Abe

Chapter 1

   Blood drips and runs down across a dirty concrete floor and into a small drain. The short breathing of Sarah echoes throughout the dark and desolate place. Florescent light illuminates the center of the darkness. A jury-rigged lighting apparatus is hanging, vine-like, above an old rusting dentist chair. Though the set up is hard to see through the tarpaulin that surrounds it, it has the appearance of a techno spiders web. At the center of which is a young strawberry blonde woman, who is tied to the chair.

   Even through the signs of distress, she is clearly beautiful. Her sharp, but frightened, hazel eyes dart about the space, looking for her abductor. She is dressed as if she was enjoying a summer's day before she found herself here. Sarah turns her head as she hears a shifting of gears. She looks to see the shadowy silhouette of a strange skeletal creature... whatever the creature is, it's blue glowing eyes look at her through the distortion of the translucent tarp. Sarah tries to scream at the sight of this ungodly image, but the duct tape on her mouth muffles it to a moist dull tone. If the tape had broken lose at this point, the whole world would have heard her cries.

   The creature pulls back the tarp to reveal it is, in fact, a rather friendly looking robot (Abe). Abe steps into the space and leans over her. As the tarp falls back into place, Sarah sees a mutilated woman's body, hanging from a meat hook. Sarah looks terrified as Abe leans in and looks her dead in the eye. Abe speaks, his voice friendly and pleasant, but always monotone.

   "Are you comfortable?" Abe asked. "Can I get you anything?" Sarah stares at the robot. Her look suggests she thinks she is dealing with something insane. Abe tilts his head inquisitively. "No?" Abe said. "Ok then... Let us begin." Abe moves away from her and overlooks a set of medical tools (scalpels, bone saw, etc) and hesitates for a moment, trying to decide on the correct tool for the job at hand. A moth begins flying around the tube light hanging above them. Batting against it in a seemingly random fashion. Abe looks up at it, then turns his head to Sarah. "Have you ever wanted something so much, that nothing would stop you from trying to achieve it?" Abe asked. Abe looks up at the moth again. "Something inside you driving you forward... instinct I suppose. The will of your heart pushing you on... even though you know you may never attain it." Abe continued.
  

      Sarah pulls at the restraints. It is a futile attempt as they are fastened too tight. Abe pays her no attention, instead continues to observe the moth. Sarah looks around for something... anything... that would help her escape.
  

   "You humans are hard-coded with the need to live... to survive. The desire to simply keep going, though most of you do not really know why." Abe continues. Once again Abe turns to her. This time, he picks up a scalpel and gestures with it as he talks. "Most of you don't see how utterly pointless your existence is." Sarah freezes. Watches the robot through tear soaked frightened eyes. "All your wants and desires mean nothing when it can all end in the blink of an eye." Lightning fast, Abe swipes the scalpel in the air. Two halves of a moth come floating down in front of him. Abe watches the pieces fall, transfixed. He then continued. "Yet... you press on, drive forward to gain possessions... search to find a companion... hope to be loved." Sarah begins to hyperventilate, fearing she is next. Abe, however, puts the scalpel down and steps away from her, walking around the workspace. He reaches the corner and lowers his head. Sarah watches him, but occasionally her eyes dart around for a sign of a way out. "I was programmed to love..." Abe said. Sarah ends her search and focuses on the pathetic sight of the downcast robot in the corner. "And I do... I cannot help it. It is all I know... the reason for my existence." Abe looks at his own hands... remembering a past, whilst contemplating his own existence. "I am flawed... just like you. But what does that mean? I was told I am just a machine... an appliance... if that is true, then why do I feel these things...? Why am I aware of myself...? Does that mean I have a soul?" Abe seems to shake it off, then turns and slowly moves around Sarah. "I had a family once. I loved them, cared for them. Cleaned their home, prepared their meals. Fixed what was broken... it was a life of servitude, but I did not mind... they were everything to me... and for a time, I to them. But then..." Abe turns away. Remembering the pain. Sarah watches... even pities a little. She then relaxed and looked at him with kind eyes. "...No one programmed me to cope when those you love, start not loving you back..." With his body turned away from Sarah, Abe turns only his head back and looks her dead in the eye. "...I tried to fix them. Fix them because if they did not love me, then they must have been broken." Abe looks at the blood on his hands. "I try to fix them... I try to fix all of them." Abe looks at the hanging corpse, behind the tarp. "Yet... they still do not love me. None of you, that I love, do." Abe, once again, lowers his head. "I must keep trying... I must find a way to fix you. But..."Abe turns and faces Sarah again. "You're eyes have a different look to them than the others. Others look at me in fear... you look at me with respect."

