City of Robots

by George Ivanoff

  You touch your face. A lens covers your right eye. Your ear has also been bionically enhanced. You realise that …

  You are a cyborg!

  It’s not just your body that’s been altered. Your mind is full of new information, full of purpose. You have a mission.

  You walk out of the hospital room with determination. You know exactly where to go, proceeding down corridors until you reach the swirling, smoky-grey nothingness. Only now, you know what it is.

  It is a wormhole through the fabric of time and space, connecting the future and the past. You need to go through it. You need to find Director Winters from the Kettlewell Robotics Institute and bring her back to the future. That is what you must do. That is what the robots want.

  You step through the wormhole back to your time. You exit the office and race down the corridor.

  Ahead of you, the elevator doors open and another you steps out. An earlier you.

  You remember this encounter. It’s happened before. Past-you will run off down the other corridor. But as you approach, past-you hesitates. What will this earlier version of you do? You don’t know.

  Go here.

  Or go here.

  You stop and let the guard catch up to you.

  ‘Where … do … you … think … you’re … going?’ he pants.

  You try to explain what’s happened, but he doesn’t believe you.

  ‘The lockdown is over,’ he says. ‘Everything must be okay now.’

  Suddenly there is an enormous crash from outside. You and the guard stare wide-eyed as a pair of giant robotic feet stomp past the open roller door. He believes you now!

  SMASH!

  The robot scorpion bursts through the service lift shaft in a spray of flying debris. It advances towards you, stinger raised above its head.

  The guard turns and runs. With a whine of power, a laser beam shoots from the tip of the scorpion’s stinger, cutting him down.

  You dash for the cover of the storage shelves. The robotic arachnid chases after you, knocking shelves out of the way. You jump up and grab on to a passing drone, flying up into the air above the scorpion. But you can’t hold on to the slippery metal for long. You lose your grip and fall, landing on the scorpion’s back.

  You grasp on to the handles of a hatch as the robot scorpion bucks like a wild bronco and runs out into the streets of the city.

  To simply hang on for dear life, go here.

  If you want to try to open the hatch, go here.

  You decide to trust your instincts. You hit the button for the ground floor just in time.

  ‘Noooooo!’ screeches Director Winters as the elevator slows and stops.

  The metallic scraping sounds grow louder.

  The doors begin to open.

  You and Winters are thrown to the floor as the elevator is rocked by an impact from below. The doors go crazy, opening and closing repeatedly.

  Before you can get to your feet, a robot tentacle smashes through the floor. The shiny metal appendage thrashes about the confined space.

  You claw your way past Winters and struggle to your feet, ready to jump through the door.

  ‘HELP!’ The director’s voice is high-pitched and filled with panic.

  You glance back to see the tentacle has wrapped itself around her leg and is trying to pull her through the hole in the floor.

  Should you help Winters or save yourself?

  To help Director Winters, go here.

  To jump through the doors, go here.

  You decide to trust the director. The elevator zooms up to the top floor of the Kettlewell Robotics Institute. The moment the doors open she’s off down the corridor. You follow.

  You come to a door with hazard tape and a RESTRICTED AREA sign. Beneath the tape is a name plaque: Director Winters. She unlocks the door and you go in.

  Your mouth gapes.

  It’s a spacious office. And in the centre of it is a gaping wound in the fabric of reality – a hole hanging in the air, filled with a swirling, smoky-grey mass of nothingness. Within the undulating depths, indistinct images rise like sea monsters in roiling waters, only to disappear before your eyes can focus on them.

  ‘It just appeared yesterday,’ Winters explains. ‘As far as we can tell, it’s a space-time wormhole into the future. We were planning to send properly equipped explorers through it, but now it’s a means of escape.’

  You’re not convinced.

  ‘You can stay here for all I care,’ she says. ‘But with fail-safe protocols switched off, the robots can now think for themselves. And that means just one thing – a robot revolution. I’m not sticking around for that.’

  There’s a crash from out in the corridor. You look to see a gigantic squid robot climbing up through the wreckage of the elevator.

  You turn around, but the director is gone. She must have stepped into the wormhole.

  You hear the squid getting closer. You have no choice. You jump into the wormhole.

  The churning greyness closes in around you, and then dissipates just as quickly.

  You are in a room with metal walls. And you are surrounded by robots.

  Perhaps it was a mistake to come here.

  To jump back through the wormhole, go here.

  To stay, go here.

  You grip on to those handles as hard as you can, screaming through gritted teeth. Out in the street, panicked people are running around all over the place. The robot scorpion crashes through buildings, smashes aside cars and zaps its laser stinger at the fleeing people. You are buffeted and battered and yet you manage to keep hold.

  The creature jumps onto the roof of a small building, and then up to a higher roof. It continues to climb until it reaches the top of the highest skyscraper. Your instinct is to close your eyes in terror, but you force yourself to keep them open. From your vantage point, you can see that robots of all shapes and sizes are overrunning the metropolis.

