The Drone

There were three men standing down the decontamination hall. They wore environmental suits but I knew exactly who they were. I may have even known their names. The florescent lights above had a slight favor for blue. The walls were white but with the hint of a pure blue glow. The men, for that's what they were, were discussing between each other at the entrance of the room. The door behind them just closed.

Walking towards them, I was. The part of me that controlled my every move was very clever. I was completely powerless to halt myself. My body and a great part of my mind that came with it were following someone else's commands. I was strolling down the hall as if I had no other business but to reach the other side. A clever deception indeed for I was well aware of my goals. Unfortunately, those men didn't pay attention to me on time to prevent this disaster.

When I was just within a few feet away, one of them reacted to my presence. In a reflex action of total fear of my kind and what we represented, the man took out his weapon and pointed it at me. A golden beam of energy struck my chest. His colleagues turned around to face me and understood what the weapon was meant to fire on. It was just another streak of misfortune after the next. I had been in this situation countless times. In the short time this man took to fire at me, he didn't think of increasing the settings of his weapon to an effective yield. Curse him and his fear. I would win this round. They had their chance and now it was all over.

I fell to the ground, flat on my chest, as if I had been disabled like the weapon intended. I remained motionless in a ruse of defeat. Knowing my new kind, the next shot, maximum yield or not, would be ineffective against me. I couldn't let out a sound to warn them: I was impassive to my actions and my goals terrified me greatly. The three men walked around me carefully and kicked me to see if I would react. I was still motionless. In a sigh of relief, the leader ordered his men to follow him to the other side of the corridor to where the exit was. They stood there and waited for the pressure to level with the other side.

My very presence had instilled an all too familiar fear within their leader. He was eager to leave everything he came here to do just to escape the possibility that there were more of me around. They discussed tactics and battle plans for any further encounters with my kind. I was already walking stealthily towards them right then. They didn't see me until it was too late. I had my fist pressed against one of the men's neck and the injection that followed was irreversible. I wished for this man a different fate than mine but I knew all too well that the chances of that were against him. He would most likely become another of my kind. He collapsed to the floor, fighting the hold of the microorganisms that infested his body from the injection I gave him.

Panic struck the other two at the sight that they had lost their colleague and friend to my kind in another dramatic conflict. In a heartbeat, they attempted to prevent their fate from becoming like his. None could match my inhuman reflexes. I already had a hold of the leader's neck as I slammed his body against the wall with my powerful mechanical arm. He struggled to fight my other arm, made of flesh and blood, which was overpowering his attempt in a slow movement that aimed for the bottom of his glass mask, just where his neck was. I could feel the beams of the other man's weapon strike my armor and become absorbed by my protective shield. Like he probably already knew, his weapon was ineffective against me.

"Let him go or we all die!" The man shouted from behind me. My body turned my head back in a systematic threat assessment. There was a moment of confusion as my mind inspected the possibilities. I used that very moment to yell and scream inwardly for my body to release the man from my grasp. I got very lucky. I successfully confused myself enough to let him go. By then I knew the threat was very real. I could see the leader cower away through the doors that finally opened up. He had exited the room a million times faster than he had entered it. Who could blame him?

My gaze never let go of the man that threatened us all. His weapon was aiming at a particular point in the ceiling to where high pressure pipes swarmed. The blast of a burst pipe would surly kill us. I had already decided his fate and now it was sealed with mine. I waltzed towards him fearlessly as usual only to yell and scream inwardly again. The man was shaking in fear of my very sight. It killed me to see people like this. Just a year ago, no one ever had a reason to fear me. In the past year though, it tortured my soul. Everyone despised me and what I had become. I was just another victim of the high-of-mind but they couldn't see past my armor and mask. To them I was just a drone, a most feared enemy of all living beings.

I cursed myself for having chosen to die trying to share my fate with this man. No one deserved it, no one. The only relief I found was that he may not have been bluffing. He would bust a pipe and I would finally be free of my demons. I was torn inside to see that my actions were bringing him down with me though. I was ready to die trying to do the work of a drone. I was very expendable to my kind. I had done all I was expected to and I would die trying to finish the job. I continued to walk slowly towards the frightened man. A shout of terrible fear and hate escaped through the man's suit just before he fired his weapon at what had become his death.

There was a great explosion that tore the room apart and left me mostly paralyzed against the floor. It took a while for my senses to return to me. I could see the flickering of the florescent lights that were partially broken. I felt better already. At least this way I couldn't harm anyone else. The door opened and a female walked through it. She observed the room briefly as if she already knew all that had happened. She looked alien to me. She had beige skin and a differently shaped skull. She didn't have any hair on her head and there were small papules all over her skin. They were all symmetrical though and she looked beautiful. She walked towards me and crouched over my damaged body.

