"It's kind of hard to hide 'wounds' engraved into metal, you know?"

*

"I'd like permission to leave."

Staring at the clock, I waited for time to move. There was only an hour until I had to pick up Wendy, but of course, I couldn't move. Couldn't think. I saw Rory in my head, clear as day.

"I don't think I was really needed here today, Mary."

Had I been selfish there? Had I not thought of him? Such a human thing to... think of yourself when times look bleak. I thought I was bigger than that. Better. As I looked down at my hands, stretching out my fingers to feel the metal within me, I knew I aspired to be.

"I've disconnected from your systems, Javi."

Did you, Ror? Because I feel like shit right now.

My head slumped back against my couch pillow as I glanced at the clock again. I couldn't sit and mope. If it were up to me, I'd be packing a snack bag to take for Wendy. But until Mary was done keying in my very normal and unaffected diagnostic readings, we couldn't leave.

We also couldn't speak. Rory left us in a silence that weighed down on us both. The moment he was gone, we glanced at each other, sighed, and went right back to work.

So, I sat with her beside me. It could've been nicer, possibly closer, but there was a chip connected to my arm, transmitting data to her tablet. I only had to remain still as she ran one last test. Not that we had.

The television was my friend.

Tapping my wristband against my thigh, I changed the channel.

"Bionics—" The commercial on the screen was loud, bright, and three Androids smiled at the camera. "—forever creating your much-needed friend!"

I remembered that slogan. It was how the program at Bionics had started, and Rory had been the poster droid for it all. His AI was higher than any other company could ever achieve, and I remember him being so happy.

Unlike today...

After all the promotions and marketing, I died. And for the life of me, I couldn't remember why they'd removed him from the face of the company. Bionics androids were Rory. I was Rory.

Groaning, I changed the channel.

"This weekend only, we have a big sale on carpets—"

Tapped the bracelet, flipped the channel. I'd done it four times without even letting the broadcast settle into play.

Next to me, Mary chuckled under her breath. "I'm almost done," she said. "Your file's at ninety percent."

I glanced over at her and smiled. There was something about the way she was sitting there, legs crossed under her, pillow on her lap. It reminded me of our happier days, our calm days...

Before realizing that dating an android was too hard, too unrealistic, and unfair.

As my smile weakened, I looked back at the television. I tapped my wristband again. "Sooner you're done, the sooner I can leave and you can go back to Ror."

"Right..." Mary sighed before looking into the kitchen. She noted the grocery bag I'd left on the counter. "Cooking dinner tonight?"

I tapped my bracelet again and shrugged. "I always do. It's my job."

"Right..." Mary repeated, pressing her finger against the side of her tablet. "What... were you making?"

"Tacos." I rolled my neck around my shoulders, wanting to ignore her. I knew what she was doing. This was normal for her. Coming over, as though nothing were wrong, and sitting down with my family, as if everything were fine. But... not today. "Wendy's request."

"Oh, little Wendy." Mary stood up and quietly laughed. "I'm sure she did."

Files completed. Disconnecting.

Shaking the commands from my head, I looked at Mary as the television settled on a different channel. A news anchor folded their hands in front of them. "We have breaking news," they said.

"Will there be extras, by chance?" Mary pulled the small, black device off my arm and clipped it behind the tablet. Without looking at her bag, she slid it back in its place. "Or, you weren't planning on more company?"

"Honestly, I didn't plan on anything other than her, me, mom, dad..." I rubbed the red patch of skin left after the scan and watched it slowly heal. When my light brown skin returned to normal, I sighed and looked back at the television screen. "I wanted to start cooking as soon as I scooped her up from school—" I lifted my eyes and looked at her. "—you know, if I could leave..."

"Oh, right, right!" Mary nodded so fast parts of her bun came undone. "I'm sorry, this is my fault. I'll run to the bathroom. Give me a minute, then I can give you a ride. How's that?"

As she jumped off the couch, I waved my hand in the direction of the bathroom as if she didn't already know where it was. But I'd only done it because the moment I looked back at the news, I caught the footage of androids fighting police officers.

But that was against our Bionics code. We couldn't hurt a human being.

"This footage was captured last night in Chicago, near the South Loop area. Androids appeared to be attacking other androids assisting store owners. When police intervened, the violence turned on them."

I leaned forward, elbows on my knees. These attacks were more frequent. And Chicago wasn't too far.

