Delta

Chapter Eleven: The A.I

I curiously walked down an empty hallway. How had I managed to lose Adrian so quickly? All I did was stop to look at some display cases in the hallway, and the next thing I knew, Adrian was gone. And these hallways were super long and confusing too. It was like I was walking through a maze of doors. 

 I stopped in front of a white door. There was a small sign above the door with the words Office Branch 6B printed in white. I decided to take a look inside the room to see if I could find anything. I pushed down on the handle and stepped inside, then froze. The room was filled with with cubicles and desks. It looked like a normal office. But there were people in there.

I stood in the doorway, frozen in shock. My mind was racing. There weren't supposed be people here. How was this- a realization hit me. Something Adrian had said about androids. That's what these people must be. 

I didn't even notice as one of them approached me from the side. 

"Hello." They said, and I jumped and spun around. It looked like a normal woman. I was astonished at how life-like she looked. Even her voice sounded completely normal. The android had dark brown hair that was pulled back in a ponytail. She was wearing a black, button-down shirt and blue jeans, paired with shiny black high heels. 

"Um...h-hello." I stammered nervously. I had noticed her eyes for the first time. They were a bright green, and definitely did not look like human eyes. 

"What is your name?" The woman inquired.

"Uh...Reagan." I said, wondering what was going to happen to me.

"Initiating scan. Accessing data." The woman said. 

I stood stiffly by the wall. All I wanted to do was run out the door and away from these robots, but I felt like that would anger them, and I really didn't want to do that.

The woman stood still, staring blankly ahead. I was super creeped out and nervously glanced back out at the room full of working 'people'. 

"The name 'Reagan' has not been found." The woman suddenly said, and I snapped my attention back to her. "Scanning..." She said again. I expected something to happen when she said that, but nothing did. "Name: Subject 1873. Status: Test participant in cooperative testing branch Gamma 3. Currently unpermitted to exit chambers." She turned her attention back to me. "You will be escorted back to the compulsory test chambers and reported to an official."

To my horror, she grabbed my wrist firmly with her fingers. I tried to pull away but she had a steel grip on me. Calmly, a man stood up from his desk and walked over to us. I tried to grab my rod, which I had stupidly put away, but before I could make a move the man had grabbed my other arm. I wasn't sure what these robots intentions were, if they were potentially hostile or just following protocol, but I was terrified and disturbed by the feel of their 'skin', which felt rubbery.

They calmly led me over to the open door and out into the hallway. I tried to pull away but they were exceedingly strong. 

"Please do not resist." The woman said. "You are being escorted back to your appropriate location."

They dragged me down the hall, and I didn't want to think about what would happen next. I was pulled over to an elevator and the man pushed a button on the side of the wall. Even though they were only holding me with one of their arms, I knew there was no way I as going to wrestle my way out of their grip. The elevator doors slid open and that was the first time I realized how clean and well functioning the building was. It didn't look at all like it had been abandoned hundreds of years ago. I figured that either the robots here or Elsa was responsible for keeping everything functioning so well.