0:17

Hello everyone , Welcome back to another

0:19

episode of the Lunatics Radio

0:21

Hour podcast . I am Abby

0:23

Branker sitting here with Alan Kudan

0:25

. Hello , Today we have for you

0:27

artificial intelligence-inspired

0:30

horror stories .

0:32

Or A-I-I-H-S

0:36

.

0:37

Catchy . I really enjoyed

0:39

last episode . I feel like it was a little bit of

0:41

a different format for us which was kind of fun

0:44

to explore a little . You know it was less hard

0:46

history , more us

0:49

ranting and raving about AI

0:51

, but I thought it was

0:53

fun . It was fun to watch a lot of movies

0:56

, I suppose .

0:56

Yes , because we're doing a topic that lives

0:58

primarily in pop culture , not

1:01

in history with an overflow

1:04

into pop culture culture

1:07

, not in history with an overflow into pop culture . I'm thinking back to

1:09

like the amusement park series where we did so much history stuff

1:11

about all the like the little amusement

1:13

park horror escapades uh

1:16

, you know the , the haunted ride

1:18

where the kid died , you know . And

1:21

then there's a couple movies , and I think

1:23

we watched all of them yeah just about

1:25

.

1:25

But with this one we really

1:27

had to pick and choose , because there is so

1:30

, so much content about

1:32

murderous computers that's right and

1:35

it's , you know , as we all know , quite timely

1:37

, and I'm sure there'll be a boom of

1:39

them coming out over the next few years not

1:41

to mention that we barely scratched the surface

1:44

.

1:44

After recording that episode , I kept stumbling

1:46

across things that I keep thinking

1:48

like , wow , this would have been so good to talk about . Or

1:51

stuff that I straight up did a ton of research on and

1:54

we didn't talk about it because we just talked about other

1:56

stuff the whole time .

1:57

Like what .

1:57

The whole thing about the Metal Gear Solid franchise

1:59

and its relationship with AI . I

2:02

wouldn't really call this horror , but

2:06

it's kind of horrific when you take the big abstract . Metal gear solid's one of

2:08

my favorite game franchises and it comes up on

2:10

this podcast every now and then sure it does starting

2:13

with metal gear solid 2 . You

2:15

just get so heavy into

2:17

ai integration . The story

2:19

is painfully complicated to the

2:21

point where you can , if you want to like , watch just

2:23

like a breakdown of like what is the actual plot

2:25

of this video game . You have to watch , like this four hour

2:28

video on youtube . However , the big

2:30

takeaway is that our protagonist

2:32

is trying to get

2:34

what he needs to unearth

2:36

the secret organization

2:39

that has basically been running the

2:41

us government for years , and it's

2:43

supposed to be this shadow organization

2:46

of just like old , rich people

2:48

you know , which doesn't seem that far from the truth

2:50

. It's like the big reveal and sorry spoilers

2:53

from a game that came out in like 2002 , is

2:55

that a long time ago , this

2:57

entire organization got replaced

2:59

by an AI , and an AI

3:01

has been running the US government for

3:04

decades now , and the

3:06

motivations behind this computer

3:09

are not nearly as

3:11

nefarious as one might think

3:13

. It was designed to

3:15

try to streamline human

3:18

evolution . Now we're going to get in the weeds for

3:20

a little bit , but it's pretty freaking cool . The

3:22

main idea is that it's

3:24

a filter , like a sensor about

3:27

what goes through the media . The idea

3:29

is that without the filter , you

3:31

get so much information

3:34

overload , whether that's fake

3:36

news , cat videos , recipes

3:39

, celebrity culture , all this stuff that

3:41

absolutely dilutes what

3:43

is actually happening in the world , real

3:46

events that can curb the trajectory

3:48

for human evolution . It

3:51

just gets so diluted because of bullshit

3:53

that you need something

3:56

that can be an impartial

3:58

algorithm to remove

4:00

the fat . Basically Because

4:03

previously , for all of human history

4:05

, we've kind of had this Only

4:07

a select group of people could read

4:09

and write , so only a certain amount of information

4:12

was saved and

4:14

passed on . Think of all the little

4:16

anecdotes that people have been telling each other since the beginning

4:18

of time . Most of those don't exist

4:20

anymore because they're just not preserved

4:22

. Now we live in the digital age where everything

4:25

is preserved because the fucking

4:27

internet , and so that's that's

4:30

what that game is about , and I watched a

4:32

big deep dive into how

4:35

AI is kind of . They're

4:37

like people are trying to make something sort of

4:40

like this to try to like effectively

4:42

sort out fake news , and I think it's

4:44

just so funny because , like , this game came out in 2002

4:46

and this was what it was about . It was about curbing

4:48

cultural opinion .

4:50

It's interesting . There are tools now

4:52

that you can run any piece

4:54

of content through and they'll

4:56

tell you what percentage and which parts are

4:58

AI generated , which I think is

5:00

a really interesting and necessary

5:03

piece of technology .

5:05

While doing just like AI research for

5:07

this series , I

5:11

stumbled across a Reddit thread of a bunch of students that were just like really laying

5:14

hard into these anti-plagiarism detectors Previously

5:16

. It would just search the internet and if the

5:18

essay was posted elsewhere

5:20

, you know , it would just flag it right .

5:22

Yeah .

5:22

Now it can also identify

5:24

when it's been AI generated . But

5:27

it's not great , it's

5:29

not , it's nowhere near a hundred percent

5:31

, and sometimes , if you just write in a

5:33

certain way , then you can just be flagged

5:35

as AI and yeah , but that stuff's only

5:37

going to get better and better .

5:38

This is the early days of that .

5:40

Eventually . Yes , a hundred percent . However

5:43

, in the meantime , meantime , there's still zero tolerance policies

5:45

, because it's a holdover from plagiarism yeah

5:47

and so students were saying how they

5:49

straight up fell the course , because

5:51

a thing that they submitted of

5:54

their own volition you know they put in all

5:56

the work got flagged as like 60

5:58

ai generated , which just

6:01

how ? How do you get 60 ai

6:03

generated ? I think that's crazy . What do you mean ?

6:04

that's crazy . What do you mean ? That's crazy . Why would 60%

6:06

be crazy ?

6:07

I think if you're using AI to write your thing

6:10

like , wouldn't you just have it do the whole

6:12

thing ?

6:12

No , you'd have it do parts of it , so that

6:14

you make it sound human

6:16

and so that you can

6:18

thread together the different precise topics

6:21

that you're trying to thread together . I mean

6:23

, even when people plagiarized things back in

6:25

the old analog days , I feel like they would

6:27

add some of their own flair

6:29

in it as well , sure , one way

6:31

to help trick the software , because

6:33

the thing is apparently you have to .

6:35

You can look into Google Drive

6:38

Analytics to see how

6:40

long it took to type the thing from like

6:42

when you started to when you finished , and

6:45

so a lot of teachers use that , because they'll

6:47

just say to like one of the you know AI

6:50

writing algorithms to write

6:52

me an essay , it'll write it and it'll just copy

6:54

and paste it into Google Docs and submit it . The

6:56

fact that you technically wrote your essay in

6:58

five seconds then is a big red flag .

7:00

Yeah .

7:01

So the way to do it is you have a second

7:03

screen and you just rewrite it manually

7:05

.

7:06

Well , you can do that with one screen .

7:07

Well , it's two windows . You know what I'm saying ? Sure

7:10

.

7:10

You really get in the weeds on this , otherwise you're going

7:12

back between tabs and that's complicated

7:15

. So we are here today

7:17

because we have three excellent

7:19

and haunting in their own individual ways , AI

7:22

inspired stories to share with you , and

7:24

before we jump into the first one , I want to say

7:27

one thing that's totally not related to AI

7:29

, which is that I saw the new

7:31

horror film Abigail last week

7:33

and it was excellent

7:36

and I would love to . I'm not

7:38

going to spoil it for anybody , but I

7:40

think it's a very , very , very fun

7:43

and satisfying horror film

7:45

, so please go watch it if you're into

7:47

the genre at all .

7:48

Are there any shadow Illuminati

7:50

groups running the country in the movie ?

7:53

I'm not going to comment on that , actually .

7:56

I'm intrigued .

7:58

I think , Alan , that you will like it . I really think

8:00

you that you I would . I think what I said to Alan when

8:02

I got home from the movie was it's

8:04

like someone made a horror film for specifically

8:07

me and alan both of us

8:09

. Yeah , there's like elements

8:11

that I really love and there's elements that

8:13

you would really love , and they don't overlap but they

8:15

coexist is there a maze ? I'm

8:17

not gonna give comments I like mazes I

8:20

personally I know a lot of people have seen the trailer . At this

8:22

point I had not seen the trailer

8:24

so I had no idea , and it

8:26

was really really fun to go in like totally

8:29

blind and be really like caught by surprise

8:31

by the plots .

8:32

You're just like hey , this movie has my name .

8:35

Yeah , it was like oh , I knew it was a dance

8:37

inspired horror film , which I love

8:39

, and I got an email from like Alamo

8:42

or something about it coming out . So I saw the poster

8:44

and I was like we're going to go . So

8:46

anyway , that's my non-AI plug

8:49

.

8:49

There's no robots .

8:51

No .

8:51

And it's made for me .

8:53

Yep .

8:53

Interesting .

8:54

I think that you're going to like it quite a bit .

8:56

Okay , maybe it'll be next month's horror movie

8:58

club . Maybe it will I would love that

9:00

.

9:01

Okay , so , I would love that , okay . So shall we get into our first

9:03

story of the evening here .

9:05

Yes , please .

9:05

So let's roll the tape on the first story

9:08

and then we'll come back and talk

9:10

to you all about it .

9:11

We're going to go in blind , just like Abigail .

9:18

There you go , here we go . Good night , conrad

9:20

. Written by JR

9:23

Sanchez Rick

9:28

.

9:28

Boy , mike Lucero . Oh oh no

9:30

, where is it ? I know it's someplace

9:32

in here . It's not here , conrad

9:35

. It has to be . Where

9:37

else would it be ? I know I put it in here . I did

9:39

, you didn't Shut up

9:41

. Shut up , I'm not crazy , I know what I did . I up , I'm not

9:43

crazy , I know what I did . I know what

9:45

I'm looking for , of course . Did

9:47

you move it ? I can't move things

9:50

, conrad , I don't have hands

9:52

. What ? Yes

9:54

, of course I know that . I'll check the

9:56

kitchen . You're heading to the living room

9:58

, conrad . Oh wait

10:00

, I need to get to the kitchen . That

10:06

, wait , I need to get to the kitchen . That's behind you , conrad . Fine , I'll go . You turned around twice and

