Gunshots rang as a blazing green sun set slowly into the horizon of a vibrant purple sky, shedding its last lights onto the city streets. Roman made wide eye contact with the woman that pulled the trigge. All the while she had that serene smile on her face. She was calm, collected, and composed as the man fell to the ground. For a moment everything moved in slow motion, the mysterious man that had just been shot laid unmoving while the woman turned to look deeper into the dark alley. The chase began before the blood started to pool. Roman hopped over the body as the woman leapt onto a fire escape ladder and scaled it quickly. Roman pursued close behind her, up and up and up the ladder. Story by story as she gained distance ahead of him.

He made it to the to where she had dismounted without being too far behind her, but he was tired and, given her speed, she should have been far ahead of him. What was stranger was that the woman was now scouring the apartment they were in, toppling over bookshelves with ease and lifting furniture over her head. Roman didn’t have time to think about it though as soon after he had pulled himself into the room platform she seemed to find what she was looking for and began to run again. he was forced to chase her through the front door of the apartment and down the hall, up the stairs, into another room and out again. The woman was a blur as she sprinted through the rooms, leaping over furniture and rolling again into the hallway of the complex. Roman barely managed to keep her in eyesight as the two made their way further up the building until they reached the roof.

The woman stopped short of the edge, Roman pulled out his gun.

“Stop right there!” He yelled and pointed his pistol at her. “Stop! You have to come with me!” He said, holding his gun in one hand while the other one rested on his knee as he struggled to catch his breath. The woman, with her back to him, didn’t respond. She had long white hair and an athletic figure, her shoulders were relaxed and she seemed nonchalant. Slowly, unnaturally, her head turned back to look at him, and he saw her silver, flickering eyes and that same serene smile. “You…” Roman said as he composed himself. “You’re an artificial…” She jumped from the building onto another rooftop and started to sprint again. Roman cursed and followed her.

They continued to leap from roof to roof, the gaps in between growing bigger just as the distance between them did. With their silhouettes burned into the image of the setting sun from a distance, with the clear purple sky behind them, the scene looked like a painting, illustrating the futility of life or the greed of man. Then they came across one certain leap, one that the woman made effortlessly, but that Roman, had he thought about it, would have been unsure of. Indeed if Roman had been careful he would have seen that it was a near impossible jump for someone of his age. Had he stopped he could have called back up and let them take care of her. Roman did not stop, he was not careful, and he did not think about it. Here was a murderer on the loose just one leap away. So he jumped, barely grasping the ledge with his fingers.

He struggled to pull himself up, knowing that the woman would be far away by the time he managed to save himself. Something was wrong though, as Roman reaffirmed his grip he couldn't hear the sound of fleeing footsteps. When he pulled himself up to his chest he could see her standing there, facing him, like she was waiting. He could see her silver, flickering eyes, and that same, serene, smile. That image faded though, as the sun dipped below the horizon and Roman could only see her outline, her perfectly still, motionless, relaxed outline as he fought for his life. Even when it became clear he was going to make it up, she just stood there.

When he finally made it up he pointed his weapon at her again. Roman took deep breaths, but kept his aim steady on her this time. He stared and she stared back with those silver, flickering eyes that now glew in the dark and that same, damn, serene, smile. The lights of the city began to pop on one by one, and in the dim glow they could see each other, just enough.

“Don’t move! Don’t move! I swear to god I will shoot your dumb ass so fast!” Roman shouted, furiously as he removed a badge from the inside pocket of his jacket. “I am an officer of the law! I have express jurisdiction within this city to kill without consequences if the suspect has been witnessed committing a crime of a reasonable nature!”

“You consider my crime to be of a reasonable nature, Roman?” Her tone was robotic but there was a quivering to it, a pain, an anxiety: A fear.

“You killed a man! You killed a man and you are still holding a weapon!” Roman yelled back, unbothered that she knew his first name.

“Don’t worry, Roman, you won’t be forced to kill me today.” She said, dropping her pistol to the ground.

“You are now….” Roman coughed violently, covering his mouth with the hand holding his badge. He quickly glanced down at his hand: blood. He regained his composure. “You are now under my jurisdiction, you will do as I say within the confines of the law and you will submit to thorough questioning. Do you submit?”

“I’m sorry.” She said.

“Do you submit?”

“How long do you have?”

“...Do you submit?”

“Does your family know?”

“Do you submit?!” He screamed, shaking the gun at her.

Her expression remained calm and peaceful. “I have been called a robot before, Roman, but here you are, a natural, repeating yourself over and over again. Still, I am the robot.”

“Answer now or I will shoot you!”

“I submit. To questioning. Here.”

Roman shook his head, exasperated. He let out a deep sigh and massaged the bridge of his nose. “Fine. Who are you?”

“My name is Alexis Chol, I have lived in Deshper since I was born-”

“Since you were manufactured.”

“Is there a difference anymore?”

“Who was that man you killed?”

“I do not know.”

“Why did you shoot him?”

“I do not know.”

“Why did you run from me?”

A tear appeared in the corner of Alexis’ eye and rolled down her cheek. Her expression did not change.
“I do not know.”

“Why- are you crying? Why?”

“I do not know. I am going to die.”

Slowly she took a step back towards the ledge.

“STOP!” Roman said, moving closer.

“Why- What do you mean you’re gonna die?” He asked.

“We all die, Roman.” Streams of tears came from her eyes now, her expression did not change.

“Not today. Don’t do anything you’ll regret!” He stepped closer, putting away his badge and reaching out his hand. “We can sort this out, is someone making you do this?”

She smiled, genuinely happy it seemed, still crying.
“Yes. Help. Me.” Her expression changed again, back to that same, serene smile. She took another step back and fell. Roman rushed to the edge of the building, but it was too late. They were so high up, when he looked down he didn’t see an artificial human. Roman saw a young female's body lying twisted and broken, with wide, lightless silver eyes. Even from so far up, he could see her face as more lights began to flicker on. She wore that same serene smile as she lay there: dead.

The lights continued to appear as the night sky began to grow darker, and as they did, light bounced off of a metallic round object that rolled around near Alexis’ body. He squinted closer at it, and then he sprinted in the opposite direction frantically, barely making the same jump that had almost killed him earlier. He kept running and jumping away like a lunatic and calling down to the streets below him.

“RUN, GET OUT OF HERE, LEAVE!”

With a panic in the streets beneath him struggling to evacuate, Roman turned back to the place he had just run away from in time to catch a wall of flame erupting from where Alexis had fallen. The noise was so loud he had to cover his ears. Still, he fell to the ground, curled into a ball, his eyes shut tight and his jaw clenched shut. When the thunderous sound disappeared his ears were still ringing and he was still lying on the ground. He reached into his pants pocket, retrieved a small black oval, and held it over his mouth.

“Officer Martin reporting… Shit, you’re gonna have to see for yourself.”