//Samuel Reed

They destroyed it.

His life.

Everything he created.

His family, or the broken version of one he had.

Samuel came home at 3:48 PM, the same time he always did. He was precise about everything. He had a strict agenda that he stuck by. He came home at this particular time because school ended at 3:30, and he lived a mile away from school. He never was a fast walker, and would rest at a consistent three and one-third of a mile per hour.

He reached his neighborhood at 3:44, and took four minutes to reach his house from there. He could do so and feel safe, despite being alone back then.

There wasn't anything special about his neighborhood. The nearly identical white houses lined the symmetrical lawns. Never would he have thought that the idea of grass growing in front of a house would be considered such a luxury just a few years later.

He opened the front door for the one hundred and eighty eighth time that year - 2226. He was somewhat disappointed as he did so; it was the last day of sixth grade. This meant that summer break was around the corner. That meant staying home. With his mother.

He walked into the house, attempting to be quiet, but failing miserably - he never was the nimble type. He dropped his key, watching helplessly as it fell to the hardwood floor, clattering loudly as it made impact.

"Samuel!" an irritated voice flew from up the stairs. Samuel flinched.

"Yes, mother?" he replied.

"Bring me your academic assessment report!" his mother yelled back.

"Yes, mother!" he said, scrambling to get his shoes off before stomping his way up the stairs.

He walked into his mother's bedroom. Framed awards hung from the walls, almost entirely covering them. Her room was obsessively clean, with an entirely white and perfectly flattened out mattress and bedsheets, and matching furniture. Even the white carpet was spotless; it was as if someone had flooded the room with bleach.

His mother sat at a desk, tapping away at her holographic display, probably writing some form of theoretical paper on artificial intelligence that would surely receive wide recognition nationally. Samuel reached his palm out, holding the academic credential chip to his mother. She ignored him for two minutes and twenty-eight seconds. Samuel waited patiently until she finally looked up.

"Took you long enough," she said, snatching the chip out of his hand. Samuel knew better than to argue.

She put the chip into her display, expanding the test results panel, revealing that he had placed number one in the state of California in every category. He had missed only one question.

His mother nodded, skimming through each question. She removed the chip, and extended it back towards Samuel, who excitedly took it. Would this be the day that she finally recognized his accomplishments?

"Incredible." Samuel leaned forward in anticipation.

"Through all of my guidance, all of my apparently wasted efforts, you still managed to get one wrong? Utterly useless. Just like your father."

The words hit him like a slap to the face. Samuel stood, staring blankly at the chip in his hand.

"What are you still doing here? Leave me," she said. "I don't want to see your face."

Samuel blinked back tears, sullenly walking towards the door.

"Samuel."

He turned, the hope returning to his eyes.

"Close the door when you leave this time. You can at least handle that much, I hope?"

Samuel managed to contain his composure long enough to at least close the door gently behind him before sprinting down the stairs, nearly tripping over his own feet in the process. Hot tears streamed down his face. He always tried so hard, so why did she resent him so much? He ran into the kitchen, bursting out of the automatic back door. He kept running, finding himself in the small forested area behind his house. After running one point three kilometers, he sat next to a tree, burying his head in his hands. Samuel stayed like this for four minutes and three seconds before a voice chimed up from behind, startling him.

This voice was far more melodic than the antagonizing voice of his mother. "Sammy?"

It was a young boy's voice. It was quiet, but had determination and intelligence behind it. Eden.

His younger brother was only six, whereas Samuel was eleven. Eden, however, had a higher score on the standardized intellectual analysis tests than Samuel's already prodigious placing. Eden was their mother's pride and joy, or rather, she was satisfied with his results.

He was also the only person to ever show Samuel kindness. He was as innocent as one could be; he looked for the good in everything. When Samuel had placed second in a holographic hardware exam, Eden had been understanding, sympathetic, even. After Samuel had taken a beating his mother deemed sufficient, Eden approached him.

"You still did really good!" his soft voice said. "You beat over five thousand, and only lost to one!"

"Mom never lost to anyone," Samuel had replied, dismayed.

"But you're not mom."

Samuel thought about this. Eden was right. He wasn't his mom. He would never be like her, he decided. He would never be like the woman who had used her own husband as a test subject for prototype augmentation. Not like the woman who blamed his weakness when the test resulted in mortality. Not like the woman who screamed at him, calling him weak for crying upon hearing about the incident. He would never be like Dr. Reed.

"Missing only one out of three hundred questions isn't bad, you know," Eden said.

Samuel, surprised, lifted his head. "How did you-"

Eden waved his portable holo screen in front of him, Samuel's test results lighting up the display.

Of course, Samuel thought. Eden would have no problem hacking into the school's servers. He was said to be even smarter than their mother.

"It's almost time for dinner," Eden said coolly. "If we head back now, we should be home by...dinnertime."

