Hell on Wheels 5: Hell to Pay

“The development of full Artificial Intelligence could spell the end of the human race.” Stephen Hawking

Hell on Wheels 5: Hell to Pay

 

From opposite directions, our road-weary, embattled groups closed in on the Argonne National Lab that our heroes have separately theorized as the self-driving Autonomous Operated Vehicles’ Promised Land. The two groups of reluctant champions motored toward each other, but they also headed toward an uncertain future with Artificial Intelligence-controlled vehicles on the verge of taking over the world.

Three troubling thoughts harbored on their minds as the two groups traveled.  The first was the distressing fact that no word had gotten out as to the status of the lab; secondly and weighing heavily on their spirits was the undeniable fact that the AOVs seemed to be acquiring more and more computing power as time went on, hence, achieving higher intelligence. Thirdly, the major factor disrupting their earlier plans and causing stressful inward contemplation was that the internet and phone service had just switched back on. Normally this restoration would be great news in our digitally-connected society, but now our two groups had no clue to how this service would affect the sentient AOVs.  They horrifyingly realized it meant nothing but an advantageous communication conduit for the AOVs and a disadvantageous impediment for the entire human race fighting the AOVs...

***

During the gloomy dark of night while motoring east along Interstate 80, the Browns and Doctor Joyce Taylor-Smith with her kids fitfully dozed. They stirred often agonizing over the imaginable implications caused by the reactivation of the internet.  Maintaining his role as brave driver and resident chief decider, Ted strained his eyes to spot AOVs running the highway without lights. This element made Ted’s driving task more difficult and nerve-wracking while he shouldered the memories of the traumatic circumstances he had already dealt with. Ted rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and shook his head to shake out the sleep that wanted to take hold of him.

 At about eleven PM, Ted nodded off and the battered SUV’s wheels dropped off the shoulder with a sudden jarring cacophony of gravel against the fenders. The SUV bounced about shaking everyone awake. Ted jerked awake recovering from his slip but acting as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. He glanced about at the awakened faces turned his way. Marcia studied him with sympathized concern.

“Ted,” Marcia whispered, laying a hand on his arm. “You need to take a break; you’ve been through so much with no rest.”

“Damn, Marcia. We can’t stop now, I can hold out. We have to get Joyce to that lab,” he firmly said, reinforcing his statement with his fist pounding the steering wheel.

“Yes, sure we do, but how about letting me drive for a spell?” She suggested gently. “I slept for a couple hours and can handle this driving. It has been pretty quiet tonight.”

“Well, yeah,” Ted said. “But you never know about these self-drivers with minds of their own. Especially now with ‘em probably in the net. Joyce isn’t sure how that will affect ‘em or what in this Sam’s heaven-strange world may happen next.”  In the rearview, Ted noticed Joyce sitting stiff and still and tight-lipped quiet.   

“C’mon, take the break,” Marcia coaxed.

Ted agreed with a nod and without stopping, they switched positions. He watched Marcia’s driving for about a minute and a half before he fell into a deep sleep.

With white-knuckled death grips on the steering wheel, Marcia continued the trek driving the battered SUV through dark and corn-infested Iowa while scanning for the unpredictable sentient AOVs that unremittingly streamed toward the Illinois National Laboratory. With every AOV that Marcia anxiously passed, she provided a wide berth tentatively expecting another wanton and unrelenting vehicular attack. While In the back seat, Joyce glanced at her phone with a deepening distraught expression.

***

                Meanwhile, heading west on Illinois Interstate 55 and leaving the apparent lifeless body of Stevie Sturdy hanging from the high-tension wires in the Cloudhopper Mandrone, the eight colleagues motored on in the crowded RV. No one said aloud what they felt for leaving Stevie there such as Joe’s guilt, Sal’s ire, Don’s sadness, Bill’s fury, Katie’s remorse, and the others’ emotions ranging from misplaced overwhelming anguish to a casual indifference for their lost young callous colleague.

                After several minutes passed without a word among them, Joe pulled out his phone and looked at it. Despite the darkness in the RV, Don saw Joe’s longing look to make a call.

