Machines

Dr. Sriman was a brilliant scientist, though his pretentious, eccentricity was something to worry about. He worked for a company that manufactured biomechanical, military machines and robotics. Individual scientists had their own large and extensive warehouses spread throughout the facility. His own facility was underneath the head office, in an underground, mech- shop where he could obtain all the parts he wanted, from batteries to weapons. Only a select few, knew what he made, and they only knew what those things were, once he was finished building them. Lately he had created nanobots that attacked a person from the inside, and worked their way out. They would eat, and then disrupt all biological matter they came into contact with. This wasn't the only thing he had made but that isn't what I am writing about. You see I came into contact with his finest and most deadly creations before his demise, an almost invincible army of killing machines. They were easy enough to bring down, but making them stay down was a whole different story. They kept on rebuilding themselves and not one of them ever made the same mistake again; this was because their A.I. was ever learning new ways to defend themselves. Their weapons on the other hand were of a whole new breed. Cloaking devices, cannons with uranium slugs, titanium shredders and disruptor cannons inside their rib cages were just some of the weapons, the rest you'll learn about. They looked like human skeletons, until they transformed. When their transformation took place, they became giant spiders, with a human torso up top. Their ultimate form we saw when we had lost almost all hope. They had by then changed so much that when not transformed we thought they were survivors when cloaked, but without a cloak they had sleek metal bodies that looked like finely toned men and women. Their A.I. had by now, developed to such sophistication that they had developed neurological scanners that could read the minds of others.

Me, and a few others, had been sent to advise Dr. Sriman of the termination of his job. We all knew he wouldn't take it lightly, so a soldier in a mech- suit was sent with us. We were all armed fairly well, as were all people who went around telling mad scientists that they were fired. We were even armed with anti-nanobot signal repeaters; these would cause them to disintegrate on impact. As we moved through the silent corridors of the underground mech-shop, our footsteps echoed harshly on the tiled floor, making us all that extra bit nervous as to what horrors lay within the door of his lab. We could hear laughter spinning around the door and screeches of triumphant hysteria. Apparently, he was in a good mood. Maybe he wouldn't go berserk after all. We were all wrong.

' Ahem', I began to speak through the microphone, ' Dr. Sriman?'

'Yes?' he said, annoyed at being disturbed in the middle of his celebration.

'Management would like to advise you of the termination of your job due to employee complaints and the risk.' he was cut off.

'What! I'll teach them!' and as the door opened we were overrun by a swarm of metal. None of us were harmed except for a few scratches.

'He's set something loose!' cried one of the people in the group, he seemed to be a very nervous person, but he also seemed friendly. We all looked at him, thinking his observation to be a rather cruel twist of humour that would be remembered as the most dim-witted remark ever made by a pessimistic fool. In order to reach the main office first, we had to take the elevator. The Killing Artificial Intelligence units had wrecked it. The K.A.I. were already killing off the staff as we got up the stairs. Blood had been spilled all across the ground, and soon started to surround our shoes. Skeletons and spiders were moving around, trying to kill the rest of the people still running away from the disruptor cannons and the uranium slugs flying around the room. A huge flash had the K.A.I. disappear in a second. People started dropping and crimson blades started appearing. Those blades didn't look like light though; the colour was that of blood. We shot a few down, but their metallic bodies rose off the ground once more. We ran and we ran; those monsters were chasing us. We saw an open safe. Well we all know that big companies have big strong safes to protect their precious materials; this safe was no different as its walls were ten feet thick. We closed the door and the machines seemed to pass us by.

'Are they gone?' asked Jak, he was still very nervous, 'oh man! We're all gonna die ma-an!' he was very perturbed by what was happening on his first day.

'I will go and have a look outside!' declared the soldier; we all called him #17 because of his production number. We didn't want to let him go, but none of us wanted to take his place either. After about an hour of gunfire, #17 walked in and told us that they had retreated. Phlipper was very cautious when coming out of the safe.

'I wander what they are? They had the letters K-A-I. Maybe they're new assassination tools? No they're more than that, they're war machines!' he panicked and ran down the hallway. That wasn't the last we saw of him though. As we turned the corner there was nothing except silence. We started for the exit, but then Phlipper came running up to us and told us that they were watching that exit and that the only safe exit was in the mech-shop. We ran for the mech-shop and blew up, shot and that huge sledgehammer wielding #17 crushed and smacked those K.A.I. until we got to the exit. The only things we had near us were those nanobot sachets and a packet of Tim-Tams. Obviously, those machines cornered us at the exit. The fight lasted for what seemed like hours. Jak and Phlipper were killed first, leaving only #17 and me.

'Give me the nanobot sachets and the Tim-Tams!' I shouted. #17 threw them at me. I took a bit of time eating those Tim-Tams because I thought that I wouldn't live to see the next day, and besides, Tim-Tams are my favourite! I then threw the sachets at the K.A.I. after popping the mini-sachet inside. Each of them started to expand, the sachets then popped open, letting loose the tiny nanobots. As they travelled up the K.A.I. bodies, an electrical storm writhed all over the bodies of the huge monsters. I then saw a handgun on the ground with the letters E.M.P. I knew what that meant, electro magnetic pulse! This would surely work. I started blasting away, one by one they fell, and they got back up in the same order as they had fallen. I knew the gun had a large clip of six thousand, but after al the robots went down it would be no use, because they would be immune to its effect.

'It is hopeless, they will keep coming.' #17 said calmly.

'There has to be a way! Wait! I know! Quick, we have to get to Dr. Sriman!' I had an idea.

We ran as fast as #17 could. He carried me because he could run faster than me, and I didn't even slow him down! On our way we passed many people who hadn't been killed, which surprised me. #17 however kept away from them. When we got to the lab door, the survivors started gathering near us, they started to then pull out large blades, with forward pointed spikes, making them look all the more gruesome, were the bits of flesh hanging from many of them. I finally realised that they were machines. I opened the door, and inside was the Doctor, muttering to himself, with the control in his hand and ready to press the off button, when he heard the K.A.I. shuffling in for the attack. He pressed the button to stop them and looked at us.

'What the hell are you doing here!' he didn't realise that I had the E.M.P. gun in my pocket, 'I think I'll order them to kill you slowly.' He wasn't quick enough though, I let off a gunshot that startled him into dropping the remote. I quickly grabbed it and ran out the door, closing him in with his precious creations as he screamed, making his way to the slowly closing door. He didn't make it. I pressed the "KILL" button and for a while I heard screaming, but it soon stopped. I then pressed the self-destruct button, grateful that I been the victor and not Dr. Sriman.