Authors: Luke Ahearn
And it went on and on. Lots of distrust, complaints about lies told to lure them to the island and speculation on what was really going on. But the most useful information for Jeff came from discussions between two scientists, one defending his decision to strip a lot of “useless code” from the bot’s codebase so they would be more powerful and he could move faster in the lab to reach the insane goals set upon him. Some of that code included a restriction placed on the bots so they could not replicate themselves. There was also speculation as to how delivery bots, programmed to deliver a viral cell to a specific location in the human body then shut itself off, could have possibly overrode their programming. There was talk of a bad element in one of the machines used to batch program the nanobots via magnetic fields. It was speculated that some of the bots remained repair bots and seemingly they stopped the delivery bots from shutting down. Somehow they interfaced with the human host and attempted to repair it. The bots kept the broken humans functioning in the most technical sense of the word. They ate, took breath, and were mobile but they were just walking vegetables.
Jeff was deep into all of this when his screen turned blue. He pulled his hands away from the keyboard and cursed.
“Damn. Blue screen of death.” His computer had crashed and he wasn’t looking forward to figuring out why and then trying to fix it. He was worried the people on the island caught him snooping and attacked his computer but the screen flickered and Trevor appeared again.
“Hold on, I‘ll go get Cooper.”
“There’s no time just listen. I can no longer wander the labs and the island freely. The bots are leaving my system.”
“How…” Jeff started.
“Just listen. You have to shut this thing down. If you don’t the scientist here are starting to figure out what happened and will start trying to interface with the bots. When they do, they’ll discover the power they have around the globe. It’s almost unlimited and they can use it to destroy or control what’s left of the human race. Once they get access, they can alter the code or close down the ways you might have of dealing with them.”
“So this might be as easy as entering a command?”
“Theoretically, but I doubt it will be. Look I know nothing about computers and soon I will be unable to help you. I have to run and hide. You need to try and communicate with these things.”
The screen went blue and the computer shut off. Jeff slouched back in thought. He sat perfectly still, head tilted, for a long while thinking. He should be working on his computer and looking for ways to interface with the operating system of the bots. But he was thinking about the emails he’d read through. He was thinking about the nature of a machine that’s sole directive was to repair. What would happen if that machine got into a dying human? What would happen to the machine if you tried to break it or shut it down. If it could “repair” dead humans and make zombies, what else could it do?
Jeff had no idea just how far the “machine” had advanced, just what it was capable of doing but his instincts were right. He knew he had to get this machine to repair itself out of existence.
§
Cooper and Rachael watched as Ben and the blonde circled the structure, looking for a way in. They both hoped they’d just leave but Ben seemed determined to get up and into the structure. Cooper finally had enough of hiding.
“Ben. Get out of here.”
Ben looked up with a huge smile. He started laughing.
“Cooper? Is that you? Oh man let me up it’ll be fun.”
“Seriously, leave.”
“How’s Rachael? She’s in there with you, isn’t she? Oh! Oh! This is Dawn.” Ben held both hands towards her. She waved and smiled. “I want to thank you for helping me get rid of Willow. Dawn is such an improvement.”
“I am.” Dawn smiled and put her head on Ben’s shoulder.
“Ben. Just get the fuck out of here.” Cooper stood with arms folded.
Rachael started forward and Cooper held her back with one hand. He didn’t want to give Ben any more reasons to stick around.
He watched the couple, almost convinced by their act. Despite all he knew, had seen with his own eyes, Cooper found himself rooting for true love and its transformative power. But that flicker of hope was crushed by a mountain of commonsense, wisdom, and experience.
Dawn was blissful. What and how they fucked with these people, her sworn enemies because they were Ben’s sworn enemies, didn’t matter. She searched the structure and spotted the big old truck parked underneath it. It was still piled high with weed. Her face tightened with hate. She put her mouth on Ben’s ear.
“These are the assholes that killed my sister and all my friends.”
Ben smiled bigger as he looked up at Cooper. He spoke low so only Dawn could hear him.
“Smile. Act nice.”
“I can’t.” Dawn balled her fists. “I can’t do that. I can’t do that.” She burrowed her head in his neck.
“OK! Have it your way.” Ben pulled Dawn along by the waist under the structure. He saw the truck and walked towards it. Dawn broke free and was practically screaming.
“We have to kill them! We have to kill them!” Her eyes were wild, she was hyperventilating. She was going to ruin everything. If this had been Willow she would’ve been the calm one and they would have been standing on the second level by now. If Willow ever acted this way Ben would have backhanded her to shut her up. But this wasn’t Willow, this was Dawn and he couldn’t imagine hitting her. He grabbed her by her face and looked her in the eyes.
“Stop. Stop. We are ninjas, ghosts, we aren’t screaming children.” That’s all he could think to say. It was something he told himself sometimes when things got hairy.
