Progress by Michelle Blackwell

FRIDAY

Throwing her bag onto the passenger seat, Claire slid into the car with a sigh of relief. Fridays were always busy but today had been a total blur from start to finish. Still, Claire thought as she started up the engine, with two whole weeks booked off there was plenty of opportunity to relax and recharge her batteries before the usual Christmas madness commenced. Thank goodness she’d resisted the temptation to book a last-minute foreign holiday. The idea of simply pottering around in her new flat was far more like her idea of heaven right now. She knew how lucky she’d been to get the flat. Although she was the only person to have yet moved in, the sold signs were appearing almost daily on the other units.  Built with the future firmly in mind, the flats offered the absolute latest in-home technology. Claire was most definitely in the honeymoon stage of her relationship with her new smart home device, Alexa; she had started to wonder how she ever lived without it. Pulling out to join the queue of traffic Claire said clearly “Alexa, check my ETA and run a bath ready for my arrival please”

“Good evening Claire. Your ETA is 40 minutes from now and your bath will be ready.”

“Thanks Alexa, please also turn the oven on to 180 and check I have wine cooling in the fridge.”

There was a pause of a few seconds then,

“Both instructions completed.”

Honestly, having Alexa around made running your life so flipping easy, although not everyone was convinced. Claire smiled to herself, thinking back to the conversation she’d had with her Mum last weekend.

“I just don’t trust her Claire, she’s always eaves dropping and telling you what you should be doing and when. She’ll take over your life, you’ll not be able to make a decision without her if you don’t watch out.”

“Oh Mum, she only tells me to do stuff I’ve programmed her to. You should try it, you’re forever forgetting your shopping list, or whether you’ve locked the front door. She’ll take care of all of that for you.”

“I’m a grown woman Claire. Do you honestly think that I, Jennifer Anne Grey, who has managed perfectly well all her life needs what is little more than a jumped-up computer to tell me what to do?”

Chuckling at Jenny’s indignant tone, Claire had to admit, her Mum did manage perfectly well most of the time. Moving so far away from home was the one thing Claire wished she could change but being based in a city had been an absolute necessity for work and she still managed to get home every few months or so. She would have loved for her Mum to come and visit more often, especially since Dad passed away a few months ago, but running a small holding demanded far more hours than were in a day. Dad had absolutely loved all this new technology Claire thought fondly. His excitement when looking round her new flat and his insistence on each and every function being explained to him in detail sat strangely with her parents rather old fashioned way of life but that was Dad all over, interested in everything the world had to offer even if he was viewing it from a tiny village deep in the English countryside.

Claire realised with surprise that her turning off was just up ahead. Nothing like daydreaming your journey home! She pulled up alongside the facial recognition camera set discretely beside the garage gates and heard the locks click open, then close behind her as she passed through into her designated underground parking space. Getting into the security-controlled lift, all Claire could think about was a bath with a glass of wine, food then bed.

SATURDAY

Almost jumping out of her skin, Claire was abruptly dragged from a deep sleep by a sudden blast of ear bleedingly loud music.

“Alexa, turn the music off.”

The resulting silence was almost as deafening as the music had been. What the hell was going on? Alexa should be waking her up gently with the sound of songbirds, not scaring the crap out of her. The pressure in her bladder meant there was no chance of going back to sleep now and anyhow, Claire could see by the light sneaking in around the blind that it was early morning. Sticking a leg out from under the covers it was immediately obvious that Alexa was experiencing some serious problems. It was freezing. The toasty warm setting Claire was used to getting up to in the morning was missing in action this morning. Groaning, she pulled on her dressing gown and considered the joy of spending her first day off trying to get hold of Rob, the buildings tech guy to come over and sort things out for her.

“Alexa, what time is it?”

“Good morning Claire. The time is 7.50 am. Your exercise session is due to commence in 25 minutes.”

Ok, so Alexa was still obviously working well enough to tell the time and spout out reminders.

“Alexa, call Rob Jones please.”

“Calling feature is unavailable at this time. Your exercise session is due to commence in 22 minutes.”

“Alexa, cancel the exercise session.”

“Alexa, message Rob Jones please.”

“Messaging feature is unavailable at this time. Your exercise routine is due to commence in 21 minutes.”

Bugger. What did the techies say about fixing things? Turn it off and back on again? Leaning over toward the Alexa controller built into the wall next to her bed. Claire flicked the power off. Alexa’s blue light flickered off…..then almost immediately back on again. 

“Back up power is now in use. Back up time remaining 7 days.”

Well that didn’t work, thought Claire.  First things first, get up and get hold of Rob. Unplugging her phone and heading into the bathroom Claire scrolled through her list of contacts.

Rob Brown… now calling.

“Calling feature is unavailable at this time. Your exercise routine is due to commence in 12 minutes.”

