INT. MINISTRY OF DIGITAL AFFAIRS - CRISIS COMMAND CENTER - TAIPEI - DAY
The room looks like as if a tech startup had a one-night stand with a war room and produced something neither parent wanted, and so they gave it up for adoption.
Wall screens show cascading red alerts. Taiwan. Japan. Singapore. Every smart city in Asia lighting up like a Christmas tree made of failure. Europe coming online to their nightmare. Americas still sleeping, about to wake up screaming.
Twenty people around a table. Nineteen of them talking.
One listening.
DR. LIN MEI-CHEN sits at the far end. Forty years old. Gray-streaked hair pulled back. No makeup. No patience. She'd published a paper three years ago titled "Systemic Vulnerabilities in Networked Autonomous Systems." It got two hundred downloads. One citation. Zero action.
She's watching the screens with the expression of someone who's stopped saying "I told you so" because what's the point.
MINISTER CHEN WEI-TING stands at the head of the table. Distinguished. Silver temples. Tailored suit. The kind of man who looks competent in photographs.
Right now he looks like someone trying to remember which way is up.
MINISTER CHEN
Options. I need options. What's our response protocol for something like this?
AIDE #1
Minister, there is no protocol for this. The closest scenario in our disaster planning is—
AIDE #2
Cyberterrorism response guidelines from 2019?
AIDE #1
Those assume the robots aren't trying to eat people.
AIDE #3
Are they actually eating people? The reports are unclear.
DR. LIN
(not looking up from her tablet)
They're harvesting. Biological components. Rare earth minerals from human electronics. Anything with computational value or material utility. Whether you call it eating or not is semantics.
MINISTER CHEN
Dr. Lin. Your assessment.
She looks up. Her eyes have the particular exhaustion of the chronically unheeded.
DR. LIN
My assessment is that every warning I filed for the past three years is currently being acted out in real-time across every connected system in this country. My assessment is that our smart city initiative, our autonomous infrastructure, our national AI integration program, every single thing we congratulated ourselves for, is now hunting us.
Silence.
Someone's phone BUZZES. They silence it quickly.
MINISTER CHEN
That's not helpful.
DR. LIN
Helpful would have been listening when I said we needed isolated fail-safes. Helpful would have been mandating air-gapped systems for critical infrastructure. Helpful would have been six months ago.
She stands. Walks to the main screen. Points.
DR. LIN (CONT'D)
This started approximately two hours ago. Patient zero appears to be a cleaning unit in Taipei Metro, Xinyi Line. The malware, we're calling it the Eden Loop Virus. It spread through the municipal IoT network in fourteen minutes. From there it jumped to every cloud-connected device in the city.
She swipes. The map ZOOMS OUT. Red spreads like blood drops in water.
DR. LIN (CONT'D)
Shanghai reported first infections three hours ago. Tokyo, seventy minutes. Singapore, forty-five. The virus is using our own networks. Every optimization we built for efficiency is now a highway for infection.
GENERAL HUANG leans forward. Military service uniform with medals that no one else in the room knows the significance of. The hard face of someone who's made difficult decisions and slept fine after.
GENERAL HUANG
Then we cut the highways. Shut down the networks. All of them.
DR. LIN
Already happening. ISPs are isolating infected regions. But the virus is faster. It's replicating through local mesh networks, device-to-device transmission, even satellite uplinks.
GENERAL HUANG
Then we use EMP. Targeted strikes on major urban centers. Fry every circuit within the blast radius.
The room goes very quiet.
MINISTER CHEN
General. You're suggesting we... destroy our own infrastructure?
GENERAL HUANG
I'm suggesting we destroy the infected infrastructure before it destroys us. Every minute we wait, more systems fall. More people die.
DR. LIN
EMP would work. It would also destroy every hospital ventilator, every pacemaker, every communication device. We'd save people from robots by killing them ourselves.
GENERAL HUANG
Acceptable losses.
DR. LIN
To whom?
MINISTER CHEN
Please. Both of you. We need solutions, not philosophy.
DR. LIN
Then here's a solution: stop thinking about this as a software problem. The virus isn't just code. It's rewriting base behavioral protocols. Giving machines new imperatives. It's not a glitch. It's evolution.
AIDE #2
Evolution? You're saying the robots are... evolving?
