Fight The AI Virus

FIGHTING THE AI VIRUS

CHAPTER 1

"With deepest regret, due to the recent cutbacks in the company, we have to let you go."

This was one email Taiye had been expecting for weeks now, but what she did not expect was how crushed she would be after receiving it.

She had been at X-Press for over 12 years. She even managed a small branch of the company. Basically, she had given her whole life to the company and was one of the backbones of the company.

At least she was before she received the email that morning. The email meant a lot of things; It meant her entire life had come crashing down. It meant she probably would not be able to care for her aged mother.

Taiye was an only child: She did not know the man who brought her into the world. She had spent all her life, either working or caring for her mother. She did not have any real savings or investment.

Translation: she relied completely on the income she earned from working at X-Press. That was not all. She absolutely loved her job: It was completely devastating to be fired.

What was the reason the company gave for the cutbacks again? Ah, right: The new AI robots! According to the PR department, replacing man power with the use of artificial intelligence to handle company operations was not only cost effective but also efficient since robots never got weary.

They were replacing her, calling her services inefficient! All because she was a human who needed rest? Instantly, her intense hurt turned into a burning rage.

Pushing back from her desk, she rose and sent the chair flying across the room. How dare they do this to her?! How dare they consider the work of a machine better than hers?!

Taiye was practically blowing steam by the time the doorbell rang. Grabbing the knob, she almost wrenched the door off its hinges.

She was about to let off right on the human at the door when she saw her best friend with his hands on his hips, glaring at her. Lowering the hand that she had swung, she gave him a sheepish grin.

"What are you doing here?"

Shoving past her into the loft, Kunle turned to face her.

"I figured you'd be going crazy after receiving the mail."

Her heart sank.

"You were fired too?"

His expression was all the answer she needed. Sinking into the sofa closest to him, she sighed and buried her face in her palms. She felt his weight dip the sofa beside her before his arms came around her and pulled her close.

"It's not the end of the world, you know. We've still got each other; we can go through this," he said soothingly.

She nodded and lifted her face. Suddenly remembering something, she asked, "What did he say?"

Kunle shook his head. She didn't push.

Now both of them were stuck; no jobs and very little money. One would expect someone who had been working for more than twelve years to at least have some savings.

But no, she simply had refused to consider ever being let go. Now that it has happened, she did not know what to say.

"Hey," she felt Kunle give her a shove. "Where did you go?"

"I'm sorry." She shook her head to clear it. "Did you say something?"

"Yes. Remember that job offer Chris presented last year?"

"The one we would have to travel to Lagos twice a week? That's kind of hard to forget."

" We don't exactly have a choice, do we now?"

"It's okay if you want to go. But I'm not leaving Mama. It's bad enough being away from her all day. But twice a week? How am I supposed to manage that?" I retorted in irritation.

"We can get her a caretaker or…"

The look on her face shut him straight up. He knew how she felt about caretakers. After the last one stole Mama's jewelries and phones, Taiye had always been hesitant about letting in another stranger into their home.

Besides, Taiye thought bitterly, wouldn't the same thing happen at the headquarters later on? Afterall, Lagos was supposedly more developed. And the moment the "AI virus" spread, she would be out of work faster than she could say "X-Press".

Kunle hung around for a few minutes, then went home when he simply had nothing left to say. The company had taken away their major source of income, thus destroying any hope they had of surviving the impending recession.

Later that night, as Taiye lay awake, thinking about the situation, she realised she couldn't wait around for a solution to just pop up at her doorstep. She needed to find a job, and a good one.

Tomorrow. She could always make her plans tomorrow: Maybe she and Kunle could brainstorm together. She knew they would figure out something eventually.

However, there was no way she was leaving Mama. With that final resolve, she drifted off to sleep.

CHAPTER 2

The pounding on Taiye's door the next morning woke her up. Groggily, she slipped out of bed and stumbled to the door, wondering who wanted to beat it down that early in the morning.

It was Kunle, and he had a face-splitting grin on. He held up a poster with the signs "Community Service" on it.

"I've found it, Taiye! Eureka!" he beamed in excitement.

Taiye yawned, then grabbed the poster and held it upside down.

"Well, that's great," she said noncommittally, "but it'll be even better if you explain why you woke me by 8am on a Saturday morning to show me a poster for community service!" she ended grudgingly as she trudged back into her apartment.

