That’s too heavy for her.Atlas cleared his throat. “. . . Anna.”
“I won’t bother anyone out here.” More tears had formed and were starting to fall on the box top. Her voice was thick. “I don’t want to go back to being watched all the time.”
He took a step forward. “You’re crying.”
“Yeah.” She hastily wiped her face and the drop that had fallen on the box top. “Sorry.”
Atlas tracked the tear tracks still on her cheeks. The tears reminded him so strongly of Clara that he turned away.Clara cried over silly things. She did it to manipulate me.He very rarely got angry, but a familiar bite began to form. A particular heat.Why?Why were these humans turning down their care?Yes it is invasive, but I have seen the scans. I know how she lived before. Isthere something wrong with her mind? Anna is safe, finally.And Zero, with his brothers, and all the ones that played music for her.Maybe she is not used to ever having help?They were trying.Yes, there’s Stella, but even her group is trying to figure it out—not to make Anna suffer, but to make things better overall.
And what was Anna’s contribution? She’d allowed the medical tests, but now wanted to leave? Was she using them as well? Was this a different form of manipulation?
He watched her, gigantic stomach in front, pushing a box with her hair disheveled around her head. Whatever it was, it didn’t make sense. No movies ever involved a pregnant woman choosing to struggle like this.
“How you lived before was not adequate,” Atlas bit out. “You didn’t even have any medical care for your baby before you met me. You’re not thinking logically.”
“Well, I’m not an android.” She put her hands on her hips. “Besides, I didn’t ask for any of this!”
Atlas clenched his jaw. “You are eight months pregnant, Anna. I saw you over the monitors, struggling. You’re doing it now. Look at you, moving these boxes. You’re being reckless with your health.”
Atlas regretted his words immediately.Too sharp.
Hurt ran across her face. “The monitors. That drone.” Her hands slightly shook, but her voice was firm. “Right. Everyone is having fun watching the pregnant human sweat. Just like those television programs. Well, fine.” Then louder, she added, “Fine. If you’re not going to ask, then I will. I don’t want to live there.” She held a hand out, pointing at the storage room’s ceiling. “They can ship me back to Earth then if they don’t like me. I’ll figure it out. Put me down in a different town.”
Atlas sharply inhaled.Anna.The merethought of her, hungry, back in that wasteland . . . “You’re not going back to Earth.”
Her frame was shaking. “Why not? At least there I know I can work hard and figure things out for myself.”
“It’s dangerous.”
Anna took a small step forward. “Well, here is too safe. I’m not . . .” Her lip curled. “A pet. I don’t want to be a burden here. I can maybe work in one of the factories like you do. Give me a shift or something. I don’t want to sit here doing nothing. I’m not like the humans you raised here.”
She would work? A pet?Atlas frowned. His body boiled as his processors calculated, growing hot. He pushed his sweater sleeves up.
“I know they listen to you. Please?” Her voice cracked. “I’m not going to be put in a box like those other humans. I don’t want to live like that. That’s not living, Atlas.”
“You were there for barely two days.”
She reached for his hand again with her calloused one. “Please?”
Atlas scanned her face. “But Anna . . .”
“Do you think they will let me stay here?” Her eyes widened. “They’re not gonna drag me back, are they? I don’t want to live there. In a cage.”
“It’s not a cage.” His voice was heated. Cautious. “They want to take care of you.”
“No,” She whispered, “they want to live for me.”
The words struck him. Thoughts of the neurochip surfaced.Is that really what is happening?All the discussions about what was best, everyone examining her actions from every angle came to him.She must sense it too. He whispered, more to himself, “They want to live for you?”
She ignored his echo and pushed the box toward him until it hit his legs. “Let me show you how this can be. I’ll move these boxes, make some space.” Quickly she walked to the window, pointing to the cows. “Maybe I can work out a deal. I can take care of the animals as a way of helping out in return for living here?”
Atlas didn’t respond. Endlessly, endlessly, his processors spun. Calculating.She would really work? Go back to Earth?
Silence stretched. Anna's face closed off. “Nevermind. Can you step aside?” She bent back over to push the boxes. “You’re in the way.”
I’m in the way.The determined look in her eyes told him she meant it in more ways than just in the way of a box. She was not ordering him to contribute or fix anything. Step aside. He didn’t move. Instead he looked down at her, pulling himself all the wayup to his six-foot height. “You’d really go back to Earth? It is beautiful here though, right? You just told me so a few days ago.”
She crouched down by the box. “If I’m gonna be treated like that . . . like the cows in the pasture, monitored like that, then yes. Take me back. I’ll find a better spot out in the desert like Nora did, or in a different town.”
