Andyish Chapter 1

Chapter 1: What? 

Where am I? Why do I feel so numb? 

“Ah, good. You’re awake. You’re in a sort of... secret lair of mine.” 

It was too dark for Andy to see who was speaking. “I didn’t say anything.” 

“Ah, but you thought it. I can hear your thoughts. You can hear mine, too, once you’ve learned to use your new body.” 

“Well, that’s not creepy or villainy at all,” Andy said, trying to get a rise out of his unknown acquaintance.  

“You feel numb, because you just rebooted, son.” The man’s voice was gruff, but pleasant. 

“I see.” Andy already knew that meant avatar, so he didn’t bother pursuing. He did, however, recall Yaw mentioning it only required a bit of DNA to resurrect someone, regardless of time. “How long has it been since I died? I died, right?” 

“Generally, about an hour.”  

“An hour? Generally, what?” 

“From the time you die until the next in your series awakens. It’s generally an hour, on account of reboot and all. You’re gonna get real hungry, too.”  

Andy was starting to feel his feet now, but his legs, hands and everything else were still asleep. “Then, I’ve been dead for an hour…ish. Why can’t I remember how I died?” 

The voice chuckled. “Cause you died, son.” The man finally came into a small patch of light from an overhead dome. He was of average height, but apparently carrying a great deal of muscle. The man sported a massive mustache, a monocle, and a pocket watch from his very well organized ensemble of late 1800’s fashion. “The first one, when we leave our human bodies, we can’t remember that one. The brain doesn’t quite keep memory to the point of death, unlike a chip.”  

Andy contemplated. It made sense, but he was beginning to remember things: his life before, his life in the Bunker and after, his daughter, his woman. “My memory is spotty, but things are coming back to me.” 

“Yeah, it takes a good while. You were essentially downloaded into a chip. Everything, down to the last detail of your experiences, memory, personality, physical form, all of it has to organize and become available. On top of that, you have some upgraded features to synchronize with, but we will get to that in time.” 

Andy was pretty aware of how most of that worked, and for whatever reason, he was beginning to trust the ominous voice. “You called this a secret lair? From what?”  

“Ah, now you’re asking the right questions,” The man said with a bit of excitement in his voice. “It’s easier if I show you.” He unfastened the straps holding Andy in the chair. “I suppose we can meet properly now. My name is Theodore, though most call me Teddy.”  

Andy looked at the man, confused at first, but then it hit him; the nineteenth-century attire, the gruff, confident voice… “Mr. President. It’s… an honor, I think.”  

Teddy was slightly embarrassed at the notion. “Eck. Don’t go startin’ that bull hockey. Teddy is just fine.” He extended his hand to shake, his back straight, chest puffed. He was a gentleman.  

“I’ll try not to annoy you with questions, but I have a lot.” Andy took the man’s hand and returned the shake. “That’s a hell of a grip, sir.”  

He gave a genuine smile. “Moving on,” he said with some urgency. “Before I show you what it is we do, a little context is in order. You met Gestas, do you remember yet?” 

“I do, Nazi bastard.” 

“That he is. He has several avatars lined up for when he dies, just moving to the next each time. Essentially, what happened when you died and woke up here, but this is the only one for you.”  

“Yeah, how did this happen?” 

“Put a pin in it for now, though I will elaborate on it later. You have a purpose, and we don’t have much time.” Teddy looked him directly in the eye. “Gestas is one of many mistakes that came from the avatar technology.” 

“Mistakes?” 

 “The process isn’t perfect, sometimes allowing for strange defects or mutations to occur in the avatar itself. It’s much like evolution in its randomness, but at a much accelerated rate, instant really. Mutations.”  

“Yaw told me about Ares, goes by Robert now. Like that?” 

“Not exactly. What happened with him is still a mystery.”  

“That’s comforting. What mutation does Gestas have?” 

“His isn’t so obvious, being as it’s in his wiring. The man that died on that cross was truly just grateful for forgiveness. When he rebooted, his wiring got mixed up making him psychotic, essentially. Now, normally, we can cure something like that if they’ll sit still, but we’ve been chasing him for centuries, to no avail, and he keeps making new abominations.” 

“The dims?” 

“Exactly. Gestas is on the hit list now.” 

“I see, and I have no qualms merkin’ that S.O.B.” Andy felt himself getting angry. Apparently the blood can still boil in an avatar. “What are the more obvious options?” 

“That’s what I can show you.” Teddy led him through a door to a hallway with several cages on either side. It was a prison. “These are some of the physical defects, things that ‘go bump in the night’ as some folks call them. Others may refer to them as the supernatural.” 

