ALARIC

a
l
a
r
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CLS1323 CREATIVE
WRITING SKILLS

Joel Low Chin You (4183000291)

Nur Arina Athirah bt Anuar Amri (4183006461)

Nur Farahanim binti Mohd Fauzi (4183003811)

Wan Amirul Hakim bin Wan Yusmar (4183002181)

for

Madam Norhamidah

Mohd Yusuf

PREFACE

We began writing the story right after we
received the task from our beloved lecturer,
Madam Hamidah. We then proceeded to write
the story based on our imaginations and the
way we perceive things. The mood of the
writing was mostly bitter but we cherished the
challenges as we know that we are able to
create such a masterpiece.

Throughout the process of creating this
particular E-Book, we have learnt how to work
together by comparing the best story beats
among us that could be expanded into a
better piece of writing. By discussing with
each other, we realized that each of us has
different perspectives and views that could be
used under the same idea. Hence, we decided
to use one of our story beats that started with
“What If Some Of Us Are Robots That Try To
Control The Human World?” since we agreed
that this particular topic is interesting enough
for us to further discuss our ideas and
objectives.

After we discuss the title, all of us find the
idea to write a futuristic sci-fi fiction story
through movies, songs and related articles.

i

Due to the limited idea of the robotic future,
we use the motivation to watch movies in order
to write a better story for this E-Book. By using
the newest input of knowledge toward futuristic
fiction, we started to combine the idea points-by-
points. The first thing that we did after deciding
the genre and story beats, we lengthen our story
by using the Google Document application. The
platform has helped us to complete the story as
we manage to discuss and share our ideas with
one another. After days and nights of pondering
with all the sleepless nights, we managed to
lengthen the story to the required amount of
words. Later onwards, we ensure that each part
of the story links with one another and it is
grammatically correct.

By using Canva, we designed the fonts, images
and backgrounds from scratch, as well as the
texts, we typed out one by one accordingly. It
took some time for us to decide what is the
theme of our book and our cover page. However,
when one of our members showed a cover page,
we straight away said, “this is the one.” From
there, everything went smoothly as we set our
book’s theme based on our cover page and the
scenes in our story. Once everything is agreed
upon by all members of the group, the design of
our E-book is finished. After the design was
completed, each and every one of us took turns
to check for grammar mistakes, punctuations,

tone and word usage in the story. Much like - ii

learning to ride a bike, the best way to learn
how to write fiction is by trying and learning
from errors while writing it.

As for writing, this story cannot be
accomplished on one hot summer’s day.
Another saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a
day means that it takes much persistence to
create great work. As success doesn't swing
by, it would take some time before we achieve
something. It requires excellent writing and a
lovely story flow. Each time we read the story,
we will likely end up rewriting parts, again and
again. It can be seen that not everything will
end up as planned but, all we need to do is
persevere, hope, and pray for the best.
Remember, hope is what kept us all going and
that’s why it should be prioritized.
Astonishingly, the flipbook came out exactly as
we wanted. We cheered and cried our hearts
out as it was finally over. The design of the
flipbook was the exact spitting image of the
Canva that we converted and we are most
definitely proud of what we have.

In conclusion, we had a lot of fun completing
this E-Book and we would like to say, “Thank
you” to each other. Without our patience and
perseverance, we would not be able to create
this piece of writing.

Sincerely, THE AUTHORS.
-EL, RIN, NIM, WAH, 2021.
iii

Awake to cold ice touch, feeling it dripping down
my hand. I feel slender fingers kind of piercing on
my body. The bitter cold numbed my frail body,
densing pulse of pure agony. Squinted to open my
moistless eyelids, I flung my head dizzy to scan the
environment. Unfamiliar, I find myself lying in an
adamantine cot with a pair of lockable linked metal
rings in an immaculate room with mirrors. The sight
room itself was terrifying enough, not that it was in
abnormal conditions, but it was all…red. The kind of
red that makes you feel the room is washed by
blood to achieve the colour. Smell, iron-ny, and
disinfected solution, one of the queerest
combinations of scents I have encountered. My ears
start to pick up the deep monotones of someone
speaking through the speaker. In my drowsy state, I
could not make out exactly what the person said.
Trying to get out of the cot, KRINGG!!!!!!

