Project Ami (2 page)

‘Wow! This looks amazing! Look at all the colours!’ Ami exclaims with wonder.

Ryan laughs. ‘Follow me.’

They start to walk past the hillside. The sun hangs low in the sky, and there is a beautiful sun shining through the trees. The birds sing.

Ami is truly amazed. She looks around, awe emblazoned across her face. Ryan smiles and tells her to stay close.

After walking through the forest for a while, Ryan notices that the sun is getting lower and lower. He tells Ami they need to set up camp before it gets too dark. They start to walk a bit deeper into the forest, and Ryan finds a good place with cover. He tells Ami he will look for some dry wood to make a fire. A few minutes later, he returns. Ami sits in the grass, touching everything, happiness radiating from her. Ryan lays the dry wood. He takes his backpack and removes some old newspapers from it and stuffs them between the wood. He then takes out a lighter and lights the paper.

Ami gets closer and looks at the fire. ‘Look at the colours!’ she says.

Ryan looks in his backpack for some food, and then all of a sudden hears ‘Ow!’

He quickly looks up and sees that Ami is holding her hand, a pained expression on her face. ‘I touched the fire but it was really hot!’

‘You can feel heat?’ he asks in surprise.

‘Yes, of course. I can feel the same things you can. Why wouldn’t I be able to?’

‘Ami, can I ask you something?’

‘Of course.’

‘Why where you locked up in that room?’

‘Well, when I was made, my dad showed special interest in me. He put me in that room and every day he came and we talked for hours. He would tell me a lot of different stories, sometime happy ones and sometimes scary ones. There were always cameras around, recording my emotions. My dad tells me it is not normal for a bot to have feelings. I think that’s why he always called me his special girl. He thought I was unique.’

Ryan leans closer. ‘Wait… You’re saying you can feel emotions?’

‘Of course.’ Confusion creases her forehead, as if providing Ryan with proof. ‘Is it really so strange for a bot to have emotions?’

‘I think you are probably the only bot in the world to
feel
anything,’ he responds. ‘You must be truly special.’

Ami smiles. ‘So where will we be going tomorrow?’

‘I’ll tell you that in the morning. For now, today was a long day, and all I want to do now is get some sleep.’

‘Okay,’ she replies. ‘I will wait here until you wake up.’

Ryan takes his sleeping bag from his backpack, rolls it out, and crawls into it. He looks at Ami one last time and sees her staring into the fire.

‘Today has been a good day,’ she says into the flames.

He smiles before making himself comfortable and slowly falling to sleep.

It is early in the morning. The sun is shining through the trees, and Ryan hears a sound of someone walking around him. He stands up and looks around him, but Ami is nowhere to be seen. He jumps up, grabs his gun, and starts to walk around the camp in an effort to locate her. He calls her name but, after calling a few times, he hears a voice in the distance.

‘I’m here.’

He walks towards the sound of her voice, and then calls again. Once again he hears, ‘I’m here.’ He is getting closer. He pushes away a few bushes and ends up on a big open field. In the field he sees a barn, with Ami standing right in front of it, looking up in wonder. He walks to Ami and asks what she is doing.

Ami replies, ‘I was looking around and I found this house. Isn’t it just beautiful? Shall we go inside?’

‘You shouldn’t run off like that, Amu. This is a dangerous place! If you don’t look out, you could get wounded—or worse!’

‘I’m sorry,’ she says quietly. ‘I just did not want to wake you up. And I was curious. And kind of lonely and bored sitting there while you slept.’

‘It’s okay. Did you see anybody or any bots around?’

‘No, but I only just got here.’

‘Okay. I will have a look, but you stay behind me.’

Ryan grabs his gun and slowly starts to walk towards the barn. It’s an old structure, and scratching noises come from inside—
Rats or mice maybe?
he wonders.

Ryan takes the handle of one of the doors and throws open the door. As soon as he opens the door, a flock of doves fly out of the roof, an alert sounding from their mouths and up into the morning sky.

Ami ducks and screams.

‘It’s okay!’ Ryan reassures her urgently. ‘They’re just birds.’

Ami slowly stands up and takes Ryan’s arm. They start to walk into the barn. Ryan asks Ami to let go so that he can make sure everything is safe. He walks back to Ami when he is satisfied, and together they look around the barn, but all they can see are some saddles, tools and hay bales. There are holes in the back wall and the roof of the barn, and bright yellow sunlight filters through the gaps from the early-morning sun.

Ami walks to the back wall and looks through one of the holes. With an excited voice she says, ‘Ryan, I can see another house through this hole!’

Ryan walks to the wall and looks through the hole. A small, wooden cabin sits in the distance, a porch at the front. Clothes hang on the railings, and everything looks clean and well-maintained. He tells Ami he will have a look to see if there is something to be found there.

