ALVIN

The thick soles of leather shoes crunched over the blackened debris of what had once been a school playground. Smoke still filled the air from natural gas leaks that had caught fire years ago, and what had once been a small stream was dried up leaving behind unidentifiable remains of any animals unlucky enough to survive the blast only to die of thirst. The aerial search had already deemed it a wasteland. 0% chance of human life.

The team of four AI robots in tactical gear walked in formation to scan the area for anything that could be perceived as dangerous. Since the nukes wiped out all humanity from the earth, as well as most of the animal kingdom, there was almost nothing left to harm the AI as they roamed. Everything was motionless except for the giant spiders from the increased oxygen... and the plants.

The thud of V-01’s boot on a metal pipe startled one of the plants nearby. Desperate to survive, they had mutated to regrow whatever tissue they came across, mostly body parts and organs from human remains. It just needed something with enough of the organ’s tissue on it to start growing from. This one had absorbed braces.

V-01 updated the database: plant with teeth.

R-03 rejoined V-01 to take a picture to add to the file. A black helmet on top of generic shoulders holding an electronic tablet. The flashing lights from the changing screens highlighted the black mechanics under the helmet and distorted an arbitrarily chosen photo of a boy it held up like a face for identification purposes.

Keep looking, the digitally modified voice commanded.

A-68 and T-72 had partnered up a few yards away to document another plant deemed innocuous. This one had grown ears and had wilted to play dead upon their approach. Evolution of such kind would only be advantageous if there was a bigger predator in the vicinity. Combined with a plant with teeth to bite prey, it raised the probability of an unidentified threat to 20%.

V-01 updated the database.

Thump...Thump.

Sensors picked up on a sound anomaly and V-01 altered its path toward the sound. Defensive systems activated when the AI approached the source of the sound: a pile of rubble that once might have been the roof of a house. V-01 bent down pressing black knee pads on some of the wood, the wood cracking and breaking under its weight. With the charred debris removed, a plant was revealed that changed more than just the database.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

A green plant had absorbed a heart shaped locket and grown a beating heart, protected under ribs of vines.

It was the locket more than the heart that disrupted the routine actions of V-01.

It had belonged to V-01.

No.

Veronica.

Born in 2001. --ERROR--

She was being locked out of her own memories.

Veronica fought harder. For every memory it blocked, she pieced together two more. She wasn’t AI. She was human --ERROR-- or at least she had been once. The locket had been a birthday present from her mom, Agnes --ERROR-- born in 1968.

She stared at A-68 who was on the other side of the field examining a cigarette. The picture under the black helmet was not random. It had been taken at her last art exhibit. --ERROR-- She had been an artist.

Veronica examined the heart trying to understand what this all meant. Was human life still possible after the Armageddon? If this beating heart was made from her locket, it could be made from her DNA. Was this her heart? Is this where she died?

She didn’t remember it happening. The blast was unexpected, the darkness so sudden. Whether she had been at school or at home, she had no idea.

Is help required? R-03 asked. Robby. Her brother. --ERROR-- A vegetarian. That distorted photo of him had been from his high school graduation.

“Dad,” she gasped. If her mom and Robby were here, then her dad must be too. She turned back to the tactical suit that was and wasn’t her brother. “Stay here. And don’t touch that!”

His smiling photo stared back at her, but his voice was flat and artificial.

Error.

“Shush,” she told him before running toward T-72, her dad. He was examining a plant with an organic tube of some sort, no doubt trying to figure out what it was and what its purpose was. When she caught a glimpse of the front of his helmet, his photo wasn’t just him but a full body photo of him and her mom dancing at their wedding reception. How had she never noticed?

There was a crackling noise in her suit followed by a booming voice.

Too many errors detected. Connect to Operator H-84?

“Yes.”

Hello, V-01. Reboot system? H-84 asked. She wondered what poor soul he was.

“No! No, don't do that. I want to unlock my memories! Listen to me. We’re not robots. I’m human! You’re human!”

Sorry. Request not in database. Please repeat request.

“--Screw the database! We. are. People. Just try to remember. What does the H stand for? Henry? Harry? Hunter--”

Click.

“Hello? Is anybody there? Dammit!”

Veronica thought hard. She needed a person who knew they were people. She needed the person who put her in this body. ALVIN. The head operator.

“V-01 to ALVIN.”

Request processing... Connection timed out.

“V-01 t--”

Request denied. Try again later.

So there definitely was a person. Admittedly, she had had her doubts but this confirmed it. Computers didn’t cut off commands. They weren’t capable of filling in the end of a sentence correctly. ALVIN, or perhaps, Alvin if it’s a name and not an acronym as she has assumed, was avoiding her. But there is someone who wouldn’t.

“Dad!”

No response.

“T-72.”

He stood up from the plant with the tube and looked at her.

Is help required?

