Branches Book

BRANCHES

however, scientists found they could synthetically create all foods and mimic the freshness as if it was actually grown. Plants and trees were soon eradicated and replaced with oxygen producing rods. Marian received a twenty-minute estimate for her meal. This was longer than usual, but Marian didn’t want to force her kitchen to work at a faster pace. She turned on her screen wallpaper, and began to watch a game show where humans tried to cook better food than their kitchen. She watched the show for five minutes, before she heard a scream coming from her son’s room. She had a feeling something bad had happened, and in fact, had been feeling off all morning. This was a direct record taken from her wrist emotiometer at 9:38 am that day. She ran to her son’s room only to find him, his two sisters, and the robodog, in an intense game of virtual luge racing. Her son had fallen off his monitor and was laying on the carpet laughing. Marian chuckled to herself and headed back to her room. In the middle of the hallway, Marian heard a low grumble coming from the first story of her house. She ran to the chute. The platform escalated downward and released her in the corner of the living room. The grumble was no longer just a grumble, it now seemed like a roar. Marian covered her ears and yelled “call technician.” Houses were able to make multiple calls at once then play the audio out loud in the room the caller was in. The house typically responded to a request like this by saying, “calling…” The house didn't respond. Marian once more yelled “call technician,” but there was still no response. She again yelled the command to the house, but was only met with silence. She got frustrated with her house and began yelling “call technician” over and over again. Suddenly, the house went completely silent. Marian figured this to mean that the house had notified the technician about the issue, as it was programmed to do. She walked into the kitchen where she believed the original rumble came from. However, instead of seeing her typical appliances and machinery at work making her breakfast, she saw an empty room. She entered the kitchen confused. Her heart rate began to increase. Suddenly all of the lights turned off, and the grumble returned, this time barely audible. Marian was shaking. She walked towards the center of the room to look for the source of the sound, but as she turned around towards the door, she saw something alarming. All the technology and appliances from the kitchen were waiting outside the door. She felt as if she was being stared at. The volume of the grumble increased, then slowly silenced. Marian didn’t move a muscle. What was once a toaster, slowly approached her. It flung its power chord at her leg. She jumped up so the toaster chord wouldn’t hit her. The sink approached next, exploding with water, which began to cover the floor. Marian started to cry, she could sense what would happen in the following moments. The stove

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