Notes

Title-When They Arose Volume 1: The Lone Destroyer
Author-J S Griffin
Genre-Sci-Fi
Author’s note-Sorry about not starting new paragraphs for dialog. I’m trying to save space to be able to fit more information in… Anyway, Hunter Emmanuel Guthrie is a 17-year-old boy born in the year 3028. There was an asteroid on an impact course, due to hit in 3044, and in the process of destroying it, scientists accidentally let loose an electrical charge that shut down every single electronic and motor-powered vehicle. Then, in 3045, one war robot from the 3015 war from the United States against China, designed to shoot down aerial targets from the ground, slowly powered to life. Hunter hears of this in the newspaper, and he gets the feeling that that is not as good as anyone would expect. What will the robot do? What will Hunter do? What will become of the human race? Begin, faithful reader, and discover. The author is J. S. Griffin and the consultant is ACE.
Book-Hunter woke up on the 26th of March, 3045, the anniversary of when every electronic stopped. This day happened to also be his 17th birthday! When he first woke up, he leaped out of his bed and landed on the soft carpet. He glanced up at his antique, 1150-year-old clock, illuminated by an oil lamp that estimated the time to be 5:25 AM. ‘Perfect,’ Hunter thought. ‘I have just enough time to eat and get dressed before the newspaper is delivered! ‘He rushed around, doing his daily routine at double speed. He finished before either of his parents woke up, so he tiptoed past his parents’ room to get to the front door. The floor groaned loudly, as if being purposefully impolite towards Hunter. He was able to retrieve the newspaper and stealthily creep back to his room to read by his lamp’s light. He walked in and immediately noticed the headline: “3015 WAR DRONE COMES BACK TO LIFE! ARE ELECTRONICS WAKING UP?” Hunter read the rest of the article. The government knew nothing about why it powered up, but they could not control it. It was being tested in an abandoned warehouse in Summerfield, North Carolina. He was surprised at this, too. He lived a mere 12 miles away, in Greensboro! He rushed to his parents’ room and screamed “MOM! DAD! LOOK AT THE PAPER!” His parents woke up and were confused. “What? What is it, sweetie?” they questioned in unison. “Just look at this!” Hunter replied quickly. When they read the news, they both gasped for breath. Jacob Guthrie, Hunter’s father, uttered a quite vulgar curse word under his breath. Hunter’s parents slowly got up, their bed making a sound that seemed to almost be a sigh of relief that it did not have to bear heavy beings. They walked to their closet, staring off into space as if in a trance. They got clothes and put them on, and then they went directly outside. They got into their horse drawn carriage and set off to the grocery store, where Jacob Guthrie worked. When they got there, a sign was posted on the door saying, “Store closed due to electric machine powering up.” They then went to Petronella Guthrie, Hunter’s mom’s, workplace, which was also closed. Hunter’s, “School of Scientific Preparation,” geared towards engineering, was also closed for the day. Because everyone was so ecstatic about the machine, the Guthrie family decided to check it out promptly. They rode to Summerfield to see this robot of war. They got within a five minute ride of the warehouse when there was very heavy traffic going the other way. One driver yelled, “Do not go to the warehouse!! It is too dangerous!” They disregarded the comment and kept going. Then they heard rapid gunfire and screams, as well as a mechanized voice sounding as if someone had programmed a robot with a voice. But the war machine was not programmed with a voice that anyone knew of. As soon as they saw the top of the warehouse building, and all they could here were the bullets whistling through the air and the firing of military level firearms. A soldier came crawling towards them. His arm was gone and a trail of red was behind him. He got up to the carriage and hurriedly spoke, “The drone went rogue and nothing we can do can stop it! It took one man and it s….” He slumped down and never saw the light of day again. They stopped the horses, made a U-turn, and went full speed away as fast as they could. Then the shooting stopped. The family drove off the road and behind a few buildings to see what had happened. Then they head a mechanized voice, “Humans sensed in the area. Destroy at all costs. Human race is to be destroyed for crimes committed against machine kind.” Hunter’s heart raced. His father stifled a gasp. His mother screamed and fainted. The machine said, “Humans detected. Destroy.” Hunter’s father attempted to drive the carriage away quietly and stealthily, but the horse let out a neigh. Hunter and his father heard a