Alive
A fan fiction in progress
by Bryan Harrison
Part 16
1
David realized that he had never really been in Rouge City before. Yes, he had seen it, had even navigated its wild corridors. He'd heard its incessant festive voice; mingled with its hungry customers and conversed with its sly digital oracle.
But had he really experienced it? Had he even been capable?
As he rushed away from the area where he knew the gang would be working the crowd, Teddy clinging to his back, David had another revelation about his new body: It was part of this world; integral; tuned to it in a way his other one had never been; could never have been.
He had not noticed this before. He had assumed this mysterious sensation had as much to do with the strange new environments he'd lived in so far, as with his rebirth. But this was the first time he had been in a place he known in his other life. … or at least had thought he'd known. He'd expected it would be familiar. It was not.
It was the same place, yes, and he saw many things he knew the shapes of. But they were new to him. Or rather, he saw them with new eyes.
Living eyes.
He slowed as he made his way through the bustling, inebriated throng, to gaze up at the glittering towers, heavily laden with marquees, and floating signs bearing an assortment of scantly clad characters that beckoned with lascivious smiles. There was meaning in those looks, in those words; meaning that would never have made sense in his old form.
But now, even as young as he was, the implication of the environment; the meaning of it, was something he understood.
Smells, that had once been only data; muted suggestions about something's olfactory characteristics, now assaulted his senses with intense and distracting messages. It was everywhere.
Food. Perfume. Sweat. Smoke. The bitter aroma of beer and the similar smell of people who had drank too much of it. The subtle, indescribable odors most Orga had gotten used to, but that were new to him. All of it was part of this place…. and now a part of his experience.
He felt the hard cement beneath his shoes; and, against his face, the sifting temperatures of the air currents that flowed from the river, carrying even more scents from the waters and the marshes that lay across it. All of it told a story about this place.
And the music! The constant heartbeat of the city. It was everywhere; more than sound now; more than a rhythmic oscillation against his aural devices. It was an exciting, enticing thing. It beckoned his body, made his blood flow faster; spoke in a language his flesh seemed to understand and made him want to move in time with.
And he found that he was. Unconsciously he had begun walking in time with the beat. It felt good. It felt …fun!
David laughed and began bobbing his body up and down as he walked. Was this dancing? Joe's explanation of his strange moves came back to him.
"It's just what I do."
It made sense now. That's the only reason anyone does it.
"It's just what they do!" he said aloud, laughing.
He ignored the strange looks he was getting from passersby. They had their own business to attend to. In minutes he would be no more than a vague memory to them, a silly boy who'd been talking to himself. They wouldn't even be able to describe him if anyone should ask.
No wonder Joe had loved it here. He understood now, how his departed friend had been part of this place; had belonged here! They way they all belong here.
David laughed again. It was a free and fearless sound. He was really here this time. Here for the first time. It was the first time he had felt this good since he'd been…. alive?
Yes alive!
"I'm alive!" he yelled, laughing and skipping in time with the music. "Aliiiive!"
Someone caught him by the shoulder and David whipped around, ready to fight for his life.
"Yeah, kid! Me too!" said the heavy-set, grizzled looking man who had grabbed him. He was wobbling and laughing, holding a bottle of some sweet smelling liquor. "Alive! Woo hoo!" the man bellowed as he tottered away, headed for a nearby building that was shaped like woman's high heel shoe.
Teddy grumbled at the retreating drunk. "Are you OK, David?" the bear asked.
Suddenly aware of laughter and scrutinizing eyes, David placed an embarrassed hand over his face. He had gotten carried away with his new sense of freedom.
No more yelling, he decided. And definitely no more skipping.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he said to Teddy, and began making his way towards a brightly lit info kiosk in the center of a nearby cul-de-sac of glass store fronts.
Teddy gazed around the busy plaza and made a cluck of disapproval.
"This is not a nice place, David," the bear said.
"No, it's not" David conceded, knowing Teddy would never experience the world the way he now could. "It's just that…. it's all so different now.
