New age: the battle between Men and Robots (Science Story)
by Preye Johnmark
Where is our world today?”, was painted boldly with a spray paint, probably by a street artist. Indeed, I asked myself the same question as I took the deserted sub-way route to my house. A world that was once dominated by humans, that world where little children would be happy to run freely in the fields and play, that world was gone, all thanks to man himself.
“Hey, why don’t we make the world a better place by
making everything easy-peasy?”, I bet that’s what one stupid scientist said to
his group and they began to invent till the world was dominated by robots. Ah!
Yes, robots, invented by man himself, but instead of serving us, we became
subjects to them in our own world, now it’s far from good, more like an alien
invasion.
Everywhere they had eyes and ears, humans could no
longer live a life of privacy and we dared not speak against this. The so
called ‘Government’ who acted as though they got everything under control were
still ‘under the control’ of the goddamned robots they invented. ‘The New Age’,
that was what they called it, an era where men were slaves to their own
creations. They thought they were doing the world good, by using science and
technology to evolve the world, ‘Make things easier for us’ was the term,
designing robots that wouldn’t complain or get tired, but look at the world
today, full of chaos.
Walking through dark alleys, I spotted some guard
robots ahead, there was no point of taking a different route, they had already
seen me. “Co-come forward” one of the robots instructed, I advanced towards
them, “Where is your q-quarters?” it asked me, “North valley, Manchester” I
answered, “S-scan him” the first robot told the other as it raised a scanning
device to my face, “H-he is from N-n-north Valley” the robot confirmed, “Stay
clear of the dark alleys now!” the first robot said to me, I just walked by.
This wasn’t a new age, it was more than terrible,
human rights were violated by these robots meant to work for us. Many people
were now jobless, all in the name of technology, the robots were taking over
everything, the jobs, schools including the government. They watched our every
move, listened to our conversations, vandalized our homes, killed our friends
and families who spoke up for the truth, for their rights and for our lives.
They had their own mind now, and man its creator was
nothing but a slave to his creation. This is the new age as we see it, taken
over by robots and gadgets which have more power than man, all thanks to
technology.
I got to my house, it was dimly lit. I didn’t live alone, a couple
of my friends lived with me, and all together we were about six of us. “Nathan!
Thank God you’re alive, I thought they had gotten you too.”
Tracey, the only girl amongst us said to me as she hugged me. Josh was sitting
by the kitchen entrance when I walked in. “Finally dude. I thought you had been
captured too.” I raised a brow, “Why would they want to capture me? Has there
been a new development?” I asked when Khalid walked into the living room. “Yes,
the robots are now capturing people and putting chips in them to work in the
factory, only God knows what their up to now, every morning a truck drives by
with about hundred dead bodies inside, and they are taken to the dump at Norway
Cal and are thrown there, well they burn the to ashes” he said as a sick
feeling grew in my gut.
“Are they planning on wiping out the entire human race? Won’ t
these bloody government do something about this? They are complaining that we
don’t pay our taxes, but yet they can’t give us back our jobs, then at the end
they arrest us and take to that cage they call prison. Only heaven knows what
those people are going through in there, not eating well and being tortured by
these evil gadgets. And worse, dying from the insipid meals that they prepare
for the prisoners to eat” I said, fuming in anger. Tracey was quiet. Her family
had been killed by the robots when her younger brother was captured and they
tried to save him. She could have killed herself if I hadn’t found her. Josh
had escaped from where he was detained by the robots, and when he got to his house,
his family was gone. Khalid’s dad was a scientist who wanted to put an end to
the evil that crawled into the world, but he was also killed. Alex studied
Computer Science at Campbell’s Oakley Collage, his mom died from Leukemia, his
dad was a Professor of Computer Science at the university. And when his dad
sought away to configure the original programming of the robots’ data, the
government saw it a treason and said he was a threat to the country, so they
killed him. Jeff and I had been friends from childhood. His parents died from a
plane crash when he was 10. My family took him in and we had been together ever
since. My little sister Lily died from CHD (Coronary Heart Disease). My mom was
a nurse at Hearting Dale Hospital until she lost her job and got arrested when
she was unable to pay up her tax. My dad tried to fight her out of that hell
hole, but he was killed, and I never got to see my mother again.
“This cannot continue” I said, Jeff scoffed, “It is already
happening and there’s no one to stop it, this is an apocalypse, waking up from
you fucking slumber and look around you Nate, what do you see? Huh?” Jeff said,
anger evident in his voice. He had anger issues he has been trying to control.
“T-they are capturing innocent people, using t-them a-a-as lab rats,
k-k-killing little children. Remember what they did to Chloe?” he asked me and
I looked at the floor, not able to maintain the eye contact. Chloe was his
girlfriend who got captured and used for experimenting, we had tried to save
her, but it was too late. “Yeah, I fucking thought as much. There’s nothing we
can do.” He said, wiping the tears away from his eyes.
“But there is…” I said after a moment of silence, “How?” Alex and
Josh asked in unison. I stared at all of them, Tracey was looking out the
window. “We’ll rise our own army we still have a city of people in it. We will
fight, this world belongs to us and not them. We will fight, and even if we
die, we die for a good cause. Who is with me? We can’t let this continue, we
have to take action into our own hands.” I said, they all stared at me, not
saying anything. “If no one will join me here, I still have a city that might
be willing to.” I added. Tracey stepped forward, “I’ll join you, it’s better
that doing nothing at all.” she said, taking my hand in hers. I stared at the
other, Alex sighed, “I have nothing to lose, I’ll fight for my people.” He
said, taking a stand beside me, Josh followed suit, then Khalid, only Jeff
remained at where he stood. His eyes were bloodshot from crying, and that was
something he hated doing; crying. It made him feel weak. “C’mon Jeff, you know
I need you with me. Do this for mom and dad, do this for Chloe, most especially
do this for yourself. Please.” I pleaded as he walked forward and hugged me,
releasing a shuddered breath. “I’ll join you brother.”
We all went out, getting the attention of the people. “People of
Norway, Manchester! Come out of your hiding place. Join us to fight for our
city. We cannot give in to these bloody machines that was a product of our
hands. They have taken a lot from us, but one thing is still ours. Our life!
Come now, let us fight for all we’ve lost, for our loved ones that has been
captured. These robots can’t kill us we will destroy them. Join us now! Grab
any weapon you can find, and join us to fight!” I said as the crowd cheered.
The uproar attracted some robots to where we were.
“Citizens, return to your homes and quarters, the curfew has
begun!!” they ordered, but we stood out ground. “You have five seconds to
return to your home now!” they said, I stared at the angry mob behind me and
smiled. “NOW MY PEOPLE! FIGHT!!!” I said as we charged at the robots who stood
before us. This was the new age, but certainly still our world.
From: Tales of The Imaginator.
About The Author: Preye Johnmark is a sixteen year old young
Bayelsan writer, and a scholar at ACER.
For more of science stories follow the ACER blog page or the ACER group.