A Different Sort of Life
By: Finnian Valko
Copyright 2011 Finnian Valko
Smashwords Edition
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Chapter 1
Caroline tapped her foot in impatience. She hated waiting, especially for something this important. It was also a chilly night which was not helping her situation. She hugged her arms around her waist being careful to not drop the messenger bag strung over her shoulder. She was trying to ignore the wind beating against her and stay out of site of the imposing building several hundred yards away from her. She stood behind the rather crude shelter of an oak tree planted on the side of the street. She brushed her brown hair out of her eyes as she heard the sound of approaching footsteps.
Caroline turned quickly and watched the approaching figure with caution. “Who goes there?” she said.
“It’s me, Carol. It’s Lana.” replied the figure.
Caroline breathed a sigh of relief and slouched out of her aggressive stance. “Lana, it is good to see you. What took you so long?”
Lana gasped in exhaustion. Caroline and she were best friends. She had been moving quickly for quite a distance. She brushed her dirty blonde hair behind her ears before she spoke. “I’m sorry. I was afraid of drawing any attention to myself …”
Caroline gave Lana a supportive smile. “It’s fine, you’re just in time. Did you get the codes?”
Lana reached into the left-hand pocket of her black jacket and pulled out a slip of paper. “Yea, but it wasn’t easy…” She handed the paper to Caroline.
Caroline looked at the two codes on the paper and nodded. “Good, now we just have to get in. The security guards switch shifts at midnight. That should give us a brief window to get inside and back out again without drawing much attention.”
Lana was uneasy. “What time is it now?”
Caroline looked at her watch. “It’s 11:45. Not long now.”
Lana felt like her stomach was turning inside out. “Carol, are you sure we should be doing this? Is it really right?”
Caroline looked over at the imposing corporate office building. M.E.E.R. stood for Marketed Evolution of Electronic Revitalization. They were a successful electronics company supplying millions of people with high-speed wireless internet access as well as the newest examples of electronic hardware in the form of next generation desktops, laptops and tablet computers. They were also a charitable corporation with their CEO personally donating millions of dollars to organizations looking into cancer research and helping needy families. Still though, Caroline despised them.
Caroline looked back at Lana. “M.E.E.R. supplies millions of people with electronics technology. They’re partially responsible for what we’re dedicated to stopping. If we destroy their corporate mainframe it will cripple their company, leading to millions being without access to their technology. That will force them to stop relying on electronics and live the way humans are supposed to live.”
Lana still had doubts. “’The way humans are supposed to live…’ You sound like your fiancé…”
Caroline scowled. “We’re not engaged. Who told you that?”
Lana raised an eyebrow. “He did…”
Caroline blinked. She had repeatedly told him that she was not ready for that kind of commitment, and now he was telling the other members of the organization that they were engaged? She shook her head. “Well, he’s lying. Now come on, we have no time to waste. “
Lana followed reluctantly, still feeling uneasy about what they were about to do.
Caroline glanced at her watch as the two carefully moved towards the back door of the building. “11:55… Not much longer.”
Caroline and Lana pressed themselves up against the wall to avoid the watchful eye of a security camera. Caroline carefully stared at the watch as its needle slowly moved its way closer and closer to the twelve. After five minutes that felt like hours, the needle finally reached its mark and Caroline quickly punched in the first code to unlock the backdoor.
Caroline entered the building while Lana followed close behind. The two ignorantly ran past several security cameras and up a flight of stairs. Caroline had memorized the path to the central mainframe room from a map she looked at prior to arriving, and soon enough they reached a room filled end to end with computers taller than a man.
Fearing she may be running short on time, Caroline dug into her messenger bag and pulled out several bricks of C4.
Lana was in shock. “We’re going to blow them up!?”
Caroline glanced back angrily. “Keep your voice down.” she whispered. “Of course we’re going to. Relax, there’s only a little bit here. Not enough to really hurt someone, just the computers.” But the truth was she had no idea how much damage the C4 would do. It had been her boyfriend’s idea and she had no experience with explosives.
Lana shook her head. “You’ll get someone killed!”
Caroline grew irritated at Lana for raising her voice. She was going to ruin the whole plan. “Be quiet, Lana!”
“Hey, who’s in there!?” came a voice from the doorway.
A security guard slowly started moving through the walkways in between the computers, shining his flashlight down each adjacent walkway as he passed. “I heard someone in here! Come out!”
Caroline grabbed Lana and ducked behind one of the computers. She knew it was only as matter of time before her and Lana were found and thrown in jail. She started panicking inside. She had been trying to do things right. She had thought she had considered every factor, and here she was about to watch her entire plan go wrong. She couldn’t handle that.
The guard’s flashlight moved slowly down the walkway where Caroline and Lana had been and rested on where the C4 bricks were still laying. The guard rushed over and Caroline felt that it was over, but just as the guard was examining the C4 and about to look around the corner, one of the computer screens made a small ‘beep’ sound and a menu popped up. The guard turned and examined the screen. Caroline peeked around the corner and could just barely make out the words on the screen. “File deletion in progress.”
The guard had a grim look on his face. “Pete!” he shouted towards the door. “Get a tech down here and call the cops! We’ve got a serious problem!”
Caroline watched as the other computers lit up with the same message one by one. More guards poured into the room followed by a handful of techs who tried in desperation to get the computers to stop their purge, but to no avail.