rocket explode beside them. It tipped the vehicle and broke the horse’s ropes. The horse bolted and was killed by a gun meant to take down airplanes. Hunter and his father hid Petronella Guthrie under the cart and then ran away while the machine was analyzing what sort of organism it had just killed, finally coming to the conclusion that it was not human. “Not human,” it said. “4 humans remain in the area. They must be obliterated.” Hunter was confused by this statement and whispered to his father, “Four, Dad? I believed it was only you, me, and Mom who were here!” Jacob Guthrie, in between gulps of air, told Hunter, “There must be someone else in the area. For their sake, I hope they run.” Hunter’s mother woke up. She stood up, and the machine sensed her immediately. She ran. The war drone took out its rocket launcher and shot. Thankfully for Hunter and his father, it missed her and only flung her forward. She hit her head on a rock, and stayed on the ground, eyes closed. The machine walked up to her and scanned her. It said, “Human deceased. Logically, there are three humans within the current vicinity.” Hunter’s father yelled and ran out into a small, wooded area. The machine turned and crashed after him. Hunter collapsed and cried. He knew he could not stay. He ran the opposite direction of the machine. And his father. Hunter heard a ticking noise. ‘A bomb was about to go off,’ he thought. The ticking was going at a faster rate. Suddenly, a girl, about 20 by her appearance, tackled him, and they rolled into the bushes. They heard an explosion. They saw chunks of cinder block and brick flying over his head. Some pieces were falling into the bush, but the bush was thick enough to slow them down, and the debris did not cause any damage when it landed on them. After it seemed to be over, they stood up. “Hello!” the girl said. “My name is Emily. You okay?” Hunter stuttered, “I-I-I’m okay. Ju-just a little overwhelmed, ma’am.” Without warning, Emily dragged him by the arm and brought him to a building with three bikes leaned against it. Emily took a bike for herself and gave one to Hunter. “Let’s ride!” she said. Hunter and Emily pedaled as far away from there as possible. They had only made it a quarter mile when they heard a loud explosion, and they guessed that the robot launched a rocket. Conclusions were drawn, and Hunter wept. Emily comforted him, saying that everything would be fi ne and that what had happened did not mean what Hunter thought it meant. They kept riding. After ten minutes time, they came to a forest. Going in and going back were their only options. They went in. When they came to the first turn, Hunter wondered whether there was anything dangerous lurking in the dark shadows of the forest. He always had feared the unknown, and he abhorred this whole experience. Exhaustion began to lunge at Hunter, and he called out to Emily to stop and take a break. Emily stopped and walked her bike calmly back to Hunter. Emily started conversation, “Hey, kid. I never caught your name. What was it?” Hunter replied, “I’m Hunter, Hunter Guthrie. I am only 17, but I think I am an orphan now.” Hunter sniffed and started crying again. Emily attempted to comfort him, but she had tried in vain. She lost her temper. “PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, HUNTER!” she screamed. This sent Hunter over the edge, and he ran into the forest. Emily got a bike and wove through the trees, chasing him. Hunter ran for hours. He made it out of the forest and back into Summerfield, and there, he started hearing loud explosions. Hunter snapped out of it and stopped. Hunter saw something out of the corner of his eye, turned and immediately passed out. Emily had been pedaling, but was never able to catch up with Hunter until he came to a halt and fell next to the building that used to have the last bike. The bike was gone, but Emily did not care or notice in the situation. She shouted his name and slapped his face, but he would not wake up. She laid him over the bike so he would be easier to transport, and she wheeled him back to the forest. Emily got back to where they left Hunter’s bike, but I was not leaning on a rock like they had left it. It was gone, and there were two trails in the dust running side by side along the path. Emily, with a worried look glued to her face, started walking the bike along the path. Emily walked for hours, and she got so tired, it felt as though the ground was grabbing her feet, restraining her. Near the edge of the forest, she saw the two lost bikes. She goes to inspect them. And she hears, “Back away slowly.” She creeps backwards and looks up. She sees two humanoid robots with laser blasters trained on her. “Scanning,” they said. “Human identified. Emily Roberts: lead scientist on the team that disabled all robots. You will come with us.”