                “Even though it’s chancy,” Don said, sounding rather loud in the silent RV. “We could make a short burst of calls to our loved ones�"you know, check on them and let them know we’re okay.”

                “But we have already seen what happens when the AOVs sense a non-AOV signal,” reminded Katie. “We’d be putting out a signal to them, come and get us, we’re human.”

                “Not to mention that they run without lights,” added Bill. “You can only see their dash lights or a chance reflection which makes it damn difficult to see them until it’s too late.”

                “I say we chance it,” Joe said. “We slow down to match their speed, and we all make short calls at the same time for maybe thirty seconds. What do you all think?”

                Everyone murmured a consensus for the essential communication. Don said he’d drop the RV back to around forty miles per hour, the speed the AOVs seemed to favor so there’d be less chance of coming up on one.

                “All right then, get your phones ready,” Joe said, he posed a nonverbal question to Don who nodded a go-ahead in return.  “Remember, as short as possible. Let’s go!”

                Eight phones flashed on within the RV giving its’ interior an eerie blue glow. Expectant, concerned faces stared into the phones including Don at the wheel. Low voices commenced one by one.  Joe held his breath as it rang Joyce’s number, but there was no answer, no voice mail. The connection broke. He tried again. Nothing. He tried once more, his heart rate increasing with his apprehension. It connected but broke off. As fast as he could, he tried over and over until Joyce answered. The connection broke again. He took a deep breath and stabbed again. It rang; she answered.

                “Joyce! Are you okay?” He exclaimed frantically, but he toned it down remembering the others were on phones as well. She sounded�"preoccupied�"worried. He heard an interruption in the connection.  “Hello? Joyce?” She came back. “Are you and the kids okay?” Breathlessly she answered with an affirmative and asked about him, but she was interrupted. “Joyce?” He could tell something deeply bothered her. “Joyce?” There was another break before she came back on. “Good. I’m with others on the road. Sorry, got to keep it short. We are heading to Argonne. You?” Joyce distractedly told him they were as well. “If you get near a CB, we monitor channel twenty-one.” Again, Joyce sounded eager to tell Joe that they had a CB, but what she said came across garbled and broken. In the background, Mary screamed in delight to hear her daddy but the connection was intermittent. “Mary!” Joe cried wishing they could hear him better. “Good to hear your voices, Joy! Mary! We’ll talk on the radio to coordinate and share notes. Love you three, bye.”

Joe stabbed the button, but the connection had already broken. He stared at his phone with a gut-rending angst, but when a wave of intuition passed through his psyche, he quickly punched in a saved number and typed a short text. He said a short prayer and pushed SEND. He put his phone away with a renewed sense of hope.

***

As they continued to motor eastward, Marcia noticed Joyce grab her phone and study it with a look of shock. Joyce put her phone down, but then picked it right up again. Marcia glanced back again to see the fear on Joyce’s face. While concentrating on her driving, Marcia heard snippets of Joyce speaking on her phone..

“Joe.” Joyce said. “Ah, yes, ah,” she paused. “Yes. Yes! We’re okay,” she answered rapid fire like she competed with other callers. “Joe. Yes, the lab! We’re heading there.” Joyce paused. “Yes, yes we have a CB.” Mary screamed out in delight finding that her father was on the phone.  After no other words for a couple moments, Marcia saw Joyce let her phone drop.

“Everything alright?” Marcia quietly asked.

“Mmm, mmm, I guess Joe is with a group heading to the lab as well,” Joyce said, peeking at her phone. She quickly turned it away. “And oh, they have a CB�"they’re monitoring channel 21.”

“Oh that’s great, good to know he’s okay,” Marcia whispered to Joyce in the rearview. “So we can contact him later?”

“Mmm, Mmm, yes, when we get closer,” Joyce answered back, but she mouthed silently, “if we make it that far.”

“What’s that? I didn’t hear you,” Marcia asked.

“I don’t have good news for us going forward,” Joyce quietly said. “The AI has picked up my name from my lab work because of the internet coming back�"” She looked at Marcia in the mirror with a profound fear Marcia hadn’t seen on the other woman’s face before. “The AI contacted me wanting my access codes and passwords to the master AI programs. Considering their capabilities, I’m not sure if we’ll ever make it to the lab now and besides, they can surely break the codes give them enough time. Who really knows what they’re capable of? I honestly don’t know how far they might advance anymore, but my intuition terrifies me.”

