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Hal analyzed the buildings for heat signatures, or the nearby ones anyway. "I suggest any ground floor stores for any food supplies or clothing items that might help us via splints, bandages and what not. The city is indeed large, no doubt we could find an assortment of goodies here."

"Will we find people?" Malcom asked, looking over at Momo, "Do we want to find people?"

"I want to settle down!" Malcom smiled, "Will we have real houses and real food?" he asked, "Will there be lots of people or just a few? Will you guys live with us too? I think we all should be a family!" and stopped, finding something glittering in the sand and running over to it, lifting it up and looking at it. It was a flat, circular object with ridges on the edges and a man's face imprinted on the front with an eagle on the back. "What's this?" and raised it up for Momo to see, the android off in the distance and still looking around, analyzing their surroundings.

"What year is it now?"

"5043." Hal looked back at the quarter with shock. "That is 3024 years old. One would imagine it would have been melted and turned into a new coin. That truly is an old coin."

"It's older than you!" Malcom said, grinning and pointing at Hal before laughing at his discovery, putting it in the front pocket of his hoodie. He soon bent down in hopes there were more old coins like it, digging through the dirt quickly.

Malcom frowned, disappointed they had to leave. "All right." he was a little sad, having to be rushed away from his treasure spot but continued walking with them.

Hal was walking up the steps behind the two, dog beside him and noticed a heat movement underneath some sand down below. Watching it carefully the sand opened, revealing a door and someone walking out quickly. Hm, interesting. Hal would have to check that out in a minute.

"Good Afternoon!"

The boy screamed and hid behind Malcom, looking at a worn down android who had her paint scraped and faded, one eye out and constantly trying to focus and change filters in hope of seeing out of that eye.

"Welcome to Rovonove Mall. Is there something I can assist you with?" And looked over the two humans, looking at Hal and smiling, male android smiling back. "Would you like to connect your android to the store catalog and inventory?"

"It sounds like a girl." Malcom whispered, watched his own Hal sniff at the female android before going to browse the aisles, sniffing here and there.

"Hello sir. We were not expecting you today." She greeted, walking to lead them to seating so he could fix her eye. "Our last update on the inventory was this morning at 7:27am done by myself." she sat herself down, "Is there something specific you're looking for?"

Hal looked over at Malcom who had walked back with a hat on his head, grinning brightly. "It matches your sweater."

"Yep!"

"Do you have anything on underneath your sweater and shorts?"

"Should I?" and lifted his sweater to show the bare skin underneath.

"I guess we know what we need, then."

She let him work, remaining perfectly still as the eye was removed and socket being fixed.

"Is that how you fix lady androids?" Malcom asked.

The good eye flickered over to the boy, head tilting causing the screw driver to scratch lightly at the inside. It made Hal flinch but she seemed to have no qualms with it. "Your little brother?" she asked, looking back over at Momo, letting him insert the eye. It light up properly, focusing by itself before they both focused, following the screwdriver. "My vision is fine as it is. Thank you very much." She stood, pointing towards the back left, "Over there should be children's clothing and adult clothing, while much more scarce, should be towards the center right. As for non-perishables, that is not my department. I can call and see if someone is in the food court."

"I will stay here. I may use her processors to check the inventory in other parts of the mall so we do not waste time." Hal said, "Is there anything specific we need minus nonperishable foods and clothes?"

Hal nodded, taking note of the things along with the worn out backpack on Momo's back. "Be safe. I'll catch up with you momentarily." And watched them walk off beforel ooking at the female android beside him, smiling. "May I connect?" And withdrew a wire from his 'headband' extending it and letting her turn her head away from him, allowing him to connect.

"Why do they make them look different, though? Is it because we look different? So since they're fake humans they gotta look different like us?" He looked at all the clothes, surprised there was so many. "But why? These ones fit me just fine. Can't I wear these longer?" But his wrists were already out from the sleeves of his hoodie.

"But why do I need to grow bigger? Can I stop growing?" and let him hold up clothes to his body, Malcom only mildly concerned about this decision. "I really like this sweater though, Dad got it for me." And frowned as Momo continued looking for clothes, the boys own chocolate eyes glancing around before going to look at some pants.

Hal was analyzing the inventory in the android's memory, bookmarking items and serial numbers for things they would need. The mall had been stripped apart to the bare minimum, it seemed, and after all this time what did they expect? "You've taken good inventory." But after a ten seconds of no response he glanced over, seeing her eyes wide and tears running down. "Miss?"

"I-I've encountered a malicious program." she whispered, touching her face with worn down fingers, "i don't know what it is. My firewall stood no chance."

"What malicious program? Miss I am--" No, his systems weren't clean. "No, Miss those are upgrades and old programs." But her silent crying slowly turned to sobbing.

"I don't understand. My data is corrupted. Looking for backed up files."

"Don't do that!"

But her eyes went wide, remembering all of her previous files and folders and going back to audio and video, and all Hal could do was watch. They were human emotions on the silver and worn face. Awe, pain, love.

Love?

The teary eyes turned to him, giving him a bright yet teary smile. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"Miss your processors are running too quickly." Hal disconnected and touched her, nerve endings quickly screaming that the metal was hot.

"I'm feeling tired, I think I'll shut down. Thank you, really." and moved to sit back down in the chair, hands in her lap before closing her eyes. And within the next minute, she was dead.