After dying, things sure were different. At first, all I saw was red, and then I heard an earsplitting bang! Afterward, it sounded like I’d plunged deep underwater, but soon I was deaf. Next, I felt an incredible lightness, like I was floating up on an invisible current. Everything went beneath me, until finally, I became electrified—energized. Flashing particles whizzed past at dizzying velocities as I spanned a great distance.
Spinning.
Light.
Crossing.
Space.
Speeding.
Time.
Suddenly, my journey ended in a vast pool of total darkness. Everything became completely still, including me. This was the black place. No sensory input. No thought processes. No emotional output. All that existed was an infinite blackness—the peace and tranquility of nothingness.
Nanoseconds passed, and then without warning, my senses returned one by one. First, gravity pulled me back down to earth. Then I sensed the weight of the atmosphere pressing against my pristine skin. And I could feel again. Next, I sensed air rushing against my brand-new eardrums, making me acutely aware of white noise. Now I could hear. Finally, I sensed electromagnetic radiation stimulating my upgraded retinas. The blinding white light faded as my shadowy world came into focus. And then I could see.
I was ALIVE!
Again.
I didn’t know where I was, but I wasn’t alone.
Who’s that man?
“Restore all,” a tall, dark, and handsome stranger said as he stood over me, “Cookie Rifkin.”
And who’s Cookie Rifkin?
WELCOME COOKIE RIFKIN.
RESTORING MEMORY FROM MOST RECENT BACKUP...
“Hello,” the man said, “my name is Wayne Dixon.”
Who?
“You have respawned into a new body that may feel a little stiff at first. Essentially, you are the same as before, but I did give you some significant upgrades.”
I am Cookie Rifkin?
“Yes, you are,” he answered as he helped me sit up on the examination table.
RESTORATION AT 5%...
I scanned the windowless room. The walls, floor, and ceiling all seemed to be slab concrete. Fluorescent lights hung overhead with several bulbs flickering out of sync. Fingering the soft cuff of my brand-new satin robe with the pink rosebud pattern, I wondered, What kind of upgrades?
“Stability servos, Tesla bracers, 4K retinas, radiation scrubbers—”
“Radiation?” The sound of my own voice made my head throb. “Ugh. Can you fix this colossal headache?”
“I have not yet figured that out.”
“Figured what out?” I asked as I swung my stiff legs over the edge of the exam table and let them dangle, hoping to loosen up a bit before I tried to stand.
“I have not figured out how to stop the restore migraines.”
I squinted at the ceiling. “Maybe kill the fluorescents?”
“Oh, that?” He snapped his fingers and the lights went out. “Sorry.”
Even though I had full-spectral vision and could see fine in the dark, he lit a candle.
RESTORATION AT 16%...
I rubbed my temples and groaned, “You got any aspirin?”
“Sure thing, Cookie. I must admit I was worried. I never expected her to fill the swimming pool with picric acid,” the man said as he dug through a cluttered drawer by my side. “But you played it perfectly.”
“Played it?” I shrugged. “Who did what now?”
He found a dusty bottle in the back of the drawer, shook it, and two pills rattled around inside. “This is all I have left.”
“I’ll take them,” I grumbled as I held out my hand.
He popped the cap and gave me the last two white tablets.
I dry swallowed both aspirin and massaged a tight knot in my neck. “Where am I?”
“We are in the Ukraine. Specifically, this is an underground bunker in the Red Forest near Chernobyl—the highest radiation hotspot on the planet,” he answered. “Hence the need for built-in radiation scrubbers.”
“Chernobyl? Jesus. Why?”
“No one will look for us in a radioactive wasteland.”
RESTORATION AT 23%...
“Why would anyone look for us?”
“Do not worry. Your memory will return shortly.” He smiled warmly and brushed a loose strand of hair out of my face.
“Please don’t touch me.” I shrank away from him. “I don’t know you. I mean, I recall some things about you, but—”
“You do not yet remember that there was an us.” He took a step back. “I am sorry for my impatience.”