“Oh, mommy, you’re so scared. I’m really scared now,” Mary said. “What can those cars do to us if they stop us? What can we do, mommy?”

Joyce comforted and reassured Mary as well as she could with her mind in a twisting turmoil.

***

Further east in Illinois rolling along in the RV, a couple people still talked on their phones. Joe met their eyes and intently tapped his wrist. Shaking her head Steph acted dispirited apparently unable to contact her partner while conversely Bill acted ecstatic to have reached his boyfriend. The others had turned their phones off, but Dennis, who had been extremely quiet on the road trip, acted guarded. Don stepped up their speed.  In a minute or so, they saw the reflections on the rear of several AOVs which posed no latent danger to them. Don went into the left hand lane and passed the last AOV in the line. Taking them all by surprise, the AOV abruptly slammed into the side of the RV. A couple people in the group let out shrieks.

“What the heck?” Don said, fighting with the wheel. 

The RV rocked like a barge in an ocean storm swell, and its tires squalled in protest. Don hit the brakes causing Mike and Joe to fall forward on their faces, but the AOV stayed right with them lining up for another attempt at crashing into them.  After being tossed about, the unbelted passengers resorted to sitting on the floor and hanging on as the aggressive AOV rammed the RV again and again. Don frantically wrestled with the wheel trying to keep the top heavy RV upright while attempting to mitigate the blows the AOV administered with computerized precision. Don alternately hit the brakes and accelerated, but the RV’s sluggish maneuvers were easily met by the driverless SUV, in this case a bulky, tank-like GMC.  Joe sat on the floor in front between the belted-in Don and Katie and hung on.

 “Why the hell is this one coming after us?” Don shouted, swerving to the left and almost going off the shoulder. At that moment, the SUV took the swerve as an opportunity to strike at a weakened opponent and knock them off the highway. Making hard, solid contact, the RV’s metal siding loudly boomed and then screeched as metal rent against metal. “I don’t know how much more she can take before breaking up!” Don shouted, swerving back on the highway against the nearly immovable SUV. Slowly, with a steady applied pressure and loads of deafening, bone-rattling crunching and smashing, the bulk of the RV won some ground against the SUV by pushing it aside causing its tires to squall and smoke as the AI fought to remain in control of the diagonally sliding vehicle.   

***

Back with the Browns as they motored into Illinois and shortly after Joyce’s disturbing disclosure, Marcia’s already troubled yet determined countenance dropped into a deeper state of alarm. Just seconds after passing under a street lamp, she saw a menacing mob of AOVs bearing down on them in a hurry.  Marcia swallowed hard and her hands began to tremble on the steering wheel.

 “Ted,” Marcia said, elbowing the snoozing Ted. “TED! WAKE UP!”

“Wha?” Ted mumbled, rubbing his eyes. He jumped. “AH! I just dreamt about robots that�"”

Marcia swiveled in her seat to look dead on at her husband with a finger pointing over her shoulder. “Listen to me; look behind us, NOW!” Marcia exclaimed. 

Ted sleepily glanced back. “What? I don’t see nuthin’ just the dark road.”

“Ted! There’s a large group of cars gaining on us!”

“Jeez, Marcia. You must’a seen a few cars while I napped�"it was alright, nothing happened huh?” Ted said. “You’re just overreacting. “

“NO, Ted! Look ahead and behind again,” Marcia said, as she began slowing them down.

Ted did a quick check of the situation. In front of them, the highway was blocked by cars and behind he could see a wall of cars catching up with them�"quickly.

“Shoot! Now what?” Ted growled, but then in a gentler voice. “C’mon hon, switch spots with me.”

Ted slipped beneath Marcia as she lifted herself over to the right. Ted strained his eyes to make out exactly what was happening on the road and rapidly determined it wasn’t good.

“Joyce!” Ted said over his shoulder. “Any idea why they might have decided to gang up on us now?”

“Yes, I do,” she answered timidly. “The AI knows I’m in this car, and they want me.”