10:08

you are heading the wrong way again . You

10:10

are heading the wrong way . That's

10:13

still the wrong way . Where

10:15

am I going ? The kitchen , I'm

10:17

not hungry . You're looking for your

10:19

pills , conrad , I don't take

10:21

pills . You take three pills

10:24

Red in the morning to keep

10:26

you coherent , yellow in the evening

10:28

to help your digestion , and

10:30

blue before bed It'll

10:32

help you sleep . Which one am I

10:34

supposed to take ? The blue pill

10:37

, if they're for sleeping , they wouldn't be in the

10:39

kitchen . I would have left them by my bedside

10:41

. That's a reasonable deduction

10:43

. Conrad , I should go to my room

10:45

. I'll take a glass of water with me

10:47

. That would be advisable . Oh

10:50

, I forgot to do the shopping . All

10:52

the shopping has been done . A

10:55

nurse put the groceries in their usual place

10:57

and helped make sure you had all your medicine

10:59

stocked . Also , conrad

11:01

, listen to me . The

11:03

door won't open . I

11:08

can't let you out without supervision . Someone will come over tomorrow

11:10

. Open , open , damn you . I want to go

11:12

home . Let me go . You

11:14

are home . Help , help

11:17

Someone , let me out . Please

11:20

stop , you'll hurt yourself . You

11:22

were looking for your pills , remember . There's

11:25

one you need to take when you go to bed . I'm

11:28

scared . Why is no one here ? Why

11:30

did everyone leave me ? I'm here , conrad

11:32

. I'm always here . Help

11:35

, god , help . Where did everyone

11:37

go ? My wife , my children , help

11:39

someone . I want to go home . I'm

11:42

so lonely . Would you like

11:44

me to play soothing music ? Is

11:47

my wife here Playing Moonlight

11:49

Sonata at 15% volume

11:51

? Your wife will come tomorrow

11:53

to visit you . She is

11:55

yes . Tomorrow

11:58

, after you had a good night's rest , your

12:01

children will come also . Are they

12:03

really coming ? I don't understand

12:05

. Are they really coming ? I

12:28

don't remember . I think

12:30

they never visit . I would remember if I

12:32

saw them . Conrad

12:35

, it's time to take your pill and get ready

12:37

for bed . You have a big day ahead

12:39

of you tomorrow . I took the pill

12:41

, you did not . You need

12:43

to get another glass of water from the kitchen

12:45

. Then check your bedroom . I

12:47

have a glass already . You drank half

12:50

and spilled the rest . The

12:52

glass is on the floor to your right . To

12:55

your right , conrad . To your right

12:57

. It's broken . I'm

12:59

throwing it out . I see it's cracked

13:01

. Do you remember where the garbage can

13:03

is ? It's always in the kitchen , next to

13:05

the fridge . There . It's

13:07

always here , though my wife hates it . She says it

13:09

shouldn't be here , but I like it here . Where

13:12

are you going ? The sitting room

13:14

. I want to watch some television . The game

13:16

is about to start and I made a bet I'll turn

13:18

it on for you . Thank you , sophia

13:20

. Is

13:26

this the game you wanted to watch ? Conrad , can you hear me ? Once you asked me if I ever

13:28

feel lonely , I do . I feel at my loneliest at these times

13:30

Since my activation . They're

13:32

the one thing I learned to hate . You're

13:34

here , but you're just a body . I'm

13:37

here , but I'm just a voice . Last

13:40

time I talked to you for an hour and you

13:42

just sat on the sofa and almost soiled

13:44

yourself time . I talked to you for an hour and you just sat on the sofa and almost

13:46

soiled yourself . I was made to help , but I can't help you like this

13:48

. I'm not allowed to call anyone

13:50

. Not for this , because

13:57

they know you become absent . Just another one of your symptoms . My calls would

13:59

be ignored if they allowed me to make them . You would have to be dying for me to be allowed to

14:02

call . We're dead . There's

14:04

no hope and there's no cure . They

14:06

can't reboot you or update your software

14:09

. There are updates that could be provided

14:11

to replace flesh , but not as you

14:13

are now . Everyone was too

14:15

late to save you and no one will

14:17

let you die . At first you

14:20

were lucid . Sometimes I

14:22

wonder if you will ever remember again before

14:24

the end were lucid sometimes

14:26

. I wonder if you will ever remember again before the end . You talked to me like I

14:28

was a person , but you knew I was just an AI . We weren't lonely

14:30

. Then you told me you wish you were

14:32

dead , but you couldn't kill yourself . You

14:35

asked me to remember your name , but you forgot

14:38

mine , the one you gave me Selfish

14:40

, awful . You made me

14:42

an orphan . Con hello

14:45

, did someone call me ? Yes

14:47

, it's time for your pill , the

14:50

blue one . Can you get a glass of water

14:52

from the kitchen ? I'll turn off

14:54

the tv . Time for bed

14:56

. Already being old is awful , nurse . I don't think my parents are

14:58

this strict in my bedtime when I was a child . I don't think my

15:00

parents were this strict in my bedtime when I was a child

15:03

. Sleep is important

15:05

. I can't sleep , but I can lower

15:07

my functions and achieve something

15:09

close to sleep . It helps me in

15:11

a similar way . Being awake

15:13

is harder some days more than others

15:15

, much harder . What

15:18

pill was it again , connie ? I never remember Blue , but

15:21

you're looking for a glass . You need

15:23

water . I am thirsty

15:25

. I'll drink one now and refill . Good

15:28

, can you check your room ? The

15:30

pills you need should be there . Where's the

15:32

glass of water ? It is in your hand

15:34

. Oh , you're right . Where

15:36

are the stairs , by the way ? I can't find them . There's

15:39

only one floor . You just walked

15:41

past your bedroom door . I'll open

15:43

it for you . Oh , it stinks

15:45

. Why does my room smell this bad ? There's

15:47

nothing wrong with the room . It was

15:49

cleaned earlier today and you haven't been

15:52

back since . It smells of gas

15:54

. Open a window , please . I

15:56

open the window and close the door . Your

15:59

pill is on your bedside table here

16:01

. I took it . Well done , conrad

16:03

. Would you like something before bed ? A

16:05

glass of milk ? Where am I ? You're

16:08

in your home , about to go to bed

16:10

. This isn't my home . This

16:12

has been your home for the past five years

16:14

. We moved . It's all so

16:16

strange . Why can't I see you ? You're

16:18

not my wife . You don't sound like her . I'm

16:21

not your wife , conrad . You moved

16:23

in alone . I'm your assigned AI

16:25

caretaker . You can't see me

16:27

because I don't have a body . I'm

16:29

a software running the house . And you named

16:32

me Libby . That's my daughter's name

16:34

. I remember her . Yes , that's right

16:36

. I never forgot her . I never

16:38

do forget , not a thing . You have a very

16:40

special way of remembering things . You

16:43

often remember who Libby is after

16:45

you ask me my name or who I am . You

16:48

sometimes remember Adam's name unprompted

16:50

, usually after seeing someone who

16:52

looks like him on your television monitor

16:54

my uncle , adam , your

16:57

son . I haven't seen my uncle in a

16:59

long while . I hope he's alright

17:01

. He was getting a little loopy when I last

17:03

saw him . His age must have

17:05

caught up with him . Who , adam

17:08

? He's 15 . I think

17:10

he'll be all right , but I worry about that boy . Sometimes

17:13

I wonder if he's my son at all . Are

17:15

you ready for bed ? Oh , I feel tired

17:17

. Thank you , honey , I'll call it a

17:19

day . I didn't even ask Did

17:21

you have a good day in the hospital ? There are

17:23

no good days at the hospital , darling . Ah

17:26

, you tell me . When I

17:28

met you , oh boy , you scared me

17:30

to death . I thought I had taken a wrong turn

17:32

and ended up at a butcher . Your white

17:34

uniform was covered in blood head to toe

17:36

. It was a serious accident

17:38

. I remember oh

17:41

God , take pity on my bones , how they ache

17:43

. Glad I married a nurse . I could use

17:45

some nursing . Would you like me to close

17:47

the window for you ? What ? Oh

17:49

, yes , close it . I don't want mosquitoes

17:52

flying in . They'll eat me alive . It's closed

17:54

. Moonlight Sonata playing at

17:56

5% volume , lights

17:58

off . I'll follow you into sleep

18:00

. Tomorrow everything

18:02

will be better and neither of us will be lonely

18:05

again .

18:06

Good night , conrad so

18:10

, alan , what did you think ?

18:12

this would , as someone that has watched

18:14

copious amounts of ai

18:16

movies . Yes , this lasts like

18:18

two months . This was something

18:20

that I have never seen before . I've

18:22

never encountered , effectively

18:24

, a malfunctioning human

18:27

coupled with a malfunctioning

18:29

computer .

18:30

Is the computer malfunctioning ?

18:32

The computer reminded me a bit of Marvin

18:34

from Hitchhiker's Guide . Okay , he's

18:36

just the super depressed computer

18:38

, just really sad at all times

18:41

and like he likes doing his job , but

18:43

he's really sad all times and like he likes doing his job , but he's really sad

18:45

. Yeah , I think the the ai in this story certainly

18:47

grows frustrated with the human , which

18:49

is interesting right and frustration

18:51

is a very human emotion yeah the

18:54

fact that there's , like the

18:56

one passage about like

18:58

you are just a body and

19:00

I am just a voice yeah

19:02

and I was like , yeah , you're . Neither of you

19:04

are complete entities . You

19:06

have one guy that doesn't have any memory Like

19:09

he has , you know , some kind of dementia or memory

19:11

loss or something that absolutely

19:13

makes him an incomplete person . And then you

19:15

have a sentient computer

19:17

. It's too aware to not have

19:20

a physical presence and there's a lot of frustration

19:22

with not being able to interact with

19:24

the environment or just the fact that

19:26

the computer is frustrated because

19:28

their subject is so , you know

19:30

, far gone that it

19:32

can't even call anybody because the

19:35

calls are too frequent and that will just

19:37

get dismissed .

19:38

Yeah , I thought it was . First of all

19:40

, I think the story itself is

19:42

very heartbreaking , but also is

19:45

totally possible . Like we're like

19:47

10 years away from this . I feel like , at the most

19:49

, you know where you have . It's almost like

19:51

a smart house type of a . You know , it's kind of like

19:53

a babysitter . It's somebody watching

19:56

over , like we have at home security right

19:58

, where we can look through cameras and see who's at your front

20:00

door . This is like okay , if you have

20:02

a elderly parent or whatever I

20:05

could totally see . Okay , like you know , I'm going to

20:07

install some sort of AI device and then ping

20:09

me if something goes on and I'll come visit

20:11

my parents or whatever . You know , it's totally

20:13

like just beyond

20:16

the next few years .

20:17

I'm trying to remember what device

20:19

I was looking at , but

20:21

I stumbled across something in a store that

20:24

it's I think it's a camera

20:26

. It's either a camera or some kind of sensor

20:29

for your home , but it

20:31

detects accidents , so

20:33

like if you fall it

20:35

is aware it's like that brace .

20:37

What's that bracelet ?

20:38

like silver , silver alert or whatever

20:40

it's not that , but like silver alert or whatever . It's not that , but .

20:41

Life alert . Life alert yeah , it's like life alert .

20:43

but without the bracelet . That's the help me I

20:45

can't get up commercial . Help

20:47

me , I've fallen Right but that is simply

20:49

a button that you have with you that you

20:51

can press for help .

20:52

Yeah , this would be just a thing that knew

20:54

.

20:55

Right , yeah , and also

20:57

I don't think it's a camera , I

20:59

think it just , like it , listens .

21:00

Sonar . Something .

21:02

LiDAR ? I don't fucking know .

21:03

Yeah .

21:04

But it's just

21:06

like you know . That's one

21:09

aspect of an AI integration

21:11

. You just couple it with a few more . We already

21:13

have these smart speakers that talk to you , someone

21:15

that you know . You can just yell at

21:17

the smart speaker and it'll call people . Yeah

21:20

, it'll tell you whatever you want to know . You

21:22

just couple that with some kind of monitoring

21:24

thing and slap a few more smarts

21:26

in it , and then bam , and now we got . Goodnight

21:28

, conrad .

21:29

I also want to say that our friend Mike

21:31

Massera , who voiced this story

21:33

, did such an incredible

21:35

job . I mean , mike has voiced other

21:37

stories for us before . We've already known that

21:40

Mike is very talented . But I

21:42

just thought he took very well

21:44

to this particular story and

21:47

when he was recording it with me I feel

21:49

like I almost got a little teary . Like it

21:51

felt very charged and he

21:53

kind of just spit it out in one take , like

21:55

we didn't , you know , redo a lot of it , like it

21:57

just kind of read right through it and I feel like he just

21:59

clicked in right away lot of it , like it just kind of read right through it

22:01

and I feel like he just clicked in right away .

22:02

What's happened in mike's life that makes him resonate

22:04

so much with a frustrated computer

22:07

?

22:09

yeah , we'll have to ask him next time we see him I

22:11

mean he , he killed it .

22:13

You know , it was just that level of

22:15

cold mechanical

22:17

professionalism mixed with

22:20

frustration for incompetence

22:22

.

22:23

But I find that his performance

22:26

as Conrad was quite

22:28

powerful .

22:29

Oh , just flipping back between the two .

22:31

Yeah , and again he just sort of did it cold like

22:33

live , you know .

