‘Horrible weather today, eh?’ He said as he snatched his coffee from the automaton at the counter. John didn’t like automatons.

 

I don’t blame him, but sometimes he takes it too far.

 

‘I kind of like this weather.’ I reply.

 

‘Typical of you, Kylie. You’re an odd one’ John says in a jokingly way.

 

I don’t know how old John is because he never celebrates or tells anyone when his birthday is because he doesn’t like to celebrate birthdays, even a birthday that’s not his own. I’d say he’s in his mid-thirties though. He has black hair that he never combs, even on occasions and his eyes are dark brown although they look black when there’s no light reflecting on them. He’s also extremely pale. John doesn’t talk about himself much, so I don’t know a lot about him. My coffee order is finally finished and handed to me from the counter by an automaton, the coffee felt hot in my hand. 

 

‘I really must go now, John. I have a meeting.’ I say in a rushed tone. I was already two minutes late.

 

‘That makes two of us. Need a lift?’ He asks.

 

‘No, but thank you for asking.’ I reply. 

 

‘Ok then, see you later.’ John acknowledges and walks away.

 

‘Bye!’ I call after, so he can hear me. 

 

‘I wonder what the meeting is about anyway.’ I ponder. I shake the question off and start to walk back to my car when I see someone on the street dressed in rags. There was a cardboard sign sitting upward in front of him. I stop to read it: ‘Please help me, I lost my job to automatons. Anything helps.’ The man sees me staring at the sign and I immediately feel embarrassed and continue walking to my car. I touch my against the black, cold, ID pad on the car where the handle would have been if this were a few years ago. It scans my hand and the navy coloured car door opens and I sit inside, placing my hot coffee in the cup holder next to me. I start the car and drive off, embarrassed for myself, but sympathetic for the man.

 

 

‘S-Sorry I’m late, sir.’ I say, stuttering in embarrassment.

 

‘It’s alright, Kylie. Take a seat.’ Matthew says, calming me. 

 

I sit down next to John and Liam, who looks as if he tried really hard to look nice for this ‘Important’ meeting. Liam always seems to go overboard on things he shouldn’t go overboard on. The meeting starts.

 

‘As you all know, the public have been starting to have concerns on automatons. People believe that at any moment, their automaton will somehow go against their coding and attack them. I’m sorry to say, but this could be true as two of CyberReflections automatons have done so. They have escape their code and have been attacking civilian ever since. Currently, these automatons are in hiding and CyberReflections has asked us to capture these automatons to keep this event on the low to prevent any further commotion.’ Matthew explains.

 

‘Where exactly are these automatons?’ Dave questions. 

 

‘They are hiding in an abandoned apartment on Granite Avenue. We will capture them by splitting up in partners. Please discuss among yourselves now who you would like to partner with.’ Matthew responds. 

 

 

I sit in silence, not bothering to ask anyone to be my partner. 

 

Suddenly John beside me says ‘Want to be partners?’ 

 

Surprised I reply saying ‘Sure.’

 

‘Alright then.’ Says John.

 

‘Has everyone chosen their partners?’ Matthew asks, raising his voice enough for everyone to hear.

 

Everyone stops talking among themselves and nods.

 

‘Yes, sir.’ A few people reply.

 

‘Ok everybody, I am going to hand a piece of paper with the positions and tasks for you and your partner.’ Matthew instructed. 

 

The pieces were all the same size and professionally cut, showing that the police force has been thinking on this situation for a long time. It was finally time to do something about it. I read the paper, leaning over because my arm was held out so John could see.