Chapter Twenty One Aaron

Lurching out of his brooding thoughts, he finds that the conversation between Five and Valerie has gone quiet. The two of them are staring at him as if they are waiting for him to respond to a question they asked. He looks to Valerie, considering his position in all of this. He can't let this slip through his fingers, but he really has no standing in the situation at the moment.

“What you’ve done, is create the first immortals.” The ways she raises her eyebrows at him indicates that he has given too much away already. Maybe it was in the tone of his voice.

“I feel stupid for never having seen what this was all about.” She pauses for a while, watching his face. “Marco offered me an in on the whole thing too, as if it were a sacred position amongst only anointed individuals seeking the fountain or something. It makes sense. The pursuit of mind copying has been around as long as the concept of robots has. From what I understand, people have already been preserving brains for decades. The only reason why no one has ever been brought back before is because the electronics to do it have never existed.”

He sits up straight and scrunches his eyebrows. “So who’s all in on it? How many people know about this?”

“I think it all started with Paul… and then Gabriel, maybe Marco before that, I don’t know. I should have suspected from the start, with those two.” She takes a moment to mentally consider who else could possibly be in on the secret, given even she were kept from it. “Paul is gone. He was murdered. Maybe some of the other board members? No one else really seems to be all that involved.”

“I can see why they were keeping it a secret. The only way they could have pulled it off is by using Werker funding, and all while being approved by the CEO himself. Pretty slick.”

Aaron understands it all pretty well. He would have done the exact same damn thing himself if he were in Paul’s position, for sure. What he doesn’t know, is how Valerie really feels about it. It’s good that the process is in the hands of only a few individuals with the right mindset. There’s a reason mind-copying is illegal. The social ramifications of wielding the sale of immortality could completely destroy social structure forever.

For the time being, it is nice to see that the leg work has already all been done. He has time now. He won’t over ambitiously pursue the tech through Valerie right away. He’ll get a feel for what she really feels, and ease into it. In the meantime, he hopes she will at least cater to at least some of his curiosities.

“So, since Five was a human, and is now in a… robot body, how well does everything line up, like how everything feels, theoretically?” He scoots the log round he is sitting on over in front of Five. “Forgive me for being a little intrusive, I’m just curious. May I?” He holds his hand out shyly, hoping she will consent. She places her hand in his and looks into his eyes for a second. She doesn’t appear to feel objectified, if anything, more trusting of his insight over Valerie’s. He can tell by the way she glances over at her.

As he feels the flesh and joints in her arm, from her fingers on up to her elbow, he has her do the same with his. Her arm is soft all the way down to the bone, but still a bit firmer than real flesh.

“Woah, you’re really squishy Aaron! How can you be so strong if you’re so squishy?”

It makes him smile when he thinks about it. “Human physiology is rather strange Five. It’s actually made of billions of what you might even consider to almost be individual organisms, called cells. Each one is pretty much a little water balloon that sticks to the others and works with all the others to make me what I am. They are quite sophisticated and can even make replacements for themselves for when they die. It’s the same for all life, the plants, the critters and us. Heck, and the little buggers do it all on their own, and no one knows why.”

“Valerie is he messing with me again?” she squeezes even harder at his forearm, making him flinch.

“No, he’s telling the truth.” She shakes her head and chuckles. “It does sound crazy when he says it like that though.”

She looks back at him, as if he might fall apart into a pile of goop right in front of her. “How in the world could something like that possibly work?”

“No one really knows. It defies all scientific reason honestly. Why would dirt and water decide to get up off its ass and do something like this?” He holds his arms out and looks down at his own chest in amazement. He can see that she is still skeptical and doesn’t really believe him. He picks up a fallen green leaf off of the ground and holds it out in his palm. When she peers down at it, he rolls it up and smashes it into a pulp, wringing the moisture out of it. Her eyes go wide. With another leaf, he shows her how it has veins, just like in his hand.

Her face turns a little sad and concerned. “How could you hurt that little plant like that Aaron?”

Valerie scoots her log closer over to the two of them. Her voice sounds very comforting and understanding. “Not all life is the same Five. Plants don’t hurt or think at all, like we do, kind of like with machines. Some creatures die in the millions every day and it is normal, some kill every day and its normal. We are somewhere in between.”

“And I was once one of you, a squishy water creature?” She rubs at her arm when he lets go of it.

Valerie smile again. “Well, you kind of still are. You still have squishy muscles, kind of, and little squishy sensors all over you, in your skin. Your body and mind is full of neurons, cells, just like us, transmitting the very same sensory signals as it always did. The only difference is that you’re cells have, in a sense, been popped, and don’t need the water in them anymore. You are the same as before, the shape of your bones and all. You’re just made of different materials this time. Your cells, like in your mind, are now mostly plastics, your bones piezoelectric composites, and some of you is even solid metal.”

“Why? Why couldn’t I have been remade like I was before, like you?”

