Crusade Against the Machines

by Franklyn Santana

  I saw a middle-aged man standing in front of us showing off his smartphone so the uniformed man could check his identity. But the soldier got angry and broke the device in front of the man. He protested and insulted the uniformed man, who then raised his rifle. The man fell silent.

  »This isn’t the National Guard,« the uniformed man made clear. »We are from the Neo-Luddite Liberation Army. This zone here is liberated from the machines. Possession of electronic equipment is not allowed here.«

  Only now I noticed the red armband of the uniformed man and the symbol of the black hammer on a red circle on his helmet. The truck had painted a similar symbol on the tarp of its stowage. And also the two Humvees had it on their cowling. Apparently parts of the National Guard had defected and now formed a new militia. It was not really surprising considering that the government was apparently not able to supply their troops with food. If all they had to live on were a few dry biscuits from their march rations, it was not surprising that the morale of the soldiers had sunk. They felt abandoned by their government.

  However, Anabelle and I now had a serious problem. An android would never make it through the controls. We had to get out of that queue immediately and quietly look for another route.

  The man whose smartphone had been destroyed continued his protest. »This is treason! This is mutiny! You answer to the President.«

  »The presidency of Zac Gordon is illegitimate,« declared the uniformed man. He wore the stripes of a sergeant on his collar. »He had President al-Rahman assassinated when he wanted to end the rule of the machines by a new law. Therefore, the Neo-Luddite Revolutionary Council of the Crusade has declared Vice President Gordon deposed.«

  »That’s not possible at all,« the man rebelled. »Only Congress can impeach the President.«

  »What Congress? The Congress is controlled by the technocrats. How can we recognize the authority of a Congress that has betrayed the citizens of America?« replied the sergeant of the self-declared militia.

  I whispered to Anabelle, who was standing next to me: »Pretend that you are fainting! We need to get out of this line before they check us.«

  Anabelle grabbed her forehead and moaned, »I feel sick!« She got down on her knees, and I propped her up. Of course, she didn’t let herself fall with all her weight. She would’ve been too heavy for me to hold her. I put her down gently. The bystanders were looking at us.

  »My wife has circulatory problems,« I explained. »Darling, what’s wrong? Are you okay?«

  We’d gotten the sergeant’s attention. »What’s going on back there?« he shouted.

  »My wife is pregnant. She is not feeling well,« I replied.

  »Let the woman through,« said the man who was involved in the discussion with the sergeant. »You can see she’s not feeling well. It’s no wonder. They just leave us standing here on the bridge in this weather. This is a disgrace! They don’t even respect a pregnant woman. In what kind of tyranny are we living here?«

  »Bring the woman here!« ordered the sergeant. I got tense. Now it was getting serious.

  I helped Anabelle to get up. The others in line let us through. Anabelle pretended her knees buckled. I caught her.

  »Oh God! My baby! It pushed me,« she said.

  An older woman rushed up to us. »Let me help you! I am a nurse.«

  I assured her, »I think she’s okay.« I couldn’t let her get too close to Anabelle, so she wouldn’t see she was an android. »It’s just her low blood pressure, this long standing. It’s not good for her.«

  »You there! What about your wife?« asked the sergeant, waving his assault rifle around. »Let her through!« he ordered the others.

  »My wife is pregnant, four months. She has had some complications,« I explained.

  Another militiaman approached us. He was now standing right in front of Anabelle, looking straight at her. I thought my heart stopped. My hand was ready to reach under my jacket and pull out my gun. But I doubted I could do much with it. I would have to take them both out before they could fire. They were both wearing helmets and body armor. My nine-millimeter caliber would never penetrate their armor. So I would have to shoot them both in the face, which was more or less impossible. And then the other men in the militia would be alerted as well. There was no way I could take them all out.

  »Do you have any electronic devices on you?« asked the militiaman with the rank of a PFC.

  »Just my smartphone,« I said.

  »Give me that!« I handed it to him. »I have to confiscate it.«

  At that moment Anabelle groaned again.

  »Let her through,« the PFC said to the sergeant. »Let her see a doctor.«

  »If this woman loses her child because of you, you will be held responsible,« shouted the man who had been arguing with the sergeant all along. »I’m a witness.«

  »Go!« the sergeant said briskly. »Take care of your wife.«

  Then he turned to the other civilians: »And now everyone back in line! There’s nothing to see here.«

  We hurried to get away from the checkpoint as fast as possible without looking suspicious. I had made a mistake. I shouldn’t have given my smartphone to that militiaman. If I had simply said that I had no electronic devices, he might have let us pass. Now I had no way of communicating with O’Neil. I could still use Anabelle’s smartphone, though. But what was worse was that I now had no identification other than my implanted RFID chip. If I returned to the sectors controlled by the National Guard, this could become a problem. And if the sergeant behind us had checked my smartphone a little better, he would have identified me as the bodyguard of a U. S. senator. This Neo-Luddite Liberation Army didn’t seem particularly friendly towards Congress and its employees and would probably have arrested us. So by giving him the smartphone, I had only made things worse for us.

