P.s. I know not much happens in this other than introductions and a bit of humor but i also needed my first post so that i don't loose my profile
EDIT: I've added the rest of the first chapter to my post, now it actually starts to go in a direction i feel could hopefully hold your intrests. When you read it please feel free to leave ANY comments good or bad knowing that someone is reading my work is great motivation and makes this worth doing. I'm sure any other writer would agree. I'm ver much enjoying this story so far myself and would be excited to see it to its end if your all interested now
.RE-CONSTRUCTED
By: Construct
Chapter 1: Darkness
He awoke in the darkness, which was almost starting to become routine at this point. His mind briefly wandered to the thought of what time it might be, but that was quickly drowned out by the nagging thirst he felt. He raised the bottle of jack that he had fallen asleep with still in his hands to his dry parched lips, and eagerly wrapped them around the end of the bottle. It was then that he fond that the bottle was empty, and he hurled the bottle into the far wall from his chair. The sound of a loud crash filled his head, followed by the sound of glass shards clattering loudly on the floor. It sounded louder than a bomb going off in his head, and he felt a deep ache behind his eyes and temples.
“Ime fur a little air of the og,” he slurred, still drunk as he clumsily got up from his chair. Slowly he made his way to the kitchen from the living room in the dark, not bothering to stop and turn the lights on. Along the way loud crashes rang through the house followed large strings of clumsy, jumbled swearing. Finally after what seemed like an eternity he made it to the fridge. When he opened the door he almost broke it, in his anger, after all the time and pain it took to make it there. The light in the fridge hadn't worked for a long time so he blindly reached in and grasped around until he found the shape he was looking for. He hurriedly removed the cap and brought the bottle filled with sweet nectar to his lips.
His eyes went wide and he spit the contents of the bottle all over the fridge and yelled, “Ketchup?!” He hurled the bottle back into the fridge without returning the cap, “God damn it! Wheres the beer!” He only slightly registered the fact that he was speaking better than when he first awoke. It was then the cell in his pocket rang, he looked at the caller I.d and saw the number and realized it was Mike's work number, so he answered the call.
“Sorry Mike I can't talk right now...” He belched into the phone before he finished, “I have to kill my fridge.”
“John what the hell do you mean, you have to kill....” the phone went dead. That bastard is drunk again! And he's late for work. He was already up from his desk; coat in hand. The guy should be running our security department and the best I could get him is a janitors position. Even if he is probably the most over paid janitor in existence with salary not to far from six digits. And now I gotta go clean up after him like some kind of big baby. John was an ex U.S. Army Ranger, not just that but he was the leader of a black ops squad that carried out classified missions all over the world. The man was highly trained, talented, and now he was a drunk, sullen, shell of a man whom felt he had no purpose in existing. Today was Monday, and with every Monday John was late, but even when he was late he was usually in by now. It was two O'clock. Luckily for Mike his boss liked him and tolerated johns tardiness because when he was there he did his job and didn't nose around. The reason John made so much money was because Dyna-tech was very protective of their secrets. Nothing out-sourced was allowed into research areas without being scanned and checked. And if you didn't work for the company you didn't go past reception or the shipping bay period. Exec's that needed to meet with a client not belonging to the company did so out side the building over lunch or something of that nature, unless someone at the top cleared that person. So even someone like a janitor still made anywhere between seventy to eighty thousand dollars a year. Dyna-tech was smart to buy of their employees silence with money. Conversely of course, if you were caught selling company secrets they didn't hesitate to take the consequences to their fullest extent. Those few times that it did happen, they made sure they made an example of the individual in question. He just couldn't let John ruin a good thing like this.
But this was one of those more frequently occurring bad days, and this needed to stop, not only for johns sake but for the sake of mike's job and reputation. Mike was the only person John even spoke more than two words too any more. Nearly two years before he was still out in the shit, fighting what he always said was the good fight. He used to be proud of himself and what he did, but not anymore. His task force was sent to recover a rogue nuclear device, but something went wrong and the mission nearly failed until he had turned the situation around, and rallied them to success. They ended up recovering the device and only had one casualty. But that was enough to break him, because the one ended up being the girl he had fallen in love with. She had sacrificed her self by putting herself between him and a .50 caliber gun. The enemy was somehow warned of them coming, and even in the cover of darkness they had found them. The enemy had set a trap for them, they knew the time they would be coming, the direction they would be coming from, everything. She only took two shots, but both were too bad to save her life. One she took hit in the main Femoral artery of her right leg and another through the back of her plate carrier vest about an inch to the left of the heart, but because of the caliber of the round fired it still destroyed part of her heart and the surrounding area of the shot itself. He had to hold her in his arms as she died telling him how she had loved him, and it was worth it, if she got too save his life. He didn't agree.