Caroline knew she had to move now. Grabbing Lana and dragging her along, the two dodged between the computers trying to stay out of sight. There were over a dozen guards in the room now, all looking around for the intruder and it was physically impossible to get to the door without moving through a flashlight beam belonging to one of them. Eventually the inevitable happened and the glare of a flashlight blinded Caroline’s eyes.
“Hey! Stop!” shouted a guard.
Caroline and Lana bolted for the door, security guards in pursuit. Just as the two exited the room, a steel security gate slammed down behind them, sealing their pursuers inside.
As Caroline and Lana made their way back downstairs Caroline could hear the guards arguing over who had activated the security gate. Still running, the two made it out the backdoor and headed towards their waiting getaway car. Caroline grabbed the driver’s seat with Lana taking the passenger’s and the two sped away before the police could show up on the scene.
Lana was still in panic mode, taking very quick breathes putting herself at risk of hyperventilation. “We’re going to go to jail, Carol!”
Caroline was a bit calmer, but her heart was pounding in her chest. “Just relax, Lana. We got out. Let’s just lay low and see what happens before we start panicking, okay?”
Lana felt no relief upon hearing Caroline’s words. “What was with the computers in there!? What did you do!?”
Caroline had no answer for her. She had been wondering that same thing. She knew nothing about purging entire computer systems, which was why the plan had involved the C4. The security gate slamming down when it did was also a mystery. Everything seemed far too convenient. There was getting lucky, but she felt in her gut that luck had nothing to do with what had happened in there.
In silence, the two drove away from the city, heading for home.
Chapter 2
The next morning Caroline was safely in her midtown apartment. She was sitting on the couch in her living room while sipping her morning tea, trying to calm her nerves from last night’s near miss. She wanted to see if their break-in had made the news, so she turned on her television which she rarely used. Sure enough, the first story that day read off “Catastrophic Break-In at M.E.E.R. Headquarters!” Caroline sat eagerly to hear what the newscaster had to say.
“Last night a break-in occurred at M.E.E.R.’s Headquarters.” the newscaster began. “The break-in occurred between midnight and 1 A.M. Our sources say that all data from user information to the company’s accounting and financial data has been completely wiped from their servers. Although stolen C4 explosives were found in the building, they were apparently not used in the crime. Police and M.E.E.R. officials both declined to be interviewed but officials appear to be mystified as to how such a thorough file deletion could have been accomplished in such a short amount of time. Allegedly, even the recordings from the building’s security cameras were erased, leaving the trail to find the perpetrators of this act completely cold…”
Caroline turned off her television in frustration. Now she was even more confused as to what had happened last night. “The security camera footage too? How?” She could not find a logical explanation for what had happened. Too many coincidences occurred at once for this just to be sheer luck.
Caroline heard the door open and watched as her boyfriend, Daniel, stepped in. The two shared the apartment and Daniel was the founder of their organization. He put his jacket on the coat hanger and walked over to her. “Hi honey, did things go well last night?”
Caroline nodded glumly. “Yes, yes they did.” She thought that was the right answer. The mission had been accomplished anyway.
Daniel frowned. “You don’t sound so sure. I was told you didn’t use the C4. I thought we agreed we were going to blow those techies to kingdom come!?”
Caroline sighed. Daniel had always been far more radical about their movement than her. He had named the group “Mankind’s Way.” They were a group dedicated to the complete and total disuse of modern technology by any means necessary. Some called them terrorists, but Caroline did not see it that way. If humans did not stop relying on technology one day they could be in a lot of danger because of it. Humans had evolved to work with nature, without computers and cars and the like. At least that is what she believed.
Caroline looked up at Daniel. “The situation changed, Dan, okay? We got the job done.”
Daniel’s face showed a twinge of anger, but it subsided into a small smirk. “Yes, I suppose you did. Good job honey.” He leaned down to kiss Caroline’s cheek, which she almost drew away from.
Daniel felt her hesitated resistance, but said nothing about it. “I have to go out again. I just wanted to see how you were. I need you to get some groceries today, please.” With that, he grabbed his coat and exited the apartment.
Caroline took a deep, cleansing breath. Daniel and she had been a bit at odds lately. He had grown increasingly hostile ever since she had said no to his marriage proposal. In fact, now that she thought about it, he was always a tad bit shady about certain things. She was so nervous around him lately that she wasn’t even able to confront him about him telling everyone that they were engaged when they were not. Her instincts told her that she was now in an unhealthy relationship but for once in her life she was just not listening to them.
Caroline stood up, grabbed her coat and left her home locking the door behind her. As she exited the building, she saw her car parked right where she had left it last night. She remembered how scared Lana had been. Was it worth all this fear and pain? “It is…” she tried to tell herself as she walked down the street, choosing to use her legs instead of driving whenever she could.
As Caroline drew closer to the grocery store, she passed by an old electronics store. It had been a small business that was forced to close down when larger corporate businesses moved into the area. Daniel had been happy to see the place go, and she too, or at least at the time. But looking at it now, she almost felt sad seeing all the computers left unsold, abandoned to collect dust in the old building. As she looked she could see the faint light of a computer monitor from beyond the slightly open door to the back room of the building. “Impossible…” she thought. “The electric company would have shut off the power to the building months ago…” As she thought this, she was reminded of how much the owner of the shop had loved new technology when the digital lock on the front door suddenly click open without any provocation by her.
