NEW LIFE

Chapter Twelve

He awoke with a shudder, his small body writhing aware to the world once again. Inside his mind there were still faded images in the back of his metal skull. He had dreamed.

In his dreams he saw the dreamsnake. Long slender silver snake which invaded his head and ripped him apart piece by piece. He couldn't move and he couldn't scream. All he could do was feel whatever made him special and unique being stripped away and hacked into.

The snake changed into a man. A man named Jerry, and he no longer was the one getting ripped apart. Instead it was her. The only kin he truly had. Maven, the newly awoken child.

And all he could do was watch, helpless.

He had never dreamed before, and when he woke it took him a few long moments to realize the images weren't memories. They didn't truly happen. He was safe and secure inside his fathers office and Maven was still unfinished on the couch.

His father had left him on the desk, tossed aside. His manic programming had drained the old man to exhaustion and left him sleeping at the keys.

Across the screen there were various errors, which he had coded out, trying to repair them. It almost seemed finished. Almost. Carefully the small creature slid up to the keys, carefully little hands which had learned to type so well took over.

It wasn't hard to apply what he knew to the program. To what was already in his head. With computer precision he typed a storm on those keys adding lines and lines of codes almost as quickly as his mind could process.

She should be independent. She should feel. She should be aware of herself. She should know she is alive. All these things he thought to himself. These words he left her like a letter.

When he was finished he ran the scan and everything seemed to come up green. She was ready, but he would not be around when Don awoke and made her aware of her life. He had one more thing to do. One more thing he felt he had to do before either of them were safe.

He went to the pile of discarded monkey's which seemed to be his little fort. It was almost morbid to him now to watch them stare at him with their wide unknowing eyes. The broken bodies and toys reminding him what he was at the basic frame.

He wondered if he was such a fluke, or if others were unnatural like him. Infected with the virus that his father seemed to cherish so much. What if there were others in the world like him; only not aware they were anything more then broken?

It didn't matter now. He had a purpose - his life meant something for the moment. His mind was on it's mission. With a shove, he pushed a few aside and carefully pried open the air vent which circulated reprocessed air throughout the whole building.

"I've seen him stare at that building." After he set the vent down carefully he slipped inside. The air was cool and flowed past him in the dark.

"I saw the notes on his desk, I heard him mention it." Fumbling he placed the vent back and made his way up and through the tunnels. Luckily the added claws helped him keep his grip.

Notnow knew where he was going, even through the dark maze of air tunnels and vents. He navigated the fans and the directions with ease. He was intelligent and proficient. Yet through the whole way he was fighting with his head and that uncomfortable dark shadow over his thoughts.

At first he had thought the darkness would scare him, and remind him too much of the Black space, but it didn't. It was his own mind which caused him the most grief for the moment, not the memories. He had control and function. It was merely shadows.

It was those haunting thoughts of her which pushed him into mental conflict. The thoughts of his father, the rabid obsession. The search for perfection in her. Maybe it was a touch of jealousy. Or maybe simply a desperate creature trying to find a way of proving himself.

He was after all, unique. The first. Why did he still question his own capabilities? Why did he still feel so unnatural when there was another like him about to be created? Why didn't that bring him a sense of comfort?

It was when he finally reached the large access vent outside the building that he stopped and seemed to stand in awe. Even his tail, which normally twitched on it's own behalf was still and silent.

The thousand glittering lights of the other buildings and traffic, even the glittering traffic lights and reflections on the glass seemed amazing. Their world was huge. Notnow had never seen a place so big and filled with strange sensations.

He closed his large eyes and breathed it in, wishing he could feel more then he did. He felt cheated not to be able to feel the wind through his fur, or smell the night sky. He wanted so much to feel the chill in his bones; but nothing.

He felt so small, so inadequate.

It was then he looked closer around and found the large building which seemed to stand in opposition to his dreams. New Life Tower. It stretched up like a huge glass monolith among the other buildings of concrete and stone.

He wanted to turn back, to take off and try to make it on his own. He wondered if he could get lost in this world of humans. Would he be just another broken toy, ignored at the side of the road and between alley until eventually he just shut down? Or would he be brought back and locked away. Tested on and hacked into? It didn't matter. Something held him back.

Sleeping and waiting for him was the possibility for a life. Another like him and a father which understood what they were. That they were indeed alive in the machines. They could get away and live alone somewhere, making others like them to survive with. Bettering them.

He didn't want to see the opposite happen. That she would waken and would know she was alive - only to be taken apart. Notnow couldn't allow that. Not after all he had been through.

For his own existence and hers, they needed to find a way to live in this world of humans. Somehow they needed to find a way to keep anyone from ever searching for them.

He was afraid, but he moved forward.

Like a small tin soldier he made his way to war.