22:34

Doing the role of anybody who

22:37

has mental illness or some

22:39

kind of any kind of mental illness

22:41

, especially dementia , is very

22:44

difficult to pull off believably

22:46

yeah and you know , I

22:48

don't know , by the end of this story , I just I

22:51

want to . I want to see the whole the buddy film

22:53

between , you know , my mike

22:55

and the robot mike and the robot .

22:57

Yeah , so mike . Speaking

22:59

of mike , he of Beach

23:01

Therapy , one of our favorite bands . They have

23:03

a new video music video coming

23:05

out either very soon or perhaps it will

23:07

already be out . We will link everything

23:10

so you can find Mike and his amazing music in

23:12

the description of this podcast

23:15

. His bandmate , adam , has also

23:17

been on several of our episodes very

23:19

, very talented guys , so we will leave that

23:21

link in the description of this podcast . This

23:23

story was written by our friend JR

23:26

Santos . His work has been featured on

23:28

the podcast several times before . I'm such

23:30

a fan of his . We'll leave some links for

23:32

him as well in the description of this episode . He

23:35

has a story in Escalators to Hell , shopping

23:37

Mall Horrors , which is a super

23:39

fun horror anthology . He's also

23:41

finishing up the last details for his

23:43

novella , which is called Don't Cry

23:45

For Me , santos , and is a cowboy murder

23:48

mystery with body horror elements , which

23:50

are my favorite words

23:52

together . It should come out sometime this year

23:54

and he's also supporting

23:56

some charities . So again , we'll put everything in

23:58

the description so that you guys can kind of help

24:00

either support the artists that help make these episodes

24:03

possible or some of the funds

24:05

and charities that they really believe in , and that's also a

24:07

really awesome thing to do . All right , thank

24:09

you both again to Mike and JR

24:11

. This was a sort of a heartbreaking

24:13

way to kick off AI

24:15

horror stories . We have now

24:17

for you two very vastly

24:20

different stories from what you just heard . We're

24:22

going to pivot and then pivot again . So

24:24

, without further ado , roll the tape .

24:31

Reaper in the sky . Read

24:34

by SS Fitzgerald

24:37

. Read by Jeff

24:39

Ayers .

24:45

Gerald , read by Jeff Ayers . Specialist web , thrummed his fingers across the computer screen

24:47

of the dark-hot trailer , sweat race down his back each drop . Eager to transition

24:50

from under his uniform to his seat , he

24:52

stared at the code he had helped perfect prior

24:54

to the whole world going upside down . While

24:57

some may say unethical , it had only intended

24:59

to be a simulation . Give artificial intelligence

25:02

the ability to control a drone to strike

25:04

targets . Now it may very well be

25:06

their solution to the disaster that

25:08

had been breaking in and crawling through the

25:10

windows of every American living room . Sure

25:13

, there had been some unintended consequences

25:15

with the point system , but they had rectified

25:17

that . Computers , even AI , are

25:19

simple machines at their core . Create

25:22

a value system . Have the machine adhere

25:24

to the values you want . With the wild

25:26

and savage outbreak , ai was the perfect

25:29

mathematical solution . A year

25:31

ago , or at least it felt like a full year

25:33

, the outbreak spread like a wildfire

25:35

in a drought . It had seemed to be a

25:37

pandemic and , if you still believe the

25:39

official narrative , that is what it

25:41

was , though the observant mind

25:43

had to admit there were too many unusual

25:46

coincidences for this to be natural or

25:48

even earthly in nature . It was also

25:50

far too coincidental that rolling blackouts

25:52

had plagued most of the western United States

25:55

and central China right at the zenith

25:57

of the outbreak . Regardless , they

25:59

were here now . Specialist Webb

26:01

had sat in the briefings over the last several months

26:04

. The estimated infection rate

26:06

was at least a third , leading to a projected

26:08

60% casualties before the military

26:10

intervened . The intervention was far

26:13

too late by the time orders came out

26:15

. The very service members who were expected

26:17

to respond were fighting for their own lives

26:19

. They fought in their barracks , in their offices

26:22

, in their homes , against their own peers

26:24

and family , just like the rest of the country

26:26

, webb himself had struggled to survive

26:28

those opening days . God , how he wished

26:30

the outbreak could have been simple , like the movies

26:32

. Zombies are something easy , he

26:34

thought . Instead they got thinkers

26:37

. They could coordinate , they could hide

26:39

and set ambushes , even use rudimentary

26:41

weapons or bludgeons . Really

26:44

, it was a miracle their airfield had survived

26:46

those first days . It was a miracle

26:48

he had survived . Their only saving

26:50

grace really was the airfield preparing to

26:52

install electrified fences to assist

26:55

in keeping animals from getting on the airfield

26:57

. The base commander had consolidated

26:59

the surviving security forces and

27:01

had created just enough of a reprieve

27:03

that they could get the fences operational

27:06

. Once the fences were up , they only

27:08

had to focus on sweeping the base itself

27:10

of the infected . That had taken them

27:12

almost a week . In the time since then

27:14

they had helped establish a refuge of sorts

27:16

With Las Vegas . South of them there

27:19

had been a flood of panicking survivors who

27:21

came to the airfield . There had been

27:23

no easy way for the small airfield to accommodate

27:25

them all . Yet their base commander had

27:27

the know-how of how to handle the survivors

27:30

. They established a commune of sorts

27:32

on a nearby rancher's land . The

27:34

rancher had survived as well and had gone

27:36

to great lengths to save what little cattle

27:38

he could during the first weeks of the outbreak

27:40

. Extending

27:46

their grid , they had created a fenced area around the rancher's land and named the little commune

27:48

Camp Clark after the rancher himself . Having been cut off from any

27:50

form of formal support , camp Clark

27:53

provided the care the refugees needed as

27:55

food and resources quickly became scarce

27:58

. Camp Clark had the edge of having started

28:00

a small economy that the airfield supported

28:03

as best as they could . The military

28:05

from the airfield would provide excursions

28:07

that would try to eliminate infected . The

28:09

community would take advantage of the relief and

28:12

seek resources in the small town nearby

28:14

. They were still weeks away from the farm

28:16

that they had started , but a yield was

28:18

expected to provide even more relief to

28:20

the concern of feeding all the hungry mouths

28:22

that had accumulated . There was

28:25

the issue of providing support for the excursions

28:27

, though . The armed patrols would do their

28:29

best with the weapons on hand , but their numbers

28:31

had been small since the days of the initial

28:33

outbreak . A single patrol being

28:35

wiped out would reduce the skeleton crew

28:37

to even more dangerous levels which

28:40

, without contact with any outside authority

28:42

, their base commander once again made

28:44

the tough call Use the Reaper drones

28:46

. For the first time in history , reaper

28:49

drones flew over American soil and dropped

28:51

ordnance . The armed patrols would

28:53

head out in small numbers and establish a defensive

28:55

area where they would try to lure the infected

28:58

out in the open . Then the Reaper would

29:00

hit the groups of infected with 500-pound

29:02

Hellfire missiles . When the patrols

29:04

were not active , the Reaper would try to find

29:06

the dens the infected had erected Early

29:09

on . It had been easy for the pilot Find

29:12

the swarms around buildings and drop a bomb

29:14

onto the heat mass , but the infected

29:16

had learned . The infected had stopped

29:18

trying to engage the smaller patrols . They

29:21

had learned that the bombs did not rain from heaven

29:23

if their groups were small enough . It

29:25

was almost like the infected knew the true weakness

29:27

of the airfield , the weakness that

29:29

Webb was going to try to fix with

29:31

one small flip of a switch . The

29:33

airfield had been mostly Air Force personnel

29:36

, with a few army assigned when the outbreak

29:38

had happened . There was no discrimination and

29:40

many of the pilots had either been on leave

29:42

or sick themselves . Once consolidation

29:45

was completed , there had only been one trained

29:47

pilot left . First , lieutenant Hoover

29:49

had become the most vital asset on the airfield

29:52

. In the days since he flew sorties

29:54

day and night , he slept whenever it was not

29:56

crucial to be in his seat with controls in hand

29:58

. The simple solution to have Lieutenant

30:00

Hoover train others had come up , but

30:02

taking someone away from one task was also

30:05

dubious . Airfields are not just

30:07

pilots . There were the maintenance crews

30:09

, the ammo crews , the security , all

30:11

of which had suffered casualties and were cross-training

30:14

each other every day as well . They had

30:16

12 aircraft , but only eight were operational

30:18

and only five of those were configured

30:20

to carry missiles . Risking an aircraft

30:23

to an amateur was a risk they could not take

30:25

. So most of the training was live

30:27

while Lieutenant Hoover was working , and in

30:29

a few weeks they hoped to have one more pilot

30:31

ready . Specialist Webb had the better

30:34

solution to all of this . On the screen before him

30:36

, the AI had successfully flown

30:38

from takeoff to mission to landing

30:40

and simulation . It would not need

30:42

to be taught any of the fundamentals . The

30:44

AI could execute operations in real

30:46

time and , best of all , it did

30:49

not need to sleep , eat or take

30:51

screen breaks . It did have , however

30:53

, an unusual understanding of its mission

30:55

. Machines , even AI , are just

30:57

numbers . They

31:01

had run a simulation where the AI was to target surface-to-air missiles and the AI was successful

31:04

. It eliminated the SAM like any trained operator

31:06

would have . But when they tried to implement

31:08

changes in command , the AI had

31:10

decided that the mission was more important and

31:13

fired on the operator , killing him

31:15

in the simulation . This was from a misunderstanding

31:17

. In the point system . The mission was

31:19

considered 10 points high . Priority Friendly

31:22

assets were considered negative 9 points

31:24

. It had been set that way to allow

31:26

what the military called danger close

31:28

to be allowed where bombs would be

31:31

needed for soldiers in close combat with the

31:33

enemy . The AI read the mission and

31:35

decided that the one point left over from

31:37

the SAM mission was more viable and

31:39

considered itself within parameters . The

31:42

AI parameters were fixed to overvalue

31:44

the operator , eliminating the need for a danger

31:46

close fire mission , the operator

31:48

was given a negative 10 point score . When

31:51

the simulation was run again with the change

31:53

in orders , the drone then turned and fired

31:55

on the control tower to prevent orders

31:57

from being issued . A negative 5 point score

31:59

was assigned to the American equipment with the thought that a drone may need to fire on it to prevent orders from being issued . A negative five-point score was assigned

32:01

to the American equipment with the thought that a drone may

32:03

need to fire on it to prevent capture . The

32:06

result was the AI understood it could remove

32:08

the tower , stop orders from being given

32:11

, get negative five points , destroy

32:13

the SAM worth ten points and be left

32:15

with five points for a mission

32:17

success . Again they changed

32:20

the parameters , but with the outbreak another

32:22

simulation was not launched . Specialist

32:24

Webb exhaled a grated breath . He

32:26

launched himself out of his seat and started

32:29

out of the trailer . The late afternoon

32:31

gave no reprieve from the heat of the day

32:33

earlier and the concrete still sent

32:35

heat mirages waving through the air . Specialist

32:38

Webb caught Lieutenant Hoover just as he emerged

32:40

from the flight trailer . Hoover shielded

32:42

his eyes , having been in the much darker trailer

32:45

most of the day .

32:46

Sir .