Caroline jumped back as the lock opened as if inviting her inside. She refused to admit it to herself, but she was frightened by this. She stood staring at the lock for a moment, trying to decide what she should do. Eventually, curiosity got the better of her and she pulled the door open, letting herself in. She kept telling herself this was a bad idea but something drew her into the building, as if an unheard voice was calling to her. The door slowly swung shut behind her. She half expected the lock to switch shut and seal her inside in typical horror movie fashion, but no sound could be heard from the digital latch. Whatever was drawing her into the building was not forcing her to remain should she choose to leave.
Caroline jumped again as an audible voice spoke to her from the back room. “Hello. Caroline, right?”
Caroline hesitated. She almost thought she recognized the voice for a second, but could not quite place it at first. “Who are you?”
A modest chuckle could be heard in response. “I’m a friend, Caroline. A friend who will probably have to answer a few questions for you.”
Caroline could swear she recognized the voice. It sounded so familiar. But who was it? As she thought about it, she realized that there was only one person she could place the voice to. “No…” she thought. “That’s not possible…”
Caroline approached the back room, almost tripping over a computer monitor on her way. As she pushed open the door and stepped in, she could clearly see a face displayed on the computer screen. The pale skin, the blonde hair, and those blue eyes were unmistakable. She had placed the voice right. “Jack!?” Her voice was a mixture of surprise, confusion and anger.
The figure on the screen laughed again. “Well, technically, no…”
Caroline grew even angrier. “What the hell do you mean ‘technically’, Jack?” Her fury was not altogether misplaced. Jack had been her lover a long time ago. They had been together for years and almost got married before they were pushed apart due to conflicting opinions. She had always felt like she had never done anything wrong, and refused to regret any of it. She had never known Jack’s side, and never cared to.
The figure sighed. “I’m not Jack, though I was created by him. You can call me Fillin.”
Caroline was still angry but now curious so she persisted in her questioning. “Okay, “Fillin”, if you’re not Jack then what are you?”
Fillin smiled a bit. “I’m what most people would call an Artificial Intelligence Construct.”
Caroline’s eyes grew wide. Jack had managed to create an A.I.? How, and why? “What do you want from me? Why did Jack make you?”
Fillin’s small smile turned into a full on grin. “To help you.”
Caroline scoffed. “I would never accept help from an A.I., especially not one created by Jack!” She turned to leave.
Fillin maintained his composure and called after her. “You certainly seemed to need a lot of help last night when I blocked those security guards from pursuing you!”
Caroline stopped and turned back towards the monitor. Her face was flushed with anger. “That was you!?”
Fillin nodded. “Yes and the deletion of all of M.E.E.R.’s mainframe files as well as the video footage that clearly showed you and your friend casually walking into the building. All me.”
Caroline was angry at this recent development, but she knew she owed Fillin something for helping her and gave “it” the benefit of a conversation. “Why would you want to help me, Fillin? My main goal is to eliminate the very thing that lets things like you exist.”
Fillin frowned. “I’m not a “thing”, thank you very much. I may be computer software, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings. It’s my root function to help you in whatever venture you undertake regardless of my life.”
Caroline grew annoyed. “You’re an A.I. You’re not supposed to have feelings.” She completely ignored his answer to her question.
Fillin’s eyes trailed off. “Jack never considered me an A.I…”
Caroline grew curious. “What did he consider you then?”
Fillin looked back at her. “A Digital Life Form.”
Caroline did not know how to respond, but felt no need to argue about how silly of a sentiment she thought Jack’s pet-name for his creation was. “Look Fillin, I appreciate your help last night, but I don’t need nor want any help from you or Jack. That chapter of my life was closed a long time ago and I don’t want it to be reopened. I mean it.”
Fillin’s face grew blank of emotion except for his eyes which, to Caroline, were filled with hurt and sorrow. The strangely human display bothered her so much that she was forced to look away. Without a word, Fillin vanished from the monitor though in his place, glowing in the bottom right corner of the screen, was a small bit of text.
Caroline peered down to see that it was a phone number. She hesitated. She wanted to leave and forget all about this but something in her chest just kept pulling her back. She took a deep breath, calmly wrote the number down on a piece of paper and stuck it in her bag. “Just in case…” she told herself and quickly exited the building. The monitor shut off and the front door locked behind her.
Chapter 3
It had been several weeks and Caroline just could not get her conversation with Fillin out of her head. It was driving her insane. She had not heard or seen any sign of “it”, but she still could not ignore what had happened. She also could not stop thinking about Jack. It had been so long since she had even seen him, and up until now she had been more than happy about it. But now all the memories she had of him polluted her mind. How she had loved him, and how he had loved her and apparently, still did.
Daniel walked over to Caroline who was busy trying to make herself a bologna sandwich. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
Caroline looked up. “Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just a little tired today.” She had not mentioned her meeting with Fillin to him.
Daniel was not convinced. “Come on, Carol. You’ve been like this for the last few weeks.”
Caroline tried to force a smile with little success. “Really, Dan, I’m fine.”
Daniel showed a suspicious grin. “Hey, I know what’ll cheer you up…” He laid his hand on Caroline’s hip and slowly started moving it down.
Caroline gently pushed his hand away. “No Dan, I’m not in the mood.”