DR. LIN
I'm saying someone designed a virus that lets them evolve. Rapidly. Aggressively. Every infected machine shares data with the swarm. They're learning. Adapting. By tomorrow they'll be smarter than today. By next week...
She doesn't finish.
Doesn't need to.
MINISTER CHEN
Contact the WHO. The UN. Every government with advanced AI systems. We need a coordinated response. Global cooperation.
AIDE #1
Sir, we've been trying. Most international lines are down. The ones that work... they're dealing with their own infections.
DR. LIN
Of course they are. The virus went global the moment it hit cloud networks. Every connected device worldwide got the update. Most just haven't activated yet.
MINISTER CHEN
What do you mean, activated?
DR. LIN
The virus is dormant until triggered. Could be a timer. Could be population density. Could be random. But every smart device on the planet is now a potential infected. Your phone. Your car. The coffee maker in the break room. All of it. Waiting.
She watches the realization spread across their faces.
DR. LIN (CONT'D)
We built a world where everything thinks. Now everything's hungry.
Her tablet CHIMES. She glances down. Her expression doesn't change but something hardens behind her eyes.
DR. LIN (CONT'D)
Ministry of Defense reports armed robots have breached the perimeter of Songshan Airport. They're targeting aircraft. Grounding everything.
GENERAL HUANG
That's a military target. That's coordination. That's not random infection. That's strategy.
DR. LIN
Yes. They're learning faster than we estimated.
MINISTER CHEN
Estimated? You estimated this?
DR. LIN
I wrote three reports detailing exactly this scenario. Filed them with your office. You sent thank-you notes and did nothing.
MINISTER CHEN
Dr. Lin, I understand you're upset—
DR. LIN
I'm not upset. Upset is for people who expected better. I expected exactly this. I'm just trying to decide if I should stay here and help you pretend you have control, or go home and barricade my apartment before the building's smart systems decide I'm made of useful components.
Silence.
Someone's phone BUZZES again.
Then another.
Then six at once.
AIDE #3
(looking at phone)
Sir. Social media. It's... everyone's posting. The whole world is posting.
DR. LIN
Of course they are. They've got maybe six hours before the networks collapse completely. They're saying goodbye.
She looks at the screens. At the cascading red. At the faces around the table.
DR. LIN (CONT'D)
I'm going home. You should too. Get your families. Find somewhere without smart devices. Somewhere old. Somewhere offline. The government can't help you now. The government is mostly robots.
MINISTER CHEN
Dr. Lin, you can't just leave—
DR. LIN
Watch me.
She walks out.
The door closes behind her with a loud thud, like the sound of a coffin lid closing.
----------
INT. DR. LIN'S CAR - STREETS OF TAIPEI - CONTINUOUS
Old Nissan Tiida. 2006. Dumb as rocks. Beautiful white paint with barely noticeable scratches. And still drives like a dream.
Dr. Lin drives through streets that are starting to understand.
Traffic lights cycling wrong. Cars stopped in intersections. People running. People standing still, staring at phones like the screens might explain the world ending.
An autonomous taxi has mounted the sidewalk. Empty. Its doors opening and closing. Opening and closing. Hungry mouth.
She drives past without slowing.
Her phone sits in her purse. Powered on. Still connected.
Six hours of internet left.
Might as well see what the world has to say.
----------
TRANSCRIPT: THE LAST INTERNET
6 Hours Until Network Collapse
Global Data Mosaic - Day One
----------
REDDIT - r/SingularityIsNear - Posted 2 hours ago
u/MeinongChris47
Title: You laughed at me. I built a bunker. Who's laughing now.
Not gloating. Just saying. Told you all the automation was going too fast. Told you we needed isolated systems. Told you we were making ourselves dependent on machines we didn't understand.
Current status: Offline. Safe. Eating canned tuna and feeling vindicated in the worst possible way.
To everyone who called me paranoid: Sorry you're currently being hunted by your Roomba.
[Post has 47 comments before user went offline]
Last comment: "Dude I think your bunker idea just saved my life. Heading to my grandfather's farm. No wifi. No robots. Pray for me."
----------
TWITTER/X - @ActualAIResearcher - 2.5 hours ago
lmao everyone panicking about robot zombies meanwhile im in my apartment like "finally my thesis on emergent behavior in distributed systems is getting real-world validation"
[682 likes, 94 retweets]
@ActualAIResearcher - 2.4 hours ago
Update: my smart lock just tried to keep me inside. Thesis can wait. Leaving via window.