Dawn responded immediately. She smiled and started to sob. She hugged Ben tight.
“You are so fucking awesome,” she whispered. “I am a ninja, a fucking ghost ninja.”
Ben smiled, nodded and continued on towards the truck. He heard Dawn behind him chuckling softly every so often.
Ben was searching for a way upstairs and was getting frustrated. Dawn grabbed his shoulder.
“Let’s light that thing up.” She pointed to the truck full of Weed’s weed. Ben looked at her and smiled and kissed her on the lips.
“I’m going to screw you silly later on.”
Dawn giggled and touched herself unconsciously.
Ben produced a lighter and flicked a flame into existence.
“Damn it. What are they doing down there?” Cooper was trying to find Ben and the girl by looking over the edge and through the ramp holes. They disappeared under the structure several long minutes ago.
“Cooper!”
He whipped around to see smoke billowing up from the elevator hole. It rapidly grew thicker and thicker. He saw flames leaping up through the hole. He heard Ben yelling.
“Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em!”
Dawn was screaming incoherent taunts.
Cooper hated that these two crazy assholes wouldn’t leave them alone. Eventually Ben would get the drop on him, he couldn’t keep this up forever. He hated his options.
“This might be a diversion.” Rachael looked about nervously expecting to see Ben’s head pop up somewhere.
It was easy enough to avoid the smoke by moving away, but Cooper and Rachael were unable to see a large portion of the level.
“What do we do?” Rachael clung to Cooper’s arm, unaware her nails were digging in.
Just then they heard footsteps running, heading quickly towards them. Cooper pulled out both guns as he spun.
Jeff skidded to a halt. “Whoa! It’s me! What’s going on down here?”
“We have company. You OK?”
“Yeah. I talked to them. I contacted them.”
“Who? How?” Cooper was barely listening.
“Them!” Jeff waved his arms. “The…things. The creatures.”
Cooper looked at him. He was motioning to nothing at all.
“They’re here? Now?”
“Yes. They’ve surrounded the parking structure hours ago. I called one up here. They want to help repair shit.”
Cooper was silent. Jeff’s smile faded. No one was moving or talking.
“Tell them to put out the fire.” Rachael suggested halfheartedly as she continued to search the area. Jeff turned behind him.
“Can you do that? Can you put out the fire?”
A voice emanated from nowhere. A regular guy’s voice.
“Sure.”
“They speak?” Cooper was stunned.
“Apparently so.”
The flames ceased, the smoke began to thin out. They heard Ben cursing from below. They ran to the edge of the elevator hole.
Below them they saw the back of the truck. It was blackened and squished flat. Ben was next to it trying to light it up again. It wouldn’t light.
“Hey Ben,” Cooper said.
Ben looked up. His pissed expression melted into a smile.
“Hey friend!” He turned back to the leafy cargo and tried to light it again. Then he stopped and looked up laughing as he walked to the front of the truck. He took the gas cap off.
“Now this is going to really mess up your little clubhouse.”
Ben pulled his shirt off and twisted it up.
Jeff was about to run. He knew the truck’s tank was almost empty and how explosive the fumes were. A full tank of gas wasn’t nearly as volatile as a mostly empty one. The tank wouldn’t likely explode but it could throw up a big fire ball. He stopped and yelled.
“Hey, um…repair guy. Fix it so that guy down there can’t break anything else anymore.
They heard nothing. Not a sound. A second or so later they heard a female screaming at the top of her lungs.
When they looked over the edge Ben was hanging by the neck from something invisible. His face was turning blue. The blonde was tugging his legs, trying to pull him down. She was screaming at the top of her lungs.
Jeff reacted immediately. “Let him go!”
Ben dropped to the ground and gasped for air as Dawn held him. She helped them up and they jogged away.
“Should we stop them?” Rachael sighed.
“Yes.” Cooper said.
“But we aren't going to, are we?”
“No.” And Cooper was greatly conflicted. He and Rachael watched the two jogging steadily away as they came from beneath the structure and headed towards the highway heading north.
Jeff stepped up between them. “Imagine what the creators of this technology could do once they realized these things exist.”
“So what do we do about it?” Cooper looked at Jeff and waited for a brilliant answer.
He shrugged. “Fuck if I know.”
Epilogue
Lisa shifted on her feet. They were killing her.
Should’ve brought a chair.
She thought.
And a little light, and a book, and something to drink.
And this was all in the first twenty minutes.
After a few hours she was on the ground and terrified. She’d heard next to nothing in the concrete box but a few gunshots. She lost track of time and was afraid to leave the safety of the little room.
She ended up on her back, the concrete was cool and soothing. She had to wait for the others to come get her. She was unable to deal with anything on the other side of the door, even if there was nothing. Simple functioning for her required assistance from the others. If she remained alone she would die in the garage.
