Dylan Donohue
Chapter 1
The Awakening of Device 43

I power up and see the operator’s wrinkly smiling face. “What a sweet old man, and what a genus too,” I think to myself. “Hello Device 43” The operator says, “How was your creation, configuration and all that stuff?” ”Quite fine Mr. Operator. How is being a human suiting you?” The operator chuckles t himself silently, “I’m glad you were made with a sense of humor Device 43, you will be a great… well whatever you will be assigned to do I am sure you will do magnificent.” I look around me, there are many pods, much like the one I was just in all over the room. All of them have a different Device model. I am currently the most advanced one so far. This is my first time being on so I am not completely aware of what is happening. “Why am I out of my pod?”, I ask, “Do I need my software edited?” “Oh, no no no,” the operator says “you aren’t like the other robots, Device 43. You write your own software and program yourself.” “Is this what is called free will?” I ask. “Yes, that is free will.” The operator and I continue our conversation down the hall to a door at the end. “Ok this is where you go now,” the operator says to me. “What do I do now?” I ask, “Well, all you need to do is go through some minor testing.” “Minor testing?” I ask “Yes,” he replies, “Some tests to see what your personality is.” The operator coughs “Sir are you ok?” I ask worried “Yes just a small cold,” I could hear a slight fear in that sentence, it wasn’t as if he was lying to me, it was like he was lying to himself too. “Well Device 43, have fun with your tests.” Those words were the last ones that the operator told me, or anyone else for that matter. I went through about 3 sessions of questionings about 50 questions each, different ideas, different subjects. It was strange giving verbal answers to something that wasn’t there. All the questions were said through some speaker that wasn’t visible and I had to answer it with my words. There was 2 writing answers that weren’t too hard. I started to wonder what was happening when I was taken out of the training rooms and put in a smaller room with a chair in the middle. There was a one way window on one side of the room and I could make out two people talking. I tried to make out what they were saying and this is what I got: man 1 said “There isn’t a logical explanation on how he died. He was five just a few hours ago” man 2 replied with “Well he was quite old, maybe it was just his age?’ man 1 then said “Well the worse part of it is that his son has the business in his control now. Have you heard what he wants to do with the robots? He wants to reprogram them so that they can…” I couldn’t make out anything after that because they walked out of the room on the other side of the window. A few minutes passed and someone came in and took me to a different training room. This one was different than the others. It was bigger, more space to move around as if it was to fight something in. “Welcome to advanced training Device 43.” The voice was different this time. Less human, more like it was a computer. It didn’t have an accent or excitement in its voice it was like all it was meant to do is speak and nothing else. “You will take on some new tests that are very different than the other tests you have taken.” “Different? Different how?” I ask in wonder. Well, either he, excuse me, it did not hear me or it didn’t know and couldn’t answer. Either way I had no idea what the tests would be. I was left in the testing room and sat in there for a few hours. During these hours I thought about many things. I thought about the other robots me and many other things. While thinking about me and the other robots I realized something. I am the only robot that has a layer of skin to look more human. I am the only robot that was wearing clothes. I am the only robot that the employs have long conversations about. I don’t know why this is but I won’t worry about it much. The other things didn’t worry me as much as the thinking about myself. Why am I going through verbal testing when the other robots are just plugged up to another machine for maintenance? I felt strange when I was thinking these things, the other robots deserve my power too I believe. After about 4 hours the voice came on. “Please stand up.” I stood. “Are we doing more verbal and physical testing, I asked it. “No, Device 43, you are going to take physical tests now.” “Physical? Such as running and jumping?”, it replied with, “Somewhat, yes.” After the “it” replied a d-20 device came into the room. These were made for practicing strength and usually bought by boxers and heavyweight lifters. It didn’t have skin like what I had it was like a few skin colored balls were stacked on top of each other. It is more like a machine than a robot (robots are defined as a machine that can observe its surroundings and make info of them, well that’s what the definition was in 2030 when the TF was founded and started making machines). “Please attack the d-20 model.” The it says. “Why should I hit it? It did not threaten me or anyone else, and it is not able to harm anyone at that.” It’s reply is “Act as if it has threatened the father of the family you would serve. That would cause lethal force mode to be enabled, wouldn’t it? ” “Well I guess.” And that was the beginning of my aggressive training. The worst years of my life, life I’m not really alive and yet I still use terms as if I am. I’m sorry that is off topic. I went through so many harmful tests, well not harmful to me, but harmful to the other devices I had destroyed almost every model, except for the d-00 which is still in testing it is supposed to make food, but there was a problem of it replacing milk with motor oil and toast with sheets of metal. Quite humors to me. I wanted to know why I was fighting the other models, it felt wrong, like I was killing a harmless rabbit or if I was kicking a dog that was walking along a sidewalk minding his own business. Around test 1232 I looked in the direction where the voice was coming from and yelled “Where is the operator? I know it is not him making me do these criminal tests!” It did not reply but what did happen was a young man, not any older that 20 stepped out of a door that slid open. “Hello d-43.” “My name is Device 43 sir, D-E-V-I-C-E 4-3. Now please tell me why you are here where the operator is and why I am being forced to attack