As they progressed down the hallway, each cage contained a different nightmare. First, coming to what appeared to be a dog the size of a man, Teddy explained the werewolf was simply a case of hypertrichosis, where hair grows over the entire body, paired with another gene deformation that makes the owner think they’re a dog or wolf, even gaining superior senses in smell and hearing. There were several other horrors to be seen, such as the vampire at the end that caught Andy’s attention. 

“I get the werewolf, how it can be genetically mutated to be what it is, but a vampire?” 

“Oddly enough, this one is the most common. The mutation caused the avatar to crave iron, so it can, and often is, mitigated through supplementation, but they can never get the hunger to go away completely. Really, it's just an extreme case of anemia with a high motivation to fix it.” 

“Can they spread it? Can any of them spread it?” Andy was full-send on curiosity. 

“This one can’t, as it’s actually a human body, meaning it isn’t an avatar. The avatar mutates to spread a poison that gives the hyper-anemia, so to speak, to humans or other avatars, but an original human is not able to spread it.” 

Two notions entered Andy’s mind that he needed answers for. “I have two questions, and I feel the need to say that I won’t be very happy if you don’t answer them.” 

“I’d say you’re back at full capacity now. That’s the only reason I wasn’t so forthcoming before. It would have been a waste of time. Go ahead.”  

“One. Why not simply eliminate these creatures to stop the spread?” 

“Ah, I chose right with you. They are curable, usually. We try not to kill anything that doesn’t need killed. Half of what we do is curing, and especially now that most of the people are gone, we need to save as many as we can.” 

“That makes a good bit of sense,” Andy said satisfactorily. “Second, You said you ‘chose’ me?” 

“Yes. I, specifically, chose you. I have been doing this since the dawn of humanity, coming down with two hundred others from the original planet. I programmed the artificial intelligence you know as Yaw, which is how I became aware of you.” 

“But what about me caused you to pick me?” 

“You have a vast skill-set, a useful and applicable one to what we do. Plus, you have the right temperament. Sometimes, we have to get a little medieval on some big asses.” Teddy made an attempt at humor, smiling. 

Andy smiled, but was more confused. The timing seemed wrong for a joke. “Well, ok, I guess. How did I get here? And where exactly is here?” 

Teddy thought for a moment, considering which question to answer first. “I suppose the location is easier to answer, so I’ll start there. We are in the middle of the most dense area of the Amazon Rainforest. No bombs made it here, and why would they? There isn’t much to eliminate.” 

“And I was in Arkansas an hour or so ago?” 

“I thought I explained this already. Your avatar was already here, waiting on you to die, which, honestly, I thought would be when you were old and decrepit, given your skill-set. Gestas got lucky, or you got stupid for just long enough. Yaw only gave me minor details.”  

“So you speak with Yaw?” 

“On occasion. He and I have an arrangement, which is how I got your DNA information.” 

“DNA information? You don’t need my actual DNA? 

“No, we’ve evolved beyond that. Yaw can send me a simple coded version, which I can put into a chip. Actually, it seems to be the most preventative progress we’ve made in mitigating mutations. Physical DNA can be contaminated with so many things. Coding relies on the originator’s competency, and Yaw, well, he’s not exactly one to make mathematical mistakes.” 

Andy stood still taking it all in. He thought he should be more upset or angry at Yaw for keeping this a secret, but he somewhat understood the usefulness of keeping panic at bay, this type in particular. He also felt better than he could remember feeling. Maybe somewhere along the lines of being young and spry but with the added benefit of years of experience and training. Regardless, he was still slightly pissed off. “What if I didn’t want to be an avatar? What if I wanted to die?” 

“This is always a consideration. I haven’t picked a fellow guardian in centuries. The last one is around here somewhere, and I’ll apologize now for him. You’ve never met a more annoying thing in your life, but I digress. Had you lived to be old, this would be easier, given that your loved ones would be deceased themselves.” 

“Yeah… about that. When can I see them?” 

“Whenever you wish, but know that you are not the same person you were, not to yourself and not to them. They watched you die, and now you’re an avatar. They buried you, and now you’re an immortal with built-in wifi. Consider them first.” 

Andy had, in fact, not considered any of that prior to this moment, and he decided he needed to put a great deal of thought into it before making any decisions. “I’ll put a pin in that for now. You said that the vampire back there was human, so an avatar had to be what gave the poison?” 

“Correct.” 

“Then the avatar is still out there? Or has that been addressed? 

“It has not. I was on my way out to deal with it when you woke up. I suppose this is as good a time as any for you to see how this works.” Teddy turned away and began walking, waving for Andy to follow. “Let’s get you suited up.”