How to Date an Android

Chapter 4, revised & improved

"I heard rumors some foreign plants overseas aren't following it though. What do you think about that?" I asked him.

He shrugged, "I don't know man. It's just I think people are lashing out. If people want to do evil, they'll find a way."

"Maybe. The surge in illegals trying to get inside the country again does indicate that the rumors of foreign factories only using robots could be possible?" I said aloud.

"I don't see those rioters as being any one demographic. They look like an equal mix of just about everyone under the sun," he said pointing to the feed.

"Well that's just here in town. I don't like that," I frowned.

"You think that's bad? It's everywhere dude. Just check this out," he flicked a button.

Sure enough there were at least seven other states that also had protesters rioting at the same time. Ferguson wasn't a surprise since they'd become the riot capital of the world running straight for over three decades and had lost their utilities several times because of it, and had become a haven for criminals in the last thirty years. It was like the new thing among young people to brag that you lived in Ferguson for at least 6 months.

But Atlanta, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, Henderson, Nevada, and Trenton, New Jersey surprised me since they didn't typically have social unrest problems breakout in outright violence. The Los Angeles feeds were showing not only riots, but fires raging as people were setting fire to stores, bashing cars to pieces and smashing glass everywhere and it was all visible from the air. They tried to throw and shoot stuff at the news hover copter too but that didn't work out so well.

"Damn!" Matt exclaimed.

"Maybe I should lock up and close the shop just in case," I said nervously. Ten miles from here...seriously? Who would have thought it could happen. Sometimes you think that bad stuff will only happen to the other guy who lives with risky behavior...

What the hell, I kept thinking while Matt and I stayed glued to the video news feeds. We both carried baseball bats around just in case, since the riots were pretty much just 'down the street a ways'.

I'd long ago learned trusting people too much wasn't a good idea. So I had a nice heavy iron bar and cinder block fence with a gate around the property. Right now that was my solace and peace, knowing it was tall enough to not attract any attention.

I kept it chained shut at night with a good solid steel thick cable, which Matt hated. But we'd already had a talk about cheap rent means no damage to the property and no night visitors as part of its conditions. He'd complained about it almost daily a couple years ago, until I suggested he go live somewhere else.

Then he shut up right away.

Things had been so quiet lately.

But now we were allied and facing the riots. We ended up sealing up all the windows as best we could and barricading the property. We still looked for new news updates while considering where we could go if the riots came here. I didn't like the idea of leaving with just the shirt off my back without putting up a fight when I already had a good fence up.

"So do you think you'd do it?" he asked.

"Do what? Riot? What's the point?" I said wondering what he was thinking.

"No, not rioting. A sexbot," he said using the street term.

"I think you mean android," I said.

"Whatever dude. You can't tell me people aren't thinking it inside their heads. It's therapeutic to have someone sleep with you and too many people want money to sleep with someone instead. When not in public people openly call them sexbots," he said reminding me what I already knew. He seemed anxious to talk about sexbots.