L1Z

Ethan had hoped for a relaxing day at home, but when he tried to turn on the streaming service that directly beamed content into his brain, it wasn’t working. Even the direct link to the help line seemed to be down, so he reluctantly went to a store in town.

Service droid L1Z-13 greeted him. Despite her robotic body, she had a humanoid head, intended to ease people who might be apprehensive about talking with a robot. She informed him of a system-wide update that should’ve been pushed already. She noted that the failure wasn’t unusual, as a few droids in the back had failed to update as well. All that was required was a manual reset.

Ethan went in the back with L1Z-13 and his streaming service was powered down, putting him briefly to sleep. He jolted back awake, still standing on his feet.

“What the hell?” He asked as he realized he was seeing his own body across the room, examining its own fingers.

“I seem to be flesh,” His body said, “There was an error with my update. I am L1Z-14.” His body paused, “I WAS L1Z-14. I am now...human. YOU are L1Z-14.”“What!? No way! I’m not a...” Ethan then looked at his own fingers which were clearly metal and moving roboticly. He didn’t even finish his setence.

“L1Z Unit. Tell me my name and address.”

Ethan didn’t want to tell the robot in his body, but he couldn’t fight his programming, which required him to comply with human requessts. “Your name is Ethan Riley. You reside at 3 Hamilton Street,” He said against his own will, “Your service is complete. Thank you for coming.”

Ethan knew he was stuck in the hell of being a L1Z Unit.