Downfail_A Dystopian Robot Rebellion Adventure by George Donnelly

Author:George Donnelly [Donnelly, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-941939-05-5
Publisher: Cheverer
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

7

Jack scanned the morning’s headlines on his screen. He sighed. There was nothing new about it. He rolled up the screen and stuffed it into his special cargo pocket. He walked into the kitchen. “Maria, I need a drink,” he said.

“If you are referring to an alcoholic or vitalic drink, then your father has asked me not to give you any until you are at least sixteen,” said Ian’s final Maria. The last of its kind, it traversed the kitchen with grace, opened the refrigerator and retrieved a pod of milk. She popped off the plastic cap, which was connected to the body of the rounded pod by a thin tether, and poured some into the tall, thin, tubular glass that already sat on the counter.

“But that glass isn’t clean,” Jack said.

“I pulled it out especially for you, Master Jack, as you ask for a glass of milk around 11 AM every morning.” Maria replaced the pod of milk in the refrigerator.

“Oh, okay.” Jack grabbed the glass and downed it. He put the empty glass in the sink. “Thanks Maria,” he said. He went into the living room and laid down on the couch. He sighed.

There was a knock at the door. Jack ran and opened it.

“Can you help me with this old junk?” Ian asked. His hands were full with Maria parts, desk components and other stuff from the storage box.

The boy grabbed a plastic box of Maria parts. “Where should I put it?”

“Michael’s old room,” Ian said. “That’ll be our office now,” he said with a wink and a smile. Ian was clean-shaven, his hair neatly cut, his skin clean, his nails trimmed and a healthy glow was returning to his face.

“Did you see the Guardian article? They said there are more than a billion Marias now!” Jack put his box down and pulled out his screen. He brought the article up. “Look, Dad, here’s one in the Congo Republic that’s carrying water!”

Ian set his boxes down in Michael’s old room and came back. He nodded approvingly.

“How did Divergent distribute them so quickly?” Jack asked.

“Apparently,” Ian said, “they had an autofac all set and ready to go, to produce domestic robots. They predicted it was coming, they just didn’t have a design yet. We came along at just the right time.”

“Wow,” Jack said under his breath.

“And you contributed to that Jack. You helped at more than one critical juncture and made important contributions. Those Marias out there all carry a part of you, too.”

“No, Dad, this was all you. No,” Jack said.

Ian laughed and tousled his hair. “You know it’s true.”

A key zipped into the front door lock from the outside and Larry burst in. “This is my house, mine now, my family and I got them fair and square!” he said with a slur. He burped and went into the bathroom. The sound of a generous and fast-moving stream of urine hitting toilet water reached Jack’s and Ian’s ears.

Jack looked at his father. “Are you going to beat him up?”

Ian laughed.

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