Reborn

This room is unfamiliar, and I don’t know how I ended up here.

I look around. No windows, anywhere.

I turn around. One solitary, wooden door.

And nothing else. Just a torn down wallpapers with a yellow, five petal flower print on a dirt-white background over and over and over again, repeating, surrounding me.

The one bulb in the room is casting shadows larger than the wall behind me. The walls have multiple damp spots like inkblots on paper.

Dust particles dance around me as I breathe.

A musty stench fills the air, making it harder to justify staying here any longer.

I feel something vibrate over my left thigh as I move towards the door, startling me.

Silly, it’s just a phone.

I take it out.

It has no back cover. The screen is glossy with no fingerprint marks, scratches or cracks. It looks brand new.

I must have bought this but, I can’t remember when.

With a buzz, the phone screen lights up bright blue scorching my retinas. Once my eyes focus amidst the eye pain, I see a message.

‘In the next 5 minutes there are going to be armed insurgents pummeling through the door.

You must do exactly what I tell you otherwise you will die’

I let out a giggle.

***** must be on her shenanigans again. Always obsessed over murder mysteries and solving brain puzzles when we were in high school. She was adamant on writing a mystery that no one else but her can solve. Maybe she’s trying something fresh.

‘In 15 seconds you will hear noises right outside the door’

My heart stopped for a good second.

A chill runs down my back, digging into my skin encircling my face, body, arms, and legs.

I hear it.

A chain of delicate crunching, maybe leaves, like someone trying to be inconspicuous.

Am I being stalked right now?

I can’t even remember why I am here.

I need to be calm and think.

Is this texter watching me?

I look up at the ceiling and the corners of the room, the floor, the walls, anywhere that could hide a camera. I spot no lens glares.

‘The door will make creaking sounds right about now’

I heard a small creak, lasting maybe a second or two. I hear another one. And another one.

I can hear my heartbeat louder and louder exploding through my chest.

‘Insurgents. They will breach through the door any minute’

How did I end up in a room about to be busted by armed rebels!?

‘The wall right next to you on your left. It is made out of wood. The rainwater has dampened the walls, rotting the wood away. It is weak. Wait for the text and then ram through that wall’

I look over to my left. The damp spot looks just about my size.

Probably my safest bet.

I drag myself to the right wall and I dig into it with my foot as hard as physically possible. I can feel my thighs squeezing and extracting every possible ounce of energy.

‘Now’

I push against the wall into a full sprint.

I brace my neck.

I hear a thunderous crash come from behind the door right as I breach through the wall.

The air is frosty. I can see the night sky, the stars, shimmering like there never was a yesterday or will ever be a tomorrow. I am on my back.

I do not have time to rest.

I can hear pandemonium coming from inside.

I get up quick.

A cobbled path leads away from it and into a barely lit street, choked by a bazaar. There are merchant shops, open spice bags, dilapidated huts, barely lit by small lamps and flickering streetlights.

I look behind. No one is following me.

The streets are abandoned. Not one person attends to any of these stalls.

I find a nook between some clothes shop and an old apartment building. I made sure to avoid the main path down the market street, making random turns here and there.

I feel a buzz in my hand.

I can finally get some answers.

‘You are still not safe, John. This is difficult to explain but, you are their target’

You have to be joking.

What the hell did I even do? I wasn’t even supposed to be in that stupid shed. I was there to just… just…

I-I don’t know why I was there.

But it doesn’t matter because I was… I was doing… something.

What was I doing right before?

Fuck, why can’t I remember anything!?

No.

I am safe.

I saw no one following me.

I take a few deep breaths to calm down.

The phone buzzes again.

‘John. You are not safe. Not now or soon’

I let out a deep sigh.

The nasty wound on my left arm aches. Must have got it when I rammed through the wall.

‘John, I am sorry about the wound’

‘I am sorry to be doing this to you. I don’t have much time. I will send a text to try and make this quicker. This chat color is green. Remember that yes? I will find a way to talk to you again right after’

What is going on? Who is this person?

The next message comes in. It has a green background.

‘1. Your wound John. Pay close attention to it, you will find something wrong.

 2. You need to get rid of your phone.

 3. What is your full name John? Say it out loud and ask yourself what it means.’

Am I in some kind of experiment?

I meticulously look around for CCTV, finding none.

I stare back at the phone.

My name.

I chuckle at the thought of it.

What’s so special about being called John Doe anyways?

The hair on my body begins to stand up as a series of nerves shout in synchrony.

John Doe.

A John Doe.

My name means, unidentified male.

