Author : Matt LaFever

“Don’t look at it.” She said while the white light scanned the treeline. He shut his eyes tight and held close to her. The massive truck stayed there for a minute; the two of them shivered in the night air. The second it drove away they started moving forward.

“Why shouldn’t I have looked?” He asked.

“They’d see the light reflect off your eyes.” She answered.

She was right of course. She’d been around longer than he had, longer than most people had. She was almost fifteen.

“How much further do you think it is?” He asked impatiently.

“Far enough”

“That’s not really an answer.”

“I know.” And they continued walking in silence.

They reached the gate as the morning sun rose. The gate was monstrous: Twelve-feet high, barbed wire, and probably had a deadly voltage running through it.

“How do you expect to get through?” He asked.

“We’ll dig.”

“There’ll be fence underneath, they’ll have thought of that.”

“Kid, just because they have computers for brains, doesn’t mean they’re smart. The only reason I’m still here talking to you is because the machines are dumb, they never expect the unexpected.”

“Is that why we’re breaking into a weather control station instead of a nuclear base?”

“That’s exactly why. Now shovel.”

She was right, she was always right. The fence stopped a few inches underground. They slipped inside quietly. The tall sheet-metal buildings around them were of robot design. You could tell because they were just boxes, huge metal boxes. Basic functions, that was the way machines thought. He’d always thought it was a shame they were killing everybody, but that was their function, they were artificial intelligence designed to survive at all costs. Since humanity was the only worthwhile threat to a robot’s life, it was decided that they should all be killed.

“Do you ever wonder what would have happened if the machines didn’t murder everybody?”

“Not really.” she said.

“Like, what if we all worked in harmony and we all tried to make a better world and stuff.”

“Yeah, I guess that would be nice.”

“Do you think I should bring it up to one of them?”

“I’m pretty sure they’d kill you before you got to the really good bits of your proposal.”

“Yeah, probably… Is this really the only way?”

“Yup.”

“Too bad, could’ve been a beautiful world.”

The building was in the center of the base. It was human design, it contrasted sharply with the surrounding house-sized boxes. It was a small white building with a rounded dome and an antenna on top. Inside was a computer about the size of a desk full of flashing lights and buttons.

“You know how to work it?” He asked.

“I read the manuals we scavenged, should be easy.”

She turned some dials and punched up some numbers, then took a deep breath and hit a button. In the distance missiles launched into the air.

“The payloads contain nanobots. Tiny machines too small to see. That’s what’s going to make it rain.”

“And it won’t stop?”

“By the time it does everything will be flooded, and the bots wont have anywhere to charge.”

“What about us? We’ll die too wont we?”

“Yup, it’s completely unexpected.”

They sat there, watching the sweeping lights of the trucks grow bright as dark clouds blocked out the morning sun. They sat there in complete silence, waiting for the world to drown.