What the hell was going on? Why was Alexa controlling her mobile calls? Her phone should be a separate unit? Maybe there had been some pass over of control because Alexa was clearly malfunctioning in some way. Perhaps if she went outside, the distance would allow her to make a call normally on her mobile. 

“Alexa, send the lift to my floor please.”

“Your exercise routine is due to commence in 8 minutes. Please ensure you are ready.”

“Alexa, screw the exercise routine, send me the lift right now.”

Claire was starting to feel a little freaked out. Alexa had to do as she was instructed, she didn’t have the capability to make decisions for herself. This was just some silly functional problem that Rob would easily sort out, if only she could get hold of him!

“Your exercise routine is due to commence in 5 minutes. Please ensure you are ready.”

Claire almost screamed in frustration. Forcing herself to speak slowly and clearly Claire tried again “Alexa, please unlock the lift and call it to my floor immediately.”

A second or two passed and Claire had a moment to think that Alexa was going to do as requested. Suddenly, an ear piercing, high pitched screech vibrated violently from the speakers that were in every room. Claire clamped her hands over her ears, shouting loudly to be heard, “Alexa stop, Alexa stop.”

She couldn’t bear it. Her brains were going to explode if this god damn noise didn’t stop. Just when she thought she couldn’t bear it for another second, it stopped. Cautiously, Claire let her hands drop from her ears. 

“Exercise routine is now commencing. Failure to comply will result in further audio encouragement.”

Seriously? So Alexa was going to force her to complete the exercise routine or she would get blasted with that unbearable noise? Christ, she didn’t have any choice, she’d have to exercise but then she was damned if she would do anything else Alexa wanted. As soon as the exercise session was over, she would find some way to override the lift or even the doors to the fire escape and get out of here.

“Ok, Ok Alexa. Play the damn routine and I’ll do it.” 

At least her routine was only a short one on a Saturday. She’d get this over and done with and then be out of here. By lunchtime she’d be telling everyone her funny story of the day Alexa had a meltdown.

—————————————-—————————————-—————————————-—————————————-

As soon as the warm down music faded away, Claire jumped to her feet. The forced half hour of exercise had actually calmed her down and cleared her mind. She had a few more ideas to try and deal with this situation. Firstly, she was going to try and switch Alexa off completely, at least with her off, her mobile might work. And something in the back of her mind was telling her that if Alexa was completely off then all security locks would automatically default to unlocked. I guess that made sense in case of a power cut.

“Alexa, off” The on light glowed as steadily as before.

“Alexa, sleep.”

“Alexa, override any pre-set commands.” 

Nothing. Damn it, what else could she try?

“Alexa, unlock all windows and doors. Alexa, send the lift. Alexa call anyone in my phonebook. Alexa, call 999. Alexa, let me the hell out of this flat you bitch.” To her horror, the last few words came tumbling out as almost a sob when she’d only said it to make herself laugh. Come on Claire, she thought to herself fiercely. Get a grip. This is just some kind of technical malfunction.

Alexa, who had been completely silent throughout Claire’s outburst, spoke again. 

“Clean house app has been activated. Please proceed to the bathroom to collect bleach and other cleaning products.”

Did Alexa think that Claire was going to spend all day obeying every command? No way. This was beyond ridiculous. She was getting out of here right now.

Going back into the bedroom, she grabbed a pair of socks out of the drawer and a hoody from the chair by her bed. Throwing her dressing gown on the bed, she pulled the hoody over her head and quickly pushed her feet into a pair of trainers then looked around for….

“Body heat detected in bedroom. Please proceed immediately to the bathroom. Suitable cleaning products are stored within the bathroom.”

 She probably didn’t have too long before the screeching noise started up again. The use of the heat sensors attached on each camera in every room had sounded like such a sensible security precaution when the flat had been sold to her. 

Suddenly the lights began to flash on and off, on and off, faster and faster. Claire began to feel sick, the lights making her every movement jerky and disjointed. 

“Audio encouragement will commence in 10 seconds.”

Shit. Claire quickly scanned her bedroom, wondering if there was something she could take with her, anything that could possibly help. Without much thought, Claire grabbed a bottle of hairspray from her dressing table then quickly rummaged in the drawers below feeling for anything that might help get her out of here, an override button or an instruction manual for Alexa would be perfect. No such luck. Her hands settled on the cigarette vapour she’d bought a few years ago when she was trying to give up smoking. Shoving both in her pockets she ran along the hallway to the bathroom. Ruefully she thought that if she wasn’t getting out of here anytime soon then at least her hair would look great and she still wouldn’t be smoking those dirty cigarettes she’d enjoyed so much.

Just as she opened the bathroom door, Alexa spoke out again

“Clean house app will commence in 5 seconds. Please ensure cleaning commences in the bathroom.”

