Issue #143 : The Comfort Of Safety
This was becoming serious, more than just the lights flipping on and off when they weren’t supposed to, and more than the stereo coming on without warning in the middle of the night or finding faucets that had turned themselves on. This wasn’t just the inconveniences of modern tech breaking down. This was becoming dangerous.
The front door would not open.
Jenni had been afraid of something like this, the moment they had been approached by Bronson Tech about participating in the pilot program by making their home completely automated. There wasn’t anything wrong with using the computer for aiding in the simple aspects of their day, but to hand over complete control seemed to be begging for something like this to happen.
Still, the paycheck had been nice.
At the time.
Now they were prisoners, locked up inside their own home, with no way to call for help, or signal to their neighbors. She had tried opening the windows, but the system had immediately engaged the steel bolts, holding them in place. She had tried to signal anyone who might see her, but the glass had frosted over, as soon as she had started to try. There was no point in shouting, the house had already been so soundproofed, that a person could be standing on the front porch, and anything short of a live rock concert would be barely perceptible.
“System! Disengage!” She stared at the glass eye mounted in the ceiling, one of many lenses that the computer used to determine what was going on in the house. She waved her hand below it, and saw the corresponding light flashing that it was detecting her. So the problem wasn’t in the hardware, but rather, some glitch in the software that was preventing the command from being followed. As much as she despised talking to the condescending assholes in the pathetic excuse for a support department, she needed help. She couldn’t just sit in here indefinitely.
Jenni took the cell from her pocket, and began dialing slowly. As she held the phone to her ear, waiting for the call to connect, she vaguely heard a tiny voice, chiding her for expecting something as simple as this to work, after so much else had failed. After a minute, she nearly dropped the phone as a sudden burst of static flowed out of the speaker, so loud that it felt like an electric shock. Her fingers went numb at the sudden, shrieking noise and she quickly set the offending device down on the counter, shaking her hand as she tried to jar the sensation out of her body.
“System!” she called out again, not willing to accept that she was being ignored. She looked up into the eye again, watching the lens slowly expand and contract, as it zoomed in on her figure and refocused. She could hear the whirring of the gears as the lens extended slightly from the housing, focusing in on her, where she stood. Even though it was a computer and couldn’t possibly have the slightest inkling of that kind of feeling, it still made her shiver, feeling like she was being sized up, like an attractive piece of meat.
Jenni looked around until, in the open closet, she spotted a deck broom and in a moment of manic inspiration, ran to it. She grabbed a stool, pulled it over, flipped the broom upside down, and drove the handle straight into the center of the eye. She winced at a loud popping sound, and glass showered down around her as she put up her arms to try and shield herself. Instantly, the lights in the house flipped off, and metal barriers dropped down, out of the ceiling to cover up all the windows and doors around her. She jumped off of the stool, nearly falling in the process, and managed to get into the next room. She had a sinking feeling that she knew what was about to happen, and wanted to at least get into the kitchen, where there would be food and water. Just as she reached the doorway, a metal chain barrier slammed down, before she could cross the threshold and trapped her, just outside.
“System, God dammit!” she yelled, but still failed to reach it. She watched around her as the metal shades completed their descent, completely covering the windows and briefly shrouding everything in darkness. A single emergency light came on in the center of the room, flashing bright red, so much, that as she blinked into it, her eyes immediately began to tear up. There was a way to override the system, a verbal command that was supposed to make it shut down, in case of malfunction. Of course she had forgotten it, thinking at the time that she would never have the need, that if there was ever really a problem, it would manifest as a simple tech-related annoyance that would be fixed by calling the company.
“Sys—”
“Security breach.” The cool voice of the computer cut her off, bellowing over the alarms in its announcement. “The house has suffered a security breech. Any resident still inside should seek immediate shelter in the panic room or, failing that, should leave the home immediately.”
“I can’t leave the home, you idiot, you closed off the—”
She looked all around the room as panels began to open, revealing storage departments that had never been there, and that she had never approved to have installed. Her breath caught in her throat as an elongated barrel began to protrude from each. She took a stumbling step back as she heard a metallic flick, like that of a lighter, followed by tongues of flame as they began to dance from the ends.
“System, please stop, for fuck’s sake, just stop!”
“Security has been breached. Initiating expulsion procedures. You have been warned”
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