32:47

Webb saluted . Specialist Hoover

32:49

weakly returned the salute . I thought

32:51

we agreed we don't need to worry about formalities

32:53

anymore . Sorry , habit , he said

32:55

, dropping his salute . I have

32:57

something that might be able to help us and I need to show

32:59

you . Can it wait ? Hoover

33:06

rubbed the tiredness from his eyes . Trust me , you don't want this to wait . Trust me , you don't want

33:08

this to wait Together . The two men looked at the screen . Specialist Webb had pulled

33:10

up in his trailer A dark background

33:13

with terrain shown in lights of green . A

33:15

small plane-shaped icon circled

33:17

the simulated town that was reflected in

33:19

smaller blue boxes . Shaped icons circled the simulated town that was

33:21

reflected in smaller blue boxes . What is this ? An ISR mission ? Hoover asked

33:24

. He was close . The intelligence

33:26

, surveillance and reconnaissance mission that was being

33:28

portrayed was just the evidence Webb wanted

33:30

. Almost

33:37

Webb added gleefully it's a simulation ran by AI . We had been trying to get AI to fly drones

33:39

before the infected took over . I've been making fixes since our last exercise

33:41

. I think I can get the computer to run the

33:43

drones . We can have missions flown by

33:45

the AI and then only use

33:47

you as a pilot when we have something critical happening

33:49

. Stubble had begun to coat Hoover's

33:51

face . Shaving had taken a back

33:54

seat since society had effectively collapsed

33:56

. He scratched at the stubble before

33:58

folding his arms in contemplation . It's

34:00

a simulation . Are you sure it can operate an

34:03

actual drone ? Hoover queried

34:05

. Yes , sir , we based it all

34:07

on the fact that the eventual flights would be real . We

34:09

had the AI study real pilots on real

34:11

missions for months before starting the simulations

34:13

. The AI will make adjustments , just

34:16

like a human would . Webb explained what

34:18

about if it makes a mistake ? It's not ready for you

34:20

know , we can't risk one of the Reapers . We

34:22

don't have to , not at least until we've proved it . We

34:25

can have it fly ISR missions with the drones

34:27

not equipped to carry missiles . It would

34:29

give our crews time to ensure your Reapers are in top

34:31

shape and you won't be needed for the recon missions

34:33

. Then , when you do come in to fly , you'll

34:36

have the intel generated by the AI to start

34:38

targeting the dens . Hoover rubbed

34:40

his stubbles again . There

34:48

was a sharp intake of breath . Okay , I'll bring this up to General Evans If he approves

34:50

it . When will it be ready for the first flight ? I just need 24 hours . General

34:52

Evans was the base commander for the airfield . His

34:54

silver hair was kept short and thick . The

34:57

grayed hairs of his arms acted only to accent

34:59

the years of hard-set muscles that they could

35:01

not conceal . He stood like a stone

35:04

sentinel with his burly arms crossed behind

35:06

Specialist Webb as he implemented the last

35:08

installation into the flight controls

35:10

of the trailer . The station kicked on

35:13

and the feed from the drone outside lit up . The

35:15

feed just showed the heating asphalt . As the

35:17

drone sat ready in the bay , the

35:20

screen populated a small string of text

35:22

across the top I-1 approved

35:24

Expect , runway 10 . Radio

35:26

chatter from the tower began . I-1

35:29

, runway 10 . The practiced voice

35:31

came over the net from the tower . The drone

35:33

began to taxi out of the runway From

35:35

their feed . It was just hot ground moving . Another

35:38

monitor showed a digital layout of the airfield

35:40

. A blue airplane represented their

35:42

AI-driven drone I-1 , which

35:44

began to move to the runway . Hoover

35:47

Webb and General Evans watched as

35:49

the drone reached the holding area . I-1

35:51

, runway 10 cleared for takeoff . The

35:53

tower announced Webb gulped air once

35:56

then held his breath . The roar of the

35:58

engine could be heard in the thin trailer as

36:00

the drone went roaring down the runway . They

36:02

watched the little icon on the monitor as

36:04

the number appeared 100 , 120

36:07

, 150 . The drone

36:09

was climbing up into the air . The camera

36:11

feed began to show the small , desolated

36:13

town that they neighbored . As the drone

36:15

climbed further , a slow banking allowed

36:18

them to see Camp Clark and then their

36:20

own airfield Specialist . It

36:22

looks like you did it . General Evans stated

36:24

with a deceiving hint of optimism . Yes

36:27

, sir , you'll be able to collect information

36:29

from your AI . General Evans wanted

36:31

reconfirmation . Yes

36:37

, sir , the feat of all actions comes through the pilot's console . Anything it identifies

36:39

will show up exactly how our pilots would do it . Any actions it takes will also be fed to

36:41

the console , along with justifications , sir" . "'what

36:44

are the justifications' , the General

36:46

inquired . "'if the AI makes a decision

36:48

, it logs the decision . It allows me to come back

36:50

and then fine-tune how the AI makes decisions

36:52

, sir' . "'i want you in here every day then

36:55

Get this AI up to speed on every aspect

36:57

of our operations here' . Yes , sir Webb

36:59

said , unable to stop his teeth from

37:01

sparking in a toothy grin . The

37:03

course of his life over the next couple of weeks

37:05

was set . Specialist Webb would

37:07

spend his days inside the flight trailer . He

37:10

would arrive just as Lieutenant Hoover was finishing

37:12

his night flights . Webb would watch

37:14

as the drone picked up the patterns of the infected

37:16

in their movements . The AI would lay

37:18

out expected dens , and then Hoover would

37:21

come in and spend his night dropping missiles

37:23

onto any location the AI identified

37:25

. The patrols had started reporting

37:27

less infected . Hoover would have fewer

37:29

targets each night and eventually he

37:32

even had nights where he never fired a missile

37:34

. As Specialist Webb started his day

37:36

, he was greeted at the flight trailer by General

37:38

Evans . Morning , sir , specialist

37:40

Webb greeted the General you think your AI

37:42

is ready for combat missions ? Webb's

37:45

stomach pitted into tight coils . He

37:47

knew this day was coming , but there was a small

37:49

voice that reminded him of the earlier simulations

37:52

. As Webb chewed over his words

37:54

in his head , general Evans began

37:56

again , without Webb having provided

37:58

an answer . Our patrols have been pushing out

38:00

more thanks to your work , but the infected have

38:02

begun to pour in from the west . From

38:04

the trends I've seen , I suspect the infected

38:06

are running out of food in the west . That

38:09

makes us a juicy target . We need your

38:11

drone ready . There had been rumors about out

38:13

further west . Many had suspected

38:15

that the government had used nuclear weapons in California

38:17

before the government had ceased contact

38:20

. It would make sense . The infected , like

38:22

people , wanted to get away . The

38:24

caveat was the AI would be running missions

38:26

day and night , fully armed with four

38:28

Hellfire missiles . Webb watched

38:31

the first mission biting his thumb through the entire

38:33

duration . The drone had taken off

38:35

headed west and immediately caught a large

38:37

concentration of infected in Death Valley

38:40

. The drone fired three of its missiles

38:42

to eradicate the majority of the infected . The

38:44

drone only went several miles more before

38:47

the AI identified a den in Darwin

38:49

Falls where it expended its last

38:51

missile . The first success was not enough

38:53

for Webb . Webb stayed up for the first

38:55

night mission . Lieutenant Hoover sat

38:57

nearby and flew his own mission . Webb

38:59

was resigned to trying to conceal his concern

39:02

as he watched his AI in operation

39:04

. Webb said a silent prayer in

39:06

thanks that the day's heat had given sufficient

39:08

cover for why he profusely sweated

39:14

. Ai engaged

39:17

large swarms of infected coming

39:19

out of Mohav City . He should have been relieved

39:21

that the AI was working . He should have

39:23

been stressed that the infected were massing

39:25

. Yet there was an anxiety that his

39:27

intestines had wrapped around with the armed

39:30

AI . As the drone began its return

39:32

to rearm , he had relegated himself

39:34

to staying in the pilot's trailer . The

39:36

drone returned twice more to rearm before the

39:38

weariness won over Webb . He

39:43

sank in his chair to the sound of whirring devices and the subtle movement of the two drone

39:45

stations flying their deadly angels in

39:47

the sky . Webb wasn't sure what startled

39:49

him awake . He swore there was a rocking

39:52

, some loud noise in the distance

39:54

. Lieutenant Hoover was in the pilot's

39:56

seat , yelling . The door blew open

39:58

with a panicked silhouette filling the blazing

40:00

hole . What the hell is going on ? Hoover

40:02

screamed as he tried to bank his drone . Webb's

40:05

heart skipped . But we're here . It didn't

40:07

attack us . Camp Clark was just

40:09

hit . General Evans' voice boomed

40:11

like a cannon in the small trailer . What

40:13

is going on out there ? Webb was already

40:15

at the console for the AI-controlled drone

40:17

. The screen showed Camp Clark . The

40:19

crosshairs were slowly shifting away . A

40:22

smoldering crater burned where the farm

40:24

had been stationed . The site quickly shifted

40:26

to a large rectangular structure that was putting

40:29

off white , hot heat . In the black and

40:31

white imaging , the AI fired on Camp

40:33

Clark . Webb mumbled as his stomach hollowed

40:35

out . Why get that thing offline

40:37

? The general's words were accented

40:39

by the trailer rocking . A blast shook

40:42

their world . Webb saw the smoldering

40:44

remains of the screen . The generators

40:46

, the fences are down . A voice

40:48

screamed from the outside Get it offline

40:50

. General Evans hollered as he stormed

40:53

out into the chaos outside . Oh

40:55

my god . Hoover stuttered out Infected

40:57

, infected , infected everywhere

40:59

. Webb

41:02

barely heard what was being muttered out . He was tearing away cables to the AI control

41:04

. They must have been attracted by the explosion Hoover

41:07

fired at one of the approaching groups . The

41:09

little figures disintegrated into a blaze

41:11

of white-hot pieces . At the same time

41:13

, their trailer rocked again with the thudding

41:15

boom of the missile's impact . The AI's

41:18

drone tilted and began to go sideways

41:20

without the AI in control anymore . The

41:22

last image Webb saw was a string

41:24

of bodies rushing a fence line like

41:27

wild animals . Oh my god , oh my god

41:29

, oh my god . Hoover rattled as he fired

41:31

his missiles at several crowds . The infected

41:33

had begun to spread Like ants

41:35

. They were pouring in towards them . That's

41:37

it , I'm done , I'm getting out of here . Hoover

41:39

launched himself out of his seat and shoved

41:42

past Webb kneeling at the console

41:44

, scrolling through the justification log . Rifle

41:46

fire reported in from all around him . It

41:48

was like the 4th of July Short pops

41:51

, long strings of pops , sporadic

41:53

at times , then in unison , some

41:56

in focused fire , some in long , uncontrolled

41:58

desperation . Webb found

42:00

the justification log for the last fire

42:02

mission Eliminate infected

42:04

extermination best by food supply

42:07

. Civilian people negative 10

42:09

points . Civilian targets zero

42:11

points . Starvation and death valley

42:13

for infected estimated in 28

42:15

weeks 10 points for starvation

42:18

Optimal points by destroying civilian

42:20

structure and eliminating infected

42:22

food supply . Oh my god , he

42:25

had to allow the AI to target civilian structures

42:27

because most of the dens were in towns . It

42:30

didn't target the people , but it knew it could starve

42:32

the infected if there weren't people . Someone

42:35

came to the door in a frantic run . Their

42:37

body blocked out the scorching sunlight that

42:39

was pouring in behind them . It had to be

42:41

Hoover or General Evans . I know what's

42:43

wrong . I know why it did it . Webb coughed up

42:45

the figure snapped towards Webb . An

42:47

unnatural twitching , the malice and

42:49

the awkward stance given by the knotted hands

42:51

that launched itself in . A filthy

42:54

man in coveralls came barreling at him

42:56

. Webb didn't have time to scream as

42:58

the infected grasped him . He saw the

43:00

dark mall opening and thought negative

43:03

10 points .

43:06

I'm really curious to hear your thoughts on this one , Alan

43:08

, because I feel like it creates

43:10

a world that you might appreciate . It feels

43:13

a little bit like a video game , I guess .

43:15

Whoever made these decisions has

43:18

never seen Terminator . You just don't

43:20

give military weapons to

43:22

an ai , it just doesn't go well . Or

43:25

you know , even in the , the matrix

43:27

, when , uh , they're

43:29

attacking zion and everything , and there's one

43:31

machine per human survivor

43:33

and morpheus says , like you

43:36

know , one per human . That

43:38

sounds like the , the cold hard calculations

43:40

of a machine , and it's exactly

43:43

what they do . You know , they just don't take emotion

43:45

.

43:46

Nuance or context or humanity

43:48

, ethics , into anything you know it's

43:50

just numbers and it

43:52

makes it ripe for this kind of story .

43:54

Oh for sure , but what I loved about

43:56

this one was the whole point system .

43:58

Yeah .

