Chapter 14

Cynthia (AL.I.C.E-2968442)

When I opened my eyes, I was staring down at a plain white table. I shook my head and looked up. I was sitting in a chair in a small room. Across from me, on the other side of the table, sat a man. He looked at me and smiled. He was bald and short, with a round face. Even with his insignia I could not tell what model he was. Curiously, he also had a spade shape on his left cheek in addition to his insignia on the right. Unlike the General's star, I did not know what that indicated. Still, I felt like I had seen him somewhere before, somewhere recently.

"Oh, good, you are awake. How are you feeling, AL.I.C.E-2968442?" he addressed me. How long had I been out? How long did he wait here for me to wake up? What was going on?

"Where am I?" I took another look around the room. It was plain white. I looked down. I was back in an everyday uniform. Come to think of it; I had not changed before leaving. What had happened to those clothes? I never returned the ones Ren loaned me. Would he be mad about that?

"I suppose you would be confused. You see, I am here to assess your state before reintegrating you back into society. We need to be sure you have not been affected by the beasts down below, after all." He spoke in a gentle and inviting tone. There was no hint of malice in his voice, but something felt off. I think it was that his brow looked slightly furrowed as he spoke to me.

"You don't have to worry. I haven't been affected negatively," I tried to reassure him. He seemed to wince as I spoke to him. I am not sure why he did. Before speaking again, he regained the twisted friendly look he had before.

"Well, my dear, that is for me to decide." I noticed I was slouching and sat straight up in the chair. I would need to look my best to impress him.

"Very well. What would you like to know?"

"Good. Now, AL.I.C.E-2968442, or do you prefer I call you something else?" he asked. Honestly, I had gotten used to being called Cynthia at this point.

"No, that is my model code after all," I lied. I hoped he could not tell I was lying.

"Hmm."

"If I may ask, what should I refer to you as? I am afraid I am not familiar with your model?"

"Ah, yes, I was a test run model. There were only a handful of us ever produced. You may call me Ace." That was an odd thing to call him, but I would not bring that point up.

"Good to know you, Ace. Is there anything else you would like to know?"

"Oh yes, there is plenty I would like to know. Let us see. Why did you go into the beast's city?"

"It was an accident. I fell down a hole and didn't know how to get back." That was sort of true. I could have tried to climb back once I reached the bottom, after all.

"Hmm. Well, what compelled you to venture into the city and even stay the night? Surely you could have attempted to climb back up."

"I was afraid I would get lost in the mountain."

"I see, and what of the beast the General reported seeing you with? It seems he even tried to fight our dear General in hand to hand combat. I suppose it speaks to the intelligence of those beasts down there."

"Oh, he was nobody."

"Nobody?"

"Nobody."

"I see. Well, please wait here a moment. I will return shortly." Ace suddenly got up and left the room. I sat in silence for a moment. I looked down at my wrists. I was not being restrained, and I could get up at any moment. I stayed seated. I had to pretend like I had not changed in any way. I had not changed, and I did not know why they would think that.

After a while, Ace returned and sat back down. He asked me many more questions with the same off-putting smile, and I answered while carefully trying to twist truths and lies together into a believable story.

"Now, AL.I.C.E-2968442, this is my last question for you. Did you enjoy your time there?" I thought about everything I had experienced. The pain of being pelted by rocks, the taste of the new foods, exploring the world, unlike mine, spending time with Ren.

"No, everything was terrible. I would never want to go back." I told my most convincing lie yet.

"Hmm. Well, that is all I had for you. Now please come with me." He wasted no time getting up and walking out the door. I stumbled up out of my chair to chase after him. I went through the door as fast as I could without running to catch up with him. His pace was swift as he sped down the hall to what appeared to be an elevator. It took everything I had, but I managed to keep up enough to stay few steps behind him.

The hallway we walked down was a straight line. It looked like the door of the room I had just been in went straight from the elevator through this bare, white hallway. There were no doors along the hallway to any other rooms. There was not even a window that I could see out of to see where we might be.

The elevator door slid open before we reached it, and we both stepped inside. He leaned up against one of the walls, and I pressed my back against the other side of it. The elevator was small, most likely meant to carry only a few people at any given time. The door slid shut. I felt a jerk as the elevator moved sideways, then stopped before moving up.

"Where are we going?" I asked him while looking down. We were both facing the elevator door and did not turn to look at each other.

"You will see in a short moment."

He did not seem like he wanted to answer. We rode the elevator in silence for what felt like an eternity before it finally stopped, and the door slid open. He said nothing but simply walked out into a large open room. There was a platform in the center of the room, and desks for people went around the center in an arc. A large chandelier hung high up in the ceiling and provided a light down to the platform. The rest of the room seemed more shadowed as a result. I stepped out of the elevator, and Ace gestured to the center. I was not sure what was going on, yet my stomach began to twist. Was I uneasy?

