Chapter 12: You and I
Shielding Kevin from the ugly truth was only going to cause him more harm in the long run. He was desperately trying to forget it all and live a complete lie.
Dr. Stacey knew she had to make him confront the disturbing reality, no matter how cruel it seemed. However, she had to be very subtle in her approach, or else she would end up triggering something far worse.
Direct words were only going to aggravate Kevin's mental trauma. She couldn't just talk about what had happened to him. So instead she chose to show him the truth. Swiping her index finger across her console she brought up a holographic mirror display.
Kevin stared at his own reflection and sighed, "I look like such a dork in these clothes. Ugh, mom should have let me buy some new threads!" His fingers glided along his cheeks as he pretended to rub some invisible pimple. "I need one of those cleansing face washes. No wonder none of the girls in class wanna talk to me. I look so damn ugly!"
Despite looking directly at the mirror, he didn't seem to notice his glassy red eyes or his naked robotic exoskeleton. He was either blindly avoiding the truth or was actually convinced he was a normal human. At that moment, it was extremely difficult to tell which one was the case here.
After staring awkwardly at the mirror for a couple of minutes, Kevin decided he'd had enough and walked away. Putting his arms behind his head he spoke in the most nonchalant manner. "I'm getting bored here. Do you know where my tab is?"
"All your personal belongings are in that locker in your room," Suzy replied. "Do... you want to read about the advanced bionic implants?" she asked.
"Hell nah, that's boring as crap." Kevin grinned and added, "I'm gonna play some Robo Warrior. We have a tournament coming up tomorrow and I wanna give it my best." His face lit up as he spoke, showing signs of genuine excitement. "If I win this tournament, I'll be sponsored by Orion Tech! This has always been my dream. Wish me luck!"
"Good luck," Suzy stuttered. "Which...tournament is this?"
"Only the greatest e-sports tournament ever! It's the Robo Warrior Global Championship! The qualifiers kick off tomorrow morning."
The Robo Warrior Global Championship that Kevin was talking about had taken place six months ago. He was playing the stage two qualifiers that day when their school was attacked by the machines.
It was as if Kevin's memory of that day had been wiped clean. He remembered everything which had happened just before that day, but all events after that were missing from his mind.
"Hey, Suzy! You coming?" Kevin called out approaching the elevator.
"I need to talk to her about a project. She'll join you later," Dr. Stacey replied on her daughter's behalf. "Have fun, Kevin. Good luck with your tournament."
"Thanks! I'll give it my best shot!" Kevin made the slanting victory sign with his fingers before getting into the elevator.
Subcity was located several miles below the ground. Even the subway tunnels which had been repurposed into living quarters were located half a mile below the ground.
The Residential District stretched from tunnel A to C and covered 9 subsections. Most resistance members and their families stayed here, while the lab personnel had separate living quarters, two levels below the subway system.
Since there was no natural light here, the people living in Subcity slept at odd hours and often stayed awake for days at a stretch when they received news of any imminent attacks or security threats. Life here was hectic, but at least they were free to live on their own terms, without bowing their heads in servitude to their robot overlords.
As Kevin stepped out of the elevator, he found himself in a dimly lit corridor with spherical glass capsules stacked on top of each other on either side. These were the living quarters where the common people lived.
The capsules weren't spacious but had just enough room for all the basic amenities such as heating; clean drinking water and electrical connections and furniture.
Each capsule housed one family, which varied in size from 1 to as many as 3 individuals. Those who had the painful luxury of having the capsule all to themselves weren't envied by the others, because they were the unlucky ones who had lost all their family members. Their families were either living on the surface or had already been killed by the machines.
Having a room with a double-bunk bad all to himself felt like a special privilege to Kevin. He considered himself lucky to be so close to the supervisors at the lab.
As he was walking down the narrow, whitewashed corridor, he noticed a couple of shady-looking figures vaping in the distance. Though e-cigars had been banned by the government 5 years ago, these two individuals had managed to acquire a couple of fountain pen-shaped older models from somewhere.
