“Here, give me your coat, Jacob,” Exana said, exhausted after another day of stifling work. The words came out almost as a sigh would, breathy and tired.

She put my jacket onto a skyhook. Sadly enough, skyhooks are possibly the only good thing that has come out of the last 50 years of technological innovation. They are aptly named, though: scientists made them as a sort of tool to hook any object onto nothing- just suspend it in the air.

As we undressed, I felt an odd sense of relief at the fact that we’d made such great progress today in furthering our communications with the sapients. You see, we were one of the last few straggling rebels still working on xenology, or, the study of aliens. The sapients opened up such amazing opportunities to study other forms of life and to glean from them how to better develop our own culture, but indeed it must have been that which scared the suits the most. In 2080 all world governments (the aforementioned suits) blocked the use of interstellar fountains, which were our gates to making contact with outer life, and instead used their reserves to improve space elevators and transport systems which they utilized just to get filthy rich off of Earth’s finest minerals. It was like this, so simply, that the rich decided to keep on getting richer and doomed the poor to an eternity of that same fate: they had (have) no intentions of sharing their money with anyone else at all. 

“Goodnight, Julian,” Exana whispered, seeing as he was dead asleep on the makeshift bed near the door. 

“Goodnight,” I added, and stumbled half-blind through the shadowy darkness to the other bunk.

Julian was our little group’s finest member. He was born and raised in the harshness of the government soldier facilities, eventually killing 5 men at the age of 14 to escape his facility’s violent and oppressive control. I have to admit he hadn’t escaped into luxury, though. Our hideout was nothing short of run-down, hidden in Old America’s slums, cardboard and cement blocking the windows. At night, it was almost pitch dark in the bunker-like rooms. However, there was this strange glow, a low red hovering above the ground from the outlets. From the cracks of the cardboard, a beautiful shade of purple seeped in from neon advertisements and signs outside. I was told that this color was what certain flowers used to look like before the sun plague wiped them all out. There was light in our room, after all…just, different. That was all.

Resting my head against the pillow, my eyes began to close and I started to drift to sleep, and I became almost painfully aware of how easy it was when Exana was next to me.

When I opened my eyes again, stirred by a strange, droning vacuum noise, I was in an unfamiliar place. I was at a 90-degree angle, completely different from how I’d fallen asleep. As I tried to look around, I felt some sort of a wire restricting my movement, and when I pulled on it in curiosity and annoyance, I felt a part of me… leave. I can’t explain it, but when I heard a low-toned humming noise now emanating from my left, I whipped my head around and noticed a charger next to me, which had now turned dim except for a word…no. A name. “X50”. In an instant, my whole world was crumbling. I knew what this meant, but refused to believe it. I couldn’t. X50s made up the latest developed form of complex sentience: AI-enhanced humans. How could that be? I am real…? I have memories…I have mem…. Frantically searching my brain for anything about my childhood, my youth, I came up with nothing. I didn’t have any memories. For the death of me, I could not recall anything further than 2 years ago when the X50 models were released. It was true.

Completely shattered and in a trance-like state, I stood up and crept my way back into my bedroom, but down the hallway, I saw something that I now wish I never did. It was Julian and Exana, under those beautiful purple lights, doing something I guess I never could, doing something only humans could. How could my world shatter all over again when it already had once? Not wanting to scare off the group or cause hysteria, I ran back to the charger and pretended I was asleep. Of course, I couldn’t actually fall asleep, but I had to try, or at least convince the others I had. Thankfully, as soon as I’d plugged myself back in, the charger had different plans and put me back to sleep itself. When I woke up, I was back in my original bed. I didn’t know how to react, but I got up to meet the group. It was sunrise. We all sat by the table and ate breakfast, but not one word came out of my mouth. 

“You okay, honey?” Exana asked, patting my shoulder. 

“Yeah, great,” I said, as that was the only thing I could think of. For all I tried, I couldn’t wipe the previous night out of my mind.

But before I could say anything else, maybe finally something truthful, or even just wrap my head around the situation, I heard a soft buzzing under the only window and my instincts shot up instantly.  I knew exactly what it was: this sort of buzzing was characteristic either of mosquitoes, which can now only be found in the Old Country, or of Altena Co.’s infamous technology: and it was very obvious which of the two it was. A killer drone.

“Run!” I yelled as we all scrambled for safety. 

The drone dropped a tiny bomb and we watched it roll down the apartment and go off in a burst of flames. Luckily, we had all managed to get to the stairway and were shielded from the brunt of the attack. 

“Everyone, out!” One of us yelled. 

We ran down the narrow alleys of the slum, their labyrinths blocking us from the drone. 

“Over there! Get to the train!” Exana yelled, pointing at a moving train visible on the nearby tracks below us, probably headed to Olana, or New Chicago, probably full of people just like us running away from something, somewhere. 

We all ran parallel to the train, but it was getting away from us. We were five or so meters above it, and needed to jump, knowing that otherwise we would run out of time and get caught by the drone rapidly. I was the first to take the leap, as I felt somewhat strongly that my life had no more meaning and thus was more willing to be reckless with what was left of it. As I landed, a turn in the train caused me to roll over to its side and I found myself overlooking the edge of a cliff and tracks speeding below me, but fortunately, I caught myself on a semi-open window and pried myself through. By some miracle, everyone else got onto the train safely as well. 

“We should be safe for now.” One of the members assured me. 

We tried to catch our bearings and at least gather some information about our surroundings. For one, the train appeared to be heading to the capital with weaponry, which meant a gold mine for us. We had finally begun to relax again when the drone appeared again by a tiny slit window in the train’s metal body. We all ducked down, taking cover. 

“But how did they find us twice?” A fellow rebel cried out. 

That’s when we all looked up to see Julian still standing, with some sort of a device, flashing. On and off. Red. 

“I’m sorry, everyone, but it’s time to give up.” He calmly stated. Had the situation been slightly different, he might have even seemed a bit smug.

“Everyone run!” I yelled as we scrambled through train sections. As we reached what appeared to be the last one I waited for the group to get through, and then: I locked the door. 

“No, Jacob!” Exana desperately yelled, muffled from behind the metal wall, but I was too focused on Julian to even hear her. I was the only thing standing between him and my group. 

“You know that won’t do anything.” He smirked. 

“You betrayed us. For what?” Still in shock, I was whispering. 

“The greater good. I’m sorry you had to see Exana and me. Maybe you should have stayed plugged in. You know, curiosity kills the cat, and I guess, even the robot.”

Those words and the way he said them literally tore through whatever AI part of me that I had and just fully  dehumanized me. I stood still, defeated, frozen. 

“I’m sorry buddy, but you’re not real. You’re just a posthuman, a goddamn sentience. Anyways, you might not be real, but you know what I can do to you, and that definitely feels real, so move out of the way.” He continued, still with that look of pleasure in his eyes. I wanted so badly to make it disappear.

“Yes, that might be true, but what is humanity like yours? At least my conscience is clearer. At least I lived well,” I said as I found the control panel nestled in the sidewall and ejected the rest of the train from where the group was, letting them go free. 

“What have you done?” He yelled as our part of the train came to a halt. 

“The only human option,” I said, distant. I was looking back at my group careering off along the tracks at that moment. I tried to stay focused on Exana’s eyes for the last time, seeing her grow smaller as the train did too. I knew I couldn’t feel love or any deep emotion. None of the AI’s can, but whatever was going through my body; I swear it felt real. 

All there was to do now was to rest in my bittersweet defeat. Silently, I was lost in the figments of my imagination, gently laying around flowers of all sorts of colors, next to her, the only human who made wherever feel like home, because that was a world worth dying for.