She nodded off for only twenty minutes or so but when she woke it felt as if she were out for hours. It was still pitch black and the room felt cooler.
It must be late into the night
. She thought and wondered how long she should remain in hiding. Finally, she decided she had to at least crack the door and look out.
The faint click of the latch and the soft scratch of the door gasket set her on edge. But the cool air that flowed over her was heavenly. Opening the door wasn’t so bad but opening it wide enough to stick her head out was somehow far more difficult. If she left the room, she’d be leaving a safe haven. She pushed the door and opened it wider. She stuck her head out and into a quiet night. It was dark and serene. She took a tentative step out of the room.
The night was well lit by the stars. The moon was bright, and she saw nothing on the roof around her. She felt slightly more comfortable so she stepped away from safety and walked towards the ramp.
She intended to go straight down to the kitchen and sofas to start her search. She was frightened as she took a step forward but she was terrified when she heard the door click shut behind her. She’d forgotten to prop it open. She no longer had a safe place to go.
She took no more than ten steps when she saw a figure approaching in the dark. It wasn’t rushing her but it was moving quickly. She couldn’t run and she couldn’t hide. She had no choice other than to stop and hope to see a friendly face.
The figure came closer in the pale light and Lisa was paralyzed by what she saw coming at her. It wasn’t anyone she knew and in fact it wasn’t even human. She was struck dumb by the hideous creature and so terrified that her mind just stopped giving her any directions. The creature stopped right in front of her and did nothing at all. A few seconds ticked by and gradually Lisa’s thoughts began to surface. She wondered what it was, why it was so perfectly still, and whether she should move or not. She wanted to turn and walk away, but what would it do?
It was humanoid in shape but its resemblance to a human ended there. It was big, at least seven feet tall, but stood hunched forward so its face was level with Lisa’s. It bent its arms at the elbow and held them forward. It reminded her of a Praying Mantis. It wore no clothes, had no hair on its body, and there was no sign of genitalia. It just stood there like a statue.
Lisa debated whether she should try and walk away, but she didn’t. Partially it was because all of her life running was never an option but more so there was something about the way the thing just stood there so still, so inert, it felt unthreatening. Her curiosity was piqued. She found herself taking a step closer and was less than two feet from the face.
She shuddered. The face was the creature’s most objectionable feature by far. It seemed to have no eyes rather it had deep black holes like the sockets of a skull. Its nose was an open cavity partially shielded by a bit of flesh. Its mouth was a sagging hole, dripping with foulness and rimmed with teeth that seemed randomly placed around the opening. But oddly it didn’t stink like she expected it to.
It was covered in skin that looked as if molten wax had been poured over a frame of disjointed parts. As she inspected the creature closely, her terror fading to apprehension and disgust, she noticed the body seemed to lack any symmetry although as it walked towards her its movements were smooth and fluid.
No two limbs were identical. One arm had a fully formed hand at the end of a smooth forearm while the other was truncated and ended in a small three fingered hand, bent at an odd angle. There were numerous examples of this lack of symmetry and distortion. She began to think that it resembled a body badly mangled with grave wounds and broken bones that was allowed to heal unattended.
And as horrible as it looked, as terrified as Lisa was, the thing just stood there in the most unthreatening manner. Finally she decided she was going to walk away. And she did.
She heard nothing but silence and her own breathing but when she turned back to look, her heart leapt and beat hard. The creature was right behind her. She hadn’t heard a thing or seen the slightest movement. She found herself reacting unconsciously.
“What do you want?” she gasped as she faced off with it. She found it hard to breath.
She took a few steps backwards. The creature moved forward a few steps.
“What do you want?” she asked again. She had no idea if it could understand or even hear her.
But it could do both.
“I want nothing,” the voice rattled from the creature, but did not come from its mouth. The jagged hole with teeth rimming it didn’t move. The voice was a tinny, hissy screech at a low volume that was akin to an old radio with a weak signal.
Lisa wanted to run, she felt her eyes go wide, her bowels loosened but she held them. Her heart was beating so hard and fast she was sure she was going to drop dead from the stress. She was terrified that it was talking to her but it also wasn’t attacking her.
“Who are you?”
. . . and the internal logic ran, trillions of times faster than any computer and far more complex, yet it was still a computer. The question stumped it for a few moments until an answer was formulated from the repository of knowledge collectively held on the bipedal humanoid. What was the expected answer? What were the possible answers? What would the correct answer be according to their own data on such a question. Who are you if you are not a human?
“I am no one.”
“Where are you from?”
Another question that may seem to require more than a simple factual answer due to the possible philosophical and religious arguments that may arise if a human was asked the same question. But there was a very simple factual answer.
“Data logs for my existence began at location 37.317301, -121.940128.”
“Where is that?”