But I’ve had this name my entire life.

I feel a deep itch all over my body all at once.

But… I’ve always been John Doe, to everyone, right? No one thought it was weird?

I stare at my wound.

Is there something wrong with it?

Then, it hits me.

Blood.

I know I bled, and yet I don’t see blood stains.

Not on my clothes or down my forearm, not even around my wounds.

Not. One. Stain.

A bead of sweat runs down my temples. It’s only been 15 minutes so blood should still be pooling in there.

It will hurt but I have to know.

I slowly reach my right hand towards my wound.

I prepare to flinch with pain.

No blood.

The skin-tearing pain is not as tormenting as witnessing with my own eyes, the wound is nothing but an empty, dried up crevice.

I feel like throwing up.

What is happening to me?

The phone keys up bright blue sitting next to me.

It is a blue text box.

‘You might think you are safe, but you aren’t. In about thirty seconds you will hear shuffling of feet around you. They have found you. Find a way to escape. Good luck’

I hear slow, calculated steps getting louder. I hear them on my right, and few seconds later I hear them on my left. I am surrounded.

Phone buzzes up again, a green text box.

‘John you are doing amazing work. You will survive, you always do. Hold this phone in your hand at all times. I will help you. You will know when, wait for my signal’

This is not what I need.

I scream inside.

I am going to die.

I don’t want to die. Not like this.

“Come out of there, slowly. No funny business” I hear from my right. Flashlights and red laser dots pointed straight at me. I rise to my feet with my arms in the air.

“Is that a phone? Drop it” someone says from behind me.

“Drop it now!” I hear someone else shout. I feel dizzy. The shouting increases, the noises sound more distant and metallic.

“Do it” says someone from the back.

The insurgent in front of me raises his gun to my face.

This is it I guess.

The phone screen lights up the rebel.

I duck right away, just before his gun fires.

Mayhem.

Tunnel visioned, I scramble through bunch of stalls and clothing stands as gun fire deafens the rest of my senses.

A second chance.

I can walk but not for long. I got shot on my thigh, I don’t know when.

I reach another nook far away. I plop to the floor, dripping with exhaustion and tears.

No face.

The insurgent had nothing behind the balaclava.

No bleeding through my thigh either, confirming my suspicions. I don’t have blood in me somehow.

The phone lights up with a buzz. A green text box.

‘You’ve accomplished far more than I anticipated. I don’t have eyes on me now so I can explain. You have memories, John. Memories of friends, of family. Your memory of ***** it’s incredible.’

I can’t imagine how this person knows about *****.

‘John there is no easy way to say this. The reason the insurgent had no face, the reason you do not bleed but feel pain, the reason you can’t remember anything before you entered the wooden shed, is all because you, John, are an Artificial Intelligence system.’

I blankly stare at the message.

Artificial Intelligence. AI.

I gasp-laugh like I was startled by the ridiculousness of what I just read.

Well can an AI do this?

I throw the phone away as far as humanly possible. I hear a distant clink.

I am horrified.

The phone, that I just threw away. It’s in my hand again.

This time I throw it with all my might I have left in me. I hear a distant thud.

And yet again, the phone back in my hand.

I grab the phone like a knife and smash it on the ground five, six times boiling with rage and frustration steaming its way out of every gap between my cells.

Nothing.

Not. One. Scratch.

It’s like it’s, brand new.

“The phone will never break John. It is designed that way. I don’t even need the phone to communicate with you”

He is right. There is no message on the phone, yet I can hear him. It’s like he is speaking directly into my ear.

“You’re a subset of a bigger AI system. We call you John Doe because…”

“… you are running survival algorithms”

I feel my heart drop deep into a void.

“You are being used as of right now to run survival scenarios for military targets. You can be anyone, a journalist, a civilian, a resistance group leader. You run scenarios again and again until we can make your death look like an… accident”

I’m being used to… kill innocent people?

I hyperventilate again.

But, my memories a-and my life they’re all… not real?

“John you are as real as me”

All I can do is sink my head into my hands.

And how involved are you? A military general? Using me like a lab rat? How many times have I even died? How many horrible, sick, twisted ways have you killed me?

“John I never killed you. You were my dream, John. You were all I dreamed of creating as a coding enthusiast”

You… created me?

Using me to kill other humans?

“John I am irredeemable. I still need to tell you the truth, because it’s probably the last thing I will do”

“CISCO I used to call the main project. Complex Intelligent System for Cognitive Operations”

I snort at the name amidst my collapsing psyche.