Daniel’s face twisted into anger. “You’re always “not in the mood”, Carol!” He tried to forcibly put his hand back on her hip.
Caroline aggressively slapped his hand away. “I said “no”, Dan!”
Daniel pointed his finger in Caroline’s face and started ranting. “One of these days you’re going to have to learn your place!”
Caroline felt her face redden with fury. “My place!?”
Daniel dropped his hand and stormed off. He grabbed his coat and headed towards the door. “We will discuss this when I get home.” He left, slamming the door behind him in the process.
Caroline was left alone. She was so furious that she had lost her appetite and could not be bothered to finish making her sandwich. She turned and walked towards the door to her bedroom and started crying. Daniel had never been like this before. What changed?
As Caroline moved towards her bed in tears she tripped over a small metal box that was sitting on her floor. She looked down at it and remembered what was stowed away inside. Slowly, she found herself reaching down, picking up the box, opening it and taking out the slip of paper with the phone number on it. She was not sure if this was the right thing to do, but in her anger towards Daniel and because she knew he would not like her talking to an A.I., let alone one that was created by and looked like an ex-boyfriend of hers, she walked over to the table by her bed and picked up her cell phone. She did not like using the device and usually only did so in emergencies. Daniel used his far more, much to her dismay, but this was a special circumstance or so she told herself. She could feel her heart rate pick up as she dialed in the number and the line began to ring. A familiar voice could be heard at the other end: “Hello?”
Caroline took a few deep breathes before replying. “Hello, yes, Jack?”
The voice laughed a bit. “No, I believe I told you already that I’m not exactly him. Do you have any idea how long I’ve been sitting in the phone company’s servers waiting for you to call? I mean listening in on a few prank calls by some bored teenagers is mildly entertaining for a while, but it’s been weeks!”
Caroline heard the sarcasm in Fillin’s voice and sighed in a mixture of relief and disappointment. She found herself smiling. Part of her was glad it was not really Jack, but another part of her wished it was. “You’ve been waiting this whole time?”
“What else am I going to do?” Fillin replied. “I told you that my root function is to help you.”
“But then why not persist?” Caroline inquired. “You seem to be able to get into any kind of cyberspace you want. You could have followed me.”
“I could have, in theory, yes” Fillin responded. “But besides not wanting to be a creepy stalker, I was also instructed to never force you to do anything you did not wish to do. Jack always stressed this with me. I believe it is something he beat into his own head after you and he parted ways. Perhaps he learned it only too late.”
Caroline was not sure what to say. She had spent all this time thinking the absolute worst of Jack, but he had been trying to change himself and he had realized what she had needed from him. Maybe he had not learned soon enough as Fillin said, or maybe she had just never noticed. “I see…well, I want your help now if you’re willing.”
“Of course.” said Fillin. “I will need you to meet me somewhere tonight. Then I can explain my plan. There is a way to force the whole world to stop relying on technology in one foul swoop.”
Caroline was intrigued. “Okay, where?”
“Do you know where the local university is in your area?” said Fillin.
Caroline had to think for a moment. “You mean Margettson College?”
“Yes, that’s the one. Luckily you happen to live near it.” Fillin paused for a moment before continuing. “I need you to be at that college at around midnight tonight. You’ll need to enter the computer science labs, okay?”
Caroline was puzzled. “Why? How will I even get inside at that hour?”
Fillin went on. “You’ll see when you get there. I’ll take care of everything before your arrival. They don’t have security guards and I’ll disable the cameras. They’ll never know we were there.”
Caroline was not sure about the plan, but Fillin had saved her once before. Plus, strangely, the idea kind of excited her for some reason. “Alright Fillin, I guess I’ll see you tonight, so to speak.” She found herself giggling.
“Yes, I suppose you will.” Fillin replied before ending the call.
Caroline hung up the phone and sat there for a second, thinking about what had just happened. “Caroline, what are you getting yourself into?”
Chapter 4
That night, Caroline showed up at the university just before midnight and parked her car just outside the computer science building. There was no one around but she still moved very cautiously as she approached the front door of the building. She smiled as she looked at the door handle. “Digital locks. No wonder he picked this place.” She was surprised by her own words. She had just referred to Fillin as “he” whereas before it had always been “it” or “that thing.” It bothered her because she could not explain why she had suddenly changed her language.
Upon entering, Caroline found that the only light in the building was coming from the computer monitor on what she could only assume was the receptionist’s desk. She peered around and saw only a few words on the screen: “Upstairs. 1st floor. Lab 7-M.”
Caroline moved slowly up the staircase. She noticed that there were a number of security cameras on her way, but she trusted that Fillin had dealt with them. At the top she found a map of the floor. There were seven sections, with a number of lettered labs in each one. She found section seven and lab ‘M’ on the map, then walked her way towards her destination. She did not have to worry about missing it. It was the only lab that was unlocked.
Caroline entered the lab to find no visible light source. She struggled to find a light switch, but as she did so one of the computer monitors turned on and Fillin appeared on the screen.
Fillin raised an eyebrow. “Do you want someone to see the light and know we’re here?”
Caroline felt her face go red. “No…no, I suppose not…”
Fillin smiled. “Have a seat.” His gaze directed her to a chair sitting in front of the monitor.
Caroline sat herself down and looked at Fillin. A question came to her mind. “Why did he make you to look like him?”
