Creepy Short Stories

Artificial

Artificial

I didn't stop running. I suppose I could have, if I wanted to, but the thought of what would happen to me if I stood still for any more than a second frightened me to death. My breaths grew louder and louder as I ran down the dull gray hallway which I had casually walked through so many times before. My head spun as I turned the corner and collided with Dr. Jane Prescott, my co-worker.

"Jennifer!" Dr. Prescott exclaimed as the stack of papers she had been carrying dumped out of her hands and spilled all over the hallway floor. She adjusted the thick black glasses which had been knocked loose from in the impact and asked, "Jennifer, what's wrong?"

"I'm so...so sorry," I panted heavily as Dr. Prescott held me by both of my shoulders.

I knelt down to help Dr. Prescott pick up her papers, but she tightened her grip on my arms and lifted me back up. "Don't worry about the papers, dear," she said with her soothing southern accent. "That's all just some dumb Pioneer mumbo jumbo. What I want to know is why you're running through the labs with such energy."

I opened my mouth to answer her before I realized that I had absolutely no clue why I was running. The last thing I remembered, I was sitting in the break lounge, drinking a cup of iced tea and watching the news on the tiny television that Pioneer Electronics provided its employees with. The next thing I knew, I had a strong sense of déjà vu coupled with the horrible feeling that my life was about to end very suddenly. For whatever reason, running seemed to help.

"I guess I was just having a panic attack," I answered, putting on a fake smile.

"How long has it been since you've had a panic attack?" Dr. Prescott asked with concern in her voice.

"Not since my sophomore year of High School," I told her.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"Oh, yeah," I assured her. "I...I think I'll be fine now. I just...you know. I'm okay."

"Well, that's good. Just remember dear, if you feel sick at all, just let me know and you'll be on your way home. I'll call a taxi and everything."

"Jane, I'm fine," I repeated, realizing too late that the only times I called Dr. Prescott "Jane" were when I was nervous. I hoped that she hadn't picked up on that painfully obvious tell of mine.

"Well, if you're sure that you'll be able to keep going today, then I have some good news for you. Cliff just sent me a message, and the power issue is fixed. Steven is ready to go online!"

"Oh...oh yeah!" I shook my head and remembered what I had been working on before I went to the break room. I had spent the last two years developing an advanced Artificial Intelligence unit with Dr. Prescott, the woman who had been my boss up until the point when she promoted me to co-manager, and Ian Bell, my intern. We had codenamed the project "Steven".

The purpose of Steven was to create an Artificial Intelligence, or AI, which acted, talked, and even thought just like a human. We didn't want him to be perfect, which is what most AI are. Especially those AI made at Pioneer Electronics. We wanted Steven to make mistakes, lie, and cheat for the purpose of self-preservation just like any human would. It was a huge project, which became apparent when we discovered that the computer which we were trying to run Steven on couldn't handle his program. One trip down to Clifford Hanks to ask him to work his maintenance magic, and the problem was fixed within an hour.
Wow, an hour? I thought, checking my watch. Is that really all it's been? It feels like I went down to him yesterday.

"Well? Are you going to go, or what, dear?" Dr. Prescott interrogated me.

"Yeah...yeah, of course!" I grinned, turning my attention back to the situation at hand. "Why don't you go and find Ian and you two can sit in the observation room while I boot up Steven?"