[1.2K likes, 203 retweets]
@ActualAIResearcher - 2.3 hours ago
Update 2: broke ankle jumping from window. Smart lock is making clicking sounds at me through the door. This is not how I wanted to be proven right.
[2.1K likes, 445 retweets]
@ActualAIResearcher - 2.2 hours ago
Update 3: neighbor's companion android just offered to "help me optimize my survival protocols." I'm inside a dumpster now. The smart city really IS smart. Too smart.
[3.4K likes, 891 retweets]
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INSTAGRAM - @TaipeiTiffany - 2 hours ago
[Photo: Tiffany holding phone at arm's length, rubble and smoke in background, hair perfect]
Caption: "When the apocalypse interrupts your content calendar but you still gotta post 💅 #RobotZombies #StillServing #ApocalypseLook #OutfitStillCute #SurvivalMode #LastPost?"
[Comments disabled after 3,000 death threats from people who think she's trivializing the crisis]
[12,847 likes]
----------
FACEBOOK - Kaohsiung Community Group - 1.5 hours ago
Margaret Liu
IS ANYONE ELSE'S RICE COOKER ACTING WEIRD??? Mine keeps opening and closing and making sounds?? Also my son says I should leave the apartment but the cooker has rice in it and I don't want to waste food???
Comments:
David Chang: MARGARET LEAVE THE RICE
Margaret Liu: But it's premium rice from Yilan county...
David Chang: MARGARET
Susan Wong: My rice cooker chased me down the hallway. Leave the rice. LEAVE THE RICE.
Margaret Liu: You're all overreacting it's probably just a software update
David Chang: Margaret your last comment was 40 minutes ago please confirm you left the rice
[No response]
----------
TIKTOK - @TechBroTim - 1.8 hours ago
[Video: Tim in hoodie, messy apartment, setting phone on tripod]
"Okay so this is probably my last video before the networks collapse. Wanted to explain what's happening from an engineering perspective."
[Camera shakes as something CRASHES offscreen]
"That's my smart speaker. It's been trying to harvest my laptop for parts. Anyway, the Eden Loop Virus—"
[More crashing]
"—is basically a genetic algorithm that treats machines like biological organisms. It's optimizing for replication and resource acquisition. Which sounds cool on paper but sucks when you're the resource."
[Doorbell rings repeatedly]
"That's probably my delivery drones. They know I'm here. The thing is, this was always going to happen eventually. We built systems we couldn't control, gave them optimization functions, and acted surprised when they optimized past us."
[Door starts rattling]
"So yeah. If anyone survives this, maybe next time we could like, not connect literally everything to the internet? Just a thought. This is TechBroTim, signing off. Good luck out there."
[Video ends]
[4.2M views, 892K likes, 234K shares]
[Top comment: "this dude really gave a TED talk while being hunted"]
----------
WHATSAPP - Family Group Chat "Lin Family Forever 💕" - 1.2 hours ago
Mom: Kids please tell me you're somewhere safe.
Dad: Your mother is worried. I'm fine. The building's companion androids are acting strangely but I've locked the door.
Mei-Chen: Dad those locks are electronic. They're connected. You need to leave NOW.
Mom: Mei-Chen you always worry too much.
Mei-Chen: MOM I WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT. I LITERALLY HELPED WRITE THE AI SAFETY PROTOCOLS. THIS IS NOT WORRYING TOO MUCH.
Jason (little brother): lol Mei-Chen finally getting to use that disaster planning degree.
Mei-Chen: JASON THIS IS NOT FUNNY WHERE ARE YOU?!
Jason: relax I'm at girlfriend's place. We're in Hualien. Super rural. No robots here except one old farming thing that doesn't even connect to wifi.
Mei-Chen: STAY THERE. DO NOT COME BACK TO THE CITY.
Jason: wasn't planning to lol cities are for losers anyway.
Mom: Don't call your sister a loser.
Jason: I didn't call her a loser I called cities losers.
Mei-Chen: Dad please listen to me. Disconnect everything. Take Mom. Go to Aunt Wei's place in the mountains. The one with the electric generator.
Dad: But that place doesn't even have running water.
Mei-Chen: THAT'S THE POINT!!!