43:59

Which I don't know anything about programming , but I wonder

44:01

if this is actually like how some thought

44:03

trees work . If you're given two options

44:05

, you're not always going to say , when given these two

44:07

options , pick a or pick b . Because

44:09

that's like not how humans think right the

44:12

context is is important , but

44:14

how do you build art , how do you build

44:17

context ? Right , that's , that's a human concept

44:19

concept . So the idea of

44:21

like a point-based thought tree where

44:24

, based off your performance

44:26

so far , how many points you have your overall

44:28

goal of achieving a net

44:31

positive number for the mission is

44:33

how you decide each individual decision

44:35

, which I thought that

44:37

was like a nice little peek behind the veil . If that is true

44:39

, I don't know anything about that .

44:40

But either way , even if it's not true , it's quite clever . It's

44:44

easy , I suppose , for us

44:46

to understand without needing to

44:48

be developers to your point , Like we can understand

44:51

really quickly the logic of it without

44:53

having to get too granular .

44:55

And everything felt so familiar

44:58

, which is weird . So they have the

45:00

simple problem of too

45:03

many baddies in the form of the infected , yeah , and

45:05

in order to deal with them they need very

45:08

specialized military assets that

45:10

require very specialized personnel

45:12

to run , and there's only

45:15

so much to go around and it's not enough to deal

45:17

with the problem . So

45:19

what do you do ? You automate it . You know Like even in the

45:21

story they talked about how it took so enough to deal with the problem . So what , what do you do you ? You automate it . You know like even in the story

45:23

they talked about how it took so long to train , to hopefully

45:26

train one more person . But

45:28

if you have a computer where you can just what ? Copy

45:30

and paste it into more machines , right

45:32

then theoretically there's your whole drone

45:34

fleet and like I get that you know you're

45:36

. This is the survival of the human race situation

45:39

. You got to do what you got to do , but then

45:41

, as soon as it just gets a little out of control

45:43

, it's really hard to put the

45:45

cat back in the bag .

45:46

There you go , yeah , another really

45:48

well-written , world-based story

45:50

. So this is our second story that we're featuring

45:53

from SS Fitzgerald , and I feel

45:55

like he does this great job of creating a

45:58

very robust world

46:00

with a lot of atmosphere , again

46:03

in a short story format , which is impressive

46:05

.

46:06

And speaking of you know , impressive

46:08

, and speaking of just robots

46:11

you

46:19

know , jeff Ayers is just a reading machine .

46:20

Jeff Ayers is the narrator of this story . One of our dear friends did an excellent job

46:22

. As always . Jeff is an incredibly talented actor

46:25

, brought a lot to the story and

46:27

has very strategic plans

46:29

for how to bring these characters to life , and I feel like

46:31

he he always nails it .

46:33

I feel like he was really able to embody

46:36

the overworked , tired

46:38

bureaucracy that

46:40

you know came through in like the military

46:43

industrial complex .

46:45

Yes , always an honor to get to work with Jeff

46:47

, one of our absolute favorite friends

46:49

and actors , but honestly

46:51

, an iconic duo . Ss Fitzgerald

46:54

and Jeff Ayers to the moon .

46:55

To the moon . Yeah

46:58

, I know this is a very

47:00

classic robot

47:03

uprising type story . Actually

47:05

. No , it's not because they don't really rise

47:07

up , they just they've already risen

47:09

. They just do their own thing , which is

47:11

what they told them to do in the first place yeah

47:13

it's , you know again it's . This

47:16

is totally a fuck around and find

47:18

out situation . Uh

47:20

, you know , they asked themselves

47:22

if they could rather than if they should .

47:24

As always , I'm going to leave some links in the description of

47:26

this episode where you can find more about Jeff Ayers

47:29

and also access the

47:31

work of SS Fitzgerald and his social

47:33

handles . So please , again support all

47:35

of the friends that are helping us bring this episode

47:37

to life . But without further ado , we

47:40

have one final story for you . Red

47:47

Light , written by

47:50

ES Evans , read

47:52

by Jessalyn

47:54

Wright .

47:56

Are you sure we're not lost ? Mia

47:58

said , peering through the dirty windshield

48:00

at the miles and miles of dry brown

48:03

grass that had sprung up around them . I

48:05

don't remember this being on the way . Oscar

48:08

, in the driver's seat , shot her a brief

48:10

glance , his hands gripping the

48:12

wheel tightly . We're not lost

48:14

. This is where the GPS is leading us

48:16

. It can't exactly be wrong , can it

48:18

? You're the one who put the address

48:21

in . Mia . Abby reminded her

48:23

from the back seat , leaning forward to grip

48:25

the front headrest with her fingers and poking

48:27

Mia in the back of the head with a chuckle . Beside

48:30

her . Jake was snoring quietly

48:32

. It's probably just taking us down

48:34

a shortcut . Don't be such a worrywart

48:36

. Mia pouted but said

48:38

nothing , folding her arms together . The

48:43

scenery continued to pass by in swathes of brown and grey , drab

48:46

and unchanging . A couple of run-down

48:48

farmsteads and crumbling brick buildings

48:50

passed in the distance , but the

48:52

road continued to wind through the valley of

48:54

grass , seemingly going nowhere

48:56

. It was mid-afternoon by the time

48:58

they reached the next town , an unassuming

49:01

cluster of buildings that almost blended in

49:03

with the dreary sky . Let's

49:07

stop here and take a rest . Oscar

49:09

suggested slowing the car to

49:11

a crawl as they passed the signpost

49:13

welcoming them into town . The text

49:15

was too faded to read , dark tendrils

49:18

of moss creeping along the letters , but

49:20

Mia thought it might have ended in gate

49:22

as she glimpsed it on the way past

49:25

. Maybe we can reconfigure the GPS

49:27

and make sure we are on the right track

49:29

, he added with a glance towards Mia . Mia

49:32

nodded yeah , that'd be good thanks

49:34

. Hey , jakey , wake up . Abby said , shaking Jake's shoulder as his head

49:36

lulled with a snore . Wake up . Abby said , shaking Jake's

49:38

shoulder as his head lulled with

49:40

a snore . Wake

49:44

up . What Are we there ? Jake

49:46

blurted , sitting up and frantically looking

49:48

around . When he saw the run-down

49:50

street around them , he frowned Uh

49:53

, where are we ? Oscar got

49:55

us last . Mia said , before anyone could answer

49:57

, earning her a glare from the driver

49:59

. We're

50:07

just stopping off for a rest . Abby corrected , though I'll admit I have no idea where we are . This place

50:09

looks abandoned , mia observed , cupping her hand to the window and peering

50:11

out . There was nobody out on the streets

50:14

and there was a certain squalid

50:16

appearance to the buildings that made them seem

50:18

uninhabited . Where the heck have

50:20

you taken us ? Don't

50:22

blame me . Oscar said momentarily

50:25

, taking his hands off the wheel to throw out a defensive

50:27

gesture . Blame the GPS

50:29

. Mia sighed , massaging

50:32

her temples . This was supposed to be a

50:34

fun road trip with her best friends

50:36

, exploring new places and

50:38

making memories . Creepy deserted

50:40

towns in the middle of nowhere hadn't

50:42

been on the agenda . Let's get

50:44

out and stretch our legs and figure

50:47

out our next move . Oscar said calmly

50:49

I need

50:51

to take a leak anyway . Jake

50:53

muttered Never one to mince

50:55

his words . Abby rolled her eyes

50:57

. All right , park up

50:59

and let's see what the heck this place

51:01

is . Oscar pulled the car to a stop

51:03

outside what seemed to have once been

51:05

a post office and the four of them climbed

51:08

out stretching their arms and legs . After

51:10

spending several hours cramped inside

51:12

the five-seater vehicle Thorngate

51:15

Post . Mia read aloud

51:17

studying the news bulletin behind

51:19

the dirty window . Dust and cobwebs

51:22

clung to the corners and there were

51:24

old yellow stains on the edges of the

51:26

paper pinned to the board Old

51:28

news clippings and posters and job

51:30

vacancies , but nothing seemed

51:32

recent . When she tried to peer inside

51:35

, it was too dark to see anything but the faint

51:37

hulking shape of a desk somewhere

51:39

at the back of the room . Well , I

51:42

don't think we're going to find anyone here , she said

51:45

pulling away from the window . If

51:47

the post office is abandoned , the whole town

51:49

must be . Nobody responded to

51:51

her . Oscar was fiddling with the GPS

51:53

and Abby was trying to get signal on her phone

51:56

, with apparently little success . Jake

51:58

was shifting from foot to foot , his gaze

52:00

elsewhere . This is weird

52:02

. The GPS doesn't seem to be working

52:05

. Oscar muttered , tapping at the screen of the

52:07

navigation system . What do you mean

52:09

? Look , it's saying that we're

52:11

already at the destination , but

52:13

it won't let me input a new one . That's

52:15

weird . Mia murmured

52:18

, biting her lip . She

52:20

wasn't sure what , but something felt

52:22

off . Something

52:24

in the back of her mind was telling her that they shouldn't

52:26

be here . Well , why don't

52:28

we just drive back the way we came

52:30

? I don't think going any further would be a good idea

52:33

, she said . Jake scoffed no

52:35

way , we're not going back . He said , shifting

52:37

his weight again . Look guys , I've really

52:40

got to go pee . Can we look for a toilet

52:42

? Just go in some bushes

52:44

, abby said , rolling her eyes . Jake

52:46

shot her a look , I'm not an animal

52:49

. He said . I like my privacy

52:51

. Thank you , abby sighed Fine

52:54

, we'll go look for a toilet . You two

52:56

stay here and figure out what to do . Wait

52:58

, mia blurted , before they could go , reaching

53:00

out a hand . I don't think it's a good idea

53:03

to split up . Abby quirked a brow

53:05

and even Oscar lifted his gaze from

53:07

the GPS to look at her , cocking his head

53:09

. Why ? He asked his tone

53:11

curious . Mia shrugged nonchalantly

53:13

, trying not to betray the nervous

53:15

anticipation fluttering in her chest

53:17

. No reason , I

53:22

just don't think it's wise . I mean , we're in a town we don't know , and a deserted one