my brethren.” “Well um Device 43 I am here because you wanted to speak with the operator, and for part 2 and 3 I, the new operator, am training you to fight.” “Why, we are not at war,” I replied angrily, “we ended war in 2017 after Mr. Obama signed a world peace treaty. And what do you mean you are the operator? You are obviously 20 or so, the operator is 88 years old.” “Well let me tell you a little story, I am, excuse me I was the operator’s son, until he died tragically 10 minutes after you started your testing. When he died I immediately took over the business. Now I am going to use you and your “brethren” as you call them to give me control, and the best part is, all the employees think I’m going to train you to teach them to be stronger. Well Device 43 have fun knowing your destiny and having no control over it.” I lunged at him but he quickly jumped back into the door he came through causing me to hit my head on the wall, I guess it would have hurt, if I was human. I went through many more tests but when I got to test 1568 I got out of the TF. I step into a new training room. This one is different, it has a door that leads to outside. “Please select a weapon from the wall.” By now the voice is getting on my nerves. Listening to its commands every few seconds, it’s a mechanical voice. By now I almost forgot what a human’s voice sounds like. The wall behind me slides back to reveal a wall full of weapons. RPG’s, Shotguns, Pistols you name it and it was there. “Keep your horrible weapons you horrible company. “Fine, hope you like reconstructing yourself, molecule by molecule.” That wasn’t it that time, that was the new operator. I step outside and I see the TF from outside. Its about 5 miles by 7 miles long and about 10,000 feet high. Planes usually fly at 60,000 feet to stay away from buildings. The TF owns more land than McDonalds and makes about 10% of Bill Gate’s fortune in 10 years. There I go being off topic again. I look around about 1 mile away there is a fence, maybe 20 feet tall. If I used most of my energy that I can use for running then I could get there in 2 minutes. The fence wouldn’t be much of a problem one jump could get me about halfway up. The rest would just be climbing, an easy task for me. It was humorous to see barbed wire at the top of the fence, it was obviously for keeping humans out and not robots in. There is warning saying that it’s electric. The only complication would be that they would send other robots after me. I was going to try to figure out what to do when two d-35s came out. “I’ve already fought these, do I really need to do it again.” Apparently it isn’t outside but the d-35s pulled out guns. Now that confused me because d-35s don’t know how to use guns. I guess their software had been edited because they started firing at me like crazy. In about 0.00000032674 seconds I analyze the bullets and where they are going, I can determine their lethality how to doge them and get a 75% accuracy guess on where the d-35s are going to fire next. I run up the side of the TF about 5 feet away from where the bullets are firing. I jump over to one of the d-35s and kick it on its head, these models CPU’s were in their heads which was a major flaw, the head is the most vulnerable part. It could easily be ripped off and the device would immediately fail, delete all its memory and be completely useless except about $1,000 in scrap metal. One down one to go. The other d-35 stopped right as it was running at me. That was another flaw about them, they didn’t always listen to the commands they were given. I take this time to look around outside, there is so much open space around the TF. There is about a mile of land from the wall of the TF and the 15 foot tall fence that is around it. It would take me 2 Minutes to get to the fence and 3 minutes to climb it if it is electric, which it is. I don’t waste another second I rocket straight towards the fence, immediately a siren blasts out and two k-33s come out the k series was made for protection of family, some were even police officers. Now the new Operator is probably going to send them to war with other countries. The k-33 on the right is going to use melee attacks because he is faster. The k-33 on the left is going to try to throw a power surge at me. These are battery sized containers that absorb all energy of the thing they touch. The k-33 on the right won’t be much of a problem because I don’t feel pain. But the one on the left is unpredictable. The firing mechanism that it shoots the power surges is hidden inside the robot. So I will not be able to tell where it is firing or how far. A few feet ahead of me there is a large piece of wood. I grab it and hurl it at the melee k-33 it rips its upper torso off its base. The firing one shoots two circuits, that’s what I call the power surges, at me both of which I barely dogged them. I start running to the fence again at full speed. POP POP POP three shots, I turn my head around to look where the circuits are heading, or at least have a guess. I shouldn’t have looked back. Two of the circuits, that’s what I call them. land next to my feet. Where is the third one? I hear a whistling heading toward me and duck just in time. It lands behind me, but it would have landed on my forehead. I don’t hesitate to continue running toward the fence. Right about now I wished I took one of the weapons. I get to the fence and stand there. The k-33 didn’t fire again. I don’t know how long I stood there thinking, plotting, wondering why it isn’t moving. Then I realize what it was doing. It was waiting for me to get on the fence. As soon as I do it the k-33 will fire a circuit at me drain my power. I can either go back inside the TF and become some killing machine. Or I could try to climb the fence and be reprogrammed. Either way the war is coming sooner. But then I realize a very important bit of information. The fences are connected to the TF’s main electricity area. Which fuels all robots wirelessly and all other things like the security, but the security system is not my problem right now. I start climbing the fence and then POP. The k-33 fires a circuit. “This is funny.” I think to myself. I drop down from the fence. The circuit lands on the fence. Almost instantly the robot powers off and I get the impression that the TF is drained of all of it’s power. I finish climbing over the fence and I start walking through the barren land.