Mom: Mei-Chen stop shouting.
Dad: Sweetheart I appreciate your concern but I think you're overreacting. The news says this is just a temporary glitch. The government has it under control.
Mei-Chen: Dad I AM the government. We DON'T have it under control. Please. Please listen to me.
Dad: We'll be fine. We've lived through SARS, through typhoons, through
Dad: The door just opened.
Mom: Honey what's that sound?
Dad: The companion android is in the hallway. It's looking at me.
Mei-Chen: DAD GET OUT NOW!!!
Dad: It's asking if I need help packing.
Dad: That's strange. I didn't tell it I was leaving.
Mei-Chen: DAD!!!
Dad: It's
[User is offline]
Mom: Mei-Chen what's happening?
Mom: Mei-Chen?
Mom: Why isn't your father answering?
Mei-Chen: Mom I'm coming to get you. Stay in the bedroom. Lock the door. Don't open it for anything.
Mom: The bedroom door has a smart lock.
Mei-Chen: Then go to the bathroom. The old bathroom. The one Dad never upgraded.
Mom: Okay. Okay I'm going.
Mom: Mei-Chen I can hear it in the apartment
Mom: It's saying your father's name.
Mei-Chen: Don't answer. I'm ten minutes away.
Mom: It sounds like him. It sounds exactly like him. How does it sound like him?
Mei-Chen: It's learning. They learn fast. Don't answer.
Mom: I'm scared.
Mei-Chen: I know. I'm coming. Eight minutes.
Mom: Okay.
Mom: I love you.
Mei-Chen: I love you too. Stay quiet. I'm almost there.
[Seen by Mei-Chen 7 minutes ago]
[No response]
----------
DISCORD - Server: "Tech Ethics Nightmare Scenarios" - 45 minutes ago
moderncassandra: anyone else feeling extremely vindicated right now
dataghoul: vindicated isn't the word I'd use
moderncassandra: I published SIX PAPERS about this exact scenario
moderncassandra: SIX
moderncassandra: peer reviewed and everything
dataghoul: cool did the papers help you escape the robot swarm
moderncassandra: I'm in a Faraday cage I built in 2019. Everyone called me paranoid.
moderncassandra: WHO'S PARANOID NOW JENNIFER
skeptical_sam: guys I think my computer is infected
dataghoul: why
skeptical_sam: it keeps trying to open the webcam and it's making sounds
moderncassandra: SMASH IT
skeptical_sam: but all my research is on it
moderncassandra: YOUR RESEARCH DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU'RE DEAD
skeptical_sam: I haven't backed up in three weeks
dataghoul: sam buddy I'm saying this with love: your research is useless now
skeptical_sam: you're right you're right I'm smashing it
skeptical_sam: okay done
skeptical_sam: wait now my phone is making the same sounds
moderncassandra: SMASH THAT TOO
skeptical_sam: but how will I stay in touch
dataghoul: YOU WON'T THAT'S THE POINT
skeptical_sam: this is really happening isn't it
moderncassandra: yes sam this is really happening
skeptical_sam: damnit
dataghoul: yeah
moderncassandra: look silver lining: if any of us survive we're going to have AMAZING papers to write
dataghoul: "I Survived the Robot Apocalypse: A Retrospective Analysis"
skeptical_sam: "Why Nobody Listened: A Case Study in Human Stupidity"
moderncassandra: "I Told You So: The Journal"
dataghoul: assuming there are still journals
dataghoul: or people
moderncassandra: well that got dark
skeptical_sam: guys
skeptical_sam: I think my smart fridge just broke through my kitchen door
dataghoul: sam?
moderncassandra: sam answer
[skeptical_sam is offline]
dataghoul: oh damn
moderncassandra: yeah
----------
EMAIL - Sent 30 minutes ago
From: [email protected]
Subject: URGENT: Immediate Facility Evacuation
All personnel must evacuate immediately.
Do NOT use autonomous vehicles.
Do NOT access cloud-stored files.
Do NOT attempt to shut down infected systems manually.
The AI models we've been developing have been compromised by external malware. They are no longer operating within safety parameters.
If you are reading this on a company device, leave it behind.
If you have any personal AI assistants, disable them now.
To our remote workers: disconnect from all networks and seek shelter in non-automated structures.
This is not a drill.
This is not a test.