Mike sighed as he reached John's driveway, he had gotten depressed thinking about what had made John this way, on his way there. And seeing the condition of his house and yard didn't lift his mood either. The grass in the yard was at least two feet tall, at least where it wasn't dead and scorched from the sun. Vines grew unchecked up the siding and over the windows, pieces of the gutters hung loosely in the air from what was left of the brackets or the long spikes that also held them in. The roof itself also looked as if it desperately needed to be re-shingled.
Mike frowned, “enough of this he needs to be taken care of whether he likes it or not. And I've got just what he needs whether he wants to take it or not.” Mike knew it wouldn't be as easy as all that, but he was determined to get him out of this woeful state one way or another. He tried knocking for a while but no-one answered so he let him self in. The house was pitch black, none of the lights were on and all the blinds were drawn shut. After turning the lights on he walked into the living room after seeing John's head sticking over the top of the recliner. When he got to the front of the chair he couldn't help but sigh in frustration as he dragged his palm down his face in mixed disgust, frustration. John was covered red flecks, that he was afraid to ask, how they had gotten there. Three toes on one foot were bandaged and the arch of the other foot, as well as one of his hands. Too top it of, all he had on was a tank top and a ratty pair of boxers.
“I told you I had to kill my fridge,” John smiled tiredly.
“Do I even want to go into the kitchen to see?”
“Probably not. Hell I don't even want to. Not exactly one of my prouder moments, lets just say ketchup is not a good substitute for water,” he laughed in his deep full voice. John was still a really good looking guy even with the scar that ran down from his left temple around his eye and mouth down to his chin and the burn on the same side of his neck. Both of which he received from that day. He could have met plenty of other girls and landed them if he tried, but he refused to have any social life. Mike laughed both at johns little joke and the knowledge that he was about to change his life, if he could just get him to let him do so. He didn't even want to know how that ketchup event had happened, but he still found it funny.
“Your late again you know?”
“I'm not late, look how dark it still is.” Mike sighed yet again and walked over to the blinds and yanked them open one by one
“Ok, ok I get it, knock it off!” He yelled as he covered his eyes from harsh sun-lite cascading into the room. He got up stumbled awkwardly up the stairs to go and change in his work cloths and grab a pair of sunglasses for the ride into work. It was about ten minutes later when he came back downstairs and headed right for the door, “come on slug man, lets go.” He said with a smirk on his face
“Slug man!? Your the one I had to come here and bail out cause your late... again,” Mike yelled back.
“Waitin' on you now, c'mon,” this caused mike to sigh loudly once again and throw his hands up in surrender, but when John wasn't looking he let himself smile a little. It wasn't often this side of his best friend made an appearance, and it gave him hope that his plan for him could work. They climbed into the car and made for mike's office, it was only about fifteen minutes away, and then he could hopefully begin his friends road to recovery. That is if he could get him to accept the contract, he had a feeling he was in for a long argument.It wasn't long before they were in Mike's office relaxing in some comfortable leather chairs across from each other at a small table, a glass of water in each of their hands. Although this was Johns fifth glass.
“So what it is you need to talk to me about that we need to be in your office? Am I fired or something?” He rolled his eyes before continuing, “not that I would be surprised.”
“No fish boy your not fired, keep this idiocy up and you will be though,” He said as he watched his buddy glug down another cup of water. John rolled his eyes again.
“Look man I'm hung over, I need water. All kidding aside, what is it you wanted to talk about, I know how it looks man but I'm not gunna do anything crazy... at least not on purpose. I swore to her that I wouldn't waste what she did for me, even if I don't want to” Mike sighed yet again as he pinched his thumb and forefinger on the bridge of his nose in frustration on how to brooch this subject without making him too mad. John simply continued to stare at him waiting for him to begin, he clearly wasn't going to make this easy, not that he had figured he would.
