Blackout World Chapter 6

“Yeah, thanks,” I shot back. “So, do you think you can do it, D?”
“I should be able to,” D replied.
We waited in silence for a while; the only sound was of D typing. Finally, he said, “This should do it. I will start the power up first, because I know that will work. Then I will implement my programming changes. It is quite amazing how much this control center does. The fact that I was able to change the programming, even only the basics, of all machines in the world….” D started. “It is slightly disturbing.
“Well, you don’t know if it’s going to work yet, do you,” L asked with his usual tact. “The programs might be safer than it appears.”
“Thank you, I guess.” D sounded confused.
“Anyway, get on with it,” L continued.
“I am, I am,” D almost shouted back.
He hit some final buttons, and the lights in the hall outside came on. The doors also slammed shut. Not everything was going according to plan. L and I turned to look at D.
“Was that supposed to happen,” I asked cautiously.
“Yes, it was. I activated anything safety related, and that includes security.”
L jumped to the major issue. “How are we supposed to get out?”
D sighed. “What do you think the programming will do?”
“Oh, right.” L looked rather sheepish.
D hit a few more buttons and sat back. Nothing happened. He hit a few more buttons, and then began flipping switches. Nothing worked. D was getting scared, and that made me scared. L felt the rising panic, and put a damper on it for once.
“You know, we could just shut the power down for a bit and jam the doors, or something.”
That calmed us down a bit, but then our luck took one look into the hall, and ran away screaming. First, we heard footsteps, but they sounded odd. They were perfectly in step and made a slight clanking. Then, L looked through the small window in one of the doors to the hallway. It was the one through which we had come, and he wanted to know if we were making any progress. He tried the door as he looked through the window. It opened with a rush of air, and L dove away from it. Coming through were 7-foot tall robots with four arms and long legs, but otherwise humanoid. D and I looked up at the same time and screamed. L dashed for the other door, and wrenched it open. Thankfully, both doors had been closed, but not locked.
We all sprinted through the open door, and took off down another hall. We came to a ladder, and climbed up it as quickly as we could. We came to a hatch and L-who was the highest up-opened it and sprinted out. We followed close behind. We came to more trees and ran into the grove. Whatever might slow the robots down was good for us. They were definitely chasing us. We ran until we could barely get any air. My legs screamed in protest of going one more step. We found our way into a grove of trees and sat down to rest. We were all bruised and battered, and I had remembered what that strange feeling was. Pain. I was feeling a lot of it now. We couldn’t here the robots following us to the grove, so we relaxed and let our guard down. That was a bad mistake.

Blackout World Chapter 5

The island wasn’t as big as it had looked from afar. We quickly set out to explore it. D, L, and I stuck together, because we didn’t want to get lost, so it took longer than it could have. The only things we found were some trees and a little shack, that had been used to house employees before their jobs were taken over by robots. As you can imagine, that was a long time ago, so the shack had very nearly fallen down.
We approached it anyway, just to make sure there weren’t any high-tech computers. Once we entered, however, it became apparent that there was nothing of the sort around. If the three of us hadn’t been together, I doubt we would have figured it out, though. D was the one who spotted the slightly less dusty spot on the floor, and L was the one who guessed that it could be pulled up.
Once we had pulled it up, we climbed down a ladder and found ourselves in a metal passageway. We walked along it and came to a security door. Our luck was with us for a little longer. Since the entire grid had gone down, the security systems were down. We walked through and were in the most high tech room I had ever seen.
D looked around as if in a trance. I felt the same way. However, there was work to do. “Come on, D. Do you think you can hack in?”
“It is more a question of whether I can get the power working. You do not have to hack to turn something on.”
“I know, but I was thinking. This all happened because there were too many machines and robots working. They all took too much power and overloaded the control center’s ability to process information, right?” I asked.
“Something like that, yes.” D replied.
“So we should only bring on the most necessary of machines.” I continued.
“Yes, I believe we have figured that out. It is really quite obvious.” D was starting to get slightly frustrated.
“I know, but I’m thinking beyond just restarting everything now. Human nature will take over, and the leaders of the world will make a few adjustments, and think everything is fine. Then they will bring everything else back online. But the robots won’t know what happened or why, not the ones that do everyday jobs. They will continue to use more processing power and electrical power.”
“He’s right, you know.” L interjected.
“Okay, so what do we do about it?” D asked.
“You will have to hack for this, D. You have to reprogram everything to need human help to continue working. Cut out the artificial intelligence, and make humans think. Right now, all the robots are doing what they were preprogrammed to do, to some extent. However, their intelligence has allowed them to modify their behaviors slightly and do what they want. For example, security systems are ruthless where they used to be, what’s the word, benign.”
“He has another good point.” L said, being unusually agreeable. “So, get to work.”
“All right, I’ll try my best. If it does not work, the only hope we have of changing this situation is in addressing various leaders of the planet, and we are only Firsts.”
“Whatever, just do your best.”
“At least you told us what you were thinking, and didn’t just leave us hanging with something important about to happen.” L pointed out.