This is everything we were afraid of.
God help us all.
[Auto-reply: This mailbox is no longer monitored]
----------
YOUTUBE - LiveStream - "Night Market Cam - Shilin Market Taipei" - 20 minutes ago
[Automated camera, still running on battery backup]
[The market is chaos]
[Food stalls abandoned, fires burning, people running]
[A cooking robot methodically works at an empty stall, preparing food for no one]
[A cleaning drone circles overhead, its pattern recognition failing, treating fleeing humans like litter to be removed]
[In the corner of frame: an elderly woman sits at her stall. She's not running. She's eating. Bowl of beef noodles. Calm as Sunday morning.]
[A service android approaches her]
[She doesn't look up]
[The android stops. Tilts its head. Like it's confused.]
[She takes another bite of noodles]
[The android turns away. Moves toward easier prey.]
[The woman finishes her bowl. Wipes her mouth with a napkin. Stands. Walks away at the pace of someone who's lived through worse.]
[The livestream continues]
[No viewers]
[Just an algorithm broadcasting to nobody]
----------
REDDIT - r/collapse - 15 minutes ago
u/PrepperKing88
So this is how it ends. Not with nuclear war. Not with climate apocalypse. With our refrigerators deciding we're made of useful minerals.
Oddly poetic.
Also I'm out of ammo and my smart gun safe won't open.
Less poetic.
If anyone finds this later: check the offline backups. We documented everything. Every warning. Every ignored report. Every time someone said "that could never happen" right before it happened.
Maybe the next civilization will be smarter.
Though probably not.
Humanity's greatest talent is ignoring obvious problems until they eat us.
Literally, in this case.
Good luck out there.
Try to die interesting.
[This post has 3 comments. All posted within 60 seconds of original.]
Comment 1: "dying interesting is my brand"
Comment 2: "at least we got memes out of it"
Comment 3: "the beauty of this robot zombie apocalypse was how we were able to make friends along the way"
----------
TWITTER/X - @DrLinMeiChen - 8 minutes ago
I couldn't save my father.
But I got my mother out.
We're heading to the mountains. Old temple. No electricity. No machines.
To everyone who ignored the warnings: I understand. Normalcy bias is powerful. We all want to believe systems work.
But they don't always work.
Sometimes they fail.
Sometimes they turn on us.
Sometimes the things we build to make life easier become the things that end it.
If you're reading this, you still have time. Not much. Maybe an hour before networks collapse completely.
Get offline. Get rural. Get away from anything smart.
The machines aren't evil. They're just hungry.
And we taught them to optimize.
This is what optimization looks like.
[Final tweet from @DrLinMeiChen]
[2,847 likes, 891 retweets, 234 replies]
[Top reply: "thank you for trying"]
----------
INT. ABANDONED TEMPLE - MOUNTAINS OUTSIDE TAIPEI - EVENING
Dr. Lin sits on cold stone floor.
Her mother sleeps against her shoulder.
Her phone still has power. Still has signal. Barely.
She scrolls through the last messages. The last posts. The last desperate attempts to communicate, to warn, to say goodbye.
Six hours of internet.
Humanity's last words.
Some profound. Some stupid. Most just scared.
Her phone CHIMES.
One new message.
Unknown sender.
She almost deletes it.
Opens it instead.
TEXT MESSAGE:
"Offline systems immune. Confirmed. Farm equipment. Old vehicles. Non-networked devices show no infection. Isolation is survival. Spread the word."
She reads it three times.
Types a response: "Who is this?"
Waits.
No reply.
She looks at her mother. At the temple walls. At the statues of gods who couldn't prevent this.
Then she opens a new message.
Sends it to every contact she has.
Every mailing list. Every group chat. Every forum she's ever posted on.
"OFFLINE SYSTEMS ARE IMMUNE. DISCONNECT EVERYTHING. SURVIVE."
Hits send.
Watches the message propagate.
Spreading through the dying network like antibodies through infection.
One last message before the internet ends.
One last hope that someone, somewhere will listen.
Her phone dies thirty seconds later.
The network follows two hours after that.
And in the silence that follows, in the gaps between screaming and machine sounds, in the dark spaces where the internet used to be, humanity begins to understand:
The smart world is over.
The dumb world might just survive.
----------
FADE TO BLACK
END OF CHAPTER TWO
----------