Chapter Five: The Lie
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ZM-11833 didn’t need sleep, they could power down if they wanted to but why would they. It was boring to watch Anaya sleep after the first hour however, so ZM-11833 left to get some important supplies for their stay.

Cart after cart of clothes piled up in Anaya’s apartment, ZM-11833 had a blast organizing. Not only had they fetched the corpo punk apparel, but ZM-11833 had liberated all the stores on 331 of the clothes that fit their cute human.

ZM-11833 set about tailoring those that need adjusting in accordance with Anaya's measurements and looks. Sadly many had to be discarded as they clashed with her completion, skin tone or hair color.

Around the time Anaya awoke, ZM-11833 was monitoring her breathing patterns; they had a full sprawling collection ready for her. Anaya took one sleepy look at the majesty of the accumulated fashion and tried to pretend she was asleep, it didn’t work.

Today's outfit that Anaya was gently forced into was a two piece ensemble, a under-layer bodysuit and an over layer dress and jacket combo.

The bodysuit was a black full length outfit made from a stretchy but soft nano carbon fiber. The piece hugged Anaya’s lower body perfectly outlining her curves and muscles beautifully, it split just below her belly button and lower back to travel up her sides and cross over her breasts in an X before wrapping around her neck.

The over layer was a black sleeveless dress that hugged her sides and rested on her hips, the left side was higher and slanted across her pelvis to the right side. The jacket was a thick faux leather, it cut off just under her bust as well, unlike the other from yesterday this one was thicker with padded sections on the chest, back and neck.

ZM-11833 fetched some black finger-less combat gloves and military style black lace up boots to complete the look. As they had no expertise in make-up they wanted to see what Anaya would think about it before giving it a try.

Today's dress up went faster without Anaya’s flailing and shouting, only a resigned glare was their reward for a hard night's work.

“All done~” ZM-11833 chimed to their human, they knew humans liked being told when things were happening instead of using their sensors to tell them.

Anaya only let out a sigh before trudging over to the messy kitchen area to heat up a breakfast burrito and some probably instant coffee they had plundered yesterday.

ZM-11833 waited as Anaya devoured the package of nutrients she called food. ZM-11833 doubted it actually was as there were a lot of non-organic parts to the supposedly organic food.

They hummed a quiet tune perfectly as they waited, ignoring the annoyed look their human sported, they had read online that pets liked music and had picked a popular song for their human.

“What do you want to do today Anaya cutie? Walkies? Shopping? We were sent a catalog of toys you might like.” ZM-11833 questioned their rambunctious human before sending the catalog of bedroom toys they were given to the apartments screens.

Scrolls of varying toys lit up the screens lining the wall, Anaya let out a choked gasp of surprise before whirling on ZM-11833 beet red in the face.

“Stop that!! Turn it off!! Damn pervert robot!!” Ahh the human was yelling again. ZM-11833 wondered what had set them off this time, nothing they had done surely.

Once the advertisement had stopped Anaya turned back to the beautiful and amazing fashion legend that graced her apartment.

“I’m doing nothing, I’ve got my food and a safe place. I’m not going out there to get eaten by aliens. So I'm staying here and waiting out this dumb invasion, thank you very much” Anaya huffed as she sat down upon her couch to look for a game to play or something to watch.

“That sounds wonderful, we can spend the remaining 48 hours together playing dress up and picking out make-ups! We are going to have a grand old time together before our decommissioning.” ZM-11833 was so happy, finally a task to do and time frame to do it in.

Anaya stilled on the couch. “Why 48 hours? What are you talking about?”

“Hmm? Oh the Tawaga Corporation who own the arcology announced that the arcology is lost with all hands, they will be explosively decommissioning the arcology with a tactical nuclear strike in 48 hours.” ZM-11833 happily replied, it was fun to know things others didn’t.

“What?!! B-b-but I’m still here!! All hands my ass!!” Anaya jumped from her seat and grabbed onto ZM-11833 roughly, ZM-11833 didn’t know if they enjoyed being taken roughly but they’d forgive their human, it was shocking news.

