Heather stood up at the table with James and shook his hand. The guy looked absolutely pitiful. All the life that was in his eyes minutes ago had been replaced by clouded sadness. "Well, I'm glad we could handle this like mature adults. I do hope you'll drop by after your dinner and say hi to the girls and me before you leave. Ciao!" she said as she briskly walked out of the room. " Obviously not where he was going, but that's not my problem" she thought. But, as she got closer to the main room of the restaurant, tears began filling her eyes. She turned the corner and saw that her seat had been occupied by another woman. So, she changed direction and headed to the bathrooms, tears now streaming down her face. "What is wrong with me?" she asked her refliection as she wiped her eyes, " This is what was best for the me. I can't be tied down with a husband or a family. I have a career to think about!." From the mirror, she saw the makeup that was running down her cheeks. As she was trying to fix the smudges on her face, she thought about the warm eyes that looked at her like noone else ever had; the hugs from behind that scared her half to death and the laugh that came when she jumped out of her skin. "Stop thinking about him." the demanded herself, but then came thoughts of their first date in the Arcadia Tea Gardens. February 24, just like he said. She couldn't believe he still remembered. "Ah, screw it." she muttered in frustration at the impossible task of fixing her makeup. She pinned up her hair and washed her face, feeling much better afterwards. Then she began thinking, "Maybe I should go..." But an explosion interrupted her thoughts. " What the hell was that?" she whispered under her breath. Faint screams could be heard in the distance along with more explosions. "What in the world is going on?" she said a little louder. A large crash that she assumed correctly was the front door of the Kashmir was soon accompanied by inhuman yells and the screams of the other people in the restaurant answered her question. "Gotta hide." she thought frantically as her eye rested on the stalls that lined the wall. She quickly tried the nearest one, but the toll-box kept it locked. "Damn, greedy bastards!" she screamed inside of her head, "Who makes someone pay for something like this!" Pulling all the change out of the bottom of her bag, she shoved it in the slot and slipped into the stall. Just after she locked it, a voice came echoing off of the white tile and into the room.
" Anyone in here? Don't worry I won't hurt you, much. I'm just lonely...lonely, that's all. Doesn't anyone want to be my friend tonight?" the man cooed. Heather quietly climbed on top of the toilet so that the pervert couldn't see her feet. The sound of the mans shoes began sounding on the tile floor. Closer and closer the sound came, until it stopped behind the stall that Heather had claimed. Beads of sweat formed on her brow as she prayed to any diety that would make the man leave. The man continued, sounding hurt, "Occupied? You mean that someone is hiding from me. That's not very polite. Why doesn't she want to be my firend?"
"Shit." she thought, "Why didn't I remember about that? What am I going to do?" As she was thinking, the man's disfigured head appeared over the top of the door.
"Hello, poppet. I guess if you don't come out, I'll just have to come in!" the man said maliciously. Jumping down, the man kicked the door, breaking the hinges. He then ripped it away as if it was nothing. "Come 'ere, beautiful." the man said, grinning evilly as he began to undoing his belt.
Heather was thinking furiously. "What do I do? The way he dealt with that door, there's no chance I can fight him off. The brute is strong, but doesn't look very smart." A plan popped into her head. "Oh, I'm so sorry for hiding earlier. You just surprised me, thats all."she said innocently, touching the man's chest. "But, why do you wanna have sex here? There's nothing but a cold, hard, tile floor." . She pointed to a love seat in the corner of the restroom and winked at him, " That couch looks like it was made for two." The man stared at her, dumbfounded. He was obviously not expecting cooperation. "Perfect, right where I want him." she thought as she lead the splicer to the couch.
"You're a dirty little girl, aren't you?" he cackled as he sat down. Heather took the Metal hair pins out and shook her hair loose over her shoulders. As she began walking towards him, the man grunted, "Come on, give it to me."
"As you wish." she said as she pulled one of the pins from behind her back and stabbed the man in his left eye. The man roared in pain as blood started gushing from where his eye used to be.
"Die! Bitch!" he screamed as he lunged for Heather, grabbing for anything. Jumping back, she dodged the man lunge and instead he hit the floor and stopped moving as the metal spike in his eye was forcefully shoved into the man's brain by the floor. Heather had to fight down vomit as she realized what she had just done. She killed a man, even if it was in self defense. Unable to stand it anymore she fled the restroom and only hoped that there was noone else around that wanted to kill her.
Running out the charred remains of the front door of the Kashmir, a familliar voice stopped her, "Heather! Heather, over here!" She turned to see her coworker from Ryan Robotics. Instantly overwhelmed at seeing someone she knew that was alive, Heather rushed her friend and gave her a hug.
"You don't know how glad I am to see you." Heather said, squeezing the life out of the girl. "Are you alone, do you know what's even going on?" she asked, hoping that she could get some answers.
"Actually, I'm with a couple of people that are hiding in that maintenanace closet over there. I was checking to see if the coast was clear when I saw you." she said pointing to a nearby door. "As for what's going on, I know as much as you do. Absolutely nothing. But, I do know that I'm getting out of here before things get any worse." The pair walked back to the closet and opened it up, revealing about twelve people. "It's clear at the moment, so we should get going." she stated and everyone got out. Heather's eye caught something as she watched the last person get out and her heart skipped a beat.
"Janet, are those security bots?" she said as she closed in on the box and started rummaging through it, pulling out the machines and lining them up with care. She had never seen the likes of them before.
"Yeah, those bulky contraptions are an older model. They were so armored and dangerous, they were taken off the line. The thinking was that they were too much for simple security and were more suited for a warzone than anything." Catching the end part of what she just said she asked, "Hey you think we could..?"
"Way ahead of you." Heather said as she flipped a switch in the bot. The engine started up and the bulky, hovering, death machine rose into the air. Within a few minutes, all four of the bots were spinning in the air, circling the group. Covered in oil and grease, Heather stood up and wiped her forehead. " There, that'll help." she laughed," Never thought I'd have to hack my own company's bots!" At that moment a large group of aggressors turned the corner and saw the group.
"There's some more of em, have fun!" the leader eagerly yelled, taking off in a sprint towards the people with twenty splicers following close behind. Some of the women started screaming and the children started crying. Heather looked at the bots, hoping her reprogramming did the trick. The lights on the robots flying above went from yellow to red at the demostration of agression by the splicers. Heather grinned in silent victory. The gatling guns on the security bots fired warning shots at the splicers who seemed oblivious to the threat that loomed above their prey. The security drones, their warning shots ignored unleashed a wall of hot metal on the charging madmen. Men winced and women turned their heads when screams rang in the air as the splicers were quickly and utterly destroyed. Severed limbs and even heads littered the floor as the first wave of the mob, including their leader, fell to the Metal beasts that protected Heather and the group. Groans filled the air as those that were not already dead laid dying in pools of their own blood. The drones quickly ended their suffering. Heather was astonished at the amount of damage the bots unleashed in such a short period of time.
"No wonder they weren't mass produced." she thought to heself, horrified, "These things were built for killing, not security. What were they doing in that closet?...But, at least they're on our side." She walked out in front of the group who were astonished and disgusted by what had just happened to get their attention. She said so that eveyone could hear," If we can make it to the Bathysphere station, we can make it to a safer area. It's not that far away, but stay together! Otherwise, I can't garuntee these guys will do anything to help you." She pointed to the security bots. As she began walking, the others in the group slowly started following, unsure if this was the wisest thing to do. But Heather was determined to get out of that place as soon as possible. She had seen more death in one hour than she ever had planned on seeing. She did not want to end up a coprse. "I will survive this." she said to herself, " I have to."