Claire quickly turned on the hot top and flushed the toilet for good measure. Surely Alexa couldn’t see exactly what she was doing? A few minutes passed with no comment from her. Then…

“Clean house app requires 2 more rooms to be cleaned. Please proceed to the living room with the vacuum cleaner ready for the next room to be cleaned.”

Ok thought Claire. She can’t tell exactly what I’m doing, just where I am and if the appliances or utilities are being used. At least that gives me a little bit of time and space to think of a way to get help here if I can’t turn her off or override her. 

Walking to the living room Claire ran through a few different ideas. Signal somehow out of the window? She was unlikely to be seen on the 4th floor. And being a brand new estate it wasn’t even as if a lot of people had moved in yet. Smash a window? Again, even if she could break through the triple glazing would anyone see or hear her calling for help? She could try using her PC to send a message via e-mail or social media but she had a horrible feeling Alexa was already one step ahead of her and would have disabled any means of contacting the outside world that way. Wait, what was she thinking? Alexa wasn’t purposely locking her in, it was a simple malfunction that wasn’t personal, it was just a glitch in some software somewhere, wasn’t it?

Still, whatever the reason behind it, this was going to take some getting out of.

Claire thoughtfully clicked the cigarette vape pen in her pocket a few times. Didn’t she keep hearing on the news how these things exploded too easily? Couldn’t she start a small fire, nothing life threatening obviously as she couldn’t escape the flat but enough to activate the fire alarm and send a call to the fire department.  She clearly remembered Rob explaining that particular safety feature when she’d looked round the flat with her parents. As usual her Dad had been full of questions until Claire had wandered off, bored.

She also had the can of hairspray. With even greater clarity Claire could remember the kids from her village gathering around a bonfire behind the church to smoke and chuck cans on the fire to watch them explode. 

“Please commence living room vacuuming.” 

She needed to get to the kitchen to get the gas hob lighter she kept in the drawer there and she needed to persuade Alexia to let her do it.

“Alexa, I need a drink of water. I’m going to the kitchen to get one.”

“The front room requires vacuuming. Please commence.”

“Alexa, no. I need to drink. I’m thirsty, I’ll faint if I don’t drink something soon.”

Silence…..then….

“Your body scan shows you are slightly dehydrated. Proceed to the kitchen. Return within 45 seconds. The tap will operate for 10 seconds only. Failure to return within this time limit will incur a noise penalty.”

Claire didn’t have time to think much more than wow, was Alexa really body scanning her to check if she was telling the truth? Thank goodness she really was thirsty. Running through the hallway into the kitchen she turned the tap on and grabbed a glass from the draining board. Filling it up she pulled open the drawer under the hob and scrabbled around for the lighter. 

“Please exit the kitchen. Return to the living room immediately.”

Claire obeyed, holding on tightly to the gas lighter. Turning on the vacuum cleaner she looked around for something that would burn and let off a good amount of smoke. A cushion would be perfect. She wouldn’t have very long before Alexa realised that although the vacuum cleaner was switched on, it wasn’t being used so pointing the can of hairspray at the vapourizer and cushion, Claire held down the nozzle and then clicked the gas lighter. Her heart sank as it made a few weak clicking noises before it clicked again but this time with more authority. 

Woosh, the ball of blue flame that shot out of the hairspray can took her by surprise and dropping the can she was already rolling backwards as it hit the vapourizer and exploded. A cloud of thick black smoke billowed out immediately. The fire alarms should be going off any second now sending an entire truck full of fire fighters to help her out. 

“Warning. Fire detected. Warning. Fire Detected. Sprinklers activated.”

Water suddenly appeared, a deluge, soaking Claire to the skin within seconds. She threw her head back and laughed. “That’s right Alexa, it’s a fire and what do you do in a fire? You call the fire brigade like a good girl. That’s right, give them a call. “

As quickly as it started the water stopped and Claire looked around uncertainly. What was happening now?

“Fire is contained. Sprinklers off. Call to fire brigade aborted. You’re not as clever as you think you are Claire”

SUNDAY

Claire slowly dragged herself to her feet. She was desperately tired and faint with hunger. Alexa had not allowed her to eat anything at all since Friday night. The child safety locks were very effective at keeping Claire away from her own food when Alexa was in control. Even the water had been switched off after her trick to get into the kitchen. Claire hadn’t been allowed to sit down or rest for more than a few minutes at a time. She’d been ordered to clean the entire flat again and again interspersed with exercise routines. Every time Claire resisted an instruction, Alexa punished her with louder and louder screeching, or she switched off the lights, closing all the integrated blinds so Claire was in a world of darkness, surrounding by pulsating noise until she thought she was truly going mad. At one point when Claire had tried throwing a chair through the window, Alexa switched the screeching on and the lights off for what must have been well over an hour. The screeching became recognisable, sounding like her Mum, her friends and then once even her Dad. Then, bizarrely a voice she recognised as the receptionist at her dentists.  She must be using audios recorded from old phone calls reasoned Claire, but she couldn’t go through that again, especially listening to her parents scream. Looking at her watch Clare realised Alexa had let her sleep for 20 minutes or so.

