They make it to the street

He led her out of the apartment and let the sliding door self lock behind them. Holding her hand, he pulled her down the hallway towards the stairs. He was not looking forward to walking down all 40 flights but if he took the elevator, he'd be trapped with no way out. And that's if the elevator was functioning. Half the year it was out of service, and took forever to fix, because any suggestion that the government approved building wasn't up to maintenance was considered misinformation.

All the city apartment blocks were the same. 40 floors of 15 exactly uniform apartments, aside from the ground floor and storage basements, peppered throughout the city. Some were family blocks, which only allowed 10 slightly larger but aesthetically similar apartments per floor, but from the outside they looked exactly the same. Massive monoliths of concrete and glass, funded by the government and built by Swan Industries.

On every floor they passed by the Swan Industries logo, a red rhombus with a white origami swan centered with the floor number printed directly below. But it felt like the numbers were taunting him, as he hurried down the metal steps, listening to his feet clang against every one, only to see the numbers slowly tick down 36, 35, 34. He stopped at 32 to catch his second wind.

"You're really unfit," she said brightly. "I'm not even out of breath."

That's because you don't have breath, he wanted to say but decided to save his. Although that wasn't strictly true. Androids were designed to function identically to humans in appearance so that, just like the apartment buildings, no one would know the differences on the inside. So as he watched her, he could actually notice her chest rising and falling as if she were taking deep breaths, making her medium sized breasts strain against the latex body suit just like a real girl. The difference was she didn't need it to live though, it was simply part of her cooling process.

After a minute, they carried on, hurrying although Garth tried to pace himself so that he didn't need to stop again too soon. They had another rest at level 20, and then Garth pushed himself to complete the rest all in one go. By the time they reached the ground floor, he was sweating, and nearly wheezing, while the android still seemed unfazed. He wondered if he got her hot enough, could she sweat too?

He peeked around the corner and saw the lobby was clear. By some miracle, the Peace Therapists hadn't descended on their location yet. Keeping an eye out all around him, he took her by the hand again and led her out onto the street and tried to figure out his options for getting to Emily's apartment.

The fastest way to travel was by far the Tubes. Cylindrical booths that could be found on street corners which could disintegrate a person and reassemble them in the booth of their choosing in a few seconds flat. But they only allowed organic material, so his Android companion was a no go. Putting her in one would be like tinfoil in a microwave. Besides, they have roughly the same reliability as an elevator, and when a Tube stopped working, you lost more than a few hours just stuck inside.

The most reliable way to cross town was by bus. Buses ran every fifteen minutes, and were surprisingly punctual. But the catch was that only certified citizens could use them, and everyone, man, woman or robot was scanned as they boarded. This was a problem because Garth wanted to stay off the radar, but worse, because she wasn't registered, she would be flagged immediately. Registration was supposed to be completed upon start up, to ensure full warranty protection, but since Garth definitely voided that warranty by opening her up, that hadn't really concerned him at the time.

"I'm not registered?" She asked when he explained that they couldn't take the bus. "You make it sound like I'm a ****."

"More like an appliance." He mumbled.