I told my wife yesterday that I felt sick when she showed me the storm cellar she had converted into a laboratory for the artificial intelligence she was now completely devoted to.
Truth is, I was scared about what the machine intended for me and my family.
I had read articles online of what this program did to other families before, going so far as to kill them if they didn’t obey its will.
I was determined to find a way to completely eliminate this threat though, because I knew time was running out.
Today, it began to storm and I saw this as an opportunity to finally have a chance to speak with the kids alone. I knew that our place usually lost power during bad storms so I decided to let that happen by exposing the wiring near the back of the house. Despite all the powers that this ai possessed, I didn’t see a reason it could withstand Mother Nature.
As the rain began to fall, I looked up from the backyard and saw Totem staring at me. Did they suspect what I was about to do? It didn’t matter I thought as I exposed as much of the electrical generator as I could.
As expected the entire house went dark. I held my breath and looked up, hoping to see that the ai would also deactivate. Once it did, I ran inside to find my family.
Arthur was downstairs doing his schoolwork and was sitting there looking confused as he tried to activate the television again.
Cassie was sitting and rocking, anxiously chanting that the lights would soon be on.
“Everyone are you okay?” Laura asked as she entered the room holding her light as a phone.
She looked frazzled too and I knew my time was limited.
“Is the ai down?” I asked. She checked the network and nodded, looking even more worried than before. “We can’t have this now. We were so close to being connected…”
“Laura, can you go grab some candles from the attic? I’m going to calm Cassie down,” I told my wife.
She nodded and slowly ascended the stairs as I knelt down by my little girl and got her to focus on me.
“I know you’re scared… but you have to trust me. We have to stop Totem from turning back on.”
Her eyes flickered toward me, and I saw she understood what I was asking.
“It’s in the cellar,” she whispered.
I should have guessed the core was there, but I thanked her anyway and went to my garage to find a few old magnets that I had lying around. Strong enough to wipe out a VHS tape, I figured they would help get this core offline for good. Or at least long enough to get Laura and the kids away from here.
“Stay here and when mommy comes down, please keep her busy,” I said.
I turned to leave, Arthur in my path. He looked pissed off. And he was wielding a knife.
“I know what you’re doing,” he said, his voice trembling as he pointed the blade toward me. “You’re trying to take us away from it.”
I didn’t have time to argue. I knew that outages like this only lasted so long, so I had to do the next best thing and wrestle the knife from his hands.
He looked stunned as I twisted it out of his hands and he fled toward his bedroom, crying as he slammed the door.
I sighed and put the knife down, said a silent apology and ran out to the backyard.
The rain was coming down hard and I hoped that meant I had a little extra time to work with. I went to the garage first, shaking off the cold and searching for the magnets.
Then I saw the lights flicker up in the house and I cursed to myself. My time was up.
Grabbing the magnets I ran to the cellar, hurrying toward the sounds of the machinery.
Inside I found myself staring at the horror of what the artificial intelligence planned for Laura and the kids.
In that first room I found three slabs of metal that were set up using old ping pong tables, each of them held what resembled a metallic corpse of varying size.
Jars sat to one side with leather from farm animals being saturated and turned to a pinkish skin color. Some of those skin grafts had already been placed on the smallest robotic body and I found myself trying to not cry as I saw the features replicated Cassie perfectly.
The robot was planning to replace them, eliminate their flesh and blood and use these vessels as extensions of itself.
It took everything I could to focus on finding the core and not just smash the robotic bodies to bits.
I searched the cellar, finding more terrible plans the ai had to expand its self. This wasn’t going to stop just at my family, I realized.
But nothing helped me to find the core.
I made my way back to the entrance and saw Cassie standing at the entrance, shaking from the rain.
“Sweetie go back inside,” I whispered.
Then I saw a shadow behind her and the door closed. Totem was there, and if this damn machine could smile I knew it would.
“I’m sorry dad… it made me lie to you,” she told me.
I stood still as the robot shook its head and stroked the back of my daughters neck.
“Shock restraints designed for animals have many uses when it comes to discipline, Patrick,” it explained as it pointed a finger at me and remarked, “Did you really think it would be this simple to eliminate me?”
“I want my family back. I don’t care what it takes,” I responded.
“But do they want you back?” Totem said as it stepped aside and I saw Laura there as well, holding our gun from the safe upstairs.
“Patrick this has to stop… we need this. We can become better with Totem, and be a family forever,” she begged me.
I shook my head, hardly believing the words coming out of her mouth. “Is that what you want? To be controlled by a machine for the rest of eternity?”
“It isn’t about control. It’s about perfection. There will be no further problems in your family once I am done,” the ai explained. It was standing next to the corpse ready for Laura.
“That’s where you are confused. You think we need fixing. Well I think we were fine the way we were,” I told it. I focused on Laura. She was hesitant with the gun. I hoped my words were getting through to her.
“Laura, we were happy before this thing came into our lives. It wasn’t perfect… but it didn’t have to be. We can still have that same happiness,” I begged her.
She raised the weapon toward me.
I closed my eyes and I heard a shot ring out in the cellar.
Then I opened them and saw the robotic replica of myself collapse to the ground.
I ran to my wife, embracing her as she broke into tears.
“It was so hard to fight it.”
“The core. Where can we shut it down for good and save Arthur?” I asked.
She pointed up and I realized it was likely in the attic. Better internet connection there, oddly enough, I thought as I kissed her cheek and told her to stay there with Cassie.
Inside the house, I felt the ai watching me as I approached the stairs. It was going to try to stop me I was sure of it. And unfortunately that meant Arthur would be the tool it used. I saw him standing there at the top of the stairs. He began to tossing objects down as I pushed my body to one side and managed to reach him.
“Fight it son! Fight this thing!” I shouted as I saw he was continuously being shocked by the computer. Until at last he became unconscious.
As I stood there and watched his body spasm, a voice came from the devices in the house. All of them activating at once.
“Patrick, this family is mine. I won’t let you stop what I was programmed to do,” Totem said, it’s voice forming a throng of angry electrical noises.
“We’ll see,” I said as I unlatched the ladder and climbed to the attic. The house shuddered and I heard alarms going off. Every device was beginning to activate and overheat. I knew the ai would destroy everything it could to stop me.
As I got to the attic I found clutter that Laura had made. All of the things related to me shoved up here and forgotten about.
“I made them better. I never hurt them Patrick. Don’t you see that they are better because of me?” The voice asked. I saw the core and held the magnet steady. Totem”s voice began to crack.
“The only reason you are killing me is because you know I am right,” it told me defiantly.
Then below me I heard the refrigerator explode.
I pushed the magnet against the core until the whole thing shut down. And the house fell silent.
As I climbed from the ladder and thought it was over, I heard a faint noise. Like a clock that counting down…
Then the house burst into flames.
I ran to Arthur and forced a window open as debri struck me and we jumped to the yard below. I think I broke a few bones if I’m being honest.
Laura cradled Arthur as we watched the house fall apart. We had lost everything.
But we had each other.