Phantasm

PHANTASM

Let me tell you a story about a guy named Joe. Joe was the last surviving member of his family. His parents passed away many years ago and his brother passed away within the past two years. Joe did not seem lonely at all. He was quite content to live by himself and rarely had any visitors. Often he would be in his home for days without any contact with the outside world.

When Joe went out, he would visit the local donut shop and converse with a few old friends. He often talked about how rich he was. But people misinterpreted what he meant. One day he told his friend, Ralph, that the riches he was talking about were not temporal goods. Ralph did not believe him. The rumors about Joe being rich were widespread. People heard that he had a wall safe. As these rumors spread from person to person, the story become more and more exaggerated until some people said he kept $500,000 in thousand dollar bills in that safe. Ralph believed the rumors and made plans with his friend Frank.

The road was pitch black. The only light was the light of the half moon and a living room light in the house across the street. Joe's house was dark. Only a night light was illuminated.

Ralph walked around the side of Joe's house and removed a window cutter and a suction cup from his tool box.

Joe did not hear the window cutter cutting a large hole in his living room window or the suction cup used to pull the window out. He was in his second floor bedroom. He was viewing videos of his family. He was laughing and talking even though no one was present in the room.

Ralph peered in the window. There was nothing unusual about the room. The wall to wall carpeting looked new and was clean. The couch sat in against the far wall. A beautiful coffee table was on the far side of the room. An ash tray on the coffee table contained three cigarette butts. A pack of cigarettes and a cigarette lighter lay beside the ash tray. A shot glass and a bottle of liquor lay next to the cigarette lighter. The couch was behind the coffee table. Two pillows were on the couch. On the wall above the couch was a framed picture of Elvis Presley with a guitar in his hand and a microphone in front of him.

Ralph climbed in and walked slowly and quietly to the front door. He was wearing gloves. He remembered that the front door squeaked. He removed a small container of oil and a cloth from his tool box. He dabbed the oil on the hinges. Then he unlocked and opened the door.

Ralph's accomplice, Frank, entered the living room. Ralph gently closed the door and proceeded to the far end of the coffee table. He removed the shot glass from the table and placed it on the floor. Then they moved the table to the center of the room.

Ralph and Frank removed the pillows from the couch and stood up on top of the couch. They worked together to remove the framed picture from the wall and gently lean it against the same wall near the floor. Then Frank got back on the couch and inspected the lock on the wall safe. He picked the lock with a pin and opened the safe. Frank searched through the papers in the safe. He uttered a four letter word and said, "It's not here!"

Frank closed and locked the safe. Then they hung the picture on the wall. That's when they heard footsteps. The sound appeared to be coming from the kitchen. They withdrew their guns and slowly approached the kitchen entrance. As they reached the kitchen entrance, they saw the back door. It was closed. The kitchen table was surrounded by four chairs. A box of donuts and two cups of hot steaming coffee were on the table. Beside each cup was a napkin. They heard the sound of someone shutting the refrigerator door.

Ralph and Frank looked at each other. They stood perfectly still and silent. No sounds came from the kitchen for the next few minutes. Frank peered into the kitchen. He pointed his gun at the refrigerator only to find no one was there. Where could the person be? Inside the refrigerator? He opened the refrigerator door. There was nothing inside except a quart of milk, some cold cuts and a loaf of bread.

Ralph was perplexed. "I don't get it."

Frank put his gun away. "Lets get out of here."

As they came back into the living room, Ralph spotted a shadow moving across the window he had cut a hole in. Ralph pointed his gun toward the window, but Frank grabbed Ralph's arm and pointed to the front door.

Someone was knocking at the door. Ralph fired his gun three times, leaving two bullet holes in the front door. The front door opened. Nobody was there. The porch light went on. The kitchen radio started blasting music.

The third bullet hit Frank. Frank fell to the floor with blood seeping out of his shoulder.

A neighbor heard the gunshots and called the police.

Ralph saw depressions in the shape of the shoe appear and disappear on the wall to wall carpeting. Then he heard a soft taunting voice, "The coffee and donuts are waiting for you. Come and have some."

Ralph fired his gun in the direction of the footsteps. He felt something grab his arm, but he did not see anyone. Something was pulling him toward the kitchen.

"Let me go!" Ralph yelled as he flailed his free arm. His arm was released.

Ralph was perspiring. His hands were shaking. His face was pale. He dropped his gun. It didn't make any sound when it hit the plush carpet.

In the bedroom, Joe was laughing as he watched his favorite video. He mumbled something about how wonderful it was to live with his deceased family members.