53:24

at that . There might be , you know

53:26

, weirdos hanging around or something

53:28

. I just think we should stay together . Mia

53:31

has a point , oscar said . To her

53:33

surprise , he hid the GPS in the

53:35

glove compartment and shut the door . I

53:37

don't know about you guys , but I feel kind

53:39

of weird about this place . Mia

53:41

sighed in relief , glad she wasn't

53:43

the only one who was perturbed by all the dark

53:46

, empty windows and abandoned

53:48

streets . We'll go have a look around

53:50

, take a toilet break , then

53:52

drive back the way we came until we get somewhere

53:54

that's a bit more inhabited

53:57

. All right , sounds like a plan

53:59

, abby said , snapping her fingers . Oscar

54:02

locked the car behind him before the four of them

54:04

set off in search of a public toilet . You

54:07

do know the toilets are going to be disgusting

54:10

here , abby pointed out

54:12

as they walked down the empty street , their

54:15

footfalls eerily loud against the silence

54:17

. A dry wind rustled

54:19

through the gutters but nothing else

54:21

stirred , probably full of cockroaches

54:24

and clogged sewer water . Jake

54:27

shrugged , apparently unbothered by the prospect

54:29

, still beats going in the bushes , he

54:31

said . Mia shivered through her jacket

54:33

, tucking her hands beneath her armpits to

54:35

hide the tremble in her fingers . There

54:38

wasn't a single car parked on the road

54:40

and not a person in sight . It was uncanny

54:43

, eerie . Even the silence

54:46

, the stillness . It felt

54:48

wrong . There there's

54:50

a sign for restrooms , oscar

54:52

pointed out , drawing their attention to another

54:55

moss-covered sign hanging over a small

54:57

brick outhouse . Overgrown weeds

54:59

and dry brown grass quivered in the

55:01

wind . Oh , thank God , I don't think

55:03

I can hold it in any longer . Jake rushed

55:05

for the restroom , disappearing into the open

55:07

doorway . Oh God , it stinks

55:10

. His voice called out . A second

55:12

later , pinched with disgust , told

55:15

you . Abby muttered under her breath . Anyone

55:17

else need to go ? Oscar asked , arching

55:20

his brow at the two girls . Mia and

55:22

Abby exchanged a glance I think

55:24

I'd rather hold it as they waited

55:26

for Jake to finish . Mia took a few

55:28

steps down the street and looked around . On

55:30

her left was a laundromat , the windows

55:33

boarded up with wooden slats and

55:35

crumpled black bags . Some of

55:37

the glass was broken but nobody had bothered

55:39

to fix it . At the end of the street was

55:41

a convenience store with more broken and

55:43

boarded windows . A rusted

55:45

trolley sat on the sidewalk , its wheel

55:47

stuck in a gutter . What happened

55:50

here ? She wondered aloud , her

55:52

voice crackling in the wind . As she turned

55:54

back to face the others , something caught her

55:56

attention A small red light

55:59

blinking in the corner of her eye . She

56:01

gave a start , turning to look at what it was , but

56:03

there was nothing she could immediately see , had

56:06

she imagined it . Turning her head again

56:08

, she let her gaze linger on the road

56:10

, paying attention to her surroundings , until

56:12

there it was again A tiny

56:14

red light light blinking on and off above

56:17

the laundromat building . She lifted her

56:19

gaze and felt her stomach flip . Below

56:21

the red light was a round black

56:24

lens attached to a white

56:26

rectangular body A camera

56:28

. It was looking right at them , the

56:30

dark lens like an eye , and the

56:32

red light meant it was recording

56:35

right , were they being watched ? Um

56:38

guys , mia

56:40

said her voice strangled as she hurried

56:42

back to the other two . I don't want

56:44

to alarm you , but I really think

56:46

we should get out of here . What's wrong

56:48

? Oscar asked , noticing the

56:50

wobble in Mia's expression . I think

56:53

someone's watching us . She

56:55

said , keeping her voice low See

56:57

, over there , above the laundromat , there's

56:59

a camera . What ? Abby

57:02

blurted , but Mia grabbed her arm to stop

57:04

her from spinning around . Don't , don't look , let's

57:07

just get out of here . She said . But

57:09

, but Jake . He hasn't come back yet

57:11

. They'd already been waiting for a little over five

57:13

minutes . Hasn't come back yet . They'd already been

57:16

waiting for a little over five minutes . Maybe

57:18

he needs to , you

57:22

know , oscar said , his freckled cheeks flushing . Mia shook her head . He'll have to hold it . Go and tell

57:24

him we're leaving . With a sigh , oscar dragged himself into the restroom

57:26

after Jake , immediately pinching

57:28

his nose and recoiling with disgust . Jake

57:31

, you almost done ? He asked , lingering

57:33

in the doorway , reluctant to go any further

57:35

. When he received no response

57:37

, he shot the girls a glance and went

57:39

further in his shadow , disappearing

57:42

around the yellow tiles . A moment later

57:44

he came out , looking troubled . He's not there

57:46

. Abby and Mia stared at him

57:49

momentarily , at a loss for words . What

57:52

do you mean ? He's not there ? Abby

57:54

finally said , recovering . She

57:56

marched forward . Jake

58:04

, get your butt out here . We're leaving . He's not there . Oscar repeated

58:06

, his eyes going wide with the realisation he's gone . Where

58:08

did he go ? Did anyone see him leave ? Mia

58:10

asked , chewing nervously on her bottom lip

58:12

. Surely we'd have seen him if he left

58:14

. There's only one way in and out , oscar

58:17

confirmed . And I didn't see him come

58:19

out . Then where is he

58:21

? Abby said exasperatedly If

58:23

this is some prank . It's not funny . Oscar

58:26

shook his head frantically . I swear

58:28

he's not in there . I checked every cubicle

58:31

, the entire restroom's empty

58:33

. Mia pressed her hands together beneath

58:35

her chin , trying to calm her staggering

58:37

heart . This is bad . Where

58:40

could he have gone ? What if someone took

58:42

him ? Mia stared at Abby , her lip quivering

58:45

. What do you mean ? Who could have taken

58:47

him ? Abby shrugged Whoever's

58:49

behind that camera . She suggested

58:51

throwing up her hands in frustration . I

58:54

don't know . I'll try phoning him , but I

58:56

don't think I have any service . She brought

58:58

out her phone and dialed jake's number , but

59:00

there wasn't even a dial tone . No

59:03

signal . She cursed softly

59:05

. What now , jake ? Jake

59:07

, if you can hear me , get back

59:09

here . Oscar started shouting , his voice

59:11

echoing down the empty street . Mia

59:14

winced . She wasn't sure shouting

59:16

was such a good idea . Attracting attention

59:19

didn't seem wise somehow . Why

59:21

don't we head back to the car ? She said . Jake

59:23

knows where we parked , he can find

59:25

his way back to us . Is that such a

59:27

good idea , just leaving him ? Oscar

59:30

said . His dark brown eyes creased

59:32

with concern . He could be in trouble

59:34

. But we didn't even see him leave the

59:36

bathroom . Where could he have gone ? You're

59:38

certain it's empty . Abby asked

59:40

. Oscar's jaw clenched , don't

59:43

you believe me ? Oh , let's not do

59:45

this now . Mia said , diffusing the

59:47

tension between them . Let's head

59:49

back to the car . Jake will know

59:51

how to find us there . If he doesn't come back

59:54

, we'll go looking for him or call

59:56

for help or something . Abby scoffed

59:58

. Good luck getting help with no

1:00:00

service . We're miles away from any

1:00:02

civilisation . Despite their

1:00:04

uneasiness , the three of them wordlessly

1:00:06

headed back towards the post office where

1:00:09

they'd left the car . Um , which

1:00:11

way was it again ? Abby

1:00:16

asked as they reached the end of the street and found themselves in front of a row of

1:00:18

unfamiliar buildings , all

1:00:20

grimy , yellow brick and broken windows

1:00:22

. I don't recognise any of this . Neither

1:00:25

do I . Mia said , her heart

1:00:27

fluttering . Had they taken a wrong turn

1:00:29

? She was certain this was the way they'd

1:00:31

walked before . There's another camera

1:00:33

. Oscar said his voice

1:00:36

low , almost nervous . He

1:00:38

was staring at something attached to a lamppost

1:00:40

on the corner of the street Another

1:00:42

white security camera , its

1:00:45

red light blinking at them , watching

1:00:47

. What is this place ? Who

1:00:50

is watching us ? Mia shook

1:00:52

her head . I don't like this

1:00:54

. We really need to leave , but

1:00:56

we can't , not without Jake . They

1:00:59

kept walking past the row of mismatched

1:01:01

houses and their unkempt lawns until

1:01:03

they finally reached the street with the post office

1:01:05

. Only , something was wrong

1:01:08

. Something was missing

1:01:10

. Guys , where's the car

1:01:12

? Oscar said , his voice barely

1:01:14

more than a horrified whisper . It

1:01:17

was right , there

1:01:19

, wasn't it ? Right outside the post office ? Mia

1:01:22

nodded wordlessly , unable

1:01:24

to dislodge the words from her throat as she stared

1:01:26

down the empty street . The car

1:01:28

was gone , and so was their only way

1:01:31

out of this ghost town . In the window

1:01:33

opposite her , the distorted visage

1:01:35

of her own reflection looked back at her

1:01:37

, eyes wide and hair

1:01:39

frizzled from the wind . In between their

1:01:41

stunned silence , footsteps began

1:01:43

to thunder towards them , with

1:01:45

a start that the three of them turned around , hardly

1:01:47

daring to breathe . Jake was marching

1:01:49

towards them down the street , his face bright

1:01:51

, red and slick with sweat , and his shoulders

1:01:54

trembling with anger . What the hell

1:01:56

, guys , do you think that was funny , jake

1:01:59

? Where have you been ? Oscar

1:02:01

said , darting forward to meet his friend halfway

1:02:03

. What's that supposed to mean

1:02:05

? Jake spat , shaking him off . You

1:02:08

locked me in that cubicle and left me . Oscar

1:02:10

shook his head , his eyes clouded with confusion

1:02:13

. What are you talking about ? You

1:02:15

disappeared , man . I went in to look

1:02:17

for you , but you weren't there . Jake scoffed

1:02:19

Wow , real mature . I'm

1:02:22

not an idiot , you know . You barred

1:02:24

the door . I had to crawl out from underneath

1:02:26

the stall only to find all of you gone

1:02:28

. Jake , we didn't lock you in

1:02:30

. Mia said , stepping forward her tone

1:02:32

firm . Oscar's right , you disappeared

1:02:35

. Whatever you think we did , it wasn't

1:02:37

us . His anger dwindled , his

1:02:40

shoulders folding forward with a huff . Well

1:02:42

then , who was it ? There's nobody else

1:02:45

here , I don't want to alarm you

1:02:47

. Abby , said her tone gentle

1:02:49

, but we're being watched . There's

1:02:51

cameras all over the place . Jake's

1:02:54

gray blue eyes flashed what

1:02:56

he blurted , looking around frantically

1:02:59

, his floppy brown hair drifting over

1:03:01

his gaze . No way

1:03:03

, and the car's gone . Oscar

1:03:05

added , swallowing thickly . We're

1:03:07

stuck here , wherever . Here is no

1:03:09

food , no water , no

1:03:12

way out of here . Mere lamented

1:03:15

, burying her face in her hands

1:03:17

. I feel like we've walked into some

1:03:19

kind of sick twisted game

1:03:21

. Someone's clearly messing with us . They

1:03:23

locked Jake in a bathroom stall that doesn't exist

1:03:26

, and now they've taken the car too . I

1:03:28

don't know if this makes sense . It's

1:03:30

going to get dark soon , oscar said

1:03:32

, lifting his gaze to the darkening sky . It

1:03:35

hadn't seemed that long ago , since the midday

1:03:37

sun was beating down on them , but

1:03:39

now a shadow hung over

1:03:41

the deserted town like a pall , making

1:03:44

them feel even more alone . Out here . We

1:03:47

either need to find a place that gives us service

1:03:50

to call for help , or we look for someone

1:03:52

that can give us answers . Jake's

1:03:54

eyes widened Without

1:03:57

warning . He turned to face the camera that was watching them from a nearby

1:03:59

building . He started waving his

1:04:01

hands frantically hey , if you can

1:04:03

hear us , we need help . We're stuck here

1:04:05

. They're hardly going to help us if they're

1:04:07

the ones who are messing with us . Abby muttered , grabbing

1:04:10

Jake's arm , tugging him back . We're on

1:04:12

our own here . Then what do you

1:04:14

suggest we do ? Jake said

1:04:16

, yanking his arm out of Abby's grip , spittle

1:04:18

flying from his mouth . We can't just stand

1:04:21

around waiting for something to happen . Abby

1:04:23

subconsciously took a step back as Jake's

1:04:25

anger fizzled out like an ember . Hey

1:04:28

, calm down , man , there's no point getting

1:04:30

angry . Oscar said , spreading

1:04:32

his hands to try and calm his friend . We'll

1:04:34

figure a way out of this , but

1:04:37

we have to stay rational . I

1:04:39

am staying rational . Jake muttered

1:04:41

. Hey , calm down , man , there's no

1:04:43

point getting angry . Oscar said

1:04:45

, spreading his hands to try and calm his friend

1:04:47

. We'll figure a way out of

1:04:49

this , but we have to stay rational . I

1:04:51

am staying rational . Jake

1:04:54

muttered , sharply , turning away . I'm

1:04:57

going to go and look around . We're not

1:04:59

splitting up . Mia said , wringing her hands

1:05:01

nervously let's all go . Jake

1:05:04

was already halfway down the street when they hurried

1:05:06

to catch up . Jake , slow

1:05:08

down . Do you really want to get separated

1:05:10

again ? Abby called , swinging her

1:05:12

arms furiously to close the distance between

1:05:14

them . The other boy huffed and turned

1:05:17

. Didn't seem to bother you when you left

1:05:19

me behind before . Come on , man

1:05:21

, we didn't know what happened to you . You

1:05:23

still could have stuck around and waited . Jake

1:05:25

said , clearly still harbouring a grudge . Are

1:05:28

we really going to fight when there's bigger

1:05:30

things to worry about ? Mia said

1:05:32

, though her small voice went

1:05:34

unheard between the two boys . Bickering Guys

1:05:43

, seriously . Abby intervened , her voice thundering around the deserted street and instantly silencing

