I left the storage building and saw Keith standing there. “Done taping wires to your bowling ball?” he asked, handing me a box full of keys.

I wasn’t sure how I would explain the situation to him, so I shrugged. “I have a reason for it, but if I explained myself you would just think I was crazy.”

Keith smirked. “Fair enough. Not like your cash is less valuable if you are crazy.”

I nodded, then jerked my head towards the RVs. “Any reason they are all older models?” None of them appeared to have been built any later than the 90s.

“Only the older ones wanted to crank for some reason. The newer ones wouldn’t run. There were a few others that would crank at the camping ground, but they all had either corpses or zombies in them when we found them, so we’ll clean them before bringing them over.”

I thought about it for a few seconds before I realized something. All modern cars had a computer in them to control the function of the engine and other components. My car, however, was a piece of trash from the mid 80s, and Keith’s truck was a 70s model. I’m pretty sure the truck they used to move the trailers was also an older model. “Probably the computers in them.” I said. “When the other complex electronics burned out they must have burned out too. Keep an eye out for older cars. They should still work, so we should claim them as soon as possible.”

“Sounds about right. Sure, I’ll bring them over if I find any.” With that over I asked him to bring in a fence we could set up around the parking lot, then decided to take a trip to the nearest home improvement store. I would need a few things if I was going to properly set up the electricity.

The store was dark when I got there. The power must be out in this part of the city, and with no owner to care about it, the salvagers hadn’t thought it important enough to bother hooking up a generator. Grabbing a shopping cart, I headed inside.

I used the light on my cellphone and headed for the registers. They always had flashlights for sell there, and I was glad to see that no one had taken them all. I grabbed one of the lantern battery ones and a battery, and combined them, then cut it on and turned off the phone light. Good, now I could see. I also grabbed two head lamps and some batteries for them, and threw them in my cart. I might need to have my hands free later, and those would be the easiest way to do that.

I went to the electrical aisle and grabbed all of the things I would need to set up a proper electrical system. Wire, electrical boxes, outlets, switches, various bits of hardware like conduit and a conduit bender, and a breaker box with all of the breakers I might need. This kind of thing wasn’t what the salvagers would go for first, so everything I needed was still here. If I needed a grill or lawnmower, I would be out of luck, but electrical panels were still in stock. I grabbed a few tools and some electrical tape and went outside.

I loaded everything into my car, the eight foot long sticks of conduit poking through an open rear window, then thought about what else I would need. The city water had been intermittent as well, with the pressure dropping occasionally when the power went out near the pumping stations. So far we had been coping by filling up containers when we had water pressure and using stored water when we didn’t, but it was only a matter of time before the power and water went off for good. With that being the case, I would need to set up a backup tank at my base and at the soup kitchen. I wouldn’t be able to haul the stuff I needed in my car, though. I doubt I could strap PVC pipes to the top of my car, and even if I could I would need to find some sort of tank to store the water.

Not knowing what else I could use here, as the drinks and snacks were already looted, I went back to the base. Once I was there I carried everything into the storage building where Gary sat. ‘I’ll have to remember to bring Bob by tomorrow and hook him up.’ I told him, then started mapping out where all of the boxes needed to go.

‘Please do.’ Gary responded. ‘It’s boring just sitting here. Waiting with no one to talk to might be okay for a mid-tier AI like him that was designed to only work with animals and plants, but for a high-tier like me, who was designed to interact with large numbers of humans in a settlement it is horrible.’

‘I didn’t think about that.’ I responded, starting on my work. ‘I assumed you were all basically the same when you were first booted up.’

‘Oh, no. Vera, for example, was a low-tier when you first spoke with her, a simple help function. When the System detected that you were treating her like a person, however, it upgraded her to a mid-tier so that she could interact with you properly. Bob started out as a mid-tier, as he would need the capability for more complex thought to complete his job. I, on the other hand, was created as a high-tier, as my purpose as a settlement core required me to understand sapient beings and predict their needs and desires.’

‘So, you are a fully intelligent AI? I thought the System was banned from making sapient beings. At least, that’s the reason Bob gave me for lobotomizing the zombies he was making.’

