Mr. Waren has hired me to find his wife. According to him, she left home about a week ago and has yet to return. Asking around the city, I manage to discover that she has been seen spending most of her time around Detroit's Camden area.
I enter the area's convenience store. A male clerk stands behind the register. I approach him right away.
"Welcome officer. How may I help you today?"
"Hello. I'm officer Layla Amber. I am looking for a young woman by the name of Freya Waren." I hold out a photo of her for him to reference. "I was hoping you could tell me if you have seen her in the area."
He studies the picture for only a few seconds then hands it back to me.
"Yeah I've seen her. She was in there a few days ago. Has something happened to her?"
"There have been no reports. So far all we know is that she left home and has yet to return. You said she was in here a few days ago. Can you describe what she was wearing?"
"Her clothes were pretty beat up. I was sure she was just another homeless woman living on the streets. We get a lot of those types in here."
"So she came in here to buy some things?"
"Yes."
"Did she use cash or card?"
"She used cash."
"Damn, okay. So can you remember the items that she purchased? Mainly anything that might seem unusual."
"No, everything she bought was pretty average. Just toilet paper, a lighter, and some food."
"Okay. Well I appreciate your cooperation. My team might be back to take a look at your security tapes if we don't find any leads."
"Understood officer."
"Have a good day."
As I go to exit the store, I notice the abandoned house across the street. I turn back to the clerk.
"Hey can you tell me anything about that house over there?"
"Oh yeah, that is a squat house. People come and go from there all the time. No one around here ever pays any mind. Like I said there are so many homeless people these days I guess people have just given up on calling the cops."
"Do you think Freya might have gone in there?"
"I have no idea. The building is fenced in and I never saw anything."
"I think I am gonna go take a look. Thanks for your help."
I exit the store and make my way across the street. Approaching the fence I look around for an opening or a gate. There isn't one. Who ever owns the property certainly doesn't want people getting in. I grab hold of the chain-links and hoist myself over. Planting my feet on the inside I do my best to move slowly and quietly. Listening for any sign of movement.
I make my way up to the front door. I check the handle and it turns but the door doesn't open. I check through the boarded up window. There is not much light inside and it is hard to make out much but I can see that there is something blocking the door. I try the nob again, this time making more of an effort to push the door open. Not wanting to make any noise I test how much strength to use until the object on the inside begins to glide across the floor. Loosing my breath, I take in another lung full and push again. The object moves a bit more easy now that I have managed to make a gap. One more quick push and the gap will be large enough for me to slip through. Very quietly I push it just enough to open the door and slip inside.
The room is surprisingly clean. No dust, no trash as if someone just recently decided to start fixing up the place. But the smell. I can tell something certainly has died in this building. It clouds the air. Suddenly I hear a sound from the kitchen. It sounds like someone clanging utensils around. Is someone actually cooking here? I ask myself. As I approach the doorway I begin to hear a male voice humming softly. I press my back against the wall hoping he hasn't discovered me. I scan my eyes into the kitchen and to my horror I find a pile of organs stacked on the counter. I pull out my gun and continue to listen to track any footsteps.
I poke my head through the door frame and find a damaged WR600 android leaning over the body of a naked, female corps that has been laid out on the kitchen table. At first it takes me a while to understand what I am looking at. The body is certainly that of a human, judging by the blood and the color of the rotting skin. But its leg is that of an androids. I watch as the android uses its knife to cut open the flesh of the corps and pull out its organs. It then moves to the sink and pulls out a synthetic stomach and brings it over to the body.
My heart races and my stomach turns as I watch it shove the blue organ into the corps. What is it doing? I take in a deep breath and grip my gun tightly in my fingers. I take a step into the room and aim at the android.
"Put you're hands up and don't move!" I command.
The android jumps then does as it's told. "Please, don't shoot Ralph. Ralph didn't do anything wrong."
"Shut up, get down on your knees!" I demand.
He does as instructed. I take a few steps closer to the corps to get a better look. It's Mr. Waren. I can just barley make out her face sense one of her eyes has been replaced with an android one. Her body has been twisted into some kind of cyborg experiment. The right side of her abdomen has been completely removed and replaced with that of an androids. I also notice that her left arm looks strange and then I realize it is because the skin has been laid on top of an android one. Like a glove stretched to fit just a little too tightly. I hold back my gag reflex then turn my attention back to the android.
