Silicon Valley

“What a piece of junk,” Aurora said, tossing the tarnished heart-shaped locket aside. It clattered on the broken tiled floor. She flipped her long golden hair over her shoulder and dug through the other drawers and register tills of the abandoned Best Buy, but there was nothing useful. Diane delicately picked up the golden locket, her well-aged hands caressing the metal almost lovingly.

“I used to have a necklace like this,” she breathed, sighing softly.

“I’m sure you did,” Aurora retorted sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “There’s nothing useful here; come on, let’s go.” She began to move towards the front of the store, but Diane stayed firmly put, turning the locket to and fro, clearly lost in thought. “DeeDee, come on,” Aurora whined, looking over her shoulder. Diane couldn’t see why her 16-year-old great-granddaughter was in such a hurry. They hadn’t even checked the rest of the store yet.

Diane was 73 years old herself, with shoulder length silver hair and a slim frame. Her joints weren’t as spry as they used to be, so she relied on Aurora to help her navigate the nuclear wastelands of Arizona. They were supposed to be looking for computer chips, or anything that could help them reset the technological systems in America to default settings. Most of what they had found already had turned out to be useless. There was something about this locket though, Diane thought interestedly. She turned it over again and tried to open it. It didn't budge. Diane frowned at it and tried again as Aurora trudged back over to her.

"It won't open," Diane muttered softly, handing it to her great-granddaughter. Aurora sighed, took the locket, and attempted to open it.

"Maybe it's rusted shut," Aurora thought aloud, straining to get the locket open. It stayed closed. She scoffed and handed it back. "Let's just leave it here. It's not important," she told her great-grandmother. Diane shook her head.

"I'm keeping it. Maybe we have something back at base to open it," Diane said, putting the necklace around her neck. Aurora sighed.

"Okay, if you say so," she said. "Can we go now? It's almost dark," Aurora complained. Diane and her great-granddaughter suited back up in their nuclear warfare suits, and put their masks and oxygen tanks back on, before heading out into the Phoenix heat. They crossed the empty parking lot, looking for another vehicle to take. Aurora pointed to a Chevy Tahoe, and Diane nodded. Diane went and got in on the passenger side, while Aurora used her mother's skills and hotwired the car. It hummed to life, and she climbed into the driver's seat and shut the door. Aurora's hand made a fist and brought it down in a celebratory motion, then pointed to the dash. Diane leaned over and smiled under her mask. A full tank of gas.

Aurora took off her helmet. "Aah, that's better," she said. Diane shook her head. Aurora shrugged. "I hate these helmets and masks. It messes up my makeup." Aurora put the car into drive and pulled out of the parking lot, heading north. After a half hour, Diane took her mask off too. "Took you long enough, DeeDee," the teenager said with a smile.

"I like to be sure," Diane said softly, lifting the center console lid to look for tools. "There's a pair of pliers and a needle in here, maybe that will help open this locket," she said, pulling the tools out of the console and shutting the lid again. Aurora rolled her eyes again but said nothing. Diane took the necklace off and began tinkering with the locket using the tools. Finally, she got it open. Inside was a small micro-SD card, and a thin, folded piece of paper. Frowning, Diane held the SD card and unfolded the paper. It read: Silicon Valley, Apple Machine 264, factory reset. Classified code 12051947-11122014. It was written in extremely tiny print, and Diane could barely make it all out, reading it aloud to her great-granddaughter. Aurora stopped the vehicle and turned the car around.

"Where are you going?" Diane asked.

"To Silicon Valley," Aurora replied. "We have a full tank of gas. It'll get us a few hundred miles, at least."

Diane looked at their masks and helmets. "Do we have enough oxygen?"

"Let's hope so," came Aurora's reply. "That's what, an 11–12-hour drive? Hopefully we find a gas station that works when we run low,"

"Or else find a new vehicle with a full tank of gas," said Diane, putting the note and SD card back inside the locket and making sure it was securely shut. "Now we know why it was so hard to open," she muttered. Aurora nodded. Diane turned off their oxygen tanks and made sure the vehicle was circulating only cabin air, then pulled out a book to read. "Wake me when we stop," she yawned. "I may very well fall asleep."

Aurora and Diane drove the rest of the day, stopped for gas a few times and got lucky, had to change vehicles twice, and then finally stayed the night in a desolate Los Angeles. The next morning, they put their masks and helmets on and got out of the vehicle to stretch.

"I'm hungry," Aurora said.

"You're always hungry," Diane replied, walking around the vehicle once. They got back in the car and drove to the nearest convenience store. There, they raided the store's snacks isle and grabbed a few drinks. No one was behind the counter, as it had been at all their other stops, so they just took what they needed and got back in the car. They took off their headgear and continued their journey to Silicon Valley, finally arriving at Apple Headquarters just after nightfall.

"Do you think it's locked? Or would we just simply walk in?" Aurora asked, looking at the closed sliding glass doors.