***

In the battle between AOV and RV, the passengers are being thrown around as they wonder why it was happening.

“DAMN! Why is this one attacking us? Someone must have left their phone on!” Joe shouted, pulling his out. He held it up to the others behind him. “Check them, now!” Joe glanced from face to face. Everyone showed him their phones except Dennis.  “Dennis! Where’s your phone?” Dennis shrank and lifted his leg from the floor to reveal the glowing phone. “Phone off, now!” Joe shouted.

“But I expected�"” Dennis whimpered.

“If you want to live through�"” Joe’s admonishment was cut short when the AOV rammed them again with another metal-bending smash causing Dennis to roll against the opposite wall. Dennis scrambled and fumbled with his phone to comply. The AOV abruptly suspended its’ attack. Don slowed the RV to drop behind as the previously vicious AOV speeded up to join the others.

“Jeez, Dennis,” Don calmly said. “You know better than that.”

A few minutes passed before Don broke the pregnant silence. “Hey Joe, after that incident I want to stop one of those AOVs and tear it apart with my bare hands! When and how do you want to stop one of them, and what’s the plan once you got one?”

 Bill instantly got excited. “Now we’re talkin’ action! I’m pumped and ready to have a go at ‘em!”

“Well,” Joe thought, ignoring Bill’s enthusiastic stance. “Anyone have a laptop?” He looked around and everyone pulled a laptop out of their bags. He smirked. “Okay, we only need one. We need to consider the programs you have loaded, and I’m sure someone has patch cords�"right?” Most of them nodded. “Mmmm, here’s a weird sounding request. Anyone have a virus program? Not a downloaded virus infecting their system but a saved and cordoned virus program?” He looked around; no one spoke for a few moments.

Mike the Moleman looked up. “Yeah, I have a couple,” he mumbled.

“A couple, Mike? How’s that possible?”

“I must pose a good cover, then,” Mike meekly said. “My pastime is hacking and virus program trialing.”

“Really? I wouldn’t have ever guessed that of you, Michael,” Katie said. “Why do you do it? If you don’t mind.”

Mike shrugged. “A couple reasons I s’pose,” Mike said, with another shrug. “The excitement�"the drama�"juxtaposed with my boring job�"programming.” He looked down. “And the money.”

“Okay. So,” Joe said, considering what Mike had said. “Can you do it?”

“I’m not sure what you have in mind. Do you plan on infecting the AI programming?” Mike asked. He shook his head. “Well, that’s problematic. I don’t know what language they used in the AI systems, do you? Could be LISP or NPL or even. What I heard is somewhere between�"a hybrid of the two,” Mike paused to consider.

“You’re right,” Joe said. “I know very little about the programming side as well, but I heard from Joyce, I think, a mention of a Bio-NPL.”

“So why don’t we just see what we have to do to knock ‘em out,” Bill suggested. “Why would we need to program them? Ah, ha; I see�"know what makes ‘em think�"then reprogram ‘em, huh?”

“It was a thought,” Joe said. “Mike?”

“No can do.” He shook his head in apparent defeat. “I don’t know the AI languages well enough to reprogram them at a basic predeterminate level and my viruses won’t interface with the AI source sequencer program. But let me think on it.” The task had set Mike’s hacker wheels in motion and scrunching up in the RV’s back corner he pondered the problem in silence.

“How about just trying to download them?” Don asked.  “If we captured the source program, we could manipulate it for our use and maybe control it�"later on.”

“Now that’s very doable,” Mike said nodding.  “My only concern is whether or not they’re connected to the internet. If so, this all could be for nada but on the other hand�"” He let it drop.

“Still worth a try, I guess,” Joe added. “I’m like Bill here�"antsy to get something done against them even though the task when considering the multitude of AOVs out there feels�"Herculean.”

“But�"” Mike said. “I just thought about this. What alternately might be a good thing is that they may have become one mind connected�" perhaps it has happened already.” He paused with introspection. “That could work in our favor�"take out one with a worm and wha-la, they’re all taken out!”  A couple people cheered feebly.