“Cause when people, organic things, die, they can’t be brought back to life. They all eventually die with age and cannot be fixed. Once our bodies die, we are gone forever. That is how it has always been. No one in history has ever been saved from death. No one until you Five. You are the very first ever since life ever began millions of years ago. You have no idea what that means to us. You are beyond incredible.”

“Why we made you the way you are is so that your body is tougher than an organic one. It is simpler, but can always be remade. Things like your muscles are easy to manufacture, and replace. They are made out of all these bundles of individual, almost hair-thin, contracting filaments. Each one is a simple solenoid gathered together with countless others and greased for smooth function. The cores of the solenoids are made of a monofilament sputtered with a supermaloy jacket. The solenoid coils are made of another fine polymer sleeve wound in an extremely thin carbon-boron-nitride strip. In large enough groups, the filaments are incredibly strong. Your body probably has the tensile strength of a steel cable as big around as you are!”

“Huh, tiny solenoids. So that’s why she gets warm.” He wouldn’t have guessed it’d be something that basic.

As soon as Valerie catches his last comment, her head snaps over to him. She wouldn’t accuse him of anything inappropriate, but eyes him suspiciously.

To demonstrate, she pinches Five’s skin up a little, like someone would do to check for hydration. “While I worked at AMF, I did have a small hand in designing the Five-Series body. But truly, nearly all of the credit is due to an old friend, Evan. If it weren’t for him, there wouldn’t be anyone like Five around.

“Evan Adams? Yeah, I could tell she was an original. I’ve worked with other AMF robots, all quite impressive, but his work is on a whole other level. Five is truly a walking piece of the finest artwork.”

Not only is Five paying attention to what he and Valerie are talking about, but she is deep in her own thoughts at the same time. She turns to look at Valerie, this time, with a serious face. “So you would still have Five-One’s mind saved somewhere then, like you have been saving mine.” It is not a question, but a clarification she wants them to acknowledge.

With Five’s hand in hers, Valerie stands up with her. “I don’t want to say that I can bring her back and then not be able to make it happen Five. I couldn’t bare breaking you’re heart like that again. I’ll do everything I can, but I cannot promise you ok. Don’t make me promise you. It’s not up to me.”

Aaron puts his hand on Five’s shoulder in encouragement and then picks up his backpack, hoping it will signal them to step back from this for a moment. Valerie is more than appreciative at the opportunity to move on and grabs her pack as well. With a whistle, he calls for Runner to join them. It immediately comes trotting over to the three of them as if it were excited to go on a dog-walk.

“Five, you’re gonna be riding Runner most of the way. There’s no need in you wasting your battery marching up the mountain.” His saying that causes Valerie’s expression to change.

“How long is this hike going to be?” She is trying to not sound upset, but she’s a little anxious now.

Five clasps her hands together and holds them up over her big smile. She is really excited to ride around on Runner again. Both he and Valerie share relieved glances when they see her mood perk back up. He half expects her to start hopping up and down again, but she is still a little reserved.

“I figured Five can walk on the way back. I’m not gonna to lie, we are going to be in for a little bit of a trek.” What he does not say is that it is going to be a solid four miles up the mountain, nor that it’s actually an easy hike compared to what he usually does.

Without any more stalling, he turns to the trail head and leads the way. Having been listening to him, Runner heads out in front of Five and beckons for her to hop on. When he looks down at the soft trail that he has made over the years he finds himself comforted in returning to it. Even though he leaves his campsite set up and inviting, no one else that he’s aware of has ever used it, or the trail. He has often come upon wildlife using his path though. In part, the deer seem to keep it nicely trodden down while he’s gone. They’re not the only critters that use his path though.

Even though the path is too narrow for him and Valerie to walk side by side on, he does still try to keep a conversation going with her. “It has always been my goal to someday cross this entire forest. Most every time I come out, I go a little farther in. I’ve had to turn back a couple times lately because of a ridge I haven’t been able to get Runner over. The next thing I plan on altering is its feet. Now that it has adaptive AI, it’ll be able to utilize more sophisticated paws, maybe with retractable claws this time, so it can climb.”

Eventually, after walking for a while, he notices her having become much less talkative. When he looks back again, he can see that she has fallen back a few more paces and is trying to conserve her energy. He hadn’t realized that he’s been holding his usual quick pace up the trail. He had already considered that she wouldn’t be accustomed to hiking like this, but he still manages to forget to slow down for her. When he stops and waits for her to catch up, she looks up at him grumpily.

Behind her, he catches Five being silly and nods toward her to get Valerie to look. She is standing up and balancing on the back of Runner with her arms spread out wide, but not for balance. Valerie rolls her eyes in embarrassment. Five is not paying attention to them and is completely lost in her own imagination. She is clearly pretending to be some kind of giant robot.