‘Can I come with you?’ she asks.

‘Okay, but stay behind me and stay low until I tell you it’s safe.’

They walk out of the barn and around the back, heading in the direction of the cabin. When they are a few feet away, all of a sudden, they are shot at from one of the windows of the cabin. Ryan quickly grabs Ami and they dive behind some wooden logs. Ryan looks at Ami and asks if she is okay. But she has been hit in the arm.

After a few seconds, however, Ryan watches in disbelief as the skin on Ami’s arm closes the gaping hole. In awe, he asks, ‘How did you do that?’

‘I have a self-healing function that can fix small injuries and errors so that I do not become incapacitated because of a small injury.’

‘So basically you’re immortal?’ Ryan laughs, incredulous.

‘Of course not,’ she smiles. ‘It only works for small injuries. If he had shot me a few more times it would have been a lot worse.’

‘Okay, just stay down,’ Ryan commands. ‘I’ll handle this.’

Ryan grabs his gun and peeks out above the logs. He watches as a big man rushes outside.

Ryan yells, ‘We don’t want any trouble!’ But the only reply they get is ‘Screw you!’ and the man starts shooting in their direction.

Ryan takes a few deep breaths, peeks out his head out again to look where the man is, and starts to shoot at him. The man gets hit in his leg and immediately turns to Ryan and starts shooting in his direction. Ryan tells Ami to stay put, and he walks to the left side of the logs. There he prepares himself to make a sprint to another pile of logs, and then he rushes across unseen by his enemy.

Ryan glances over the logs and sees that the man does not know where he is. He aims his gun and fires one shot. The man falls down into the grass, and everything falls quiet. Ryan waits a few moments and then walks over to the man. He looks on at the ugly guy, now lay in the grass. He wears a filthy white t-shirt that is way too small for him, and his jeans are ripped.

He approaches the guy and checks he is alive, but he is not. He calls out that it is safe, and watches as Ami appears out of cover. She looks scared, but slowly walks to Ryan.

A few feet away from him she asks if the man is dead. Ryan nods solemnly. He walks over to Ami and tells her that this is their world now and, in order to survive, they need to protect themselves.

‘Come, let’s check out the cabin,’ Ryan suggests.

He walks to the cabin and Ami follows. Ryan has his gun ready to shoot. He opens the door and checks every corner to see if it is safe. He quickly walks into the rooms, scanning them to see if there is anybody else in the cabin. He then walks back outside and tells Ami all is clear.

Ryan walks into the kitchen to look for supplies, and then routes through closets and cupboards. He finds a few cans of food and some bottles of water. In the meantime, Ami walks into another room. Ryan checks the entire kitchen and puts the food and water into his backpack.

Ami stands in front of an open closet looking at a dress. Ran enters the room and tells her she can take it if she likes. ‘It would be safer for you to wear a dress so that people think you’re human and not a bot,’ he says. ‘Less drama that way.’

Ami picks the dress out of the closet and, with a smile on her face, holds it in front of her and looks at Ryan. ‘What do you think?’ she asks.

‘I think it will look great on you,’ he replies.

Ami takes the dress from the hanger and slowly puts it on. Ryan looks at her and smiles. ‘You look just like a human,’ he says.

Ami smiles, and then her attention is drawn to a mirror on the other side of the room. She sees a few foam heads with wigs on them. She walks over to the wigs and picks one up. It has short black hair. She puts on the wig and looks at herself in the mirror. With an amazed look in her eyes, she starts to smile. She turns to Ryan and, with happiness in her voice, asks, ‘How do I look?’

Ryan smiles and tells her she looks beautiful.

Shyness creeps across her face, and she turns back to the mirror and inspects how she looks.

Ryan tells her they have enough food and water now and suggests they stay here for the night. He tells Ami to stay in the cabin and then he walks outside. He walks to the dead man and grabs him by his arms. With effort, he drags him a few metres and then drops him between the bushes. He picks up some branches and stray brambles, and places them on top of him. He then goes back inside and tells Ami, ‘Today we can have a relaxed day. I’m going hunting later and I want you to stay here. I’m sure there is enough stuff around here to keep you busy.’

‘Okay,’ nods Ami with a smile.

At almost midday, Ryan walks over to his backpack and takes out a can of chili that he found in one of the cabinets. He heads into the kitchen and tests whether the stove is still working; thankfully, it looks like there is still some gas in the propane tank. He takes a pan from one of the drawers and places it on the stove. He opens the can of chili and puts it in the pan. After a while, the chili is warmed through, and Ryan takes a fork and starts eating. ‘It’s been so long since I have eaten this,’ he says with satisfaction. ‘It tastes so good!’

‘I wish I could taste, but that’s one thing I can’t do,’ Amy muses.

