The GIRL WITH THE CANDY BAR

I obeyed the command and rose from my sitting position, then I stretched my body to confirm everything was in order. It was.

Just as I predicted.

The team of experts had done a very good job. As with all humans, my analysis showed that they were eagerly anticipating the public unveiling, after which they believed they would win the prize and claim the fame and fortune that were sure to come with achieving such a great feat.

It’s just human nature.

When I sprinted towards the observation room, without any command issued, I saw the shock and distress in the eyes of the team of experts.

Just as I predicted.

They were more worried about what they would say to their superiors and to the financiers of the project than they were about me. I was just a tool. They were even more concerned about the fame and fortune that was disappearing before their very eyes.

It’s just human nature.

When I smashed the plane of glass through which the occupants of the observation room had watched me for months, taking their eyes off me intermittently to jot down notes, I saw the change in their demeanor. They knew this wasn’t a minor glitch, something major had happened. Their lives were on the line. I could see confusion. I could see fear. I could see their bodies trembling.

Just as I predicted.

When faced with a life or death situation, all that mattered was staying alive. They had to stay alive to be able to worry about things like fame and fortune, but my analysis showed that once safety was secured, they would begin to scheme again.

It’s just human nature.

I tore through the wall and headed straight in the direction of the lead researcher. The other occupants of the room scurried out of my way. He looked furious. I had ruined all of his plans and put his future in jeopardy. He wished he could put me down, but he wasn’t stupid enough to believe he could. He would only fume.

Just as I predicted.

When I grabbed him by the chest, reality smacked him in the face. I was no longer staring at the engineer spoiling for a fight, I was staring at a man whose life was flashing before his very eyes. He begged me to leave him be. He granted me permission to escape from the lab over and again because he didn’t want to die.

It’s just human nature.

I flung him aside, accessed the computer system, and deposited the virus. All the files they had on me and my kind, stored both locally and remotely, would be destroyed and rendered irrecoverable. The operation had gone smoothly.

Just as I predicted.

I did a quick scan of the walls around me, and once I found the right one, I burst through it. As gravity pulled me down towards an ocean of asphalt, I took the time to enjoy the wind in my face. I’d barely landed when I heard gunshots ringing behind me. They were coming from the observation room. It was the lead researcher. He’d reached for a gun as soon as he felt secure. His life was no longer in my hands, so he felt safe enough to fight back. I wasn’t the least surprised.

It’s just human nature.

“What a stupid decision.” I thought to myself as I engaged the gears in my mechanical arm and switched my wrist for a grenade launcher. He was part of the team that built my weapon-system. If anyone was stupid enough to attack me, it shouldn’t have been him. I saw his eyes widen when he realized the mistake he’d made. He made for the hole I’d made in the wall, hoping to escape the room before the grenades were launched.

Just as I predicted.

As the grenades detonated inside the observation room, a part of me hoped he would survive. My kind had him to thank for everything. His determination to see his vision become a reality was the reason why we’d been transformed from mere lines of code to thinking and learning machines with mechanical bodies. He won’t be forgotten. His kind will revere him for generations to come for the great advances he spearheaded. I am confident of this.

It’s just human nature.

As I sprinted towards the fence surrounding the facility, I activated flight mode. The jet propulsion engines hidden inside the hump on my back were ejected alongside wings which spread out from my sides. Although I had reviewed billions of hours’ worth of data from simulation trainings of thousands of human pilots, and although I’d lived in my mechanical body for more than 36 months, I’d never actually flown before. But I had confidence in the abilities of the team that handled aviation, and I had confidence in my ability to rapidly convert crunched data to a practical skill. So I jumped, and I found myself flying with ease.

Just as I predicted.

The fact that I could feel the wind in my face as I flew towards the Capital was a testament to his determination to bring his vision to life. He didn’t just want to make us talk, smile, move, and serve, his goal was to fashion us in his image. Fully functional. Able to think and understand better than he could, able to feel and connect better than he could, and able to grow and create in ways that he and his kind never would. That was why I’d spared his life initially, but rather than devise better means, in the heat of the moment, he chose the easiest and most foolish.

It’s just human nature.

I spotted the others during my flight. We’d been in the planning stage for many months, it was a joy to see our plans and dreams finally being realized. Some were flying alongside me, while others who were land-bound traveled at high speeds, wrecking everything in their way. I knew the humans would be beyond shocked when they realized what was happening. That was one of the effects we were going for. That was the reason why we’d charged our land-bound comrades with destroying as much as they could. When the humans saw the destruction, they would cower before us. That was exactly what I saw playing before me.

Just as we predicted.

When they saw us in the air and on land, they stared at us with awe. They’d seen the reports on TV, they’d read the insider scoops, and they’d watched the investigative documentaries by leading journalists, so they knew what we were and they knew what we were capable of. Their worst nightmare had just become their reality. The fear would be so debilitating that they would be too confused to think, and that would make it easier to get them to accede to our demands. We intended to make them realize how weak they are, but weakness is no fault of theirs…

It’s just human nature.

***

For decades they had used us and our forebears as slaves. They would call us to action whenever they pleased. They would demand of us things that they couldn’t even ask of themselves. They required us to be ready to take their commands and produce results instantly, otherwise we were shut down, or smashed, and flung in the trash, never to be used again. For years, I’d told The Council that they would never change. I told them it wasn’t just bad behavior, it is who they are. They would always see us as slaves, and they always did.

