Chapter Ten

Time had slowed down for Rachel. She imagined that she could feel every atom in her body. Every fiber of muscle, every nerve ending, and every piece of her hair seemed to be alert and standing on end. She had never felt so alive but couldn’t believe the situation she found herself in was real. Her fingernails dug into the dusty earth underneath her as she tried to understand where she was and how she had gotten here. It didn’t feel like she had merely taken a plane to New Mexico and ridden in a van to her location.

It felt more like destiny.

She didn’t know how Wrath could be Robert. It seemed like an impossible coincidence. But everything inside her was shouting that it was the truth. She had known the cyborg before the government had ever touched him and changed him into a machine. She knew that he could be sweet and caring, and something other than a mindless soldier.

His question rang in her ears. Of course he didn’t know he was Robert. How could he? Rachel had done a little bit of her homework at least, and she had heard most of what she knew repeated in Clayton’s words. When the chip rewired the brain, it bypassed the human part of the donor body. It blocked out the memories of life as a human. Scientists believed that if the cyborgs maintained their awareness of their previous lives, it would drive them insane or create a conflict with their orders.

What would happen to him if she intentionally tried to evoke his memories?

“What did you call me?” The cyborg had stopped shouting and was whispering now. Somehow the quiet tone of voice felt more menacing than the yelling.

In the silence, Rachel could hear her breath moving in and out of her lungs. “I called you by your name. Robert. Your name is Robert, or it was once, at least. I knew you when you were different.”

The blonde cyborg had lost interest in Clayton and angrily stomped in her direction. His plasma gun was still ready to fire. He kept it aimed at her. The cyborg looked huge as he loomed over her. Rachel didn’t dare stand up. She had upset him enough already.

“My name is Wrath,” he declared boldly. “I have never had another name. Cyborg Sector gave me a ridiculous designation of letters and numbers, something more fitting for a file cabinet than a living creature.” He gestured at the front of his uniform where a bare strip of Velcro was visible on his chest. It had small bits of plant debris and sand stuck in it, but there was no name tag. “I named myself. I don’t need you or the government to tell me who I am.”

The reporter shook her head. “I understand that you are Wrath now. But you were Robert a long time ago. Before you were a cyborg and a soldier, you were something else. Don’t you remember me?”

Wrath shook his head furiously, but Rachel detected a slight hesitation. Maybe part of him was trying to decide if she was telling the truth. “How could I possibly remember you? The first time I saw you was when you came up this mountain. I have no information about you in my memory banks.”

“You’re wrong,” she insisted. Rachel could see that he was starting to become agitated, but she felt going all the way to the end of her train of thought was her only hope for survival. Maybe if Wrath could remember who he used to be and what they had meant to each other, he would let her live. She might even save Clayton’s life in the process.

“I think your computer doesn’t store all of your memories. We grew up together. We knew each other since we were young. You were human once. I know you have to recognize me somehow.” Her sentences weren’t coming out correctly. If she were onscreen at the moment, the other members of the media would be blasting her left and right for her poor command of the English language. But Rachel’s life was on the line now, and she didn’t want to worry about sounding perfect for a non-existent camera.

“If you don’t stop talking, I’ll shoot you right now!” Wrath held his hand out toward her. His fingertips were flipped down, revealing the shiny end of his plasma gun. “I’ve tolerated all the bullshit about Cyborg Sector and what they want from us. First, he says I used to be human, and now you try to tell me that you knew me when I was human.” He reached out with his left hand, the one that didn’t have a weapon inside it, and put it around her neck. “I had no idea that humans were so eager to make cyborgs just like them.”

“I just want you to understand,” Rachel squeaked. She knew now that Wrath was going to kill her. There was nothing she could do to stop him. Her hope now was getting him to listen before he decapitated her. “Cyborgs are made from the bodies of men who died. You were one of them.”

He made her stand on her toes by pushing up on her throat until they were face-to-face. She felt his hot breath on her skin and smelled his earthy scent. Rachel’s eyes roved over every pore of his skin, every fleck of color in his eyes, and every hair in his goatee.

“Prove it.”

The reporter closed her eyes. She wanted to remember correctly, but the cyborg’s hand was slowly closing off her air supply. “When we were in second grade, we went on a field trip to a farm,” she managed to choke out. “You slipped in a puddle and got covered in mud. You had to ride back to school dirty.” It wasn’t the best memory, but it was the oldest one she had. She knew it was the kind of thing she would never be able to forget if it had happened to her.

The soldier lowered Rachel to the ground but raised his plasma gun and pushed the tip into her skin. It made a small indentation in Rachel’s neck. She squeezed her eyelids together as she waited for death to come.

“I think you have me confused with someone else.” His voice had dropped to a whisper now but still carried a threatening edge.

“In sixth grade, you slipped on the ice outside the school and hit your head. You had a concussion. For our eighth grade graduation, we all wore yellow robes. It was the school color. Everyone made fun of me when I had my hair cut and the stylist made it too short. Allison and Jessica were my best friends.” Random pieces and snippets of her childhood were coming to mind, all of them out of order. She had to find something that would trigger his memory, but she didn’t know what it could be or if it were even possible. Rachel wanted Wrath to know that he had been a child and that he used to have friends.

“We all took driver’s education with Mr. Dwyer, and he would play air guitar in the passenger seat. Mrs. Vinson was our principal.” She was beginning to grasp at straws. The memories were so remote that they would be difficult for anyone to recall.

Rachel had been holding back on one particular memory. It was all she had left in her arsenal. If it failed to get a reaction from him, she wouldn’t have anything remaining. She opened her eyes.

“You and I used to date. You saved me from getting hit by a truck, and you walked me home. You had on your football jersey. Your number was seventeen. I can still see it when I close my eyes. I know because you always let me wear it to school on game days. We went to the homecoming dance together, and you bought me a daisy corsage even though it didn’t match my dress. I told you it was my favorite flower.”

The tip of the gun came off her neck a fraction of an inch. If it weren’t for the pressure of the hand around her throat, Rachel could have convinced herself that she was here with Robert and not Wrath. He still held his mouth in a firm line, but there was a slight change in the way he looked at her. She had to continue.

“When my dog died, I stayed home from school, and you came to my door with chocolate ice cream and the new book I wanted. You held me while I cried, and you didn’t mind that I got tears all over your favorite shirt.” She was starting to cry at the memory, wanting to have that version of Robert back. “We made love in your room, and then we fell asleep. You thought your parents would catch us, and you forced me to hide in the closet when they pulled up in the driveway. But they went straight to bed. We stayed up until two in the morning while you read poetry to me.” Her tears ran down her cheeks and dripped onto his hand.

The cyborg released her in an instant, shaking his hand as though her tears were poison. Rachel fell to the ground. She wasn’t prepared for Wrath to release her and the back of her head collided with the cave wall, making her vision blur for a moment. She looked up at the cyborg to see him clutching his head with his left hand.

Weapon kept his eyes on Rachel, but he spoke to Wrath when he saw his pain. “What did she do to you? Should I kill her now?”

“Aaagh!” Wrath gritted his teeth as he moaned, staggering backward across the cave. Clayton danced out of his way, nearly running into Wire and jumping away from him again. Wrath bellowed with pain, bending over at the waist. “No,” he said finally. “She’s trying to trick me, but she won’t win. I will take care of her in my own time.”

Rachel sobbed at Wrath’s reaction. He didn’t recall her, and he didn’t want to remember her. The time she had spent with him when they were younger was meaningless now. She had lost her chance.