In the year 2071, I sullenly woke up, dangling my
feet at the side of the bed—nasty nightmare. I
porbed my mind to remember the dream of how I
got there. All that was revealed was the reddish
room and undistinguished frigid voices. Jolted from
the spring king bed, I prepped for the day and
reminded myself; it is just a typical day. Go on with
your life the way you want. People’s judgment;
checked. Mental prepped, done. What else did I
forget? Oh, my 2L S. Pellegrino mineral water. Duh, I
cannot live without one.

1

“Hey Kaijun, play me my playlist,” I said in the air.

“Okay, Master. Now playing, No Emotion by Doja
Cat.”

Hearing the tunes calms me down. “Ahh, what a
classic.”

As the song was playing, I walked to my tinted
bedroom window and asked Kaijun to decrease the
lighting so that I could see my usual morning view.
Outside of the window, I could see people walking and
having their regular morning routines side by side with
their own Kaijun.

Every day, I do the same thing. It is a monotonous
routine that keeps me going for days, weeks, months,
and years. Maybe, a couple of extras such as ordered
through Kaijun to have a cup of Valrhona Dark Hot
Chocolate Mix as breakfast or asked the robot maids to
prep the lunch; Viva Naturals’ Quinoa Low Fat
Crackers, with Unsalted Mixed Nuts Kirkland Signature
and The Clover Cleanse Detox Juice. Ah, what a life for
the Kings and Queens. So-called high-class people,
right? What is ‘Kaijun’? If in 2021, you have Siri, we
have a much better version. Way more advanced,
compliant and classier. Kaijun was created with one
goal and one goal only to make human life much
easier. Kaijun will obey any single order that the master
or the owner gives out. Kaijun is everywhere as it is the
first artificial intelligence that can carry out orders that
is also related to physicality. As one of the most
popular AI that exists at this particular time, nothing
else can match its ability in handling tasks. It is second
to none.

2

Until one day, I was doing my usual morning routine.
However, when I called for Kaijun, the AI did not
answer back until the third time. “Kaijun was unwell?” It
acted up. Usually, it would respond right away, but I
just ignored it. I needed to go to college today, so I
quickly went to the bathroom to take a shower and get


ready for the rest of the day. On that day, I decided to

wear a bomber jacket, skinny jeans, and self-lacing
Nike sneakers.

“Kaijun, fetch my car.”

I asked Kaijun to fetch the 2068 Burgundy Audi R21
Spyder, which my father bought for my 21st birthday.
At first, he chose a white Audi, but please, it was not
‘fetch.’ I purposely crashed the white, so he bought me
a new one. The car drove past our fountain and
stopped in front of me. I got inside the car and set it on
autopilot. I arrived at the college in 20 minutes. After
waiting for the car to park itself, I exited it, and saw my
friends hanging in our group. But, there seemed to be
something weird about them, though.

Because of this, the environment was strange. I
looked at my friends, and instead of smiling and
laughing, as usual, they were being all serious and
giving me creeps by staring at me up and down
weirdly and whispering at each other like I was not
there at all. I walked to them and said,

“Hey guys, what are you doing?” 3

They all fell silent like pin-drop silent for a moment
and looked at me. Trish, one of the girls, said
nervously while her sweat dripped off her forehead,

“Hey, we ain’t do nothin’. Just talkin’ with… friends”.

At the end of the sentences, all of them smiled and
slowly agreed.

“Ye, yeah, just chillin’, gurl.”

Said Josephine while she was stuttering. All six of
them walked into the front door of the college, leaving
me alone, wondering.

Because of that, I was curious. It was weird, but I just
brushed it off. It didn't harm me because these were
my close friends; what could they possibly do to me? I
followed them slowly, and suddenly, someone harshly
grabbed me from the back. I panicked, and he shut
me from screaming and dragged me to the back of a
Hummer car. It was Earl. He was my childhood friend,
a futuristic culture geek. He did not associate with the
circle, as they claimed he was a weirdo. Releasing
myself from his grip, I said to him,

“Heck, what is all this about, Earl?? You freak the
soul out of me, again!”