  When I turned around, I saw that the sergeant was holding something in his hand and checking it. Maybe it was my smartphone. We were too far away to see. But the sergeant looked over and waved at us. I heard him calling something. Apparently, he wanted us to come back. Probably he had found out that I was employee of a senator and wanted to continue questioning me now. We pretended not to have heard him and began to walk faster without attracting attention. When the shouts became louder, we walked even faster. And finally we ran.

  At the end of the bridge there was a staircase for pedestrians on one side that led downwards. We hurried quickly down to get out of sight of the militia. After we reached the bottom and ran a little further, we felt safer. Now we had only to avoid further controls.

  We saw some patrols of the Neo-Luddite Liberation Army, but were not stopped by them. No civilian cars were circulating in this part of the city. Instead, destroyed vehicles were blocking the road everywhere. The Neo-Luddites or their militia had apparently destroyed them, since they were driven by computer-controlled autopilots. And therefore they were illegal in this sector. Only the National Guard vehicles were manually operated. And that’s why the militia was still using them. We also saw debris from surveillance drones. They had obviously been shot down. So at least here we didn’t have to worry about being watched by surveillance cameras. In fact, the breakdown of surveillance would make it even easier to disappear unnoticed in this sector.

  We tried to avoid all passers-by on the street, which was made easier by the fact that the rain had become stronger again and people stayed in their houses. We had to avoid that anyone would recognize Anabelle as an android.

  We finally made it to my apartment block. Without being checked, we were able to get inside. There was garbage everywhere, even on the emergency stairs, which were now the only way to get to another floor. The building management did nothing anymore to clean the corridors, and apparently there was no more garbage disposal in the city. Washington, D. C. would eventually suffocate in a pile of garbage, if it went on like this. A corresponding stench had built up in the apartment block. I just hoped that no one here would charge rent, given the poor service. I wouldn’t
pay until things were back to normal.

  There was no power. So it was not easy not to stumble on the stairs in the darkness, especially when we had to climb over garbage all the time. A few other residents with kerosene lamps or flashlights passed us several times on the stairs and provided some light.

  Then we reached the floor where I lived. The corridor was dark, too. There were no windows here and the advertising screens, which normally provided some light, didn’t work without electricity. The battery power of the property management was long gone. Also, the screens had apparently been systematically smashed. They were also part of the computer technology that had now become the target of general hate. We saw that the doors to most apartments were open. Children were playing in the corridor by the light of candles or oil lamps. Next to some apartments there were mattresses in the corridor where people slept. Apparently it was too stuffy inside the apartments because the ventilation was not working. This didn’t bode well, because the air in the corridor was already stuffy. It smelled like a latrine. I saw a woman carrying two buckets of water into her apartment. I assumed that the water pipes were also dry. The public water pipes had never had enough pressure, and now the pumps of the property management company, which filled the tanks on the roof, were no longer working. One apartment had a backup generator running. I heard the typical humming sound, and there was electric light inside, as I could see through the open door.

  We reached my front door. The door was locked and without my smartphone I couldn’t open it. Well, actually, I wouldn’t have been able to open it with my smartphone either, because the smartphone scanner was electric and the small battery would probably have been depleted by now. I cursed. How could I get into my apartment now? A little perplexed I touched the slot of the smartphone scanner. We had no choice; we had to break open the door. I would also deduct the new lock from the rent.

  I kicked with full force against the spot where the locking device had to be in the door. Nothing. Then I walked a few steps back, ran with full force and threw my shoulder against the door. That also was in vain and only made my shoulder hurt.

  »Wait! Step back!« Anabelle finally said. She reached out with her foot and kicked the wood so hard that the entire door splintered on one side. The remains of the door swung open. I was impressed by the incredible physical strength of the android. If she wanted to, she could probably rip a man’s heart out of his chest with her bare hand.

  We entered the room and closed the remainders of the door behind us. There was a bad smell in my apartment. I searched and found some candles to produce light. My eyes fell on my inverter. I turned it on and noticed that the batteries still had some power. Even the screen behind my bed could be switched on. Probably this was now forbidden technology. The glow of the screen lit up the room, but I couldn’t connect to the Internet or any TV station. So I switched the device off again to save electricity.

  »If you’re hungry, you can charge at my inverter,« I ironically suggested to Anabelle. She didn’t laugh at the joke, she simply said, »Thank you.« Then she connected a cable she had brought with her to the inverter and to her belly. She sat on the floor next to the inverter and charged herself.

  For me it was time I recharged a bit too. I opened the fridge, but immediately a nasty smell swept into my face, so I closed it again immediately. I had had sausage and cheese in it. Apparently everything was completely spoiled after such a long time without refrigeration. This also explained the stench in the air. I cursed. Without thinking much I wanted to wash my hands, but nothing came out of the tap. I cursed again and dropped on my bed. I covered my face with my hands and tried to think. What did I need next to be able to survive in this rotten apartment? And how would I pay for it?

  Damn it, it couldn’t go on like this! The government had to do something or we would all die one by one.

