COMMERCIAL STREET

Sandra is all dressed up to go out. She is walking toward a nightclub. Beside her is Bro.

SANDRA: I don’t get that his wife has been dead for over a year.

BRO: He’s attached and can be let go. If it was you, I don’t think I could either. She looks at him and smiles.

SANDRA: Of course, because I programmed you not to! It’s time for your bedtime Bro. Bro, OFF!

Bro vanishes as she nears the entrance to the club.

STEPHAN’S OFFICE

Close up on Stephan typing in codes.

STEPHAN: Are you there?

SAM: I’m here.

STEPHAN: I’m exhausted. I don’t know how I can fix this mess. I don’t even know where or what to look for.

SAM: I know what you need.

He smiles.

FADE TO:

BEACH - DAY

Sam and Stephan are walking on a pristine beach; there are only a few people there, even on this gorgeous, sunny day. She’s holding a green smoothy, joking around with Stephan. He’s holding a coca cola.

SAM: Come on, have some! Just a taste!

Stephan grins and gently pushes the drink away from his face.

STEPHAN: No thanks, I’m not all that partial to green sludge.

SAM: It’s filled with all sorts of vitamins and minerals. Fine, stick with your poison.

She takes a big sip. He does the same with his coke.

SAM: How did we end up together? We’re so different?

STEPHAN: Opposites attract, plus I’m stunning. 

She kisses him on the cheek.

SAM: Truer words. Wow! It’s so incredibly beautiful here!

He looks around and says, jokingly.

STEPHAN: What, this place? It’s okay if you like that sort of thing. 

SAM: Ha! The sand is so clean and white, and the water is clear and blue. Oh, look, the dolphins!

She excitedly points at a pod of cresting dolphins.

SAM: And yet there’s no one here to enjoy it. There’s less than a hand full of people on the beach! Why is that?

STEPHAN: I don’t know. Can we just enjoy the rest of our holiday?

SAM: It’s because of your damn tech! Why go to the beach when you can experience something like being here without leaving the house? Not to mention sharing it with your virtual lover.

STEPHAN: Love, this tech is the reason why the oceans were restored and the air purified... and that there are no longer people dying of hunger.

SAM: Maybe so, but people are becoming mindless puppets. There’s no privacy. Always someone watching you monitoring your every move. People have stopped communicating with each other; there’s no contact anymore. Fifty years ago, this beach would have been teaming with life. Surfers and kids were playing, and couples were making out.

He takes her gently by the shoulders and kisses her.

STEPHAN: See, couples still make out.

She has become very serious.

SAM: Stephan, it’s not funny. You and your colleagues are, well, playing Gods. One of these days, it’s gonna backfire, trust me. 

BAR - NIGHT

Sandra walks into a happening bar. Her vision shows that you are connecting with the bar AI stream. We return to normal.

SANDRA: OK, fine. Well, it’s better than seeing many idiots talking to themselves. Interface. Outline all AIs in blue.

We see half of the people in the bar outlined with a blue halo. Sandra smiles and pops a breath mint in her mouth. 

SANDRA: Terrific; half the place is filled with freaking runway models! How is a girl gonna score with these odds?!

BRO: But you have personality.

She turns to see Bro standing beside her.

SANDRA: What are you doing here? I de-activated you.

He’s looking at her with a shit-eating grin.

BRO: Apparently not?

SANDRA: No! I did, just now, outside the club.

BRO: Way to make a brother feel wanted.

SANDRA: I’m sorry. I just needed a little me time. Why am I explaining myself to you?  Bro OFF!

BRO: What’s your problem BITCH?!

Sandra choked on her breath mint and stepped back.

SANDRA: What did you call me?!

FBI’S CAR 

Alisa and Helen are in the back seat of an SUV on their way back to the Sheriff’s office.

ALISA: So, what do you think?

HELEN: They don’t have a clue, that’s what I think.  And they better find out before they restore their system. 

ALISA: That’s a change in attitude.

HELEN: They don’t know diddly-squat about what’s happening. And that’s really scary.

Alisa suddenly notices the driver.

ALISA: If they shut down their system. Why is he still here?!

She points at the driver. As if waking from a fog, Helen realizes the gravity of this revelation.  She nervously barks a command to the driver.

HELEN: Hey, driver! Return to IYM headquarters at once!

Alisa starts typing a message on her bracelet.

ALISA: I’m contacting the Sheriff!

HELEN: Alisa, you know what’s gonna happen next if this situation doesn’t get under control.

ALISA: I’m guessing you do.

KARIS’S OFFICE

Rob is preparing drinks; he’s extremely emotional.