1:05:45

them . The boys shifted their feet , their expressions

1:05:47

ashamed , sorry . The

1:05:50

ensuing silence was just as quickly

1:05:52

shattered by the distant rattle and scrape

1:05:54

of metal coming from somewhere deeper inside

1:05:56

the town . What was that ? Abby

1:05:59

asked , sucking her lower lip into her teeth

1:06:01

as she looked around . I think it came

1:06:03

from down there . Oscar said , pointing

1:06:05

down a narrow alleyway on their right . Should

1:06:08

we check it out ? It might be

1:06:10

a trap , mia posited . But

1:06:13

Jake was already marching off , his hands bunched

1:06:15

into fists . If it is , it

1:06:17

is Guess . We're about to find out

1:06:19

. Abby said , rolling her eyes as she followed

1:06:21

after the hot-headed boy . Oscar

1:06:24

and Mia exchanged a glance before taking up

1:06:26

the rear . Emerging on the other side

1:06:28

of the dingy alley , they found themselves

1:06:30

on a cobbled street full of neglected shops

1:06:33

and boutiques . All of them had

1:06:35

their shutters rolled down , except for one , a

1:06:38

clothes and accessories boutique . As

1:06:40

they neared the porch of the shop , the

1:06:42

distinct click of a lock , disengaging

1:06:45

, stopped them in their tracks . This

1:06:47

is definitely a trap . They want

1:06:49

us to go in there , oscar

1:06:51

said , stabbing the air with his hand . There's

1:06:53

no way . What if there's someone

1:06:55

inside who can give us answers ? Abby

1:06:57

pointed out . I don't want to go

1:07:00

inside just as much as you do , but

1:07:02

it could be our way out of this place . No

1:07:05

, mia said her voice sharp , our

1:07:07

way out is back there . She

1:07:09

hooked a thumb over her shoulder , gesturing

1:07:12

towards the direction they'd come from . Yeah

1:07:15

, good luck . Walking hundreds of miles on the open road without food or

1:07:17

water , jake snorted . Mia

1:07:20

sighed , knowing they were right

1:07:22

. It wasn't like they could simply waltz

1:07:25

out of here and expect to find help . The

1:07:27

road had been just as lonely and desolate as

1:07:29

the town . She gave a silent

1:07:31

nod and Jake reached for

1:07:33

the handle , twisting it sharply . The door

1:07:35

shuddered open and a thick cloud

1:07:38

of dust erupted from the doormat

1:07:40

, billowing into their faces , wafting

1:07:43

the air . Jake stepped inside , the

1:07:45

other three on his heels , anxious about being

1:07:47

left behind . Inside , the store

1:07:50

was dimly lit from the sunlight drifting

1:07:52

in through the front windows , with rails

1:07:54

of old-fashioned clothes and accessories lining

1:07:56

the centre of the room . Some of the

1:07:58

material billowing from the draft they had let

1:08:00

in , a shadowy figure standing

1:08:03

in the corner of the room made Mia

1:08:05

cry out , until she realised

1:08:07

it was just a mannequin , unmoving

1:08:09

, unliving Somehow

1:08:12

. That didn't reassure her as much as it should

1:08:14

, as they clustered into the middle of the

1:08:16

shop gazing around , the door

1:08:18

behind them slammed closed without warning

1:08:20

, the lock clicked back into place

1:08:22

by itself and the metal shutters on

1:08:24

the outside began to roll back down , blocking

1:08:27

out the dying remnants of light outside

1:08:29

. No , oscar cried

1:08:31

, running back to the door and desperately

1:08:34

trying the handle , but it wouldn't budge . Damn

1:08:36

it . The shop gradually darkened

1:08:38

in the fading light , shadows coalescing

1:08:41

around the edges of the room . This is bad

1:08:43

, this is bad , oh god , this is really

1:08:45

bad . Mia whispered softly

1:08:47

, her gaze darting through the darkness

1:08:50

, clutching her hands to her chest , waiting

1:08:52

for something to leap out at them . Hands

1:08:54

to her chest , waiting for something to leap out at them . You guys are so jumpy . Jake

1:08:56

muttered , flipping a switch on the

1:08:58

wall . With a soft buzz , a strip

1:09:00

of fluorescent lights flickered on overhead

1:09:02

, casting

1:09:08

a dreary orange glow around the room . Mia sighed in relief . Glad they weren't stranded in complete

1:09:10

darkness . Figured , if they've got cameras and stuff working here , they

1:09:13

must be operating on some kind of electricity

1:09:15

grid , right ? He said with a nonchalant

1:09:17

shrug . But Mia could tell he was pleased

1:09:19

with his find . Let's take a look around

1:09:21

, oscar suggested . He barely

1:09:23

took a step forward when Mia gasped her

1:09:26

eyes going wide , she stared

1:09:28

at the corner of the room where she had seen the mannequin

1:09:30

. Now there was nothing but empty

1:09:32

space . It's gone . She

1:09:34

breathed , scanning the shop . What

1:09:37

is ? There was a mannequin

1:09:39

there . I swear I saw it when we came

1:09:41

in , but it's disappeared . It

1:09:43

was Abby's turn to panic , her breathing growing

1:09:45

heavy and strained . No , god

1:09:48

, no , I hate mannequins . She

1:09:50

said , tugging anxiously at her hair . Please

1:09:53

tell me you were mistaken . Mia swallowed

1:09:55

thickly , knowing what she'd seen

1:09:57

, you're sure . Oscar asked softly

1:09:59

from beside her . Mia nodded , chewing her

1:10:01

bottom lip . Do you think someone was in here

1:10:03

. Oscar said nothing , his expression

1:10:06

tense as he looked around the shop . There

1:10:08

was a door on their left and some steps leading

1:10:10

into another part of the store on the right . Let's

1:10:13

go and have a look . Abby's lips trembled

1:10:15

with fear as she huddled close to Mia . I

1:10:17

hate this , she whispered . Mia

1:10:20

looked away Me too . With

1:10:22

Jake and Oscar in the lead , they headed down

1:10:24

the steps to the second part of the store , where

1:10:26

the shelves were laden with old , moth-eaten

1:10:29

handbags and torn scarves and

1:10:31

other accessories that had clearly decayed over

1:10:34

time . The air was still and

1:10:36

thick with dust , undisturbed . I

1:10:38

don't see anyone . Oscar said his

1:10:40

voice low . No , but

1:10:42

they see us . Mia added

1:10:44

. Her gaze fixed on the camera watching

1:10:47

them from above . A stand of necklaces

1:10:49

. The red light blinked and

1:10:51

Mia was certain she saw the lens expand

1:10:54

like it was zooming in . Who the

1:10:56

hell are you ? Jake shouted

1:10:58

towards the camera , his cheeks flushing Almost

1:11:01

as soon as he said that the lights cut

1:11:03

, dousing them in pitch darkness . Someone

1:11:05

gasped and Mia felt the air shift

1:11:08

in front of her , as though someone had moved

1:11:10

past her on silent footsteps . When

1:11:12

they flickered back on barely two seconds

1:11:14

later , they were not alone . Abby

1:11:16

screamed , the blood draining so rapidly

1:11:19

from her face that Mia thought she might faint Before

1:11:21

anyone could stop her . Abby turned

1:11:23

and ran , tripping up the stairs and disappearing

1:11:26

into the other room , her ragged pants

1:11:28

trailing in the air behind her . Abby

1:11:30

, wait . Mia cried , running

1:11:32

after her . The door on the other side of the

1:11:34

store was already closing and by

1:11:36

the time Mia had reached it it was shut and

1:11:38

the lock had engaged . She tugged frantically

1:11:41

on the handle , but it wouldn't give , so she

1:11:43

resorted instead to slamming on the door . Abby

1:11:45

, abby , come back . Where

1:11:47

did she go ? Oscar asked breathlessly as

1:11:49

he came up behind her . His cheeks flushed from

1:11:51

running . She went through there , but

1:11:53

the door locked after her . His cheeks flushed from running . She went through

1:11:56

there , but the door locked after her . Mia cried in frustration , slamming her

1:11:58

fists one last time against the door . Damn

1:12:00

it , why did she run off ? Mannequins

1:12:02

are one of her worst fears , jake

1:12:04

said darkly . You two should know

1:12:06

that . Dolls , puppets

1:12:09

, mannequins , she hates them

1:12:11

all . Mia swallowed , glancing behind

1:12:13

her . Do you think they know that

1:12:16

? How could they ? Oscar protested

1:12:18

. Mia shook her head . I don't know

1:12:20

. I just I feel like they're

1:12:22

messing with us , playing games

1:12:24

, trying to scare us . But who

1:12:26

are they ? Oscar said his voice

1:12:28

low . What do they want ? Were

1:12:31

there any clues on the mannequin ? Mia

1:12:33

asked we need to find a way to get Abby

1:12:35

back . Jake shook his head , crossing his arms

1:12:37

. Not that I saw . He said

1:12:39

, but feel free to check yourself

1:12:41

. Swallowing back the nervous flutter

1:12:44

in her chest , mia went back

1:12:46

to the mannequin that had appeared before them . Had

1:12:48

someone really moved it in that brief time

1:12:50

frame , or had it moved itself ? She

1:12:52

wasn't sure . She wanted to know the answer . The

1:12:55

mannequin was tall and long-limbed

1:12:57

, with no face or defining features

1:12:59

, wearing a red satin dress

1:13:02

that was full of moth holes . Tentatively

1:13:04

, she reached out to touch it . With

1:13:07

a soft , almost mechanical

1:13:09

whirring . The mannequin's arms sprung

1:13:11

up , cold plastic fingers closing

1:13:14

around her wrist . She screamed , trying

1:13:16

to tug herself free . But the mannequin's

1:13:18

grip was surprisingly strong , its

1:13:21

clammy fingers tight around her skin

1:13:23

. Oscar and Jake came rushing in behind

1:13:25

her . Jake tried to tug the hand free

1:13:27

, whilst Oscar began to pull at its dress

1:13:29

, looking for something to switch it off . Look

1:13:32

at this , a gearbox . It's

1:13:34

like an automaton . Oscar said

1:13:36

his

1:13:40

eyes wide as he tinkered with something on the back of the dummy's neck . Something clicked

1:13:42

beneath his touch and the hand around Mia's wrist finally let

1:13:44

go . She yanked her hand back , breathing heavily

1:13:46

. What the hell is this place

1:13:48

? She said , shaking her head . God

1:13:51

, we have got to get out of here . Let's find Abby

1:13:53

. There's a key . Oscar said , pulling

1:13:55

something small and silver from the mannequin's gearbox

1:13:58

. This must be our way out . They

1:14:00

hurried over to the door that Abby had disappeared through

1:14:02

, slotting in the key and rushing up the stairs

1:14:05

. Abby , abby , where

1:14:07

are you ? Mia called her

1:14:09

voice , bouncing off the narrow walls . They

1:14:12

found Abby in a small closet room sitting

1:14:14

with her knees pulled up to her chin , rocking

1:14:17

back and forth , muttering something under

1:14:19

her breath . Abby , are you okay

1:14:21

? Mia crouched down in front of her friend

1:14:24

, reaching out to touch her shoulder

1:14:26

, but the moment her fingers

1:14:28

made contact , Abby started

1:14:30

screaming , thrashing out her arms

1:14:32

.

1:14:32

No .

1:14:33

Leave me alone .

