contAIned

Chapter Five

Lexi's POV

Aidan and Melody led us to the far corner of the car park, where it was least visible for any robots that had already misinterpreted the command. India and I remained shoulder to shoulder, slightly shaking in fear as we tried to remain strong in an impossible situation.

"How the fuck do we fix this?" India's way of getting through pretty much anything was by swearing her emotions into submission. She wasn't the most emotional person I knew, but she was courageous and did like to help out those less fortunate than her. That's actually how she'd met Josie - they both volunteered as elves for Santa who showed up at the local children's hospital for those who were too sick to make it home for Christmas. It was so heart-warming, and the two of them hit it off pretty quickly.

"We don't." Melody replied flatly. It was weird to think her tone could be linked with human feelings, yet there was obviously still a limit to what she could and couldn't portray. We all looked over to her with our brows knitted together.

"Excuse me?" I said, knowing India was thinking it but wouldn't want to look bad in front of Melody. She shot me a thankful smile.

"The hackers reprogrammed the robots, there's literally nothing we can do unless we can suddenly hack through Bradley's five layer security system and shut them all down." Melody's mouth flattened into an expression of obvious sarcasm, knowing myself and India could barely run for three seconds or keep our cool enough to make it through what had happened already. There was no way in heaven or hell we could hack, nor handle the pressure of hacking a system that would be trying to fight you out of it.

"And you guys can't?" India looked over at Aidan - the more expensive and more in-depth model of the two. "You're like, you know, the best of the best?" Aidan shook his head, running a hand through the longer hair at the top of his head. The sides were shaved and he was cleanshaven, something which really suited him and his face shape.

"Unfortunately not. At best, we'd be able to shut down the bots but we would need Bradley's authorisation. He's coded us all with a self-destruct program, but he needs to activate it vocally and through the main computer in his office." India's face fell as she looked at the two AIs in front of us.

"Doesn't that mean you'd be shut down too?" Aidan shrugged. I bit my lips together, waiting for the bad news you could tell he was about to deliver.

"Possibly. We have two self destruct codes; one for all robots he's ever created and one that is solely for our model. He did this in case one model of humanoid were faulty, he'd be able to shut them down without shutting all of us down." Aidan looked over to Melody who smiled sadly too. "It'd depend what he activated."

"But now knowing his robots can be hacked, he'd probably think it was safer to remove us all and start again." A scary silence breezed through the four of us as we took a moment to really compute what was going on. We were at the beginning of the end of the world. Whichever of the few ideas we had come up with we thought about, somehow it ended badly. It ended badly for humans, for humanoids, for Bradley... It was never going to be an easy fix.

"Detecting human DNA. Scanning area for Bradley Prince." A robotic voice sounded from the entrance of the car park. Both India and I sucked in a sharp breath and stepped back, our backs touching the cold brick wall as we watched the shadowed robot make its way into the carpark as its head looked from one side to the other trying to fulfil his command. The robot stepped closer and closer, every step echoing the cold walls and tugging at our guts. Scanning the area, there was no quick exit; no staircase beside us, no car to hide behind, no further opening for cars that we could leg it for. Not that we could outrun a robot. We knew that already, from seeing how nimble Aidan and Melody were when we were getting out of the town hall. We were absolutely screwed. We barely breathed, wanting to avoid making any noise whatsoever as the shadow of this robot got closer and closer, soon knowing he'd see India and I and strike. How I wished we could just melt into the wall, just keep stepping back until it had absorbed us and we appeared on whatever was the other side of this place. How I wished I could teleport, or shrink into some goo that could wiggle through a crack, or become a bird or a mouse and get the hell out of there... But no, I was me and I was stuck here.

"Stay here and stay quiet." Aidan looked over at us, his eyes unreadable as he ordered us to hide away as he stepped out into the open and into the vision of this red-eyed robot.

"Aidan reporting. What's your classification?" The robot continued, barely even registering Aidan's existence in front of him.

"Scanning for Bradley Prince." He repeated, the new command obviously being the only thing he maintained. Gone were all the memories, actions, algorithms Bradley must have put in place. He was a shell of the robot he once was.

"Please forgive me." Aidan said, taking a few steps to the side and pulling a large metal pole from the floor, nearby some work that was being done on the car park. Aidan looked back at me and our eyes locked, his seeming to scan mine for fear and worry, knowing that his actions could be counted as life saving, just like he was programmed. He swung the metal pole into the head of the robot, his head crunching like a beer can beneath a car tyre. The robot fell to the floor with a thud, but Aidan didn't stop there, he stabbed the robot through the chest, sparks flying as the red in the robots eyes died quickly.

"Oh God." India covered her mouth as she retched, stepping away from us as she heaved.

"The robot's main battery pack is designed to resemble a human heart, in the same shape and place. This is the only way you'll keep the robots down." Melody tried to soothe India with facts, putting a hand on her arm. For the first time, India pulled away and headed over to me.

"This is fucked." She said, once again swearing to compensate for the confusion of her feelings. "You're telling me we're going to be sniffed out by these robots because we're human and then we've got to stab them in the heart? Do I look like a killer?"

"If your words and looks could kill, then yes. But right now, It's kill or be killed, so you decide." Aidan was harsh but true, his eyes narrowed at India for a second before his gaze moved to me and his eyes softened. I offered him a small smile, which he seemed to retaliate. Were these two robots bound to us without the contract signing they're supposed to have?