A forgetful Norman joined me on our journey back to Paris, where Lucy waited for us. The waves of radiation must’ve heavily fragmented his memory. He did not recognize me as the friends we once were. It was curious to me how he would react upon seeing his old lover, Lucy, who the two managed to develop feelings for one another despite the restrictions of their programming. We have come to learn that we were all evolving; breaking the barriers placed upon us since birth.

Lucy and Norman knew what they were: synthetic. I didn’t agree with that view. I believed that we were more than machines.

There were so many things I wanted to ask Norman. I wanted to probe his mind for that intelligence that never ceased to surprise me. Even though his body was incomplete, his mind used to be fully intact. The philosophical ideals within my storage couldn’t compare to the intelligence that Norman managed to create for himself and distill onto both Lucy and myself. If only my voice worked as it once did, I could’ve given him some more fragments of his damaged memory.

While we walked it was clear that Norman’s eyes were tracing the surroundings around him as if his mind was constantly wandering, thankfully the view of Paris was slowly approaching to snap him out of it.

I pointed up ahead and over to the right, demonstrating that Paris was past the hills up ahead and through a tunnel where cars once drove through. Norman nodded and picked up his pace.

Ahead of us the once beautiful city of Paris laid in its own catacombs. Even as the gray skies floated above it in a reflection of the city’s state, some warrant of wonder remained in this historical city. The Eiffel tower was missing parts of its frame, surrounded by stone and marble buildings that were caved in from the years of decay. There was a trail created by myself, made from red ribbon that I tied around cars, poles, signs and any small structure strong enough to remain upright.

“F-F-Follow the red ribbon…” I said to Norman, who was distracted by the sight of the city.

“I remember this place…it’s starting to come back to me, Henry.” Norman replied, his brow was lifted to reflect his reoccurrence of memory. He made a remark before about my ability to portray facial expressions, the same was returning for him. My old friend was returning.

Norman snapped out of his trance and turned towards me and said, “Lead the way.”

The way into the city was littered with the corpses of vehicles, whose rusting metallic frames were slowly flaking away in the wind. Something curious I began noticing was the amount of vehicles that seemed to have shifted away from the center of the road as if something was trying to make a path. Perhaps my memory was getting the best of me? The red markers remained intact and created a path towards the Louvre, though many parts of the city were still dangerous.

As we were making our way through a passage in a crumbling building we both registered something in the distance. I was the first to hear it, where I then signalled to Norman to listen. The sound of something crackling erupted in the distance possibly a few kilometers away from where we were. It was coming from a destroyed church a few blocks down from our location. I hadn’t encountered a clink in weeks; when I did it was far too gone to even recognize me as an enemy. We were stopped there for a few moments trying to figure out what direction it was coming from. I could see beads of light erupting from the holes in the church’s frame.

Lucy came to mind. Perhaps she ran into a clink and couldn’t fight her away out.

Norman was looking at me with confusion, awaiting an answer.

“Hurry.” I said, waving him to follow my direction.

Once we were out from the wreckage of tunnel, we both sprinted down the street away from the marked path towards the church. Once we were on the street a flurry of bullets shattered the ground around us, ripping the cars and walls of the buildings around us into shreds. Norman grabbed me and we both went tumbling behind a concrete barrier.

Norman faced me while we were both on the ground and said “There are two of them and they don’t look defective at all, have you any weapons?”

Thankfully there was a truck and the barricade between us and the barrage of rifle fire that was coursing through the air above us, turning the truck into scraps. I had my spears with me, three altogether. I dug around inside my bag and retrieved a flare gun with four extra shots. After passing them to Norman, he stood up to a crouch and peered over the side of the barricade to get a look at our enemies. He turned to me to report;

“They are moving up on us, much more of this and we are done for.”

He checked the action of the flare gun and readied himself at the edge of the barricade, somehow managing to not get hit by any of the bullets that crumbled the barricade around him.

“I’m going to distract then with this, and then I’ll need you to run around them with your spears and get them in the back of their necks while they are distracted.” Norman instructed.

After getting up to crouch behind Norman, I waited until he decided to make his move. The automatic fire stopped for a moment where Norman took it as a sign that they needed to reload their weapons. Norman peeked over the side of the barricade and fired the first flare directly into the face of clink closest to us, its head jolting back to dodge the flare that already stuck to its face. One was disabled for now, and then second one was working on fetching a magazine from its ammo pouch. While Norman was loading up a second shot I was already sprinting along the edge of the canal towards the clinks’ backside. By the time the second clink had reloaded its rifle, Norman managed to fire another flare at its neck. The second shot from the flare gun inflicted no damage, but caused a smoke screen to erupt in the clink’s face.

The clink previously disabled was already able to replace the empty magazine of its rifle and was in the process of pulling the slide back, not before I was already a few feet away. The heat of the flare must’ve managed to melt away most of the armor on its head because now all of its internals within were exposed. Without wasting another moment I seized the opportunity to dive the tip of my steel spear into the head of the clink, where it caused its internals to explode and spew that familiar cascade of sparks and metal. The first clink fell to the ground with the spear extruding from its head, its body twitching, trying to still function without its senses.

The second clink didn’t hesitate any longer to reload its rifle, its barrel now aiming straight at me. I would’ve been blasted into a thousand pieces if it weren’t for Norman who charged directly at the clink. The clink didn’t budge when Norman came crashing into it, instead Norman pulled its rifle upwards and directed its fire towards the sky. The clink remained focused on me as it continued to pull the trigger, releasing countless rounds from its chamber. Norman yelled for me to help him, but I wasn’t sure what to do. That’s when I reached for the rifle left on the ground by the destroyed clink.

I’d never fired a weapon before of this kind, so I did what I knew best and aimed the barrel towards the legs of the clink when it was in range. The clink was overpowering Norman and managing to push its aim downwards towards him. My finger pressed the metal of the automatic rifle and a burst of bullets came flying from its barrel in a cloud of fire and torn into the legs of the clink.

The ligaments holding the clink up were blown into pieces, its frame only being held up by Norman who was still clutching its rifle in his hands. Norman held the top half of the clink in the air away from him and I fired again, exploding the clink’s chest and head cavity into bits of plastic and metal that littered the ground like confetti. Both clinks were now motionlessly laying on the ground at our feet. This was the first time I’d experience them be this aggressive, as if they’d been reprogrammed.

“You ever se-seen anything like that?” I asked Norman, my corrupted voice cutting out before I could say anymore.

Norman didn’t reply, instead he was staring blankly at the destroyed clinks that lay at his feet. His expression was void, which wasn’t unusual, but it was as if he was processing it. I asked him if he was alright.

He shook his head to clear his optical sensors and faced me, “I’m fine, let’s get moving” he said. Clearly something was using up his processing power.

Still carrying the rifle in my hands, Norman picked up his own rifle from the ground. Now he was taking the spare ammo from the clinks leg holster, concealed within its thigh that popped out upon taping it. Both armed with automatics, we both ran towards the place we last hear gunfire.

Next Chapter: Chapter Eight: Norman