Chapter-1

This is a story from a time when I was alive. It's not as if I am dead, I'm just in a state of mind where I am invisible to the entire world. To know me, you must know the story of my life. Here goes the story of me, Martin Luthor.

Quite a long time back, when humans began perfecting the creation of robots, the world started being taken over by them. The work which was once done by humankind was then being done by machines. But we should know that with development, comes risks. In our case, the problem was Artificial Intelligence. Even though the robots did most of the work, humans were scared about the consequences that would follow if robots started doing things on their own. Their solution? Never provide robots with AI. People stuck to this motto religiously, until one person didn't. This person was Michael Bronze. A scientist who wanted to go into the depths of the world that no one else had yet reached. This 50-year-old man was my idol. I worshipped him like crazy. He treated everyone with such a polite and kind demeanour that was loved by all. Except for my 17-year-old sister who thought he was a fraud. Obviously, I never gave any heed to her words.

This story takes place when I was in my 20s and was an assistant to Professor Bronze. To me, he was like a father. We used to conduct every research together. Both of us had the same perspectives which helped us grow closer as colleagues. That was until he made a huge mistake. A historic blunder.

Bronze never abided by the rules of the world. Always was a law – breaker. But this law was too dangerous to be broken. Michael created a robot with me who we named Marz. The hiccup was that Bronze had inculcated the use of AI. What had then seemed like a silly mistake turned out to be the climax in every one of our lives. Marz automatically started creating more robots of his kind and even disconnected himself from the network we had connected him to. Rather, Marz connected all the other robots along with himself to an international satellite. In a matter of hours, everything was going downhill. We thought everything was over. Professor Bronze instantly headed towards the capital to inform them. But that was the last thing on my mind. What I only cared about was my sister and her well – being.

I rushed home with negative thoughts invading my brain the entire time. I kept reassuring myself that my sister would be alright. As soon as I barged inside the house, I screamed for her. She came running to me through the kitchen door. I realized she was cooking lunch for us. Worry was written all over her face. I hugged her tight, not letting go of her for at least two minutes. After releasing her, I explained everything. Marz, the other robots, international satellites – everything. She was about to reply when out-of-the-blue a laser beam struck our house.

"Everything's over" is all I could think of while I escorted us out of the house. We saw every house in the neighborhood destroyed by the replicas of Marz. People cried for help. Some crawled out of their house, and some dead. Some ran as fast as they could to save their lives. I saw a group of people huddled up together in a safe place. And then, in a matter of seconds, a laser struck them all. We were in utter shock after seeing the scene in front of our eyes. I held on to my sister, scared of losing her. I looked up and realized if Marz had access to the international satellites, that meant he could also control the weapons we had sent to space. The weapons were originally meant for the asteroids and meteoroids that used to continuously fall on earth. Suddenly, a beam struck a house near us causing its bricks to hurt us both. My sister fell, unconscious, while my left arm got badly damaged. But I had to save my sister. I used every bit of my strength to pick her up and take her to the safest place I knew – the lab.

Professor Michael had told me that in case of any apocalypse, there is a secret basement in this lab where we could hide for 4yrs with sufficient food supply. I went there without any second thoughts. I saw a capsule and remembered what the professor had once told me. "Martin, we have a capsule in the basement that only one person can use during an apocalypse. It will open only after 86 years with the person inside it intact."

I thought it to be a great idea as I was the only scientist there who could learn to stop the robot. I treated both of our injuries and put her inside the capsule in her unconscious state. I switched on the button of the capsule. As soon as I did, everything went dead silent. I was about to sit down when the emergency phone in the basement rang. There were two emergency phones - one that was in the basement and the other with Professor Michael. So, that meant he was alive. I opened the phone and there was a message "If you are reading this then that means you are safe. So, I am in my capital's lab and am safe. There is a hidden lab in the basement that you can use if you clap thrice. I hope I will see you after 86 years." Only if he knew. I clapped three times and a staircase which led to the underground opened up. It was dark. I found a switchboard and turned on the light. I was spellbound by what I saw. It was a much bigger lab than the one upstairs. But I realized I couldn't do anything with a damaged hand which was still hurting. Suddenly, my vision started blurring, which I think was due to the loss of blood, and dropped to the floor.

….

I opened my eyes and saw that I was lying on a bed. I started questioning my whereabouts when something marched towards me. At first, I was scared to death because I thought it was one of Marz's companions. But thank the lord that it was ROOT, a robot Professor Bronze had created. I thought it was destroyed by now but turns out, ROOT was the one who treated my arm. I realized it was replaced with a Rezenthis arm (Rezenthis is the strongest metal found in space). I think the robot knew who I was.

(After 3 years)

In these three years, I did everything to know about the robots and wrote every detail about them. Now, 84 yrs are left. I made a suitcase which can be opened only by my professor, my sister and me. I put the documents inside that suitcase so that it could conserve everything inside it for 90yrs. Finally, I could get a good night's sleep while ROOT protected the lab. My head hurt a little and I felt dizzy. But I just wanted to see my Professor and sister one last time.

To be continued…