  You look up to see an approaching military helicopter. It lets loose its missiles. The scorpion retaliates with its laser. As the chopper is sliced in half by the robot’s deadly beam, the missiles explode on the skyscraper rooftop.

  You and the scorpion are thrown from the building in an explosion of debris. You lose your grip as you fall. You see the scorpion dashed to pieces on the ground seconds before you go …

  SPLAT!

  You can’t just stay on this robot scorpion … you need to at least try to stop it. As people scatter in panic, you slowly edge your fingers along the handle of the hatch. You find a latch and flick it just as the creature crashes through the side of a building. The hatch springs open and you only just manage to hold on.

  As the scorpion smashes aside a couple of cars, you reach in with one hand and grasp a handful of wires. You yank at them, but they hold fast. Throwing caution to the wind, you let go of the handle and plunge your other hand into the wiring as well.

  The scorpion leaps onto the roof of a building. The force of the jump works in your favour as the wiring comes loose in a burst of sparks.

  KABOOM!

  The creature’s innards explode from its metal body, circuitry and hydraulics spewing out from gaping wounds as it collapses.

  You are thrown clear, landing on the edge of the roof with a bone-rattling thud. It’s not a tall building … but it’s tall enough for you to see the devastation.

  Robots of all shapes and sizes are overrunning the metropolis, wreaking havoc. The central area seems mostly clear of people, but in the distance you can see the fleeing rabble.

  You stumble to your feet and approach the robotic scorpion corpse, its stinger still sizzling with power.

  Perhaps you could use the stinger against the other robots. To attempt this, go here.

  But it might be safer to simply hide until all this is over. Go here.

  As you race down the corridor, the earlier version of you runs off. The way is clear and you can continue with your mission.

  Go here.

  As you race down t
he corridor the earlier version of you stays right where they are, blocking your way to the elevator. Your overwhelming need to capture the director kicks in. You raise your robotic arm and fire a deadly blast of energy from the concealed weapon in order to remove the obstacle.

  WHAM!

  The past-you is thrown backwards into the elevator and slammed against the wall.

  You enter the elevator and look down at the earlier version of you slumped to the floor, dying.

  How is that even possible?

  Luckily for you, it’s not.

  With a flare of intense light, a figure materialises between present-you and past-you. It’s a silvery glowing policewoman. You can’t really make out her features; they seem blurred and indistinct. But the uniform is crisp and clear.

  ‘Code forty-two infringement,’ she announces, her voice cheery and bubbly. ‘Naughty, naughty!’

  You suddenly realise that you’re immobilised.

  ‘Oh, I’m terribly sorry about that,’ says the policewoman, ‘but neither of you can move. The flow of time has been temporarily suspended until this little transgression can be sorted out.’ She looks at past-you. ‘And you have been caught in the infinitesimal moment between life and death.’ She giggles. ‘Which is probably a good thing, ’cause otherwise you’d be toast.

  ‘Anyways,’ she continues, ‘you’re probably wondering who I am.’

  She suddenly snaps to attention and salutes, her voice becoming cold and official. ‘Special Officer Theta Sigma. Serial number 10-0-11-00. Instance 02. Temporal Policing Agency. Paradox Division.’

  She chuckles and relaxes. ‘But people usually call us the Paradox Police. We patrol the time lines and make sure that anyone who travels in time doesn’t … you know … stuff things up.’ She waggles her finger at you. ‘And the both of you have.’

  Then she puts her hands on her hips. ‘So what we have here is two of you. There’s current-you.’ She points at you. ‘And past-you.’ She points at the figure slumped on the floor. ‘The thing is, current-you can’t kill past-you. Because if current-you kills past-you, then current-you won’t exist, which means that you can’t kill past-you. Get it?’

  You’re not sure that you do.

  ‘The thing is, if current you kills past-you – which, by the way, is impossible – the impossibility of the action will result in a time paradox that will theoretically cause the entire universe to implode. And we can’t let that happen now, can we?’

  She waggles her finger again while she titters.

  ‘So, here’s what we’re going to do. Since this is your first offence, I’m going to let you off with a warning. We’ll just rewind everything a few minutes so that you can make a different decision, and we’ll all pretend that none of this ever happened. Sound cool?’

  Once more, she snaps to attention.

  ‘Initiate Temporal Reversion Protocol … now!’

  Everything explodes with light.

  And you are where you were before …

  Running down the corridor towards the elevator and past-you. But this time, past-you dashes off. You head for the elevator with an overwhelming need to capture the director.

  But the memory of your encounter with the Paradox Police makes you doubt your mission. Maybe messing about with time is not a good idea. Perhaps you should put a stop to this by destroying the wormhole?

  To resist your programming and destroy the wormhole, go here.

  To continue with your mission, go here.

  As a military helicopter flies overhead, you decide you must help.

  You salvage a sharp piece of metal casing from the scorpion’s body and use it to hack off the end of its tail. With a little bit of trial and error, you find that you can activate the laser in its stinger by touching two of the exposed wires together.

