It was as if all hell had broken loose for a second time. The automatons swarmed out, so fast I couldn't dream of fighting them off. Still, knowing that unless I tried, I was a goner, I raised the plank and swung around. I immediately made my attempt at taking down a single target. Taking the plank like a sword, I swung hard at the neck piece of an attacking robot. It clanked hard into the metal, and made a visible dent in the outer layer. The force also managed to shatter my only weapon in half. More like a spear now, I drew it back, and thrust it directly into it. Sparks shot out as The robot flung back and crashed to the ground with a thud.

I turned to Up, my fear dampened by the adrenaline of my first kill. But the second I laid eyes on him, my confidence was turned into awe. Up was standing firm, exactly where he was at the start of the attack, his only weapon being his zapper, and he was using it to its full extent. He'd blast apart one robot while simultaneously bludgeoning two more with the ends of it. Metal bodies were falling left and right. He'd easily defeated several machines in the time it took for me to get one.

I couldn't gawk at his fighting for more than a moment, before I found myself brought back into the battle. But it was clear that he didn't need the help. I kept on at my sorry pace, while Up brought down an army. After what seemed like hours, but was probably less than a minute, there seemed to be a pause. No more robots were coming. It was over. But I looked around us at all the robots on the rooftop—And to my surprise, there really weren't that many. Had I only imagined the swarms of robots? Or had the heat of the moment made the battle more than it was?

I had no time to think on it, because the moment we were safe, Up turned to me. "Any injuries?" He asked.

"No," I answered, without giving myself time to think on it. As soon as the word left my mouth, I noticed a trickling of blood down from my shoulder, and a pain in the back of my head. But I didn't want to seem weak. Either way, he was turned away from me, talking into his radio. When he was done, he spoke to me again.

"Come on," he said, leading back towards the stairwell. "We'll be safer in there."

"We're going back to save the others?" I asked hopefully.

"We barely fought off those guys. There'll be more down there. At least inside, robots in the streets won't be drawn into the fight."

I raised an eyebrow. "So we're being cowardly, then? We're hiding, when we could be helping the others."

"We are NOT being cowardly, Miss Tasia. We are being smart." I followed him inside, still protesting the plan.

"My family is down there, Starship Ranger. I'm going to do what I can to help, God dammit!" I don't know why I called him by his job title. It seemed like a pretty daring move at the moment, though. And it got him to pay a slight bit more attention to my point.

"You've done enough by fighting up there. Now be smart, and stop your screaming, or you'll attract even more robots!"

We were walking down a hallway now, further from where my friends and family were getting ruthlessly murdered, and, though I could see how viable his point was, I refused to back down.

"Listen here, Starship Ranger! The people I love are dying down there. I'm not going to sit around and let it happen!" I wrenched the blaster from his hands, and took off running back down the hallway, blood pounding in my ears, heart racing with fury, refusing to take note of Up's cries of protest. And, for a heartbeat, I thought I might do it. I might save everyone. I might be a hero. But that all melted away in the blink of an eye.

Just as I approached the turn in the hallway, a mechanical whirring sound ripped through the corridor. A brand new hoard of blood-spattered automatons came tearing towards me. They weren't slow and lumbering like the usual attack droids, or big and boxy like the ones we faced on the roof. They were all speed. For quick killing. I turned on heel, and ran back towards Up, whose face was twisted in a combination of anger, frustration, and determination. As soon as I made it to him, he took of running next to me. Somehow, the blaster ended back in his hands, because he was shooting behind at the robots, which were quickly catching up to us.

Though my legs were screaming with the effort to keep going, my mind found a clear patch in the melee. Suddenly, I wasn't thinking of fleeing, I was thinking of what happens afterwards. Up had already said that the chance of any survivors was slim. But there was still a chance. However, the new question pressed in my mind. Would it be better if some of them survived? It would be painful to be all alone, but to see my friends and family suffer from the trauma… I knew it would be unbearable. I found myself at war in my mind. Which is worse, to suffer alone, or to watch loved ones suffer as well? The question weighed in my mind, grinding into my brain and refusing to let go, until I couldn't bear it anymore.

My concentration shattered, my foot met with a piece of rubble that had fallen from the now-shaking walls of the collapsing building. I found myself falling down, so much further than the mere floor beneath my feet. Still, I was losing, fallen on my face while trying to flee. My head was spinning with the force of it, so that I couldn't see for a moment. The truth crept in on me in that blind instant. The robots would get me. It was over. No use in trying to survive anymore.

And, for a moment, I almost let that happen.

But Up was beside me in an instant. "You need to get up, Miss Tasia!" He called. "Come on."

He was pulling at my arm. I opened my eyes, and saw his face, looking from me, to the robots, but never attempting to escape for himself.

"Come on, Tasia. You need to get back up! We need to run! Get back up!"

With one final tug on my arm, I allowed him to drag me to my feet. The room was still spinning, but it didn't matter. He'd picked me back up again, and was sprinting through the hallways. I could just barely see through my heavy eyelids, and the sounds were blurring in my ears. I was just hardly aware of a hot, dripping feeling running down the back of my neck.

The last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was Up, his eyes locked onto an unseen target, and the sound of a collapsing building rippling through the air.