In Death I Obeyed You Most Chapter 05
Mom froze, staring at the doctor in stunned disbelief.
And I, still extending my arm toward the needle, spoke in a dead, uninflected voice: “Mom, I’ll be obedient. I’ll give Chloe my blood.”
“Impossible!” Mom shrieked hysterically. “She was just talking to me! She walked in here on her own two feet! Your medical equipment is broken!”
The nurse backed toward the door in terror. “She has no heartbeat, no respiration, no warmth. She feels like dry ice!”
Wiping cold sweat from his brow, the doctor said, “There is zero cardiac activity. Livor mortis has already settled into the dependent tissues. Clinically and biologically, she has been deceased for days.”
“What defies medical science is… how is this body articulating movement and speech?”
Mom lunged forward, grabbing my face and digging her nails into my cheeks. “Nora! Look at me! You’re not dead! Tell the doctor you’re alive right now!”
I showed no reaction, my jaw repeating the programmed phrase: “Mom, I’ll be obedient. I’ll give my sister blood.”
“Doctor! Test her again! It’s a malfunction!” Mom pleaded, her voice cracking.
The physician immediately ordered me transferred to an advanced imaging bay.
Inside the diagnostic suite, the moment the full-body sensors swept over me, high-pitched alarms blared across the room as red warning banners flashed across every monitor:
[WARNING: DENSE METALLIC FOREIGN OBJECTS DETECTED. NEURAL CHIP ARRAY & ALLOY REINFORCEMENTS INTEGRATED. ZERO VITAL SIGNS. MOTOR ACTIVITY DRIVEN BY INTERNAL BIOMECHANICAL APPARATUS.]
The medical team gasped in stunned horror.
“Metallic implants? Synthetic spinal bridges?”
“The NYPD and federal task forces have been investigating an underground syndicate performing illegal cybernetic modifications on minors! They implant control chips and titanium frames to puppet human bodies remotely!”
A junior resident immediately rushed out to contact the police.
Outside the scan room, the chief physician confronted Mom with severe gravity. “Ma’am, did you subject your own daughter to illegal cybernetic human modification?”
Clutching her designer jacket, Mom stammered, “What modification? I have no idea what you’re talking about…”
“Are you still trying to deny it?!” the doctor warned sternly. “She died a week ago! She is standing before you purely as an electrically manipulated corpse! If you don’t tell the truth, you will face severe criminal charges for murder and mutilation!”
“I’m not doing any more tests! I’m taking her home! I’ll find another donor for Chloe!” Mom grabbed my arm, trying to drag my body toward the exit.
“Hold it right there! NYPD!”
Two plainclothes detectives stepped forward, flashing gold shields. “We have an emergency warrant regarding illicit cybernetic modification. You are under arrest.”
Mom froze completely, her jaw trembling in terror.
I was transported under police escort to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Under forensic CT scanners, the horrific truth of my anatomy was laid bare:
A high-frequency control processor was anchored into my thoracic cavity, spliced directly into my spinal cord.
My major limb bones had been hollowed and reinforced with titanium alloy rods, while a micro-actuator pump was wired to my carotid arteries to maintain basic tissue elasticity.
“According to the trauma scans,” the medical examiner pointed to the display, “the victim suffered massive blunt force trauma from a vehicle collision seven days ago. The impact caused a massive, fatal pulmonary embolism. Because there were minimal external lacerations, her death went completely unnoticed by the family.”
“Her motor pathways were hijacked by the implanted chip. The processor received remote signals from the mother’s terminal, forcefully manipulating the deceased body to execute commands.”
The pathologist took a scalpel and forceps, making a clean incision at the nape of my neck to sever the neural bridge and extract the microchip.
Clink.
The moment the metallic chip dropped into the stainless-steel tray, the artificial tension vanished from my body. My limbs gave way, and the full extent of mottled, bluish-purple lividity rapidly surfaced across my pale skin, stripping away the illusion of life.
Witnessing this through the observation window, Mom’s pupils contracted violently. She let out a bloodcurdling shriek, her legs buckling as she collapsed onto the floor.
“No! It can’t be… Nora! Wake up! Don’t scare Mommy like this!!”
I felt my spirit detaching, floating weightlessly into the cold air, looking down at that ruined vessel.
Memories long suppressed came flooding back into my consciousness—
The sterile metal operating table, the blinding fluorescent glare, the cold steel cutting into my flesh, the agonizing agony when the processor was drilled into my spine, and the hollow despair of being piloted by code, day after torturous day…