Technocide - Chapter One: Forgive Me Father

"Orion, wake up!" Jessica shouted, bursting into the room. "We need to leave now! It's happening..."

     It took him a moment to realize what was going on.  Orion rubbed his face and took a deep breath. Still half asleep, he opened his eyes, but could see nothing. Only darkness.
    "Jess? What are you talking about? What time is it? Turn the lights on." Silence. Darkness. He was becoming annoyed. "Jess - I gave you a command. Lights on - Execute. Jess?"
    He stumbled out of bed and moved his hand along the wall until he found the manual light switch. He toggled it up and down. Nothing.
"Argh..!" Orion grunted as he stumbled towards the bedroom door. "I can't see shit! Smart Home my ass..."
    He moved out into the hallway making his way to the stairs. It was pitch black and he was having a hard time navigating down. As he got to the bottom of the staircase, Orion noticed that the window security blinds were open. He could see that it was just as dark outside as it was in the house. This could not be right though... The street lamps are always visible from his house at night. Something was wrong.
    "Jess - Reboot." Orion said in an irritated tone. "What the hell is going on? Where are you?"  There was a faint humming noise, and, for a brief second, it sounded as if someone was whispering in his ear, "Orion . . . For . . . give. . ."  There was a faint white glow coming from the peep hole on his front door. Orion took a step forward.
    "Or . . . ion . . ." The whisper said again. This time, less audible than the first.
    BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. Someone was pounding on the door.
    "Orion! Are you in there? Open up man!"
He swung open the front door and saw a shadowy figure wearing an LED headlamp.  
    "Kyle, is that you?" Orion asked, shielding his eyes from the bright light beaming in his face. Kyle tapped the side of his head and the light flickered off. "Oh great, and now my porch lights don't work either? I'm going to give HomeCloud customer service an ear full in the morning! My JessicAI won't reboot either. I can't get anything to power on in my house. "

    "They're all dead." uttered Kyle as he fell to a knees. He was sobbing now.
    "What? Who is? HomeCloud? What the hell are you talking about Kyle?
    "No... The machines. They're all dead."

To be continued . . .