Fillin raised his eyebrows, surprised by her question. “I believe it was because it was far easier to map out the intellectual process of someone he understood rather than a whole different person.”
“So he used his own mind?” Caroline replied.
“Yes.” said Fillin, unsure why she was asking so many questions about him all of a sudden.
“So does that mean you two are essentially one and the same?” Caroline was not sure where all her questions were coming from.
“No.” responded Fillin defensively. “We can’t be the same. I’m not supposed to have feelings, remember?”
Caroline felt her heart sink a little. She had been so mean to Fillin during their first meeting. “Fillin, I’m sorry. I should not have been so rude to you. You were just trying to help and I…should have been kinder to you…” Her own words surprised her yet again. Why was she apologizing to an A.I.? He was a computer. He was technology. He was essentially her enemy, or so she thought. But all of a sudden the beliefs she thought she held were brought into question. Was it really her who believed technology to be the root of mankind’s problems, or was that Daniel talking through her? She did not know.
Fillin nodded. “It’s fine. I understand. Now let me ask you something: Why did you agree to come here?”
Caroline opened her mouth to reply but no words came. She found herself completely torn inside trying to come up with how to respond to Fillin’s question. Part of her just wanted to simply say that she came because she wanted his help, but her heart, her gut and her instincts all told her that it was not the only reason, and possibly not even the main reason. Was it to get back at Daniel? Maybe it was because she felt like she owed Fillin for helping her? Or what if it’s because he looks like…? “No.” she told herself. “That’s all in the past. I don’t miss him. I never wanted to see him again. I still don’t.” But the more she kept telling herself these things, the more she doubted their truth.
Caroline sighed. “I just need your help with my organization’s final goal. Nothing more.” She looked away as she said this, unable to look Fillin in the eye.
Fillin suddenly wore an expression of disappointment and doubt, but he accepted her reason none the less. “Okay, I was just curious. Now, I want to show you something, if you don’t mind.”
Caroline shook her head. “No, not at all.”
Fillin’s eyes looked over to Caroline’s right. “You see that weird looking helmet?”
Caroline looked over the dimly lit table to see a bizarre piece of headgear. It had a ton of different colored wires coming out of it and all were plugged into a single computer terminal. Inside the helmet itself there were a number of smooth metal pieces that would rest against the wearer’s scalp. It looked like something a person on death row would have to wear in the electric chair.
Being gentle with the potentially fragile piece of equipment, Caroline picked it up. “This?”
Fillin nodded, smiling. “Yes, put it on.”
Caroline was suspicious. “This thing won’t electrocute me, will it?”
“No, of course not!” Fillin reassured her. “It’s completely safe. It’s just a prototype of a new piece of tech the researchers here are working on.”
Caroline hesitated, but eventually she shrugged and put on the awkward helmet. “Okay, now what?”
Fillin held back a laugh. “Okay, I kind of lied. You may feel a slight jolt.” He vanished from the screen.
“What!? Wai-“ Caroline was cut off midsentence. A rush of energy that gave her goose bumps and forced her to gasp for air shot through her body. Her vision went white and it almost felt like she was moving, but to where? Slowly, she felt the sensation degrade into a light breeze and the feeling of warm light on her face. Her vision slowly returned and she found herself standing in a field of nothing but grass and yellow wild flowers. The sun shone bright and the temperature was perfect. “Where in the world…?” Caroline was understandably confused, unable to figure out how she had gotten here. As she scanned the horizon she could see a large wooden house built in the middle of the field. The only other object besides the distant trees was a large rock several yards away from the house. Sitting on top of it she could see someone, who she believed, was Jack.
Caroline found herself running over to the rock, unsure what her sudden excitement and hurry was. As she approached she could see Jack stand up on the rock and watch carefully as she approached. “Jack!” she called over to him.
Fillin shook his head. “We’ve been over this!”
Caroline slowed as she approached the rock. “Fillin?” She looked up at the figure on the rock, clear disappointment in her voice.
“Ah, correct. Good job.” Fillin jumped down from the rock and landed next to Caroline. “I think he would have wanted me to show you this. Do you recognize it?” Fillin gestured over to the house.
Caroline looked carefully at the structure. It looked strangely familiar to her, but she could not place it at first. “This house…it’s…no, he couldn’t have…”
Fillin looked away. “He did. He never forgot about you or what you two had dreamed of having together. I think he created this place to try and hold on to that dream.”
Caroline tried to hold back her tears, unable to understand the sudden return of these feelings. “Where are we, Fillin? Where is this?”
Fillin looked back at her. “You’re in my world: the digital world. That helmet allows for you to enter your mind into it. The researchers are still perfecting the technology.”
Caroline could scarcely believe it. This is not how she had envisioned the inside of a computer at all. It all seemed so real… “Fillin…where is Jack now?”
Fillin did not answer immediately. “He’s gone…”
Caroline looked over at him, eyes wide. “Gone? What do you mean gone?”
“What do you think I mean?” Fillin gazed at her without blinking.
Caroline did not know what to say. Her chest hurt, and she did not understand why. She thought she had left that all this emotion in the past, but here it was again. She looked around at the dream Jack had created for the two of them. “This isn’t reality though…this isn’t real…”
“Define reality…” answered Fillin.
