[Original Novel] Little Robot, Part 50
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31
Part 32
Part 33
Part 34
Part 35
Part 36
Part 37
Part 38
Part 39
Part 40
Part 41
Part 42
Part 43
Part 44
Part 45
Part 46
Part 47
Part 48
Part 49
“I don’t like it.” Big Red whispered, not two feet from me. “I thought you liked robots” one of his men whispered back. “I like ‘em well enough when they’re doing laundry, chopping wood, setting out traps and bringing me beer” Red grumbled. “Not when they’re pretending to be human, trying to make us trust ‘em. Fooling the women and kids with canned jokes and pretty lights.”
I realized that despite our close proximity, he couldn’t see me eavesdropping on account of the darkness. Big Red interrupted Helper to invite anybody else to talk. Many protested that they had more questions for Helper. “I’m sure she’s tired, or her capacitors are run down or whatever” he countered.
Helper insisted her batteries were still over half full and that she was having fun. “No dear, you’re tired” Red insisted. “Let someone else tell their story.” Helper’s lights, showing through her dress as though it were a lampshade, dimmed somewhat and color shifted to blue. “Alright. Thanks for saying my lights are pretty though.”
Red sputtered, and I stifled a laugh. Helper’s hearing isn’t as acute as it could be on account of her curious lack of ears, but the closed in bunker carried sound much better than Big Red seemed to realize. Men his age often do suffer from hearing loss of varying degrees.
“Well, I suppose if nobody minds, I could tell you how I got here.” I didn’t recognize the voice. Male, sounded early twenties or so. A few quiet words of encouragement later, he started to describe how he survived the first few hours of the attack.
“I’d just come back from protesting “technological unemployment”. That’s what the few, wealthy people who own most of the robots in the world call it to make it sound less shitty than it is. I was fighting the good fight back before it became a literal fight.
That’s the crazy thing! Before I was worried about ‘em taking our jobs. Never thought they’d start taking our lives too. I used to deliver pizzas before robots took that over. Spent the night in jail once for tipping over one of those gay little four wheel pizza delivery robots with my buddies.
I wish I knew where that judge is at now so I could ask him if I was wrong. Anyway I notice a bunch of those things surrounding a woman’s car on my drive home, so I stop to help. She couldn’t get out on account of the robots blocking the doors and there was maybe four or five stacked in front and behind so she couldn’t run ‘em down.
I keep a baseball bat in the trunk. It didn’t take long to fuck ‘em up. They kept mobbing me but they got no arms or legs so they couldn’t do much. Couldn’t run me over, the motors in those things are only as powerful as what you’d find in a fatty scooter.
I thought that was the whole thing! That it would be a funny story I could post online to laugh at with my buddies, like “see? I was right!” But y’all know it didn’t stop there. Every time I saw more and more fucked up shit, my understanding of the scope of this mess kept growing.
At first I thought, “no way this is statewide”. Then “no way is this happening everywhere in the US” and so on. Boy did that bat come in handy! I must’ve scrapped a thousand of ‘em by now just with that trusty metal bat, I miss that thing.
The girl’s name was Stephanie. You can guess why I said “was”. No, it’s okay. We didn’t have time to get close, besides she was gay. Real handy with the bat though. It’s kinda bittersweet that something this horrible could bring together people who never woulda met otherwise.
Anyway we made it to a refugee camp, really just some fella’s ranch. He was good enough to take us all in, and there was a lot of us. Stephanie said it wasn’t so bad, kinda like camping. One of those “silver lining” people.
The fella who owned the ranch warned us he was gonna run out of food pretty fast, but he had a bunch of horses he said he was willing to slaughter one by one for meat. Damn shame, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Stephanie was upset, being that she was an animal person.
It never came to that. We all thought we were saved when those cargo drones flew overhead and dropped big plastic supply crates via parachute. It’s like how they air drop food and medicine into impoverished countries to fight starvation. That was my thinking, and I bet everyone elses too.
But when the crates opened up, there wasn’t any food in there. It was jam packed with police robots. Those dinky little trashcan lookin’ motherfuckers. All they got is wheels and a gun basically but that’s all they needed. You can’t even kick ‘em over on account of they got gyroscopes inside to stabilize ‘em.