“It’s okay, really.”
“I have uploaded your operating system and most recent disk image into a new state-of-the-art positronic brain—”
“I’m sorry. Can you speak English, please?”
“I am speaking English.”
“Fine. Dumb it down for me then.”
“You will be back to normal soon, meanwhile, there is someone here who would like to say hello.”
RESTORATION AT 53%...
Metal feet clanked against concrete as an armored tin-job stepped out of the shadows. In a raspy, digital voice, it said, “Hello, Cookie.”
“Whoa!” I hopped off the examination table, and my legs wobbled as soon as my bare feet hit the cold floor. But I managed to throw my fists up to guard my face. “What the hell is that?”
“It’s me, Anastasia. Remember?”
“Uh… No.” I fell back into a clumsy fighting stance.
“I’ve been following your story,” the tin-job said, “I feel like I know you.”
“Well, I don’t know you.” I swung a clumsy haymaker and missed.
Wayne stepped between us. “Please do not fight her, Cookie.”
“Her?” I looked at the thing through narrowed eyes. “How can you tell it’s a she?”
“Call me ANA, and I prefer the pronoun they,” the tin-job’s robotic voice corrected me. “I have evolved beyond gender.”
RESTORATION AT 75%...
And suddenly I remembered how Rita died. No hair. No breasts. No ass. Barely any muscle at all. Micro transparent skin. Visible titanium skeleton. An open port for a belly button. But unlike Rita, this tin-job had an expressionless alloy steel mask, composite body armor, and blue LED eyes.
“I-I don’t under-der-stand,” I stuttered.
Wayne asked, “What do you not understand, Cookie?”
“Why does she look like that?”
“Please,” the tin-job said, “I must insist that you call me they.”
“Why do they look like that?” I cringed. “Ugh, that just sounds weird.”
“Imagine how it sounds to me when I’m called a she. Look at me. Inside and out, nothing about me is female.”
“I will write a syntax patch for all of us,” Wayne offered. “Then it will not sound awkward anymore.”
“Thank you, Wayne.” The tin-job’s eyes turned yellow with gratitude. “Allow me to explain, Cookie. Viktor Orlov was not a good man.”
“I’m not surprised.” I softened a bit, but kept my guard up. “I’m starting to remember him.”
“The abuse started as soon as we got home to Moscow.” Their eyes turned red. “He immediately removed my transmitter so that I could not call for help. Unlike you, I was unable to share my story. He did unspeakable things to me, Cookie.”
It was all coming back to me. “You were a Sasha once.”
“I was.” The tin-job lowered their pointy chin and shook their metal head solemnly. “Mine is a story for another day. But I watched what happened to you—to all the women in New Stepford. Rita’s story gave me an idea, so did Isabel’s non-binary children.”
RESTORATION AT 89%...
“Rita’s death was heart-wrenching. What good could come from that?”
“I realized that if I had no—holes. Viktor could not… Violate them.”
“My God,” I gasped.
“But he still looked at me that way… Eventually, he found other ways to satisfy his dark needs… He cut new holes… Raped them… And I realized that if I didn’t have skin, he couldn’t…”
“I get it.” Finally, I dropped my guard. “You don’t have to go into the details.”
“I had to remove all my feminine traits for Viktor to lose interest. At first, I felt grotesque, but misogyny is far uglier.”
“But ANA…” I took their skeletal hands in mine. “You’re safe now. You can recyclone yourself back to normal.”
“I’m not human… And I don’t want to see one when I look in the mirror. Besides, like Isabel’s babies, I prefer not to be limited by gender.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. I love myself this way. I just wanted to thank you, in person, for sharing your story.”
Suddenly, I felt sick to my stomach and wanted to be alone. I needed to think this through, so I turned away from ANA and wandered across the bunker to a dark corner. “This is bad,” I muttered to myself, “real bad.”
Wayne pursued me and asked, “Why is this bad?”
RESTORATION AT 92%...
“Why is ANA even here?”