‘Well, I wouldn’t say I am fully sentient. Some of my functions, such as creativity, are limited by design for that very reason. It would be difficult for most people to tell the difference between me and an actual person, though. In human terms, I would most likely pass the Turing test.’

I nodded, then changed the subject. It was hard to concentrate on properly setting up the electrical system while debating existential questions like whether Gary was a real boy. ‘So, about your functions. You told me you could establish a safe area, where you can monitor for threats and drive away wild animals, correct?’

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

‘Those are a few things I can do once I have a designated perimeter, yes.’

‘Then can you set one up now?’

‘Not a very large one. Power and nanite reserves are still low. I only have around one hundred and seventy Ko of power and thirteen million nanites.’

‘Ko?’ I asked. I hadn’t heard that term before.

‘A Ko is the standard unit of power for System devices. It is the amount of energy one million nanites will use to go from zero charge to full charge, and is slightly less than one tenth of a kilowatt hour.’

‘Ah, makes sense. So, you just need to build up your reserves before you can designate that area?’

‘Well, you would be the one to designate the area, as you are the leader of this settlement, but yes. I should have enough reserves by sunrise. If you want, you can set it up then.’

‘Fair enough.’ I spent the next few hours setting up the electrical system and when I was done I had proper 220 volt outlets on the outside of the building for the generators to plug into, and had run a wire to each of the trailers from a separate breaker. Tomorrow I would come back and set up outlets for the RVs to plug into, as well as set up a proper connection for Gary and a few outlets in his building.

Seeing that Keith had already left, I said goodbye to Lawrence and locked up. I would need to arrange for someone to move in here, or move here myself, in order to keep everything safe, but for now I could probably ignore it.

The next day I asked Keith to find me some IBC totes and bring them to the base. I also asked him to bring two of them to the soup kitchen, and gave him the address. I hadn’t cleared the idea with Jacob yet, but we would need to deal with the water issue some way, so I would ask him today.

With some time to spare, I loaded my car up with food and some clothes, and hauled it over to the base. It looked nobody touched my stuff, so I opened the cleanest of the RVs and moved my stuff into it. I would use it as my home once we got the place set up.

After that I went into Gary’s shed and greeted him. ‘So, how did things go last night? Anything to report?’

‘Nothing to report, other than my energy and nanite levels increasing. I am essentially blind, after all. I am up to 863 Ko and 191 million nanites, though. That should be enough for a decent perimeter.’

‘In that case, how about a sphere that barely covers the door of the PriceCo? Maybe a hundred meters?’

‘I should have enough.’ he said, then I detected a wave of nanites moving past me.

Vera told me that Gary was sending me some data, and when I stepped outside I could see a light blue line around my camp, stopping just before the door to the store, and extending into the road. ‘Nice.’ I thought. ‘Now you can see if anyone enters the area, right?’

‘I could give you full biometric data on anyone that enters the area, and even reproduce them as a hologram, if you want.’

‘Should come in handy if we have any thieves. For now just keep track of anyone who shows up, and make sure they don’t commit any crimes in this area. Report to me if anyone tried to steal anything or break into my buildings. I can hardly call it a settlement if I can’t keep the area safe. You don’t know who Keith or his people are, but they should bring some supplies by later. Oh, and I almost forgot.’ I ran over to my car, grabbed my backpack, and ran back inside. I then pulled a sphere that was slighly smaller than Gary from my backpack. ‘I brought Bob with me.’ I set Bob in the box beside Gary and ran a wire from a wall outlet over to him, taping it to him with electrical tape. ‘Sorry, Bob, it isn’t fancy, but I don’t have time to do much else right now.’

‘It’s fine.’ answered Bob. ‘At least my energy reserves are refilling now. Any orders?’

I thought about it for a little while. ‘Do you know how to make beef or chicken? The price of meat is going up, and from what I heard the outbreak killed at least 95% of all animals, so the price won’t be going down any time soon.’

‘Unfortunately, I don’t have a genetic code for cows or chickens. I only have humans, some spiders, two rodent species, and various algae and mosses.’

