He can see it in her eyes, they way she looks at him when she’s going. The way she should look at him, but she’s not, is not yet apparent in the moments to come. Will she look? He does not know, does not wish to contemplate. The moment has not arisen. Yet, he feels a slight pulse on the back of his neck--

The tracker beeps, startling them both out of their forlorn stillness, gazing into each other’s  eyes. He should be at work, counting the produce and goods being shipped out...recording it on his chip...but he’s not. He’s with her.

This is the only time he is allowed to be with her. The only time he can gaze into the Survivor’s eyes, glistening and gleaming in the morning light, shimmering and sparkling as they hastily scour his face for an explanation…

She doesn't know, can’t know. She can never know about the Trackers, or any of the metal inserts they placed in his body after the Transfer. She’s one of the only few Survivors left, and he can’t risk them finding her.

Electromagnetic pulses course through his veins, making him trip and fall into the hard ground before him. He hears his arms crunch on the ground, and feel the pulses continue, as if they were real seizures, not artificial spasms of electricity forcing his brain to move his body out of control…

He can’t bare to look at her, at her forlorn gaze as she pities him, looks him over. What does the Survivor see in him? What can she see? Is there a spark in her eyes, every time she looks at him?

No, that’s her Gone look. When she is Banished, to the far reaches of her mind and cannot seem to bring herself back until after a few long moments of contemplation: should I stay? Should I leave this world behind and go look for another you?

But he knows. Now is the not the time for long looks, or hidden kisses. Nothing, this can’t be possible. Will they ever be together? He hopes so. Maybe after the Survivors take over, build a new civilization of their own…

But where would that leave him? He’s still a Drone, and Drones were not supposed to feel, think. But he did. He felt dearly for this Survivor, the one who could see whatever was inside of him and calm his worst fears.

She had hidden her face behind her hands when he finally came to attention, and the magnetic pulses had died down. He shuddered, and his metal teeth clanked together softly, his silver locks of hair falling in front of his gray-blue eyes and muting the light coming through the irises.

He can’t tell if she wants to see him. Now she knows. the eyes are not just a defect, neither the hair or parts of his body...She saw his teeth, now she knows why he never spoke to her, even when he could’ve said something…

He snaps to attention, running back across the deserted street and out of her line of vision, trying to forget he ever laid eyes on her, or that she came close to hearing the tracker on his neck, or saw the spasms race through his body.

He, he was no longer human.

He was a monster.