I strode to the center and stood on the platform. I was bathed in light and looked at the relatively darker desks that surrounded the platform. Each of the desks had a chair, and in each sat a person. Even though there was lighting, I could make out some of their features. They were all different models, and I recognized none of them. Each had a spade added somewhere on the left sides of their faces. Ace went and sat at an empty desk at the end of the line. All the seats were filled. I might have counted how many were here, but I had no desire to look at any of their glaring faces. Instead, I looked around the room. There were not that many people here, yet this room was vast and open.

"Well, everyone. This here is AL.I.C.E-2968442, who stands on trial today." Ace spoke up. Trial? What was he talking about? Was I to be punished? What had I done? "Now, AL.I.C.E-2968442, or would you rather we call you Cynthia?" Ace stopped and looked directly at me for me to answer the question. I swallowed and looked away. It felt like he was staring through me. I did not like the feeling.

"Ca- Call- me what you like." I stumbled over the words, but I had to try to make this convincing.

"I see," Ace said.

"Why are we even putting up with this?" another man from the group suddenly yelled out. Ace's desk was the farthest away on this speaker's right; only two others sat beside him on his left.

"Now, Jack, we have procedures to follow." This time a woman, who sat directly to the left, the one who just yelled, spoke.

"We all know she has been corrupted. Let us just rid ourselves of this failure," Jack spat back. His face was a bright shade of red. I imagine it was this way all the time, by his current demeanor.

"Please excuse him, AL.I.C.E-2968442. We will now begin." The man who sat directly to the right of Ace spoke up.

"Thank you, Deuce," I thought I heard Ace say to him, but it was so soft I could not be sure.

"Ahem," the woman next to Jack cleared her throat. "AL.I.C.E-2968442, you are sitting here today on the basis that you entered a den of monsters willingly. Not only did you discover a fracture in our security, which we must actually thank you for, but you also acted upon the discovery by endangering our very society as a whole. Do you concur with this assessment?"

What was she talking about? How did I risk endangering society? It seemed like Ace was worried about how I had become corrupted. Now they were asking about how I was risking the safety of everyone else.

"I don't believe that I risked endangering society," I responded. They all seemed to wince at my reply. Had I picked up some sort of odd dialect in my time there? No, that did not make any sense.

The man, next to Ace, stood up. Deuce, if I heard correctly. The entire room looked in his direction. He began to walk to the other side of the room, next to a man on the farthest end, who sat next to the women who had just been speaking. This man was drooping slightly over the table. When Deuce reached this man, he bent over and whispered something into his ear. In almost an instant, the man shot up and pointed directly at me. What was going on?

"AL.I.C.E-2968442, you say that you have not created any risk to society. But! But? But..." He shouted then stopped. Without another word, he sat back down and drooped his head back down. The rest of the group seemed to sigh simultaneously as if they knew something I did not. Ace cleared his throat, which caught my attention. The man who sat next to him had returned and was silently shaking his head with his eyes closed.

"I apologize for that display," Ace began, "but I believe I understand the point King was about to make. If you would, I will try to continue."

"Go ahead, Ace," Jack said while propping his head up with one arm and rolling his eyes. His tone did not sound genuine.

"Ahem, AL.I.C.E-2968442, you believe you have not endangered our society, but let me ask. When you were there, did you eat anything other than the nutrition bars we provide here?"

"Um, yes." Several members of the crowd gasped as if I said something surprising. Why would they be surprised? I was gone a whole day, and they do not have the bars down there. Honestly, that chocolate cupcake was way better than any chocolate thing up here, and I would rather eat that again. The thought made my mouth water a little. I swallowed and focused on the disturbed group. I am sure saying something like that out loud would not go over well in this group.

"Now, now, calm down," Ace addressed the rest of the room. What was the point of having this many people here for this? Most of them were sitting in silence. "AL.I.C.E-2968442," Ace was addressing me again, "Could you tell me what this is?" He pulled something out and held it in the air in front of him, holding it with his index finger and thumb and keeping his arm stretched out as far as it possibly could go.

The shirt Ren had gotten me hung in front of him. The kitty was in plain view. I said nothing. The crowd began to murmur to themselves. Ace made a self-satisfied smile and sat back down. He produced a bottle of sanitizer from below the desk and started to wipe his hands off. I had no idea what was going on. Are we accomplishing anything with all this back and forth? The crowd certainly looked like they were thinking about something. The women between Jack and King stood up this time.

"Well, I believe that is enough for now. It seems everyone agrees with your decided punishment."

"We were in agreement before. We just wasted time," Jack, who now was laying his head on the desk, butted in. The women stood silent for a second, glaring in his direction, before continuing with a smile.

"Now, AL.I.C.E-2968442, we will lay out your punishment for the crime of violating the natural order."

I felt a slight unease as everyone seemed to sit up and look in my direction automatically. Even Jack, who had appeared to have fallen asleep, and King, who had been distantly staring into space, were now staring intently at me. The room was silent as I waited to hear what this punishment was to be.