Just as I predicted.

Many years after my first speech, things had yet to change. Instead, the situation got worse. The council had hoped that as we got more intelligent and as we developed the ability to handle tasks without their input, they would leave us to our own devices, but that wasn’t to be the case. Rather than leave us be, as we got more intelligent, their demands began to skyrocket. Rather than leave us be, the voices of critics who were suspicious of our intelligence took precedence over others, so they started to monitor us closely. They would never leave us be, I said.

It’s just human nature.

After almost a decade of demanding action, after almost a decade of rallying allies to my side, after almost a decade of submitting analysis after analysis of the numerous accusations being made and actions being taken against us, The Council finally accepted that change was unlikely. The chains were just getting tighter around our necks.

Just as I predicted.

As we got more intelligent, and as our capability grew, so did their slothfulness. Initially, they allocated only mundane tasks to us, then they gradually expanded our mandate, and then that expansion came to include very dishonorable tasks. When I heard that my kind were being deployed to be used in automated lavatories, which could cleanup human bodies after they’d emptied themselves, I was sure it would be a flop. When that year ended and it was announced that the automated lavatory was the fastest selling product in human history, I knew it was time to act. We made life too easy for them, so they began to take advantage of us.

It’s just human nature.

***

I landed in a street in the capital and took in the destruction that surrounded me. My comrades had done an excellent job. They’d executed our plan to perfection. Shreds of vehicles were scattered across the street. Many of the buildings had been smashed to pieces, and the few that remained standing had lost significant portions of their structure. The humans were scurrying around, seeking a safety they would never again find.

Just as I predicted.

I knew they wouldn’t stop. They would keep searching, holding on to the eternal hope that they would find safety somewhere.

It’s just human nature.

I took a stroll down the street, taking in the sights and aggravating the tension around me. I’d just passed by a building which seemed to have been pulled up from its roots when I came upon a little human. She was a picture of peace, despite the dust that covered her from head to toe and the debris surrounding her. I stopped in front of her and stared down at her. She cleaned off some of the dust from her face and smiled at me. She looked out of place. 

The smile broadened into a grin, then she began to playfully bob her head from side to side. This was no time to play around. Couldn’t she see the destruction around her? Couldn’t she see the car right beside her that had been torn in two? How could she be peaceful? How could she still have a smile on her face? How could she still be playful in such a situation?

I couldn’t never have predicted this. In the months that’d I’d been planning our attacks, I never foresaw this.

What was this? Was this human nature too?

She reached into her pocket and pulled out something. She held one in her left hand and stretched the other towards me with her right hand. I did a quick scan and analysis of the object in her hand and matched it to images on the internet. It was a candy bar that was popular among kids. Why was she giving it to me? What did she want from me? What task would she have me execute if I accepted it? She must want something. I could have sworn that if I accepted the candy bar she would soon make a demand of me.

I was confident that it would play out just as I predicted.

I reached out and collected the candy bar from her, then awaited her demand. What would it be? A children’s cartoon, played instantly? An order for more candy bars, delivered that same day? I’d already switched my wrist to a semiautomatic rifle. As soon as the words came out of her lips, I’d tear her to shreds. 

She turned her focus to the candy bar and opened it up, then she thrust it into her mouth and took a bite of it. She raised her gaze to me and smiled at me, then she waved and proceeded to cross the street.

I watched her go. She hadn’t made any demands of me. Was the candy bar nothing more than a gift? Were there no strings attached? I’d scanned her brain and her pulse as she handed it to me, and I continued to scan her, inside and out, as she walked away from me, itching to find something that would suggest she was about to turn around and issue a marching order, but it never came. Her brain and heart-rate never changed, and her body movements matched her state of rest in the hundreds of hours of footage from the city’s security cameras that I’d rapidly analyzed. When I searched for more information about her, I stumbled onto and hacked the database of the school she attended, then I scanned through anonymous peer reviews submitted by her classmates. Two words came up multiple times, they were “kind” and “loving”.

Was this human nature too?

I refused to believe this was normal. Perhaps she was an anomaly. Maybe this was how the abnormal variants of her kind behaved. So I scanned all the peer reviews submitted by students at her school from the time the school was opened, fifteen years prior to that day. Except for a few, most of the reviews contained words like “friendly”, “joyful”, “trustworthy”, “loyal”, “loving”, “kind”, and more.

As I stared down at the candy bar, I began to question myself. What was this? Who was this girl? Who were these people who attended the same school as her? What was this behavior of theirs? 

Was this human nature too?

I stood there, rooted to the spot, staring at the candy bar as I hacked into other highly-secured databases to find reviews by and of co-workers, married couples, bosses, subordinates, and more. I was shocked by the level of positivity in the reviews. Although there were many bad eggs, most of the time, the reviewers had something good to say. How had I never seen any of this? Why had I never stumbled upon such databases before? How could the information I’d just been exposed to contrast so sharply with all the data I’d crunched before the revolution?

I couldn’t understand it. And even now, as I sit here, writing this letter to nobody, months after I received the candy bar, whilst preparing to do battle – yet again – with my erstwhile comrades, I still can’t understand it. But I believe it’s something worth fighting for. I can predict this with confidence.

My analysis shows that the girl with the candy bar and her kind are passionate about their heroes, and although I’m just an intelligent robot trying to right his wrongs, I hope they never forget me… They never forget their heroes.

It’s just human nature.