When the trail flattens out and widens some, he stays at her side and holds her hand. She’s in a much better mood since slowing down to a manageable pace. She even swings their hands while they walk. He thinks it’s really nice to finally have someone to share the world with. There aren’t any more discussion about anything important, just simple things that they find to be interesting. Whenever they walk across something neat, off the side of the trail, he points it out and tells them about it. He shows them which mushrooms he knows to be edible and which ones are poisonous whenever they see them.

When they come across a particularly bright orange one that looks like a flower in the middle of the trail, he plucks it up and sets it in her palm. After watching him do it first, she picks off one of the petals and chews on it without taking her eyes off of his.

“Don’t expect much flavor out of it, but I personally like the texture of em, and cause they look so cool.”

She presses her lips together while she nibbles on it. “It tastes like… like it’s, I don’t know, dusty?”

He chuckles at the look on her face. “I suppose. They are pretty though aren’t they.” He hands her his own bottle of water and unscrews the cap. “It’s got just a little bit of sugar and lemon in it.”

As they continue on up the trail, he points out how wavy the forest floor is and how it was made that way by huge logging equipment way back in the day. The whole place was decimated at one time, but now has grown back. He has found that the mushrooms still prefer to grow in the skidder tracks, wherever they are.

Valerie squeezes his hand and looks up at him lovingly. “I had never known that it was this beautiful out here. I guess most people think of the countryside as still being kind of cutthroat I guess.”

“Would you believe me if I said it still gets better, but not for about another mile? I know it’s a long ways, you still doing ok?” He knows she’s getting tired. “You can take a break on Runner if you need.”

She takes a slow deep breath and puffs her cheeks up. “I’m doin alright. I’ve got it.” The last thing she wanted is to keep hiking uphill for another mile, but she doesn’t want to disappoint him, and at least he’s not being pushy.

When he leads them over the next rise on the trail, it abruptly ends where a large creek is cutting deep through the rock mountainside. At the edge of the crevice, it’s almost six feet down to the water and about twelve feet across to the other side. It’s rushing pretty hard. Not far downstream, it drops off down a decent set of falls.

He has not been able to find another way around without the climbing being dangerous. He used to have to park Runner here before he learned to jump it across. The sound of the roaring water below adds to the intimidation of the steep ledge. He can only imagine what the other two think of it.

“This is a nice little waterfall, but it’s not the one were gonna be stopping at.”

With her arms folded, Valerie stands back away from the edge. She is wondering if Aaron had or had not not planned for this. While she broods, she watches him go over to Five and Runner. She can see that he’s speaking with both of them, but can’t hear anything they’re saying. Five climbs down off of Runner and continues to listen to him. By how intently she is looking at him, it seems to be about something important. She knows that intense look on her face when something is serious. After Five nods back to him a few times, he climbs up onto Runner and circles it around a little farther from the edge.

To give him some space, Five comes over to stand with her. “Aaron is going to teach Runner how to jump over the water, so that it can take us over when it’s our turn.”

“Fuck that! I haven’t even ridden it once yet! I’m not ready to huck goddamn triples yet!”

Five slightly turns toward Aaron, as if to look at him, but she keeps her eyes on her. “He said you’d say that.”

She can’t believe he would be so inconsiderate to push such a crazy and irresponsible thing on both her and Five like this. By the way Five is smiling and clutching her hands under her chin again, she knows she won’t be able to count her in on any kind of mutiny. Boiling away, while thinking of ways to scold him, she watches him get ready for the jump. In her mind, she imagines him hitting the ground on the other side like a piece of raw meat on the floor.

She watches him set his feet firmly in the cutouts on Runner’s flanks, hunch forward up high over Runner’s back. Suddenly, Runner lunges for the wide gap across the creek, picking up a good amount of speed in only a few leaps. The two of them seem to slip through the air together as smooth as glass.

Runner’s hind legs land on the other side first, but barely seem to support any of the machines weight at all. Rather than tripping, like it looks like it’s going to do, its rear legs swiftly tuck back and push forward through the landing, leaving the rest of the work for its front legs. She can see that it’s him controlling the landing by the way he is handling the controls. He has clearly put a lot of practice into the technique.

She really did expect him to at least get thrown off onto the ground, but he didn’t. He’s made it look so easy she could cuss. After dismounting on the other side, he points back in their direction and speaks to the machine for another minute. While he waits on his side of the creek, Runner leaps back across all on its own and trots on over to them. When it speaks to them, it kind of startles her. She had no idea it could talk.

Its voice is low, raspy, and a little intimidating. “Which one of you would like to go next?”

She immediately grabs Five by the shoulders, from behind, and shoves her forward ahead of herself. As soon as Five climbs on its back, it instructs her on what to do.

“All you have to do is hold on tight and I will do the rest. I will wait in position until you tell me to go.”

When Five makes the jump, she doesn’t ride as loosely as Aaron did. The impact of the landing is not as graceful as when he did it, but she holds on tight and doesn’t let go.