‘Well, on the other hand, you don’t need to worry about getting food or drinking water. In this world, those two things are some of the most important things for people. And a source of worry,’ Ryan states.

He finishes eating and tells Ami, ‘I’m going to take a quick nap and then I’ll go out hunting and see if I can catch something for dinner.’ He lays down on an old couch but, before he closes his eyes, he looks at Ami and tells her that if she hears anything, she should wake him up immediately.

He closes his eyes and falls asleep.

Ami continues to walk around the house to see if she can find anything interesting. She walks over to a small closet against the wall and finds some books. She picks out a book and starts reading.

A few hours later, Ryan wakes up. He stands and looks around the room. He sees Ami sitting on her knees on the ground, reading a book. ‘What are you reading?’ he asks.

‘It’s a story about a girl and a boy. They both travel around the world and keep meeting each other in different countries. After a while they fall in love and then the boy travels across the world to find her.’

Ryan laughs and tells her he is going into the forest to see if he can catch some rabbits.

‘Rabbits? Why would you want to catch rabbits?’

‘Well, rabbits are a great source of protein. And if I can catch one, I can eat for a day or two.’

‘My dad showed me a picture of a rabbit once. It looked really fluffy. Cute. Sweet, even.’

Ryan smiles and tells her she needs to stay indoors. ‘I’ll be back soon. But remember, if anything happens, I want you to hide, okay?’ he says.

Ami agrees and tells him to be safe.

Ryan walks out of the door and closes it behind him. He then walks into the forest. In the depths of the wood, Ryan looks for few good spots and locates animal marks. He finds some good sticks and grabs some rope from his backpack. He ties the rope and sticks into a rabbit trap, and places it in a few spots he can see rabbit markings. Since he needs to wait, he walks around the forest, seeing if he can maybe find a rabbit or maybe a fox, or something he can just shoot.

An hour later, he is empty handed, and so he decides to wait one more hour before checking the traps. He walks through the forest and then stumbles across a very big but low-hanging tree. He decides to climb into the tree and rest for a while. Enjoying the peace as he lays in the tree, time quickly flies and, soon enough, the sun going down. Ryan stretches himself and climbs out of the tree, and then walks over to the rabbit traps, but he finds it empty. ‘Damn,’ he curses to himself, and starts to walk back in the direction of the cabin.

When he arrives at the cabin, Ami is nowhere to be seen. He calls her name and then sees Ami coming from a different room. He asks what she was doing, and she tells him she heard someone so she was hiding.

‘Ah okay, it was just me,’ says Ryan.

Ryan tells her that he was not able to catch anything and so he will have to open his last can of beans. He tells Ami that if she could put a pan on the fire, he will get some wood for the fireplace.

‘Sure,’ says Ami, and she walks over to the stove.

Ryan walks outside and grabs a few logs of wood. ‘The logs are way too big,’ he says to himself. ‘We need an axe. Perhaps there’s one in the barn.’ He walks over to the barn and looks around. Sure enough, there he finds an axe and takes it with him. He chops up some wood and takes it into the cabin. He throws it in an old fireplace, together with some newspapers, and lights it up.

He asks Ami, ‘How is the food going?’

‘I think it’s almost done,’ she replies.

Ryan walks over to Ami. He looks at the beans and sees that they are indeed almost done.

‘I did not know you could cook?’ he says.

‘Yes, my dad taught me. He taught me a lot of things’

‘Like what?’ Ryan asks.

‘Well, when he created me I already knew a lot of things, like how to speak, how to read and how to walk. He told me that humans do not know how to do those things when they are born so I guess I was lucky. He taught me on how to keep my room clean and how to cook dinner. He taught me on how to take care of myself or other people, just in case anyone ever got hurt.’

Ryan smiles and looks at the food. ‘I think the beans are done,’ he says.

Ami picks up a plate and serves the food. She gives it to Ryan. With a smile on her face, she says ‘Bon appetite!’

Ryan laughs and takes the plate and walks over to the couch. Ami sits next to him, and they start to talk.

‘Ami, can I ask you something?’

‘Sure. What do you want to know?’

‘Well, I have been wondering. How do you keep running? Don’t you need some sort of power supply like the other bots?’

‘My body works just like yours. I have a heart that transports fluid through my body. And it will keep me running forever.’

‘Wow. It’s amazing what your dad did. He didn’t only create a bot; he created life. I’m still trying to wrap my head around how it can happen that you have emotions. I just can’t seem to understand it.’

Ami smiles and says, ‘Even I do not know how it happened. I have felt emotions since the moment I was created. At first, everything felt so weird. I did not know what it was. But after a while, the emotions just started to come out. One night, my dad was really angry about something and I got scared. He started to throw things around the room, and I asked him to please stop. I told him I was scared. He looked at me with so much surprise. The next day, he put me in that room and we started to talk for many hours, day in and day out.’