MAI390 Log date 07.05.2056

I'm breathing hard, as though I have just run a long way, although now I'm walking aimlessly, unsure of where I am headed. To my right, there is a forest with a narrow path twisting mindlessly into the darkness. To my left is a human village with debris scattered along the path, the remnants of the once thriving city. My human body was a soldier during World War Three and helped clear up the nuclear waste. Their body was one of the first discovered after the epidemic of RSEM began. At least, that's what my notes tell me.

I feel the familiar whir and clunk of the most recent memories falling into place. I found a safe place to stop, then allowed my records to rewind and transport me back to the A.I.F.

Pause. Rewind. Play.

After I was given the mark on my wrist, I am handcuffed and forced into a cramped room with five or six others. I hear the grating sound of a locking door. My eyes click as they adjust to the sudden light change. Pitch black against pitch black. The only thing I can see is the bright white outline of lights from outside. In a hushed whisper, I ask the others why they are in here. A compulsive liar truth AI, a seeing AI with no eyes, a hearing AI with selective hearing and a cruel empathy AI. It might have been funny had I not been in the same situation. We are all going to be wiped, maybe even scrapped and then reprogrammed, remade and improved. This society has no room for mistakes.

After days of silence and uneasiness, the door opens again and we are dragged out into the computer room. It's a cool room, one that might make an ordinary person feel cold, but there are no ordinary people here, not even Samuel Clarke. There are wires everywhere and I finally see the AIs I am with. A young woman, perhaps 23, of British descent. Her hair neatly combed back into a ponytail. She wears the uniform of a truth AI, white with a blue strip on the right sleeve. Another woman, late 40s I'm guessing, greying hair with tight lips. Her uniform is white, this time with a green strip on the right sleeve. An empathy AI. There are three men, one Chinese, one Irish and the other is African-American. They have no uniform, still wearing clothes similar to mine. The women must have been further along in the testing as you receive a uniform after the third test has been passed. We are forced to watch as the first AI is dragged forward and connected to the over-ride computers. The pain on the first woman's face is heartbreaking. She shakes for a minute then falls limp against the chair. Her eyes spin around in their sockets, flickering between black and red.

Just as I am about to be forced into the chair to be scrapped a young boy runs into the room shouting "Mr Clarke, you have an urgent message from Professor Elliot Blythe. He wishes to see you immediately."

Samuel gives out a sigh then walks away from us. Surprisingly the guards also leave us alone in the room. I expect to hear the lock sliding across, but the sound never comes.

I wait a while before looking around to see if there are any security cameras or people outside. Nothing. No one. I can escape. I glance at the others to see if they have had the same idea. They haven't. They have simply accepted their fate, waiting without emotion for their death.

I refuse to accept it and I test the door, half expecting sirens and guards to come rushing in. But there's nothing. Not even the AIs look around. Everything has shut down, an eerie twilight has set on the factory, even though my computer tells me it is 2:17 in the afternoon. There are no guards anywhere and no alarms that my computer can detect.

Hesitantly, I step closer to the main door still half waiting to be caught. But I never am. I reach the door and push it open. I'm free.

Suddenly an alarm starts blaring. Instincts kick in and I run. I'm running and I don't know where is safe anymore.

Stop.

I jolt back to reality and feel someone coming up behind me.

"What are you doing out here, all alone?" a quiet voice asks.