A few years before the ban on e-cigarettes and vape pens, vaping had turned into a fad, and teenagers even used to hold secret vape parties in their basements. Naturally, Kevin couldn't contain his curiosity when he found these two enjoying their puffs.
"That is so cool, man!" Kevin called out to them. "Can you guys make smoke rings?"
"You wanna get your ass kicked, kid?" the bald guy responded.
"Get the fuck out of here, before we beat the crap out of you," the lanky fellow at his side chirped in.
"You guys are real jerks!" Kevin cried out. "I will report you to the authorities for smoking!"
"You really deserve a beating, dipshit!" the bald guy approached with a shiny switchblade in hand, and his partner chuckled softly, still sucking on his pen.
"You can't do this! There are cameras everywhere!"
Hearing Kevin's reply, the lanky fellow burst out laughing. Kevin tried to run back to the elevator, but the rogue dashed past him and blocked his path.
"This should teach you to mind your own business!" The bald guy was about to slash Kevin's face with his switchblade when suddenly he froze in place.
"What's wrong, Mark? Cut up his pretty face!"
The bald guy started shivering in his boots. "He's...he's that cyborg!" he stuttered.
"What?"
Before the other guy could ask him another question, he dropped his switchblade and sprinted off in the opposite direction.
Kevin was as confused as the other guy. Turning around he asked, "What cyborg?"
As the lanky fellow looked into Kevin's face, his heart skipped a beat. Those glassy red eyes weren't human! He backed away nervously and cried, "You're that same one who...who destroyed that Neutralizer. Please don't kill me! I beg you!"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Oh no! He's gonna kill me right here!" the ruffian tried to make a run for it but slipped and fell on the cold hard ground, breaking his ankle. "Please, spare me. I will never buy contraband items again. I'll not break any more rules, I swear!"
The cries of the ruffians had awakened the people sleeping in the capsules. They all started lighting up one by one as people started stirring in their beds. Kevin didn't want to be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and rushed back to his own room.
Disturbing thoughts clouded Kevin's mind as he entered his room. Everyone around him had been acting strange. First, it was Suzy, then that software analyst, and now these two ruffians in the corridor.
Though he was happy that the rogues didn't beat him up, he couldn't figure out what caused them to run away. And why they called him a cyborg. He was a human through and through, just a normal 18-year-old boy, nothing more and nothing less.
"Access mirror display."
Kevin looked at his own reflection in the mirror and stared hard. It all seemed perfectly alright. He looked just like he had always looked.
Unable to find any answers, he decided to brush off all these incidents and clear his mind by playing some Robo Warrior. The dull gray locker was right next to his bed and opened with a simple 8-digit password. Kevin figured it would probably be his birthday and entered the numbers on the keypad.
As the door opened, out plopped an old pair of jeans and black tees. Being a clumsy kid meant stumbling into muddy puddles, slipping on a grassy patch, and dropping ketchup all over his uniform, which is why he always used to carry a second set of clothes in his backpack.
Though a bit old and dusty, the jeans and t-shirt were in pretty good condition, with no scratches or tears. After dusting it clean, he pretended to take off some invisible clothes and then put on his new ones. He looked into the mirror display once again.
Dressed in black, he looked quite attractive, despite his plain face. These clothes suited him a lot better than his atrocious green and blue school uniform. Honestly, he thought his school uniform had been designed by some idiot high on acid.
It was a good thing that no one at the lab had seen him in his school uniform, or else they'd all make fun of him just like Greg used to.
"I wonder if Greg's online," Kevin mumbled. "I could really use a sparring partner."
Pushing the locker door to one side, Kevin started rummaging through his belongings.
Among them were his backpack, his sipper bottle, a foldable lunchbox, and a pair of neon blue sneakers. These were the best sneakers he had owned and were a gift from his dad on his 18th birthday. Coming from a middle-class family, he considered these shoes to be his most precious possessions.
