Run with the Fish

I was lying down under a glass ceiling, and they put on a lecture video that was packed with a lot of videos and walkthroughs about a human body or the fastest mammal, the animal with spots with a curly tail.

A Cheetah.

Then the lights turn off when the video talks about what I am. I figured I could not speak to others in the facility. I probably am the only person with the fastest legs. They hate me. Seven makes me go to sleep when I hide under a tree. Their limbs are big enough to hide me.

One time I was doing a walking test with Seven and his followers on the shorelines, and I saw a dead fish flopping around because it was stuck in a hole far from the shorelines. How did it get there? I walked to it when Seven was setting up his equipment, and the fish was clear, and it was spitting out white and yellow lines of light. I touched it and was about to grab it, but Seven yelled,

"Mart! Get her out of there!"

Mart was always with him, checking around the area. I remembered slowly folding into a box and was taken out of the scene when I saw Seven crushing the fish, clear sparkling fish. Mart sends more men to check the area. That was the end of my walking days on the shorelines.

I run now, 40 miles per hour, in this massive space with neon lights that trace around the space, telling me to follow the lane. Seven calls it the track. I call it space. When I start, the cube space turns dark, only the lane lights are on, and they all watch me as a bright light follows under my feet.

When I run, I see other bodies besides me. They appear and disappear when I reach the red line after repeating 100 laps. On the last lap, I wanted to go with Grena because she always waits for me outside the space after my laps. She changes the plates off my back. I like Grena. She makes me feel I am more than just running and punching a hole through a concrete wall.

The neon lights turn off, making it all bright. I change rooms, and I see Grena.

"Bee, I heard you sped up more than 40 mph. Seven is going to kill your legs from showing off," Grena says.

"I didn't know. I wanted to see you Grena, I read a book and saw a video of a spotted animal cheetah running during my 100 laps. I think my legs are fine." I said. I know what Seven can invent. He fixed my legs so many times. I had silvers and bronze ones with the number on the side.

"Okay, your plates and your wiring are up to code! No damage. You're just as perfect as the gods." Grena chuckles at the end.

"What is that?" I asked because her hand had a fish inked on her skin like my numbered legs.

"That is a tattoo of a fish. They swim way further than the shorelines. They are fascinating. You should let Seven let you watch the ocean creatures. Seven better teach you how to swim with them,” Grena says.

"I saw a fish on the last days of walking. Seven crushed it. It was sparking up lights and bolts."

"Oh, well, nevermind that. Seven was trying out a new gadget."

After Grena, I was put back to my room, and Seven entered.

"B, I know that you can run faster than 40. I can see whatever you're thinking. You saw that cheetah video again. You’re trying to beat it. Your logs are always about that animal.”

“I want to run with it.”

“Well, you’re going to race with it tomorrow. Rest now because 60 is what you have to beat.” Seven left the room, and I was watching a flopping fish in my head, and I replayed it and replayed it until I went dark.

In the space, the cube was filled with others and watchers. Seven and his followers and Mart were on the top of the glass box watching me. I was brought new slimmer shoes for my feet. Grena was sitting across the track. She pointed her finger at her fish tattoo, and her hands were making a movement like a fish would flop but smoother and slow.

Space got dimmer, and the neon lights started to glow around the ‘track’ showing the way. I was in position, and Seven was speaking.

“Welcome(MUFFLED, to Polomoss). I want to present to you B-30, she is our fastest one yet. I ( MUFFLED, the creator) would like to show you what she wants to really beat. The fastest mammal alive, the cheetah.” Seven finished.

As I am always running with three-dimensional people, they didn’t show up, except that the picture was clear now. It was just the cheetah and me. I wanted to touch it, but I was restrained. 

“Beat 60,” I whispered. 

I hear the lights shutting off, and the recording goes off to let me know when I can start running with the cheetah. 

I started, and it passed me, and I was happy I was restrained from smiling, but my eyes were. I saw its tail curving to make a sharp turn around the lanes. I picked up its speed, so we were side by side. The new people were clapping. I was supported and loved. After the 15th lap, Seven stopped the race and announced in great satisfaction that I beat the world's fastest animal. Now I am.

It was late, and I was kept in my room after the race, and Seven didn’t come by or the others. They always check up on me after a test run or when I was beginning to walk on my new legs. I was lying down on the glass table as I was always ordered to do. I was rewatching how I ran next to a cheetah. I never dreamt of a day like this. I wonder if I can run with a fish. 