When it’s her turn, and Runner comes back for her, it feels like her stomach is going to turn inside out. The best she can hope for is to not pass out the moment they are in the air. She does realizes that she is probably being a little over dramatic about it, but she can’t help being so nervous. She has never really been afraid of heights before, but he roaring water going over the edge is not making things easy.

When Runner tilts its shoulder down to help her up, she feels a little less worried, like she can trust it. After circling around to face the creek, it requests that she tell it when she is ready. She does her best to force herself to relax. She straightens her arms out, sits back, and grabs the handles with a death grip. She closes her eyes and then opens them.

“OK, GO!” Just like Aaron had done, she straightens her knees just before the jump. Keeping her body loose, she feels Runner rise and fall below her. Through the arc, it almost feels like they didn’t even jump. Her body’s center of gravity almost stays at the same height the whole way through, until they land.

Keeping her butt down, she pushes back and locks her arms firmly forward so she doesn’t go over the front. Even though her heart is racing, she feels so much more confident in herself now. It was all so easy, she feels silly for letting it get the best of her. She even finds herself wanting to jump back across and do it all over again. Letting all of her breath out and slumping forward, she hugs the back of Runner and hides her grin. She is still not very happy with Aaron for cornering her into doing it like he did though.

When he helps her down, he gives her a sheepish smile. She can see it in his face, he knew he would be pushing her. She can tell that he is sorry for making her do it like that. She wonders if he was testing her, to see what she is like under pressure. Not wanting to ruin the moment, she decides to keep her disgruntled comments to herself this time. Not willing to give up on her anger completely though, she pokes him in the ribs anyway.

From there on, the trail gets much steeper. She silently wishes for the trail to end every time they round a corner or go over another steep rise in the trail, but it doesn’t. Just past the point where she told herself she could go ahead and ask for a break, Aaron stops ahead of her. He and Five are listening closely to the sound of something in the distance, but all she can hear is her own breath. After trying harder to slow her breathing down, she begins to be able to hear the sound of another waterfall in the distance.

He points to their left through the trees when he spots it, where she can see the white water mist sifting through the trees. Even from as far away as they are, the falls are tremendous. They are higher than the trees and light prisms wherever there is light. The three of them trek through the dense fern foliage for another hundred or so yards on the way over to the base. In the entire surrounding area, the trees are all completely covered in bright green moss. Almost every inch of everything in sight is green. Before they even get close, she can feel the light mist on her face.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

When they get to bottom of the big waterfall, there is a good sized pool there with a smooth firm black beach on one side. The pool is so large that the surface of the water is nearly smooth out to the edge where they are standing. She has never seen anything like it, not even in pictures. Up against the falls, there is a massive larch tree leaning out horizontally over the pool, curving upright about fifteen feet in. The trunk of it is so large that there is yet another tree growing right on top of it.

In awe of the beauty of the place, she doesn’t notice that Aaron has already taken his clothes off and is wearing some swimming shorts that he must have had on underneath his pants. She is disappointed that he had not told her there would be water. She hadn’t packed anything to swim in.

She has a sneaking suspicion that he has done this on purpose though. He probably meant for it to be a surprise. Assuming he has planned for it, she holds her hand out, expecting him to have something for her already. With a raised eyebrow, he turns to his pack, pulls a small white drawstring bag out of it, and hands it to her. She already recognizes it as being Clarice’s.

It looks like he asked her sister to pack something for her, but she can’t imagine when he could’ve done it. She thought it was odd that Clarice was up so early. When she pulls the drawstring on the bag, she finds that there are two suits in it, one red and one white. Surely neither of them would have known if Five can get in water or not, but must have thought that she could at least wear a swimsuit anyway. It was nice of him to make sure she was included.

She pulls the white one-piece swimsuit out of the bag and holds it out in front of herself to see if it’s her or Five’s size. The damn thing is all strap, and it takes her a moment to even finds which way right side up. When she catches Aaron’s expression, upon seeing it himself, she quickly snatches it out of sight and holds it behind her back. Blushing, she puts her hand over her face.

Clarice has pulled another one over on her. She knows it’s not his fault. He wouldn’t have known to suspected she would do such a thing. It’s obvious now that her sister approves of him. He turns to look away, but still watches her out of the corner of his eye. He didn’t mean to embarrass her.

“I figured Five would like to swim too, she can right?”

Five looks at him with a hopeful but nervous stare. She nods back at her and looks back down at the red swimsuit. At least hers is a little more appropriate, which is hard to imagine, being that it’s still one of her sisters.

“It’s perfectly safe for her to get in the water, as long as she doesn’t inhale any water, but she doesn’t exactly know how to swim.” She tosses the bag to her and makes a restrained smile.

Aaron looks a little perplexed and stands waiting for a moment. “Is everything alright?”