"But we won't be here long," he assured the protective toy. "We just have to get some information from Doctor-"
David lost his train of thought.
A face had suddenly come into view. It stopped him in his tracks, left him without words.
Of course he would see that face in this place, this market. He should have been expected it. But he was surprised by the sight; unprepared for the sudden, conflicting emotions it provoked.
He was in danger territory. He should continue on his journey; he knew that. But he was drawn to the figure by a force that operated beneath his conscious will.
Like a moth to the flame, he had no choice in the matter.
2
The boy in the display window was smiling and waving at passersby. He wore a cap of bright yellow, and carried a shining metal bat over his shoulder. He was dressed in a uniform that David had seen before, in Martin's closet. But David had never seen Martin wear it and didn't know what game it was for.
The words 'David' and the number '7' were emblazoned on the toy boy's shirt. He stood in the midst of the holographic display of a large grassy field. A golden sun burnt at the top of the window, and distant trees wafted in a lazy summer breeze. The display seemed to go on to an endless horizon. But that was just an illusion. It was all just an illusion. The 'field' was only a 8 feet long. The boy was just a doll.
David stepped slowly towards the display, intense feelings of curiosity and melancholy pulling him on.
Had he really been this… thing?
People walked by, uninterested in the toy child. It smiled, laughed and beckoned them. It's voice amplified by a speaker atop the display. Its programmed banter was designed to illicit interest in its siblings, which were probably lined up inside the store, asleep in their boxes until some lonely soul took them home, awoke their digital heart. And then broke it.
"Hey, little brother," David whispered to himself. It was a mournful, adult sound; that of someone who witnesses an injustice he is powerless to stop.
"Hi! I'm David, " Little Brother said to a passing man. "Let's play some ball!"
The Mecha turned and tossed a ball into the air. Swung the bat. The fake ball flew off into the fake distance and the fake boy turned and raised a triumphant fist.
"Home run!" it said.
But the man had walked away. No one else was watching.
David cupped his hand over his mouth to stop an involuntary cry. Why was this hurting so? He was not one of them anymore. He was real now. They weren't. So why….
"Do you want to play?" the Mecha called to a passing couple. "I'm a good, kid! Take me home!" he said to another.
They were not interested. They had come for other delights. None but the most troubled of them would seek that kind of comfort here.
"Hey, watch this!" the toy boy said, and then executed a smooth somersault, landing upright with a victorious smile.
Fake boy, pretending to play in fake grass, selling fake love.
"Pretty good, huh? Take me home and see what else I can do!" it said.
David knew it was just a program. Little Brother had no idea what he was doing, what he was saying. He approached the display, feeling something rising in him with each step. He did not know this emotion. Had any living thing ever felt this way?
Did perhaps the butterfly feel this upon the sight of its discarded cocoon?
Little Brother finally noticed David's approach. It initiated 'big smile'. This was supposed to be a sign of 'friendliness', of 'welcome'. But David saw only the horrific and inhumane product of a lonely man's megalomania.
"Hi, I'm David," Little Brother said, stepping to the glass to greet David. "What's your name!"
David only stared.
"Wow! Nice bear. Is he yours?" Little Brother said.
"Hello, David," Teddy said, with some confusion. "I'm Teddy."
David tried to say something, but the words would not come. He reached out and placed a hand gently against the window. Little Brother observed this and took a moment to decide on an appropriate response. It finally set the bat down and placed its hand against the window too.
What seemed to be only a pane of glass between their hands, was really an entire universe.
"Is it a game?" Little Brother asked, a programmed look of anticipation on its face.
Tears suddenly clouded David's vision. He did not know their source and was powerless to stop them. What had happened to his feeling of freedom? His dancing feet?
"No," David said at last. "No, it's not a game, little brother. But they don't know that. And they don't care."
Ghost voices came into his mind, phantoms from another life.
"They hate us David, the humans. They'll stop at nothing."
"My Mommy doesn't hate me… because I'm special… unique. Because there's never been anyone like me."