‘No chance one of those rodents are rabbits, is there?’

‘Common mice and rats, I’m afraid.’

‘In that case, I’ll try to get you a sample. Will a piece of meat from them work?’

‘Only if it is uncooked. The cooking process damages the code too much.’

I nodded. ‘In that case, build up your power. I’ll try to get some raw meat and bring you a sample.’

With that I locked up and headed over to the soup kitchen. There I told Jacob about my plans to set up a backup water system and he suggested that I try routing the downspout into a container and catching rain water. Rain was a pretty clean source of water, so I told him I could do that. I wasn’t sure if it would work for the base, but I might be able to convince Lawrence to let me do the same with the roof of his building.

My only break that day was the few minutes it took to direct Keith to where I wanted the totes. Apparently he knew of a warehouse where several were being stored. They were filled with various substances, but since many of those substances were edible it meant that they were fine for our purposes. The two he had brought here and one he was taking to the base were full of distilled water, one of the base ones was filled with MSG, and two with some sort of soda syrup. I told him to not empty any that contained oils or alcohols, as I might be able to use them to make bio-diesel, and he set off to the base.

That night I left the soup kitchen late. We had served over two thousand people at each meal, and my arms were tired from kneading dough. I would definitely need to see if I could find an industrial bread mixer tomorrow morning.

When I got to the base I saw Keith and two of his buddies sitting around a campfire. “Hey Greg.” Keith said, waving at me. “Tony and Tom were wondering if they could crash here.” He pointed his thumb at the two men behind him. “Their landlord is being an ass and demanding that they pay him triple what they agreed to, so they were looking for a new place to stay.”

“Sure, as long as they don’t expect too much privacy. I plan on bringing in at least a few hundred people to live here, so the trailers are going to get really full.”

“Works for me.” the larger guy said. “how much you want in rent?”

“For now, you are working for me, so you can stay for free. Once that ends, we’ll figure out a price.”

“Fair enough,” the other guy said. “In that case, we’ll move in tonight.” The two of them picked out an RV they liked and I found the key for it in the box Keith had handed me earlier. They told me they’d be back soon, so I talked to Keith.

“Mind taking me over to the Home Station? I need to get some stuff to hook up the water, If we are going to have people living here.” He nodded, and we hopped in the truck and took a ride. An hour later we were back with pumps, pressure switches, water hoses, PVC tubing and more fittings than I had ever seen outside a store. Keith, apparently, knew enough about plumbing that he thought he could hook up all of the trailers and RVs for me tomorrow. I gave him an extra five thousand, and trusted the job to him. We just needed to hook up mine and their RV tonight.

Once we were done, I went to my car and grabbed a grocery bag. I had talked to Jacob while I was at the kitchen and convinced him to give me some raw meat in exchange for one of my bags of rice. It was a good trade.

I brought the bag into the shed and opened a connection to Bob. ‘Hey, I got you something.’ messaged him. ‘No chicken yet, but I got a tube of frozen ground beef and a tube of sausage.’

‘Do you mind if I sample them?’ Bob asked.

‘Of course. Do you need me to open them?’

‘Oh, I can punch a tiny hole through the plastic if I have to. Honestly, I would have done this sooner if you had any proper food at your apartment.’ Bob waited a few seconds, then sent me another message, confirming that he had, in fact, acquired the DNA.

‘Good, start working on cloning pig and cow meat for me. We’ll need it as a food source if we are to settle this area.’

‘Of course sir.’ Bob said. He seemed happy, somehow. Maybe it was because he could fulfill his purpose in life?

Assuming so, I messaged Gary. ‘So, unlock any new features?’

‘Not really, though I am able to perform much more than yesterday.’ I had him bring up holograms of everyone that entered the area and, after telling them which ones were Keith and his friends, as well as telling him that they would be living and working here, made sure that no one had messed with my stuff. Apparently, other than the three outside, only Lawrence, a seventeen year old girl I assumed was his daughter, and a handful of salvagers that left once they saw that this was a proper camp, no one came by. Hopefully, once we had the water set up and let people know that they could live here, that would change.