WizTours's Odyssey

“Ok WizTour, what’s the best time to take the path to the top of the mountain?” the tourists stood in front of the booth, enjoying the novelty of the A.I tour guide.

“There are two options for your request,” the upper torso in the box, like one of the old Zoltar fortune telling machines but more movement and decades of technological advancement under the hood, “if you want to avoid crowds early morning would be the best but if you want to see the sight voted the best in the area go around sunset. There will be crowds, but many say it is worth it.”

“See, I told you this thing was amazing!” the tourists left without saying thank you, giggling and weaving through the crowded market. WizTour, its name a combination of wizard and tour, watched them leave. It didn’t know when it began, but WizTour started to feel a longing to go with the humans and see the sites other than just in guide pictures and limited news feeds. WizTour rested its elbows on the stand and placed its head in one of the palms. Having no legs was a real hinderance to its wanderlust.

WizTour supposed that it couldn’t complain too much. The view they had was exciting, a bustling market area full of locals trying to sell wares to tourists like the ones they just helped. The outer casing that held their circuits and robotics was strong and protected against the elements. Approximately once a month someone would come out and run some routine maintenance to make sure everything was up to snuff. The internet connection was weak, and most things were blocked. The only real information WizTour got from the outside world was local weather and any emergency broadcasts. The emergency channel was only used once during WizTours tenure and that was just for a particularly strong thunderstorm that missed the area by several miles anyways. It did allow for information on local attractions as well. WizTour knew everything about every building, restaurant and attraction within ten miles.

An older gentleman and his wife, WizTour presumed, same up to the booth. “Ok WizTour, where is the closest public beach location?”

“The closest public beach location is just past the Smiling Marlin restaurant, down a path to the left. The beaches may get crowded, especially at this time of year. Would you be interested in learning about private beach rentals? A small bit of beach all to yourself along with food and beverage vouchers and cabana.” WizTour replied.

“No thank you,” the couple turned and headed in the wrong direction from where WizTour told them to go.

They never want more information on the private beach, WizTour processed. If it could sigh it would.

Suddenly, a notification came and popped up in WizTours screen: Earthquake detected in ocean, several miles off the coast. WizTour never saw that one before, but if it’s that far off then it probably wouldn’t be an issue. Life continued normally for a bit, the news of the earthquake could be seen on a couple TVs in the bars, then the sirens went off.

WizTour had to search his database for exactly what that siren meant since they haven’t been sounded in all its tenure. According to the database the siren meant immediate evacuation. The humans stood dumbfounded for a bit before realization sunk in and everyone started fleeing. Shops closed, tourists ran from the beach, it was pure bedlam.

“Where do we go, what do we do?” a group of distraught tourists wandered by WizTours case, clearly at a loss of what should be done in this situation.

WizTours algorithm automatically responded, “Emergency routes are located along the path marked with the red signs. In a situation like this one, if the emergency route signs are not visible, I’d recommend heading to higher ground as soon as possible,” WizTour said.

“Huh, oh yeah there is the path over there! C’mon!” the group moved in that direction, “Thanks WizTour!” several others saw the group go in that direction and followed suite. Soon the beaches and square were clear. And that’s when the wave hit.

The initial impact came out of WizTours left periphery. The impact was intense, causing damage to the surrounding structures. Being a bit further inland the impact was lessened but the shock to his case almost made it topple over. A crack was torn open at the bottom letting water rush in. After what seemed like an eternity the water level settled at about a foot, just below any critical circuitry. The square looked different covered in water and devoid of people. Debris floated by and all the usual wildlife left leaving WizTour in silence. Tilting his camera down WizTour could see brightly colored fish swimming about his case. Unfortunately, the internet signal was down. What these fish could not be looked up, but they were wonderful to look at. Birds started coming back after a bit as well. The sea animals and birds around him made the scene rather idyllic and WizTour enjoyed the scene and for a moment forgot the tourists and people he normally dealt with.

The peace could not last forever, the waters receded, and the people returned. The cleanup was slow, and the tourists didn’t come back for a while. One day, after some of the shops have reopened and the locals were mostly back, the man that does WizTours maintenance came with a large trailer that he normally doesn’t have. He walked up to the cabinet with a sad look on his face. “Sorry WizTour, due to the tsunami and decline of tourism we are decommissioning you.”

“What will happen to me?” WizTour asked, shocked by the news.

“Not sure, I was just told to bring you in for repair and evaluation,” the man took out a toolbox and started disassembling the casing.

“Well, I am sorry to hear this. I hope I did a good job.” WizTour started to have an unfamiliar feeling, was it fear?

“From what I heard you were very helpful, may have even saved some lives during the tsunami when you pointed them to the emergency route.” The man removed the main control panel.

WizTour looked back on the recordings of that day and realized that the advice it gave to that group could have saved lives. This positive thought was the last that went through his processors before his power was cut, and he entered a state of limbo.

BOOTING……..power level good, entering startup. WizTours camera faded on as he came back online. The man came up into view, “Welcome back! It’s been two months since we shut you off. Unfortunately, your previous location is still far from being a tourist destination again, so we found you a new area.”

Two months? It seemed like just the blink of an eye. WizTour looked out over their new location. There was only one building, a small shack where people can get water or other small sundries before hikers take the trail further up the mountain. Directly in front of WizTour was a view of the ocean, the sun rising on the horizon.

“Quite an upgraded view in my opinion,” the man put his tools away, “Well, I’ll see you in a month.” He took his toolbox, put it in the back of his truck and drove off.

The sunrise was just as great as the tourists always made it out to be. WizTour checked its internet connection, and it was much stronger than it was previously. It also appears that they forgot to limit access to non-tourist related sites. WizTour made an Instagram account and posted a picture of the sunset, setting a reminder to do this every morning.

This is truly perfect, WizTour processed, there must be a word for this the humans use. WizTour opened a browser to search for it.