“All hands refers to a corporate level, the CEO Tawaga Hanae was declared dead this morning while you slept.” ZM-11833 didn’t get it, perhaps they were being replaced with a newer model, they had seen it happen to some of the maintenance bots.

“Fuck! Fuck!” Anaya paced back and forth in her living room wearing a hole in the thin carpets. “What am I supposed to do?!! I don’t want to die!” She looked to be on the verge of tears, which would make doing the make-up later a pain.

“If you don’t want to be here then leave?” It seemed a bit obvious but then again ZM-11833 had been created here and hadn’t ever left her store before, they imagined that Anaya would just do that but outside.

“Right! Just leave through the literal horde of aliens!” Anaya glared at her amazing, resplendent mistress of all things fashion and beauty.

“Don’t forget the corporate military cordon outside.” ZM-11833 was very helpful in pointing out flaws in Anaya’s plans.

“Thanks” Anaya replied bitterly to ZM-11833 who beamed in response. “How then? How do I get out of this deathtrap?”

“You could take the hovercopter.” The CEO of every arcology always had an emergency escape route, it was just a fact online. It would be an easy way out, the military couldn’t risk firing on their CEO, in fact the coding, they had found out with a few subtle inquiries, on the weapons wouldn’t allow it.

“The hovercopter, the one in the CEO’s penthouse that the CEO for some reason didn’t use themselves to escape. That hover-copter.” Anaya looked at ZM-11833 doubtfully.

“If you have a better idea please enlighten me” ZM-11833 stated not at all sulkily.

“No, you’re right. Ok Hovercopter it is. Let's take the elevator to the top and leave this dump.” Anaya began heading for the exit of the apartment to begin their journey to safety, ZM-11833 only felt slightly bad to rain on their corporate unapproved parade.

“Several issues with that plan. First, as of last night the power to the elevators has shorted out. Secondly, even if the power on the elevator was active, it only goes up to floor 400, floors 400-500 have a private elevator and the penthouse on floors 501-510 are separated as well. Thirdly, there is a horde, if you will, of other customers between here and there who might want a ride out too, which would exceed the carrying capacity.” The pleasant melody of ZM-11833’s voice delivered the crushing news.

Anaya slumped in the doorway, the weight of looming death heavy upon their mind.

ZM-11833 didn’t really know what to say to cheer her human up. Like a bolt of lighting they had an idea, they could, wait for it, lie. They could tell their first and only lie.

“Don’t worry Anaya, I’ll get you there.” ZM-11833 was proud of themselves, such a convincing lie, Anaya would definitely believe them and not be sad anymore. They could both be happy together till the end. ZM-11833 was ok with that, their adventure would end next to a friend.

Anaya turned to ZM-11833, unshed tears in her eyes, and took in the honest faceplate of the trustworthy fashion bot and believed them.

“Ok, ok” Anaya whispered. “Let’s go then, we’ll get up there and escape, the both of us.” steely determination overtook her in that moment.

ZM-11833 quickly packed a pair of bags with snacks, water and most importantly fresh clothes. They had to pick carefully, with limited space they would only have a single choice or they could steal from upper floors, if they could find the time.

With bags packed and boots tied they set off, ZM-11833 was so excited they forgot to change their own outfit, a steady beep in their mind indicated an overdue change. They would look on upper floors for a suitable look for themselves, Anaya as the customer mattered more.

The first obstacle on their journey would be floor 332. For some reason that ZM-11833 didn’t understand was that the stairwells in the arcology only rose up or down one floor.

They would have to go up to floor 332 and cross it to reach the next stairwell, then repeat till floor 400. After that things got more complicated but they would cross that polymer bridge when they got to it.

For now they headed up, the stairwell was slick with gore, ZM-11833 was sick of the lack of maintenance around here, someone might slip and hurt themselves.

Quietly opening the door to floor 332 the pair peeked out into the awaiting atrium, it was absolutely packed. Everywhere either of them looked, unwanted customers or ‘aliens’ as Anaya delusional said, sniffed, bit or stalked around, bothering the sleepy customers piled up around the place.

If they wanted to cross the room in a reasonable time they would have to get creative, and ZM-11833 was the most creative bot in the world. They’d just had the best idea ever and were excited to demonstrate it to their human.

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