No idea what the prompt was. 13yo, 7th grade.
Six years ago today, the world ended.
Fun, right?
My name is Echo. No last or middle name. No one has those anymore.
See, when you live in New York City in 3011 like I do, life is crazy. Due to all the nuclear radiation from the bombs (thanks so much, Korea), people tend to stay inside. School, work, life- once we got all of those back- happened from behind a screen.
That? That's my number one reason for hating the apocalypse.
See, about ten years ago when the concept of AI surfaced, people were hesitant to invest in something so... modern. Which is very unlike the human species, isn't it? But, well, after we successfully achieved permanent clean energy and tidied up our oceans, Earth entered a shockingly peaceful and calm time period.
All the world's governments met in DC for the singing of the Unity Pact, a treaty that bound everyone to anti-pollution and BFFishness with each other. It was all over the media for months, and everyone was incredibly relieved that we backed off from the edge of WW4.
That was cool, I guess. I don't remember; I was nine.
About a year later, surprising literally no one, Russia came forward with a brand-spanking-new AI system called P.I.N.K.- Parallel Infotainment Nanobased Keytech. Isn't it great? Before you laugh, do note that this thing allowed you to vacuum the whole house, leaf blow the driveway, and make a mean smoothie all at the same time, even if it is kind of a lame color.
Well, no one liked that idea. Ever seen the movie The Mitchells vs the Machines? Star Wars? Terminator, anyone? Humans weren't exactly willing to put themselves at risk like that, because, well, we're humans. Enough said.
Anyways, a few years later when North Korea discovered that the US government was building missiles (just in case, they swore), they got kinda pissed and started off on their own militarism streak to compete with them. It was back to the early 2000s, which, really guys?
It was the last straw when a nuke was accidentally set off on the UK's part and hit South Korea. Shouldn't've been a problem, except for that some of the blast zone went over the border. North Korea launched an immediate counterattack, and yet another world war destroyed the Unity Pact and all that was good in the world. You didn't think water wouldn't be polluted by radiation, did you? Crops would be safe from harm? Air would be safe to breathe after a couple months of evacuating the area? Ohhh, no.
The radiation was permanent. People moved to the less toxic areas of the planet (because nowhere is completely clear, except for maybe Antarctica). Food began growing in greenhouses alone and water purification plants became the most valuable profession in the world.
Because people were completely quarantined by themselves or with family, they were more willing to welcome advanced tech into their homes.
Annnd, fast forward a few years; we're back to the present! Things have calmed down a little, I guess. Though I'm considered weird in society for owning a living cat-
"Echo, come quick!" My mother's voice floated its way into my room excitedly. Last time she sounded that ecstatic, it was because her Amazon package had arrived two days earlier than planned. Big deal, Mom.
Not really expecting anything big, I meandered my way down the hallway into our apartment's living room. The same old green couch, flower-print armchair, and wood coffee table stared me right in the face like normal. Tantalizing foodish smells wafted from the kitchen entryway as the automatic stove pre-emptively heated up dinner. From my brother's room, I could hear him yelling at his friends and PC the same expletives he always uses when he gets sniped in whatever game he spends all his time on. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary.
"Mom?" I called, not seeing her. She lugged in a huge box from the front door, carefully setting it down at my feet. It was about my height.
So another package, then. I resisted the urge to sigh. That would earn me a lecture about respecting my elders' interests, as if they'd ever respected mine.
And yet... this box was marked with another symbol than normal.
"What is this?" I asked, nudging it with my toe (no, Mother, I'm not kicking it).
"Your new teacher!" Mom said brightly.
I tried to remember her mentioning anything like this, I really did. Was a person crammed in there? That didn't feel very legal. And my parents know I don't like getting "upgrades" to my tech when I know it works perfectly fine.
"...What?" I finally said poetically.
Rather than answering, Mom slit the top open with her obnoxiously long fingernails and pulled the cardboard away. A rose-pink robot about my height sat there, its large screen-for-a-face powered off, causing my own confused expression to look right back at me.
"Your new teacher!" she repeated. "This is B.O.B. He's a professional educator. Isn't he lovely?"
I'm sorry, "he"? Yeahhh, that thing isn't alive. Many apologies.
"What does B.O.B. even stand for?" I flicked the robot in the face. It didn't react.
"Binarily Operated Bot," Mom recited. "B.O.B., power on!"
A quiet whirring noise emitted from its chest piece, and the face screen lit up in an ultraviolet glow. A white figure eight appeared right in the center of it.
"Hello!" an automated male voice said cheerfully. "My name is Binarily Operated Bot, but you can call me B.O.B.! Shall we get started with our lesson?"
"Um, what lesson? It's Saturday." The robot, on its one puffy wheel, rolled forward an inch. I took a nervous step back.
"Are you ready for your lesson?" it said again, creepily cheerful.
"Mom, turn this thing back off," I said. I didn't like it. It was freaky, and I liked my current setup on my laptop a whole lot better for education.
"U-Uh, this is normal," my mother insisted.
"ACK," I yelped as the robot started forcefully shoving me down the hallway to my room. "MOM!"
"Alright, alright," she relented, chasing after us to try to get to the killswitch on the back of its head.
The two of us stared at the dark, unmoving body, which arms were still half outstretched. Once again, its tablet face was a dark image of nothing. Unnerving. And so was the silence. On my part, said silence was like half shock and half irritation. Mom's was just guilty.
"HAAA! EAT THAT, YOU UNCULTURED HALF-ROTTED ZUCCHINI!"
Well, past tense silence. Looks like the brother's won another match.
"I'm sorry," Mom finally admitted, but she didn't sound entirely remorseful, more bewildered as if she wasn't sure how in the world her perfect idolized technology could've malfunctioned like that.
"Yeah, I'm sure you are," I muttered, turning and walking into my room, letting the door quietly click shut behind me.
