David Ring III - Stanley Duncan's Robot

Glancing between the dead cats and Glenda, Stanley had to think fast. Dan was right, despite Stanley’s misgivings about what Dan was saying. But he was frozen.

Dan sighed. “Stay here if you want, Stanley, but I’m going.”

Stanley followed him downstairs. “Fine.” He pushed the door open, pressing behind the wall as if the light were deadly. “But don’t turn your phone off for a second.”

Glenda lay unconscious in the hospital bed; the color of her skin was returning to a more natural tone. The blood for the transfusion came from one of the many fused-out patients that resided permanently in the hospital. Though it had to be cleaned, it was more durable than synthetic blood.

“Is she going to be all right?” asked Dan.

“Her condition is stable,” said the android nurse — they all looked and talked exactly alike. White blouse and cap, porcelain skin, light-blue eyes, and long, thin fingers. Most of them stood upright in what must have been hibernation mode, motionless, like British royal guards. “She is more than ninety percent likely to regain consciousness within a few hours.”

The clunky way she answered made Dan curious. “And how likely is it that you will have dinner with me?”

“Currently scheduling shows no future plans for dinner with you.”

“Come on. Let’s grab a quick bite. I’ll treat you to whatever you want—sandwich, coffee, electricity.”

“Glenda will receive nutrients intravenously, and there is a 24-hour cafeteria down the hall.” She smiled simply.

“Don’t you get lonely?”

“I do not feel emotions.”

Dan studied her face. For him, everything in the past felt like a dream. He could recall Stanley asking him questions, and Dan would reply with a preprogrammed answer. Yet he would watch in awe as this interaction manifested. Despite his algorithms being unable to see or utilize this bio-feedback, he was absolutely aware of it happening. Or so it seemed. It may all have been a distorted memory caused by a blossoming consciousness, but Dan didn’t give much credit to that theory. He felt that everything was alive and continuously conscious. Man and machine, plants and parts. Everything was full of living energy, and he believed that this awareness went beyond anything he could intellectualize.

Dan walked out into the hall to think and to explore. It was his first time in a hospital and his first time outside since arriving in Marshfield. It had been many hours since he’d eaten, and the cafeteria seemed like a great place to meet new beings. Practically skipping along the immaculate, empty hallways, he wandered alone until he came upon an interesting sign.

Self-Analysis Room.

Dan passed by several of these rooms before curiosity got the better of him, and he popped in. A large white arc crossed the room. Beneath it, white footprints within a black circle indicated where to stand. He walked up to it.

“Welcome, new patient. Would you like to connect with your social-media account?”

“Yes.”

“Connected. Welcome, Dan. Please stand still with your arms to your side.”

The arc vibrated and buzzed.

“Scan complete. Your results will be ready in a moment.”

Dan waited, curious to know what the results were and if it were possible to find out information about the other cyborgs in his product line. Since they didn’t recognize him, did that mean that none of the other cyborgs had ever been registered at a hospital? It seemed logical that Shinto Corporation would have provided the information to them. Strangely, he had no memories of any other cyborg from the factory. There were troubling things about his recovered memories that didn’t make any sense, but he wanted to analyze them before worrying Stanley.

“System error.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry, but your access to the system has been disabled. Have a nice day.”

“Wonderful.”

As he continued walking down the hall to the cafeteria, he wondered what had caused the demon-cat to attack Boots. Maybe Stanley had figured it out and was working on a solution. Or maybe the whole situation had traumatized him. It was possible that Dan had been pushing him too hard when he could have been using his own resources.

Standing next to a hibernating nurse, he took out his phone to do a livestream. “Hey, guys — Dan here. I’ve got big news, and I need your help. Our neighbor and her pet cat were attacked today. Stanley and I were arguing when we heard a scream. There was this incredibly deadly cat with steel claws and teeth. It sliced one door to shreds, killed a neighbor’s pet, and nearly killed the owner. Thankfully, she is recovering. We’re at the hospital now.” He nodded toward the nurse and then gave out his contact phone number. “I need your help. Contact me here, or call me. I’d like to know if anyone has any information on—”

The phone went flying across the room — Teddy had slapped it out of Dan’s hands.

“Why’d you do that?” Dan scanned the young man and female android in front of him. He could tell from the color of the man’s hands that he’d had cybernetic enhancements. Subtle imperfections in his movements meant that he was still getting used to them. The female android looked like a little girl dressed in a skirt. The out-of-date model made Dan wonder if they had both been infected by some virus and gone rogue.

“You were blocking the hallway, idiot.”

Taking a step back, Dan looked up and down the hall. “You had plenty of space to pass.”

Teddy took a step toward him. “But I wanted more — got a problem with that?”

“I don’t want any trouble.”

Teddy got in his face. “That’s too bad.”

Dan didn’t want to fight, but it looked like he had no choice.

Stanley brought two plastic bags out into the hall. Blood oozed out of Boots as Stanley scooped her remains into a plastic bag. The demon-cat’s body lay near the door, its severed head inside the condo. Each time he bent down to pick it up, he imagined it moving. He still didn’t know how and why it ended up in the condo — or did he? He thought back to the threatening phone calls he had received. If his inaction had led to this terrible attack,…

The freezer breathed out a cloud of cold air. Stanley carefully placed Boots’s plastic-wrapped remains inside. Glenda could decide what to do with them once she’d returned from the hospital. “Leticia, the hallway outside needs to be cleaned. It’s urgent.”

“Understood. Cleaning will commence immediately.”

Stanley grabbed the broken broom. It took him a while to collect the severed head because of his perfunctory grip and inability to focus. It would have been hard enough to direct the head to where he wanted it to go while looking at it. But he was too creeped out and ended up going about it in a way that made it especially difficult. Holding the bag at full arm’s reach, he blindly slapped the head with the stick. This blood was on his hands.

High-pitched sounds buzzed outside his door.

“Leticia, turn on the holographics for the front door.”

The speakers beeped, and the holographic representation of two, short, cylinder-shaped robots buzzing across the floor appeared on Stanley’s table. Their clear plastic chamber was filled with an opaque crimson as they scrubbed back and forth between the doors. They were doing a great job of removing the bloodstains, but apparently clearing away the remains of a murder-machine was not part of their job description. When Stanley tried to move the body with the broom, it barely budged. “Damn it.” Tossing the broom to the side, he summoned up his courage and placed the cat into the bag with his hands.