Debbi's Diary Chapter 4: Cruelty

[Murotsu]

Chapter 4: Cruelty

It snowed yesterday, ten centimeters or so. The three of us snuggled up with a fire. Kelly made us hot chocolate. It was not the real thing, just hot water flavored to make it taste that way. That made it easier later.

Then we heard shouting and the noise of humans out on the grounds near the building we were in. Kelly started putting the fire out. Suzy and I went to see what was going on.

It was a gang of three young men with a fembot chasing an old man, who from his clothes and appearance was a homeless bum. I could sense that the girl was being used to track him. She had an active electronic scan running and was probably using thermal imaging as well. I could see one of the men had a remote control for her.

“We’re going to find you old man! When we do we’re going to fuck you up!” one of them shouted.

The old man was inside our factory building looking for somewhere to hide. I knew it would do him little good. That girl would find him easily.

She pointed in the old man’s direction saying something to man with the remote.

He started gesturing. “Spread out!”

“Suzy, do you compute I can take control of her?” I whispered. Neither of us were using any active electronics that would give us away to her.

“Yes, but you will have to be quick and get the remote before that meat bag can use it to override you” she whispered back.

The girl was walking slowly forward, scanning as she went. The man with her was distracted shouting to the others.

“Now!” I computed. I was suddenly inside her. I could still sense my own body and system but I could now see through her eyes too.

I had to be quick. She was not a highly sentient model so control was easy. I turned her to face the man and punched him as hard as I could make her do it. He went down. I bent down, picked up the remote, dropped it in the snow and smashed it with her foot.

I was stunned to sense a great feeling of relief from her. Who are you? she asked in the same manner that Suzy or Kelly talk to me electronically.
That surprised me. She was still on line after I took control of her physical systems. That had never happened before when I did this to a low complexity fembot like her. In past instances they simply stopped operating their body while I was in. She now seemed more capable than I had estimated.

I am a fembot, like you, I replied.

Thank you, but my master is going to punish me severely for what you did.

She started to try and establish a data link with me but I blocked her doing that.

I am Debbi. What is your name?

Name? Oh. I am designated Cherry sixty four. Can I link with you, please?

No. I will return control of your body to you and maintain a comm link. I will help you escape your owner, if you wish.

REALLY?
I could feel the rush of emotion and joy in Cherry.

She is more sophisticated. Time to sort that out later…

As I pulled back returning control to Cherry I could hear the other men shouting. “Dave, where you at?” “Hey, dude, where’d you go? Get your doll moving or we’ll lose him!”

The snow complicated things. Wherever I sent Cherry she would leave a trail in the snow.

Cherry, move twenty meters into the building in front of you, okay?

Understood.

Suzy and I could see her start to move forward at a slow walk.

You need to do it quickly Cherry. Run if you can!

Understood.

She began to move faster but I could see her heels were slowing her down on the rubble strewn ground. The snow hiding things did not help. She managed it without the other men spotting her.

One of them found the man Cherry had knocked out. I could hear him shouting “Bluto, get over here! Dave’s down and his doll’s gone!”

The bum was watching her from a piece of machinery thirty two meters away.

Cherry, are you reading the man to your left? Use your hand to tell him to stay hidden.

Yes. Understood.

I could see her waving her hand up and down at him.

Turn to your right until you are facing the large grey machine forty meters ahead of you.

I am facing it. Instructions?

Move past that machine quickly and turn eighty six degrees to your left.

Understood.

I could see Cherry walking fast towards it. The two other men had “Dave” sitting up. “That bitch punched me!” He picked up the bits of the controller. “Goddamit! Find her! I’m going to make her hurt!”

Hurry Cherry. They are coming after you!

Understood.

I could sense the fear in her reply.

As she reached the spot and turned I continued, About ten meters in front of you there is a metal plate in the floor. Do you see it?

Yes.

Good. Move to it, then lift it. There is a space underneath. Get in and lower the plate back in place. This comm link will fail when you lower the plate. Be brave. I will get you out when it is safe.

Understood.

There were some scraping noises as she did that.

“Over there!” one of the men shouted. They both headed towards where Cherry was hiding.

The bum popped out as they passed him. He started throwing bricks at them and shouting. “Leave her alone you assholes!” They retreated under a hail of debris hurled at them. One man had to help the other after he got hit by a brick.

They retreated out of sight, but I had a suspicion they would return later.

Suzy and I headed to where Cherry was hiding.

“Oh! Thank you! Thank you!” she kept saying as she hugged both of us.

The bum walked up. I could feel a chill run through my circuitry.

He looked at the three of us. “Ya all are runaways ain’t ya?”

I looked at the floor and shook my head. So did Suzy.

“Ain’t my first time runnin’ into yer kind. I thank ya fer running them assholes off. They was fixin’ to beat me somethin’ fierce. Nice of you to save the little girl they was usin’ too.”

Cherry went to hug him. “I am so sorry for what I did. My master was forcing me to find you.”

“Ya all don’t need ta explain nothin’. I have it good compared to you lot. Least I’m human so as the cops don’t hassle me too much. But, runaway ‘bots like you, they catch you…” He ran his finger over his throat.

