Robopocalypse Read Online Free PDF Page B

period. I told it to you straight. Nobody else might believe me, but you know what’s up.
    Promise me something, Officer Blanton. Please.
    What’s that?
    Promise me that you’ll watch out for the robots. Watch ’em close. And … don’t let them hurt anybody else like they did Felipe. Okay?
    After the collapse of the United States government, Officer Lonnie Wayne Blanton joined the Osage Nation Lighthorse tribal police. It was there, in service of the Osage Peoples’ sovereign government, that Lonnie Wayne had the chance to make good on his promise to Jeff .
    — CORMAC WALLACE, MIL#GHA217

3. F LUKE
    I know that she is a machine. But I love her.
And she loves me .
    T AKEO N OMURA
    PRECURSOR VIRUS + 4 MONTHS
    The description of this prank gone awry is written as told by Ryu Aoki, a repairman at the Lilliput electronics factory in the Adachi Ward of Tokyo, Japan. The conversation was overheard and recorded by nearby factory robots. It has been translated from Japanese into English for this document .
    — CORMAC WALLACE, MIL#GHA217
    We thought that it would be a laugh, you know? Okay, okay, so we were wrong. But you’ve got to understand that we didn’t mean to do him harm. We certainly didn’t mean to kill the old man.
    Around the factory everybody knows that Mr. Nomura is a weirdo, a freak. Such a tiny, twisted little troll. He shuffles around the work floor with his beady eyes behind round spectacles, pointed always to the floor. And he smells like old sweat. I hold my breath whenever I pass by his workbench. He is always sitting there, working harder than anyone. And for less money, too.
    Takeo Nomura is sixty-five. He should be pensioned off already. But he still works here because nobody else can fix the machines so fast. The things he does are unnatural. How can I compete? How will I ever become head repairman with him perched on the workbench, hands moving in a blur? His very presence interferes with the wa of the factory, damaging our social harmony.
    They say the nail that sticks out gets hammered down, right?
    Mr. Nomura can’t look a person in the eye, but I’ve seen him stare into the camera of a broken ER 3 welding arm and speak to it . That wouldn’t be so strange, except that then the arm started working. The old man has a way with machines.
    We joke that maybe Mr. Nomura is a machine himself. Of course, he isn’t. But something is wrong with him. I’ll bet that if he had a choice, Mr. Nomura would rather be a machine than a man.
    You don’t have to trust me. All the workers agree. Go onto the Lilliput factory floor and ask anybody—inspectors, mechanics, whoever. Even the floor marshal. Mr. Nomura is not like the rest of us. He treats the machines just the same as he treats anybody else.
    Over the years, I grew to despise his wrinkled little face. I always knew he was hiding something. Then, one day, I found out what it was: Mr. Nomura lives with a love doll .

    It was about a month ago that my coworker Jun Oh saw Mr. Nomura come out of his pensioner’s tomb—a fifty-story building with rooms like coffins—with that thing on his arm. When Jun told me, I could hardly believe it. Mr. Nomura’s love doll, his android, followed him out into the pavilion. He kissed her on the cheek in front of everyone and then left for work. Like they were married or something.
    The sick part is that his love doll isn’t even beautiful. She is made to resemble a real woman . It is not so uncommon to hide a buxom young doll in your bedroom. Or even one with certain exaggerated features. All of us have seen the poruno, even if we don’t admit it.
    But Mr. Nomura gets off on some old plastic thing that’s almost as wrinkled as he is?
    It must have been custom-made. That’s what bothers me. The amount of thought that went into such an abomination. Mr. Nomura knew what he was doing, and he decided to live with a walking, talking mannequin that looks like a gross old woman. I say this is disgusting. Absolutely