THEREFORE I AM [Completed]

Chapter Eleven

Eli
Now, 2078

Holding Benny lightly with my arm, I took her to the nearby centre to shop for some extra clothes and miscellaneous bits that she may have wanted. Benny had her AR glasses off and so I had to turn on the offensive advertisements and colours to see the deals around the shops. It was still as intrusive as the first time I tried it. Blocky bright neons threatened to break the sensors in my lens but I hid my distaste well. It's been almost a month, but I am gradually gaining control over my impulsive actions and emotions, however, walking through the aisles of clothes I felt the need to rub the fabric between my index and my thumb. Polyester. Cotton. Silk. Satin was my favourite to feel, it had a rough back but smooth outline, the difference in textures was pleasing to me. Silk looked better, glossy; it had a sense of something... Classy. Luxury. I nodded.

"You, okay?" Benny chuckled.

"Yes, just agreeing with the Network." Her chuckle stopped with a little abruption. She didn't like the Network much, but she kept the harsher side of her feelings to herself since her dementia attack three weeks back. Everything I suggested to cook, she accepted, any exercise program or recreational visits, she accepted. Benny slowly started to get comfortable about two days ago, but this was short lived when a Mandatory Viewing reminded us of a special cleansing and in speaking of cleansing, the AR visuals were full of it.

GET YOUR CLEANSING OUTFIT TODAY! LOOK YOUR BEST IF YOUR PICKED!

It was everywhere, threatening the recall. As Human memories deteriorated, they got embellished and in some cases, become subconscious, for us Androids the same idea was there, memories got fragmented so the finite storage we had could be used up for other things. They also move into the root code much like a subconscious and they could get embedded into the ADNA that made up who we are so we could learn. However, this was a considerably longer process. The recall we have was perfect until it became fragmented, even if this body could last as long as a Human, I would still recall perfect visual memory. I'd be decommissioned, destroyed and valued of my recyclable parts well before I could ever get rid of the perfect recall—only the special are transferred like Machina. A curse for me, it would always be there until I die.

"Looking for something for the special cleansing?" The Android assistant approached us. I had the sudden urge to blow her head off the minute she mentioned the cleansing.

"No. Thank you." I replied politely, Benny gripped my arm harder. Then the Android flashed the palm of her hand slightly, a circle with a triangle pointing to the left interweaved with one pointing to the right. A secret but excited shiver ran through my neural network. It's been three weeks and it's reached the outside of Woodhill and whilst I foresaw our secret symbol to reach the edges of Woodhill within three weeks, it grew surpassed that. I should have been more accurate about how much people disliked this current world. It's a simple idea, a symbol, a meaning that could spread, so when we needed the people to stand, they could, at a moment's notice. A movement by word of mouth—just as I advised. I had the symbol penned into the inside of my middle finger just in case it attracted the wrong people and I had to wash it off quickly. Kelvin had it scorched like cattle branding directly onto the back of his hand with Mother written below. I didn't quite like that idea much, but it worked to spread quickly and quietly amongst the religious Androids and Humans.

"This could look very... spicy." She said picking up a dress for Benny, it was a dark shade of grey, almost black and it draped to the floor. It wasn't 'spicy' it was awful.

"Hell naw." I had to agree. She walked away and I turned to face Benny mouthing 'spicy' doing a little jiggle. She burst out in a great laughter and the Android woman turned around a bit sheepish, I felt a pang of regret for laughing at her but seeing Benny laugh like that made up for it.