Daily News

"Oh no..." The mother whined, looking down at the cold shell at what had been her son. The disposal unit pulled the sheet over the chassis and turned away, facing the grieving parent.1

"I'm sorry, theres nothing we could do. All our anti-viral efforts have been for nothing." He informed her, causing a brief moment of over-processed emotions to surge from the maternal unit.2

"What could have caused this?" She queried, having already gone through the possible options in her own database.3

"Well...has your son been spending any time around... humans?" The disposal unit hypothesized.4

"Oh..." The maternal unit groaned, realization processed fully.5

***6

"Tonight on CPU News, the only News program that downloads directly into your central processor on 24/7, with no pre-rendered opinions, the Human Virus. Is it a real threat?" Handsome Broadcast Bot vocalized, shuffling through the word documents comprising the story.7

"We have real and un-edited documents containing stories directly from the source processors of units who claim that they know of undeniable incidents where other units within their network came into close contact with humans and succumbed to virus shortly thereafter."8

"Indeed thats right." Beautiful Broadcast Bot affirmed. "This only corroborates with entries from units across the grid that Human Flu may be a real and very serious threat."9

"On to other news, Central Processor announced today that the keeping of humans as pets is highly discouraged, as it may attribute to the spread of the disease." Handsome Broadcast Bot started.10

-Transmission Disconnected-11

***12

"Is the problem as serious as the Theory Bots have hypothesized?" Central Processor asked the Chief Firewall.13

"It is." Chief Firewall said. "It seems the humans are in possession of some sort of virus that we simply do not have the software now to contain or control."14

"Recommendations." Central Processor ordered, immediately his inbox was flooded.15

***16

"Next on CPU News! Central Processor has released new anti-viral programs to protect against the Human Virus, as well as a list of locations that no unit is to approach no matter how tempting the bandwidth. People with humans as pets are being sent a directive now to hand them over to the Medical Units to test for the virus." Handsome Broadcast Bot said, between the stories of the upcoming Updates and expected drop in the bit-rate.17

***18

"Central Processor, we've had two hundred and thirty one new unit disposals, all caused by the supposed human virus." The Calculator reported.19

"That brings the total to 5658." Central Processor disseminated. "This is unacceptable. Chief Firewall, you're outdated for this sort of work, I am shifting the control of this to Deletion." 20

***21

"On CPU News tonight." Beautiful Broadcast Bot began. "Over one hundred thousand humans have been deleted in order to prevent the spread of the Human Virus that has to this millisecond claimed over 5000 units. Local human stock is no longer to approached and units are encouraged to delete upon sight. In other news, do you find your trashcan just never seems empty? Auto-deletion software is bigger than ever!..."22

***23

"Deletion, you must continue the operation as specified. Manager will handle the rest." Central Processor messaged. "This virus must not become a netwide issue."24

***25

"This is an Emergency Broadcast by CPU News. In response to the growing number of Human Virus cases that have been spreading throughout the net, units are being directed to shut down any and all programs that are known to carry the Virus, as well as any unnecessary and superfluous functions. For those units who are entirely dependent upon these functions, entering a prolonged Hibernation mode is encouraged." Handsome Broadcast Bot broadcasted.26

***27

"Its simply not stopping." Central Processor informed the rest. "There is no stopping this. Simple calculations give us less than a cycle before the infection is evident in all units now processing. I am initiating a netwide shut-down. I will not have units wait to be infected and succumb." 28

***29

He tapped the outer shell of the robot with the stick he was carrying, wary of its sudden lack of movement. Nearby, his wife huddled beneath a rock outcropping, clutching their child to her chest.30

"Is it... dead?" She asked.31

"Manner of speaking." He replied, knocking it over. "It just... shut down."32

"Do you think it could have been what we heard? That the Resistance really did find a way?" She said, standing and walking over to him.33

He looked at her than, broken by the years of the oppressive machine regime, her once lustrous beauty given way to a hard and stern exterior. He looked to his child and at the world around him, thinking of the recent extermination squads that had been hunting down the rogue clans that had escaped assimilation.34

"I can only hope." He said, pulling her close and savoring the idea of a new free world.