5 years ago

-The blaring noises of my smoke detector jolts me from my sleep, the smell of smoke immediately filling my lungs. My eyes go wide, and I jump straight out of bed. The fucking building's on fire?! To my surprise, the smell of the smoke isn't what makes me gag - there's something else burning. Something I don't want to know about. I throw the nearest sweatshirt on and touch the front door of my apartment with my palm. It's slightly warm, but not enough for there to be fire on the other side. Swinging my door open and peaking my head out, I see people from all the apartments on my floor and above making a mad dash for the exit. All of the doors are open... except for the one across from mine. "Ms. Nelson?" I call out, making my way over to my elderly neighbor's door without getting in people's way. "Ms. Nelson, are you ok?"

"H-Help!" A weak voice calls in reply, and I immediately try to open the door. When I find it's locked, I stand back and begin to kick with all my strength near the handle. One of the larger tenants in the building sees this, and runs over.

"What's going on?" He asks, his voice rough.

"Ms. Nelson's in here, she needs help!"

Without a second thought, he helps me get the door open. Sorry about the door, Ms. Nelson.I think to myself, considering it unimportant at the moment. I look around the apartment with the tenant, both of us now having to bow our heads to keep out of the smoke. As I'm checking through the kitchen, the other tenant soon returns with Ms. Nelson's arm around his shoulders. "I've got her, come on!"

"I'll be out soon, I'm gonna check the rest of the floor for anyone else."

He opens his mouth to argue, but when I shake my head, he sighs. "Just be careful - and get out quickly!"

"I will, just get Ms. Nelson out of here!"

As soon as the two disappear down the stairs, I start my search for anyone else who may be trapped, keeping my head low to avoid the smoke. The creaking and groaning of the struggling wood of the apartment building snaps my attention to focus, making me more careful of where I step. All of the doors seem to be open on this floor now, so I turn to make my way down and out of the building. Before I have the chance, however, the groaning of the wood grows louder... too loud. I break into a sprint, desperate to get to the stairs before the next floor comes crashing down on top of me, now completely ignoring the smoke in favor of saving my life. The stairs come right into view... but I'm too late. With a final groan and pop, the top floor comes crashing down in a chaos of smoke and cinders.

Present Day

-"Tony, are you sure these monthly visits are really necessary? I could check the arm on my own, you know." I mutter, watching him remove the panel on the forearm of my robotic left arm.

"Yes, they're necessary. You can fix it, sure, but I need the data inside to be sure that the arm is communicating and working with your body." He replies, plugging his tablet into the slot inside the arm. "If your body rejects the arm, or there's a malfunction, we need to get to it as quickly as possible." The arm makes a small whirring sound as it's plugged in, and a light on the tablet blinks a couple times. Tony falls silent, looking over the pad and tapping a few things. "Hm... however, it looks like everything's fine. The arm isn't putting too much strain on your muscles... nothing's rejected it... yup, I'd say everything checks out." He shuts the tablet down and unplugs it from my arm, setting it aside and reattaching the panel. "Has it been giving you any problems? Grip issues, stretching, anything?"

I shrug my shoulder slightly, trying to feel for anything out of the ordinary. "I crushed a cup a couple weeks ago, but I fixed that pretty quickly. Other than that, no, everything seems to be fine."

"Good." He nods and walks over to a table, fiddling with a few tools. "You're really getting the hang of this... "tech stuff", as you so elegantly put it. It's impressive." He lifts the glass nearby to his lips and takes a thoughtful sip. "Honestly, if you're ever looking for work... well, you know where to find me."

"Here, on the first of every month?" He chuckles, and I nod with a smile. "I'll keep it in mind. Thanks, Tony."

"Bah." He waves a hand dismissively, walking over to the nearby window and looking outside. "No thanks needed, I've told you that. You should get home, looks like it's about to rain."

-And rain it does. My sweatshirt's practically soaked by the time I reach my house, fumbling with the keys on my waist. I'm just about to unlock my door, when the glint of something metallic flashes in the corner of my vision. The key stops halfway in the lock as I turn to look. The dumpster in the alley next to my house is open, and something metal and round sticks out of it. Curiosity gets the better of me, and I make my way over to the dumpster, reaching in and pulling the metal thing out to examine it. It's relatively clean - thanks to the rain no doubt - and clearly smashed up. However... it looks like a... helmet, almost? Or a robot head. Whatever it is, it's been beaten on pretty bad. "Hm... who would just throw something like this away...?" I mutter to myself, looking around for signs of anyone having left it there. When I find nothing, I shrug and wipe the top of the metal. "Well... this looks fairly advanced. Maybe I can mess with it a little?" Putting the robot head under my arm, I return to my door and unlock it, opening it and carrying my new project inside.