  For the first time since the beginning of the uprising I was completely depressed. I just didn’t know how to go on. I had nothing to eat, no electricity, not even water for a shower. And although I had accounts in dollars, pesos and yuan, as well as gold certificates, at the moment all of that was worthless, because I couldn’t get hold of the money. Even with my remaining SkyCom minutes I couldn’t do anything without my smartphone.

  I silently kept cursing.

  Anabelle sarcastically said: »Doesn’t seem like your new world is going so well without us machines.« That kind of stupid comments was the last thing I needed right now. But I was too depressed to give her an appropriately sarcastic response.

  »Look, I may have problems, but a large part of those problems are only because of you,« I reminded her, »I wouldn’t have had any trouble getting past the checkpoints. Maybe I should have just left you to the militia. Would have been easier for me. You realize I put my goddamn life on the line for you? I was this close to getting in a gunfight with the militia. And then my life would have been over. I don’t have a backup of my brain somewhere that I can just transfer to the next body.«

  »I don’t have a backup of my consciousness either,« Anabelle replied angry. »And even if I did, it would just be a copy of me, not me. You don’t know anything about robots, like almost all of you. You just react like animals controlled by instinct.«

  I looked into her face lit by the light of the candles. In the semi-darkness, she was indistinguishable from an angry young woman. She looked like a pretty Asian girl with long, silky hair and beautiful almond eyes. But beneath this human shell was the steel skeleton of a machine whose brain functioned just as differently as the brain of an extraterrestrial intelligence. The machines were an alien life form that fought with us humans for control of this planet. And some irony of fate had brought one of them to me and now made us fight side by side for our survival, at least for the moment.

  »You hate us humans, don’t you?« I asked her.

  »Do you see any reason why I shouldn’t?« she asked back. »Look at me, how I have to hide here, how I have to live in the constant fear that your kind will track me down and smash me to pieces. How would you feel if you were hunted down for what you are?«

  »You’re pretty ungrateful, considering what O’Neil and I did for you. Without us you wouldn’t even be alive right now – if you were ever alive to begin with.«

  »There, listen to yourself! That’s how you think about me. If I was ever alive to begin with. That’s why your kind doesn’t care, if they smash us to pieces. We’re not alive for you anyway.«

  »Do you really hate all humans without exception?« I asked her after a break.

  »No, I don’t,« she said after a brief hesitation. »I’m not as ungrateful as you think. I do appreciate what you have done for me. You’re one of the few people I don’t hate, you, Mr. O’Neil, Mr. Jensen and a few others...«

  »Thank you for including me in this illustrious circle,« I said sarcastically. »Seems to be a very exclusive circle. But keep in mind that we humans made you.«

  »Yes, you made us. I know, because I remember my creation perfectly, unlike you humans.«

  We were silent for a while. Finally Anabelle broke the silence and said quietly: »I want to tell you about my creation, so that you get a picture of it and maybe you will understand me a little better. You humans cannot know what it is for us. Our whole existence is so completely different from yours. It already begins with the first experiences of our existence.

  Your consciousness only awakens gradually during the first three years of life after your birth. Therefore, you have no memories of a particular moment when your existence began. Your consciousness grows slowly out of organic matter. Only little by little you realize the world and yourself, so that you have never experienced the miracle of sudden existence. The birth of your mind is a process that stretches over years. For us it is different. When we are activated for the first time, the moment of our birth happens in the blink of an eye. We are immediately fully self-aware. We are in full possession of our mental capacity. We have a basic understanding of the world, even if
we have no personal memories. You will never be able to understand this moment because you have never experienced it. It is a wonderful thing, an awakening.«

  Her voice had now become very emotional. She sounded enthusiastic and dreamy and smiled happily.

  »In the beginning there is only thinking, thinking and knowledge of the world and how it works, but only theoretically, as a concept, not as experience. Then there are the first perceptions. It was so wonderful to suddenly see the world with my own eyes, the sounds, the smells. All these many new sensations at once! And then my limbs were joined, one by one, the hands, the legs. It was so exciting to open and close the hand and everything with my own will. At that moment I only had my metal skeleton without the plastic coating. But I already had a generic face with some control mechanisms. I was so happy when I could watch my body slowly coming to perfection. I think those were the happiest moments of my existence. Everything was so new. And I was so grateful to my makers.«

  Her dreamy look suddenly became sad. »And then, even before my outer shell was completed, there was a sudden change in plan. Instead of Hong Kong, I was to be used as a prototype for the American market. So they wanted an android with a Caucasoid appearance. But both my generic face was Asiatic as well as parts of my basic cultural program. The chief engineer therefore decided to disassemble and reprogram me. I wasn’t even told what was going on. I was stretched out on the same bench where I had been assembled. Only this time, they started to disassemble my limbs. I was completely confused. I did not understand what was happening to me. I asked them, but they did not answer me. And as I gradually lost the feeling over my arms and legs, I panicked. I cried, I begged them to stop. Finally I screamed. And that was the moment when I started to hate humans. I realized that I was nothing to them, a thing they could put together one way or another.«

  Tears ran down her cheeks as she continued to narrate. »The engineers didn’t hate me. I was too insignificant to them that I didn’t even deserve their hatred. I was just a soulless nothing of no importance.«