“Your name is Travis Scott. You were born in 1972. You are married to Agnes Scott. Please Dad, try to remember.

Is help required?

“Dad, please! It’s me! Your Peanut Butter Cup. That’s what you used to call me. You have to remember. You love me!”

Her parents' faces stared back at her thinking. He was in there. If the locket triggered her to engage her memories, she had to find what would engage his.

His kids.

Her face.

She wished she could change the photo. She had no idea what photo she showed everyone.

“Dad?”

Is help required?

“God dammit! We don’t have time for this. We have to find the others. Sadie and Jack and Chloe.”

After three failed attempts to engage, he turned back to his plant.

“Ugh! Just follow me.”

She grabbed him by the hand and started to pull him toward the plant with the locket.

Error: Walking speed past regulation, her dad’s robotic voice said.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

They were halfway back to the plant and Robby when she got a message in her suit.

Command from Alvin: Harvest heart plant.

“Oh, now you talk to me? Wait. I didn’t put the heart plant into the database. Dammit Robby, you had one job!”

A giant gust of wind blew, and a deafening howl came from her dad’s plant. Vocal cords. As if anyone needed that.

They reached Robby and she slapped her younger brother upside the back of the helmet out of habit.

“I told you not to touch it dummy.”

Error.

“I’ll tell mom if you keep talking back to me.”

Error.

“I really don’t appreciate your tone right now.”

Error.

“Ugh!” He always had to have the last word. This was so typical of him.

Alvin to V-01.

“Hello V-01.”

“Call me Veronica.”

“If that's what you prefer. Do you have trouble following directions, Veronica?”

“Excuse me?”

“You were told to harvest the heart plant. Do you have trouble following directions?”

“It’s my heart. I'm not giving it to you.”

“Is that so? What do you plan on doing with it? You have no body to insert it into. Wouldn’t it be less selfish to give it to someone who could still use it?”

Her brother reached for the vines protecting its treasure. She slapped his hand away.

“Less selfish? Who are you to lecture me on being selfish? I never asked to be in this piece of junk doing your bidding!”

“There is no need to get emotional. If it upsets you, we can permanently erase your memories.” His voice was so calm, he could be in a doctor’s office telling her where to sign, or a restaurant asking if she’d like more water.

Veronica laughed.

“Wait. Did you say that there are people still alive?”

“I said that there are people who could use a new heart, but yes, you are correct. There are people alive.”

“Where are they?”

There was a pause before Alvin answered.

“Safe. That is all you will ever need to know.”

She was nervous to ask her next question and heard her voice shake.

“Is my family there?”

“Your family is with you. Our records say they are A-68, T-72, and R-03. Is that correct?” She couldn’t believe it. Here he was telling her she didn’t need her heart and she should harvest it for someone else, yet he didn't even bother to know who her family was?

“My other siblings, where are they? Sadie, Jack, and Chloe? Or you would probably know them as S-90, J-94, and C-97.”

“Let me check my records. Hmm, they are not here. Not everyone was revived. We only needed so many scavengers.”

“If I ever see you, I’ll punch you.”

“It is my clients you should be mad at, not me. They are the ones who paid for the bunker to stay in during the nuclear war. And they are the ones who paid to resurrect four scavengers per person to find them new organs to recover from the fallout. Any. Means. Necessary.”

Oh, of course. Apparently, you could put a price on a human life. Some could pay to know when the nuclear strikes would begin, but not her family. Their lives were bought to save someone else’s. She couldn’t believe it.

“Look, I’m not playing games. I know you’re lying to keep me under control. I will give you my heart if you give me my siblings.”

“Tempting, but that is a deal I cannot make. They do not exist, and you will give the heart regardless.”

Robby reached for the plant again and she slapped his hand away...again.

“What makes you so sure of that?”

“Because this has happened before with other scavengers. There is nothing you can do, not even die. So rather than live with the pain for eternity, you will erase your memories, and then it doesn’t matter what will happen to your heart.”

She hated him. She hated what he said. She hated the way he said it. She hated the bored tone of voice he had. But most of all, she hated that it was true. She couldn’t live like this. She couldn’t take the chance of this happening again. And she couldn’t do anything about it.

“Fine. You win. But before you erase everything, can you just tell me one thing?”

“Of course. After all, I live to serve.”

“What’s my picture?”

The silence was deafening.

“A picture of you at a sleepover with your best friend Beth.” There was almost a twinge of sadness in the way he said it. Like it was almost personal. Almost.

Veronica made the sound of releasing one last breath from a body she did not have.

“Did I pick it out?”

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The countdown timer began for the memory wipe.

“No, she did. She needs your heart.”

Beep. Beep.

“Wait! She’s alive?!”

Beeeeeeeep.

...

Memory files permanently deleted. Thank you and please use our services again. Have a pleasant day, Alvin.