Adam: The last man

Chapter 36: I only love once

With his face buried in the pillow, a drone watching him and manipulating his armbands, Adrian couldn't even move without having to say so for the device to allow it.

To think that that same morning he had held Teresa in his arms, giving her his love, listening to her laugh... Just like that day when he said goodbye to his little sister after playing with her, he watched her go like ashes that same night.

History repeated itself. His heart broke again, pain invaded him, guilt. Everything he loved ended up leaving. That was what the universe had in store for him then.

"You didn't need to do that," he murmured low, his voice cracking with sadness. "You didn't need to hurt her..."

"She is not just hurt," Carla answered through the drone. "She is already dead." The young man clenched his fists. "Unless you believe deep down that Olga would do something for her if I had failed to kill her... But I must put an end to your illusions. Olga wants you as much as I do. That girl was getting in our way. It was better to eliminate her."

Adrian sat back on his forearms.

"I was willing to give myself up and agree to whatever you wanted as long as you let her alone," he said through his teeth, driving his hatred into the drone, "but now forget it. Forget it! I'll refuse until you get bored and kill me!"

Carla stopped smiling when she heard that. She cut the communication and left the drone in awake mode again. Helen and Diana were behind her. Diana was impatient to get close to him, and Helen still couldn't believe what they had done. The woman blamed the leader with her gaze, but that would not solve anything.

"I want you to be alert. Olga is going to want to come and take him. She can come if she wants to commit suicide, but nobody comes out."

Helen worried. That was the last measure of security. Soon the building was covered with a barrier, allowing one to enter but not leave. If someone came out, some walls in the building could explode. They had done that in the hypothetical case where the males managed to escape, became more aggressive, and wanted to go out into the city.

The drones were kept at their recharging and repair stations, but one had a damaged receiver, emitting a red flashing light. If one of them was attacked, Carla activated the alarm option to be better alert if Olga sneaked in again without being detected.

She tried to reboot the still damaged one, but it didn't work.

"It's the one he kicked to break," Helen muttered. "I'll take it to special repair."

That place was far from Carla's office. She didn't want to be with her. She didn't want to see what she had become because of her desire to have the boy. Helen left the drone in one of the bases, and the special machines began to repair its hardware.

"Schedule for restart."

Helen, already leaving, paused for a second. All drones required programming, and one of these was to obey orders.

Diana began her tour through the building. She could see from the last level the multitude of women that started to gather on the outskirts of Eden.

"We are reporting from Eden what is happening," the newscaster spoke, wrapped in a coat because of the weather. "The events were seen in the winter competition, dubbed the Adam phenomenon. The presence of a man in this century. We can see the images." The drone that accompanied her played the projection. More and more women joined the public. "Eden has been hiding a real man, a living fossil, and they don't want to show their faces, even when we have all seen that their drones took him."