![]() ManchinesA Chapter by Megan S.I was finally on my way, walking to the house I was staying at for this test. We found it was easier to gain trust if the community felt comfortable with the people you were staying with, so I had been put in the adoption agencies hands, and then into those of the Harroldson’s. The rest of my day had taken about the same path- unintentionally insulting teachers, proving I had a right to. I didn’t understand why they always happened to walk up right when they’d hear me calling them stupid- in a nicer way of course. I’d never had that trouble before. Most of the teachers stayed away from me. They made it a habit to avoid me. It was like they could feel I was different. The only one who hadn’t was Mrs. Ricks from Denning. “Oh, Beck, that drawing is lovely! Who is it
of?” she asked sweetly, but I’d just look up at her and shrug. It was always
the same. She was sweet and all, but she was a lot like Three, too easily attached. Her attachment to her students was almost
odd, and I felt watched around her. I grimaced. This was the first test that
I’d ever been honestly wary of a single person. News media were always a red
alert, we tried to stay out of that spotlight as much as possible, but
teachers? They’d always been easy. “Now, Beck, I want you to promise me you’ll
enter that painting you did of Hope in the art show this week! It was
brilliant, and I’m sure she’d love it.” Hope- Three- skipped up just then and
laughed. “Nah, Mrs. Ricks, it’d just remind me how horrid I am at anything
art.” “But you are amazing at taking care of
people,” the young history teacher said back. “Louise was telling me how you
were helping out at the hospital last week. She said my mom really took a
liking to you.” She looked at me, knowing I’d be upset, and
just shrugged. “It really was nothing, Mrs. Ricks. I like to help out is all.” “Oh, fine. I swear you two are the most
modest people I’ve ever met.” That struck us as odd. It was one of the few
things we were never called. We were too sure about our talents as they were
wired into us. We couldn’t help but be good at them. As Mrs. Ricks left with a smile and a wave,
I got that odd sense of being watched again. I mean… she did seem to know and awful
lot about us. Three and I had gotten into an argument after that, causing me to totally forget my worries. She was always helping people, and it caused her to get into trouble when Departure came and her scores came back low. Trouble for us was not fun. It didn’t hurt, but if one of us came back more than three times with a low score in one of the tests, they took us to the Main Lab. It was much like surgery for humans, but they didn’t put us to sleep. They made a small incision in our skin’s top layer on our shoulder and just flipped a switch that turned off our receiver. Easy enough, and the only thing we felt was something like a scratch from a twig. Once the receiver box was turned off, we could feel nothing physically, or think for that matter. We were, all in all, immobile. The only thing we had left was hearing and seeing, and we’d all learned long ago to shut that off as best we could. I’d finally made it “home,” and I was glad to see they were both still at work. I didn’t want to run into them, and I needed to get this homework done. Not that it would take me that long, but still. I found I was tired. That was one annoying thing about having a human body. We weren’t the reputed “robots” that everyone made movies and conspiracy theories around. We were more like Manchines- a term coined by Three, and accepted by all of us. We had all started out human. I happened to be two when my parents, two workers for the Hospital, handed me over as test subject. They basically just… sucked out the human parts and stuck in the wires, boxes, and other mechanisms that run us now. We still got tired, though much less often, and we didn’t need actual sleep. Our tiredness was actually an information overload that we fixed by hooking up to our Hospital issued handheld computer. It’d shut us down and upload any new and useful information into the Hospital’s mainframe. That made it easier. We still had all of the stuff we needed, but the play by play was uploaded another place and we were left with pictures and logs. We also had our own personal log. It logged events that we found most interesting, and that we thought would be good reminders. I stored Leila there as well as Three. Weird, I’d never really used my personal log before now. I shrugged and started to hook up. Time to shut down, I’d do my homework later. My eyes clicked open, and I groaned. There was only one reason I ever didn’t make it through an upload and feel great. I looked at the screen of the handheld plugged into my palm. “Three, can you please not call me every damn time I’m in upload? I mean, one completed upload a week would be nice.” She, of course, just grinned back at me and waited for me to finish. “I see you’ve picked up some “naughty” words while you’ve been there, One. Now, the Hospital won’t like that much, will they?” I rolled my eyes; it wasn’t like they honestly cared what we said as long as we passed the test. “What’d you want?” I asked, hoping it was a quick call. I loved talking to her and all, but that upload hadn’t even made it halfway yet. I was still tired and bogged down. “I just wanted to tell you that the Hospital is bringing me back. Test 3- completed. Hey, maybe they’ll send me out there with you!” “Whatever, but give me a heads-up if they do. I’ll need to download the story on how we know each other that they’ll have waiting.” “Of course. Okay, I’ll let you finish uploading.” I smiled as she waved and blinked off. I hooked up, and a moment later, I blinked out.© 2011 Megan S.Author's Note
Reviews
|
Stats
242 Views
1 Review Added on June 9, 2011 Last Updated on June 14, 2011 Author![]() Megan S.ARAboutI'm a simple teenage girl from podunk Arkansas trying to get by in the world of high school. I started writing as soon as I could, and I've never quit. Over the years, what writing means to me has cha.. more..Writing
|