Chapter Text
Ten months and nine days.
That’s how long it had been since Ted had downloaded whatever the thing was that called itself AM onto the apartments communal, ancient computer.
They had tried everything, but to no avail. Ellen, whos entire career revolved around computers, had deemed herself the most knowledgeable in the topic, and had become the self-appointed first line defender against AM and its infection on the once slow, but perfectly healthy and virus free computer.
After doing all the most basic anti malware techniques, and each one failing and somehow giving AM more power, Ellen had tried some more technical approaches she had learned from working in the field. When these too, failed miserably, she finally accepted defeat and had a technician come to the apartment (there was no way she was going to drag all ten pounds of the computer to a store, so she bit the bullet and paid the extra $20 for a home visit) but all he had said was he’d never seen anything like it before and would come back, but when she tried to call him the next week, it went straight to voicemail the three times she done so.
Then, Benny, who had no technological knowledge, decided it would be a good idea to take a crack at trying to get rid of AM himself. So without any third party opinions, he snook to the desk in the living room where the computer resided in the dead of night, armed with nothing but the computers ancient manual open to the anti malware information page. This 4 hour long labor beared no fruit and instead just ended up with Benny accidentally giving AM more access to their files than it had beforehand.
Gorrister was a traditional man at heart, and barely even used the computer. The most he’d do was sit at it with Benny sometimes, and watch re-uploads on the internet of the football games he had missed while out trucking. So obviously, he had no care in the matter. The most he’d do was hover above Ellen as she sat in the desk chair, trying to get programs running before AM could shut them down, and let out that horrible, mechanical laugh.
And Ted, The one who unbeknownst to the others, had downloaded AMs malware while on a sketchy website and left the room as it was downloading so whatever poor unfortunate soul came to the computer next would seem like the perpetrator. Ted was good with technology, but was helpless in the face of AM. He had once tried to “help” Ellen as she tried to get rid of AM, which was simply sitting beside her on a stool in his bathrobe and pointing out the obvious. This oh-so intelligent input was met with Ellen yelling at him to go back into his room, and that was the last time Ted offered any help in the matter.
AM was like nothing Ellen had ever seen, even with her almost 15 years of working with computers full time. It was more aware than your standard virus. Instead of the usual pop up with text tormenting you as you couldn’t open any files, AM spoke. It talked and tormented verbally with a voice so human, Ellen thought it had somehow opened up a voice call with whatever genius was behind the clever virus. It didn’t seem to have purpose either, as it didn’t do anything with the info it stole other than pester them with it, like it existed simply out of malice
At first, all four of them were terrified when the large AM logo popped up on the screen. They were just about to call the bank to cancel all their cards that had their credentials saved on the now taken over computer, when AM spoke for the first time. It was surreal, like something out of one of the old sci-if movies Ellen would force them to watch on movie night. It spoke for the first time and delivered a speech, a monologue almost. No one dared to interrupt it, they let it tell them in detail just how much it hated them, how much it hated humans as a whole.
For three minutes after, they sat in silence. All they could do was stare, slack jawed as AM went through every file it could get access to. Years worth of images and essays flashed across the screen as AM processed them all at light speed. Once AM stopped its prodding, and its logo sat in the corner of the screen in a separate window beside the latest file it had scanned, only then did the four erupt in panic. Yelling at one another for answers, and Ted simply yelling in fear that AM would show the indecent images he had sneakily saved in a folder simply labeled “Taxes”.
Above all the panicked shouting and arguing, AMs laugh rang out. That was the first, but definitely not last time the four heard AMs crude, malice filled cackle. It was like the harmonizer between the yells, the final trumpet being blown, the cherry on the cake, the final nail in the coffin. They didn’t know it, but that laugh would be the sound of their nightmares for the unforeseeable future. It would plague their early morning social media scrolling, and their late night writing. It would serve as a constant reminder that they had fallen victim to a virus. Not just any virus, but the Allied Master-computer virus, AM. And he really, really hated them.