Somebody was opening my door, and it was not Seven. It was one of the new people. It was a male. He was 6’5,” and he was more intimidating than Seven. I sit up and focus on him. He has microparticles on the hairline.

“B-30, is that correct?” He asked.

“Yes,” I answered.

“You have surprised me in every way a human can be. When you caught up to the cheetah, I was happy, and I liked you.”

“Well, Seven always talks about me.”

“I know he is a genius, and we were thinking you're going to be our new friend. Say, have you ever been out these doors?” He asked.

“I go to space and run. Sometimes I go with Grena to get changed.” I said.

“I am not talking about that. I am talking about further away from the routine.” I was thinking about the fish. Did Seven bring them in so they can teach me how to run with a fish?

Seven comes in. He was quiet and let the man out of my room. Seven comes in and only him. It went dark.

I woke up, and I was not in my room with the glass table. I sat up and looked around. Three male bodies were looking at me.

“It’s awake.” One said.

“Seven?”

“B-30, Welcome.” It was the man from the other day—the tall one. 

“Where am I, where is Seven? Have I changed rooms?” 

“Seven is not here. He is busy.”

“Then what am I doing here?” I ask.

“You are the future, and we all waited for this moment. When I was small, I thought we would never create something like you're magnificent, flawless. You will never let me down.”

I was not tested or checked like Grena did or Seven. I was let alone in the room, and everyone left. There was a reflection wall in front of me, and I looked at myself for the first time. I never had anything like this in the space or my room before. I had two of me. I did what Grena did to me when running with a cheetah. I was waving my hands like dead fish. I did it for over ten minutes. Nobody came in or stopped me. 

Later that day, I was doing a one arm handstand, and a box came in from the entrance door. People left it there, and they closed the doors again. I was left alone with a clear orange box. 

I laid on the black rectangular bed-like box, and I waited for movement. I knew it was a machine, but for what.

The next morning, a woman like me looked down at me as I was lying down on the box. I searched her body, and it was wired, and her legs were invisible, unlike mine. Her body was mostly a transparent orange see-through material. She had buzz-cut hair, and her eyes were dark gray. 

  “B-30, I am Ai-01. I am here to inform you to be-” Ai-01 stops. “Just kidding, I'm messing around with you. Hi, my real name is Annie. Sorry to barge in like this. I look like a weirdo.” 

“What is a weirdo?” I asked.

` “Somebody who isn't normal.” She said.

“I knew that.”

“You’re funny. Seems like they haven't installed humor in your system yet.” Annie said. She was walking gracefully, and her slim body was flexible as she started to do a balanced routine on one toe. 

“How do you do that?” I asked. 

“Do what? The balance thing?” Annie asked.

“No being humor.”

“You mean being funny. You have to let your boss know. They can even let you be a singer if they want to. I would want to, but they set me up for night vision, the art of firearms, and advanced Jiu-Jitsu. With a hint of humor. What can you do?”

“I can run as fast a cheetah and see through people's bodies,” I said.

“Amazing. Really amazing.” Annie said.

Annie and I were released to walk around a bigger space to have an indoor garden with a place to run. 

Annie was walking beside me, and she touched the back of my head, took a black wire, and said something I didn’t like.

“You know they are watching us right now,” Annie said.

“I know. Seven is like that.”

“Seven, he created me, he did my parts for a small-time, but they moved me here with Kellian.”

“Kellian?”

“Tall guy, he is the one who bought you off from Seven. I heard he was not finished with you.”

“My legs.”

“But you can still run more than 60mph. You are already a weapon.”

“Weapon? I like to run or walk, but I don't see why I can be like a weapon. I have seen videos of what weapons can do with bad people.”

“I am quiet. You should be too. I took off my wire just now and yours so we can talk. They might think it just fell out by accident. They are going to be here any minute. Listen to the main reason they took me out of the storage box. It's so we can be overpowering as a team. They are going to replicate us, and they are going to be a lot stronger. Who knows what we are training for. Kellian will start uploading videos to you to watch about the ‘enemies,’ and you're going to hate them. Be smart about this because here they come.” Annie falls to the ground and twitches like flopping fish.

I remembered the fish with sparkling lights and bolt coming out of it. Annie was doing that same.

They took her away.