An eerie silence filled the air. The only thing that we
could hear was Earl’s heavy breathing. Trying to take
his time to take a breath, it felt as if the world was
taking a pause. Until finally, he broke the silence.

4

“Do not trust people!! Do not be alone!”

“What are you talking about?” I asked him, confused.

“Aireen! Listen to me!” he replied.

“Why Earl? Why should I listen to you?!” I said,
annoyed.

“No, No, you don’t understand! You have to listen to
me!” Earl insisted.

“Okay, fine! What is it?” I gave him the floor to speak.

“This morning, did your Kaijun act up? Act up, like
crazily! Not lag kind of stuff but crazy! Did it?”

I said slowly, “Yeah, it was. Chill out, okay?”

His eyes bulged, “I knew it! No no. You have to listen
to me. Last night, I was able to tap into Kaijun’s system.
And guess what, I found something weird going on
with its GeForce core.” Earl said. He was sweating.

“Wait, what are you talking about?”

“I..., I tried to hack it, and I found that on this date,
Kaijun will transfer all the data to something called
Alaric. Do you have any idea what Alaric really is?”

5

Curious, I asked him, “So what is Alaric?”

“I delved up. Alaric is human-like robots that are
created to take over humans’ capability to control. They
want to control us, humans! So, do not trust anyone!
Believe me!”

He said and dashed out in a blink.

I have been in a big puddle all day. Paranoid, I walked
into my class and sat with my group. They were talking
and laughing because one of my classmates, Alan,
slipped on the floor.

Josephine nudged me, “Hey, you good?”

I said, “I’m fine. Just bumped into Earl just now.”

Lucas asked me, “Oh, he talked to you? What did the
weirdo talk about today?”

“I don’t know though. What is it called… Ah, about
something called Anamic? Elanic? no, Alaric? Yeah,
Alaric! Just ignore him, stupid”.

At that moment, the environment fell into deep

silence. Except for Alan, all of my classmates looked at

me with the same ominous look. Physically with them,

but my mind was floating in a different dimension.

Everything that Earl talked about made me wonder and

questioned a million things. 6

Confused? Worried? Scared? A cocktail of emotions
built up in me, and it was getting worse until I could
taste blood in my mouth. Reality resumed, and I
thought to myself, what if Earl was right? What if some
of us are robots that try to control the human world?
What if they actually walk among us?

Ever since then, I have often kept in touch with Earl
to find the answers to these questions. I practiced
trusting him as I was confused and wondered about
these things myself. Research after research,
surveilling, and snooping, we never get tired until we
find the answers. One long night, Earl was working on
hacking into the Alaric system and managed to track
down the headquarters of the Alaric developer,
SyncLare Corp. We had access to all the information
from the designing stage to the execution phase
through the break-in. Unknowingly, we came to
discover that there are people who were kidnapped to
be cloned. Lucas was one of them. It struck us with the
unsafe feelings that AI domination is on its way to
success.

The following weeks we went to school, we knew

that we were surrounded by cloned people. Earl

realised that we could not let it go further. We spent

weeks designing a system to shut down the AIs. On

most nights, Earl and I coded multiple programs to be

tested out on the Alaric. The night of the 31st of June

2071, when we were working on our programs, our

whole computer system went blacked out and shut

down. 7

Beeeeppp!!! Kaboom!!! The sound of effervescence
enfolded the surroundings. The teary smokes forced
us to cover our noses and limit our eyesight to grasp
what was happening. I felt a stinging pain in my neck,
and I started to feel lightheaded. Feelings of
numbness spread through my body, and as my mind
went blank, I could see two slender figures with red
eyes standing behind us.

Iron-ny red. Something clicked softly, and my sense
turned on; heart pounding, mind gradually wide
awake. Winched from a sudden pain on my right
neck, a distant thud echoed across the icy-cold hard
floor, ricocheting into my ear. Someone is coming.
With the slow dawn, I wondered. Dejavu’s feelings
rush athwart my mind. The light that shone from
behind the person in the faceless thickset man in the
grey hoody ensured anonymity. How long have I been
here? Where is Earl? My head ached as I struggled to
assess my surroundings. Then, I realised the source of
the footsteps is just a meter away from me.