"Incidents have occurred in Joliet, as well as Aurora. Bionics has failed to comment on the violent outbreaks between the androids, but we know they're aware of it. Our sources tell us they've dispatched countless trucks to pick up the broken droids."

"Mary!" I called out to her as I heard the toilet flush and the bathroom door open. Yet, as she stepped into the living room, I couldn't pull my eyes away from the videos. Androids had ripped the heads off other bots without hesitation.

"Woah." Mary's hands leaned against the back of the couch. "When were this shot?"

"What?" Turning to look at her, I shook my head in disbelief. "Don't you know when these happen?"

She turned her head, slowly dropping her gaze to mine. "I mean... Isn't that why you called me? You didn't want to danger your parents, danger Wendy. You said—"

I stood up fast, anger surging through my body as if explosives went off. I had to keep my fists clenched tight. "I said I was scared, Mar. Hell, after seeing Ror yesterday, I was fucking terrified. But this is getting too close to home now and I can't ignore it anymore!"

Right as I pointed back at the news segment, a bang went off outside the house. Both Mary and I shot our heads in its direction, eyes wide. It went off again, louder. A gunshot?

I dropped my arm. "Mary..." I reached out and grabbed her hand. "Tell me that's not what I think it is..."

"I don't know what it is." Rather than grab my hand, she pushed it away. She took cautious steps towards the front window and with trembling hands, pulled back the white curtain just an inch. I went beside her and looked outside, too.

And wished I hadn't.

"Androids..."

|||

Mary paced. She checked the time. But nothing she did could explain what was going on outside.

Androids, at least twenty of them, were in the streets. Two had pulled droids from their houses, leaving their owners screaming on the front lawn; the others purposely hit cars, cut tires. All to slim the chances of escape. And the gunshot we'd heard had been fired by Mr. Wilson across the street. I only knew it because the moment we'd looked out the window, an Android took his gun and fired it at him.

His blood spread across the sidewalk.

Pressing my hands against the window, I eyed the Androids. Scanning them. Or, at least, I tried to. The data came back empty, negative.

Broken droids.

"We need to stay inside," Mary muttered behind me. "And I need to call Rory... I need to know he made it back okay."

I chewed on my bottom lip, thinking. Analyzing.

Mary tapped her wristband three times. "Nevermind, I'm sure he's okay. He's always okay." Nervously, she laughed. "You know, trucks were sent in this morning with some broken bots. I'm sure they'll ping in on the data outbreak here and scoop these up, too, and—"

"Open communications." Ignoring whatever she had to say next, I manually opened my own internal computers. While I kept parts of my vision on the patrolling bots outside, the rest scrolled down my contact logs. "Call Juan Morales."

"Javi."

"Connecting call," my computers said. It rang twice, disconnected, and chirped with failure. "Call failed. Retry?"

Mary's hand touched my shoulder, and I glanced back at her. I watched her lip slip between her teeth. Worry glowed in her eyes. I couldn't be worried along with her. Shaking my head, I ran scenarios through each of my sensors. Yet, without a root cause of whatever inflicted the androids outside, I couldn't reach a resolution.

This was why humans panicked.

"Has anyone called you?" I glanced out the window again as three androids stood in the center of the road. "Wendy's school has droids. If they broke down, would trucks need to go there, too?"

"No one's called me." Mary looked out the window, too, sucking in a deep breath. "It'd be my dad that they need to call, not me, and—"

"Okay." Cutting her off, I pulled myself from the window and grabbed her shoulders. In one motion, I made her look at me. "I know he's broken, but can you reach Rory?"

Mary shook her head but held my gaze.

Sharply, I exhaled. "Fine. What about your father, has he called you? Your mother? Has anyone given you any update about what's going on right now?"

Silence fell over us like a fog, and it clouded my senses. The edges of my vision blurred. Letters broke away with sparks of static. And then she opened her mouth slowly, and simply said, "I..."

Everything came back—sensors, data, knowledge. I picked up on her outline, her emotions. Terror was a word I could use to sum them all up. Letting her go, I took a step away from her. "You have no idea what's going on right now, do you?"

Mary slowly shook her head.

Outside, I heard another bang. Pulling the curtains back again, I watched the android who had taken the gun... he fired it. But the weapon wasn't pointed at anyone. The hand that held it pointed its barrel up at the sky, at the clouds, and when the other Androids stopped moving, too, he fired again.

He was making a point. Of what? I wasn't sure. But I couldn't sit around a wait to find out.

I pulled myself back into my communications again and closed my eyes. "Call Wendy Carter Morales."