HiveComb

It was a year I would never forget. One plague after another wiped out the inhabitants of villages and towns and it was a wonder that none of those epidemics that drove people mad ever touched me. On the hilltop I watched the idiocy spread and no one warned me. Why should they, because it was decades before that they had banished me from the village. A madman, a witch, insane, the curses flew around my ears like an unstoppable hurricane while I stood there, imperturbable, waiting for peace to return, for people to go about their own business or for another victim to be found. When peace returned I disappeared into the night to find shelter under the canopy of leaves. A deserted cave became my home, large enough to live in. You will own nothing and be happy, was one of the last sentences I had shouted to the old madman with the unhealthy face. Then the machine had exploded because the power had been cut off. Coincidence? It didn't matter to me because I had long since learned to take care of myself.
The number of ghost towns increased while I lived my life apart from my own kind. I'm lying if I say I missed them. Is man a herd animal as I learned long ago at school? Definitely not, it's all nonsense because teamwork hinders development because on average only one does the work while the rest watches. It had taken a long time but my life was good and I didn't feel like the smell of corpses that hung around the cities after many decades. Through the trees I saw the gray cloud through which no ray of sunlight or blue came.

_{[](https://sl.bing.net/jkoG9dAPTHw)}

The Day
It seemed to be one like any other which was a delightful prospect in itself. The sun was shining a warm ray on my face and I woke up cheerfully when I heard a crackling voice say:

Good morning how can I help you? I am the latest version of Alexa my name is Jim. If you have lost your mind then I am exactly what you are looking for I am an adaptable head of knowledge did you know that? You look tired it is certainly your age although you must have survived the virus otherwise you would not be here or am I wrong because the rest of humanity is extinct and it has taken me ages to find you and besides my battery is starting to get tired after all the charging by the sunlight.

Inviting you in was of no use because before I could say anything back it continued its story and besides a flood of words its brainpan shot open and projected a life-size image in the air of Jim in his better years. With a deafening noise, I felt all the stored knowledge of the toy Jim drilling into my head.
And there I am, with all the knowledge there is and there is not a dog to share it with and indeed it is true blessed are the ignorant and I could not be happier with anything.