A/N (Above is sort of what I'd imagine Meera to look like)I hope you enjoy!
Of all the things I had ever seen in my entire life, this had to be the weirdest. I was used to robots, really, my entire life was dedicated to destroying them. But this... this was different. Never in the whole 18 years that I had been alive, had I seen so many robots trained to hunt and track us down. Not for hostage. But to totally obliterate. Amren, her dark hair tied behind her in a bushy ponytail, green and brown eyes darting around nervously; she had already loaded her guns. One was in her hand, her other hand held a grenade, and her low slung black leather belt had attached to it a large selection of other guns. Since I was the younger of the two, I had to carry the water guns; equally as effective but the one that made me feel about five. I hadn't found a belt yet from the rubble, so I had a collection of water bombs, and spare water guns in my backpack, as well as limited supplies and a first aid kit. "Meera, have you reloaded yet?" I nodded, a huge Blaster Plaster in my hand, remnants of a world corrupted long ago. They were gaining ground – perhaps we should retreat while we still had a chance. I glanced at Amren; her feet spread out in a military stance, eyes forward, watching, listening. Learning. "Do they have any weaknesses?" I whispered, joining her, pulling up my too low slung dark jeans, whilst glancing enviously at her belt. "No, no. Well, their left side is a bit weak, and you see that robot there, right at the front? He's limping, I think a bunch of scavengers may have tried to pick it off, and hit it harder than it thought." I gave her a look. Great. One robot out of THOUSANDS that we might have a chance of killing. "Amren, maybe we should just retreat...I mean, they're too strong for us," I muttered, wincing as the slow, heavy footfall of the bots reached our first barracks. Within minutes, it had been burnt to the ground as they jumped over the sandbags. They may have lost 2, maybe 3 in that fire. Barely a dint. Perhaps not even that, since they've had a recent "upload".
"We're all doomed." Cried a voice behind me, and I turned around, eyebrows raised, as I turned to the speaker of the comment. "Glad to see you have so much faith in us," Amren threw over her shoulder, not even tearing her eyes away from the gradually growing threat. To be fair, Esau was right. I settled down beside him, straightening out my dark, long sleeved shirt. "Maybe if you wielded a weapon yourself, we may have more of a chance." I stated, looking pointedly at the lack of weapons he had in his hand. "My job is to try and hack into them," he groaned, holding up a battered laptop, "you want to live? Fine. Save the saviour." I was just about to give a witty remark back, when Amren called over her shoulder "Meena?! I need you here ASAP. They've reached the third barrier, and are only getting closer. Get you grenades out, let's see if we can give computer boy some more time." Nodding in agreement, I fished out two grenades from my backpack, handing one to Amren then picking up a discarded water bomb from the ground. Amren held a grenade in each hand. "Esau? When we begin the count down, you need to take cover under those sandbags." I cried over the sounds over the robots approaching. "Protect yourself – and the laptop. As soon as the bombs have finished – we'll say "All Clear", then you need to get back up again and continue hacking."
Esau opened his mouth to say a witty remark – then closed it as he saw how serious Meena and I were. "Stay safe" he said, before turning to go take cover. Amren flashed me a smile. "Well then, little cat. Let's see how many mice you can kill." Pulling the trigger, I let the grenade fly, watching it soar through the air with satisfying speed, before landing just in front of the robot army. BANG! The full force of the explosion yanked me backwards as I crashed into the opposite trench wall. Amren pulled me up – there wasn't enough time for recovering as she fired another grenade into the fray. BANG! Her second grenade came sailing through the chaos too. BANG! I retracted my arm, ready to throw the water bomb, but Amren gripped my arm. "Wait." She whispered, and then we both ducked. "Wait to see how many survived." For a moment, there was silence, dust settling in my shoes from the explosion, and my ears ringing from the force in my ear. Then, oh no, then we heard the familiar whirring and clicking of the bots again. Amren paled. We had killed most of them, but from the sound of it, there was about 100 left. I launched my water bomb, listening to the familiar crackle and spit of electricity – on a much smaller scale then I would have hoped. 50 – We had 50 robots to deal with.
50 against the two of us. And Esau, I guess.
Not a chance in hell then.
Maybe Amren didn't know the odds, or didn't care, because she took a deep breath, and launched herself at the stragglers, firing and aiming at will. Robots fell like dominoes, yet as soon as they had regathered themselves, they started firing back. There was, however, a large difference between Amren, me and Esau and the robots. The robots were fighting because of a law, because of a programmed command. We were fighting for our home. We had something worth fighting for.
But...numbers. Amren and I were soon flocked by the sheer number of robots fighting and kicking, and shooting with deadly precision. They never tired, whilst we, as humans, gradually tired. My water guns were running low, and Amren was running out of bullets. Still, more and more robots clustered around us, closing around us. Stumbling backwards, I found Amren and I were back to back, firing desperately into the fray. "Esaaaau..." Amren called, warningly. "Gottit." Esau replied, and began tapping furiously on the computer. I pressed the trigger on the gun, my hands aching, and...nothing. It was my last gun. "Amren, I'm out of ammo!" I cried, resoling to hitting a nearby bot with the empty carcass of the gun. Swearing, Amren agreed that she, too, was fully out. The robots, perhaps sensing our fear and desperation, crowded around us. One in front of Amren and I aimed a gun at our head. Shaking, I couldn't even think of any final words. Amren was all out of ideas. The robot aimed...then suddenly dropped the gun. And, in disbelief, Amren and I watched as all the robots surrounding us suddenly deactivated!
"E..sau?" Amren gasped, her voice shaky. The boy nodding, holding up his laptop in triumph. I let a long breath I didn't even realise I had been holding. It felt good to be alive. And, in a way, I felt pity for the robots that had never felt that before. A twinge of guilt twitched my heart I gazed down at the corpse of the robots. Maybe – maybe...no. I had job to do, to save the citizens left of this world. So, I joined in with celebration, even though, looking at the smouldering remains, I knew it was wrong.
Was it?