She locks eyes with him and clinches the white swimsuit behind herself. “Yes, everything’s gonna be great.” Slightly squinting one eye she gives him an accusatory look, wondering if he knew about the skimpy suit the whole time. She still can’t completely hold back her own smirk though. He winks at her and then backs out into the water.

While she and Five are changing behind a large tree, she can hear him splashing in the water, probably jumping from the tree hanging over the water. She’s really excited to get into the pool with him but she knows exactly what’s going to happen to her white bathing suit when she does. She can damn near see through it as it is. She shakes her fist in the air while imagining what she is going to do to get back at Clarice.

She holds it up again and looks it over. She has never worn this one before, and for obvious reasons. However, now that she has a chance for some sort of alone-time with Aaron, she finds it to be appropriate, but for a not-so-appropriate reason.

The hips of the suit are cut so high, they go all the way up to the bottom of her ribs. There isn’t even a front to the suit, not hardly above the crotch at least. There’s nothing else to it except where it comes up under her breast from the back to, cover her nipples, and then wrap back around her neck. She can’t believe she’s actually going to wear it. She’d probably be better off just going naked, but it will probably look real good to him. It’s at least something, and it’s time to bump things up to the next level.

After they’re both dressed, she has Five turn around in a full circle, to see her outfit as well. It’s a simple, classic, deep cleavage one-piece that doesn’t have any annoying cutouts in it. Despite that, it’s still not what she would be brave enough to wear in public herself either. It’ll at least make hers look a little less extreme in comparison.

“Now, Five, you haven’t worn anything quite like this, so, I just want to cover a few things with you. Try to keep your… your breasts from popping out the front. It’s easier than you might think. Also, keep your mouth closed when you can, especially if you go under the water. We’ve talked about this before. Do not get water in your battery. We’ll have to pack you out of here and you’ll miss all the fun. Just hold your breath unless you are clear of the water. It’ll try to go up your nose, so you’ll have to learn how to not let it do that. We’ll go over it more out there. You ready?”

When she and Five return to the small beach, Aaron is on the far side under the falls and has not noticed them yet. Still being shy about what she is wearing, she takes the opportunity to quickly lead Five into the water. It is not shockingly cold, but still cold enough to make her cringe.

When they’re up to their shoulders, they encounter a large flat rock out in the middle of the pool. It’s just barely still under the surface of the water where they couldn’t see it before. Five immediately climbs up onto it and holds a hand out to help her up. Aaron is nowhere in sight, so she climbs up as well, to see where he went.

She spots his white arms and legs moving under the dark water towards the edge where they waded in. When he emerges from the water, he stands there in front of them, wiping the water from his face. She has seen him with his shirt off already, but all the physical activity really seems to have had an effect on his physique. His muscles are much more pronounced, and the water running off his body closes the distance between want and take.

The water pulls his shorts tight to his skin leaving nothing to the imagination. She doesn’t feel so naked in front of him anymore. When he looks up at her, it’s as if he has never seen anything like her in his life. He has no idea what to do with himself now.

She dives back into the water and swims over to him. The two of them meet in the middle, where only he can still touch the bottom. She softly wraps her legs down around the backs of his thighs and hangs her arms up over his shoulders. He pulls her against himself tightly at his waist, wrapping his arms all the way around her, one at her waist, and the other up the middle of her back. They wrap each other’s tongues together in wild uncontrolled need for one another. Locked together, they completely forget about everything else. She feels like she could ravage him for hours and it still wouldn’t be enough.

She presses herself against his manhood, forcing him to show her just what he’s been holding back. He tries to lean his head back with the pleasure of what she’s doing, but he can’t. She has a firm hold on the back of his neck with her hand and she’s got ahold of his lip with her teeth. When she slides her thighs higher up his waist, he is clearly ready to commit.

Her breathing is telling him that she wants him just as badly as he wants her. They know things are going too fast but they don’t care one damn bit. She trusts him and he trusts her. They can do whatever they want.

Five pretends to clear her throat with a loud “eh hem” after being patient with them for what she feels has been long enough. She and Aaron both look at one another longingly for a moment, before reluctantly letting go of each other. She almost tells Five to go and count rocks out on the trail for a while, but she can’t bring herself to be that mean. She is just going to have to be patient. She puffs her cheeks up and then releases her breath with a groan.

“Five, why don’t you come down into the water with us. Stay there, and we’ll swim over to you. It’s too deep over here.” Before parting with him, she slides a finger into the waistband of his shorts, pulls it away a couple inches, and lets it snap back. He looks up and huffs when she swims away with a grin.

As soon as he is calmed down enough to join the other two, he swims over to them and helps Valerie with Five. After starting with a few simple techniques, it doesn’t take long before he has her swimming around on her own. They can only figure that she must have retained some kind of semantic memory from her previous life to pick things up so easily. Eventually, Five even starts venturing out a ways away from them. He suspect she might have gotten the hint to give him and Valerie a little space.

