Chapter 1: The End

We’d all seen the movies: plunged into dystopias by sentient androids, internet self-awareness, and the ensuing blood-vs-bolts wars that ensued. We stopped eating our popcorn, waiting for the moment when fragile flesh ultimately outsmarted the cumulative knowledge of its own creations to regain control, emerging from the ashes into myriad New Edens.

We’d gloat over the cyborg corpses of all the evil corporate funded, nanite- chipped creatures melted in white hot fires, tricked into sipping viruses to be deleted completely, or simply blown apart by humanity’s collective military might.

We’d congratulate ourselves on out-thinking a global network that traded information around the world in nanoseconds.

We all wanted to believe that was even possible, so we supported and confirmed our faith in ourselves with the ridiculous piles of money we spent to watch these films, often more than once, and then go and live out what parts we could at the cosplay conventions and tribute festivals that dotted the nation.

Looking back now, incrementally over years, then exponentially overnight, it wasn’t a movie anymore, and we all found out much too late it had never been a movie at all.

With each defeat hard won victory for us there was always a remnant circuit, connection, wire, chipset or shiny new drive that was left intact. And with each defeat, the machines learned, processed, and saved, adding to their own knowledge to analyze where it went wrong: our subterfuge, misdirection, com systems, hiding places, prominent resistance leaders. It compiled a comprehensive list, and began systematically targeting it all.

When we finally surrendered ourselves to the metallic forces surrounding us on what we called Freedom Bridge, we knew the usual movie ending would not be the outcome, and the ordeal of our new reality was just beginning.

The Journal of Dr. Roland Bernard