“Yeah, that would be a good thing,” Joe agreed though he remained unconvinced that it could possibly be that easy and end that way, but he wanted to remain upbeat for the others. “Well then, we can at least be hopeful that that is indeed the case.”
                After a few minutes, Don announced to the passengers, “We just passed a sign for an interchange up ahead in three miles. It might be an ideal spot to make our play on an AOV.”

“There still seems to be cars entering the interstate from the secondary roads,” Joe said. “Then if you’re thinking like I am, we can nab one of them coming down the on ramp.  It’s a good controlled situation; they have to slow down and the ramps are one wide lane with guard rails on both sides.”

“Sounds good! I’m gittin’ pumped!” Bill said, flexing his muscles.

“Good to hear it, Bill,” Joe said straight-faced but raised his eyes to Don. “If anyone has any other ideas you’d better air them now.” He gazed across the silent, emotionless faces. “Mike?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

***

Everyone in the Browns’ car was stunned by Joyce’s revelation concerning her being contacted by the Artificial Intelligence-controlled cars and that they expected her to, in essence, surrender.

“WHAT!?” Everyone chorused.

At the same time with his driving hands full with the huge AOV dilemma spread out in front of and behind them, Ted slowed the car and wandered from lane to lane scanning about trying to determine a way out of their dire circumstances.

“How do you know this, Joyce?” Marcia asked. “And what could they possibly want from you?”

“By phone,” Joyce said. “They located me after the net and phone service came back. Actually, several contacted me, but they all want the same thing�"to unlock the master program at the lab.”

“They can�"talk�"on the phone?” Randy incredulously asked.

“No, by texts,” Joyce said. “There’s a couple of them in command�"alphas, I suppose. I knew this was a possibility�"I saw the signs earlier on. But, but I wasn’t truthful with you earlier.” She sniffed and wiped her nose. “I’m not just a psychologist on the AI project, I wrote the master AI blueprint program. I had major inputs on all aspects of AI development, and my fingerprints are ascribed all over these AOVs programs. I am sooo sorry for dragging you into this nightmare that I unwittingly engineered. I’m sorry for what I did at the lab without more careful considerations.” She paused to sniff. “I was so imprudent and over eagerly impetuous.”  She sobbed.  “It’s not that I didn’t think of this�"happening, but I did think about it and brushed it aside as not a concern�"deeming it an impossibility.” Her phone rang, but she didn’t look at it.

With a grim expression, Ted stopped the battered SUV in the middle of the double-lane highway because there was no moving traffic and nowhere for them to go. The engine idled roughly causing a fender to rattle and the exhaust emitted a cloud of steam. The cars in front of them weren’t moving and those behind slowed but still menacingly approached. They saw no gaps in the blockade that must have amounted to nearly a hundred AOVs.

***

Out in Illinois on interstate 55, the colleagues rode in the RV in silence. After the couple miles to the interchange, Don eased off onto the shoulder.  At the moment there wasn’t any traffic exiting down the ramp they had randomly selected. A streetlamp lit the curved ramp as they studied the situation.

“It might be best if we partially blocked the ramp and left enough room so the AOVs will attempt to go past the RV,” Joe said. “I’m sure if we blocked the whole lane they would try to batter their way through us, so if we give them a way through we can funnel them over Bill’s spike strip.”

“Yeah, I’ve been waitin’ for this sort’a fun!” Bill said enthusiastically. “It’ll be a joltin’ rush!”

Moving slowly in case of oncoming AOVs, Don turned up the ramp going against the “Do Not Enter” signs and parked mid-curve where the lane seemed narrowest without a viable escape.

 “All right, let’s go and do this!” Bill said. He was out the door pulling the spike strip off the front bumper in two shakes. Mike quietly sat booting up his computer and then coiled the patch cord and stowed it in his pocket.  Everyone else piled out as Bill positioned the spike strip in the chicane of the guardrail and the RV. He then planted himself with arms crossed facing in the direction the AOVs would arrive. For some time, the others milled about waiting for something to happen, but they didn’t see any AOVs headed their way for several minutes.

“You don’t consider for a moment that this is all for naught?” Katie asked.  “We have no idea if this will result in any realistic findings about these AIs, and if we do download an AI program, what do we do with it? What happens when we get to the lab? And then again, can we even get close to the lab? We have no idea to what’s going on there either!”