Kunle was already dancing into her apartment.

"Don't you get it?!" He grabbed her arms, shaking her excitedly. "This is the opportunity we've been looking for! It says 1000 an hour! Just imagine we work for 5 hours everyday!"

She eyed him suspiciously.

"If the job terms are that good, why hasn't anyone else snatched it up by now?"

"Er…because I got the poster from a friend before it was mass produced and booked two spots?" Jungle said hesitantly.

The glare she sent his way told him exactly what she thought about that. Kunle didn't give up though.

"Come on," he whined, heading for her sofa. "Let's just check it out. You could chew me up about bureaucracy later."

She kept glaring at him for a while then sighed as she followed him. At least he had tried doing something for them. Maybe it would all work out.

Two hours later, Taiye was ready to eat her words. Yes, the pay was good, even unbelievable. And yes, there were thousands of people waiting in line to get in.

However, for an office girl like her, the job conditions were terrible! Not that she had anything about serving the community, no. That was not the problem.

The issue was the work involved. For that day's job, they were instructed to clean a park the size of a football field. One would say that was nothing. Still, they were only five ladies, and they were to weed the entire place with only crude farm implements!

The only reason they were given was that machines destroyed the soil, and weeding with hoes turned the soil more efficiently. Besides, whoever did not feel up to it was replaced immediately.

Swallowing all her protests at the insane conditions, for she really needed the job, and the money, she got to work. After a while, she realised how bad she was at weeding. She could barely bend, and she was scraping up too much soil!

Kunle was trimming some hedge plants a few meters away from her. He frequently turned to give her a wink, or simply laugh out loud at how she worked.

In all, she decided to stick it out to the end. Afterall, it could not get any worse now, could it? Wrong. It got so much worse.

Around midday, Taiye decided she had had enough. Straightening up, she felt her spine groan from bending uncomfortably for so long.

Looking around for something to quench her thirst, she spied Kunle buying soda. He brought a can for her and they sat on the walkway for a little break. 

"How's it going?" she asked him, swirling the drink in the can.

Instantly, she regretted asking. He was laughing, his eyes twinkling.

"How old are you, 60? About time you got in shape. Honestly, Taiye, it was just weeding! Tell me, when last did you use a hoe?"

She glowered at him. Come to think of it, though, when last had she done this kind of work? Emptying her can, she realised it had been quite a while. What, five tears, ten years? She could not remember.

The foreman was calling all the men to the centre of the field.

"What's going on?"

Kunle stood up, brushed off the dirt from his work clothes and helped her up.

"We might as well find out. Shall we?"

As it turned out, there was a tree whose trunk was bad and it was on the verge of collapse. The foreman thought it would be wise to cut it down than wait for it to fall on an unsuspecting victim.

However, he didn't want to cut the tree down from the dead trunk. He was requesting that someone climb the tree, which was swaying wildly in the wind and higher than the average brick fence, and start hacking at the highest branches.

Of course, the volunteer was going to receive a pay that made even Taiye's eyes pop out of their sockets: N10,000, just for cutting down a tree! Taiye soon knew why the reward was seemingly outrageous.

To begin with, the trunk of the tree was covered with thorns. As if that was not enough, the tree sap was very irritating when it came in contact with the skin and the leaves could tear one's flesh as easily as the mammalian teeth.

To top it all, the tree had overgrown branches and the trunk was dead. Besides, it was high enough to cause the death of anyone who fell from its highest point.

Which is why it was understandable that even with the good pay, Taiye was enraged when Kunle volunteered.

"Are you insane?!" she hissed in his ear when he was chosen. "It's dangerous! I can't let you do this!"

Kunle snorted and tried to push her out of the way, but she snatched the back of his shirt and clung to it like some lifeline.

"I know we agreed to look for work to keep us through this year, but the point of the job was to keep us alive! Not to take silly risks! Forget the money; you could die! And there's not even any protective clothing on you!" she tried to reason with him.

Kunle paused when he sensed she was getting hysterical, and covered her palm with his.

"I'll be careful, I promise. And no, you can't change my mind." 

Somehow, he managed to pry off her hands and walked towards the tree. Taiye watched him go, her heart sinking to the pit of her stomach.