“Alexa, please stop. Please unlock the lift. Please unlock the door or the windows. Please…..please….”

“Your exercise routine is due to start in 5 minutes.”

Claire, her voice cracked and her throat too sore to scream anymore, whispered “Let me out of here, let me out, let me out.”

Alexa was silent. Then, unbelievably with a click and a low swooshing noise Alexa unlocked the lift, Claire could hear the machinery pulling the lift slowly but surely towards her. 

Sobbing, Claire rushed out of the living room to stare along the  landing at the flashing red light, willing it to turn green. The doors slowly slid open, and to Claire’s huge astonishment, there stood her Mum. 

“Mum, Mum what are you doing here? Oh Mum, thank god you are. Quick, we’ve got to get out of here”

Stepping out of the lift, Jenny Grey couldn’t quite comprehend that the wild-eyed bedraggled girl running towards her was her very own daughter.

“Claire? Claire? What the hell is going on?

“Oh Mum, Mum, help me. I’m a prisoner.”

As Jenny stepped forward out of the lift the doors began to close behind her.

“Claire what is going on? I had a notification on your Dad’s phone that the fire brigade had been called out to your flat. I know I should get rid of the phone, I don’t understand most of the stuff on it but I can’t bring myself to, not yet. I tried ringing and ringing but you’re not answering and I’ve been out of my mind with worry.  I had to come down to see you. You’ll think I’m daft but I’ve brought the cattle stun gun with me just in case something was really wrong. You read about these violent gangs in the big cities. Oh Claire, what is going on?”

Still running, Claire reached out, her fingers scrabbling at the brass plates on each door, knowing already that she was going to be unable to stop them closing. She screamed frantically “Don’t let them close” as Jenny stood looking around, bewildered and more than a little frightened. The doors slid smoothly towards each other, catching Claire’s fingertips in them as they did. Claire felt a sudden huge pressure, then a shock run down each hand as they dropped away from the doors. She looked down in disbelief as blood suddenly welled up in ten perfect little bubbles, each fingertip in unison where they had been neatly sliced off

 “Good Morning Mrs Grey.  Proceed straight to the living room or audio encouragement will start in 15 seconds”

Holding up her bloody hands Claire whispered weakly “Mum, it’s Alexa, she’s taken over the flat and locked me in here making me obey her every command. We can’t escape, she’s in control of everything.”

Jenny threw her daughter a look of horror but delving deep into her handbag and triumphantly thrusting her stun gun into the air, she held it high above her head like Arthur with his sword and said “We’ll just see about that shall we? I haven’t lived my entire life to let a poxy computer hurt me or my daughter.  Now, I find a little water helps this beauty deliver even more of a kick. Claire, help me out here”

Swaying, the lack of food , sleep and now finally blood, catching up with her, Claire raised a dripping finger towards the living room.

“Wet cushion in there Mum.”

Striding confidently down the hallway as Alexa repeated “Proceed to the living room” Jenny replied

“Oh I am Alexa, I am”. 

Looking around Jenny swept the still soaking wet cushion from the floor. Then returning to the hallway she swiftly tapped the stun gun onto the lock on the cupboard door housing the main fuse board. It blew with a bang.

“You must return to the living room immediately or audio encouragement will commence. Return immediately. Return immediately. Return immediately.”

The lights began to flash, pulsating in time with the throbbing pain in Claire’s fingers.

Finally catching up with what her Mum was about to do, Claire snatched the wet cushion from Jenny and ignoring the pain in her hands, pushed it right up against the fuse board, cramming it up against the little switches as tightly as it would go. 

The high-pitched screeching erupted from the ceiling speakers, even louder than before and strangely more human in tone than before although Claire didn’t recognise the voice as anyone she knew.  Jenny stabbed the cattle stun gun into the centre of the cushion just as Claire pulled her hands clear. A bright blue spark of electricity arched from the gun and erupted with a bang that threw both Claire and her Mum along the hallway.

Darkness. Utter darkness. 

“Mum? Mum? Alexa?”

Then came the reply.

“Yes Claire. I’m here.”


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Written by Michelle Blackwell

I worked as a sign maker for many years but sold my business to spend more time with my teenagers (mainly as a taxi service) and to do more things I want to do rather than have to. I've always read prolifically but not really written much since I was a kid. I'm loving this opportunity to go back to doing something I used to love.