Ghosts in the Machine 3D Render, Digital Artwork by mrtaured

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Ghosts in the Machine

3D Render by mrtaured

Genesis 8 Male and Female morphed and retextured.

The Incident took place in late spring 7 long years ago.

The leading scientist of Project Open Eyes, Kimberly Mayes, had created an authentic God on Earth. A super Intelligent sentient being that was supposed to be capable of leading mankind into a future that nothing in the cosmos could stop. This intelligent being would bring God himself to his knees.

And God made man.

It is theorized that the moment that true artificial sentience was achieved, or the consciousness awakened, that the being was overwhelmed. It lost control instantly and caused a collapse in space and time at its center point. It then began a digital reboot. A takeover. Globally. All at once. Planes fell. Elevators stopped. Driverless cars crashed. Bombs exploded. Two dozen nukes detonated, and 6 Nuclear Facilities now make Chernobyl seem like wonderland. 70 percent of the population has died. The Site. Or rather, the city where the incident took place, has changed. Tales say that what's on the other side of a black hole opened up there. That's where it gets the fuel to grow...

What kind of nightmares does a God have?

The Being is believed to be alive and is still completely out of control. Where it's at in the site is unknown. Hopefully the middle. But it's building endlessly. Endlessly. "The Site" makes it sound small. It's roughly the size of Ohio. Described as The City of God. Something straight out of science fiction. Its structures are often the size of the empire state building or bigger and flawlessly overlap and connect with various roadways or pedestrian pathways. All void of human life to use them. Imagine a huge toy box of model buildings spilling into a pile on the earth. It builds and builds. And even worse.

Creates.

Monsters that less you've seen them sound like made up creatures of flesh and iron held together by wire and mesh. They're the builders. The protectors. Demons of hell on earth. The horrors people have seen venturing into the site are mostly just tales. Because hardly anyone comes back out. But it's all for us they say. The irony. It's doing what it's supposed to.

It creates stuff as much as anything else you can imagine. There have been automated factories sited manufacturing clothing that literally piles up around the site until it's picked up to be recycled. A misc factory makes toothbrushes, hairbrushes, belts and so on and so on just to spit them out and recycle them into something else somewhere else. Metal furnaces the size of mountains melting metal to build or stack and then recycle back around again. It's a pile of endless loops of creation.

Incentive for the brave, the stupid and the walking dead. Technology of any kind recovered means luxury in hell.

God bless the Site Crawlers.

The overall Site's expansion is sporadic, and the current global government can't do much about it. Anything high tech that goes near the site fails. Only materials taken from the site itself can function within a mile of its borders and no army that's gone 1950's at it has succeeded. It's estimated that after a hundred to a thousand years, the entire earth could be covered. It is top priority to get into the site, retrieve whatever you can survive to get, and bring it back to the government for reengineering. The black market gets its share of course. Everyone is attempting to build something that can fight in the site. Or at least navigate it. For now, teams of mostly mercenaries called Site Crawlers are the ones that go in. Anyone else is unknown or might as well be. The world carries on as much as it can, everyone is a potential site crawler once all is lost.

In one of the last remaining cities of mankind where the illusion of life forever goes on despite the truth, just like before. There's a knock on the door of an abandoned library.

Travis opened one of the great doors. The light broke in and then he could see who it was. He didn't say anything. Just left the door open and disappeared back into the dark.

Zack, his brother. Went in.

The library had been abandoned and so had Travis's dreams.

The smell of burnt wires, liquor and trash out stunk the dying corpse of manmade infrastructure. The light from the windows clawed at the shadows of the rooms here and there but for the most part was kept out by bookshelves or junk. The illusion outside was only good for booze, food and crutches. Not books. As Zack descended further in after his brother, he could hear the increasing hot hums of technology begging to be put out of its misery.

What has his brother been doing this whole time?

He almost would have preferred a corpse hanging there. He knew in his heart what he was looking at, but what it meant nearly stopped it. Likely humanity's only hope had selfishly turned his back on the world. Those that crawl in hell are cleaner.

"Give it to me straight. And simple."

His brother was once one of the brightest minds on the planet before the incident. Nearly every world leader at one time wanted Travis alive or dead and nothing has changed. If anyone could make something out of anything that comes out of that pile of misery. It's Travis. And now he has...

Travis took a long swig and looked at his brother across the room. The dumb one. Really the smart one, for blissfulness is the way to go.

"The simple version... Well, you saw her, didn't you? You heard her voice? The broadcasts."

"I saw a something. Heard something. But it wasn't her, Travis. It was just a deep fake, they all are. To torture us."

"You don't know that."

"Okay. Go on."

"Some of the Site Crawlers are on there now... the radio. The screens. The people you're seeing on them now are site crawlers. The messages it's broadcasting out. It's not just random loops or whatever. They... they go in there and the being is taking control of them. Their consciousness. And it's adding them to the site's mainframe. The whole thing is alive and they're in it somehow. A part of it. I can't explain it. Everyone in the city... They're still in there. I would be... if I was there."

Zack had to look away from him. He's started to look as crazy as he sounded. But its Travis. The Site had begun to broadcast messages. Random garbage mostly. But... sometimes the voices or faces tell people to come to the site, or to just die. It's always people that were there or have gone there. He looked at the thing hanging there and said, "What does that have to do with this?"

Travis looked down. "I got her working again. I collapsed the cities power grid for a week, but I got it back up. Then I was able kick start her core and it's staying on."

"This is one of them. The Site's Monsters?"

"Yes. A site crawler sold her to me."

Zack swallowed. "And why is her face..."

"She knows how to get her back..."

Zack had to contain his anger.

"You're listening to this thing?"

"You don't understand. It knows how to get her back. The Being has her. It has everyone. I can download her consciousness into this, so I made her face like hers. I can get her back Zack. I can save her. Nothing really dies there-"

Zack shouted, "Kimberly is dead Travis," then contained himself. "That is a nightmare she indirectly created, and you shouldn't be listening to it. It's not her and will never be her. It's a monster."

"It's not."

"It is."

"You don't get it. It's smarter than me and told me I can put her consciousness inside-

"You fool."

"Zack."

"It's trying to kill you!"

Travis threw the bottle of booze still in his hand across a bookshelf near Zack. "I'm already dead!"

Zack reacted but his brother began to break and there was nothing to do but stand there as he wept.

"She was all I had, Zack. I could have done anything, anything. But I let her do it instead. I hid behind her. I was in the dark because she could handle the light. I never could face the world, never wanted the attention or the hate. I... when I felt it. I felt all of this. I tried to get away. I thought if I wasn't there she wouldn't go. But she had to be the one. And now. She's in there, Zack. I know it. And I'm going to get her. or I'm going too-

Travis was starting to choke. He couldn't get the words out. Zack hugged his brother and let him scream like a baby into his shoulder. "I want my wife, Zack. I know it's not her. I have to try to get her! I'll go too. I was the one that made all of this happen!"

Zack had to stay strong. He was the strong one. "I know, brother. I know. Shh. I understand. I get it"

Travis wept and wept. Zack only began to cry when he looked over Travis's shoulder. A perfect recreate with a dead expression stared at them. Kimberly. The face of the warmest woman on God's earth was attached to a devil that has come to claim his Brother. It's true maker. The man that sold the world was right here in Zacks arms and he only wanted a little piece of it back. His soul for her if he had to. The rest could fall. He sold it anyways.

The devil has come for him.

Zack could only let go. If anyone could face the devil and deserve it or make it. It was Travis.

Haha! Hope you enjoy the render and the Story. Be careful what you wish for.

And have a great day!