As Kevin was looking for his tab, he bumped his head on the locker, causing the items on the top shelf to fall out.
"Ah, dang it!"
Kevin pulled down the clothes from his head and saw that it was his school uniform. He was about to throw them back into the locker when he noticed a few reddish-brown dots on his green shirt. He quickly flipped it over to find two large red blotches on the other side.
A tangy metallic smell invaded his nostrils and he immediately dropped his uniform. Those large red patches were bloodstains!
"What the hell!"
Frightened out of his wits, he kicked the clothes away and stumbled back, dragging himself across the floor. As he sat there on the ground, something hammered inside his head. A pained expression distorted his face as terrible thoughts came rushing to his mind.
"There's so much blood!" he cried, pressing his temples with his fingers. "No! Please no! Make it stop!"
He closed his eyes and curled up in a corner to get away from his thoughts, but his memories kept eating him from the inside. Suddenly, he heard another voice inside his head. It was familiar, way too familiar.
"Look at you! Just lying there in a corner and yelping like a helpless dog!"
"Get away from me!" Kevin shouted. "Please leave me alone."
"Oh, so now you wish to be left alone? To forget everything and lead a happy life?" The voice questioned.
"I don't know what you're...talking about," Kevin stuttered.
"You are a worthless piece of crap! You watched your friends get slaughtered right in front of your eyes!"
"What?"
"Don't pretend like you don't remember!" the voice shouted back. "That blood on the uniform is yours! You should have died with them but you survived by some stupid stroke of luck."
"This is all just a bad dream. My friends are okay. They...they are just fine," Kevin mumbled.
"What about your parents, Kevin? Are they fine too?"
"Yes, they are fine too. My parents are on vacation. They...they...they are enjoy...ing themselves on Psionis. Yes, they are in Psionis."
The voice inside his head suddenly broke off into peals of maniacal laughter. "They're dead, Kevin! Your parents are dead! The android killed them!"
"Liar! You're a liar!" Kevin screamed. "They are alive! I talked to my mom. She is fine. She said she loves me."
"You're the liar, Kevin," the voice whispered. "You are living a lie. They are all dead, Kevin. You can't outrun the truth."
Unable to bear the weight of these painful words, Kevin broke down into tears. "Please, just leave me alone. Don't hurt me." His sobs gradually transformed into wails, as the bloody images of that dreadful day re-surfaced in his mind.
"Kevin, you cannot change what's real." The voice inside his head kept growing louder. "Who are you, Kevin? Or should I say, what are you?"
"I'm just a high school student. I'm a normal...bb...boy."
"No, you're not!" the voice screamed. "Get up and look at yourself!"
Kevin desperately tried to silence the jarring voice in his head, but it kept probing, spilling out one dark secret after another. The tower of lies that he'd built to keep himself safe, started crumbling like a house of cards.
"You're not a normal boy! Your body has been destroyed!"
"No, you're lying to me."
"You're a damn cyborg! You're nothing but a hunk of metal now!"
"I'm human. I am a normal boy."
"There's nothing normal about you! Living a lie won't change the reality. More people are gonna get hurt because you are too afraid to face the truth!"
"Please, make it stop. I don't wanna hear anything."
"This will only stop when you accept the truth! Your friends are dead. Your parents are dead. And you are a cyborg now," the voice kept droning inside his head, driving him to the edge of insanity.
Kevin stood back up, pulling his hair. Tears streamed down his cheeks and his head hurt like hell. He dragged his feet back to the mirror and stared at a blurry image that kept distorting.
"Fuck you!" he shouted, punching right through the holo-display.
The voice inside his head suddenly died out. Everything went silent once again.
"Kevin, are you alright? What's going on?" a female voice called out from behind.
Kevin turned around in a flash and pointed his Rapid Firing Gatling Gun at Suzy. "Get the hell away from me, you damn psycho!"
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone