Drudge sat at the large dining table with the empty bowl in front of him. The table had been set for him in advance like always. An empty bowl, or plate, and the accompanying silverware set to the sides. Drudge often thought about picking up the fork and at least pretending to eat while he sat there.
Sounds came from around the wall that split the room. Bach played on a radio as well as the obvious sounds of someone cooking. Drudge glanced up from the bowl towards the kitchen where Max was. Before long the music was accompanied by the atrocious sound of the man singing something in an opera-like manner. If Drudge was capable of shuddering he certainly would at that point.
The room Drudge was in was a basic rectangular shape. A small set of stairs led up from the room’s marble floors to an elegant-looking wooden door directly opposite the table he sat at. The wall that split it into two rooms ran up the middle of the rectangle long ways. One side could be called a living area. No couches or chairs, but there was a television on the wall and a desk with a computer and phone on that same wall directly behind Drudge. On the other side of the wall was the kitchen, which was where Maxwell currently was. The table Drudge was sitting at was placed to where half was on the living areas side and half on the kitchens side. The wall next to the table was nothing but wall sized windows looking out over the land that the home sat on.
Lightning lit up the night outside briefly drawing Drudge’s attention from Max and his terrible singing. Because his reflexes were far superior, Drudge was able to see everything he normally saw when it was daylight. He counted the same twenty-three trees that he always did when he looked out these large windows in this room. Max’s car was parked no more than ten feet from the windows. The light ended and the outside was once again engulfed by the night. A second later the windows shuddered from the sound of thunder. Drudge turned back to the empty bowl in front of him.
The music ended and no song came on after, and not long after that, Max ceased his singing. Drudge silently thanked him for that. A few minutes later Maxwell came around the wall and sat a plate of spaghetti and an already half eaten salad down on the table opposite Drudge. He disappeared again briefly and returned with a glass and bottle of wine that he had obviously already opened and drank from. From the look of the dry glass the man sat down, Drudge could tell that Max had been drinking directly from the bottle.
Maxwell began twisting his spaghetti onto his fork and hummed some more of whatever opera he had been trying to sing. Drudge watched him silently and unmoving. When Max had a sufficient fork full, he stuffed it quickly into his mouth. His fast movements and what appeared to be a perpetual smile suggested to Drudge that that amount of wine the man had already drank had made him intoxicated, at least slightly. Drudge could not understand what that felt like. He could not understand what much felt like for that matter. Not for lack of trying.
As Max started twirling his second bite of food, Drudge cocked his head, and asked, “Why do you keep doing this?” His voice coming out in its usual flat tone with a soft metallic hint to it.
Maxwell took his bite and chewed his food, not making any attempt to answer right away. “To make us a family,” he finally responded after more than a minute of silence.
Drudge looked back down at his bowl, pondering the answer he had been given. Max continued to eat his food, making loud slurping sounds when getting the spaghetti noodles into his mouth. This family business was not an unexpected answer. Drudge was the closest thing to a family member that Maxwell had.
“Why am I here?” Drudge questioned Max after a moment of silence, looking back up at him.
Maxwell didn’t answer the question, so Drudge asked it again.
“Because I enjoy your company,” Max replied, holding a fork full of spaghetti in front of his face, twisting it around.
Drudge cocked his head again at the answer. Maxwell looked from the fork to his company. Drudge pantomimed a sigh, and then started tapping his fingers on the table. It was a louder than normal sound given Drudge’s metal fingers.
This time Maxwell cocked his head. He put the fork down and rested his elbows on the table with his hands crossed in front of his face.
Drudge watched him as well. It wasn’t hard to see the curiosity and mild irritation on Max’s face. “Why do I exist?” he asked, changing the question.
Maxwell snorted a laugh and his face briefly contorts into a look of annoyance, but he quickly recovered. “Where did you learn to do that?” he asked, pointing at Drudge’s tapping fingers.
Drudge shrugged, an action that clearly surprised Max. “Maybe I learned it from TV.”
“I’m glad that you are learning, but don’t you think that I should know such things when you learn them? I must make notes of it all, Drudge”
“No.”
“No?”
“There are things you do not tell me.”
Max’s face twisted from annoyance into a look of anger. “That is because I am the one that created you!” he all but yelled. “That is how this works. You learn or do something new, then I make note of it.”
Drudge stopped his tapping and laid both of his hands down on the table again. “You say you want us to be like a family, yes? Like a father and his son?”
Max quietly scowled at him.
“You should be proud of me then,” Drudge remarked.
Max took a deep breath. “Of course I am proud! You are learning. I am surprised at how fast. But that doesn’t change the fact that I need to know when it happens”
Drudge shrugged again. “I have learned a lot.”
“You have, have you? Do tell?”
“Why?”
Maxwell was unable to hide his shock. The man sat in front of Drudge with a mixture of anger and confusion written on his face. He slapped his hands down onto the table and started to stand. Before he is able to say anything, the door on the other side of the room opened and Lindsay came into the room.
“Mister Kemp, I am done for the night,” she said as she walked in. Her hair was pulled back and remarkably well kept considering she had just spent half a day in the lab. She stopped as soon as she realized something is going on between the two at the table. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything is fine, Lindsay,” Max answered her through gritted teeth. “Drudge and I are just having a conversation.”
Lindsay looked from Drudge to Maxwell. Drudge still sat while the man stood and leaned heavily over the table. “Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
Okay, Mister Kemp. I, uh, I finished my projected. I think.”
Max’s eyes widened as Lindsay held up a cylindrical metal object she had carried into the room. He threw arms up. “Are you crazy?” he shouted at her. “Why did you bring that in here? Do you not think before you do anything?”
“I – I just thought you would want to see it.”
“Do you understand what that will do to Drudge? Let alone to this building?”
Drudge finally broke his gaze away from Max and looked to Lindsay. The girl stood a few feet from him with the object still held out. Drudge had never seen the object. From his quick observation of the object, he could tell it was roughly six inches in length and four in diameter, with a button on what he could only guess was its top. He knew Lindsay assisted Maxwell, but he did not know she was working on something of her own. He was curious now what it was. Max seemed incredibly upset at the girl bringing it into the room.
“What will it do to me?” Drudge asked.
Max glanced at his direction. “It will kill you.”
“I can die?”
“Of course not,” Max scoffed, waving his hand and dismissing the question.
“Then why did you say it?”
Max ignored him again. “Lindsay, next time don’t bring it near him. In fact, put it in the box and leave.”
Lindsay nodded her understanding.
“Answer me,” Drudge said as he stared at Max.
“I’m sorry, Mister Kemp. It won’t happen again.”
Max shook his head and waved his hand at Lindsay, dismissing her. “It’s fine. Just – just go back to the motel and come back after the weekend, okay?”
Drudge slammed his fist down onto the table, smashing the bowl in front of him. Lindsay jumped from the sudden action and let out a tiny scream. Max sighed heavily and angrily and slowly looked over to his creation.
“If I can’t die, then why did you say that thing she is holding can kill me?”
“It was a figure of speech.”
“Why can’t I die?”
“For fuck’s sake!” Maxwell groaned. “Because you’re not alive!”
Drudge reeled back at the answer he was given. He looked back down at the bowl which was now in pieces in front of him.
“Uh,” Lindsay began, “I’m going to go now.”
“Yes, Lindsay,” Max said to her. “That’d be for the best.”
Without warning, Drudge looked at Lindsay and quickly stood up, knocking the chair he had been sitting in to the floor.
“Drudge!” Max yelled. “Sit back down!”
Drudge walked towards the girl who was backing away. “Mister Kemp!” Lindsay said frightened.
“Drudge!” Max screamed.
Drudge reached Lindsay. The girl was shaking as he loomed over her. He was only a few inches taller than her, but with her cowering away he felt like a giant.
“Use it,” he said to her.
“What!”
“Use it.” He pointed at the device in her hand. “Kill me.”
Lindsay continued backing away. “I can’t!”
“Why not? Because I am not alive?”
Maxwell rapidly moved from the table to behind Drudge. “Drudge, get away from her!” He grabbed his creation’s shoulder. Drudge did not seem to notice the man’s action.