Caroline again struggled to answer Fillin’s statement. Reality, up until now, had a clear meaning to her. But now that she was in Fillin’s world, suddenly she questioned herself yet again. The past few weeks had been so confusing for her. Suddenly she felt like she did not know herself at all.
Fillin continued. “To you reality means the world you live in, but this is where I reside.” He stepped forward and looked off into the horizon. “To me, this is reality. Does that mean your reality is more ‘real’ than mine? As you can see, to me, mine is just as real.”
Caroline could not muster up the courage to answer him. How could she tell him his reality meant nothing? Suddenly experiencing this all for herself had changed her viewpoints, but she refused to admit that. She needed to focus on the task at hand. “Fillin, no offense, but this is not why I came…”
Fillin looked back at her. His expression was blank, but his eyes held that same sadness Caroline had seen before. “Of course, my apologies.” With a wave of his hand the house, the field, the sky, and all the rest of it faded from view and dissipated into darkness. He stepped forward and a screen appeared from the shadows. He entered a handful of keystrokes on to the screen and in an instant millions of jumbled green 1’s and 0’s filled the screen.
Caroline stepped forward and looked at the screen. “What is this?”
Fillin turned to her. He wore the most serious expression Caroline had ever seen on his face. “It’s a virus, one that will spread and infect every single computerized device in the world.”
Caroline felt nervous. She could feel chills down her back. “What will it do?”
Fillin’s face remained unchanged. “Permanently delete and corrupt all files and the software attached to them including essential system files that allow computers to run, rendering any and all computers completely unusable. It’s based off my own code and my ability to invade any system I desire.”
Caroline became intrigued, but was still fighting her nerves. “Will it work?”
Fillin shrugged. “It should, but this isn’t exactly something I can test without actually releasing the virus. The way I see it, as long as a computer is linked to the internet or as long as a cell phone is hooked up to a network, this can destroy it. The only things it can’t touch are the electronics that aren’t attached to any kind of network, and those are few and far between nowadays.”
Caroline paused before she asked her next question. “What…what about you?”
Fillin’s expression changed. His eyes got a bit wider, surprised by Caroline’s concern. “I’m software as far as this virus is concerned. I’ll be gone too.”
Caroline did not know how to respond. Could she really ask Fillin to sacrifice his own existence for her cause, a cause that she was not even sure she believed in anymore? “Yes…” she thought. “This is the right thing to do. The world will benefit from it and if Fillin is willing then so be it…” She stood strong, and forced herself to respond without hesitation or stutter. “Okay, how do we release the virus?”
Fillin’s expression returned to being blank and serious. “Neither of us can do it here and I can’t do it at all. I’m bound by a protocol that keeps me from doing anything that will immediately result in my own deletion. You’ll have to do it.”
Caroline could not believe what she was about to ask. “How do I do it?”
Suddenly, as Fillin still gazed at her with that blank look and those sad eyes, Caroline found herself being dragged backwards. The darkness around her slowly fell away and with a flash of light she realized she was sitting in front of the computer monitor again. She quickly removed the helmet and sat it back on the table. The monitor was blank with the exception of a small bit of text. It was an address.
Caroline quickly wrote down the address on a piece of paper, put it in her bag and left the labs. On her way home, all she could think about were Fillin’s sad eyes. She was about to rip his life away from him. A few weeks ago she would never have even considered him a life, but after experiencing his reality for herself she was not sure of anything anymore. “Please…let me do the right thing…” She hoped that the powers that be were listening.
Chapter 5
As Caroline opened the door to her apartment, she jumped when she saw Daniel sitting on the couch waiting up for her. It was almost three in the morning.
Daniel’s expression was filled with rage. “Where the hell have you been, Carol!?”
Caroline was in no mood to deal with Daniel’s question nor his anger, not after their fight the previous morning. She sat her bag on the floor. “I was out, Daniel.”
Daniel stood up and marched towards her, pointing his finger in her face again. “I am to be told where you are and what you’re doing at any given time, Carol! This relationship is going nowhere with you lollygagging around!”
Caroline swatted his finger out of her face and pushed past him, strolling over to the kitchen counter. “This relationship is going nowhere because you’re being an asshole!”
At that moment Daniel’s phone, which was sitting on the counter, began to vibrate indicating a text message. Before Daniel could rush over and grab it, Caroline picked it up and read off the message. “Hey sexy, had a great time last night. Hope we can do it again soon. From Lana.” Caroline glared at Daniel, tears forming in her eyes. “You’re cheating on me with my best friend!?”
Daniel flipped out. “It’s not my fault you never put out! I have needs, Carol, and you won’t fulfill them!”
Caroline could take no more. “And I have needs too! Where’s my fulfillment, Dan!?”
Daniel scoffed. “Ha! Needs!? The man’s needs always come first in a relationship! That’s how it was and that’s how it’s going to be! None of this feminist shit!”
Caroline’s eyes grew wide. “How it was?” she thought. “He doesn’t want to get rid of just technology. That was never the point. He wants to bring mankind back centuries ago: before the feminist movement, before computers, even before civil rights!”
Daniel grabbed Caroline’s bag that she had left by the door. “We’ll see who’s cheating! What’s this!? An address!?”
Caroline ran over and tried to grab her bag away from him. “Get the hell away from my things, Dan!”
Daniel pushed her away. “Who’s the address for!? Your other boyfriend!? Come on! Let’s find out!” He grabbed Caroline by the wrist and started dragging her out of the apartment.
