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This story takes place at my university, in a collection of adjacent computer rooms. You have to imagine them as being just simple rooms, empty if it weren't for the fact that there's computers in them. Now one night two students are doing some work there, when they notice something strange. There's processes happening, programs running on these computers, that appear...irregular somehow. They don't think too much of it, and certainly don't want to disrupt it, since it could be someone else's homework. But they investigate anyway, seeing they're actually computer science students, and therefore naturally curious about these sorts of things.
Their second conclusion is a far more interesting one, as whatever's happening on the network, it's either the work of a virus, or a hacker. Our two protagonists happen to have some authority in and around these rooms, they're at least partly responsible for the network amongst other things, and so, they figure, it's their responsibility to "pull the plug" right there, as a simple yet effective counter-measure against the attack. There's no way they would get in trouble for it, nor would it cause any trouble: a "back-up" was made of the entire system, all precious data was saved at exactly 14:20. But do they want to pull the plug? No. They're computer science students, maybe they can learn something from their newfound enemy, perhaps even beat it without resorting to that "cheap" method.
But the more they poke the computers, dissect what they can dissect, the more they become puzzled. So they bring in fellow students, fellow nerds, who don't happen to understand any more of these mysterious things going on inside the machines. They should just pull the plug. It's perfectly safe. But do they want to? No, they're even more curious than ever, their curiosity must be satisfied before they'd even consider just putting an end to it all and go home, none the wiser. They even go so far as building small barricades, blocking doors, to keep out anybody with a more practical mentality than a scientifically correct one: he or she would pull the plug.
This goes on for some time, this process of investigation, and some students are starting to have a hard time believing what they are seeing: bits and bytes, zeros and ones, code that doesn't mean anything to us regular people, but to them, it's the impossible, happening in their faces. It doesn't fit into anything they've ever seen in class, or read about on the internet or in books.
Then, one of them gets a bright idea. He manages to tap into the thoughts of one of the computers. So they hook up a projector to it, and project its thoughts, so to speak, on one of the big white walls. What they see then, they didn't expect. Instead of code, it's pictures, vile pictures. Pictures of the human anatomy, car accidents, military executions.
They don't give up. Time progresses, a whole bunch of nerds frantically typing away on their laptops, cursing at the possessed computers, coming up with the most crazy theories and ideas. Maybe someone even manages to hook up a speaker to one of the computers, and hear its thoughts this time. Words so vile come out, they immidiately turn it off, at least they can turn their back at the images. What first promised to be interesting output, is what they prefer to ignore now. Pictures of the human anatomy, car accidents, military executions.
At this point, they can still pull the plug. No problem. And go home. Easy, problem solved, forget about the whole thing. If these were any other people than cs students, it would have happened already, but now the network has the students in its power. Not a supernatural power, or anything a psychologist wouldn't be able to explain. The guys in there simply need to understand what is happening, what the programs do and where they originated from.
A small annoyance pops up, drunk law students are hanging around outside, might want to make their way inside. So our computer scientists, boys, decide to barricade the place good, and spend the entire night there. One of them however, had an appointment with his girlfriend. Well, no problem, bring her in here, she can watch us solve this.
Things go worse, the images projected shift from vile but real stuff, to things that aren't supposed to be. A picture of Bite, the bunny that the guys carry around as their mascotte, gutted and turned inside out. But Bite is alright, he's there with them. Who made that picture?
A short clip of a camera taking a trip at a graveyard, graves marked with the names of the people sitting there, breathing, behind their laptops. Can that be....special effects? Can it? They don't discuss it, they continue working. Tension rises.
Then, at the sight of a particularly gruesome projection, the girlfriend snaps. She wants out. The barricades are removable, no problem. But the nerds, they aren't the least bit tired, or less motivated. There's scientific methods they haven't tried yet, tests they haven't taken. They can't let her go and ruin it all, she'll bring in people, dumb people. They can't let her go.
They hit her. On the head. Harder than they actually wanted to, and she's dead. The computers go silent. No sign of the programs and processes that they couldn't explain. The projector keeps quiet. The speaker makes a slight buzzing sound. The sun rises.
A janitor breaks through the barricade and finds the hallway covered in blood. A group of students stand next to the body of a dead girl. Some of them murmur, between their teeth, something about possessed computers. But the computers are fine, nobody will ever find anything wrong with them. Lots of people speak of possession however.
But they're not talking about the computers when they do.
