Chip in my heart

The cramping in my fingers was beginning to become unbearable as I typed madly on the keyboard, trying to break through A firewall I designed to be unpenetrable. My objective to stop the AI we call Neta, short for New Evaluationalized tech Allie from setting off more nuclear bombs.

We created her to help us save the world from the damage we caused the planet, so for her to do that, she figured she must kill all living beings to protect the natural resources. A scenario we didn't consider.

The door swung open as my sister Karen came bursting in. “They're coming! We have to get in the shelter, Stacy.” she shouted. I could hear the buzzing sound of the drones flying in the distance. “I’m almost there, just one more ... I got it!” as the screen lit up and the new command codes uploaded. I quickly closed down my computer and took the mother chip out, and put it inside my heart-shaped locket with the pictures of my mom and sister inside; they didn’t survive the first wave of nuclear explosions Neta launched on us now it’s just Karen and me. The radioactive winds and drones keep us inside, stopping us from finding other survivors if there are any.

We lifted the hatch to the shelter and started climbing down the ladder to our bunker. “That was too close, Stacy,” her hands frantically moving as she signed out the words. “I'm sorry, Karen, I promise I won't let those drones get you,” my hands replied.

After the first nuclear strike, our dog Blaze got found by the drones. That's when Karen learned The drones are programmed to find any living being by detecting body heat, and when they see one, they hit them with a paralyzing flashbang and inject them with a nanochip; the nanochip intergrades with the wiring in your brain and overtakes it and turns them into AI.

I saw the prototype once in a lab at work where I was a program engineer at the most prominent weapons developer specializing in providing AI.

I tapped my sister on the shoulder, “I shut down the nukes, Karen, ” I said using my hands. “Can you shut Neta down too?” Karen signed back with tears in her eyes. I shook my head yes As I clutched my heart-shaped locket.

I covered my sister with a blanket and snuggled in for the night, and shut off the light.

“Pssst, Stacy, the coast is clear; we don’t have much time,” Karen said over her shoulder as she was climbing out the hatch. “I’m coming. I’m just grabbing my computer” Today, I hack into Neta’s mainframe and try to upload my virus.

I quickly took the chip out of my heart-shaped locket and slid it into the computer, and got to work. I helped create Neta, so I know there's a way to shut her down. Using a program I have been working on, it's keeping me hidden as long as the algorithm doesn't seem off it will work, hard to go unnoticed from a machine that learns just as fast as I type, if she knows what im doing, she will know precisely where we are.

A few hours later, my sister brought me smoothly to drink “Thanks, sis,” I said as I continued to type, “No problem,” Karen said with a mouth full of the dehydrated Mac n cheese. “I think I almost got it, Karen,” I said with my eyes glued to the screen. “I hope so; it would be nice to go check for other survivors,” Karen said with hope in her voice. Just then, A faint buzzing sound came echoing down the halls. “The drones,” Karen gasped as I typed frantically, still looking for a back door to upload my virus infecting Neta, disabling her and making my chip the only copy of the Netas program.

The buzzing was getting louder. Karen started panicking as I clicked away on the keyboard. “Hurry, Stacy, please,” Karen pleaded. “Just a couple more seconds. I’m almost in,” I reassured her. The buzzing sound was right outside our door when I yelled out, “I’m in. I got it!” as my screen flooded with code then rebooted the system.

Everything went silent; the only sound was the crash as the drone hit the ground. I looked over at Karen “what's happening?” She asked, “A new beginning Karen,” I replied as I opened my heart-shaped locket and kissed the pictures inside and put the chip in and closed it.

The next day we put on our hazmat suits to search for more people to help us create a future out of the darkness. A world without Neta.