"What have you done to her?" I shout.
"Ralph just wants her to wake up. Freya shut down and Ralph wants to fix her."
"Fix her? What are you talking about? How did she get hurt?"
"Those men, those b-bad men came and hurt Freya and Ralph. Look. Look what they did."
He points to his face and I can see that he has been badly burnt.
Knowing androids can't lie I decide to find out more about what happened. "So someone else killed her?"
"Yes, those bad men, they came and they attacked Ralph. Freya tried to protect Ralph but then they attacked Freya."
"Where are those men now?"
"Gone," he says bluntly.
"Okay, so if she was hurt, why didn't you call for help?"
"Freya didn't want Ralph to. She said the humans would kill Ralph. She didn't want Ralph to die."
He lowers his head and begins to weep. I have never seen an android cry before. I didn't even know they were programmed to cry.
He continues to speak, "She said she wanted us to be a family. Freya the mother, Ralph the father, and a little one. A child."
He looks up at me. My heart sinks into my stomach and for a moment I consider lowering my gun but my instincts still tell me that is a bad idea.
"Ralph wants to help her. Ralph just wants her to wake up. Ralph loves her."
"I'm sorry, Ralph. That's never going to happen. She hasn't just shut down. She's dead, and you can't bring humans back to life."
"No, no Ralph refuses to believe that. I just need to fix her. I just need to find more parts. You'll see. You'll see, Ralph will fix her."
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that. I'm going to have to take you in."
"Are you going to kill Ralph?"
"You will be annualized for problems in your software and if the damage is too severe you will probably be reset."
"No, Ralph doesn't want to be reset. Ralph wants to be Ralph."
He gets to his feet.
"Get back down or I will have no choice but to shoot."
"Why do all humans want to hurt Ralph? Ralph has never done anything wrong. Why can't you just leave Ralph alone?"
I point at Freya's corps. "Because this, this is not okay! Now get back down on your knees or I swear I'll blow your head off!" I shout.
Ralph just looks down at the floor with a gloomy look. Feeling sorry for him I lower my gun for the slightest moment. He takes it as an opportunity to strike and knocks the gun out of my hand with his arm. His movements are so quick I can't follow his actions and before I can react he pins me to the floor. Sitting on top of me he grabs hold of my throat and begins to squeeze tighter and tighter. I reach for anything to attack him with but my hands find nothing. I then try to pull his arms away but he is like a stone statue gripping me. I can't make him budge even a little. I feel something pop inside my neck as he continues to squeeze harder and harder.
"Please, stop," I beg hardly able to get the words out.
"You shouldn't have tried to hurt Ralph. Ralph is sorry he had to fight back but Ralph must protect himself."
"Please, I can't breath..."
"Don't worry. Ralph will get it right this time. Ralph realizes he was wrong about how to bring Freya back. But now that Ralph will have more human parts to use, he'll do it. He'll wake her up."
When I realize what he is talking about my body fills with fear. I struggle harder for him to let go but he just smiles at me unmoving. I feel my lungs compress and I fade into unconsciousness.
(Epilogue)
Over the next few weeks Freya's disappearance continues to be investigated. Following up on Officer Amber's disappearance, a group of detectives analyze the abandoned house which was her last known whereabouts. Upon entering the house they find the body of Freya but everything has been wiped clean. There are no fingerprints and no witnesses.
As they take Freya's body away, Ralph desperately wants to come out from hiding and take her back but he remembers what Freya told him about not putting himself in danger. He already failed her once. He didn't want to do it again. Heartbroken he watches as they carry her away.
"Goodbye Freya. Ralph's sorry he couldn't wake you up. Ralph will always love you," he cries.
After bringing her body in for an autopsy, they discover that not only has half her body parts been replaced by that of an androids but that some of the human parts are not even hers. Like some Frankenstein's Monster she has been pieced and sewn together using various parts from Layla.
The house is looked over many times over the next few months but they never discover any new evidence, so the case is filed away as just another unsolved street violence crime.
The Waren family don't even bat an eye to the incident. They take it as being Freya's fault for running away in the first place. Mr. Waren remarries and quickly everyone forgets about the horrific story that played on the news for that one day on Channel 16.