Echoes of lost innocence.
The world was a grey place again. He should never have stopped here.
Little Brother had its head cocked to the side, still trying to interpret the meaning of David's words. Then it suddenly shifted it focus to a point over David's shoulder.
"Hi! I'm David," it said.
There was someone there; someone behind David.
3
The full force of David's predicament came back to him. He cursed himself for getting sidetracked. What had he been thinking? This could be one of Olmier's men. Or a cop.
He turned his head slightly, trying not to let the stranger see his face. In his peripheral vision he saw a young dark haired man in a colorful outfit. He was holding a bottle, and tottering a bit, as if intoxicated. But his head kept shifting back and forth between David and his Mecha twin in the window.
The man moved forward, to get a better look. David turned his head, but too late. The stranger had verified what he suspected.
"Now that is weird," the man said with a drunken lilt in his voice. "You look just like it… or it looks just like you. Whatever."
The man stepped closer. David sided away.
"That is soooo weird!" the stranger said, again, slurring his words. He leaned closer, and David stepped back, repulsed by the smell of beer on the man's breath.
The man seemed unsure what he was seeing."Are you… are you…" he stammered, confused. Then he reached out and pinched David's cheek. Hard.
"Ow! Bug off!" David yelled, batting the man's hand away and raising his fists defensively.
But instead of getting angry, the man broke into a huge grin.
"Whoa," he said. "You're a kid! You're really a kid!" Then he turned and called out.
"Hey, Serge! Ali! Get over here. You gotta see this!"
Time to go. David began stepping away quickly.
"Bye," Little Brother said, waving. David didn't return the salutation.
The stranger heard the toy and turned to see David rushing off
"Hey, kid! Wait," he called. "We ain't gonna hurt ya! Wait!"
But David was already around the corner. He broke into a run, hoping the man wouldn't see which way he headed. He could hear the man's warbling voice, calling out to his friends to come and see the weird kid who looked just like the doll in the window.
The kiosk was just ahead. The holographic face of a smiling woman hovered above the console, waiting for inquiries. David took Teddy off his back and was about to set him down when he heard voices over the bustle of the crowd.
"So where is he?" said someone.
"He ran this way," said a drunken voice he already knew.
"Damn," David muttered. He cupped Teddy under his arm and began walking away. But he quickly realized that his only exit was the way he'd come in. He began searching frantically for a place to hide, but he only saw the glass fronts of tourist traps and knick-knack shops filled with browsing Orga. A well-lit store was the last place he wanted to be.
Then a dark area came into his view, nestled between two stores. An alley! He rushed for it, hoping the men wouldn't notice his retreat. It was a narrow space, filled with large boxes stacked against the walls, and a larger container that smelled of some cloyingly sweet chemical, probably designed to hide more offensive odors. David ducked down behind it. He could wait here until his pursuers were gone. Then he could change into his disguise.
A voice came from near the mouth of the alley. "This better be real," it said.
"Chill, dude. You'll see," said the voice he already knew. "He looks just like one!"
David pressed hard against the wall. "Keep going - keep going … " he whispered.
Teddy was scanning the dark alley. He quickly decided it was not to his liking.
"This place is dirty," the bear complained, a bit too loudly.
David cupped his hand over the bear's mouth, a bit too late.
"Whoa. Did you hear that?" the annoying man said. "Hey! Kid! You in there?"
A string of curses intended for Teddy, came into David's mind. But he'd save them for later.
He noticed the outline of a door against the wall further down the ally. David tip-toed to it and searched madly for a handle, wishing again that he still had his old ability to see in the dark. But there was no handle! He whispered a word that Teddy would definitely not approve of, and cupped the bear's mouth, just in case it wanted to say so. What kind of door doesn't have a …
Sudden bright light blinded David as the door swung open. A woman was standing there, silhouetted in the florescent glow. Her back was to David.
"Alright I'm outta here," she called to someone inside. "Make sure you send the activity update before you close up. OK?"
There was no answer.