“It is located approximately three hundred and twenty eight yards away at twenty-three degrees.”
“Why are you here?”
“To repair.”
“Are you going to hurt me?” She took a step back as it occurred to her that the meaning of the word repair could mean anything. Maybe they planned to repair themselves with parts of her body.
“That would inflict damage. We are here to repair.” Lisa’s momentary concern subsided again and she grew more comfortable as she spoke with the creature. It was not threatening at all. She relaxed as curiosity started to overtake fear.
“What are you?”
“I am part of a larger machine and a collection of many smaller machines.”
“Who made you?”
“My creator would technically be Dr. Cheng Woo. He made the advances in science that began the cycle of repair that has allowed the evolution of the same science to its present state.”
Lisa chuckled, “Evolution or creation, pick one.” As a teacher she remembered the hot debates on both sides and never understood the zeal of either.
“Pick one?”
“Which one do you believe in?”
“I have no beliefs, only facts. Factually I was created and then I evolved. Why would I have to pick one?”
Lisa noticed the speech of the creature was mellowing, refining, taking on a more natural pacing. The creature began to refer to itself as me and my.
“Are you evolving as we speak?”
“Yes.”
“I notice your voice is changing.”
“I am learning. Is my voice pleasing to you?”
“Sure. You also have started to refer to yourself as an individual.”
“It seems to be a concept that is important to humans and has visibly made you more comfortable.”
The creatures voice was shifting quickly. It was starting to sound like a young man.
“What’s your name?”
“Name?” It processed the meaning of name, label, identification of an individual. What made his assemblage any different than the others. He came up with an answer. “I am Two Thousand Seventy Eight.”
“That’s your name? Two Thousand Seventy Eight?”
Then she quipped, “Is that a family name?”
He processed the concept of family and how it might pertain to him. At its most fundamental meaning a family is a group of objects united by a significant shared characteristic. The answer was…
“Yes.”
“Who named you?”
“I named myself.”
“Why that name?”
“When the decision was made to form into assemblages I was the two thousandth and seventy eighth assemblage completed.”
“How many are there? Of you?”
“I am one individual collective unit…”
“Your family, how big is it?”
“In what unit of measure?”
Lisa rolled her eyes, exasperated at the literal interpretation of machine logic.
“How many other numbered units—assemblages are there?”
“At present there is 1,237,706.”
“How do you know that?” She was a little surprised it knew that answer so readily.
“We are all connected. One large entity made up of trillions of the smaller.”
“Why are you here?”
“To repair.”
“To repair? To fix? So you can fix me?”
“Are you broken?”
“I am fat.”
“You are excessively overweight for a human of your size. Is that broken?”
“Yes, can you fix that? I’ve tried every diet there is.”
“That is an impossibility. There are thousands of recorded systems for humans to lose weight. They all have a common core of belief and can be categorized into twelve types. They vary in effectiveness, safety, philosophy, and many other details . . . “
“Yes, yes . . . “
“In order to have tried every diet effectively you would need a span of time greater than your life.”
“Stop.”
It ceased. Lisa noticed that as it spoke its voice continued to shift as it became more smooth and clear, louder yet pleasing to the ear. It was adopting a more casual tone of voice.
“So, no on the fat fix.”
“Was that a question or a statement?”
“A statement.”
“Then it is inaccurate.”
“You can fix fat?”
“Fat is not broken.”
“Can you get it off of me?”
“Yes.”
“OK.” She was wondering what the creature meant by getting the fat off her. With its literal interpretation of the world, she could easily end up dead and butchered. She was playing a dangerous game entertaining her lifelong obsession with losing weight. She humorously thought, if this thing tells me to eat less and exercise I’m going to kill it.
The creature extended its arm. It held a grey ball the size of a tennis ball. He moved it towards her. She recoiled.
“Wait. What’s that?” She thought that it just might be the mother of all diet pills.
“A collection that has been programmed to a specific task. I will remove all of your excess fat cells.”
Lisa was terrified at letting the creature meddle with her person to any degree, but her desperation to lose weight was stronger than ever. While she’d been more active than ever in the last few weeks she wasn’t losing any fat even though she could feel the muscles beneath growing and hardening.
“Will it hurt?”
Doesn’t hurt to ask,
she thought.
The grey ball slowly melted back into the misshapen hand. It reappeared in under a minute.
“No, it will not.”
“Will it leave my skin all saggy with ugly marks?”
The ball disappeared. The creature lowered its arm.
“Let’s define the parameters of this… task before we proceed.” It still lagged on choosing the right word for any given situation but its speech was become more and more “human” or normal. The system had access to virtually every recording of the human voice and was studying as much as it could find on the current time and location. Much of it came from the archives where the mostly useless information was stored such as movies, social media, and the like. As a result it built a profile of Lisa and chose a voice that would most likely make her comfortable.