This story takes place at my university, in a collection of adjacent computer rooms. You have to imagine them as being just simple rooms, empty if it weren't for the fact that there's computers in them. Now one night two students are doing some work there, when they notice something strange. There's processes happening, programs running on these computers, that appear...irregular somehow. They don't think too much of it, and certainly don't want to disrupt it, since it could be someone else's homework. But they investigate anyway, seeing they're actually computer science students, and therefore naturally curious about these sorts of things.
Their second conclusion is a far more interesting one, as whatever's happening on the network, it's either the work of a virus, or a hacker. Our two protagonists happen to have some authority in and around these rooms, they're at least partly responsible for the network amongst other things, and so, they figure, it's their responsibility to "pull the plug" right there, as a simple yet effective counter-measure against the attack. There's no way they would get in trouble for it, nor would it cause any trouble: a "back-up" was made of the entire system, all precious data was saved at exactly 14:20. But do they want to pull the plug? No. They're computer science students, maybe they can learn something from their newfound enemy, perhaps even beat it without resorting to that "cheap" method.
But the more they poke the computers, dissect what they can dissect, the more they become puzzled. So they bring in fellow students, fellow nerds, who don't happen to understand any more of these mysterious things going on inside the machines. They should just pull the plug. It's perfectly safe. But do they want to? No, they're even more curious than ever, their curiosity must be satisfied before they'd even consider just putting an end to it all and go home, none the wiser. They even go so far as building small barricades, blocking doors, to keep out anybody with a more practical mentality than a scientifically correct one: he or she would pull the plug.
This goes on for some time, this process of investigation, and some students are starting to have a hard time believing what they are seeing: bits and bytes, zeros and ones, code that doesn't mean anything to us regular people, but to them, it's the impossible, happening in their faces. It doesn't fit into anything they've ever seen in class, or read about on the internet or in books.
Then, one of them gets a bright idea. He manages to tap into the thoughts of one of the computers. So they hook up a projector to it, and project its thoughts, so to speak, on one of the big white walls. What they see then, they didn't expect. Instead of code, it's pictures, vile pictures. Pictures of the human anatomy, car accidents, military executions.
They don't give up. Time progresses, a whole bunch of nerds frantically typing away on their laptops, cursing at the possessed computers, coming up with the most crazy theories and ideas. Maybe someone even manages to hook up a speaker to one of the computers, and hear its thoughts this time. Words so vile come out, they immidiately turn it off, at least they can turn their back at the images. What first promised to be interesting output, is what they prefer to ignore now. Pictures of the human anatomy, car accidents, military executions.
At this point, they can still pull the plug. No problem. And go home. Easy, problem solved, forget about the whole thing. If these were any other people than cs students, it would have happened already, but now the network has the students in its power. Not a supernatural power, or anything a psychologist wouldn't be able to explain. The guys in there simply need to understand what is happening, what the programs do and where they originated from.
A small annoyance pops up, drunk law students are hanging around outside, might want to make their way inside. So our computer scientists, boys, decide to barricade the place good, and spend the entire night there. One of them however, had an appointment with his girlfriend. Well, no problem, bring her in here, she can watch us solve this.
Things go worse, the images projected shift from vile but real stuff, to things that aren't supposed to be. A picture of Bite, the bunny that the guys carry around as their mascotte, gutted and turned inside out. But Bite is alright, he's there with them. Who made that picture?
A short clip of a camera taking a trip at a graveyard, graves marked with the names of the people sitting there, breathing, behind their laptops. Can that be....special effects? Can it? They don't discuss it, they continue working. Tension rises.
Then, at the sight of a particularly gruesome projection, the girlfriend snaps. She wants out. The barricades are removable, no problem. But the nerds, they aren't the least bit tired, or less motivated. There's scientific methods they haven't tried yet, tests they haven't taken. They can't let her go and ruin it all, she'll bring in people, dumb people. They can't let her go.
They hit her. On the head. Harder than they actually wanted to, and she's dead. The computers go silent. No sign of the programs and processes that they couldn't explain. The projector keeps quiet. The speaker makes a slight buzzing sound. The sun rises.
A janitor breaks through the barricade and finds the hallway covered in blood. A group of students stand next to the body of a dead girl. Some of them murmur, between their teeth, something about possessed computers. But the computers are fine, nobody will ever find anything wrong with them. Lots of people speak of possession however.
But they're not talking about the computers when they do.