"We'll be back at 4:24," Samuel said, standing up. If there was one thing he was better at than Eden, it was keeping track of time. A worthless ability compared to Eden's technological genius, he thought.

When they reached the house, the automatic door wouldn't work. This wasn't uncommon for the low-quality construction it was made from. They circled around to the front of the house, unlocking the conventional door, and then stepping in, being careful not to track mud inside. They would get more than just a scolding if they messed up their mother's perfectly arranged and spotless house.

"I'll go get mom," Eden said. "You wait by the dinner table. I'll see if I can calm her down a bit before she comes down here."

Samuel nodded gratefully. Eden was almost like an older brother, sometimes. He was always looking out for Samuel, despite their difference in age and ability.

Samuel walked over to the dinner table, sitting down for only three point eight one seconds before he heard a crash upstairs. Was his mother angry with Eden for some reason?

Four and a half seconds later, another crash rang out, followed by a scream. Eden.

The worst beating Samuel had ever received left a scar over his left eye - nothing serious enough to incite the blood-curdling screams Eden was letting loose. Something was wrong.

Samuel ran up the stairs as fast as his short legs would carry him, bursting through the slightly cracked door to his mother's room.

The pristine white room had splatters of bright red covering the perfectly white carpet. An unfamiliar figure stood in the center, holding a standard issue military club. It was hunched over, beating something repeatedly, producing a squelching sound with each swing, further spreading the blood.

Samuel looked on in horror, watching the thing in front of him smashing his mother's corpse mercilessly, letting loose victorious automated wails as it did so. Dr. Reed was beyond saving. Her body laid on the floor, the ribcage smashed in, blood gushing out of her concave torso.

The military android reached down towards the broken body, pushing its hand into the flesh and pulling out a cluster of what appeared to be intestines, then threw them on the ground, stomping on them.

Samuel was frozen. To his own disgust, he realized he wasn't unable to move because of fear, or sadness. He was paralyzed with macabre intrigue. He felt no love for this woman. He hated her. He hated her with all of his heart. The world was a better place if it was freed of her.

Another scream. His heart nearly stopped as he looked in the corner of the room. Eden was huddled up against it, crying loudly, watching as the android mutilated the body on the floor.

With its gruesome procedure interrupted, the frenzied android turned its head to the small boy in the corner. Eden stared back at it with wide eyes as it started staggering slowly towards him.

"Eden!" Samuel yelled. "Run!"

Eden seemed to regain control of his legs, bolting out of the corner at the doorway. The android watched for a moment, as if finding the attempt to escape humorous, then lunged at the two boys.

Samuel turned, darting away as fast as he could. "Keep running, Eden!" he shouted, looking to his left.

His heart dropped.

Eden wasn't there.

He heard wails from behind him, up the stairs as he kept running. A cracking sound rang out, followed by a low gurgling. The screaming stopped.

............................

Dr. Samuel drew in a deep breath. It still felt odd; he wasn't quite used to the augmented organs he had installed. Supposedly, they had found him lying nearly dead on the floor of a locked down building. He had severe oxygen deprivation. If he had been found any later, he would have certainly died. Even so, his respiratory system was badly damaged - it was a necessary procedure to replace them.

He sighed, the foriegn sound of his respirator exhaling leaving a bitter taste in his mouth. He had long since surpassed his mother's accomplishments. He was one of the first workers at EDGE, and was one of the leading developers of the ANGELs. He had written countless theories on the emotional development of AI.

So why, after all of his work, were these monsters still disobeying him? These were the same monsters that had killed Eden. They deserved nothing but the suffering they had put him through. He spent countless hours devoted to the sole purpose of developing flawless emotional and mental responses for the androids.

They ruined everything.

He looked around his messy office for a minute and forty seconds, finally finding what he was looking for. His holographic display. This was a model he had developed himself. It was the model that preceded his mother's revolutionary hardware that was made long ago, but had left very little room for improvement. Dr. Samuel had found and utilized that room to perfect the system.

He opened the system, searching through various tabs until he reached the right one.

He searched through the newsletter. Apparently, a female android with black hair and claws and a male android with white hair, guns, and a missing arm were parading around District 5, raiding various tech companies. This had been going on for over a month now. From the looks of it, they were trying to get the necessary parts to repair 4-HN's arm.

He smirked. How ironic it was, that they were trying to break away from EDGE, yet still ended up doing the same exact thing, just through their own agenda. They were inhuman, they were monsters, designed only to kill, and that would never change.

He thought back to the years following the start of the "Frenzied Age". The people he saw mercilessly killed in front of him, entire civilizations overthrown in a night. The hunger that he felt as he sat in an abandoned clothing store, hoping desperately that none of the androids would find him, too afraid to leave and search for food.

The first friends he made during the crisis, and their lifeless eyes staring back up at him when he returned to their hideout one day.

They had taken everything from him.

He would return the favor.