ShowerKrogan

  I left Dr. Ava’s office and stood in what I referred to as the workshop. The room just outside the office was where most of the work on Becca took pce. The office focused on the connection between Becca and my brain while the workshop was for when Dr. Ava worked on Becca’s body and where she completed her overall research and development.

  The workshop contained a huge screen that took up an entire wall which was used to watch videos or to make calls. That room was accessible to most people in the facility via biometrics. Dr. Ava’s office was only accessible via biometric scan along with a key fob held only by her, me, or the one built into Becca’s hand.

  I hit the outside of my pockets to find my phone and spped empty pockets. Great. Zombies stole my phone, or maybe those spiders Becca is always rambling about. Actually, now that I think about it, Dr. Ava is probably messing with it. Hopefully getting it on their special network. Well, that’s fine. I'm in the workshop, so might as well use it.

  I stared at the giant video screen on the wall. It wouldn’t hurt to try calling a few people to see if they made it through the initial zombie onsught. Maybe the phones are working by now; as sad as it is to think, there were now a lot fewer people alive and trying to make calls. That fancy phone network Becca and Dr. Ava were using would be nice right about now.

  The first person to call was obvious.

  Grayson: Becca, please try to call Mal.

  Becca: Now calling Mal Practus.

  I put both hands palm down on the workbench that is normally reserved for Becca’s body. I leaned forward, pushing down on the table while waiting for the call to start. My heart was pounding despite telling myself that she wouldn’t answer. Each ring made my heart pound harder. There was an entire drum line in my chest while waiting for an answer. I tried not to get my hopes up, but with each ring I could feel that hope I tried to avoid slipping away. When the call connected, her voicemail greeting sent a crushing wave of disappointment coursing through me.

  Please be okay, Mal…

  I didn’t have many other people worth calling. Parents died when I was a baby. No stable home, I bounced around in the foster system for a while until I was told by the st family that I was ‘too unruly’ to be loved. Boss found me wandering the streets shortly after that, and I spent my formative years running around with a street gang. It’s weird that I didn't turn out to be a better person before the outbreak.

  All that backstory to end up right here. Just a small-town boy, livin’ in a zombie world. Probably no trains goin’ anywhere, even if it was midnight.

  Ned was dead; that is obvious at this point. Peter probably was too, or had better be. I’ll take care of that if he wasn’t. Boss would be tough enough to survive, but if all it takes is one bite to change, then he’s probably walking around looking for other humans to munch on.

  I’ll need to verify the bite turns people to zombies, I had made a lot of assumptions based on a bite mark on one fresh zombie. Too many movies, tv shows, comics, and books influenced me on how zombie bites work.

  The rest of the old gang would be dead or zombified, too, and if not, I’d kill every one of those fucking assholes. If the world as we knew it truly was ending, then it would be safe to assume I wouldn't be arrested again. Hell, I’d do it even if society survived and at the risk of another life sentence…

  Becca: Blood pressure rising, please remember the calming breathing exercises.

  Slow, deep breath in through my nose, out through my mouth. I repeated the process several times until I calmed down.

  After what those assholes did to Mal, there just wasn’t anyone left in the group worth checking on.

  Mal had a dad and an older sister. Her older sister hated me, and I didn’t bme her. I brought Mal around a lot of trouble throughout our lives and then bailed as soon as Dr. Ava offered me a way out, leaving her behind with Boss and the others. I could give countless excuses for what had taken me so long to go back. The honest truth was that I was scared to face the group after I left and then I took too long to go back for her. The world fell apart when I finally tried.

  Her dad was always there for me when things hit rock bottom. Which they often did. He even helped me get some basic fight training when I was younger. I learned a lot more throughout my years with Boss and the others, but he provided the foundation so I could defend myself. He tried to take me in officially at one point, but not super easy to get approved for when you’re a single dad of two. At least, that was what some government person had told him. I should check in on him; it had been a few months since I had seen him and he might have heard from Mal.

  Grayson: Becca, call Mal’s father.

  Becca: Now calling Private Practus.

  The phone rang twice before it was silent. It took me a couple of seconds to realize he had answered.

  “Mr. Practus? Can you hear me?” The bck screen showed an answered phone icon.

  Static answered, but within the static, I thought I could hear breathing.

  “Can you hear me? It’s Grayson.”

  “Gray-... hear you. Have y-... Mal?” His voice was distorted heavily by the static, but it sounded like he could hear me. At least partially. So I kept speaking.

  “I wanted to check and see if you’re okay. I’m safe. I’m at that facility outside of town. Have you heard from Mal?”

  “Thank God. I wa-...ried. I called, but- not working. I can’t find Mal,” his voice was fading in and out, but I could hear clearly when he said he couldn't find Mal.

  Damn it, Mal. Please be somewhere safe.