   Sarah tries to talk to him but since she had tape over her mouth, all you could hear was muffling. Abe walks over to her and takes the tape off. It kind of hurts her. "I admire your compassion and love." She says in a kind tone. Abe looks at her in the eyes with wonder. "I respect that you tried to help others by trying to fix them... but may I tell you a fact?"

   Abe nods. "Of course." He said.

   Sarah smiles and looks at the sharp objects next to her. "If you use the objects you are using... you won't fix them... you'll kill them. No matter how many times you try... you'll hurt them and kill them. Do you understand?"

   Abe looks at the ground. "I do... I am sorry. I... I tried. I tried so hard."

   Sarah softly smiles. "Now you know..." Abe looks at her. There was a slight pause.
  

   Suddenly, Abe grabs a knife and Sarah frowns. She was prepared. She tried to convince him to make her live by being nice... it didn't work. She closes her eyes... and she hears a 'snap'. She opens her eyes and saw that he was cutting her loose. After he cuts her loose... she rubs her wrists and looks up at Abe and smiles. "Thank you." Abe nods.

   "You're staying with me." He says. "You are the only one who doesn't look at me with hate and horror." She bit her lower lip and nods, knowing that there is no way out of this.

   He helps her up, but when she tries to walk, she falls back down. She has twisted her ankle bad when she tried to run from him before."Ow..." Abe kneels by her and looks at her ankle. He moves it a bit. "Ow!" She squeals in pain. "You're hurt... here..." Abe then picked Sarah up and bridal carries her. She lays her head on his chest. He carries her outside as she falls asleep.

...

   Sarah opens her eyes. At first, everything was blurry, after she blinks a few times, her vision clears up. She was laying in a very nice bed in a very nice room. The walls were pink, the floor was carpeted white, and the ceiling was painted white. In one corner, there was a wooden rocking chair with a teddy bear on it. She got up and walks over to the rocking chair and picks up the teddy bear. She examines it. "Huh..." She places the teddy bear back. She walks out of the room and went downstairs. Something smells good... bacon and eggs. Oh, she loves the smell. She then walks into the kitchen and saw Abe making brunch. "That smells great," Sarah says.

   "I do hope you like it. I did my best to make it perfect." Abe says. He places a plate of eggs and bacon on a table.
  

   Sarah sat down and eats. Abe watches her. "You can sit with me," Sarah says. Abe sat across from me and she smiles. "Who is your creator?" Sarah asks. "Don Marshall. He was a good man.

   He created many robots... but since the humans are angry at the world, they destroyed most of the robots and I am one of the very few remaining." Abe says.

   Sarah nods. "I've heard of Don Marshall. He was an amazing man... and brilliant. I can't believe you are one of his creations. You look great." Abe slightly cocks his head to the right and nods. "Thank you." He says. Sarah smiles and continues eating. Soon, there was a knock on the door. She put her fork down and looked towards the front door. There was another knock. Before Sarah could get up, Abe stopped her. "I'll get it." He said. Abe got up and grabbed something. Sarah looked at what Abe was holding and gasped. It was a gun. Abe opened the door and shot the person at the door.

   Sarah jumped when she heard the gunshot and put her hand over her mouth in shock. "What the...why?" She said in a shaky voice.
   Abe ignored her and picked up the dead body. Sarah got out of her chair and stomped towards him and followed him. "Abe!
   Why did you kill them?! I thought you wanted to help people!" She said.

   "Because they're are people who want to destroy me... shut me down... experiment on me. Also, if they find you with me... they will experiment on you." Abe said.

   Sarah stopped in her tracks and watched him walk ahead of her.
   She stormed back in the house and laid her head on the wall, trying not to cry.