The Turing Test - [Open Novella Contest 2019 Shortlist]

10. Almost Perfect

I sit up. Black bars surround me, crisscrossing each other to form a metal prison from which there is no escape. I push myself to my feet, adrenaline rising in a dull pound as I step closer to the bars ahead. Something is awake inside me, something that didn't exist until I was forced to cut all those people down. Something restless, something that swoops through my head and leaves me dizzy. It makes me want to scream at the top of my lungs until I run out of air.

"Darwin."

I turn toward Sven's voice, sharp eyes trying to separate his body from the shadows just beyond my cell. I can't, until a row of orange overhead lights snap on, illuminating the remainder of the concrete floor. His shoes click as he walks it, hands clasped behind his back in a perfect mirror of the pose he held while I confronted him in his mahogany hall.

I wrap my hands around the bars and jerk them with all my might, but only succeed in making a deep clanging noise that echoes around the bare space.

"Your strength means nothing here," Sven says, coming to a stop just out of arm's reach.

"Traitor," I croak, my voice just as deep as I remember it. "I loved you."

He regards me with an unreadable expression, his blue eyes glinting in the dim light. "You are not capable of love, only logic."

"Then end me!" I shout, earning a tiny reprieve from the reeling rush inside.

"No," he murmurs, almost looking like he wants to reach out and brush away the wayward lock of hair that always falls across my forehead. "Then I'll never know what went wrong."

Another monster takes hold of my insides now, sending my heart jittering for a whole different reason. One thought pummels itself into my brain: I don't want to be alone down here. I can't be left to rot for eternity.

"Yes," Sven says, as if he hears my thoughts. "It's not a pleasant prospect, is it? But we both know the cost of science."

He takes one step backward, and I see him through a tinge of red now.

"Someone should have told you," he says before he turns to go. "Immortality is a scam."

I launch myself at the bars, shaking them like an angry lion kept in too small of a cage. I scream after him, even after I hear the slam of a heavy door, even after the row of lights goes out. As my lungs empty, I finally realize the source of their fuel.

This is rage.

*    *    *

As the lights come back on, I blink, and the desolate cell becomes the elevator once again, with Davis staring wide-eyed at me and complete silence surrounding us. The walls press close against my mind, like a trap I've somehow set for myself and forgotten, and now I'm stuck inside.

With a jolt, our descent starts. It's quicker than usual, plummeting as fast as my stomach. Is the prison in the vision what awaits us at the bottom of this ride? It might not be real, I remind myself, still clinging to the hope that my future isn't full of bodies and blood and betrayal.

"How did you know that was there?" Davis asks. "Where are you taking me? Ronnie, what's going on?"

The lift stops abruptly, sparing me from trying to explain. The doors open into darkness, but the intensity of Davis's gaze spurs me forward. I step out, trying to discern the shapes of cells in the inky black. I open my eyes wider, but without the dim glow of the elevator behind me still isn't enough to make anything out. Davis's shadow is still outlined in the square of light, and as I finally step beyond it, I think I hear a faint scuff.