  “Do you know the way to the facility where I’m at? Can you get here?” I asked him. He always looked out for me when things got tough, which they usually were; I could now return the favor. We had plenty of room for additional people.

  “Grayson, I-” BANG! His response was cut off by the clear sounds of gunfire, followed by screaming. I heard him shouting commands at someone then the line clicked dead.

  “Call him back, Becca!”

  “I am trying, but it seems his phone is powered down or out of the service area,” she said. “Cell phone coverage is struggling due to infrastructure damage and high usage.”

  “Can you trace his location with GPS or something?!”

  “I… am sorry, Grayson. I have tried with Mal’s phone, and now Mr. Practus, their phones are not responding.”

  “Fuck today!” I smacked my hands onto the table and tried to throw it, but it was welded to the floor. I grabbed a nearby pen and flung it to the ground, where it burst into pieces. Take that writing utensil.

  “I heard a gunshot but he was talking afterward. I think he was okay. Keep trying him and Mal every fifteen minutes and let me know if they answer. You’re allowed to communicate with me in the private areas in that instance,” I said, dragging my feet as I shuffled out of the room with slumped shoulders to finally take that well-earned shower. “I’ll need to charge the drones so we can send some out looking for her in her normal hangouts. Not sure where else to try, and it’s a damn big city to search randomly. We’ll figure out a pn.”

  I went to leave but paused before entering the elevator.

  “Becca, were you able to reach that doctor guy you wanted?”

  Becca’s voice carried a low undertone to her usual monotone sound, “I was unsuccessful in my attempts to contact Dr. Gale. I will try again ter. For now, I will keep the phones focused on Mal and her father.”

  “Thank you, Becca. For everything today. You’re a good robot,” I said and scurried inside the elevator as her eyes fshed red.

  I took the elevator back up to the main floor and then the stairs down to my floor. A quick scan of my hand on the door reader, a high-pitched beep and fsh of green signaled my scan was accepted, and my door unlocked.

  Being a test subject in an experiment to put an AI directly into your brain came with a few benefits. Odd, I know, there must had been millions of people lined up for this. How lucky I was that they approached me. I was treated as a big time VIP in this facility, a nice change of pace from my adolescent couch hopping.

  My bedroom was way too big for a single person. I had a kingsize bed, a desk, a couch, a mounted 80-inch TV, and an adult beanbag chair (the perk that finally sold me to move in), and I still had enough room for half a NBA regution court if I wanted. I believed they had something else pnned for this room initially, it could fit a mammoth, but pivoted to provide someone with a leisurely setup. I never put in the basketball court, but there is a cushy mat I walk across every day that feels nice on the toes.

  “Home semi-sweet home,” I said. My door clicked shut and locked behind me as I stood there debating colpsing onto my bed instead of the shower. The itching skin from the dried blood, which I couldn’t tell was zombie blood or mine, was too gross to ignore. I turned to the bathroom, passing my desk and petting the head of my lifesized Mortal Protection Services Mafdet plushy resting on the shrine I built in her honor. Praise her majesty.

  “Good kitty.”

  I entered the bathroom and stripped out of the clothes Dr. Ava had given me and tossed them on the cold tile floor. I assumed the outfit I wore today was to be burned.

  There was a little panel next to the light switch. I hit a few buttons, and the tile warmed my ice-cold feet.

  One thing I could never compin about in this facility was the living space provided to me. A big issue with having a living AI in your head was privacy. Once our connection is fully functional, she could see what I see, hear what I hear, and have essentially 24/7 access to me.

  It was like being on camera non-stop. However, she respected my boundaries when it came to my room and bathroom. The bathroom was a hard stop for her monitoring. She couldn’t contact me unless I spoke with her first and the only vitals she received were confirmation of a normal heart rate and brain activity. Basically, as long as I wasn’t dead or dying, she was locked out.

  I was not sure how they did it, but I appreciated that. The caveat to that rule is that she could speak back if I spoke to her first. I could make requests or talk to her all I wanted, and that would open the door for her to respond and keep responding.

  My room was a little different. She could monitor as normal and contact me if she wanted but, mostly, she let me be unless she had something important to talk about. Or something crazy happened on TV. Or Kiltedfrog dropped a new series after Mortal Protection Services because we miss that series.

  The bathroom is just as over the top. Besides the heated floors that I just activated, there was a literal hot tub in here. Not a rge bathtub that has bubbles or anything; I mean a twelve-person hot tub. I never had it filled though, so it took a while to fill and heat when I wanted to use it. I’d probably need it after today. My body was aching and it’ll only get worse over the next couple of days.

  The toilet had its own little closet with a heated seat and a warm-water bidet. They said Heaven was a pce on earth, and I’d found it with that toilet. There was a rge bathtub near the hot tub. I could fit four people in there comfortably if a group wanted to party weird in the apocalypse. I’m just joking.

