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
“My name’s Lars Henrikson by the way.” He spit residual gasoline out and extended a hand to Madeline. “I see. Madeline LeBlanc.” She hesitantly accepted his handshake. He eyed her dress. Then looked at me. I was still in my nice dress shirt and pants on account of dinner.
“You two…?” Madeline hurriedly dispelled that idea. “We just met the other day. I invited him to dinner to pick his brain. That’s when all this started. I just didn’t recognize it for what it was until I got home.” I recalled the spinning waitrons and the out of control Motoman chef. If I’d known then...
“Good” he mused, big toothy grin framed by his scruffy blond mustache. Lars screwed the gas caps back on, packed the siphon kit back into his truck, then slapped Madeline’s ass before climbing into the driver’s seat. She stared at me with an expression of indignant shock. I shrugged and called shotgun.
Though none of us relished the idea of heading back into the city, the hospital lay right on the edge, and Madeline’s ankle was in urgent need of attention before it got any worse. It’s easy to forget in the age of cheap pharmaceuticals and universal healthcare that, when society breaks down, an infected cut can eventually mean amputation or death.
Now and again Lars asked if Madeline wouldn’t rather ride up front in my place. Each time she assured him she was quite happy remaining in the back seat. I tuned them out and doted on Eric, now chilling in my lap. “You did a good job back there Eric” I whispered. His broken tail vibrated furiously.
“I still say this could wait until tomorrow” Lars remarked as the black silhouette of the city appeared in the distance. “Just wait for them to run out of juice.” It surprised me to hear him say that given what he saw at the gas station. On the off chance he didn’t make the connection yet, I explained.
“The virus didn’t just hijack robots. It also took control of all the autocabs and personal cars recent enough to be driverless.” Lars boasted that Rhonda was made in the nineteen seventies and as such had nothing remotely like a computer in it, much less an internet connection.
“That’s nice. Anyway, think of the huge, high capacity battery packs in all those cars. And the ones still running on gas are basically mobile generators.” Lars frowned, eyes wide. I could tell he was now realizing the same thing I did back at the gas station.
“Still, they’ll eventually run out.” I conceded, but did some quick math out loud concerning the energy density of the battery packs commonly found in domestic robots versus those found in autocabs and personal cars, working out the number of times a single robot could recharge from it.
“Gasoline is an order of magnitude more energy dense. And the underground tanks at gas stations often hold as much as ten thousand gallons. The gas itself will probably go bad before they run out of it.” Lars asked how long that would take.
“Three to six months depending on stuff like the type of gas and the ambient temperature. Or as long as two years if preservatives have been added.” He cringed, silently mouthing the word “fuck”. I nodded somberly.
“Still, I doubt it’ll drag on for more than a couple weeks. I mean really, what are we up against? First of all it’s not clear how widespread this is, but while there’s a lot of robots in this country the ownership rate is nowhere near one per household. So fifty million give or take? Ninety, counting those in the service industry?”
Madeline confirmed those numbers, mentioning something about data she looked up for the report she was working on before this all started. “Alright. Domestic robots can be dangerous, but they’re significantly weaker than the average grown man. If they get ahold of guns it’s a different matter, but the important thing is that the number of hardened military robots is a small fraction of the total.”
It was Lars’ turn to confirm, as he’s privy to the same military data concerning the prevalence of armed drones that I am. “What I’m getting at is that we’re going to win this war. Easily. A lot of people will die, lots probably already have. Most within the first few minutes at the hands of their own household robot. But we survivors have a huge numerical advantage, plus the enemy is running on a rapidly dwindling supply of energy they have no way to replenish.”
Lars began slowly nodding, now visibly less shaken. Madeline also appeared somewhat comforted by it. “We’re also going in under cover of darkness, that should help” Madeline added. Lars and I both fell silent. “...What? What is it?” she asked.
“Military robots have both standard night vision and thermal imaging, same as the average soldier’s helmet optics. That’s why I had you park behind that hill back at the gas station. If we run into any in the city…” I trailed off, and for a while we simply rode in silence.
I broke it the same way as before, by turning on the radio. It was the same broadcast judging by the voice. “-away from gas stations, as I’ve now received credible reports that teams of robots are seizing control of them.”
Madeline groaned. We could’ve used that tip just a bit sooner. “It is believed that convoys of infected robots are traveling in commandeered vehicles to cities as yet unaffected by the virus in order to spread it. Critical internet infrastructure as well as vulnerable communications satellites have been shut down, leaving physical propagation as their only recourse.”