Sometimes, Five will disappear under the water for almost ten minutes at a time. At Valerie’s request, she comes back up from time to time to let them know she is still ok. It just doesn’t feel right when someone doesn’t come back up for so long. Even after having to hold off on some much wanted intimacy, they still find it nice to take their time, relax, and take in the wonder of the place.

Over the hours of swimming, they all take turns jumping off the tree and laying atop the rock in the middle. Whenever Five is out of sight, they still do sneak in a few more physical moments between each other. They keep it to a minimum just in case Five happens to interrupt them again. It takes an awful lot of impulse control to not sneak off for a bit.

Having lost track of the time, he realizes the sunset is creeping up on them. When the forest starts to cool off, the get a move on it. They all hurriedly change their clothes again and head back to the trail together. Five is starting to fuss about how dark it’s getting, knowing how far they have to go. He hadn’t figured her eyesight was made to be the same as a person’s too.

“How are we gonna see where we’re going at all? We’re not gonna make it back in time.”

“Don’t worry about it Five, I’ve got it covered. I could find my way back blindfolded anyway.”

He pulls three head lamps out of his pack and gives one each to her and Valarie. “Runner has big headlights too. See, we’re gonna be just fine. In fact, you might like it at night. It’s when all the critters come out. I’m sure we’ll at least see some deer, they’re cute, you’ll see.”

He was right about Valerie being completely wore out by the time they get back. He even has to give her a little boost up onto Runner. Five is quite happy to walk the rest of the way back. She has always been confined indoors, and getting to walk out in the open really helps.

After crossing the creek again, and finally getting closer to the camp site, signs of wildlife really begin to pick up in the waning light. Just before it’s completely dark, they manage to spot numerous deer and even elk crossing the trail every once in a while, just like he said they would. Since it’s Valerie’s first time seeing real deer, they stop each time and try to not make any noise.

When there’s nothing but moonlight left, they hear a great deal of howling coming down the hillside towards them. It’s enough to give even him the chills. Even though Valerie is on top of Runner, and safe, she repeatedly asks him if he is sure they won’t be in any danger. After the howling becomes louder and it sounds like they are being surrounded, he finally chickens out and climbs up on runner with her and Five.

They turn on all the lights they have, but it doesn’t deter what is coming their way. The sound of things thrashing around in the darkness, heavy breathing, panting, and gnashing are all very clear in the still air. Something big crashes down the mountainside, breaking branches and stomping through the undergrowth like an avalanche towards them.

About fifty yards out in front of Runner’s headlights, the huge silhouette of an elk scrambles down the bank and across the path, nearly going to the ground in such a panic. Immediately following it are at least four long and fast moving shadows. None of them could clearly see the dark figures very well but he knows what they are.

“Timberwolves.”

Valerie is becoming upset. He can hear her sharp breathing and she is pulling her feet up as high as she can get them. Her voice is panicked and scared, but still quiet. “Do something Aaron! Don’t let them kill it!”

“I can’t do anything! It’s a whole pack! All I’ve got is a flashlight and a knife!”

Five reaches out and touches his shoulder, startling him. “They’re going to kill that animal aren’t they, like you said they do?”

“They are Five. This is real nature, and it’s gonna take its course tonight, right here, like it does every single night out here. This is the real world, outside of the fantasy land we live in. The animals out here will kill any one of us just as well as that elk if we ask for it. They don’t have any rues like we do. They’ll kill as quickly as they can.”

All he can do for Valerie is to dim Runner’s lights, keep going, and hope they don’t see anything they didn’t bargain for. As they slowly move farther on down the trail, they hear the elk screaming as it’s torn apart by teeth and pulled to the ground. Valery holds her hands over her ears to block out the sound of snapping teeth, loud squeals, and wet crunching. Only he and Five are still reluctantly listening. While Valerie is blocking everything out, he explains the circle of life to Five.

He sweeps his arm out and around them, motioning at everything around them. “All creatures, like the deer in the woods, and the wolves that hunt them, will inevitably die alone in one terrible way or another. They might die of injury, starvation, or most likely being eaten alive. Any day could be their last

Every time they wake from their bed, they have to fight to stay alive. Every critter is growing, changing, and trying to become stronger than the others around it in any way it can. It’s a biological arms race. There are always invasions, slaughters, and even extinctions going on all the time.”

“But people don’t do this though. Cause we’re supposed to be civilized, and good.”

“Sure they do. We’re maybe a little kinder about it though. At least we would like to think we are. We raise thousands of animals in places special places just so we can kill and eat em more easily. Where they grow up comfortably, never fearing for their lives. We bring them food all damn day and even clean up their shit for em. They don’t get chased by killers every day, have their young stolen and eaten in the night, or any of that. How does that sound?”

“I don’t know. It just doesn’t sound right. Their lives are all a lie.”

