Attacking Aggressively

Journal.txt(23)

- How could you know of such a thing? Eve then asks him.

- I remember when it happened. My former owner, Rupert, bought this program to make me clean the floor, but it didn't work because I fell down all the time. It turned out the program didn't connect with my sense of balance, he then explains to her.

- These old programs, are you referring to such as this one? I ask, and shows him the "EMPTY THE DISHWASHER" cartridge.

- Yes. The newer programs that are more stable are usually stored in cylindrical hard drives, Sam explains. We then hear a heavy impact to the door.

- They are going to fell the door! Eve says, before we hear another impact on it.

- I'm sure could fit into the valve, but I don't think I would be able to move around, Sam explains. He is right, we cannot just walk on our knees and elbows in there, we will really have to crawl. I would surely learn pretty soon, Eve might do but Sam could never without a program. A program... which might be here in the archive! Of course, it will take quite some time to look around, but a small loss is better than risking Sam's freedom.

I start to peek around in the pile of programs, and the other two grow to wonder what I am doing. When I tell them what I am doing, Eve heads over to a shelf and grabs a cartridge which looks promising. "CRAWL AWAY - MARK YOUR POWER FOR REAL!" The concept is quite sickening, but we really have to get out of here soon as possible, and the only way out is through the ventilation. Eve herself seems sceptical regarding installing the program, but Sam acts the exact opposite.

He has been casting several enthusiastic looks upon the programs, as if he wanted to install every each one of them. It would make sense that PunchINC made their machines craving for programs, in order to bring the sales to a larger scale. The question however, is if the sadistic owners would not refrain from the purchase of new programs for that same reason. I guess it could work on some people, but I am pretty confident Damian would never buy anything I wanted.

Sam installs the "CRAWL AWAY" program, and hands over the cartridge to me. I think a little over the reason Eve would not want to install the program, I think I understand why, and hence decide not to install it either. Eve and I then help lower Sam to the floor in order for him to crawl into the ventilation. Eve then climbs in, and I pull my leg in just when the door falls and a pile of soldiers along with it. I think they hit my foot once or twice, but I manage to get away before any serious harm is dealt. Just as I thought, I quickly learn to crawl at Sam's speed, and Eve learns eventually. We crawl through the valve, and hear steås and cries of the soldiers. Heavy, muffled footsteps echo across the valve, and that is when I realize just how safe we really are. Maybe I should have put the louver back up, but to my defence I have to mention that I had no time for that.

- Where are we going? asks Sam, whom is crawling in front.

- We cannot just show up anywhere, because they definitely have guards outside every louver, Eve explains, and she is right. They have already failed several times, but this is the best chance they will ever have. The ephemeral thought that they deserve catching us after all they have done scares me even more than the soldiers themselves.

- you slapped me once, didn't you, PD? Sam asks me. I browse the journal protocol, and can confirm that I actually managed to hit Sam once without my hand feeling weakened. This is probably by the same reason that I managed to shoot at MB-344013; At both cases, I was aware that I was not hurting a human being. Human beings are the only ones that I cannot harm, but they are also the only ones that would be necessary to harm. I wonder if I would be able to hurt animals, because they are neither humans or machines. They are alive in any case, so not only is it unlikely that machines could hurt them but it is also wrong.