The day began with a lot of hustle and bustle for Diana Hudson. She had to do the presentation of the accounting report at the technology company where she worked. She was in a big hurry. She had to take her two children to school. Her cell phone was ringing off the hook. The board of directors was getting ready to start. He accelerated the vehicle, and as he passed through intersection seven, fate had an unfortunate event in store for him. Crash!
He opened his eyes. Her husband, Charles, was sitting by her bed. When he realized that he had woken up, he squeezed her hand and emotionally called the nurses. The doctor on duty examined her. They performed further tests and looked at the x-rays. Apparently everything was fine. The next day she would be discharged from the clinic.
Charles explained to her that he had had an accident. At the intersection seven, two drunk, late-night youths in a Cadillac Escalade van struck the vehicle she was driving. Diana cried. She thanked God that the children were no longer in the car with her. She asked about the young people in the van. The kids didn't make it!
The company's lawyers would take care of the whole legal matter. Dian had nothing to worry about and they gave her the time she needed to recover. She insisted on continuing to do the work from home.
The next day, Charles woke her up with a kiss. She helped her children get ready for school. Her husband would take them, the children hugged her, but not with the love they used to have. They were a little cold to her. The children looked at her strangely. She felt different. That dreadful experience made her nervous. The atmosphere wasn't the same either.
Diana looked for her laptop to do the accounting reports. She felt that work was flowing faster than usual. She caught up with all the backlog in less time than she had calculated. She was recovering very well. She got up and went to the kitchen, prepared some food.
While he was cutting up some vegetables.The memories came like flashes to his mind.
Noise.
Glass breaking.
Smell of hot metal.
Blood.
A head hitting the window.
He dropped the knife. Dizzy, she leaned against the fridge. An intense buzzing sound tormented her for a few moments.
The next few days passed in the same way. It was a routine. The husband waking her up in the morning. The children distant, saying goodbye to go to school. Making reports to send to the company and preparing the meal. She didn't tell Charles anything about her memories of the accident. But every day he had the same visions.
A week later, during dinner, he realized he hadn't eaten anything since he left the clinic. Alarmed, she told Charles, but he tried to deflect the issue. She got up from the table and, very upset, demanded that he pay attention to her. She wasn't crazy! She hadn't eaten anything in several days and told him about the memories of the accident that were coming to her mind.
The frightened children ran to their rooms. That bothered her more. Diana went into the kitchen, turned on the stove. She turned to her husband and demanded an explanation. Suddenly, Charles' gaze expressed astonishment. She turned to him and looked at him. She saw her own hand on the stove fire. It was burning, but she felt no pain.
The sound of the impact.
The smell of hot metal from the vehicles.
His head bursting through the glass.
Diana raised her hand, was absorbed, watching it being consumed by the fire. The fire was spreading and it was melting her skin. With a terrified expression I looked at her fingers, they were made of metal.
-I'm sorry - said Charles. He quickly grabbed her and squeezed the back of her neck. She was immobilized, but she could still hear and see everything around her. Her husband made a phone call. He claimed that the machine with his wife's programmed memories was not working well. She was aggressive and remembered the last minutes of her life!
Diana had died. She was just an artificial intelligence program inside a metal body. An hour later, men arrived with briefcases. They had the uniform of Occinox, the company where Diana worked. After examining her, they informed Charles that they would have to restart her.
It was the last thing he saw and heard.
A loving kiss woke her up. The children had breakfast. Diana felt them distant. Charles would take them to school. He took the laptop and started writing reports for the company. I finish them very quickly. I'm recovering very well! She said to herself. She went to the kitchen, wanted to prepare lunch and surprise the children when they came home from school.
She lit the stove.
The loud buzzing and the memories came back to his mind
A discussion.
The fire in the stove.
The burned skin.
A metal hand.
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