Ghosts
By Anthony Hotvedt
High On Sugar Creations
2007



2. Past
~Nobody

“So… why are you called Nobody?” The robo-girl asked. She’s been asking a lot of questions lately. By lately, I mean since we found her. Bast save me.
     “I’m Nobody because I don’t exist. And you’d better remember that, or I’ll fuckin’ bust in your head and send you to Anubis”, I informed her with as much tact as I could muster.
     “Who are those people you mentioned? Anubis, Sekhmet, Bast, Osiris and Isis? Are they people like you?”
     “They are my gods; I follow their teachings and dedicate myself to them. Bast, my chief deity, is the cat goddess of motherhood and warrior protector. Anubis is the jackal-headed god of the dead. Sekhmet is the lioness goddess of war. Osiris is the god of life, death, and fertility, and he had a golden penis. Isis was his wife, and an all-round goddess,” I told her. It was kind of nice to explain it to her.
     I liked my gods, and so far, with my luck, they must like me. Heh, golden penis…
     “He called you ‘nano-girl’ before. What did he mean?” She inquired, again. More and more questions! For Sekhmet’s sake!
     I decided to show her what he meant. My body was infused with nanites that I can command; my right arm is made entirely of them. I can do some pretty neat stuff. Like completely disguising myself or turning my fist into a giant ravenous mouth.
     I transformed my appearance into my favourite alias. He looks like an ancient ‘cowboy’ from the holovideos. I called him ‘Chuck Norris’.
     “ALL MY CIRCUITS! What the hell?!?” She totally freaked out. Heh heh heh…
     “You know, for someone who needs to keep a low profile, you’ve sure become infamous”, Fallen decided to inform me. Dickhead. He’s strapped Broken to his back, cause it’s easier than carrying her in arms.
     He did have a point though. Chuck Norris (me) got into a brawl in a bar once, while we were gathering info on Unity’s movements. It was fine til the guy pulled a knife on me. I reacted by accident, and an arm made of nanites came from my chin and hit the guy right in the face. Since then, some really crazy rumours about the ‘legendary Chuck Norris’ have come out.
     “What do you mean?” Broken asked. I told her what happened.
     “Some of the stuff people have been saying is pretty funny. Because of that incident, people have been saying that ‘underneath Chuck Norris’s beard, there is no chin. There is only another fist.’” Fallen mocked. He can be a real fuckwit sometimes. I don’t know why I don’t kick his ass. Probably cause he’d probably kick mine.
     “Chuck Norris’s infamy aside, The reason I’m like this is because I was implanted with a nanode a few years back. Though I look like I’m 17, I’m actually 21.”
     Broken didn’t seem to understand. I thought robots were meant to be really smart.
     “That don’t make sense. The mental strain caused by a nanode directly interacting with a human mind would be too much. No human could retain his or her sanity,” she said. Oh. So that’s why she was confused. And rightly so. What she said was right, with the exception of me.
     “Yeah. So far, I’m the only person in existence to come through the procedure with a working mind. Unity, the government of Dest that rose after the Cybernetic Revolution, secretly takes kids from families and turns them into Nanohosts. Because they can’t take it, their mind collapses and they become nothing but obedient slaves. I escaped, and am now on the run, which is why I became Nobody.” Talk of Unity pissed me off. I’d lost all memories of the time before I became a Nanohost.
     “What’s up, Nobody? Your not usually so talkative about your past,” Fallen commented.
     “Dunno. Broken here seems nice. Oh yeah, by the way, do you have any weapons, mecha-girl?” I asked, changing the subject seamlessly.
     “Nope. Why?”
     “’Cause the world’s completely fucked over. People everywhere fight and kill each other so they can live another day. You’re a prime target. Do you have any skill with weapons?”
     “I can hit a human between the eyes at 500 metres with a gun,” she casually informed me.
     “I’ll make you some nice guns then,” I promised her. I was thinking something along the lines of twin .45 semi-autos with exterior ammo feeds, and I could test a little idea I’d been toying with as a heavy backup.
     “Sweet. I could really go for some human-hunting right now”, she said with a sneaky little bitch-grin.
     “I could really go for some ramen right now,” I replied, giving her my ultimate glare of ultimateness. She took the hint.
     “Hey, Nobody. Could you take Broken and make a break for it. We have company,” Fallen whispered. His face was really serious. Not a good thing.
     I looked ahead of us and gasped. It wasn’t a group of weak little bandits – they were the Hellguard. A very dangerous group with a very stupid name. Unity’s own little secret police force, full of hate for me – the bitch who got away.
     And they’re Fallen’s old team mates.