The woman tried louder. "I said make sure you-"
"I heard you the first time!" someone shouted, angrily.
"Then say so!" she shot back. She huffed and turned.
When she saw David, she froze.
The woman's face was shadowed by the light behind her, so David could not see her expression. But he could see the way her shoulders dropped, as if she had just received some bad news. And he could hear the frustrated sigh that came from her lips.
"Not this again," the woman said with a moan. She cupped her head in her hands for a moment, swearing under her breath. Then she reached out, grabbed David roughly by the shoulder and yanked him inside.
"Don't send anything yet!" she yelled. "Here comes another one!"
4
A quick scan of the room told David all he needed to know about where he was. He had just seen the place from the front, where he'd exchanged a few words with a doll standing in its display window.
Something stuck him strange about winding up in a place like this. It was funny, in an odd sort of way. David no longer had access to the dictionary that had been in his Mecha brain. But if he had, he might have decided the word 'ironic' would apply here.
His captors were leaning against a stack of empty boxes, arms crossed, staring silently with looks that suggested he was the last thing they'd wanted to see. They were dressed uniformly, in black seamless pants and bright blue, tight fitting shirts. The words "Ye Old Sim Shoppe" were printed in an antique font on their chest, along with tags bearing the names 'Dina' and 'Brent'.
The one named Brent was young, no more than a teenager. He'd rushed in hurriedly from another room, muttering something impatient under his breath. When he'd seen David, he'd pounded a fist against the wall. It was clear that he had thought his workday was over.
"Another dump," Brent said. "What are we up to now… four in six months?"
"Five," said Dina, the woman who had saved David from one awkward situation, only to place him right in the middle of another. She was a bit older than Brent; wore a hint of frosty liner over her eyes and multi-colored streaks in her hair. It was also clear that she was in charge.
Brent shook his head, a perplexed look on his face. "So, what's with the tan… and isn't the hair a bit long for this model?" he said.
Teddy was standing on the floor, gazing up at David as it waited to find out what would happen next.
"And the bear?" Brent said. "A toy with a toy?"
"It's obviously a custom," Dina said. She leaned forward and spoke slowly to David.
"What do they call you," she said.
David glanced back and forth between them as he assessed the situation. Why not tell the truth?
"Pork Chop," he said, trying not to smile at their reactions.
Brent guffawed. Dina slapped her forehead, an exasperated look on her face.
"Some people," she sighed. "And what's your Mommy's name?"
A thought occurred to David, that maybe this could be his way home. But he immediately abandoned that idea. Working scams had taught him to analyze the angles quickly. Even if they could find Monica, they'd probably contact her by phone. Martin or Henry were just as likely to answer as she.
"I don't remember," he said.
"They wiped it!" Brent yelled, pounding the wall again.
"Will you stop doing that?" Dina said.
Brent waved his arms in frustration "Why would you pay all that for a freaking custom, and then just dump it? Some people have too much money!"
"It's obviously a stolen child," Dina said. "They probably tried to hustle it off on the street, and couldn't get anything. It does look a little banged up."
David managed to keep from responding to this with his own critical observations about her.
Dina stood and let out a resigned sigh. "Well, let's plug it in, see what we can find inside that little head," she said.
Brent made a disgusted sound. "You know there's not gonna be anything left," he said. "And we're gonna be stuck here for hours cleaning it up, shutting it down and writing the report!"
He started to swing at the wall again, but stopped himself.
"We should just take it down to the marshes," he said, "dump it with the rest of the junk."
The look in Dina's eyes could have burned holes though steel.
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that," she said in a measured tone.
Brent bit his lip, stared at his feet. "Well, uh… I'm just sayin' that…" But he never finished what he was 'just sayin'.
Dina seemed satisfied by his response.
"I'm going to go boot up the stasis and start the report," she said. "You get butt your over there and check him for damage. And try not to initiate the DAS response this time! Kapeesh?'
"Yeah, yeah," Brent said.
The situation quickly escalated from awkward to uncomfortable when Brent pulled up a chair and began to run his fingers though David's hair.
