078. Metamorphosis, 9

(Uri)

We found some data. Not the end of all mysteries, but some clues.

It seems one network that still holds rather well is the one of Rise. That old simulations system apparently still functions somewhere.

My friend will have time to find ways to access it, and use it as a new beacon.

Me, I...

I'm holding my trembling arms. I often expectorate lumps of myself. My bowels are beginning to betray me.

The fevers are growing in intensity. There's no avoiding how the end is near. And it's going to be as messy as it is already painful.

We spend another night in that commercial centre. But this time I spent most of it in the lavatories that still have water circulating.

I'm breathing less and panic doesn't help. Alcohol's benefits hit their limit. I'll be losing awareness soon.

But I heard another voice tonight.

One from a renewed hope. The one that goes the other way from me. I stumbled around my way to my friend's room to wake him up. I tried to speak but I couldn't. Only coughs ensued.

He thought I needed help, but I shoved him away. Not me idiot. Her!

I pointed toward the room where she had been set, while I sat in the corridor trying to recover.

He went into the other meeting, and greeted the new girl for both of us...

I would only spook her right now, she's just a very young child, barely recovering.

I managed to stand and limp away from there.

You'd better be ready to recruit her my friend...

Even if she has no education yet. There is still everything to learn.

~

I wake up abruptly when a hand wipes my forehead. I'm lying on the clinic's bed. I can piece together what I miss and don't remember.

U - Ah... So how is she?

M - Well. She's better already.

He looks beside. I see the young child already standing there, and looking at me with a rather empty stare. I didn't notice her presence.

I lean a little toward her.

U - You. You listen to my friend from now on alright? He will be good to you. Until you find another city that is safe. Or university...

M - You're not leaving us just yet.

Mushio and I talked. The machines and drugs did their best on me.

The child stood mute and immobile, just watching and listening, emotionless.

Either she's a poor quality android, or she's a little strange. Now from birth or traumatic scars, I don't know.

I managed to sit. I looked at her. She looked at me.

M - She hasn't said much, but she follows and now can eat more solid food as you can see.

I raised my hand in a sign toward her. She hesitated and then mimicked it. We then tap our hands.

U - Remember your parents?

M - Uri!

My - Parents. Parents. Parents. No...

Even in my own pain I can feel empathy. I recognize the ways she behaves from my own family. She's three or four maybe. She can talk okay, but she acts in autistic manners. And not only.

I make another sign with a hand. She mimics it. We clap hands again. I smile genuinely. She fakes one obviously.

My friend looks dumbfounded. He tried talking to her and it quickly went nowhere. But I already am communicating with her, more than I am scaring her with how gross I must now look and smell.

U - I'll teach you how to communicate with her. It's not that complicated, just a little different. For now, just show her stuff we're working on. Tell her about it like you would tell me.

M - But she won't understand...

U - It doesn't matter.

My poor friend never had to care for a child, nevertheless akin to her.

U - Go. I'll join up after I wash up.

They leave. The child walks after him, without a glance behind.

She might actually be a good student, if he's ready to face the challenges of educating someone.

There are drawbacks and advantages to every difference in perspectives, and she will have hers.

With a good education, she could become someone shrewd able to notice and understand what he cannot.

I stumble to the shower and wash the filth. I can't believe they withstood the smells I now emit...

It's painful. I empty more of myself. Forget dignity, my body is just dying.

My skin has taken weird colours, not as pretty as her skin. Necrosis is looming.

I'm trembling as I wear a new shirt. I struggle buttoning it.

I breathe some depression away and exit the place.

I walk a little lighter after them. I've lost a lot of weight.

~

They are crouching beside the computers. Mushio shows her the educational programs he could find.

She's more or less obedient, for now.

M - Ah, you look better.

U - Thanks... She does far more.

The child watches the cartoon intensely. Her arms are a little meatier than the other day already.

I get closer and tilt slightly the screen. I move a little the alignment of the objects in front of her.

She doesn't react at all. Perhaps I was wrong?

Well, one typical phenomenon missing doesn't mean it necessarily.

M - She's lost memories you think?

U - Possibly. More importantly, I think she's processing communication priorities and emotions slightly differently from you and I.

M - Communication priorities?

U - All perceptions and their interpretation.

M - That means everything... And nothing.

U - Pretty spooky hey? I think she will surprise you by how mature and intelligent she can act at times, and how utterly nonsensical or animal she will at other times.

M - I don't get it... She's just a child.

U - It's a shame I won't have much time left to enjoy that... For now, let's find a library of textures to touch, like all sorts of textiles and stones.

M - What?

I'm laughing a little at how dumbfounded he is. They aren't laughing, for very different reasons between them two.

But then I'm coughing painfully. More than ever.

I'm suffocating before I could start having fun with our new youngest friend. She's just beginning her education and she changes so nicely the pace of our priorities. We've been stuck on our mission for so long...

But I'm not breathing, goo stuck in my lungs and throat as it rose from within. I'm passing out before we even had the chance to learn how she's wired and capitalise on that.

I won't know how the world changed nor why. I won't know how she functions nor enjoy seeing her growth in education. I was getting hopeful with a new dream more natural honestly.

I cough and vomit lumps of flesh bigger than I thought they could be. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I'm transforming too, more sadly.

~