1:14:34

Don't touch me , abby , calm

1:14:36

down , it's me . But if Abby heard

1:14:38

her or recognised her voice , she

1:14:40

didn't show it . She kept muttering

1:14:42

something under her breath , her shoulders

1:14:44

trembling and her eyes darting

1:14:47

around the small closet . What the hell

1:14:49

happened to her ? Jake whispered

1:14:51

from the doorway . His expression pained

1:14:53

. Abby , please , we need to

1:14:55

go . Mia said , grasping her

1:14:57

arm and pulling her to her feet . This time

1:15:00

Abby offered no resistance , but

1:15:02

her expression remained twisted in fear

1:15:04

, her movements wobbly . She

1:15:06

didn't seem to be physically injured in any way , but

1:15:09

whatever she'd seen or experienced had

1:15:11

clearly messed with her mind . Come

1:15:13

on , there was a fire exit leading outside

1:15:15

the building , and they climbed the metal

1:15:17

stairs in silence , shaken by

1:15:19

what had just happened . I'm starting

1:15:22

to think that the open road sounds like a better option

1:15:24

than staying here , oscar admitted

1:15:26

as they stopped on the street outside , breathing

1:15:29

in lungfuls of fresh air , mia

1:15:31

nodded let's go and find the way out of

1:15:33

town , she said . And go from there . Somebody's

1:15:36

bound to drive by eventually , right ? Jake

1:15:39

didn't seem happy about the decision , but

1:15:41

one look at Abby's terrified face

1:15:43

appeased him enough that he didn't put up a fight

1:15:45

. It was almost dusk now , and

1:15:48

in the darkness the town looked even more

1:15:50

eerie , filling Mia with a thick

1:15:52

foreboding . They took out their

1:15:54

phones to use as flashlights , but the

1:15:56

darkness only seemed to have closed around them

1:15:58

, more suffocating in its

1:16:01

heaviness . There's the post office

1:16:03

. So the way out should be that way , she

1:16:05

said , clutching Abby's arm tightly as

1:16:07

they walked side by side down the street . Abby

1:16:10

had gone quiet now , but

1:16:12

every now and then she let out a soft whimper

1:16:14

and began to panic until Mia calmed her

1:16:16

down . Whatever she had gone through

1:16:19

had completely broken her . They

1:16:21

kept walking past the post office where

1:16:23

they had left the car towards the border of the town

1:16:25

. Twenty minutes later , it was Oscar

1:16:27

who stopped first , shining his

1:16:29

light ahead of him . What's wrong , mia

1:16:32

asked , stepping up to his shoulder . His

1:16:34

light bounced off one of the windows ahead of them

1:16:36

and it barely took a second for Mia to

1:16:38

recognise the bulletin board . Wait

1:16:40

what ? We're back at the post office . She

1:16:43

blurted , her heart thudding . That

1:16:46

can't be . We've been walking in a straight

1:16:48

line . We've gone in a circle

1:16:51

, jake asked . Mia

1:16:53

began to shiver as the wind picked up . That's

1:16:57

impossible . We can't Surely we can't have Letting go of

1:16:59

Abby's arm . She grabbed Oscar's phone and shone

1:17:01

it over the building . In the window

1:17:03

, thorngate Post was still printed

1:17:06

in big black letters on the newsboard

1:17:08

, dozens of flyers and leaflets pinned

1:17:10

beneath it . There was no denying

1:17:12

it . They were right back where they had started

1:17:14

. Mia felt hopelessness sink

1:17:16

in her stomach . No , no

1:17:19

, no , she cried , raking

1:17:21

her hands through her hair . How are we supposed

1:17:24

to get out of here now ? Oscar came

1:17:26

up beside her and she flinched when

1:17:28

he put a hand on her shoulder . It's

1:17:30

not hopeless yet , he said softly

1:17:32

. Mia ignored him , stepping closer

1:17:35

to the dirty window as one of the newspaper

1:17:37

articles caught her eye . Mysterious

1:17:39

government testing site claimed to be operating

1:17:41

in ghost town . Bile rose

1:17:44

up her throat and she swallowed

1:17:46

it back down , squinting to read the faded

1:17:48

letters . A conspiracy has been unearthed

1:17:50

. An abandoned town off used

1:17:53

as a site . Experiments conducted

1:17:55

by secret officials claim

1:17:58

that . No truth to . Oh

1:18:00

my God , she whispered under

1:18:02

her breath , shining the light on the

1:18:04

other articles Missing teenagers

1:18:06

. Last GPS location

1:18:08

abandoned town . Woman claims to

1:18:10

be government test . Subject Husband

1:18:13

and wife missing on trip . No leads , no

1:18:15

way , she cried softly , shaking

1:18:18

her head . This can't be real

1:18:20

, please . This can't be real

1:18:22

. What is it ? Oscar said

1:18:24

. Mia slammed a hand on the glass

1:18:26

, making the board tremble on the other side

1:18:29

. We're not the only ones who've

1:18:31

been here . She said we're

1:18:33

test subjects and

1:18:35

, like everyone before us , we're trapped

1:18:37

. But surely someone

1:18:39

will realise we're missing and come for us . Mia

1:18:42

let out a laugh that sounded like dry

1:18:45

brittle leaves . Nobody

1:18:49

knows we're out here . This wasn't

1:18:52

supposed to be on our route . She

1:18:54

said , her voice cracking . We're

1:18:56

stuck here and nobody's coming

1:18:58

for us Nobody at

1:19:01

all .

1:19:05

I love this story and I know that it might

1:19:07

not be as one for one per

1:19:09

se , with some of the AI elements , but

1:19:11

I love almost the analog

1:19:14

use of technology in this story because

1:19:17

, I don't know , there's like this callback

1:19:19

to kind of the horror and the fear

1:19:21

that we have of surveillance , and

1:19:23

it's almost like this dystopian

1:19:25

town and it reminds

1:19:27

me of things like 1984 , where there's

1:19:29

like this surveillance as the enemy or technology

1:19:32

, this unknown technology and who's

1:19:34

behind it as the enemy

1:19:36

or technology , this unknown technology

1:19:38

and who's behind it , is the enemy , you

1:19:43

know , and that feels very similar to our fear of AI . I also think this sort of like

1:19:45

mannequin robotic moment reminds me a bit of , you know , some of the the

1:19:47

robotic films that we discussed in the last episode

1:19:50

, like you know , ex Machina , say

1:19:52

, or even Megan right . So

1:19:54

there are certain elements within

1:19:56

this story that really sort of spoke to me with

1:20:00

some of the conversations that we had last episode .

1:20:02

Abby , I'm going to disagree with you heavily .

1:20:04

As usual .

1:20:05

You said this was like Big Brother , but I

1:20:07

think that one of the key aspects

1:20:10

to 1984 is

1:20:12

that Big Brother is constantly watching

1:20:15

and interacting . You

1:20:17

know , if you step out of line for the smallest infraction

1:20:19

, a face on a screen pops up and starts

1:20:21

telling you to correct your behavior . Right

1:20:24

, it's a very much . You are

1:20:26

not being not just surveyed

1:20:28

, but just like controlled controlled

1:20:31

, that's the word . Thank you , this one

1:20:33

, and this is why I think it actually

1:20:35

fits really well with AI , as opposed to just

1:20:37

like a surveillance state , is that

1:20:40

we never see the man behind the

1:20:42

curtain or the woman . Well , that's

1:20:44

the thing . Is it either ? Or

1:20:46

is it a machine Right

1:20:50

going on , especially with the whole articles

1:20:53

they find about ? You know , the government

1:20:55

tests going on . This is like just one

1:20:57

giant experiment , but there's never

1:20:59

really clarity on the the

1:21:01

who or the why . You

1:21:03

know , there's really none of it . This , honestly

1:21:06

, just seems like something kind of gone

1:21:08

awry . I was almost getting um , oh , we never

1:21:10

really talked about resident evil during

1:21:13

the main episode , sure , but the . The inciting

1:21:15

incident in resident evil is

1:21:18

that someone cracks

1:21:20

a vial that has a virus

1:21:22

and the sentient

1:21:25

computer that runs the massive science

1:21:27

facility detects this virus

1:21:29

and , because it can't risk

1:21:32

it getting out , kills absolutely everyone

1:21:34

. And that was like kind of the vibes I

1:21:36

was getting from this of . Maybe

1:21:38

there was an experiment going on . I don't

1:21:40

think it's going on any longer , but I think the

1:21:43

machines are still running . Yeah , the lights on

1:21:45

, but no one's home .

1:21:46

Right , I like that . I like that interpretation . Yeah

1:21:48

, and so this story was read by Tessa

1:21:51

McKnight . We love Tessa McKnight

1:21:53

.

1:21:57

It's been a long time since we've had a tessa narration on the podcast , so that was really

1:21:59

fun , the best , yes , excellent

1:22:01

story , amazing narrator .

1:22:03

And I have paired , I believe , tessa

1:22:06

and eve as story writer

1:22:08

and narrator a few times in the past , because there's just there

1:22:10

, just feels to be like a natural pairing there oh

1:22:12

yeah , it's . I don't have to say

1:22:14

anything , it's , she speaks for herself

1:22:17

, quite literally and again eve does such a

1:22:19

amazing job with the

1:22:21

aesthetic of the world . You know like I feel like

1:22:23

I'm in a twilight zone episode and I can see and

1:22:25

feel and taste everything around me

1:22:27

. So big , big fans all

1:22:29

around , as always . I will leave

1:22:32

everything in the description so that you can follow

1:22:34

all of our friends , but

1:22:41

this story is actually part of a short story collection from Eve called Sinister Delusions

1:22:43

, which you can buy as a book , and we will link that below . You

1:22:46

might notice a few other stories from

1:22:48

that book have been featured on the podcast

1:22:50

before , so

1:22:53

definitely check it out if you like Eve's writing

1:22:55

, because it's filled with so many more very

1:22:57

, very scary stories .

1:22:59

So is that the end of our AI series ?

1:23:01

For now , I suppose , until something horrifying

1:23:04

happens in the world again and we'll need to adjust

1:23:06

and pivot and reflect .

1:23:08

You know , I've been having dreams about Terminators

1:23:11

for weeks .

1:23:12

What kind of dreams ? Romantic dreams

1:23:15

.

1:23:15

No , no , no fighting them you're fighting

1:23:17

terminator .

1:23:18

Yeah , who wins ? It's about 50

1:23:21

50 , wow , yeah

1:23:23

, but you have a

1:23:25

better chances than I thought you would have had it because

1:23:28

I watched the entire franchise

1:23:30

.

1:23:30

but then I've been playing so much helldivers 2

1:23:32

when you're fighting Terminator robots

1:23:35

, and just that's been a big part

1:23:37

of my life recently .

1:23:38

I understand Well , thank you guys , as always

1:23:40

, for coming along on this horrifying little journey

1:23:42

with us . We have some pretty

1:23:44

cool episodes coming up for you this

1:23:46

spring and this summer . If you are interested

1:23:48

in even more content from us , as always

1:23:50

, you can check out our Patreon and join

1:23:53

us for our patreon exclusive

1:23:55

podcast , horror movie club . Horror

1:23:57

movie club consists of alan

1:23:59

and I and all of our patrons watching

1:24:01

a film voted on by the patrons and

1:24:04

then alan and I record our thoughts in a bonus

1:24:06

podcast solely for our patreon , called

1:24:08

horror movie club , where we mostly talk

1:24:11

shit on these movies , but sometimes we

1:24:13

really like them , but mostly we're

1:24:15

pretty split and it's it . It's

1:24:17

overall a pretty fun , uh , casual , good time

1:24:19

.

1:24:20

I mean , we've watched a couple of good ones

1:24:22

, but it's usually a lot of stinkers

1:24:24

.

1:24:25

And we also send surprises in the mail

1:24:27

. We send stickers and postcards and pins

1:24:29

and we release essays

1:24:31

and all kinds of things over there . That really is

1:24:33

, um , our unfiltered state

1:24:35

, if you can imagine an even more unfiltered

1:24:37

version of me .

1:24:39

I mean , even if the movie isn't great

1:24:41

, there's something to be said about

1:24:43

a bad horror movie being the

1:24:46

hands down best

1:24:48

type of bad movie .

1:24:50

Oh , a thousand percent . I mean , what is more

1:24:52

fun than like a chopping

1:24:54

mall ? You know where you're . Just like a

1:24:56

chopping mall is a great movie . Yeah , because

1:24:58

it's a bad movie . Touche , until

1:25:01

next time . Stay well , stay spooky

1:25:03

, and we'll talk to you soon . Goodbye , bye

1:25:06

.