'What's happening?' 'The World's dying.' 'What?!' 'You heard me. Could you hand me that bag over
there?' 'Huh, what? Uhh sure.' 'Thanks. You might wanna get out of that car, their coming.' 'Whose
they? What's happening? Can you tell- Hey! Where are you going?' 'I told you, their coming. And if I
were you, I'd get my butt and high tail it out of here.' 'Could you at least tell me what's going
on, please?' 'God, you don't shut up do you. Come along, yes come along. I'll explain on the way.'
'My God' what happened here?' 'Hmm, what do you mean?' 'What do I mean? Look around. What the hecks
going on. Buildings are on fire, the roads are cracked up, cars are flipped everywhere. And what the
heck is that? " 'One who doesn't know when to close his mouth is likely to get a black eye.' 'What?
Who the heck said that?' 'I did, now will you shut up while I get my brain organized' that is what I
was talking about before. It's where they come from.' 'Who are they and what exactly is that?' 'Man,
how long you been out anyway? Did you get amnesia or something?' 'I might, why does it matter?'
'It's been like this for a while now.' 'How long is a while?' 'Oh, about fifty-one years to date.'
'You gotta be kidding me. How could I not know any of this if it's been going on for half a
century?' 'Like I said, amnesia or some crap. Listen, do you want to know what happened here or
not?' 'Yeah, OK fine, tell me. What the hecks going on?' 'This is gonna be a little history lesson
OK, so bear with me.' 'OK.' (Sigh) 'About ninety years ago, there was a company, Sumplus Tech. It
was involved with all that robotic machine type of stuff. One day, the CEO comes out and announced
that they had created an AI. You know what an AI is, right?' 'Yeah, artificial intelligence.' 'Good.
Now, there was a lot of controversy to this. A lot of religious groups protested against what they
called a blasphemy against God and argued that they were meddling in things forbidden. Some even
went and tried to kill the scientists involved in the project. Most failed, some succeeded. The
president took action and held a Geneva Convention. The leaders of the world were going to discuss
and come up with the future of the AI. The whole world was watching.' 'What did they decide?' 'I'm
getting there. Now, while they were making their final decisions, Sumplus Tech was attacked and held
hostage. The exact details of who attacked the company were unknown because in the end, the leaders
decided that they couldn't let some terrorists get their hands on the AI, so they blew them up'' 'My
God.' 'Tell me about it. Oh, watch out for that bar over there. Here, follow me; I'll take you over
to my home.' 'So, what happened after that? How come everything is like, like' this?' 'Hehe,
apparently those terrorists were smarter than anyone had thought. They had somehow managed to get
the blueprints for the AI out of the building before the whole thing went boom'' ''Well, what
happened to the plans?' 'Ah, you're like a child who never stops asking questions aren't you?' 'Just
tell me.' 'OK, OK. Now, no one at the time knew that the blue prints had been stolen. After a while,
everything went back to normal again. The religious groups quieted down, people began forgetting
about it, the ashes of Sumplus Tech began to grow cold. The leaders had decided to close down all
the branches of Sumplus Tech that were involved in AI research. In fact, they closed down all AI
research facilities, saying that in the wrong hands, they were too dangerous a weapon.' 'Let me
guess, the terrorists soon came out with an army of AI's and took over the world.' 'Hehe, don't get
ahead of yourself. In the end, only five AI's were made by the terrorists. And I'm not talking about
some crappy computer you might get at the retail stores. These things were huge. (Sigh), I
guess you can figure out what happened next.' 'The AI's went berserk.' 'Yep.' 'So' all of this, all
of this happened because of the AI's?' 'The AI's began taking over machines everywhere. The leaders
of the world tried everything they could to stop the spread of the AI control. Some tried to cut all
the power sources, but the AI's were in control of that. Others tried to just bomb the machines to
kingdom come, but guess what, machines ran the weapons system. The AI's finally started an all out
war when they began launching nukes to the major cities. Oh, here, this way. Yeah, you need to duck
a little.' 'You live under a train station?' 'Hey, you gotta make do with what you've got, right?
There's a flight of stairs up ahead. You might wanna take this flashlight.' 'Thanks.' 'No problem.'
' 'I'm Matt by the way. That's about all I can remember.' 'Well I'm Frank.' 'I'm still confused.'
'About what?' 'If the AI's used nukes to attack the cities, what happened when the bombs ran out?
Couldn't humans attack after that?' 'Back then, that's what everyone thought. Live out the nuclear
holocausts and then strike back. I mean, in the end, a machine is a piece of metal, right? What the
heck is a piece of metal gonna do to you when it doesn't have any weapons. All you have to do is
pull the plug, right? Well, humans are simple minded. They underestimated the AI's.' 'Huh?' 'Oh,
here we are, home sweet home. Make yourself comfortable. You can leave your stuff on the table over
there. I'll go in the kitchen and see if I can't get anything together.' 'Yeah sure' Wow, you've
lived here how long?' 'WHAT? SPEAK UP, I CANT HEAR YOU.' 'I SAID HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN LIVING
HERE!' 'OH, ABOUT SEVEN YEARS. BEFORE THIS I WAS LIVING IN BOSTON WITH SOME OTHER SURVIVORS!'
'REALLY, OTHER SURVIVORS?' 'Man, why are you shouting, I'm right here.' 'Agh, don't sneak up on me.
'Hehehe, don't get a heart attack.' 'That's not funny.' 'Yeah, yeah, here, take some soup. Don't
worry, it's not hot.' 'Thanks' 'CLINK, CLINK' ''So, what ever happened when the bombs stopped
falling.' '' (Sigh) The AI's, they were'they were smart. The moment the A-bombs stopped