“You’re right, Katie, a slew of impenetrable questions without practical answers,” Joe said, with a shrug. “But what can we do? We have to try something, and I’m out of ideas. On the other hand, we could be on to something here and not know what until we try, I believe.” He looked at the ground and kicked at the gravel. “Indisputably, my wife would have a better handle on this than us.”

“HEADS UP! INCOMING!” Bill shouted from higher up on the ramp. “I hear at least one vehicle heading our way! ALL RIGHT!”

***

Sitting with the Brown family and Joyce’s, Ted sputtered out, “Damn! I can’t see a way out or around this bunch. The steep banks hem us in and they’re blocking any other possible escape route. Randy! Get on that CB and put out a mayday. Say where we are and that we are in desperate need of rescue�"pronto! Don’t say why we’re hemmed in, just that we are. DO IT!” He calmed a bit and added, “We can only hope someone close by can help us out this fix.”

Randy grabbed the mic and commenced transmitting a mayday on one station at a time briefly announcing their location and that they were trapped by hostile AOVs.

“Oh, Mommy, don’t cry. Those mean cars won’t get you,” Mary sobbed as Joyce held her. “Mister Brown will get us out of here, he’s saved us before!” Ted’s face fell hearing Mary’s plea.

“Daddy, oh, Daddy!” Kim cried. “Don’t let those nasty cars take Joyce away. Please don’t let them, Daddy!”

“Cripes, what a jam we’re in, we can’t move,” Ted said, turned to look over the seat at Joyce. “Anyway, how can they force you to do what they want or give them that information? They’re�"they’re cars for cripes sakes!”

“I don’t know except that they’re maneuverable, made of heavy metal, and are smart and interconnected now,” Joyce gravely said.

“What would they do with this information they want from you, Joyce?” Marcia asked. “What could they accomplish beyond what they’ve already done?”

“Remember the automated car factory. They’re after that,” Randy chimed in between transmissions.

Joyce shook her head sadly. “With full access to the master program, they can redefine themselves, improve their program and expand it to be smarter and to learn faster and easily encompass and overwhelm everything digital�" they’ll evolve beyond us humans quickly, very quickly�" at an unbelievably exponential rate. In a very short time the human race will reach our expiry.”

“Oh My God!” Marcia exclaimed covering her mouth. “That would mean�"”

“Total world domination by AI,” Joyce said. “Humankind won’t stand a chance against them without eliminating or disconnecting every single connected computer, phone, or device which is an utterly impossible undertaking.”

Joyce’s phone rang again, this time she answered it. She gasped.

“What is it Joyce? What did they say?”

“It’s from this group around us,” Joyce said, with a whimper. “They said simply: escape is impossible, resistance is futile.”

***

With the RV in position, the colleagues prepared to stop or catch the AOV now heading their way and hopefully download its programs. Everyone knew that Bill had other more macho ideas about controlling them, so they let him do his own thing.

“Don’t take these cars for granted,” Joe shouted, waving the others away. “Get back out of the way in case the situation gets out of control.”

Everyone complied except for Bill who remained up above as a lookout ready for some high testosterone physical action. In the silence immediately around them the group heard the sound of tires and engines approaching. Joe watched from a vantage point off the pavement with Don and Mike.

“I see three,” Bill shouted and sensibly backed away from the line of fire.

Within moments, the first of the AOVs barreled off the secondary road and onto the interstate ramp without slowing down. The second and third cars followed close in tow. The onlookers held their breaths as the first one headed right into the gap between the RV and the guardrail. It hit the spike strip.

 Like two quick, successive explosions, all four tires blew out and immediately sparks spun off the tire rims making contact with the pavement. The car swerved and slid losing control. Not making a move yet, the colleagues watched as the second car followed the first with the same satisfying results. They heard a crash with the first two cars, but the third maneuvered away from the gap nearly taking out Bill heading toward the group of colleagues who saw it coming and scattered screaming. The AOV bounced across the rough ground trying to get through or around the blockade but finally came to a stop nose down in a deep concrete drainage conduit. The engine raced and the tires spun dirt and debris everywhere, but it didn’t move another inch.  