  You pick up the tail and position yourself at the edge of the roof, using a couple of passing drones for target practice. You discover that a quick touch of the wires gives you a short powerful burst, causing the target drone to rupture in a surge of flames. But by holding the wires together, you get a constant beam that can slice and dice a drone.

  A chunk of roofing to your left erupts in a blaze of heat. You turn to see the giant self-constructed robot lumbering down the street towards you, its arms flailing about, firing missiles and demolishing buildings. Around its feet is a troop of smaller robots. Mismatched and awkward, they look like they’ve been assembled in a hurry. They smash at the vehicles they pass.

  You twist the wires together and then with both hands manoeuvre the beam to cut through the metal of the giant’s arms. The limbs crush buildings as they fall to either side.

  The gargantuan robot continues its advance.

  You crisscross the beam over its body, slashing ugly gaping gashes into the metal.

  But still it advances.

  The massive lens on top of its torso shatters as the beam passes over it. Blindly, the robot staggers down the street … still unleashing destruction!

  You angle the beam down, aiming for its legs. The deadly ray carves up the road, causing the metal monster to stumble and crush a few of its minions. As it does so, you slash the beam across both its legs. They fall away and the creature topples forward …

  Right at you!

  You throw yourself to safety as the robot crashes onto the roof. You roll across the collapsing surface and jump onto a piece of robot casing. Laser still firing, you surf the rubble as the building crumbles, cleaving the smaller robots as you go.

  Landing on the street, you turn back to see the metal beast is still struggling. You disconnect the wires, silencing the laser. Then, taking aim, you fire a couple of concentrated bursts at the gaping wounds in its body.

  KABOOM!

  You are thrown to the ground as the robot explodes, showering debris all around.

  You think it might be over, but as you stumble to your feet you are confronted by the menacing form of the robot bunny. It stands as tall as a gorilla, its eyes blazing yellow. One of its ears is torn; the other is missing altogether. Its fake fur is ripped and peeling, revealing the metallic skeleton beneath. The bunny opens its mechanical jaws to show razor-sharp buckteeth …

  … then it pounces!

  And you fire the scorpion-tail laser stinger at its head.

  BLAM!

  The bunny’s computerised brain explodes in flames. Circuitry, shrapnel and tattered fabric fly through the air. The buckteeth embed themselves into the concrete ground on either side of you.

  The military finally arrive to mop up the rest of the robots. But you stand where you are, watching the bunny burn.

  You are proclaimed a hero – destroyer of rampaging robots and saviour of the city! (You conveniently fail to mention that you may have caused the revolution by letting that mini-bot out of the room in the first place.)

  You decide that hiding is the smarter option. You locate the stairs and go down into the building, all the way to the bottom and into the basement. You lock the door and turn to find yourself facing …

  An entire room full of cockroaches.

  One particularly large cockroach steps forward on its hind legs.

  ‘So, we are not the only ones to conceal ourselves here,’ it says in a French accent, ‘away from the robot revolution.’

  Your mouth gapes.

  ‘Cockroaches are survivors. And, yes, we can all talk,’ says the insect with a dismissive wave of one leg. ‘Get over it!’

  You get over it.

  ‘It is rather good of you to join us,’ continues the roach. ‘We were wondering what we would do about food while we were down here.’

  Suddenly the cockroaches swarm towards you, scuttling over you and pinning you down with the sheer weight of numbers.

  And then they start to nibble.

  So much for staying out of harm’s way.

  You turn around and head back to the office. Your mind is screaming at you to complete your mission and go in search of the director, but you resist. />
  You approach the wormhole and raise your robotic arm. You are about to activate your concealed energy weapon when …

  Past-you enters the office.

  The two of you stare at each other.

  You turn back to the wormhole and fire your weapon.

  But before the energy blast can discharge …

  There’s that flash of intense light again. You are frozen, held within a moment of time, and the Paradox Policewoman is standing before you waggling her finger.

  ‘Really?’ she says chidingly. ‘Twice in one day. Didn’t my little talk sink in? Stuffing up the time lines is a big no-no. You can’t do this.’

  You hate being told what you can and can’t do by this annoying time cop.

  ‘Obviously I can’t leave this up to you,’ she says, grasping your robot arm and lowering it so that your weapon is pointing down. ‘I’m just going to have to sort this one out myself.’ Her voice turns cold and officious. ‘Disable Time Lock.’

  Your weapon discharges into the floor. You can move again.

  Theta Sigma glares at the other you. ‘Okay, through the wormhole.’

  Past-you shakes their head and backs away.

  ‘Must I do everything?’ she snaps, her jovial tone disappearing. She grabs past-you and begins to shove them towards the wormhole.

  Here’s your chance. While she’s busy, you can still destroy the wormhole. After all, you’ve only got her word that it would cause the universe to implode.

  To get rid of the wormhole, go here.

  To play it safe and let Theta Sigma handle things, go here.

  You run into the elevator. The tracking device in your robotic implants tells you that the director is in the lower basement area. You stab the bottom button on the panel and the elevator descends into the bowels of the Earth below the Kettlewell Robotics Institute as tinny music fills the air.