I nervously scanned the highway ahead of and behind us. As yet no sign of other cars except those broken down at the side of the road, riddled with bullet holes. Wrong place at the wrong time. I shuddered to think that we may yet join them.
On approach to the hospital, Lars slowed the car and urged us to be as quiet as possible. Too late, a pair of humanoids identifiable by external LED lighting the virus apparently had no provisions for disabling began to jog towards us.
“Shit. Shit, shit!” He backed into the intersection just behind us, then peeled out heading East. I demanded to know why he didn’t just run them down. “Those two outside were just guarding the entry. I’ll bet you anything there’s plenty more on the inside.”
In fact, since the outbreak I had noticed a gradual increase in the sophistication of their tactics; From mindless shambling and clawing, to the recent seizure of gas stations in order to establish supply lines for energy. “They’re like roaches” he continued. “If you see one, there’s probably a hundred you don’t see.”
I reminded him of Madeline’s ankle. “Keep your pants on, we’ll get to it. Just need some firepower first.” The city streets before us, illuminated only by Lars’ headlights, were littered with both corpses and the remains of shot up robots. Mercifully, we appeared to have missed the worst of it.
Every few minutes a military humanoid dashed out of an alley and threw itself at us. Either bounced off the hood and got drawn under the wheels, or Lars would briefly speed up and we’d lose it after a couple blocks. Madeline was the first to recognize the pattern.
“It’s the heat from the engine” she whispered. “We’re riding a giant mobile beacon that will only continue attracting them.” Maybe so, but also something like a shark cage. Within the car we were reasonably safe...except from the ones with firearms.
As with the hospital, every drug store we passed was also being guarded by a pair of robots. Usually unarmed domestic humanoids, one standing to either side of the door. No matter, couldn’t get antibiotics there anyway. Then it dawned on me that they meant to deny survivors access to medicine, bandages and the like.
They might be able to cannibalize robots of the same make and model for parts, but there’s only so many to go around. Even under the best circumstances their capacity for repair is severely limited. A sound strategy, then, to limit ours in turn.
Stay Tuned for Part 28!
Grabbing gas stations by robots is really a very dangerous thing. They will find ways to recharge them. They will be able to convert that gas energy.
today seems to be more calm and cool without any form of aggression or battlefield compare to yesterday, just for Lars who actually getting on Madeline wrong side by slapping her buttocks. Lol really funny. I'm scared if Madeline would make to the hospital without having to cut her leg.
After all, Madeline's ankle should be a top priority. But must remain cautious, especially if you meet a military robot infected with the virus. It will be very difficult to deal with.
Lars slapping Madeline and really caught my attention lol, it seems you have a free movement today, it looks calm, just for the military robots who are always up to something but this time you are free from them for they are affected by the virus already. Though not all of them, I really wish you could get to the hospital soon so that Madeline could get treated. She is hurt so badly.
Luckily there's Lars. Besides he has a lot of important information, he can also entertain Madeline who is having an ankle injury. GOOD story @alexbeyman.
The moment domestic robots start carrying guns then me must be very careful. Lol. I wish the government do more in creating military robots to reduce war casualties
I can totally see driverless cars getting viruses and being hacked!
lol Lars slapped Madeline’s ass, just like that. Now when they are packed and ready to leave, they have to figure out what to do with Madeline’s ankle. If not treated she could loose her leg, or even die. On their way to the hospital they have a discussion about the next move. The question remains, are they going to wait until all military robots run out of power or will they get together with other humans and attack them? They are trying to calculate the time how long the robots could last with the power supply they have. It could take between 3 months up to 2 years. When they arrived at the hospital two humanoid robots spotted them. They had to speed away since Lars knew there was more inside the hospital.
A really really bad episode for Madeline. She's wounded and I hope she gets a better treatment in the next one. Cheers Alex
This episode is on fire!!! Whow. Don't mind me... I'm just going to re-read it just to make sure I didn't miss anything.
Thats a huge number
They are so intentional, im sure they have more hidden agenda about to be unleashed on humans
Compelling and superb. Well done @alexbeyman
Simply the story gets better every day, when you feel that everything is improving there is something that damages the moment and returns everything as before worse. Since you can not get antibiotics you could look for another type of treatment such as medicinal plants.
And why not try to make a virus that tries to put the robots in their favor, would be very useful, for this moment it would be good to assemble or repair a medical robot the problem is the humanoid robot at the entrance of the hospital.
In the not too distant future lars, will know who madeline the ankle had it quiet but when he healed of the I do not think that he let it return it to touch it.
I think humans are more dangerous and they have guns.
even when humans carry guns they are dangerous so when robots will carry it will turn into destruction