  For now.

  The bathroom feature I was headed into now was the walk-in stone waterfall shower. Oh, the way the hot water felt falling from the ceiling down onto me was ah-maze-ing. There was also a handle that had a powerful spray when the waterfall didn’t cut it, which is what I was using now to bst dried blood off my extremities. I was sure these types of handles were never used for anything besides purely hygienic uses. But to really enjoy the shower, I needed tunes. Even as the world falls apart, music heals.

  “Becca, please py ‘Complete Colpse’ by Sleeping With Sirens,” I spoke out loud out of habit. It would take some time to adjust that internal communication setup. “Remember that I said, please. I’ll even say it again. Please, oh great AI goddess. Bless your minion with some music.”

  The song title seemed pretty appropriate, considering what was occurring outside the facility walls. She said nothing to me, but the music started, so I’ll operate under the assumption that the request wasn't too upsetting for her. Or that she enjoyed being called an AI goddess; that seemed on brand for her.

  I would need time to mentally adjust to the ability to speak to her with my thoughts. It’ll make me seem less crazy to everyone else, not that there’s many people left to qualify as ‘everyone else’. At least the zombies wouldn’t think I'm crazy?

  Once I got what blood and gunk off that I could, I thered myself with soap more times than I could count. Lathered up, then bsted off, repeat, repeat, repeat, until I removed some skin.

  Once I felt sufficiently clean, I rested my forehead against the stone shower walls and thought back on the day. I tried not to let the panic of the actual apocalypse grip me. I needed to make a pn to look for Mal, but she could be anywhere. If she was even still alive or human…

  I should have fought harder to keep Sam around. She was in danger even with her friend Lana. A couple of rifles aimed in my direction, and I turned into a coward. Pathetic.

  The stress of it all was becoming too much; I still had to go get the puppy and meet with everyone to form a pn for how we should proceed moving forward in the short term. I could panic and scream into a pillow ter, like a well-banced adult.

  It turned out it wasn’t easy to push escaping a zombie invasion and losing two different people along the way, one being my best friend for my entire life to this point, out of your head. In a desperate attempt to calm myself down, my mind brought me back to Dr. Ava teasing me to the point Becca thought she needed to announce my arousal.

  Stupid AI.

  My mind lingered on the moment and took a few liberties with the possibilities that could have ensued. Look, I was a healthy man in his early-ish twenties; my imagination was going to run wild at times. But I’ll admit, I focused just a little too much on what my mind was creating. I really needed to get out of the shower and check in with everyone else… a few more minutes wouldn’t hurt.

  Twenty or so minutes ter I’m leaving the bathroom and finished drying off. I threw on my Purge the Scourge shirt and some sweatpants. I might as well be comfortable in the apocalypse.

  I left my room after giving her majesty Mafdet a good petting and, with an electric pop, Becca popped up next to me as I started heading up.

  “I feel it should be stated once more. Great work today, Becca. I appreciate you breaking your body to leave the facility to save me. Fingers,” I said and held out my hand palm up and wiggled my fingers in the air. She made the same motion with her palm facing mine and wiggled her fingers against mine. Well, she would if she had any fingers! It was our stupid little celebration when one of us did something worth celebrating.

  She did not need to physically be there when I was moving around the facility, but she usually appeared when she wanted to speak, and I appreciated that. I felt a lot better when I could see who I was speaking to and she knew that. It was a small gesture on her part, but it made me feel more comfortable with the whole ‘AI in your head’ thing.

  “Did you enjoy your shower, Grayson?”

  “Yes, it felt nice to wash all that crap off. Helped calm me down some. It was an eventful day,” I said to her as we reached the top step.

  “I noticed. Your arousal levels have depleted rapidly,” she said in such a casual tone I was almost convinced that was a normal thing to say to someone.

  “Oh yeah? Why don’t you just announce it to everyone then,” I said to her in what was supposed to be sarcasm and reached out to open the door at the top of the stairs.

  With a quiet pop, Becca disappeared. She was pnning something, and I walked right into it. I had been bamboozled. Pyed for a fool. She set me up, and I made it easy. I hesitated to open the door and stood there waiting for whatever she would do next.

  BING-DONG

  That was the announcement noise when something was to be broadcast to everyone in the facility. A pit formed in my gut in an instant. She wouldn’t. No, she definitely would.

  Using the speakers scattered around every single room of the facility, I heard Becca speak.

  “Good afternoon, everyone. Grayson has requested that I let you all know that following his twenty-four minute and 14 second shower, his arousal levels are now depleted.”

  I could hear the remaining people in the facility erupt in cheers. Oh, it's on now, robot. I would have my revenge.