Finished: Chapter 6

As we walked throughout, we were stopped by a robot.

"I will take it from here," the new robot said.

"Okay," Sparks and Ron handed me over. 

"Hello Joel Green. My name is BU-908. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them. I will be your tour guide," 

"Tour guide? Where am I?" I asked.

"Why the robot building facility! This is where all manufacturing of robots and military weapons are done. We also create new genetic engineering ideas, but that is in our west wing. I will just be showing you around the east wing, the robot facility," BU-908 said.

"Can I just call you BU?" I asked.

"No, no, no. My full name must be used at all times. This is to ensure that my serial number is known. It also helps avoid confusion," BU-908 replied.

"Alright, well can I remove my cuffs?" I asked.

"Of course not, that is not in my coding to do," 

I mumbled something under my breath, but followed the robot on the tour.

"Here is where we get all the knowledge for our robots!" BU-908 cheered excitedly.

He gestured towards a window. I looked inside. There were what appeared to be human brains inside incubators. There were large wires connecting the brain with a robot head. The head was still exposing its wires, indicating it was still in its early stages of production. There was no sign of human activity among the brain incubators, but behind a large steel plate and window was the control room. There were humans, they were pressing buttons, and appeared to be coding the robots. 

"As you can see, the only things the humans do is code the robots' facial features. Everything else is done entirely by machine," BU said.

"So why not just use only machines?" I asked.

"Machines are very unpredictable, and they have terrible taste in art!" BU laughed.

"I see," I nodded my head.

"Now for the assembling room! In here the robot heads are meticulously placed on the rest of the body," BU explained.

I peered through the window once more. The robot heads were being screwed on in lightning speed. I remember once reading about how slow machines were in the 2000s. Only until 3040 were machines actually fast enough to produce whole robots in less than five minutes.

"Where do you get the brains?" I asked.

"That is classified information. Only a production worker would know," BU responded.

I had always wondered why robots seemed so much like humans, and now I knew. They were programmed to have the qualities of a human. 

"Here we are!" BU knocked on a set of doors. 

A scanner appeared out of the door knobs.

"Please enter your serial number, or ID," it spoke. 

BU did his stuff, and brought my ID up on the screen. Then the doors opened revealing a large office room. There were large monitors showing the production process that we just saw. The monitors were everywhere, there wasn't a window in sight. In the center of the room was an antique leather chair, its back facing towards us.

"Leave us, BU-908," a voice called out.

"Yes sir!" BU said as he walked through the doors.

And with that, the mysterious man turned around. 

His face was ghastly. It was literally half machine half human. The machine side had a large circular red eye in place of a human eye. There was no hair on either side. The mouth on the robot side was that of a robot's. Straight and rectangular. The robot face was grey, with bolt seams going across the top, and the sides. The other side was a normal human, normal eyes, and normal mouth. No eyebrows, but there were eyelashes.
My heart felt like it skipped about twenty beats I was so afraid. He scared the hell out of me, and quite frankly, he was intimidating.  

"Good morning, Mr. Green," his elbows were propped up on the desk, and his fingers were intertwined together, kinda like the evil villain pose in old movies. He was leaned far into the desk. His voice was half artificial, with an echo to it. 

"Good morning..." I said, startled at his voice. 

"You must be startled at my apperance, well don't be. I am the first cyborg to ever exist. My name is Markus Holand. I am the CEO and founder of this building," his arms spread out revealing his large wingspan, and his robot arm. 

"So are you half machine?" I asked. Sweat began to form on my forehead, and I wiped it off. 

"Yes. In fact, half of my body is that of a robot. The other is normal human flesh," Markus nodded. 

"How is that possible?" I muttered, half close to running out of there.
"I know what you said. I have the superior hearing of a human machine combo. You may be wondering how exactly I could be this way, well it's simple. All my organs were encased in my robot interior, while my exterior is that of a human and machine. I am but a test. My company is now developing an improved cyborg," Markus chuckled as he spoke.

"Why are you telling me this? And why am I even here?" I asked.

"All in good time, but I am telling you for one reason. There is no reason. I have nothing to hide from you Joel. The only thing I have to hide is my reasoning for bringing you here. I would ruin the surprise I have in store for you, and to be honest... you're a fugitive. You can either stay here in my protection, or give me the word, and you're on your own. But I don't think Ron and Sparks would let you live," Markus grinned. 

"That's their names?" I asked.
"No, but I only refer to them by what you prefer. They have no names. They are mere test subjects in my cyborg project," Markus replied.

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"Oh Joel, a good magician never reveals his secrets. Now I am no magician, but I can assure you that a good manufacturer never reveals his secrets," Markus replied. 

I didn't like this guy. Something about him made me uneasy. The way he talked was so monotonous and cold, it made me shiver a thousand times. I wondered if he was really telling the truth. He also scared me. The way his face was made me want to run away. 

"Because, all of what happened is a misunderstanding!" I shouted.

"Ah yes, you know we did what we did for a reason," Markus said.

"What?"

"Ron and Sparks were ordered to kill Mikey, he would've gotten in the way of my plans. You are needed for my grand surprise. Enjoy your time here, for tomorrow I finally reveal what we have in store for you,"