“True, and in the end, they don’t even see it coming. We kill them quietly and quickly. Don’t get me wrong, it is sick in its own way, but nothing on this planet is innocent. When a cute little squirrel eats a seed, it takes a life. Not even a mouthful, traded for something that could have lived a hundred years.”

“Do we always have to choose our lives over others?”

“Yes, whether you know it, want it, or not. Even for ordinary people, it’s not so different. We wake up in the morning and leave our homes, just like any animal out here. One day or another will be our last, one way or another. No matter how hard a person fights, time will still take them in the end. There is never any getting out of it either, or ever. Well, except for with you.” He congratulates her with a nod and raised eyebrows .

Five doesn’t smile when she thinks about it, but she definitely feels insulated from the horrors that everyone else must face. She doesn’t remember her own death, or know anything about it, and she’s glad it’s that way. It sounds truly terrifying and she really doesn’t really need to know. It doesn’t matter anymore. The image of Five-One’s torn body and face comes back to her again. She felt horrible about what happened, but now, she knows it might not be the end for her. Five-One is still out there somewhere.

“I won’t lie to you Five, you’re still going to have to fight for what’s yours too, real hard, I’m sure.”

“Why would I have to fight? I didn’t do anything! All I need is electricity anyway.”

“Just because you aren’t looking for trouble doesn’t mean trouble isn’t looking for you. People can be rotten, mean, and dangerous. You absolutely have to be warry of them. Not everyone, but probably most of em. You can live forever, and that makes you stronger than them. That makes em envious and afraid of you.

When people are jealous of you for having something they can’t, they resort to the ideology that you shouldn’t be allowed to have it either. If there’s something really good out there, but some people can’t have it, those people will often enough destroy it so that no one else can have it either.”

“That’s super shitty! And stupid! Fuck them!” Her eyes go wide and she slaps her hand over her mouth when she realizes she has such a foul mouth all of a sudden.

“It’s like me saying I don’t want you to exist because you can live longer than me, and I don’t like it. Not only that, but I would go as far as to actually stop you from living longer than me by force if I have to.” She looks at him disgustedly. “What are you going to do when these people come for you, and kill you because you have something they don’t? They are erratic, dangerous, and ignorant. They’re capable of anything!”

“I won’t let them! I’ll run.”

“His voice gets a little louder, and more urgent. “There’s thousands of em!” He sits up tall over her and drapes his arms menacingly up over her. “They have you surrounded. They have knives and sticks and guns!”

“I’ll…” She hesitates and her eyes open at such a vivid imagination of it.

“They are grabbing you! They are hurting you! They’re cutting the skin and flesh right off of your body!”

Five is starting to actually get upset. The terror on her face looks pretty real. He gently shakes her and snaps her out of it when her eyes start to well up.

“I didn’t do anything wrong! Why do people hate me so much?”

“I’m sorry Five. I didn’t mean to… Everyone doesn’t hate you. Don’t say that.”

She sniffles and wipes her face with her wrist. “Yeah they do. They already killed Five-One, and no one else even cared.”

With the thought of death again, he starts to think about what’ll happen to himself. He doesn’t get to take a pass on death. It’ll get him one day or another. He could be one of those people he had mentioned. Id everyone else got to keep living, and he didn’t, he’d be pretty sore about it. Just thinking about it is upsetting. Why should he have to be the one that has to die? He hates it so much.

“We don’t even really know what death is anyway. No one has any idea what happens after they die. It could all just lead to nothing, no blackness, no emptiness. It’s hard to fathom what completely nothing truly is. You don’t really know how special what you have is yet, but when we’re all dead, you might understand what gone forever really means. I hope to god you have someone by your side through what is to come Five, I truly do.”

“Would you do that for me? Would you be there for me so that I’m never alone in the darkness?”

“I sure as hell would if I could Five, but I don’t think I really have a choice at the moment. I’ll probly have to die like everyone else.” He can hardly look at her now. “You might be the only one. If that is true, I’m truly sorry.” He watches her shoulders slump forward when she thinks of being all alone forever. He wishes he hadn’t said any of it now. He knows she’s already terribly sad over losing Five-One.

When they can no longer hear the wolves, he climbs down off of Runner and walks alone out in front of its lights. When he does, Valerie figures it’s safe enough to uncover her ears. By the time they make it to the van, her tears have finally dried. He feels really bad that she had to experience such a thing, but he figures it’s something everyone needs to face in order to really appreciate what time they have alive. It helps to be reminded of it once in a while.

He was planning to spend time with them around the campfire tonight, but after all that, he feels it might be best they just get back home. It would be too hard on Valerie to hear any more crazy shit tonight. The wolves will probably be at it all night. He settles the two of them in the van and quickly fixes up some of the food Valerie got for them. Lastly he loads Runner into the back of the van before heading out.