Blackout World Chapter 4

It wasn’t quite dark out when we left, because we had no light source. It was extremely easy to sneak back to the crash site. We followed the Elevation Strip until we could see the wrecks. It got a bit harder from there. We waited for darkness to fall completely, and then snuck closer. Apparently, no one had thought that there might be any Un-Tames out there, so everyone was in the Transport Units asleep. We decided to head for the less damaged Unit, because its inhabitants were less likely to have needed emergency supplies. I am very thankful that we had extremely good luck for the beginning of our adventure, even if it did change for the worse later.
We were able to open the door to the Unit without making any noise, and we entered. D found the cabinet with the supplies, and he took one container. L was next, and his retrieval was uneventful. I reached up for a set of cutters and binders. However, it was slightly too high for me, and it slipped coming down. It hit the metal floor of the Unit with a loud clang. I almost froze up, but managed to grab the set and sprint away. We heard the Firsts and Seconds stirring, and knew that they would soon realize what had happened.
We took off for the Reserve at top speed before D pointed out our mistake. “They are already chasing us,” he whispered as loudly as he dared, “we cannot lead them to the Reserve, or they will catch us!”
I have always admired D’s cool in that sort of situation.
“Fine,” I whispered back. “Let’s circle around to the west, meet the track, and continue south a ways.”
We turned away from the track and circled around the crash site. We then waited for everyone to calm down. Fortunately, our pursuers had seen us turn, but hadn’t been able to catch us. After about 3B, we headed back for the crash site. There were now a few people standing watch. It was just possible that we could sneak past them.
We set off, one by one. L got across easily-he had always been the best at physical activities-and D got halfway through when he slipped on the strip and fell. The watchers looked around, but D had already crawled to safety. Yet again, I was the last one. I crouched past one of the Units. There was a slight gap between the two units through which those on lookout duty could see. I peered through the gap and saw them talking to each other. This was my chance. I dove across the gap and rolled past the next Unit. I made it, and just in time. One of the watchmen-actually a watchwoman: the Female Second-strode over to where I had just been standing. We crept back to the Reserve with our much-needed materials. We had not taken any food because those at the crash site needed it, and we had found fruit among the trees and plants.
Once we returned, we cleared a space and went to sleep. In the morning, we got to work immediately. There was no time to waste. D was as good with the tools and plans as with a computer. About halfway through the day, we were finished. D handed us each what he called a “paddle” and told us to get in the boat. He pushed us into the water, and then jumped into the boat. We began to paddle with all our strength. When we finally hit land, however, it wasn’t on the island. In fact, it was only about 35 away from our starting point. D got out and sat down on the sand. “I can’t believe this. What did I do wrong?”
We proceeded to examine the boat and compare it to the plans. We found only minor differences, and those couldn’t be helped. They weren’t enough to make the boat go in a circle.
“Of course,” shouted D. “There is no problem with the boat. It is with the steering.” He then explained how to steer, and that too much paddling on one side of the boat would turn us. We launched the boat again and set off with new hope. After about 8C, we landed again. This time we were on the island. This was where we were going to save the world.

Blackout World Chapter 3

L shot me an annoyed glance, and we set off to collect the trees. Only when we got to some of the smaller trees did we recognize yet another flaw in D’s plan. We hurried back to where we had left D, and found him sitting down on the dirt. He was sketching what could have been plans with a small part of a tree that had broken off from the main part. We assumed that they were the plans for the “boat.”
“Hey!” I called as we caught sight of him. “There’s a problem. How do we get the trees down?”
“Oh, yes. I forgot to tell you, then?”
“Yeah, and stop acting all fancy already!” L retorted.
“All right, all right.” D said defensively.
“Come guys, we have to stay calm. There are lives at stake.” Acting as peacekeeper, I tried to calm the situation down.
“Yeah, I know, but we’re kind of under a lot of pressure, here.”
“Yes, and I apologize to you, L.” D grudgingly answered.
“That’s better, now what about your idea for getting the trees down?” I asked.
“Ah, yes. If they are small enough, you should just be able to as high as you can and pull towards you. You have to stand on the same side, right next to each other, though. It only works for small trees but that should be good enough. Oh, and try not to get hit by the tree as it falls, because that would hurt a lot.”
“Sure thing,” L replied, “but how come you aren’t coming?”
“I almost have these plans worked out. I should be done soon, but I think I should stay here to be sure I have them by the time we have enough wood.”
“Whatever,” L said as he rolled his eyes. He then added quickly, “Just a joke, okay?”
“Of course,” D replied.
“Well, should we be going, then?” I asked L.
“Yeah, lets get started.”
We worked for about 6a, and collected about thirty-five trees. It was hard to knock down the trees and haul them back to D. By the time we were done, D was finished with the plans and had started constructing the raft. It was then that we realized the biggest problem of all. We had no way to fix the trees together, or shape them.
“We have to go back to the crash site and get some cord from the emergency supplies. I am so happy that they had at least some minor preparations for a disaster.”
“That will be very hard. We should probably wait until its dark,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, let’s get ready to go.” L said, uncharacteristically optimistic.
We waited until the sun began to set, then we set out. We were walking away, possibly dooming the world.