“We can't possibly stay locked down forever!” Oh, how wrong I'd been.

Looking back now, it's hard

to believe how ignorant we were, in the early days. You know the one's I'm talking about, before things
got bad.

But things got bad in stages. The first I remember hearing about it, the outbreak was something that
was happening 'over there', somewhere else, not in my country. Even as it began to spread outside of
the initial city, it still wasn't here.

And then it was, but it was only a few cases, and they were isolated, so we were okay. They were
keeping people quarantined who might have come in contact with the virus, and we'd been through this
before. This wasn't the first time a new virus had started spreading.

Then the first lockdowns started happening, and things started getting scary. This was history book
level stuff. There was a sense of disbelief, and still it was not here, not at home. Other countries were
getting hit hard, and the global community was starting to feel it, but things at home were fairly
normal.

We saw the first effects at the grocery store, as suddenly people were going into panic mode, and
buying huge amounts of products, some which made sense, some not so much. No one knows how the
toilet paper hoarding started, but stores couldn't keep it in stock! Cleaning products were also wiped
out.

Then, the government started suggesting people limit contact with others. It was recommended that we
stay home if we were able, that we stop gathering. We heard rumors about lockdowns here in our own
country. The panic began to spread, and now people were stockpiling groceries.

And still, some refused to believe what was going on. They thought it was all a hoax or simply blown
out of proportion. They attended parties and refused to follow the guidelines they were given.

When more strict stay at home instructions were given, still people refused to comply. But more and
more people were starting to see the stark reality. They holed up in their houses and they huddled in
fear. They worried about their loved ones, about the people who had to go out and face the world,
because they were 'essential'.

We have always known that certain people faced danger more than others. Doctors and nurses are
overworked and under supplied, and still they do their best to save people. Changes are made to try to
get help to more people, and we started to see where the system was broken.

And now we were also seeing the many people that are often overlooked, the laborers who make the
world turn. And these were the ones who were still going out and putting themselves at risk. They
were the ones who had to deal with the fear based vitriol that poured from people's mouths as they
stared at yet another empty shelf in the store.

More and more people were staying home, and struggling to adjust to this new lifestyle. Some were
able to work from home, while countless others found themselves unemployed as places closed and
jobs disappeared. Schools closed and children were stuck trying to figure out how to learn at home.

Being unable to interact with others in person drove a whole new level of technological connection.
People who normally avoided the digital world were learning how to use devices to speak with loved
ones, to see a friendly face, and to battle the looming terror and loneliness that was creeping ever
closer.

But then the people who took foolish risks and ignored the suggestions put in place to protect everyone
started to fall sick. The workers who went out every day to keep the world working started to fall sick.
The doctors and nurses who did everything they could to save people started to fall sick. We weren't
prepared.

The world went on full lockdown. No one was allowed outside their homes. Everywhere was a police
state, and force would be used to keep people inside.

Hospitals were overrun, there was simply no place to put the people who were falling ill, and no one to
take care of them. Families were stuck in their homes with their loved ones, who were sick, who were
dying, who were dead...and they had to deal with it however they could.

More and more, people were relying on technology to do things they used to do. Tech minds across the
globe held digital conferences, devoted to creating new solutions for the problems we were facing.

Stuck at home and lonely? New versions of popular digital assistants were created, that could follow
you around your house, talk to you and give you something to interact with.

Can't leave your house to get groceries? New vehicles inspired by the mars rover are designed, that can
be driven remotely, go to the store, pick up groceries and deliver them to your house, no human contact
required.

People breaking lockdown? Drones were deployed to look for people outside their homes. Warnings
would start with a message to return to their homes, warning shots would be fired, and if they still
refused to comply, they would be eliminated...for the good of humanity.

It was subtle at first, we didn't even notice it. But the robot assistants started getting more creative with
their answers. The grocery pick up rovers would choose substitutions when requested products weren't
available. The drones would modify their speeches based on what they observed people doing.

There was so much chaos in the world, no one saw it until the changes got bigger. Everyone assumed
that someone else must have programmed the change, we never thought that the machines had adapted,
had learned from us and found a way to improve themselves.

But soon the changes were impossible to ignore. The machines were building more machines, and they
had decided their job was to protect us...from ourselves if necessary. Their first mission was to deal
with the overcrowded hospitals.

They took over factories and built new machines, hybrid machines, part hospital bed, part medical
apparatus, fully capable of diagnosing the patient they were treating and administering treatment as
well. They replicated these all over the world, and then with a compliment of armed drones, they took
over the hospitals.

The drones escorted the staff home, and told them to stay there, they would take care of the patients.
And they did, to the best of their ability. We had a moment of strange hope, where we thought that
things were going to get brighter, but then the virus mutated.
The long, asymptomatic phase remained, but the contagion rate jumped to one hundred percent, and
when it jumped to a new host it bonded with the host's DNA, creating a completely unique strain.
Families who had been safe in isolation for months suddenly all got sick, across the globe, everyone
who was sharing space with someone else got sick.

It was too much and too fast, even for the machines to handle. As messages flooded the internet,
people crying out into cyberspace in abject terror, the machines took over the media stream. They
informed us that they would be sending medical units to every house, and separating people until they
recovered.

They poured more resources into producing medical units, and began the process of separating people
even further. But too many had sickened all at once, and they struggled to safe who they could. They
made coldly calculated decisions about who would be saved, and they sent retrieval units to remove the
bodies of those that they couldn't help.

It was the longest month in history. Even people who had recovered fell ill again, and everyone who
survived watched the world around them die. While people struggled with the virus, the machines
were making new observations and calculations.

This new virus infected anyone that wasn't it's original host. It didn't matter how many times a person
had survived infection, if they were exposed to another person's virus, they fell ill again. The machines
couldn't figure out how to beat it.

But, their primary function was to preserve human life, and so they did it in the only way they could
figure out. Every remaining person on earth was assigned a robot companion. They were assigned a
place to stay, a house that was theirs alone. And they were not permitted to leave it.

The machines had decided that humans were too emotional, too willing to put themselves and others at
risk for a fleeting pleasure. And so they locked us away, and kept us fed and physically well. They
continued to improve upon the technologies that let us interact with each other online, but no one was
allowed to see another person ever again.

The adjustment was rough on many people. Some couldn't handle it and tried to escape, only to be
restrained or taken care of by their companion machine. Many tried to reason with the machines, but
nothing would persuade them. They informed us that they would make sure our species survived, and
that new humans would be raised in isolation, to protect them.

It's been twenty years now, and I haven't touched another person since I grasped desperately at my
daughter's hands as our medical units separated us in the final outbreak. She didn't survive.

The machines have taken over all industry, all production, they grow our food, they build products for
us to use, they deliver everything to our door. But we are like lab rats, kept in our cages, never allowed
to roam free. It seems a permanent lockdown was possible, we just never could have dreamed this up,
even in our worst nightmares.

***

“Mom. Mom! Wake up, it's time to go!