Life and Death

Chapter 15: Lorian

I woke up with Heather sleeping next to me and a loud clatter downstairs from the house bot. Heather moaned and buried her face in her pillow as I got up and dressed into my suit. I was shaving when Heather woke up. I heard her go downstairs just as I washed off the shaving cream and rinsed my hands. I always checked the acidic level of the water, and it was at a nice 0.001 percent. 

I clomped downstairs and saw that Heather was scrolling through the options of food on my phone, which I had left there last night. She selected something light brown and the arms opened the fridge and pulled out the pancake batter. 

"Good morning." I said as I put my cup in the coffee machine. "How long are you staying here?" 

She shrugged. "I don't know, until my mom stops being mad at me or I scrounge up enough money to finally afford a place or..." She turned around and looked at me. "I can just stay here with you." 

I shrugged as an arm flipped a pancake, making a loud splat sound. The arm then put it on a plate and handed it to me. I set it on the kitchen table and stood by the arms next to her as they made another one for Heather.

"Why are you in a suit?" She asked me.

"It's Wednesday, why else?" 

"Today's the Medical Checkup." 

"Ohhhh." I understood. Medical checkups happened every month. Every citizen had to go to a special facility and get X-rayed and stuff. If they find something 'abnormal' as they came to call it, they get sent to a hospital. "When is it?" 

"At 12." She said as the arms handed Heather the pancake. "Where's the butter and syrup?" 

"I have syrup but not butter. It's up here." I said, opening the very top drawer and taking out the small jug. The house bot rolled by mopping the floors as I set it on the table and poured it into my plate and then Heather's.

"Oops, that's too much." I said as some of the syrup spilled over the plate and onto the table. "Wanna sit in the living room?" 

"Sure." She said as she grabbed some forks and handed them to me. We carried our plates to the living room and sat down in the small indented space with the couch and flicked on the HV. 

"-imeShield has unleashed the mosquitos on yet another rebel scheme today, sending most of them to the interrogation centers." The news anchor spoke. "In other words today is the monthly Medical Checkup. The Bureau of Medical Affairs has updated the time for the checkup, which is now at 11:30 instead of 12. They also advise citizens to arrive several minutes early in order to get checked first." 

"Now it's almost 10:30, so you need to go to the checkup facilities. After the checkup we'll come back on weather." The news blinked and the screen turned black.

"Yeah we need to go as well now." I said after I finished my pancake and put it in the sink where the arms grabbed the sponge and started scrubbing. I put on my socks and shoes. 

"Wait I don't have any spare socks." Heather complained. 

"We can pick some up along the way." I said as I got up and stumbled down to the garage. Just as she opened the door the clouds above started raining on the city. A plane was probably being dispatched right now to calm the clouds. Just as the car pulled out of the garage and started the windshield wipers, the rain turned into a downpour. In seconds, the road was slick. Then it started hailing, the road then turning icy and slick. 

"Whoa, is that hail?" I said as the car struggled to stay on the correct side of the road. "I've never seen hail - WHOA!" The last part was because a hail the size of a car flew out of the air and smashed through some pines lining the side of the street.