Drudge mimicked a sigh again, and then he thrust his arm out, grabbing Lindsay by the throat. She gasped and jerked, trying to get away. The device she held fell to the marble floor and broke. Several of its pieces scattered on the floor.
Drudge watched it fall. “Looks like we won’t find out if I can die now.”
Max started pulling on Drudge’s shoulder, using his other arm as well when he realized it was no use. “Please, let her go!” he pleaded.
Lindsay gasped for air as Drudge tightened his grip on her throat. Her feet begin kicking as he lifted her from the floor.
Drudge turns his body, shrugging off Max’s hands and swinging the frantic girl around with him. He looked at his creator. His synthetic eyes staring into Max’s. “She can most definitely die,” he said.
Lindsay began to thrash wildly as Drudge squeezed harder. Her eyes darted around desperately. Blood began to pour out as Drudge’s fingers dug their way into her skin. Drudge continued to stare at Max. He didn’t know if he could smile, but at that moment, he felt like he was. He squeezed until his hand was practically a fist. Lindsay jerked one last time, and then was motionless. Her eyes losing the wildness they just had. Drudge released his grip and she crumpled to the floor.
“What have you done?!” Max moved past Drudge to the motionless Lindsay. “Jesus Christ! Lindsay! Lindsay, say something!” Max shook Lindsay, as if to awaken her from a deep sleep.
Drudge stood above him and watched as the man tried desperately to get the girl to wake up. Drudge himself could see that Lindsay was already dead. There was no more tell-tale signs of life left on her. Maybe this was shock. He had heard the word used before. Apparently humans sometimes had problems with registering something traumatic. But this was traumatic to Lindsay, not Max. Why was he the one showing the signs of shock?
Max tore himself from Lindsay long enough to desperately look around the room. His eyes suddenly focused for a moment and he got up from the body and ran to the desk by the windows in the back of the room. He reached the desk and immediately grabbed the landline phone on it.
Drudge watched him run by and to the desk. He knew his creator was calling for help, which was needed, but not at that exact moment. Drudge walked quickly to the desk and man, his metal feet clanking on the hard marble floor.
If Maxwell noticed Drudge coming up on him, he showed no sign of it. “Yes, hello!” he hysterically said into the phone. “My name is Maxwell Kemp, I live at…”
Drudge seized Max by his arm and twisted, breaking it at the elbow. Maxwell cried out in pain and dropped the phone. Drudge could hear the operator calling out to Max from the phone. He looked down and stomped his foot down onto the phone, easily crushing it. Max fell to the floor as well and grasped his right arm with his left. He foolishly tried bending his arm and cried out again.
Max finally looked up at him. “Why? Why are you doing this?”
Drudge crouched down in front of him. “Why did you create me?” he retorted.
Max stared confusedly at Drudge, unable to respond. Drudge shook his head and stood. He stepped away from the man and picked his chair up from the floor. Max screamed and winced away. But Drudge ignored him and threw the chair through the window next to the desk. Bits of glass were instantly blown back in from the wind and lightning lit up the sky again.
“Drudge, what are you doing?”
Drudge walked to the window and tapped some of the excess glass down, and then he stepped out into the rain.
“Drudge!”
Drudge held his hands up and watched as the water hit him and ran down his arms and hands. Lindsay’s blood washed away as he turn his hand around in the rain. He clenched his fists and turned back to his creator. He said nothing, but he knew from the look in Maxwell’s eyes that he didn’t need to.
A train horn called out from the distance through the thunder. Drudge turned to the sound, trying to pinpoint where it came from. A few seconds later it came again and he knew exactly where it was. He would have to move fast, through the small wooded area outside the house to make it to the train.
He looked back one last time at the man that had created him. “Goodbye, father,” he said, and then he took off into the small bit of woods just outside of the house disappearing into the night.
Max watched his creation as it stood in the rain, heard it say goodbye, and then faster than he expected, it ran into the woods. A flash of lightning gave him the last glimpse of Drudge as it reflected off of its metallic body, and then it was gone.
He laid on the floor with the wind and rain coming in through the broken window hitting him. His elbow was shattered and Lindsay was dead. He sighed heavily and looked around the room. His cell phone was in the kitchen where he had left it while he cooked. With his teeth gritted, he stood and went to it to call for help.