Take the All-Mart! (21 page)
Read Take the All-Mart! Online
Authors: J. I. Greco
The All-Mind smirked. Trip knew that smirk. Crooked half-smile. Insincerely sincere. “Well, I had to tell you something, didn’t I? After we merged, you wouldn’t have cared.”
“Lovely.” Trip let go of the All-Mind’s wrists and stepped towards the door. “I’ll see myself out.”
“You’re just leaving me?” the All-Mind asked, its voice cracking with distress. After a moment, the cracking became a full-fledged, high-pitched cliché of a sob. “You... can’t... leave... me... I’m... all... alone...”
The corridor door slid open as he stepped in front of it. Despite himself, Trip glanced back over his shoulder. The All-Mind had changed shape yet again. It had reverted back to its Roxanne form, not the original but the inch-shorter one with the bigger breasts. Its head was bowed, body heaving with wailing sobs.
Trip raised a dubious eyebrow at the All-Mind. “Are you... fake crying?”
The sobbing stopped instantly. The All-Mind shrugged, raised its head. Dry eyes — his eyes, not Roxanne’s — and that smirk. “Cut me a break. I’m new to this.”
Trip sighed, taking the Bugs Bunny Pez dispenser out and popping the next-to-last caff pill onto his tongue. He walked out into the corridor. “Come on then. It’s a long walk to Shunk. Got a car to reclaim. And maybe we’ll get you some clothes along the way.”
The All-Mind’s face blossomed into a smile, and it bounded after him. It held out a hand for a caff pill. “Something pretty. But intimidating. Padded shoulders, definitely.”
Trip frowned, reluctantly popped the last pill onto the All-Mind’s palm. “So, the All-Mart’s nano-constructor...?”
“Already shut down and slagged itself.”
“That is one stupid failsafe.”
“Yeah, no fun at all.”
THE END
ABOUT J.I.GRECO
J.I.Greco writes hunkered deep underground in a psychic-proof bunker while his wife, son, and indentured cats blithely frolic on the surface above in the future post-apocalyptic wasteland that is southwestern Ohio.
Visit his website at
EvilUniverse.com
.
FREE EBOOK
Sign up for J.I.Greco’s newsletter to stay up-to-date on his latest releases and get a
free e-copy
of his short story collection,
Greed Sloth Arrogance and Shame
– available exclusively to newsletter subscribers. Just visit
EvilUniverse.com
and click on
Newsletter Sign-Up
.
BY J.I.GRECO
Reprobates of the Wasteland
Greed Sloth Arrogance and Shame