30 years ago. A contest with no tomorrow. The fate of the small town of Sunnyside was in the hands of a girl.
Mary was among the last people still surviving. The androids had overrun every unlikely place across the entire planet. The last strongholds were some 20 cities around the world.
To provoke and expose human weakness, they had created a series of contests titled
“Perfection and how it can be achieved.”
Real humans faced advanced androids in competitions for the best walk, the best whistle, the best limb folding, the best storytelling of texts, and other such small details.
Every human who lost was replaced by an android. So it was the day of the category “Beautiful female upright posture.” The androids had been preparing these models for a long time. Beautiful clothes, hairstyles, perfect shoes to highlight their perfect calves, and all the necessary things.
From the humans, Mary Watson was chosen. 19 years old, flawless smile, beautiful face. For a long time she had been trying to think how she would stand out. She had found the clothes, she would do a classic hairstyle, and then her presence would be what would win.
The time had come, the test would be motionless upright posture for 1 hour. The androids had made flawless shoes so they would not move even a millimeter during the test.
At the time of the presentation, the idea came to Mary. To take off her shoes and be barefoot. In her mind it was that her endurance would be what would set her apart. To the surprise of everyone who was there, she takes off her shoes, and that was when the bandages she had put on appeared, because she was afraid they might hit her and leave her wounds, she goes to her place, rises on her toes, and simply smiles.
So the trial begins, the minutes pass, the hour, and Mary remains motionless there in her place. The android judging committee clearly impressed, but also troubled about the state of their own models, wondered about the endurance and the physique of Mary.
Not accepting their defeat, they wanted to confirm that she was indeed human, and so they started exhausting examinations to support their defeat on Mary’s difference. But they found nothing. Mary was a simple human, with basic characteristics, but also something the androids were forgetting. Will, mental endurance, and empathy towards the human society that was continuously fading.
The only thing that remained for the models was the commemorative photograph they took with Mary barefoot, and the X-rays from behind to emphasize that they had done everything right.
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