First Draft Sneak Peak: Outside Chapter 3 Part 2
Chapter 3 Part 2 Out of the Frying Pan...
Sam’s legs throbbed with fear. He was practically running on all fours as pencil thin beams of white light sliced and burned the skin on his back, on his thighs, the back of his neck. Many of the beans burned perfectly round holes in the stainless-steel components of the apartment.
It appeared that the mass of debris through which Sam was running and stumbling provided some measure of cover from the deadly beams. The Roverbot swiveled around the destroyed apartments, whizzing and whirring, in an attempt to get a good shot on its prey. When encountering an obstacle it couldn’t roll over, four spider-like legs would extend from the boxes on its helmet and carry it over, or push the obstacle out of the way. These spider legs were especially agile and strong.
The Roverbot’s brain clicked with calculations based on the layout of the rubble strewn and crater pocked environment through which it could move most effectively as well as corral Sam into the maximal targeting position. When Sam picked up a piece of metal sheeting to use as a shield, the Roverbot subtly changed its calculations. The processors calculated that it would take only three blasts at the highest setting to blow what it identified as the backing of a Vista Window into smithereens (though smithereens was not a programmed definition, the binary code could have been interpreted as smithereens).
Sam ran, holding the Vista Window backing. Come back with your shield or on it came to his mind. The backing burned and buckled to the pressure of the white beams. His footing fumbled as the shield was pounded with pure white energy. One blow, two blows, three blows…endgame.
What the Roverbot did not calculate was the probability of Sam jumping from the ledge. The apartment was located twenty stories up. To jump from the ledge was suicide and the Roverbot was programmed to assume that the human being would not knowingly commit suicide. The assumption that was programmed into the Roverbot’s processors made the assumption that the human being would make the most rational decisions to maximize its wellbeing.
Well, Sam wasn’t really making decisions but rather reacting and responding to primal drives for survival. The Vista Wall backing crumbled like aluminum foil. The Roverbot had corralled Sam into the maximal kill position. Sam had no other option but to…
…jump.
