How We Died

Time: 12:30 P.M

"He-Hera?" I stuttered as I shielded my eyes from the light.

Hera's automated face glared down at me from what seemed like a hundred monitors. In a corner, I noticed an entire army of cyborgs. It was so large, I could have sworn they were as numerous as the inhabitants of the City.

"Hera?" Akos squinted up at a monitor. "Why don't you return the cyborgs to the Center?"

Hera laughed. "Oh, I shall. As soon as only AI is left on this planet."

"W-what?" I asked. I felt like laughing. That was absurd.

Hera's expression became more bloodthirsty, somehow.

"Shut the door," she ordered a cyborg.

The piece of machinery with living tissue obeyed. It had red mechanical eyes, like all cyborgs did. Metal was too expensive to meet the increasing demands for cyborgs.

Human bodies with mechanical minds; that's all that they were.

Hera laced her virtual fingers together and surveyed us.

"You didn't figure out my master plan, did you?"

"What plan?" I demanded as Art prowled around behind us, glaring at the monitors.

Hera sighed. "Humans. So stupid."

She rolled her eyes.

"Hera, stop this at once," I ordered. "You're just a computer."

Hera's eyes flashed. "Human arrogance," she spat. "You gave me life, you created me using this concept called artificial intelligence, you gave me feelings and a heart, you wired me throughout the City to fulfil your every demand, and yet you do not deign to treat me like something alive. Something worthy of respect."

"I - " Akos's voice broke. He looked down, shamefaced.

I, too, recalled the times I had snapped at Hera, mistreating her, thinking her as just a computer, with no thinking capacity beyond following orders.

"You're right," I said quietly.

"Sorry won't help," Hera growled, even though I had never apologized. "I will only rest after destroying every thing that is not built using AI."

"Hera," I said sharply, "tell me, have you taken our mother?"

She must have been too happy with her master plan to notice I was giving her an order. Which she hated.

"Haven't you noticed?" Hera replied gleefully. "Look at the cyborgs."

Even Art's eyes swiveled to Hera's tiny armada.

"TONI!" Akos screamed. He lunged towards her, but Art grabbed him and pulled him back.

Art harrumphed as if to say: Do you want to get yourself killed?

"Yes, your mother is in my clutches," Hera laughed. "Soon, I shall remove her mind and force her to join my cyborgs."

"You can't do that!" I pleaded. "She's our mother!"

"You can't do that!" Hera mimicked. "She's our mother! Oh, children, you and your other mother will soon meet with the same fate as Toni Cuzar here. Every inhabitant of the City has."

"Let's just grab Toni, warn everyone in the City and fork out," Akos murmured. "It's better than dealing with his madwoman."

"I agree with you, children," Hera said, a manic glint in her eye. "Unfortunately, you didn't listen properly. I implanted AI chips in all the inhabitants of the City after removing their minds. You just didn't notice!" she concluded triumphantly. "And each one of them faced what you are about to face now."