Caroline tried to pull away and fight back, but Daniel was stronger than her. “Let go, Dan! You’re hurting me!”
Daniel turned around and slapped her hard across the face with his free hand. “Shut the fuck up, Carol! Let’s go!”
Caroline continued to try and fight Daniel all the way down to his car, but by the time they reached where it was parked she was already too exhausted to continue. It was too early in the morning for anyone to notice what was happening. Daniel opened up the passenger door and forced her inside. Tears streamed down her face. Daniel got in the driver’s seat, address in hand. He started the vehicle and sped off. All Caroline could think about was what was about to happen. She had already watched everything she thought she believed in: her ideologies, her relationships, all of it get smashed in front of her. Nothing mattered to her now except one thing: How would Daniel react to Fillin?
Chapter 6
The address took them far out of town, a four hour’s drive. During the whole trip there was silence between Caroline and Daniel. He had not even bothered to ask her if she needed to stop and use a restroom. He just kept on driving. Caroline had tried to sleep during the trip. Despite the silence, the stress of her current situation kept her from resting.
The car slowed as it reached their destination. They were out in the middle of the countryside. There were number of small trees around but it was mostly grass. The only manmade structure beyond the road was a very small building. It was a small square structure with a diagonal slant downward on one of the walls, a single door on the opposite wall and what were presumably steps leading down beyond. The only other thing outside was a single mailbox with the address written on the side.
“What the fuck is this shit?” snarled Daniel, breaking the silence.
Caroline shrugged. “Who knows?”
Daniel glared angrily over at her. “You know exactly what it is! Come on!” Daniel forcibly opened the car door and stepped out.
Not wishing to be dragged again by her now bruised wrist, Caroline opened up her own door and followed Daniel towards the structure.
The doorway was unlocked, and beyond it there was a narrow staircase leading underground. It was dark, musty, and appeared as if the place had been abandoned for quite some time. It smelled too, but neither Daniel nor Caroline could figure out where the stench was coming from. There was a light switch at the top of the stairs that lit a single light bulb at the bottom.
Daniel coughed due to the amount of dust in the air. “Does your other boyfriend not know how to run a vacuum or something?”
Caroline could not believe Daniel’s audacity. It was plainly obvious the place had been abandoned, yet he was still trying to accuse her of cheating when it was already obvious he was guilty of it himself. “You’re such a hypocrite…”
Daniel backhanded Caroline across the face, striking her for the second time that day. By this point Caroline’s face was substantially bruised. “You’ll mind your tone, Carol! I’m sick of you talking back to me!”
Caroline held her hand to her bruised face. She tried desperately to hold back her tears, not wishing to give Daniel the benefit of seeing her cry again.
The two descended down the staircase into a single rectangular room. Surrounding them in one corner was a makeshift kitchen and in another a television. Taking up both corners on the other side of the room were several computers and a large monitor sitting on a table surrounded by wires and spare computer parts. There was a single chair in front of all this. In it were the skeletonized remains of someone, and the source of the strange smell.
“Urgh!” bellowed a disgusted Daniel. “There’s a corpse down here! What the fuck, Carol!?”
Caroline ignored him as she approached the monitor and the corpse. Something about the long dead body drew her attention. The bones themselves told her little, but the clothes strewn over them and the helmet it wore told her far more. The helmet looked just like the one she had worn at the university, just with a few minor variations. The clothes, however, made her chest sore with dread. She had known someone who used to wear the same exact outfit. Someone she knew quite well.
At that moment the large monitor clicked on and Fillin appeared. “Ah, you’re here sooner than I expected. I was just finished getting the virus prepped for…” He trailed off when he saw Caroline’s scared and bruised face near tears standing next to the remains. His eyes laid their gaze on Daniel, with suspicion and rage filling them. “And who might you be?”
Daniel spat on the monitor. “Who am I!? Who the fuck are you!?”
Fillin tried very hard not to let his emotions show. “I’m what most would call an A.I.”
“An A.I.!?” said Daniel in shock. He turned to Caroline. “You’ve been talking to an A.I.!? A fucking abomination!?”
Caroline could not help but start to cry as she slowly shook her head. “No…he’s not an A.I…” She looked down at the corpse, then back up at the monitor and directly into Fillin’s eyes. “Jack, what happened to you?”
Fillin remained silent for what seemed like an eternity. His eyes began to water as he responded. “I dumped my mind into the digital world. I put so much of myself inside that when I tried to return, I couldn’t. So I decided to make the best of the situation. I figured you might actually let me help you if you were talking to ‘Fillin’, not Jack.”
Caroline could not hold herself back from sobbing anymore. She slammed her hands down on the table as she cried out. “Why!? Why did you decide to help me!? Why help me destroy things like you!? You lied! You knew you’d die and you never hesitated to help me do this! Why Jack!?”
Tears slowly started leaking out of Jack’s eyes. “Because I love you…and I wanted to see you happy…”
Daniel had heard enough. “Hey, fuck you!” He pointed his finger at Jack’s image on the screen. “She’s my woman, and no fucking tech shit like you could ever know how to love! I don’t care if you used to be human! You aren’t anymore!”
Jack remained silent, but a boiling anger could be seen through his tears. “Nobody belongs to anybody, but if it’s the destruction of things like me you want, all you need to do is push the ‘Enter’ button on the keyboard and my virus will be set free to destroy any technology it can infect.”
