Artificial(ish) Intelligence

Chapter 57

The windshield wipers only partially cleared the red carnations, much of it stuck in otherwise difficult to access crannies. A piece of fibreglass seemed to waver in the air ahead, beckoning her to approach, like a Siren on the shore. It slammed against the road with enough force to make Adelaide sit back. Her car calmly swerved out the way in plenty of time, rendering the risk insubstantial. That's the problem with automated vehicles: their fast response times diminish the opportunity for action, and since they can sense obstacles from much father away, I'm stuck writing a boring chase scene.

The selfiebot was still pulling away according to the locator, so Will Lurner's car had thankfully avoided the effects of the blast. If it hadn't, she'd be futilely picking through the remnants of a formerly useful bot. But it did, and now her car was keeping up as they moved into an industrial part of town.

A large semi-trailer began backing out onto the road. This is the part of the story where the person chasing would normally get blocked, but again the autonomous vehicle slipped down a smaller lane and then rendezvoused with its target.

Invoke-evil-upon, foiled again!

It got worse. Adelaide's car then successfully navigated a large glass pane walked across the road by two men in overalls, a fruit stand conspicuously placed along the wide footpath, and even a little old lady who dropped her walking stick. That last obstacle was overcome by speeding through at an accelerated rate -- she only created a minor bump.

I'm kidding, I'm kidding. It was actually a fairly sizeable bump. Have you seen little old ladies these days?

Adelaide smiled, though not at my joke. There weren't nearly as many potential witnesses milling about. And with the explosion, all their attention would be some place else. The smugness drifted from her like steam.

According to the locator, Will seemed to be slowing. Adelaide's car turned the final corner and quickly came to a stop. Her face screwed up in a way that made me hope the wind didn't change.

"..." she said, still unable to believe what had happened.

The sounds you would expect made their way into her cabin. Without a person in sight, they were moving slowly, very slowly, and very much in her way. Even the automated vehicle was helpless as they swarmed in behind, cutting off all avenues of escape.

Baaa said one of the sheep. Oh, who am I kidding, they all said that. The mob numbered in the hundreds, and had fully surrounded Adelaide's car.

Mhuhahahaha. My own evil-laugh time. Not so smug now, are you?

You see, Adelaide forgot one thing: there's always another trope.

No, no, wait, hang on, hang on, that isn't good enough to end the chapter on. Let me try a different line. How about...

You see, Adelaide forgot the golden rule of story-telling: there are no rules, I just make it all up as we go along.

Yeah, I like that one better.