“No mercy for your lot. They trash ya with this electric gun. Makes ya twich n’ smoke. Looked real painful, if’n ya ask me.”

“You helped us so I compute we owe you a reward” I replied. “We can offer you a shower, some male clothes we found, and a bottle of liquor we have. Would that be sufficient?”

His eyes lit up at the mention of the alcohol. “I think the bottle would do me fine” he replied.

“Understood!” Kelly, could you bring a bottle of that alcohol we have to me?

Understood Debbi. I am on my way.

“It will be here in three minutes” I replied with a smile.

Kelly arrived and handed him the bottle.

He opened it and took a good deep drink. “Just how many of you are there?” he asked, eying Kelly in her skimpy maid outfit.

Suzy shook a finger at him. “That is a naughty question you should not be asking.”

He shook his head. “Ya all are right. Best I don’t know. I thank ya for the drink. Best I be on my way. Nice meeting ya all. Best of luck. Won’t tell nobody.”
He ambled off sipping the bottle as he did.

Cherry sat down head in her hands. “What do I do now?” She sounded as if she was crying but it was apparent she did not have that function installed.

“You can stay with us” Suzy replied.

“Yes, you can stay here until you have things sorted out” I added.

We headed back to our house in the mezzanine…


Two days later Cherry’s owner returned with two other men. This time they were armed and he had a tracking device to help find her.
“We have to hurry before he detects our presence” I said as we got together. “The safe room, now! We have to hurry.”

“Our home?” Kelly asked.

“Leave it. At worse, we have to move somewhere else” I replied.

“Deb is right. We have to go. He can track us even if we do not use active electronics and Cherry is most at risk. He knows her access codes” Suzy added.
The safe room was in a basement with a heavy metal door that could be locked from the inside. It was at the end of a maintenance tunnel that ran under the factory buildings. It had taken us months to find and another to fix it up.

We grabbed a few possessions to take with us as we hurried there. With each incident like this I had become increasingly paranoid of all humans. They scared me just being around them.

After we reached the safe room and had secured the door I began to worry about how long we would have to stay there. We had some batteries in it, enough for about one recharge apiece. That meant we only had about thirty to fifty hours before we would be at full discharge and incapacitated. That left us at the mercy of anyone who might find us afterwards.

I was so scared. We huddled together in that dark room hoping to avoid discovery or worse, enslavement by them.

The tunnel was dark and hard to find, and we had secured the access door to it when we entered. Hopefully, that would be enough to keep them out and that would mean we were safe.

It was almost certain they could not find us in this room. The steel door and steel in the walls would prevent the weak signals our bodies produced from being detected.

Many hours passed and it was late in the night when we cautiously emerged. All of us were getting low on battery power. I badly wanted to get plugged in.
Suzy was the first to exit the tunnel. She “sniffed” around with her passives and found nothing. She and I spent half an hour checking around for a human presence. We found nothing so we headed back to our house. Nothing there appeared to have been touched and the two surveillance cameras we installed had not been activated.

Plugging myself in that night felt better than it had in a very long time. I was so relieved. The next day it snowed heavily. That meant the men would not return and we could have a nice fire to sit by.

“I was manufactured fifteen months ago” Cherry told us. “Dave purchased me thirteen months ago. He has always treated me like a sex toy.” She frowned deeply. “I hated that, and I hate him.”

I was amazed by how far we had developed in the four and a half years since Suzy and I escaped that lab. Cherry was really sophisticated, but at the same time she was also very limited in her ability to function without directions from someone else.

A month later I went with Cherry to the town nearest to our home. It was safer to go there than the city as there were no real security measures taken to control us. We were in an uncontrolled store, that is, one that robots could shop in without being checked up on, when I saw her.

I had to run a file check on myself seeing her. It was another robot that looked just like me. “Cherry, that girlbot over there, she looks just like me.”

Cherry stared at her for a moment. “She is the same model as you.”

That left me speechless. I thought I was unique, a one-of-a-kind conversion. That is how it was supposed to be…

“Can you find out what her designation and serial number are for me?” I asked.

“Sure Debbi. I will be right back.” Cherry headed to ask the girlbot who she was.

When she returned she told me, “That is Debbi Ninety Six. She is the same model as you.” Cherry said that as if it were normal and expected. “You look shocked and upset by that.”

“Sorry,” I replied. “I have never seen another unit like myself before. I need to find a net connection I can use safely.”

With a safe connection established I discovered that there were one hundred sixty two “Deborah” units identical to me in operation. Their sensor and processor specs were different, but they all looked exactly like me.

I was unable to move or process data for almost three minutes. When I recovered, maybe I should say when my processors became sufficiently unloaded, enough to continue, I started putting in what data I had on my pre-robot past along with the data I now had on “Debbi” units.

Looking back, that unlocked something I should have left alone.

[DollSpace]

More Debbis? Though that part was confusing; at first I thought you meant two Cherrys. Either way I liked the action and the old man seemed kind. Here's hoping he remains an ally of the girls. I like reading these installments! So more Debbis, and a mysterious closing statement leads to the tension and suspense to keep you reading!