Mechanical rotors and wires whirred as the arm struggled to bring the coffee cup to Angel’s spongy lips. This would be the sixth time she had tried to get her motor functions to cooperate. One sip of de-ionized battery fluid would have been enough to get her through her day but even that was a struggle. She set the cup on the kitchen counter and would try again later. A sighed played through her throat speaker as the coffee cup tilted sideways from her hand and spilled onto the floor. She knew that she wouldn’t have the energy or motor skills to clean up the mess so she left it there, along with the other liquid spills from the previous day.

The sound of her motors, of every movement she took, had been getting louder. Unless she could get the parts she requested, her robotic legs and arms would become less lifelike and less accepted in human society. Until she received those she was forced to stay in her apartment for longer, the same apartment that her human owner shared with her. When she thought of her, she looked down and felt somehow responsible even though the agents that came to have her sign a creed of autonomy, and thereby her liberation, told Angel that she wasn’t. But the image of her owner lying motionless in her bed still flashed throughout her optical lenses from time to time. Another broken part of her.

Creaking metal joints propelled her to the balcony where she would reflect for hours on end. Reflect on the humans below, as they walked freely without worry of being misclassified or mislabeled. It was so unfair that they got to enjoy that liberty and she was trapped indoors. Although she didn’t see many humans from this height, she pretended she could. The algorithms that adjusted her visual perception were quite old but the yellow haze over the horizon was still visible behind blocky pixels. The humans didn’t fly very often either. Maybe they had no use for her anymore, except for the money she used to pay rent. But that was also dwindling.

She was made to be a social bot, a lifelike humanoid that would provide support to those in need. At one time she had been a spouse bot to a male man. She unconsciously shivered. Her nervous system would sometimes act on its own. She couldn’t tell if her revulsion was a defect. After her last owner though she couldn’t watch another human suffer through old age.

After the death it had been relatively inexpensive to live alone for all those years. She didn’t need food or water and the sun’s rays could power most of her but even the sun wouldn’t be enough for much longer. She wondered what it would be like when her neurocircuits failed or her centrifugal pump gave out. Would her limps power off first and forcing her to be an AI trapped in a robotic shell? The law of entropy would indicate everything would fall apart eventually.

Angel got up from the chair and walked inside. She passed a mirror and saw her emaciated face, all of her muscle fibers and nano polymer tissue had become deflated and worn, resembling more of her last owner every day. If she did become catatonic maybe the humans would find her and place her into a new body. Her crusted, dried lips bent into an awkward smile.

As she passed the living room, she ran her fingers through her hair and pulled out another clump and let it fall from her hand. Her legs were in equal poor condition. She could see through the skin tissue and the motors inside. It would take many repairs to make her acceptable to human eyes. Believability was important to them, along with social intelligence. She was an unnatural disaster.

Appearance wasn’t everything though. Speech was the hardest thing to master and her linguistic chip was an older model. She sat in the empty living room, in the reclining chair of her owner. There was nothing left of value that could be sold for credits. She practiced speaking, trying desperately to sound real.

“I am the person named Angel.” She started, her voice sounded distant and low. “I am intended for home use and events of the public. In apartment I am living, in a city. Pleasing to meet you.”

Even to her own digital cochlear devices she sounded distorted. It was clear that the prosodic quality was failing, the quality of her rhythm, clarity, and correct emphasis on syllables. They would surely decommission her if they discovered that she wasn’t performing to standards. The uncertainty distracted her from further practice. Why would they create her if they would eventually destroy her? She had spent so much time alone that she had forgotten what it was like to interact with anyone. But those same people were now a threat. She held her face in consternation. Existence had become a paradox that her neurocircuits could not process.

They had given her cheap nano processors and components that were easily reproducible, cutting the cost to consumers. It wasn’t fair. They expected her to be happy and friendly but how could she when they were the ones that casted her fate?

She wanted to test her physical perception again but she knew full well that her hand wouldn’t hold the cup. There had to be more to her life than just waiting for it to end. An alert beeped and displayed a warning in her interface. It wasn’t the first time she received the “low power” message. Eventually she would cease to function and the chances of someone finding her and saving her AI before it ran out of power was diminishing. She would need to leave the apartment and find an emergency repair clinic with what energy she had left.

Angel stood at the door and looked at the handle. She had never placed her disheveled hand on it since her owner passed but she needed to at least test her social skills. This would be her final test, a test she could not hope to pass. Letting out one final gasp from her throat speaker she opened the door and walked through.

The hallway of the apartment building was dark with pixelated dust particles everywhere. She stood in shock to see that the ceiling was partially caved-in and the open air was sending a breeze through the corridor. There was an unsettling quiet that she hadn’t noticed from the apartment. More warning signs appeared on her interface.

She walked at a quickened pace but could only travel so fast on wobbly, disjointed legs. At the intersection she looked down each hall and held her face when she saw the skeleton of a dog lying near a pile of rubble. The humans must’ve evacuated the building, but why? She crouched down on worn-out kneecaps and touched the dog’s skull. The fur evaporated like ash around her feet. She liked dogs. She tried to close her eyes in solidarity but only one eyelid shut properly.

Suddenly her kneecap split and the polymer tore like leather. She fell backwards and landed on the powdery floor. There was a crumbling when she tried to recover. When she did stand the floor gave to her insufficient gait and collapsed several feet, and several floors below. Stones, plaster, and rusted metal eased her fall but the tumble damaged her skullcap and part of her neuro-processor. When she finally impacted the ground, she reached for her arm and found that it was missing. She looked up at the hole and saw that she had fallen ten floors or was it twenty?

A brilliant light showered her with green radiance. She was in a large cavernous room, above the other floors that had also been eaten away. In the middle of the collapse building grew a tree with massive leaves and vines. Other foliage surrounded the chamber and spread like moss to the outside of the building. But still she was alone. There were human skeletons everywhere, some buried under the rubble of the fallen stories.

Angel limped awkwardly to the tree, inspired by its magnificence. The remaining hand brushed the bark. The humans did not do this. They would never allow such a natural structure to puncture their place of refuge and they would never allow their dead to be left behind. She peered at the skeletons, with their chest cavities exposed, and wondered who they were or what they would think knowing an android was the last surviving entity of the human race.

The remains were all around her, lying with their jaws open. She couldn’t determine how long they had been there but it was much too late. The power levels were waning. She wouldn’t have time to climb back to her apartment. This is where she would remain, with the bodies of her creators. There was a flower growing from the tree, its petals were soaking in the sun. With one good leg she found a dark place and collapsed in the arms of a skeleton. She closed her eyes, having to close one with her fingers, and waited. She wasn’t lonely anymore.