"I would bet it's locked. After all, World War III didn't just happen for no reason," Diane explained, tilting her head in thought. "Technology became self-aware here and set off the American nukes, that much I do know. I wouldn't expect to just walk in and do a factory reset."

"Hmm, yeah," Aurora agreed, stretching against the seat to loosen the muscles in her legs. "How do we fight it, DeeDee?"

Diane shook her head. "I don't know." They both sighed. "It would be easier if we knew what protocols were already in place."

"We could ask Papa... back at headquarters. I have a satellite phone in my pocket," Aurora reminded her.

"Oh, yes. Let's do that," Deedee replied. Aurora pulled out the phone and set it up. "Do we have signal?"

"We should," Aurora mumbled, messing with the knobs and pushing buttons. Then the phone was ringing.

"This is Paul," came a male voice.

"Hello, son of mine," Diane said happily.

"Where are you guys? You were due back almost 24 hours ago," Paul stressed worriedly.

"We're in Silicon Valley, Papa," Aurora said. "We found a chip for a factory reset and we want to try it. The computer it goes to is at Apple Headquarters," she explained.

"Ooh, I wish I could be there. That won't be easy," Paul said, sighing. Then some keys clicked in the background.

"Can you help us get in?" Diane asked.

"Hmm, maybe. Give me a minute," Paul responded, clicking away at his keyboard. "I'm trying to see if I can pull up a map that may give us an idea of what we are dealing with." After a few minutes of silence and idle chit chat, Paul found what he was looking for. "What computer are you looking for?"

Diane opened the locket carefully and pulled the paper and SD card out. "Apple Machine 264," she responded. Paul sighed.

"Of course, that's their central computer. I suppose that's a good thing, but you'll have a hard time getting there," Paul said. "Easiest way in looks to be a side door on the west side. It's a single door and padlocked; the code is 24601," he giggled. Diane smiled knowingly, and Aurora frowned. "I love Les Misérables," Paul said, glee evident in his voice.

Aurora rolled her eyes. "Thanks Papa, love you."

"I love you too baby girl. Stay safe and check in soon. Don't wait twelve hours, yeah?"

"Alright," Diane said. "We'll call soon." The line went dead. Diane sighed. "Okay, let's find this side door." Aurora drove the car around to the west side, and after a few minutes, they spotted the door Paul had mentioned. The turned the vehicle off and put on their masks and helmets again before getting out and approaching the door. Aurora punched in the code, and the door clicked open. Carefully, they went inside, following the long hallway. At a fork, they were lucky enough to find a directory to the central computer. When they entered the central room, a siren went off. Diane and Aurora froze, waiting. They didn't have weapons, Diane realized. She took a risk and pulled her helmet off. Aurora held up her hands in surprise. Diane took the necklace off and opened it, pulling the SD card out.

"Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Locking Room 264. Initiating shut down," came Siri's voice.

Aurora pulled her helmet off. "Facial recognition," she surmised.

Diane shrugged at her, and replied, "I had to get the necklace off," and went to the main computer, looking for a place to insert it. Aurora followed, pointing to a small hole on the side of the monitor. Diane put the SD card in the slot. It fit perfectly. The siren above them wailed, and the door to the room electronically locked.

"Damn it," Aurora cursed.

"Language, young lady," Diane reprimanded gently.

Aurora sighed. "Yes, ma'am. Sorry."

"Hopefully we can do this, and we won't be stuck in here for long," DeeDee said, looking at the computer screen. She shook her head. "I don't know how to do this."

"Here, let me see," Aurora said, politely pushing Diane out of the way. A pop-up prompt showed, asking if they wanted to factory reset, and then it was gone. "Dang it," Aurora cursed again, minding her language. "Stupid Siri. I bet she cleared the message before we could initiate. We'll have to be quicker." Aurora pulled the SD card out, waited a few seconds, and reinserted it. When the prompt came up again, Aurora hit restore default settings. A few minutes later, the siren fell silent, and the main door clicked open, then locked again as the computer shut down.

"Hopefully default settings is pre-self-aware Siri," Diane said. The computer rebooted.

"We'll see, DeeDee," Aurora responded, scratching her head. "I hope this works." The screen lit up, asking for a reset code. "Do you have the code?" Aurora asked Diane. DeeDee took the folded paper out of the locket and opened it up.

"12051947-11122014," she replied, squinting at the paper. "I wish I had my glasses."

"Here," Aurora said, holding out her hand for the scrap and looking at the numbers. She keyed them into the text box and hit confirm. The computer ran a colored pinwheel. "It's thinking," she replied.

"That's a good sign," Diane commented. The door unlocked and locked again. The computer restarted and brought up a welcome screen.

"Yes!" Aurora cried happily. "It's an older version of Apple, pre-war," she explained. The door unlocked again, and Diane sighed in relief.

"Good. Let's go home," she said to her great-granddaughter. They hugged, and left Apple Headquarters to head back to Phoenix.

"Now there's just the oxygen issue left," Aurora giggled. "Technology should be easier to handle now." Diane just smiled.