I felt the world around me, taking in the blood and bones. Instinct told me to slam into the chest of the creature and bust out, but I did not want to. It was safe to stay inside; out there were bad people who wanted me. Inside…they could not get me.
I heard my brothers and sisters calling to me, saying that the people were here, and that they held them captive. I crawled upwards: the people would not notice me if my host was still alive, so I decided to come out of the mouth. It tried to scream, but I was blocking its airways. It looked at me with fear and its eyes watered. I knew I was choking it, so I left its mouth, which caused it throw up some of the things that had been in its stomach with me.
I hurried to where my brothers and sisters were, wanting to save them. I did not like to hear their cries of pain and suffering. I hurried to see them, but found that they were in glass containers, collected by a creature like the one my host was. However, this one was cold and had no thoughts. I could not hear any thoughts, but I knew it was alive because it grabbed me with the claw on the end of the rod that extended from its shoulder.
It was crushing me, and I could feel its power. I knew it hated me; it wanted me to be in the container, like my brothers and sisters were, not running around free. The metal creature wanted order, and I had broken it. For that I had to die, that much was clear. The metal claws came around my chest, and I hissed at the pain. I knew that if the creature kept tightening its grip, it would break my arms and then my rib cage, ultimately killing me.
"Stop! That's enough TK-31. You will kill it if you continue. I want this one. See the crest on its head? That's a good sign; it means that this is a Preatorian and might be a queen one day," said a figure like the host. However, this one was not strapped to a chair.
"Sir, it is not my intention to kill it," said the one called TK-31.
"Contain it now!" ordered the one TK-31 had referred to as Sir.
"As you wish," said TK-31. The claw lowered me into a container and into the cart of doom. At least, that was what my brothers and sisters were calling it.