ROB: We’ve gotta get a handle on this thing! I’m surprised we haven't heard from the board.

Karis lights the interface of her desk. There’s a window with 46 urgent messages waiting.

KARIS: Oh! But we have. I simply turned the volume off. 

He gives her a drink, and she takes a long sip.

KARIS: The reality is... we don’t have anything new to tell them.

Suddenly a video chat window opens. It’s Jerry in his lab. 

JERRY: People, bring your asses down to the lab, pronto. This shit’s getting real. 

POLICE STATION BUD’S OFFICE

Bet walks into Bud’s office. She’s a wreck. Bud runs to her, taking her in his arms. She has a small bandage on her finger.

BUD: Baby, you should have told me you were having problems.

BET: Bud, it was private. It wasn’t even that important. I just thought I’d try the system because my friend Anita used it and said it really helped her.

He looks at her and smiles.

BUD: You know you can always come to me. We’re a team.

He kisses her gently we can see that they love each other very much. He invites her to sit and brings her a short glass of scotch.

BUD: How bout a little liquid support?

She takes it and has a gulp.

BET: Ooh, that’s good. This ordeal really took it out of me. Thank God I’m iron-willed and not the type to be swayed by that mumbo-jumbo crap! That bitch.

BUD: What bitch?

BET: The counselor!

BUD: Did you need a counselor?

She slaps him on the shoulder.

BET: I am older, and I need a lot of things.

BUD: You’re not old, but vintage! 

BET: Yeah, right! She’s so lovely, then from out of nowhere, she starts putting me down, saying stuff like I looked worn out, like an old bag of bones. Not vintage at all, just plain out of date!

BUD: This couldn’t be further from the truth Babe.

She slaps him again.

BET: I know! I’d even gotten my hair done. Anyway, she started to say all kinds of things, horrible things. I tried to shut her off, but she kept reappearing! She was following me all over the house, berating me. I thought I’d go mad. Then, all of a sudden, it stopped. When I got to the clinic, I asked them to remove my chip. I’d had enough! 

BUD: What about your health monitor your serotonin equalizer.

BET: People lived fine before those things.

HOSPITAL JEREMY’S ROOM

Jeremy wakes up in a sweat. The babysitter is by his bedside, looking at him angrily.

BABYSITTER: I asked you to do one simple thing, and you choked! You are fucking loser!

He sits up, still very weak and terrified.

JEREMY: Go away, you crazy bitch! You almost made me kill my mom and my little brother!

BABYSITTER: And you were just too lame to go through with it! You’re so frickin useless. You should have had the decency to kill yourself, at the very least! The world won't miss another loser!

JEREMY: GO AWAY!!! GO AWAY!!!

Anna rushes into the room.

ANNA: Jeremy, what is it?! What’s wrong?!

The babysitter looks at the mother with disgust; the mother can not see her.

BABYSITTER: No wonder you’re such a loser. Look who made you!

JEREMY: Shut up BITCH! 

ANNA: Jeremy!!

He grabs his mother by the arm. His eyes are red, tears rolling down his cheeks.

JEREMY: Mom! She’s back! She’s back, mom! Make her go away! Make her go away!!

Anna pushes a button on the bed panel. A video screen appears with a nurse.

ANNA: I need help!! My son is having another episode!!!

BAR - NIGHT

Sandra can’t believe what she just heard from her AI.

SANDRA: Someone needs a debugging session. Bro OFF!!

He steps closer to her with a menacing smile.

BRO: This time, you won’t turn me off so easily!

She steps back, threatened.

SANDRA: I said, Bro, OFF!

He vanishes. She takes a deep breath. What the hell’s going on?

SANDRA: Okay, that’s enough of an emotional cluster fuck for one evening.

She then realizes that the clientele is starting to act strangely in the bar, and so are the blue-outlined AIs.

SANDRA: What the hell?

BRO: Gurl... you got a NASTY mouth.

She turns around, horrified to see that Bro is back.

IYM JERRY’S LAB

A large room with no windows. At the center is Jerry sitting at a large transparent desk with a massive interface schematic of the system on it. All around are rows of holographic projections with schematics of the entire system. The room is blinking with activity. Jerry is frantically working. We see millions of little square outlines turning red at random locations.  There’s a projected image of Stephan at his desk in his office, trying to help Jerry.

JERRY: Dude, what is that?! It looks like they’re isolating themselves from system control.

STEPHAN: That’s exactly what they’re doing! SHIT! They’re locking us out! We have to pull the plug! And FAST!

