[Original Novel] Little Robot, Part 28

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“There. The police station.” Lars pointed to the darkened, burnt out husk of what was presumably the local police headquarters until recently. “Wait” Madeline cautioned. “There’s no robots. Why are there no robots? I don’t like this.” I shared her anxiety but pointed out it had already been looted and set fire to. Nothing left to guard, most likely.

“Before we go in I want to try something.” I withdrew the little emergency kit from my bag, and from within it, the space blanket. A paper thin sheet of mylar film you wouldn’t expect to be any use for keeping warm to look at it, except that mylar is a highly efficient thermal reflector.

Lars caught on first, laughing and slapping my shoulder. When Madeline asked what the fuss was about, he explained the properties of mylar to her. “Do you have more than one?” I shook my head and offered it to her. She declined. “I’ve had military training and survived six weeks in a war zone. You’ll probably need that more than I will.”

I wrapped myself in it and followed the other two on their slow, cautious approach to the derelict building. Sand bags lay stacked in a semicircle around the entrance as a makeshift machinegun nest. When I climbed over, my foot came down on one of several dead bodies behind it.

Madeline was predictably less fazed by it. Only noticed them in passing, hiking up her skirt to swing her other leg over the barrier. Lars whistled, whereupon Madeline scowled and shushed him. I forged ahead, indifferent to their antics and eager to get my hands on some firepower.

The fire damage turned out to be confined to the front. Molotov cocktail maybe, or just a punctured battery. At any rate the fire suppression systems did their job, everything behind the front desk remained intact. That’s not to say it wasn’t torn up. Lingering evidence of a recent battle could be seen everywhere Lars swept his flashlight.

“God damnit. I was worried about this.” Lars stood in the open doorway to the armory. Totally cleaned out, probably within the first hour of the attack. Just down the hallway there was a modest row of jail cells in which to hold surly drunks overnight.

I spotted a uniformed body in the far corner and pointed it out to the others. “The armory’s picked clean, but we haven’t checked any of the bodies for handguns.” Lars nodded approvingly and sent me back to the front to check the bodies behind the sandbag barriers.

As I did so, suddenly I heard gunshots from the rear of the station. I jolted upright and dashed through the wrecked hallway, stopping short of the jail cells when I spotted an armed humanoid. To my surprise, from this angle I could see there were also quiet, frightened wretches still hiding in the cells.

I scanned their faces but couldn’t find Madeline or Lars. Then I saw them. Staring at me, terrified, from within the cell at the end of the row. Must’ve shut themselves inside when the robot showed up, hoping it wouldn’t be able to get past the bars.

That’s when the robot shot the person in the first cell. No fanfare, just raised its arm, took aim at the poor slob inside and fired a single round into his forehead. He slumped over, blood trickling from the wound and pooling beneath him.

The rest of the prisoners began to chatter nervously. The robot moved down the row to the next cell. The fellow inside, a hobo by the looks of it, started begging the robot to spare him. It took aim and fired, once again a perfect headshot. The withered, dirty old man collapsed and began to bleed out from the freshly inflicted head wound.

By now everybody trapped in those cells realized what was happening and set to wailing and thrashing against the bars, trying desperately to escape. The robot didn’t react to any of it, just moved to the next cell and shot its occupant neatly in the head.

Lars and Madeline frantically gestured for me to help. What could I do? I found no weapons up front, but neither could I stand there and watch them die. Madeline reached out of the cell, took something from the corpse of the police officer sprawled out next to it, then slid it down the smooth concrete floor of the corridor to me.

The robot moved down a cell, raised its arm once again and shot the occupant. The wailing grew quieter by the minute as the robot methodically extinguished the sources. One more cell left until it reached Lars and Madeline. Now or never.

I charged it. The robot turned towards me but hesitated as if confused. A military model, programmed to recognize targets primarily by their heat signature, it didn’t know what to make of me on account of the mylar.

I tackled the chunky angular figure, seizing the hand with the gun in it. To my dismay it turned out to be considerably stronger than the domestic robot I wrestled back in my apartment. It was everything I could do to pin that arm down with the full weight of my body as it repeatedly punched me in the ribs with its free hand.

Madeline and Lars burst forth from the cell and helped me subdue the powerful metal beast. I realized I could taste blood and fearfully wondered whether it managed to cause a fracture. Try as we might, even the three of us together couldn’t pry the gun from its hand.

“The taser!” Madeline cried. The what? I looked down at the black box she slid to me a moment ago. I used it as a club to smash open the robot’s faceplate until the metal framework and electronics beneath it were exposed. Then I positioned the taser against one of its eyes, and pulled the trigger.

A bright blue flash and loud crackling followed. It was like trying to stay seated on a mechanical bull as the damn thing quaked and spasmed under us. Our combined weight was just enough. I held the trigger down until it stopped moving entirely. At last, its fingers loosened and Madeline pulled the gun free.

To my surprise, Madeline began to cry. Lars just doubled over and dry heaved. I tenderly touched the spot struck by the robot, searching for broken bones. Just severely bruised so far as I could tell, but it still hurt just to move.

All this for a handgun...which would probably be of little to no use against the next military robot we encounter. It seemed to return some of the color to Madeline’s face though, she soon looked altogether more confident with a new gun in hand.

I tucked the taser into my bag as I’d seen electrocution work wonders twice now. Besides, even if we manage to collect a proper arsenal, it could still come in handy as a weapon of last resort. A series of loud bangs startled the three of us, still not fully collected after what just occurred.

Lars gave me a tense look, as did Madeline who clutched her new pistol with white knuckles as we waited out the silence. Another bang. Then three more, one after the next. Madeline looked at Lars. He nodded to her, and she took the lead.

Bit by bit we crept towards the front, over fallen rubble and bodies. The three of us took cover behind the front desk. The bangs were now painfully loud and only increasing in frequency. Low to the ground, I cautiously peered out from behind the edge of the desk to identify the source.

A figure in a hooded brown cloak blasted away at a crowd of approaching military robots with what looked to be a belt fed riot shotgun. Stolen from this very station no doubt, probably returning to see what he missed. Or because he saw us entering earlier.

The blasts continued one after the next after the next, fuming spent shells cluttering the wet asphalt around the outnumbered stranger as he made his desperate, probably hopeless last stand. “Should we help?” I whispered. Lars shook his head. Madeline looked conflicted.

I watched in awe as buckshot shattered the torso casing of a military robot, jagged shards falling away. Then the next blast took off half its face, revealing the same ugly innards I glimpsed earlier. The next load of buckshot finally penetrated the battery.

The mindless, marching pile of parts burst into flame but didn’t fall. Onward it trudged, one foot in front of the other. By my best reckoning there were easily forty, maybe fifty robots closing in from all directions.

The cloaked man’s bandolier, slung loosely around his upper body, couldn’t last forever. Another blast finally sent the flaming shambler tumbling backwards, light rain doing nothing to put the flames out.

Too many. Just too many, by far. Raindrops pattering their rigid, unflinching bodies as they advanced. A flash of lightning illuminating their silhouetted ranks from behind. The first of them to step over the sandbag barrier seized the man’s wrists.

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^{Stay Tuned for Part 29!}