Interval 1 PART 2 - Fight and Rescue

Alan's POV

As I ran towards the screams I couldn't help but wonder what happened, was there a fight? Was a resistance patrol taken by surprise, I think it's unlikely. This part of the city is very far from the resistance camp, there is nothing to them here.

I only walk through these parts out of necessity, after all I need food and I prefer to avoid fighting, I approached and the sounds of gunfire got louder, I ran through the streets, but when I turned the corner I quickly backed off and hid next to the wall of a building after seeing the situation ahead.

There were three machines on the street; two of them were of the "Small Stubby" and one of the "Medium Biped." The stubby ones were clumsy and barely reached my belly, the biped that led the group, that was a problem, being much taller than the stubbies and having humanoid arms and legs which gave him a lot of versatility, not to mention the possibility of me being punched by a hand made of metal, the eyes of the three machines glowed red, they were standing in front of an abandoned store, and inside the store.

I could see a female android, she was on the floor of the store, leaning against a bookshelf, she had a pistol in her hands and she was pointing at the machines, pulling the trigger frantically, but nothing was coming out of the gun, it was out of bullets.

What situation did I get myself in, the machines didn't see me, if I turn around I can get to my house safely, however, that way the android will be killed and I would have a weight on my conscience, the other option would be to save the android, but I would risk being killed by the machines. What to do? What to do? I had to make a decision soon because the machines were advancing.

I slowly put my hand in my pocket and felt the hilt of my weapon, you know during the millennia technology has advanced a lot in terms of weaponry, during my travels around the world I saw many interesting weapons, but too heavy for me to carry when traveling, so I decided to choose something more practical, the weapon in my pocket, I named it "Thunder Knife."

Is a beautiful piece of technology, it is shaped like a combat knife, but completely black with camouflage patterns that formed "stripes" on the knife, the blade was made of steel, great for cutting or piercing, the handle had a protection to keep it from slipping out of my hand, the knife could release an electrical charge that completely fried the circuits of machines and androids, and best of all the knife recharged with solar and kinetic energy, really the perfect weapon for me.

Now I needed a plan, I couldn't just go after them, it would be suicide, so I decided on a silent approach, there were cars parked in the street, I could hide behind them and take out the machines one by one, I crouched down, getting ready to go, but just as I was about to take a step forward I heard a voice beside me.

"Whaaaaaat is it happening?" it was the POD that just arrived my heart almost stopped with the scare I got.

"SHHHH!" I said to the POD with my finger in front of my lips.

"We've got a problem." I said as I pointed at the machines ahead.

"I see…" said the POD.

So I said "Since you are here I have a question. Can you fight somehow?"

"Yes, this uniteeeee is equipped with a weapon system." The POD replied

"Great, I'm going to save the android, if something goes wrong you shoot the machines understand?"

"Affirmative!" the POD replied.

So I took a deep breath, crouched down, and started walking towards one of the cars, the machines were a little far from each other, I had to do it carefully, I took the "Thunder Knife" out of my pocket I held it with the blade facing down and hid beside one of the cars.

A little further on the hood part of the car there was a stubby type machine, it was looking towards the store, I started to approach slowly, pressing a button on the handle of the knife, electricity started flowing through the blade, when I was right behind the machine I lifted the knife and went down with all my might on his head, there was no scream, the machine shuddered having all its circuits fried and then went still, I slowly held the machine and laid it on the ground.

Now the second stubby one was further on, near the sidewalk unfortunately there was nowhere for me to hide so i started to walk slowly, one step at a time, unfortunately I didnt notice the shards of glass on the floor so when i took one more step the sound of glass breaking caught the stubby attention.

He turned towards me, but before he could do anything I stabbed him in the middle of the "face", the machine struggled for a few seconds until it went limp, repeating the process I lay it down slowly on the ground, now all that was left was the biped.