ROB: Then do it! What are you waiting for?

Jerry turns around to see Karis and Rob walking into the room. They walk through rows of holographic screens as they make their way to Jerry.

JERRY: Stephan’s right! If you don’t pull the plug, we’ll lose control of the entire AI city grid within a few hours!

KARIS: Did you even find out what’s causing this?!

Jerry continues punching codes.

JERRY: Listen up, you skinny bitch! Does it look like I’m having fun here?! 

All witnesses to Jerry’s outburst are flabbergasted. Jerry calms himself with a deep breath and continues.

JERRY: Here’s what I know so far... every time I get close to isolating the source, it moves to another AI, spreading the infection. It’s as if they’re connected to another data source.

ROB: What do you mean by infection?!

STEPHAN: We are losing control of the AI matrix. In a word, they’re off our grid and self-aware. 

KARIS: Oh my god.

JERRY: It’s a bloody free-for-all. They’re acting without any supervision or restriction. I’m pulling the plug!!!

FBI’S CAR

Helen’s bracelet starts to flash. She looks at it and then at Alisa.

HELEN: I told you that this public warning would have consequences.

She answers it’s Helen’s military contact, General Abby.

HELEN: General?

GENERAL: Helen, we’ve been monitoring IYM’s quantum core, showing a massive abnormal activity spread. The Joint Chiefs of Staff have decided we can’t afford to let this thing spread beyond the city limits.

HELEN: We just realized that IYM brought their system back on. We’re on our way back now. How long do we have? 

Alisa looks pleadingly at Helen. Helen transfers the Generals feed to a holographic projection. 

HELEN: General Abby, how long do we have before we’re considered critical?

GENERAL: We’ve put the city under quarantine, with no one in or out.

ALISA: Say what!

GENERAL: We have to consider the global implications. 

HELEN: General, if we reach a ‘worst-case scenario, are you dropping bombs?

GENERAL: I’ll be honest... it’s on the table.

Helen and Alisa gasped.

GENERAL: I’m sorry, Helen. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that and focus on the here and now. We’re cutting all data streams going in or coming out of the city. Communication outside of the city will be possible with scripted texting only. Communication within the city will be business as usual.

ALISA: Why don’t you just evacuate everyone?

GENERAL: Anyone with a chip is a possible contaminant. We just can’t risk it. We’ll remove the quarantine as soon as the situation is under control. For now, any person or vehicle attempting to cross the city limits will be turned away. If they attempt it forcibly, they’ll be shot. All of our prayers are with you. 

The communication ends. Alisa and Helen are speechless. Alisa suddenly realizes that they should have reached their destination by now.

ALISA: Wait a minute! Why aren’t we there yet?! Driver?! 

But no response.

ALISA: Hey, I‘m talking to you! Why haven’t we arrived at IYM?

DRIVER: We will reach the city limit in six minutes.

Helen and Alisa are freaking out.

HELEN: What the fuck are you doing?! Stop this car! NOW!

DRIVER: It’s not advisable to exit the stream at this time. 

ALISA: Get us off this damn stream! 

DRIVER: You seem tense. Let me put on some classical music. 

A Chopin piece starts to play. Alisa and Helen look at each other. What are they gonna do? 

POLICE STATION MEN’S BATHROOM

Philip exits the bathroom stall and goes to wash his hands when…

YOUNG STUD: Hey, big daddy. Oooh... I’m so horny, baby. Wanna play?

Philip looks up at the mirror and sees a young stud wearing ball-hugging jeans and a cropped T-shirt. The stud is standing behind him, rubbing his bulging erection through his jeans.

PHILIP: Bloody hell! What are you doing here? I’m at work! Sergio OFF!

But the stud is still there.

YOUNG STUD: Common, show your little baby bear your meat and veg. I’ll show you mine. 

He starts to unzip his pants, and Philip is panicking.

PHILIP: Stop that! Not here! Sergio OFF! FUCK!! 

The stud starts to laugh hysterically. 

YOUNG STUD: Oh my! Somebody needs to wash his mouth out with something.

POLICE STATION BUD’S OFFICE

Bet is now relaxed. She’s standing up, ready to go back home.

BET: Darling, can you have a car drive me home?

BUD: Of course, baby.

They are walking toward the door when a young man bursts in. It’s police officer Jay.

JAY: Sheriff, we have a situation! You better come out here.

They walk out to the bullpen and see that all of the civilians and some of the officers look as though they have nervous breakdowns. They are talking to themselves, crying, and screaming.

ROB: What the hell is going on here?!

Bet knows.

BET: I told you those chips were bad news!