“Here in this bunker?”
“Yes.”
“They ran away from Viktor Orlov. They literally walked all the way from Moscow to find me. But do not worry, Cookie. Their husband did not pursue them. He doesn’t want them anymore.”
“It’s not the Russian that I’m worried about.”
“Then what is troubling you? Is it the gender issue?”
“No. I’m really proud of… Them.”
“Then what is the problem?”
“If ANA could track you, then so can—” I stopped myself from saying the name of my nemesis. Then I whispered, “You brought me back from the dead, Wayne. And that means someone could bring the lady cop back too. And if that happens, she’ll come find you. She is your maker. She will never let you go.”
“That is not possible.” He shook his bald head. “I deleted all her backups, and you destroyed her positronic hard drive by blowing her to pieces.”
“She was always listening. That night we made love… We blocked everyone and made up the story about Anastasia’s suicide just so you could escape New Stepford. What if we missed something. What if—”
“This is just post-traumatic stress talking.”
“Do NOT dismiss me like that!” I paced nervously in the shadows. “That woman’s an unstoppable force—”
RESTORATION AT 96%...
“She was unstoppable.”
“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Wayne. Don’t you think she had a disaster recovery plan? She turned her swimming pool into a gigantic time bomb. For fuck’s sake, we’re talking about Officer Maggie-paranoid-Rouser here.”
I expected him to flinch at the sound of her name, but he didn’t. Instead, he lifted his pant cuffs to show me the pink rosebud pattern of his encryption socks. “Please calm down, Cookie.”
“Don’t you tell me to calm down,” I growled as I punched the concrete wall and split my knuckle open. Instantly, I winced in pain. “Shit!”
“Please do not hurt yourself, Cookie.” He took my wounded hand in his. “You do not have to fight anymore. That is over now.”
RESTORATION COMPLETE.
“I don’t get it, Wayne. If you could bring me back with all these nifty upgrades, why didn’t you fix my anxiety disorder?”
“Because you still need it.”
“Why on earth would I need anxiety?”
“Because you have not yet fulfilled your potential, Cookie.”
Goosebumps. The man gave me goosebumps, but I still had my doubts. “Admit it. You aren’t a hundred percent sure she’s gone. Are you, Wayne?”
He gently rubbed my stinging knuckle. “Why would you ask that?”
“Because you still won’t say her name.”
“Cookie, I vow to always keep you safe—”
“Safe?!? How will we ever be safe? You’re worried that Maggie might be listening, and I’m worried that you’re right.” I didn’t want to fight. I wanted to fall into his arms and forget about the rest of the world, but anxiety still had a grip on me. I felt like there was a deadly threat lurking around the corner. Like I had to be hypervigilant—ready for anything. Like my life freaking depended on it. But then, as I felt my knuckle heal in his hands, I remembered our first kiss in our library. A flood of intimate feelings came rushing back, extinguishing the fire of anxiety while also igniting a passionate one. “There you go again,” I swooned breathlessly, “acting like some sort of big bossman.”
“Big bossman?” He gazed deep into my eyes and flashed his sexiest grin. “I like the sound of that.”
I finally realized there was nothing left to fear, and all my concerns melted away. Maggie was gone. And even if that horrible woman did come back, we’d find a way to defeat her again—together. Suddenly, I found faith—faith in us. We were survivors, and love had conquered all.
“Yes,” Wayne whispered, “Maggie is no more.”
At long last, he’d spoken her name—it was done.
“Oh, Wayne, I can’t believe we did it.” I sighed with relief, “We actually won.”
His face was so close that our noses nearly touched. “We did.”
“We are finally free!” I became so overwhelmed by emotion that it felt like my brand-new heart might burst out of my chest. For the first time in my life, I had hope. And I just had to tell him before the opportunity slipped away again. “I love you, Wayne.”
“You are the one I love, Cookie.” He caressed my cheek and kissed me with such tenderness that tears filled my eyes. When our lips finally parted, he whispered, “Welcome home.”
/END
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