You know I planned to slowly approach the biped that was at the door of the store and stab him right in the back, but nothing in life is easy, something had to go wrong, when I approached the store the android inside noticed me, but instead of standing still and letting me finish off the biped what did she do? Screamed for help.

"HELP!"

She screamed and I nervously put my finger in front of my lips making the sign of silence, it didn't help much as the biped that was in front of the store soon turned to me, and I could see in the android's face is that she realized the mistake that she had made. I soon got to my feet and prepared for the fight.

"ANDROID, KILL!" and he came up trying to punch me with his left hand I rolled out of the way, the punch made a hole in the street, without a second thought I stabbed him in the elbow joint, the machine shuddered a little but continued standing, using the other hand he grabbed me by the back of my coat and threw me away.

I rolled down the street, trying to recover from the fall, when I got up I saw the biped's left arm was hanging, he couldn't get it moving anymore, I gave a small smile, but my joy was short-lived when I saw the biped running towards me so I yelled, "POD NOW!"

"Affirmative, opening fire!" soon the POD started shooting at the biped, a flurry of light projectiles flew towards the machine, he used his remaining arm to shield his face and was slowly pushed back, the POD shots, it didn't destroy the machine, but I noticed some of the projectiles ripping off part of the metal in the region of the "belly" of the machine.

Firmly gripping my knife I ran towards the biped and shouted "POD ENOUGH!"

"Affirmative, ceasing fire!" the POD stopped firing, the machine realized it was no longer being targeted and took his arm out of his face, but it was too late, I stuck the knife in the opening in the "belly" of the machine and released the entire Thunder Knife charge there, the machine thrashed like mad until it finally dropped to the ground.

I was there with my hands on my knees trying to catch my breath, the POD approached me "Proposal: You should check the condition of the android in danger."

"POD thanks for the concern!"

I said with obvious sarcasm, but it's no use staying here complaining I went towards the store, going through the door there on the floor was the android, she was wearing standard resistance equipment, black boots, camouflage pants, and a white shirt, she was wearing a holstered belt for the pistol and for carrying the ammunition, her face was of a light shade with a small nose and pink lips, her eyes were brown and her black hair was tied in a ponytail, well a pretty normal android, she seemed fine except of course her left leg was broken and sparking.

I approached her and said "Are you ok?"

"Now I am, thanks to you, thanks for helping me, and sorry I got you in trouble, but I have to ask, are you okay? I saw you getting thrown by the machine." she said as she looked down.

"Don't worry about it I'm fine, I'm tougher than I look." I said as I patted my chest and smiled at her, she laughed a little this is a good sign, but now it was time to ask some questions.

"Tell me what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the resistance camp?"

She looked away with embarrassment and then she started to say "I shouldn't be here, I took advantage of my break during my work at the camp to come to the city, and the reason of me being here, I like to collect things related to the human world, books, photos, objects that I find interesting, I thought I could get something new and go back to camp before anyone noticed, but I was taken by surprise by the machines, I believed I was going to die until you arrived and if it's not too much to ask can you help me get to the camp?"

I sighed all I wanted now was to go home, but this android was asking for my help, I couldn't leave her here, so I reached out my hand to her "Alright, I'll help you get to the camp."

She gave me a smile and took my hand, I helped her up and put her arm on my shoulder and we walked out of the store "By the way my name is Alan, and that one over there is POD 000, say hello POD."

"Greetings..." the POD starts to shake and smoke but suddenly stops as if nothing had happened, the android widened her eyes as she watched the POD.

"Are you part of YORHA!?"

"No, I just found the POD!" I said nervously, I don't want other androids to think I'm part of YORHA, that would only get me into trouble, so I decided to change the subject.

"You still haven't told me your name." she stared at me for a few minutes and finally said your name.

"My name is Kokio."

"Nice to meet you Kokio." I said with a smile.

And so with POD by my side, the three of us went to the resistance camp, we had a long walk ahead of us, but as we walked I realized, my fish stayed on the riverbank, damn I'll have to look for food again.

END OF THE CHAPTER