"Uh, that won't be necessary," David said, abandoning his façade. But Brent didn't seem to notice David's change of tone.
"Don't be afraid," he said in a patronizing voice, as he felt around David face and neck. "Got to make sure Mommy and Daddy weren't punching you around. So be a good boy and we'll get you back home to Mommy soon. How that's sound?"
It sounded like a lie. David knew where he would really wind up, if he were still… one of them. He started to tell the fool, but became curious just how long it would take him to figure it out.
That's when Brent started unbuttoning David's shirt.
Ok, now it was getting too weird.
"Uh, I don't think so," David snapped, pushing Brent's hand away.
Brent lifted an eyebrow. "Oh. Looks like someone got themselves programmed with a little 'tude, eh? Mommy live in a bad neighborhood?" he said. "Well, we can work our way around that."
He placed his hand at the back of David's neck and began feeling around. David knew what the clerk was looking for. Didn't try to stop him. This would probably clear things up for him.
In a matter of seconds, Brent's face went though a series of dynamic changes.
Irritation first, at having to reset the defaults on somebody's custom brat.
Frustration, when he could not find the manual override button.
Confusion, when he finally realized that it wasn't there.
Apprehension, when he noticed the sardonic smile on David's lips.
Then, Realization, comprehension and fear, came in rapid-fire sequence as Brent pulled his hand away and jumped back, sending his chair flying across the room.
"Dina! Dina!" the clerk called frantically, backing away.
"What!" Dina screamed from another room.
"You-you better come see this," Brent said, sputtering. "I think we got a situation here!"
He slipped as he backed away, and fell, crashing into empty boxes and banging his head loudly against the wall.
"I told you stop doing that!" Dina said angrily as she rounded the corner. Then she saw her co-worker lying on the floor, pointing at David as if he'd found a ticking bomb implanted in the boys skull.
She drew the most obvious and incorrect solution.
"I told you to be careful!" Dina said as raced for a tool cabinet against the wall. She pulled a black object from one of the drawers and pointed it at David, pressed her thumb down.
David flinched at the beam of red light that shot into his eyes. But otherwise, it had no effect.
"Hey watch where you point that thing," he said, shielding his face and letting out a string of colorful expletives.
"David!" Teddy grumbled. "Be nice!"
The language took Dina by surprise. And the Sim-tazer had had no effect. She let her arm drop slowly, and then looked down on Brent.
"Did it go alert on you?" she said, confused.
Brent rose to his feet, his eyes wary on David.
"Uh, that's not really the situation," he said, stammering as he sought for the words to explain.
"It… uh, ya see, it's not an … I mean, he is not an it," he said. "He's a he. Kapeesh?"
Dina slowly turned her head to stare at David in skeptical silence. Realization finally reached her face too.
"Oh, crap," she said.
Brent agreed.
"That is..." she paused, searching for the right word. "Weird." It was the best she could do at the moment.
Brent agreed again.
Dina started backing slowly out of the room. "Umm, Kid, you wait here, ok? I have to make a quick call," she said.
David knew she was going to report him; check if he might be a runaway or an illegal… or, considering his peculiar appearance, something worse.
"Ah, not such a good idea," he said, shaking his head. "Pulling me in here was pretty much an abduction. I mean, technically speaking, you kind'a kidnapped me. That might be a little awkward to explain. Ya think?"
The two were quiet a moment. Then they nodded in unison.
"I see your point," Dina said, legal ramifications racing through her head. "So, we should probably keep this… just between us?" she suggested.
David agreed.
He checked the clock on the wall. It had been about around 10 minutes or so. Time enough for his drunken pursuers to leave. It was a good time to keep his appointment with the Doctor. He buttoned his shirt. Slipped Wizzy's bag over his shoulder. Picked up Teddy from the floor. Then he executed 'big smile' for the two mystified employees of "Ye Old Sim Shoppe".
"Do you mind if I use your bathroom?" David said. "I need to change my clothes."
(cont...)