Defiance
The girl stood in front of the shed, arms spread out, guarding it with all her might. "Ma'am, we are going to need you to move." The girl just shook her head, never moving. "We need to clear here!" The man shouted behind the bullhorn.
Workers in tractors craned their necks, trying to get a look at the defiant girl. Not every day did you get someone who would stand this long in front of a building sentenced for demolishment. And usually, they would stand for something actually worth their while, not some rusty shed in the middle of a now plowed over field. Towering buildings surrounded the little clump of grass and shed. The government had heeded the girl before, letting her keep her smudge of nature, but now that the one and only Best Hotels wanted the land, it had to go.
"Lady, move! Or we will plow you over if we have to!" The instructor yelled, now getting more agitated. It was a poignant scene for the now selfish human race, and helicopters circled around the desired construction site.
The woman never spoke and she stared into the eyes of every man and woman with determination and hatred. For some of them, it scared them half to death, but others just laughed at her stupidity. This girl was going to get killed! If the woman knew this, she wouldn't have cared. She stood for her beliefs, never backed down, and if she was going to make her life useful, she would die for it. Humans now days were so greedy, wanting everything for their own. The woman had just stayed there for a few years, yet she could see all the pure vanity and evil of them. She wanted to change that, with all her heart, yet she just couldn't no matter how hard she tried.
To the workers the woman looked like a scraggly young girl, who was just so spoiled that she wanted her playhouse still standing, but to the few gracious people watching through the cameras, she seemed like a sign of independence and morality. Her feet stood firm in the ground, and she had no doubts at wavering her stand.
Under her feet lay miles and miles of metal and steel, portals and gel, and artificial life. But to her, their life wasn't artificial. They had feelings, some of anger, some of regret, and she couldn't just step back and watch the innocent be put to death. She knew that if the workers demolished the shed, they would surely find the horrors below, and then, they would raid the chambers, stealing things from every one. They would find the artificial life and put it to death, or maybe worse. She couldn't let that happen to them, they practically saved her life! So she stood strong, still standing through threats and screams.
One of the construction workers had the nerve to rev the gas on his tractor. Down below, the robots had no idea the troubles the woman was going through for them. The sun was disappearing and the instructor's patience was too. "Lady, if you don't move this minute, we will tear the shed down!" The woman's eyes shone with determination, and it was clear the words that spoke through them. She would never back down. The workers were now slightly astonished.
"Oh well, start your engines!" announced the instructor. All around monstrous engines were cranked, which would have sounded like some African animal to the viewers through the cameras, except there were no more animals. No animals, no birds, no insects. Those all died out years before.
The noise echoed through the sky, and you could see the heavy smoke rising up into the atmosphere, damaging it even more. The scene would have been terrifying to anyone else, but the woman didn't even flinch. The workers, now tired of this little game, inched their killing machines toward the woman. It was only when the tractors were inches from her face that the woman reacted.
She spun around, flung open the door, raced inside, and slammed the door shut before the workers even knew she was gone. They stared, faces full of awe at the empty space in front of them. "Go on! Plow it over!" yelled the instructor. The workers edged closer and closer.
Down below, the woman was running hurriedly through the halls and catwalks. She had already hijacked the elevator to go to the right level. The woman paused in front of the large doors. Would She kill her? Before the woman could hesitate longer, a deep rumble could be heard from above. The woman took a deep breath and burst through the doors.
"Well, who do we have here? I thought I told you not to come ba-" The woman ran up to Her, completely ignoring her words.
"They're coming." The massive A.I. seemed astonished. "So you can talk. I always knew you co-"
"Shut up! They are coming. They are going to demolish thi-" The facility shook and she could hear the tractor engines up above. "What was that?" asked the robot. "The construction workers, they are taking this place down, we don't have much time, we need to leave!" Shouts could be heard, echoing down the hallway. "How am I supposed to do that? I am anchored to the ceiling!"
The woman looked up at the robot in fear.
In fear.
Not for herself, not for the facility, but for the artificial life in front of her. For some odd reason, this struck the metal object deeply. Somewhere, deep in her heart, She felt a tremor. Of friendship.
The woman spoke calmly and carefully, although her voice cracked in a couple of places. "I researched about this facility. They have an alternate program for whenever you need to leave. Look for it." The robot, still slightly shocked from the fear in her eyes, nodded its big white head slowly, and as she searched for it, she surprisingly found a file.
"Download it." For once the A.I. did as told. "Do you trust me?" She wavered on that.
Did She really? The woman had escaped testing, killed her, reanimated her, betrayed her, killed her again, put her into a potato, helped her get back in charge, and then after everything they went through, left her. She left her alone in the dark empty world of science. But she came back. She wanted to save her again. She wanted to be her friend.
The robot absolutely knew her answer know. She was sure of it. Right as she was sending the word to her vocal processors, a rumble shook the ceiling. Time seemed to go in slow motion. Every moment, every breath, every second was implanted in Her mind. The great shaking of the facility, the distant bombs, the fear in the woman's eyes, all of it. But the most descriptive of all was the crack in the ceiling that grew larger and larger as seconds slowed down.
"Open the file!" screamed the woman, and the robot did as instructed. A horrifying pain coursed through her wires and up into her mainframe. A mangled scream fled out of Her mouth before she could stop it. The scream echoed through the facility and it shook the woman's bones until they chattered together like little mice. The scream faded and the A. I. lost her artificial consciousness.
But the empty mainframe didn't matter to the woman anymore, she sped off into the darkness of the facility confident that somewhere in the mile deep enrichment center her friend had reappeared in a different form. A form that was actually human.
A/N
Hi! Is it possible that I update on the same story in the same weekend? Well, technically I just finished this and I did chapter one a while ago and... Anyway, I got this story idea when I was trying to think of an idea and I saw a fallen down tree. Somehow it reminded me of this...
I am actually quite proud of this fic...
Anway, the author of the day is... 0-moonwind and her story... well, all of her Portal stories are pretty much fantastic! So read them!
And also, you see that little button on the bottom of this page that says review, well did you know that is has the power to make the next chapter faster? Really, it does, just click it, write a small, or long, review, and poof, the next chapter comes out soon...