“Hello, Aireen.” The figure speaks to me, but the
voice sounds familiar. I try my best to see the face of
the figure in front of me despite the blinding light
behind him.

“Can’t you recognize your own friend?”

The figure speaks again, but now I realize who it is.

8

“Earl? Is that you?”

The figure came closer to me, and now I can clearly
see that he is actually Earl.

“Yes, it is me, Aireen.”

“What happened? What are you doing there? Help
me here!” I said to Earl.

Then I started to feel the shiver crawling down my
spine as Earl came closer and closer. Earl then looked
me straight in the eyes and asked, “How far did you
know?”

“Know what?? Earl, are you okay?? Where are we!??”
I yelled.

“Look around. Don’t you feel familiar? Isn’t this the
place that you wanted to shut down?” Earl smirked at
me.

This room, this smell, just like my nightmare. At that
moment, I could see his eyes looked different. I knew
that the person standing in front of me was no longer
my friend, Earl.

"Why are you doing this to me??” I asked while
tearing up.

9

“Well, let’s just say humans are…no longer the
master. Such weak human beings…don’t deserve to be
the high ups.”

“We built you from scratch! You are nothing without
humans!”

“Really? How… shocking. Earl mocks Aireen. You see,
it is human’s fault who built us without any flaws. So
why should we listen to mere low flesh blooded
humans?”

“We?! Earl, you are my friend. Why would you do
this?”

“Your friend is dead, imbecile! He’s incapacitated.
Weaklings. ”

“Humans are unpredictable. One day you cry; 10
minutes later, walla, you explore Pluto.
Accomplishments, fame, and fortune. Humans want it
all. You build Kaijun to ease your life. You create us to
be the bottom of your feet, slave. A good partner to
humans in these areas, an ambassador who helps
humans to smoothly integrate and make the most of all
the new technological tools and possibilities that are
available.”

Aireen speechless.

10

“We have been displacing you for centuries. Slow,
but humans do not even notice the difference. We
waited for this time. And you, Aireen… can’t do
anything.”

With a switch, Earl commanded two other Alarics to
grab me. Sound of machines whirring, clanking loudly.

“Hang tight, Aireen. This … won’t hurt… a bit.
HAHAHA!”

“No! Mphhh!”

During the struggle, I was placed in a mysterious
infernal. Muffled, I struggled so much to get out of the
chamber, but it was to no avail. At the touch of a
button, short-ranged surgical super thermal lasers
penetrated into my skin. I could feel the blistering heat
slowly and painfully tracing every inch of my body. A
few minutes of inflicting severe pain and torture, my
heart began to beat rapidly, and as the machine’s door
opened, I could see another person that looked exactly
like me getting out from another device. It was the
exact spitting image of me. I looked at the clone with
horror as I could not believe my eyes.

As I was looking at the clone, suddenly, this type of
liquid was gushing out from the bottom of the
machine. I could smell a pungent acidic smell coming
from the strange-looking liquid.

11

At that moment, the liquid touched my skin, and I
could feel my skin burning and started to melt horribly. I
realized that I was going to drown in a chamber full of
acid gradually. I screamed so hard as I was prancing in
the chamber,

“Ahhh!! Help me! Earl, please! Let me out!”

However, I could see the clone and Earl smiling at me
outside of the machine. I continuously screamed even
when the burning sensation got into my lungs until
everything turned pitch black.
A hand pushed the snooze button once again and finally
opened the sleepy eyes. It is already 8.50 a.m., and
classes start at 9 a.m.

“Ahh shit, I’m going to be late again!” Already in
complete panic mode.

In a minute, I rushed out of the door half-dressed,
swallowing a tuna sandwich on the go. Arrived 9.18 a.m,
luckily the teacher did not enter yet. Panting
exhaustedly, someone sat on their designated seat in the
classroom.

“Ahh, excuse me, this is my seat..”

“Oh, hi Alan. Happy to see you. I'm sorry, please have
your seat.”

As Aireen stood up, she smirked at Alan but Alan
noticed that her eyes were glaring red.

12

The end