Warriors

Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer

This lab is armoured and very far underground. The strikes didn’t penetrate down here. That was six years ago.

I’m the only survivor of the top-secret government installation designed to create robot soldiers. I succeeded and my designs went into use. A full platoon of them were fresh off the assembly line down here when the war started.

These robots are trained to never harm me or anyone with my clearance. They’re also trained to keep me fed and taken care of in just this exact instance. I don’t have the code words to shut them off.

They’ve done a great job. I talk to them but they never talk back. I get the feeling that they might hear me but they don’t respond. They’re taught only to respond to orders, asking only for clarification.

We didn’t install a way for them to just hang out and talk. I see now where we failed. My hair and beard are long. I have long since stopped wearing clothes.

Sometimes I scream and try to hurt them. They always gently keep me from doing it.

Sometimes I scream and try to hurt myself. They always gently keep me from doing it.

Sometimes I order them to kill me. They do nothing.

The strikes knocked out the above ground cameras and the doors are on autolock until the half-lives dissipate enough for brief trips.

It could be a while. If I had an Eve, I could have a doomed little family down here. But I don’t.

Just me. I scream into the communications room microphone a lot but I have no idea if it’s broadcasting topside.

The silent warriors watch me. I send them through training exercises that are more and more complicated. I make them dance. I make them fight each other.

Nothing breaks them. They’re perfect.

It’s going to be a long time before I die.