It was a week ago since I have not seen Annie, and I have been watching videos about the enemies of the world. It was so much and so much hatred. I had to find Annie. 

I waited for the dark, and I found out how to take out a wire from the back of my head. So I had to sneak out of the room quickly. I remembered where they took her; it was in Kellian’s area.

I took off my shoes because it was quieter like that. I ran so fast nobody heard me or thought I was there. I reached to Kellians side of the building, and he was standing there looking at me.

“B-30, are you looking for Annie?”

“Yes, where is she?” 

“I deactivated her main power motor and recycled her body to make another one. She cost me a billion. You are in the first place. Seven didn't want to buy you, but I insisted, and I told him if he didn’t, he would end up like a FISH.” Kellian holds up the same clear fish I saw the other day and throws it to me. 

“This is a recording device, were you trying to infiltrate Sevens facility?”

“You,” Kellian said. “You are my prize winner, and tomorrow you are coming with us to Washington D.C. to present you.”

“I won’t go without Annie.”

“See, I was afraid. I am not to install humor or love in your system. Her humor was infectious and poisonous for you.”

“What about seven? I want him to be there.”

“Darling.” Kellian walks to me. “Seven signed off to a compromise that he will not talk to you or see you anymore.”

“Since the first day, I saw you were not trusted. I saw right through you-” I went dark again. 

I woke up, and I felt like I had been installed with other things like determination and purpose—a purpose for Kellian. I was unfolded, and my body was completely restrained. I couldn’t run fast. I saw Kellina far enough to see him composing orders to his followers and workers to escort me with care. 

I heard loud noises until a female spoke to her crowd. It was outside with blue, red, and white flags all around. People were cheering and applauded her speech. 

I was still restrained, and I was rolled to the back of the stage where nobody from the audience could see Kellian’s workers or me. The other new people working there for the lady making the speech were staring at me. Another tall man with a navy blue suit with gold medals was looking at me.  

“This must be Annie.” He said.

“Yes, I made a few changes…” Kellian started to talk false facts about me. I am not Annie. 

“Okay, guys, bring her out in five minutes.” A man said at the end of the backstage. 

“Unrestraint her but only her legs and head, arms need to be a lock,” Kellian said. They brought him to white a long coat to switch his dark coat. Is this his costume?”

It was five minutes, and Kellian and his workers were escorting me to the side of the stage. “The World is going to know our name,” Kellian said.

The female peon wearing a white suit with short slick hair-do introduced us to the people. Kellian went first because they wanted me to wait for a little. He talked for a quick minute and presented me with a recording of me running with a cheetah, but they say, ‘Annie B-30 running AGAINST a cheetah.’ And, ‘the fastest Ai made.’ And. ‘Our watch, our guardian, our keeper, our patrol.’

“Here she is, Annie B-30.” Kellian holds his arm to me so I can walk to him. I was restrained.

I walked to him, and I turned to the massive crowd of people who cheered and jumped and screamed at me and each other. It did not hate; it was a relief for a long time. 

“Annie came and said a few words,” Kellian said.

I walked to the mic and said, “Hello, my name is Annie.”

They all went quiet and gasped in excitement. Some kids were pointing their fingers at me. 

  I stepped in front of the podium to better show my body and face. 

“My name is Annie B-30. I am your guardian, your protector. I am here to keep you safe. I am here to change old rules. No more men and women lost in our lives…” I kept rambling things I never thought I would say. They installed a speech recording. 

After the speech, I was cheered, and I was told to get out of the stage. I was controlled by Kellian and his workers. They have installed a stronger wire in me that I cannot take out. 

As I was walking off the stage with Kellian, I heard a familiar voice. It was Grena’s.

“BEE.” She whispered.

“Where are you?” I asked as I was using my legs to turn around. 

“In your back. I installed it just in case. They robbed my Annie from me. She was a replica of my daughter's face. God may rest her soul. But listen, This is not installed with the Kellians system, so you can hear me. Seven I snot from here he wasn't to take you back, Kellian robbed you from us. From Seven. Can you still run?” She asked.

“My legs are unrestrained right now,” I said. I figured that Grena was here too but with Seven trying to get me out only if I use my legs. 

“Okay, I am going to unlock your arms and block Kellians system for a short time.”

“How long is that going to be?”

“20 seconds,” Grena said.

“Run now. You are unlocked,” Grena said. "And it's not 'run with the fish'; it's swimming with the fish."