“All right!” Bill shouted with glee. “That’ll keep ‘em from botherin’ anyone.”

The group warily worked their way around the RV that blocked the view of the first two AOVs to check on the vehicles’ fate. Both AOVs had stopped off the pavement on either side of the ramp. Their engines still raced with wheels spinning within flat tires and loose dirt, but they weren’t going anywhere.

“Okay, Mike you’re up,” Joe said. “I’d pick that first one there; he’s my bet as being the alpha AI because he was leading the other two.” Joe paused with a strained disconcerted expression. “Oh my god, listen to me! I referenced them using a pronoun�"an instinctive personification of AI. That’s scary!”

“Hey Joe, Don!” Bill shouted, standing near the third. “Can I relieve this one from its undue pain and suffering?”

Joe forced a laugh, but the thought oddly sickened him. “Sure Bill, put it out of its misery.”

Rather amusingly at the same time, Moleman Mike over-cautiously moved with short, timid steps closer to the first AOV that was still working its throttle, rocking the car trying to move, but it was stuck fast with its four flats in the dirt. When Mike nearly touched its’ door handle, the AOV revved up higher causing its’ wheels to churn faster in the dirt sending sparks and debris into the air. Mike jumped back and looked to the others for reassurance.

“I don’t�"think�" it can hurt you, Mike,” Don shouted with a smirk.

But Mike acted wholly unconvinced standing several feet away from the car. “But what if it has some type of system to protect itself, you know like a�"?”

“Like what, Mike? It grew machine guns? ” Don shouted from several feet away. “C’mon, think about it. It’s just a car! What can a car do�"grow anti-human, I don’t know, self-protecting laser beams or maybe a TASER system?”

Joe and Don met each other’s anxious glances. Both sheepishly shrugged.

 Just then, on the other side of the RV, Bill let out a bone-chilling howl accompanied by a horrid electrical crack and blue-white flash that lit up the area!

“You’d better wait on that one, Mike!” Joe yelled as they ran in Bill’s direction.        

***

The Browns were clearly shocked with Joyce’s admission of the AI’s demands on her. Trapped between the two impenetrable walls of assertive AOVs with high impassible rock and dirt banks on each side, there seemed no way out for the demoralized group. The AIs repeatedly demanded Joyce’s codes.

With arms wrapped around her two daughters, Joyce bent over and sobbed into her lap, she cried, “Oh God, what have I done? I deserve an end like this, but not you my girls�"and all of you�"Ted, Marcia, Randy, Kim, I’m sorry it came to this horrible end.”

“Daddy, oh Daddy! Please help!” Cried a terrified Kim. “Help us, help my mommy,” cried a distressed Mary. “What can we possibly do now, Ted?” Asked a subdued Marcia. “What’s your plan this time, Dad?” Asked an energized Randy.  Without a word, Joyce hugged her children closer catching Ted’s defiant eye in the rearview with her totally defeated expression reflected in the mirror.

With a shared hesitant trepidation, the families silently scanned around outside the battered and beat SUV at the foreboding mass of the different makes, models, and colored vehicles but still all AOVs. A pregnant moment or two passed.

 “This is not the end,” Ted declared as he pulled his seatbelt up tight and stiffly sat taller. He blipped the accelerator pedal. The engine responded with a throaty roar like a jet airplane. The exhaust spewed out a steam cloud that billowed like a raging bull. Ted systematically checked all the mirrors and scanned the walls of AOVs front and rear. Those slowly approaching from the rear began to spread around them like a living gauntlet threatening to close the SUV in an inescapable grasp.

“Everyone buckle up tight and hang on,” Ted said, through gritted teeth. “We’ve come this far, but we have farther to go. They can’t take us now because we’re on an extraordinary mission to save humankind, so we won’t give up nor surrender. We’re tough humans with free will and undying courage�"we must make a preemptive strike on these digital bullies!”

With one white-knuckled grip on the wheel and a grimly indomitable expression focused dead ahead, Ted reached up and slowly notched the SUV’s transmission into gear…

Author's Note

Here we are at part 5 and not quite at the ending. Yeah, at times the science is a bit slippery and the plot slightly perforated, but the story remains fun! Any comment would be nice!