“John, you remember that synth-skin we produced about ten years ago, that I told you about? You've seen how that revolutionized treatment for burn victims and skin graft procedures in general. A synthetic skin that not only looked exactly like to patients real skin but was able to register not only temperature, but touch of various ranges of degrees and it could even allow them to sweat and grow hair just like normal.” John simply nodded still waiting for him to get to the point. He took a drink before continuing, feeling a bit nervous now. “Well all of that was simply a side-effect to a greater goal. Not only is Dyna-tech the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, we are also the largest company in the world period. They have their hands in just about everything and own more company's than you could have ever thought possible. They have ties to military applications all the way down to more wholesome things like dog food. One of the biggest and longest running projects they have been working on is a humanoid, cybernetic AI.”
John's brow creased together in thought, Mike raised his hand before he started to fire off questions, “Please. I'm not done yet. Well that project finished about a week an a half ago, and about two years after they had wanted it finished, but the finished product was worth the wait. I have to warn you that these have been tested and are perfectly safe, I've tested one myself in the final beta stages. The higher ups have given me the go-ahead to select you as one of fifty people to market test the first run of our Synthia line.”
It was then that John got up and went for the door, but when he got to the door he found that it was locked. He grit his teeth as he turned to Mike, “Unlock the door now, or I'll tear the damn thing down.” Mike simply shook his head, “ God damn it mike, I'm not going to sleep with a hunk of metal to replace the person I loved.”
Mike remained calm and kept his face even as he continued, “ Look John I know this is a strange thing for me to ask you, and I'm not saying you have to sleep with her. All I'm asking is that you take her home for a week or two, or maybe even longer if you should change your mind. She will cook, clean, mow the lawn, whatever you ask her to do. If after you have her for those two weeks you don't want her there anymore, call me up and I'll have them pick her up and you will never have to deal with her again. On a side note along with her comes twenty grand to spend on things for her like clothing or going on the town what ever you want to use it for. They want the market testers to be bale to take full advantage of her abilities and we don't want bank accounts to hinder the testing” Mike could see that John still wasn't sold but he had at least calmed down a bit.
“Look man, I just don't think I can do it. I'm not interested in some monotonic obedient slave wandering around my house. I appreciate that your trying to help and all but this isn't gunna cut it.”
He walked over and clasped Johns shoulder with one hand and looked at him sadly and with sincerity in his eyes, “You need this man, I know it's not ideal but at least let her come over and fix the place up, and maybe it will push you in a better direction.” He had walked over to the leather chair again and put his head in his hands, “Besides were both on our last straw here, it seems I stuck my neck out to far and now if you end up fired so do I. So please John, for me?”
John walked back over to his chair and sat across from him, “Alright. tell me everything I need to know about taking care of this thing.” Mike smiled and took in a deep and cleansing breath.
“Her,” he corrected, with a smile.
“It,” He glared back.
“Her,” he simply repeated still smiling. John rolled his eyes.
“whatever.”
“You really won't have to do much of anything to take care of her, she is after all created to take care you, not the other way around. If anything happens that you need to help her to fix she will notify you or contact us through her wireless connection, and then we will be there to fix the problem. You wont have to do more than pick up a phone really.”
John just shook his head slowly, as he stared into his friends eyes, “can't you see that, that isn't companionship, it's slavery. I can't even sugar coat it, and say shes a house keeper, because they get paid,” he practically yelled the last word. “You can't ask me to treat it as a human, and then be ok with having it working in my home like a slave. But I'm going to do this for you, but after two weeks its gone.”
“Ok, john. First I have to tell you, two weeks is the minimum, but if you should decide to keep her around the contract ends after 3 months. At that point you have to return her, should you decide that you want to keep her we will have to send you another, as she will be kept here and her memory of her interactions with you recorded for our records. Any model sent to you after that point will keep all of the information of your interactions private. Once they are on sale the privacy of our customers is of the utmost importance, but since you not paying for the first model, she essentially remains the Property of Dyna-tech.” He slid the papers over to John as he finished, “Now if you could just read and sign this, ill go over all her features and she should arrive within a week... and thank you John, I really feel this will help you.” John just gave him a weak smile as he reached over and began to read his contract.
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