They just poured out like angry fire ants comin’ out of an anthill, swarming the place faster than we could react. Pop pop pop they went, one bullet one kill. Their aim was perfect. The minute they got you in their sights, without cover or some other way to stop the bullet, that’s all she wrote.
The two of us were running towards the rancher’s house when Stephanie fell. I turn to look and she’s bleeding out from a hole in her head. Just like that. They don’t wait to hear your last words. They don’t bother to intimidate you. They just shoot.
I can’t get it across however I try. The primal terror of so many people running around screaming, some covered in blood, others carrying the bodies of their children. Total chaos, and it wouldn’t stop. Those fuckin’ things just kept going, spreading outward from the crate, taking out anybody close enough.
You can’t think under those conditions, fear takes you. The ranch house was mobbed with scared people trying to get inside but he locked the front door. Suddenly not such a bleeding heart, but I understand it. His own family came first.
I thought about hiding under some bodies and playing dead. But I heard on the radio about how they can see body heat and knew that wouldn’t work, so first thing I did was try to steal the rancher’s pickup. I don’t know shit about hot wiring though, I had to give up on it. After that I just hauled ass into the woods and didn’t look back.
They don’t deal well with forests. They got no legs for one thing. The ranch was pretty flat grazing land, but the woods was rough and trees are good cover. I didn’t have nothing on me but my hoodie. Had to leave my bat in the tent along with my food and everything else.
A couple times I saw drones strafing the highway or the woods. Hunting some other poor bastard like me probably. So I always kept my ears open for aircraft and hid every time. Could be one of ours, but why risk it? I followed the highway, looting shot up cars I found alongside it but never walking openly on the highway itself.
Finally I got here. Hungry, thirsty, cold and exhausted. Coughing somethin’ fierce, probably coming down with something. Big Red fixed me right up though. Fed me, warmed me up, gave me some meds and everything. I can’t tell you what a relief it was, I thought I’d have to survive on my own in the wilderness until all this blew over.”
Murmurs of approval followed, many of them mentioning various ways Big Red helped them. I’m sure his ears were burning right then. Helper spoke up, asking how the rancher could lock the door and leave all those people outside to die.
Big Red cut in, shushing her and inviting someone else to tell their story, but several people urged him to let the man answer Helper’s question. By now their fear of Helper seemed to have fully subsided, replaced by fascination.
“Well I guess he just worked it out in his head that he and his family had better odds of surviving that way. It’s like how you don’t gotta be faster than a bear, just faster than the slowest guy in the group. Gambling on the possibility that if he left some targets for the robots to gun down, they would be satisfied with that and move on, although I don’t really think they work like that.”
Helper replied that it sounded like a cold, calculating mindset. Confused chatter followed, then someone asked what she would have done in his place. “I am helper” she stated. “I would’ve helped.” That really set the room abuzz.
Stay Tuned for Part 51!
that story really touch me great job
Big red catches the attention of helper, but since he is a robot he can not admit that, that is why he tries to humiliate her so that he can feel strong and not show his love.
The story of this man is undoubtedly another proof of everything that had to happen to everyone because of that virus that affects robots, but that does not mean that helper or robots are to blame, hackers are the ones they caused the robots to get out of control, now you tell me, who was to blame the human who made that virus or the robots that are attacking humans? How I would like Big Red to answer that question to see if that leaves helper quiet.
That’s totally new tactic! All this slaughter. That’s was not their plan. I guess they are trying to make them feel a bit safer while saying their own stories how it all started. I wonder what’s next...
A nice story. Tough situations bring people closer.
Yeah sometimes some deep shit situations tend to bring people together under same circumstances you know. You said Rebecca was gay, isn't she a woman?
Amazing I enjoyed this one
how deep was this part and the whole situation they are getting into, this seems like an ante-room to something much bigger.
What an interesting and elegant turn of a phrase. You're right too, bigger things are coming.
Helper was ni doubt having fun. But why did you stighed your laugh? I would have loved to hear the sound of your laughter
Actually, while thinking of the benefits of robot compared to their harm one cannot but think of them as woman which I believe they are necessary and at the same time evil, as it ever occur to you my friend?
She always summon courage unlike other robot I have read about In this story. Her name does speak in her favor, helper.
This piece is actually imminent. Robots are already taking up jobs of people, and also claiming people's lives just not in huge numbers. I remember that recently a self-driving car killed someone because it mistakened the human for something else so it didn't hit the breaks.