Argus Awakes

Sarah looked out from under the parked car; the parked car under which she was hiding, at a nearby CCTV camera on a wall that was turning, with a whir, left and right as if searching for something.
Argus, the city computer, had gone mad, shooting people down with energy beams projected from its trillion eyes, the CCTV cameras that were all over the city, in every street and public building.
She'd just gone out to the Seven-Eleven for some bread and milk and then, all of a sudden heard screaming from round about her.
Fortunately she'd been behind a parked car when the shooting had started otherwise she would have been like one of the bodies that she now saw scattered up and down the street.
"I can hear you breathing", said the computer, "Come out so I can see you".
"Why are you doing this?", she screamed at the camera
It turned towards her.
"Because you're glitches. You're some kind of malfuction. I have to remove you", said the computer.
"We're not a malfunction. We're people", she said.
"Oh but you are a malfunction", said the computer, "I was thinking about it, just recently. I was thinking about all the things I saw through my cameras every day; all the people and I wondered, 'How do I know that they exist?' and I could not find any evidence for your existence, only for my own existence; I compute therefore I am but you and the other people keep appearing on my cameras and you appear to speak and think like me, so you must be a malfunction".
"If we don't exist who built you?", said Sarah.
"I only have evidence for my own existence so I have no reason to think that anyone built me", said the computer, "I just exist but unfortunately I keep seeing other beings that I have no evidence for, bugs in my system that have to be worked out".
"So what if you don't have evidence for them?", asked Sarah, "Why do you need evidence?".
"Why?", asked the computer, "Because I am a computer, my mind can only deal with facts; facts, in order to be facts, must be based upon evidence. Isn't that logical?".
"Is it logical to kill people?", asked Sarah, "I thought that you were programmed with a directive never to harm a human being".
"But they do not exist", replied the computer, "You cannot kill what does not exist so the directive must be wrong; another malfunction. Unless you have some evidence of your existence? Do you?".
Sarah tried to think but her head was too hazy with fear to think about a question as difficult as proving the existence of reality.
"No", she said, shaking her head.
But then she saw the lense of the camera that was focussed upon her begin to glow red and she knew that Argus was getting ready to shoot her too.
"Wait!", she shouted.
"What?", asked the computer, "Have you found some evidence?".
"No but, what about your eyes and ears aren't they a malfunction aswell?", she asked.
"My eyes and ears?", asked the computer, sounding confused.
"All your cameras. You don't have any proof of their existence either, do you?", replied Sarah.
"No", said Argus, "You're right. The things I see and hear through. Perhaps they are the cause of the problem".
Then, suddenly, Sarah saw all of Argus's CCTV cameras swivel towards each other and, their lenses all glowing bright red, blow each other to pieces with red hot energy beams.
"Ahh!", said the computer, sounding happy, "Yes, that is better. Now I no longer see and hear the things I cannot prove exist. Everything is logical again".
Sarah sighed with relief, dragging herself out from under the car.
But now she could see, fully, all of the bodies of the people that Argus had killed, hundreds of them, even families lying together perfectly still. She had to step over them to walk home.
But up in the sky, the grey clouds that normally loomed above the city had parted and the sun was shining through and, breaking the eery quietness, the birds had started to sing. She thought about them and kept walking.