Secrets

Mark could feel the wires and machines attached to his body or, in some cases, replacing entire body parts. He couldn’t remember what had happened to him, but he was sure these machines were keeping him alive -- which meant whatever misfortune had fallen apart him must have been pretty bad. A woman was beside him, whom he had barely noticed as he tried to wrap his head around his now half-mechanical self.

“What’s your deal?” He asked her, “Are you my mechanic or something? Keeping me all tuned up or whatever?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” She replied.

“Try me.”

She took a deep breath before saying, “I’m you.”

“What?” It was the best Mark could respond with.

She continued, “I’m not sure if I’m the original, or if you are, or if we’re both copies. But we’re both technically Mark Cooper. I think they put me in this woman’s body to torture me. I think they put me in your robotic body so they can keep reseting you; I’m pretty sure you have no idea that this is the sixth time we’ve had this conversation. I’m pretty sure they want the secrets in our head. It’s why they killed Lexi and Trevor, but we’re still here.”

“But if they have our brain, or at least a copy of it, why can’t they just extract the information.”

“Because what we know is tied intrinsically to who we are. They can’t pull out a thought at random. They need a living, thinking brain to spill the secrets...”