It was all a big act. I knew who this person was. I could feel it. She couldn't fool me. She inspected the damage on my body. My armor was pierced and blood covered it. The small body that lay underneath was broken. After pressing her palms against my chest and taking a quick peak at the damage, she faced my one good eye, the one that wasn't replaced by a mechanical component.

"You can be fixed." She said plainly. She continued her ruse and pretended that she was taking care of me. She couldn't confuse me. Some faint memories of her were finally returning to me. She hoped they never would.

She took out a syringe and held one of my legs down with her other hand. I could feel the tenderness with which she held it. It was the first sign that her act was failing. She inserted the long needle through my inner thigh and hesitated. I could see her eyes swelling as the beginning of tears were forming at the bottom of her vision. Her acting skills were flawed. I couldn't blame her though; anyone in her situation would fail in the same way. The fluid that the needle contained was a lethal injection. It was designed to terminate the disease that took over all of my functions and tuned me into a killing machine. I knew for a fact that it would effectively terminate me with it. This syringe was meant to kill everything I was and had become.

I started crying, which made her hesitate even more. I set my hand against her gentle wrist. She shook in fear for a moment and realized I wasn't going to harm her. I tried feeling her smooth skin through my damaged nerves. I could still feel what I was touching.

"Please. I don't want to die like this! I don't want to die a monster! At least take my mask off." I pleaded through my tears. She fought back her own tears and shook her head. The last thing she wanted to do was take my mask off. She didn't want to see my face. It would make her task so much harder to do. She needed to forget who I was. She found it difficult enough as it was. I let go of her wrist and cried even more.

"Then give me a hug. I just want a hug. I need to be redeemed… at least in your eyes." I cried. I set my hand against her silky smooth and skin-tight jumpsuit. I could feel her female curves as my hand ventured towards her stomach. I held it pressed against her belly in the most affectionate and caring way. I could feel her sexual heat escape through her jumpsuit, wrapping my hand in a comfortable embrace. I held my hand there in the most tender and pure fashion that could ever exist. I was directly inspired by this person for she was that very same way. She hesitated and cried. She shook her head again but she wished she hadn't.

"I know what your kind does. I don't want to be infected." She whispered in regret. I moaned at the pain she caused me. I had forgotten that I belonged to a different kind; even before I became what I was. I was just as alien to her. This wasn't what she meant by it though: she was referring to the danger that I had become.

"Please. I'm no longer controlled by the high-of-mind. I was disconnected in anticipation to my death. It's me! It's me! You have to believe me!" I cried. She didn't hesitate anymore; she believed me. She could sense it from her belly and from when I caressed her wrist. She couldn't hide it anymore. She couldn't do what she came here to do. She knew me very well. She knew who was under the broken exoskeleton. She had no desire to kill me. After all, she knew all I had done for her. She knew that I was able to keep her safe from the others like me and from what I had become. I had sacrificed myself for her. It was worth it.

She cried and let go of the syringe to move closer to my face. She quickly tackled the bottom of my mask and pulled it from the neck up. It got jammed where my dead eye was fused with it. She couldn't pull the rest off but she could still look into my good eye and recognize me very well. She touched my face to get a last feel of it.

"I love you. Do you hear me? I love you!" She cried and pressed herself down against my broken body. I held her in the most gentle and loving of embraces. This was the first time she ever told me she loved me. I knew I had already made myself clear to her. I told her, in everyway I could, how I felt for her. It didn't bother me that it took her this long to say it back. I would die happy.

She held me underneath her, cradling me in her arms. Though I didn't give her any signals, she knew my body was in great pain. Death was catching up to me. I didn't have to tell her what was about to happen. She had already chosen what I had chosen. She lifted herself off of me and ventured back to my leg. She grasped the syringe and hesitated yet again. How can you kill the love of your life? I had to help her out. I couldn't let her face it alone. She was going through just as hard of a time as I was. I could feel her pain and distress tare through her heart as if it was my own. In a way, it was. My heart had always belonged to her.

I slipped my hand around hers; my thumb pressed on top of hers and the rest of my fingers providing support to hold the syringe upright.

"I'm going to die anyway. I'd rather be sure that this plague I carry dies with me. I did everything I can. Please forgive me if it wasn't enough." I said before pressing my thumb down on hers. She cried hard as the contents of the syringe emptied into my veins. I was shaking as the chemicals were reacting within my body. I gave out my last cries and my last gentle caress of her hand before the poison reached my brain. I couldn't feel anything anymore, nor could I move. I was still alive though. My love was still crying for me. She moved back on top of me where she could peer into my good eye. I couldn't look into hers but I knew what she looked like. I knew her very well.

"I've been hunting you down for a whole year just so I may have the chance to tell you how much I love you. Now that you're dead… I can't imagine what to do with the rest of my life." She moaned in pain at my lifeless body. I wanted to give her an answer so much… I at least wanted to give her a sign that I heard what she said. I couldn't. I was already dead.