Finally at the apartment

"Garth...I think it's gone."

"Huh?"

"The drone that was searching for us. It's moved on."

He stopped thinking about what he would love to do with the gorgeous android in front of him and listened outside the door again. The whirling of the machine that he'd heard before was indeed gone. The Walker was looking at the door too, but he knew that she could see through it, so he was confident the machine wasn't on the otherside when he pushed it open and peeked outside.

She was right, which wasn't a surprise. He looked up the tunnel, in the direction that the pair had come from, and saw the done hovering along, as it's scope searched one side and then swung around to observe the other. Since they were in the clear, he stepped out of the closet. It felt great to be free and he stretched himself out, but part of him missed the pleasant sensation of having the android's warm body pressed up against his. In the seconds before the android stepped out behind him, he adjusted himself inside his latex bodysuit to make his hard dick less obvious.

"It's not far from here," he told her as he bent down to get his flashlight.

Just around the corner and a little further along, they came to another platform. Garth helped her up off the railway, and then pulled himself up afterwards. He found another disused vending machine and placed his torch inside to be used by himself or whoever else traversed the rails to escape the eyes of the government. It was small gesture that everyone did to help out their kindred rebels. Although Garth didn't count himself as one of those, he still made use of their tactics and supplies, so he followed their rules out of respect.

The exit to this station was boarded up just like the one they'd entered, but likewise had been previously pried open and the chain cut so that anyone could come and go as they liked. Garth led his android back out to the surface, where the bright sun made him recoil after the time spent in the dark underground tunnels. He noticed that she didn't flinch. Her eyes instantaneously re-calibrated to adjust to the new brightness. And still she saw nothing wrong with this. As far as she was concerned, she was an augmented human.

It was a short walk to Emily's old apartment building, but it was a long walk up the stairs, although thankfully Emily lived on floor 23, so Garth made it with only two short breaks. Every time he had to stop, the Android watched him with a kind of bemused smile on her face. Was she teasing him? Or mocking him? Either way it wasn't something a Walker should be programmed to do. When they reached the 23rd floor, and found Emily's apartment, Garth used a blank keycard already chipped with Emily's entry details to unlock her door.

Kyle Rook was waiting for them inside. After his ex-girlfriend and her friends had gone off the grid to combat the government more effective, Kyle was the only living person Garth had contact with outside of his work. They'd met through Emily's group, but Kyle had always enjoyed the idea of rebelling more than the act of rebelling itself. So, just like Garth, he'd stayed behind. He was slightly taller than Garth, with darker hair, blue eyes and an athletic build.

"Whoa, nice 'droid, buddy," Kyle exclaimed when he saw her walk in. "Was this the emergency? You just wanted to show off?"

"Not exactly." He looked around at his android. "Make yourself comfortable, I just gotta talk to my friend for a bit."

"And then he'll help me with my memories?" she reminded him.

"Right," Garth agreed noncommittally as he led Kyle into the kitchen area of the apartment unit.

"Something isn't right. I uploaded the behavior modification, and now she thinks she's human. And she has thoughts and feelings, the whole humanity premium gold package," Garth explained in hushed tones. "I don't know if it's a glitch because of something I did but I created a true artificial intelligence."

"Bullshit," Kyle said with a laugh.

"It's true. I knew you wouldn't believe me, but I swear I'm telling the truth. When I booted her up for the first time, she screamed. I tried to shut her down and she wouldn't let me touch her. I had to talk her down. Have you ever heard of a machine needing to be talked into listening to its owner? And you heard her just now, talking about her memories. She's straight out of the factory, so she's a blank slate, but she thinks she just has some kind of amnesia."

"But she's still following protocol, right?"

Garth frowned. "What do you mean?"

"When she woke up scared, she didn't try to fight you, right? She just screamed and evaded contact. That's totally within the parameters of the Walker flight reaction to danger, even if the screaming itself is atypical. And she's still following orders. Whatever you tell her to do, she does, yeah? Those independent thoughts and feelings are an illusion, because she's not acting independently."

"Only because I made her trust me. And if she thinks there's something wrong, then why hasn't she requested a recall?"

"Because she doesn't think anything is wrong. The code has tricked her into viewing this as a human problem with a human solution."

"Test her yourself and you'll see." Garth challenged him. "Any time I've tried to make her understand what she is, like when she was using night vision, she ended up believing that she was just a human with cybernetic enhancements. This is beyond a simple malfunction, but if you ask her something yourself, then you'll see that."

"Alright." Kyle grinned and walked over to the main living area where she sat on the sofa with her legs crossed.

She looked around herself with disgust. The apartment was nearly as dirty as the underground tunnels. Since Garth spent most of his time here rather than at his own apartment, the living area was a mess of used food cartons, unwashed clothes and bits and pieces of junk lying around that he was modifying or repairing. The only thing missing was the rat carcasses. So, she was quite glad of the distraction when Kyle approached.

"Hey, beautiful, I hear you're having trouble remembering things." Kyle said. "What about your name, do you remember that?"

The android shook her head.

"Well, we can't keep calling you nothing, so how about, for now, you pick a name for yourself? Any name you want. It's your choice."