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Inhuman(67)

By:David Simpson


“Tell me this isn’t real,” Old-timer whispered to Anisim. “Tell me this is a simulation.”

“It-it’s real,” Anisim admitted, reluctant as he considered the pain he might feel as a result of Old-timer’s instinctual desire for instant retribution, yet equally afraid to lie. “It’s live, a live feed.”

The duo stood in the shadow of a beautiful, modern building that towered high on the edge of a body of water that shimmered in the light of an artificial sun that glowed overhead. There was a breeze that felt as real as anything Old-timer had ever felt on his skin on Earth, perhaps even more real.

Old-timer sneered and pulled Anisim with him into the empty alley between the building and its equally beautiful neighboring structure, and once he was sure no one was watching, he pushed Anisim roughly against the cool concrete of the building in the shadow of the false sun. “My wife was down there, you son-of-a-bitch. Your people just murdered her...and they’re cheering?”

“They’re happy. You don’t realize it but those people—your wife included—were saved,” Anisim protested. “Not to mention countless more people in countless other universes. My Earth was destroyed, too, but I’m grateful for it. Friend, look, we’re not your enemies.”

“My wife was down there,” Old-timer repeated, twisting the tendril embedded in the back of Anisim’s skull.

“She wasn’t down there,” Anisim protested, barely able to respond and wincing painfully as every movement of the tendril inside his skull seared with pain. “You’d lost contact with her, which means she must’ve been assimilated, and if she was assimilated—”

“Then there’ll be an android body built for her here?”

“Yes,” Anisim replied with a grunt after aborting an attempt to nod.

Old-timer looked up at the building Anisim was pressed against. “Your girlfriend lives here?”

“Not my girlfriend, but yes,” Anisim replied, regretfully. “Her name is Jules.”

“She can locate my wife?”

“Yes,” Anisim confirmed again. “She can locate all your friends and awaken them early.”

Old-timer bit his bottom lip as he considered this. They’d lost the Earth, and Daniella and Djanet had been lost with it, but if they’d been assimilated, at least he could spare them the so-called education to which the androids subjected their newest members.

“Okay,” Old-timer relented, falling back on plan B as there was no other option, “get us up to her apartment.”

“There’s a small problem,” Anisim revealed.

“It better be small,” Old-timer growled threateningly.

“There’s no reason for her to expect me, and she’s gotta invite me in. I can’t just walk into her building unless she clears me.”

“So put on the charm,” Old-timer insisted.

“And what about you? You’re a complete stranger.”

“No, I’m not,” Old-timer said with a sardonic smile, “we’re best pals. I’m your oldest friend in the world. Got it?”

“Got it,” Anisim replied, acquiescing once he realized his protests were falling on deaf ears.

Half a minute later, they stood side by side at the front door of the high-rise, Old-timer keeping just one wiry connection to Anisim, jacked into the back of the android’s skull, practically working him like a ventriloquist’s dummy.

Jules’s surprised visage suddenly appeared on a view screen next to the door. She appeared young, though one never knew with an android, her hair a strawberry blonde, slightly darker, but still reminiscent of Samantha’s. “Hello? Anisim? What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Uh…I-I know this is a bit awkward, Jules, but—”

“Shouldn’t you be taking part in the rescue?” she asked.

Old-timer kept smiling, not even flinching at the euphemism the androids clearly used instead of the more accurate word: attack.

Anisim shrugged. “I was called back. As you can see, it went really smoothly.”

“Yeah, it really did,” Jules replied, a hint of a smile crossing her lips. Old-timer couldn’t help but think it was a look of pride. “1 must’ve pulled off some sort of brilliant tactical maneuver again, but what else is new, right?”

“Ha-ha. Yeah,” Anisim agreed, his tone nervous, the interaction awkward. Old-timer knew he had to interject.

“By golly, you are far more beautiful than Anisim could possibly have described,” he said, stunning the young woman.

“Wh-what?” she reacted, the smile vanishing, replaced by a look of shock.