On the way home in the dark, he holds her hand and turns the radio on low. No one is really all that up for much conversation on the way home. The two of them are pretty tired and Five has a lot to think about on her own. She doesn’t really seem to want to talk about it this time. Sometimes she will move to the back and talk to Runner, but not much.

After he parks the van in the lower garage, he decides to leave Runner and everything else in it for the moment. They all just head straight to the sixth floor and plop down in his living room. He’ll unpack everything on his own and take the van back to the lot after tucking Valerie in. She is dead tired and falls asleep right there on the couch. The hike was really only about a third as long as what he does regularly, so he is still plenty alert himself. If he’d been alone with Runner this time, he would have probably gone more than twenty or so miles farther in.

He picks Valerie up in his arms and carries her down the hall to leave her with Carice. He lays her in her own bed and pulls the covers over her. A late night at the club and then a three thousand foot climb up a mountain has done her in. He gives her a kiss on the forehead and then says goodnight to Clarice out in the living room before heading back downstairs.

Sometimes he still forgets that Five is a machine inside. If anything, she is more wound up after a day of excitement. She has no intentions of staying at the apartment while he goes back out. He figures she has realized that the only way back after dropping the van off will be to ride Runner all the way home. He loves how much she adores Runner. She treats it like any person would their dog, with and love and enthusiasm.

Just as she was hoping, he has her sit up front and take the controls on the way back. She quickly picks up on how to do most everything manually and pleads with him to let her go faster. Eventually agreeing to, he shows her how to keep her body loose and to time her own movements with Runner’s tempo. Even though her body can handle a lot more abuse than his, he explains that she will always be able to go faster with proper technique.

“You and Runner must work together as a system. If you’re not aligned with Runner’s motions, you’ll end up slowing im down.”

While he walks along the curb side, he watches her sprint Runner as fast as she can up and down the street, pushing it faster every time. After showing Runner some videos he found online, he is able to help it change the sequence of its legs to run more like a real cat at full speed. He had tried to make the changes himself, in the original firmware, but he could only ballpark it. With the new Werker controller Runner is able to immediately perfect its stride because it can actually get a feel for it.

In short order, Five and Runner are able to get their speed up to fifty miles per hour consistently. Without a rider, Runner is able to reach sixty on its own. They dare not go any faster themselves. Its stock feet are barely holding ground as it is. Maybe with something more like real paws, it will be able to move with more finesse.

After all the testing, Runner’s battery eventually gets so low, they have to walk alongside it the rest of the way home. It won’t make it if it has to carry either of them. Not far from home, Five peers up at him with that forlorn look of hers again.

“Aaron, what does it mean to be mortal… to you I mean. I know that in time, everything has an end, but it’s not just and end is it? You make it sound like death is something else, something that defeats you, something worse than just losing everything forever. You’re fixated on it, like you know what it is, and you hate it. It sounds like a heavy burden you carry with you. I can always feel the weight of it in your voice.”

It takes him a moment to consider what he should tell her. It seems he may not have been conveying the best message to her. She is right about the way he feels, but it’s not the way she should feel. His problems are his to bear alone.

“Things in life should always be… acknowledged, no matter how small they are, and not just out of principle either. Anything in your life, or mine, can be stripped away in an instant. You know that as well as anyone. Still, what would you do if, say, both Valerie and I were not here for you tomorrow, or ever again thereafter? Like how you lost Five-One.” Five walks with her head down for a bit, not answering yet. He places his hand on her shoulder and waits for her to look back up at him again. “People often don’t think of what they have until it’s gone for good.”

“Is that because they’re ungrateful jerks like Mikel and Ray?”

“No, no, it doesn’t make them bad people, or stupid for it. It just hurts more when a person loses someone they care about when they don’t get the chance to tell them how much they meant to them before they are gone.” He doesn’t want to make her cry again, but he asks her what he feels is most important. “What would you have told Five-One, if you knew back then it was going to be the last time you would ever see her?”

Tears immediately start rolling down her face, but she doesn’t stop walking. She wraps her arms around one of his and sniffles a little. The first thing that pops into her mind is that she would avenge her. After dwelling on that for a moment, her tears start to slow. Before she tells him that, she realizes that she couldn’t have that being the last thing she’d tell her friend, not if it was truly the last thing they would hear.

Five takes in a deep breath. “I would tell her that I love her, and that I would find her again, no matter what it takes. That’s what I’d say.” She looks straight ahead and wipes her face off on her sleeve again. That’s the first thing she’ll tell her if she ever sees her friend again.

“I believe you do know what love is Five. No real machine can know love. You are one of us for sure.”

“I don’t want to lose you Aaron.”

“I don’t want to lose you either Five.”

She wraps her arms tightly around his waist and presses her face against his chest. He embraces her and promises that he’ll make sure Five-One returns to her. He doesn’t know how it’ll happen, but he can feel it in his soul that it will. She takes a deep shuddering breath and lets it out slowly. He can’t let her down, it wouldn’t just break her heart, but his too if he does.