Between the bed and the wall there was a blank outlet cover with two screws holding it to an outlet box. It was about twelve inches above the floor, but it did not contain an electrical outlet. It did not contain any money either. It contained something much more valuable. It contained all Joe's memories of the good times he and his family had on a single electronic chip. This chip provided the medium of communication between Joe and his deceased family. And every time Joe watched the videos, the spirits of his deceased family would roam the house.

Joe heard sirens as the police car pulled up in front of the house. He turned off the monitor and walked down the stairs. He walked across the living room and opened the front door. The police entered and placed Ralph and Frank under arrest. Frank was sent to the hospital for a few days. Then the police sent Frank and Ralph for psychiatric evaluation after hearing their mumbling about ghosts.

Consequences of a Malicious Act

Sam Maxwell was sitting on the couch reading a newspaper. He periodically glanced at his cleaning robot. Sam was proud of this robot. It was his first prototype and it was selling like mad. He had designed this robot to handle all household chores except preparing and serving meals. His second design was a landscape robot that took care of the lawn and bushes and also shoveled the snow. His third design was the kitchen robot who prepared and served meals. The kitchen robot was malfunctioning.

Sam's laptop was on the coffee table. It was powered up and displayed the design of the coordination unit inside the kitchen robot. The coordination unit coordinated the software unit with the mechanical movements of the robot.

Sam had detected malicious viral activity in the coordination unit. Sam figured that the virus probably infected the computer before the software was transferred from the computer to the robot. The aim was clearly sabotage. Sam suspected that the culprit was a disgruntled employee who had been fired six months ago.

The doorbell rang. The cleaning robot opened the door and invited Sam's good friend, Jack Wilson, in.

Jack had designed the maintenance robot which was capable of repairing all other robots. It was also capable of finding it's way to any home. This was the maintenance robots first repair off the site.

The first thing Jack noted was the cabinet blocking the kitchen door, but he did not say anything.

"Hi Jack", Sam closed his laptop and rose from the couch. He extended his hand across the coffee table. After shaking hands, Sam offered Jack the reclining chair adjacent to the couch.

Jack thanked Sam and sat down. "Hi Sam, How are you?"

"Fine. And you?"

"I'm okay." Jack took out his remote control and activated the maintenance robot which was in Jack's truck. "So what is the problem?"

Sam lifted his leg up and rested it on the coffee table. Then he pulled up his blood stained pants and unwrapped a nasty cut on his leg. The blood had begun to clot. Sam pointed to the cut.

"How did that happen?" asked Jack.

"I requested a cup of coffee. The kitchen robot came out and attacked me." Sam took the remote control out of his pocket, "I deactivated the robot, but it can reactivate itself at will."

"That's what I figured when I saw your kitchen door."

They heard a loud noise. The kitchen robot had slammed it's mechanical arm against the door.

Then they heard the doorbell ring.

The cleaning robot opened the door. The maintenance robot came in and proceeded toward the kitchen door.

"We have to manually remove the power source from the robot."

Immediately after the maintenance robot moved the cabinet over, the kitchen robot pushed the kitchen door open real hard. It tackled the maintenance robot and both fell to the floor.

Sam limped over to the kitchen robot and laid over it. He grabbed the kitchen robot's arms.

The kitchen robot stood up and bent over while yanking it's arms forward slamming Sam on the floor beside the maintenance robot.

The maintenance robot grabbed the kitchen robot by both arms and pushed the robot against the cabinet.

Sam was stunned. It took him a few moments to rise to his feet. The kitchen robot grabbed Sam's legs and slammed Sam body against the floor again. Then the kitchen robot started twisting Sam's leg.

"Jack, Jack, Where are you?" Sam yelled.

The front door opened and Jack came in. He pointed a gun at the kitchen robot.

The kitchen robot released Sam and grabbed the maintenance robot, using it as a shield.

Jack hesitated. The history of the maintenance robot flashed through his mind. He recalled the years of research, the repeated request for government funding, the assembly of the maintenance robot, the programming and testing of the robot. Not knowing about the virus; Jack assumed that after this incident, there is no way he would receive funding to build any robot.

Jack lowered the gun.

The kitchen robot lowered the maintenance robot to see what Jack was up to. Jack quickly raised the gun and fired in an attempt to disable the robot's visual cortex. The bullet went through the kitchen robots head and into the door. The kitchen robot fell to the floor.

The maintenance robot quickly rolled the kitchen robot over and loosened the cover on the kitchen robots upper back. Then the maintenance robot reached in and removed the power source.

Sam sighed in relief. Suddenly the kitchen robot grabbed Sam's leg and squeezed. Sam yelled in pain. Jack fired the gun again and the kitchen robot released Sam's leg.

Sam looked at Jack. "Residual energy."

Jack shook his head in agreement. He took out his cell phone and dialed the police. He told them to send an ambulance.