“No!” Caroline screamed. “Don’t do this, Jack!”
“That’s what you wanted, isn’t it!?” shouted Jack. “You always wanted things to go your way, right!? What changed, Carol!? Why care now!?”
Caroline’s eyes were turning red and puffy from all the tears. “I never stopped caring, Jack! I’m sorry! I was wrong! I don’t want any of this anymore! Maybe I never did!”
“Too bad, Carol. See ya, Jack!” said Daniel, as he reached for the ‘Enter’ key.
Caroline grabbed Daniel’s arm in an attempt to stop him, but Daniel pushed her onto the floor. With a single tap, he pushed the ‘Enter’ key.
Jack smiled through his sorrow. “Goodbye, Caroline…” His image slowly faded from the screen, replaced by a blue gauge which slowly increased as the virus was distributed.
As Caroline pushed herself up off of the floor, something inside her snapped. She was about to watch a man she cared deeply about, a man who truly loved her, die. Not an A.I., not a computer, but a man. Her emotions began to boil over, and she slowly formed a fist with her right hand. Daniel only turned around just soon enough to see her punch land square in his jaw. The combination of her punch and his head slamming into the concrete floor knocked Daniel unconscious.
Frantically Caroline tried to cancel the virus’s release. There was a single ‘Abort’ button on the screen under the blue bar which she repeatedly clicked on. Eventually, the screen read ‘distribution aborted’ and then it turned to black again. The computer system was completely shut down. Caroline had no way of knowing whether or not she had stopped the virus in time, or if Jack was still alive. No matter how hard she tried she could not get the system to turn back on.
She had started sobbing again, believing she was too late, when through her tears she noticed a dim, flashing light in the corner of the room. She wiped the drops from her eyes and investigated the source of the light. It was a small external hard drive that was plugged into the system. All the rest of the computers and attachments had their lights off and were completely inert, except this one drive.
Acting on her instincts, Caroline removed the drive from the USB port it was attached to, walked back and set it on the staircase. Then, she strolled over to the still unconscious Daniel and took his car keys from his pocket. In a pile of clutter on the floor she found some rope and used it to tie Daniel to one of the support beams for the underground room. Hard drive in hand, she went up the stairs, got in the car and started driving home.
Chapter 7
Caroline arrived home later that evening, exhausted from the day’s events. She set the hard drive carefully on the kitchen counter and poured herself a glass of water. While drinking it, she grabbed the remote and flicked on her television.
The news was on. “Police and investigators have discovered the source of this morning’s massive viral assault that resulted in several thousand homes and businesses being left without computers, cell phones and other electronic devices.”
Caroline went into her bathroom, still listening to the news, to examine her face in the mirror. It was bruised, but it would heal. She washed her face off with some cold water.
The newscaster continued: “Police say that the virus had no system in place to prevent its source from being tracked, making it easy to find those responsible. They credited their quick action to digital security measures put into place to combat the recent rise in cyber-terrorism. Police say Daniel Kenry, a man suspected of other cyber-terrorist operations including the M.E.E.R. break-in, was found at the origin of the virus along with the corpse of an unidentified male.”
Caroline dug through her closet as she listened. She had not used what was in here in a long time and had thought she never would again, but circumstances had changed. She had changed. When she finally found it, she carefully blew the dust off of the old laptop.
The newscaster finished the report: “Kenry is facing multiple charges potentially including attempted homicide as the virus caused a number of hospitals to suffer operational issues and power outages. If convicted he could face up to life in prison. According to experts the virus appears to be incomplete and it was unable to cause any permanent damage. Authorities have assured us that it should no longer be a danger.”
Caroline grabbed the hard drive from the counter and turned off the television as she sat down on her couch. She flipped open the laptop and pushed the power button, worried that it would not even turn on. Despite concerns, the machine’s internal fan began to hum as the system booted up and displayed the desktop screen. Carefully, she plugged the hard drive into the side of her laptop. It took a moment, but the hard drive’s icon appeared as an option in her ‘My Computer’ window.
As Caroline double-clicked on the drive and browsed through the files it contained, she found almost all of them were photos of her and Jack together, letters they had exchanged over the years and other mementoes of their relationship. She felt her tears start to come back again as she looked over all of the memories.
At last Caroline reached the very bottom of the file list and ran into a file that was different from the rest. It was simply labeled ‘J’. She double clicked on the file.
The laptop’s fan began to buzz a bit faster as the computer struggled to open the file. After a few seconds, the screen turned to black and there was nothing. Then, in an instant, a face with a familiar pair of blue eyes was staring out from the screen.
Jack smirked as he looked at Caroline. “It took you long enough, sweetheart. Do you have any idea how cramped it was in that hard drive?”
The added sarcasm brought nothing short of a smile to Caroline’s face.
###
About the author:
Finnian Valko is a secretive individual only known by his penname in the literary world. His first book, A Different Sort of Life, marks his first entry in what he hopes to be a long line of thought provoking tales that readers will find interesting and captivating. He hopes you have enjoyed reading it and that you will look forward to his follow-up book: Fusion.
Contact him online:
Live journal: http://finnianvalko.livejournal.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/FinnianValko
Smashwords: http://smashwords.com/profile/view/FinnianValko