falling, they sent out more weapons. Except this time, the weapons walked on two, four, six legs.
Some even went on wheels.' '(COUGH, COUGH!) Are you serious? Are you saying they made robots?'
'Well' well yeah.' 'So the things flying around, the ones I saw when you woke me up, those were
robots?' 'Yes.' 'And that thing they were all leaving from, that tower, that's some sort of base?'
'An outpost, yes.' ''My god'' 'Here, give me your bowl.' 'Wha- Oh, yeah. Here, thanks for the food.'
'No problem.' 'Is this it then?' 'What, the end of the food?' 'Is this the end product of a robot
insurgency?' 'More or less. You ever heard of that Terminator movie?' 'Yeah, I was just thinking
about that.' 'Well, compared to what's really happening, Terminator might as well be a child's
bedtime story. There isn't some sort of time machine we can use to go back to the past and bring a
hero. There isn't an all out war with the robots. There is no weapon we have against the AI's. The
reality is, were reduced to our primitive selves. We hunt for food. People have begun taking on gang
mentalities. Sickness is running rampart; destruction prevents us from building anything useful. And
those robots, they're always looking.' 'They hunt? That's terrible.' 'You don't know the
half of it. Hunt isn't what they do. They don't bring back prisoners. They don't drag us through the
dirt; don't throw us into cages for biological testing. Even that would be better than what they do.
Instead, they hunt us and they destroy us. They use guns, bombs, chocking vaporous gases, flames,
searing hot flames. They kill us! They show no mercy. They don't distinguish between children or
adult, not even babies.' 'My god, don't you guys do anything? Don't you resist, fight back.' '(Sigh)
Like I said, this isn't some Terminator crap. Don't try to play the role of John Conner. We've
tried, we've fought back, and we've died fighting against them!' 'So what! You're going to let
yourself be hunted like animals?' 'Like I said-' 'I know what you said. That's all you've been
saying. Maybe its time for you to stop saying it and actually go out and do it.' 'Look kid, I've
brought you into my home, treated you like a guest, gave you food in this wasteland, and
this is how you repay me, with insults. You don't think I've tried. Were talking about robots kid,
robots. Can you get your mind around that concept, or are you gonna just crap around it?
Maybe its time you left?' 'Look at you Frank. You live under a train station surrounded by burning
cars and crumbling buildings. Don't you ever think about a better future? About some hope? Maybe
even raising a family? Don't you ever think about' what, why are you staring at me like that?'
'Mention my family again and I'm gonna have to kick you out, got that.' ''Did you lose someone?'
'Look, I said' I said' don't judge me for crying. Don't you dare judge me. (Sob, Sob)' 'Look, Frank,
its OK. Let it out. It's natural to cry. But you gotta realize that at some point, you're gonna have
to face what happened and fix it. Now tell me, did the robots take them?' '(Sob, Sob), yeah, it was
when I was still in Baltimore. The robots found us. They attacked us in our homes. They'they didn't
even take the children as hostages.' 'Listen to me Frank. That's the exact reason why you gotta
fight back. We gotta hit these machines at their core and send them to the scrap heap.' 'But, but
how? How the fuc- how am I supposed to do that, huh, tell me? How?' 'Look, I have a plan, OK. How
many people do you know? Any survivors living in this area you could get in touch with on short
notice?' 'Well, yeah. There's a big group just down the street from here, fifteen, twenty people at
the least.' 'Twenty, you say?' 'Yeah, I could probably get them all together. But why? What could we
do against the machines? Against the AI's? 'For now, that's not our main concern. Do you remember
the car you found me in?' 'Yeah.' 'Good. I need you to bring as many people as you can to that spot.
Have them bring as much food and water as they can carry. Have them bring all their weapons to.'
'You're gonna what, have us march to the AI's and shoot them with a pistol? Listen, if this is some
kind of sick joke your pulling, the 'get the old man to jump up and down on a pile of hope, then
pull the hope from under his feet and watch him crash and burn', if that's what your planning on,
just know that you'll regret it.' 'Frank, no. Trust me; I won't do anything like that. All I need is
for you to bring all the survivors you can round up to the car, OK?' '(Sigh)'OK, I'll try.' 'Good.
Now I think we can all use some sleep, isn't that right?' 'Well, I can believe you on that. Here,
you can sleep on this couch.' ''Well, hope you have pleasant dreams Frank.' 'Right back at you.
Goodnight.' 'Goodnight.'

The Next Day

'That's right everyone, this way, come this way.' 'Frank, are you sure this guy is trustworthy?'
'Trust me Ann, this guys a good person. Just meet him and you'll see.' 'Well, he still hasn't shown
up yet. What could be keeping him?' 'Aw, he probably got lost or something. Poor fella, he had
amnesia when I found him.' 'Well, either way, we should finish getting everyone to the car.' 'Yeah''
''Hey Frank, what's that?' 'What's what?' 'That thing on the horizon?' 'I can't tell, it's to far
away.' 'I've never seen anything like it. It looks like a plane, but'it's a weird plane.' 'Do you
think it's an actual plane, like from the old days? Maybe their rebels, we need to get their
attention. Hey everyone! See that plane in the sky? Scream as loud as you can and try to signal it
down. Scream as loud as YOU CAN AND TRY TO BRING IT DOWN!' 'HEY, HEY, HERE, COME DOWN, OVER HERE,
WERE SURIV-, PLEASE HELP-, MEDIC-, FOO-, HELP-.' 'Hey Ann, I think they saw us.' 'I think you're
right.' 'Look everyone, their coming this way. YES, THEIR COMING!'

In The Plane

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