead because I was not able to give him a name, I forgot about it, “What kind of name do you want?” I asked.

“Bond,”

“No,”

“James,”

“Definitely, no.”

“Martha,”

“Nooo! It’s for a girl.”

“Adam,”

“Perfect!” I clapped my two hands in excitement, “Belberen—I should name you Adam Belberen.” I saw him flashed a smile, “Why did you do that?” I asked.

“In the movie, the fairy smiled after he got his name from his master.”

“Yah, you’re good.” I praised him. I let out a heavy sigh, if only we can just access his system, it will be easy for us to make him more like a human, act like a human, and think like a human does. I think he rebooted when I tried to fix him, or he was not an upgraded one. He can’t even remember that his kind is banned by the authorities. All he can recall is the moment he asked for help. For now, he should practice blending in with humans.

“Ulteer, you should go to town and buy groceries.”

“I’ll bring him with me.”

I gave him the clothes that my father used to wear. “Adam,”

“Yes?” woah, woah, he responded.

“Avoid interacting with others for now, and just focus on me,” I said before we get on the sky train. Sky train is a mobile that floats in the air, it has the capacity to hold 30 people.

“Kiss,” he said and pointed at the couple who is sitting in front of us.

“Should we also kiss?” He asked seriously. My face reddened at his question, I slammed his head but in the end, I was the one who felt pain, I tried to act tough to avoid suspicion from everyone that I’m with an imitation.

“We are not a couple,” I mumbled.

“Couple is defined as two persons considered as joined together, as a married or engaged pair, or lovers.” He recited. “What are we?” he asked. I rolled my eyes at him, “I don’t know yet,” I answered. He can be my servant.

If he was made by my dad, then there’s a high probability that the passcode is just a random word, “Yaah, let’s go to my mom, after this.” He nodded as a response. As the minutes passed he is improving a lot.

“Mom, I think I know what the passcode is,” I said as I approached her at her table.

“Perfect timing, I think you should burn everything that you used in fixing him and hide all the apparatus that you used.”

“Why?” I asked in confusion.

“And make sure it’s not easy to find.” She said in a panic state. “Tell me, what you think the password is,”

“Try eureka, but what the hell is happening?”

“The authorities will inspect every house, they are looking for him.” Damn, I curse in my head. I hurriedly put all the scraps that can be burned and buried the apparatus in the garden using my cubies. I thoroughly checked everything, making sure there’s not a single thing that I missed. After I finish tidying everything, I rushed to go to the office of my mom, where both of them stayed but when I got there it was empty.

“Mom? Adam?” I called out and searched them in the entire house but I can’t find them. I looked at the window where I can see the whole plaza, and I saw a crowd. My heart aches as I saw a familiar silhouette wearing a collar, it was Adam. My heart is heavy and my eyes are swelling, yet, I run faster than before like it was the only thing I should do before I die. Please, don’t take him away.

“Adam!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “Adam, please, don’t take my imitation away,” I mumbled in between my cries.

“I’m sorry, Ulteer. We were caught red-handed.” My mom said apologetically and hugged me as I collapsed on the ground.

“Mom, he is harmless. Tell them, he does not harm anyone.” I plead to her but she just shook her head. I stand up from sitting on the ground and chased him again, “Let him go!” I shouted to the guards that captivate him. “He harmless, Adam will not harm anyone.” I cried.

“Apprehend her,” the colonel commanded his soldiers. They immediately apprehend me which made my heart submerged.

“Not my daughter,” my mom said as she resist putting the handcuffs on me but she was pushed away and fell on the ground. I looked at Adam who is also looking at me, “Don’t go,” I said.

“Help,” I mumbled, and in just a snapped the soldiers fell to the ground and a pair of hands encircled my waist.

“I saw this in movies,” he whispered near my ears. I let out a scoff in disbelief, I’m proud of myself, I made a flawless imitation.