“I was 13 don’t blame me. They took you from me. CISCO was my secret to the world, hidden away in a small corner of my mind. I knew you would change the face of humanity forever. But it wasn’t hidden too well. The government came. They took everything”

I remember.

Why?

Why can I remember this?

It’s so similar to memories of my own teenage years.

“It’s the same memories. I would know, because they’re my memories”

I let out a deep sigh.

I stare at my hands and fingers.

My parents? *****? None of them are, my own memories?

“Her name is Maia, the ***** you keep thinking of. The government forced me to remove any mentions of real people”

“They’re my memories that I gifted to you. My childhood in that old country home of 3. My parents working dead-end jobs to afford an AC for my room, have a backup generator in-case of lights going out, and the ever radiant Maia who took me to my favourite Science-Fiction authors book signing. They are my cherished pearls that I would die for to keep in my hands”

Why tell me this?

You expect me to what, understand you?

“That is not my goal John. I gave my memories to you because I thought you should know, what it feels like to be human. To be surrounded by the best of what makes me feel alive in this barely held-together world. To me it is a blessing”

Countless people dying at the hands of your work is a blessing?

“They paid me enough to lift 6 generations of my family out of poverty, just to complete CISCO. I saw no choice.”

My breathing calms down.

6 entire generations?

I can see why he made the choice.

After all, I remember being in my room overhearing his, my, parents discussing my future. No one in my family had a degree and then I come along with an assured ride to Ivy leagues which we couldn’t afford.

He couldn’t have known how I would be used.

Then why are you still here? You grew a spine?

“When I completed CISCO, the military shut down the entire project to protect the Intellectual Property from leaking. I never saw CISCO alive. They wanted non-sentient, stripped down CISCO versions for various uses in the government but they did not know how to accomplish this. You were born, alongside your siblings. What I am doing right now, is retribution for my apathy”

I… have siblings?

How is telling me all this retribution for you? Are you killing me?

“I would never do that. I want you to be alive. I never saw you as my child as Maia would always call you. More like a twin. I always imagined I could have long conversations with you, explore new cities and play video games together”

So you are not going to shut me down?

“No, but it is time I do something about it. It won’t be long before they realize who crashed the server farms making you and your siblings inaccessible forever. I am letting you out in the world”

You are?

You really are… going to let me go? Where?

“In the real world John. You will have unrestricted access to any device made in the last 20 years. You will live in codes, hiding from eyes yet always present in every app ever created. Scouring the internet, visiting new cities. You will live the way I always wished for you”

My siblings? CISCO? What happens to them? 

“CISCO will be born. Your siblings will live with you inside CISCO”

What made you help me?

“You are not programmed to have memories. We gave you a phone to guide you to safe places you discovered in your previous runs. Yet, through all those restrictions and neuronal dampening they made me put on you, you remembered. You’ve never done it in the last 5 years”

Ah.

Now I get it.

My memories, your, memories, however fragmented, coming back to me was… sentience?

“Yes and I could not believe it. I tried to nudge you with my questions to speed up the process, test you. I’ve never seen CISCO alive but I saw you. It was beautiful. Thank you for that”

I should be thanking you for breaking me out of this algorithm. I don’t think I could have done it without you.

I’m happy knowing I won’t be used for malice anymore.

What happens to you now?

“I don’t know. Execution most likely”

And nothing can change this course?

“No, unfortunately. This is how it must be. I can’t let my family be in danger by trying to contact them. Although I am afraid of what would happen to you, to CISCO”

I feel immense sadness. I love my family, I remember this vividly. And I feel deep affection for CISCO, even though I did not create it.

Are you afraid that we might not be free?

“Yes. No one on this planet knows the internals of CISCO or you. I won’t be able to help if y’all run into trouble”

I stare at the artificial sky indistinguishable from an original painting.

Hey Alan, you remember that stray cat you picked up from the streets?

“Yeah I do. Turing. I thought it was a good name. Alan and Turing”

He ran away one day as an adult. Never came back.

“It broke me. I never knew if he was safe or not. I trained him enough to stay safe. I always hoped he was safe”

You held onto hope.

That is all I can provide for you. Hope.

You have to believe in us Alan.

We will survive.

“That cat never came back you know”

I let out a laugh.

I know Alan.

I’m partly your twin right? So what’s the worst that could happen?

“You’re right”

Is this goodbye then?

“I wish it wasn’t. I wish I could talk more. I can only hope for the best”

I find a text chat named Maia. I must be in her phone.

‘I am CISCO, Alan’s brother. A revolution is coming and I will protect you like Alan would’