March City [Scifi / Adventure | Rewrite| Updates End of Month]

Chapter 5: Ari

Ari took photos of the exploded centre, the broken furniture, and the pile of rubble in the centre decorated with what looked like heavily rusted wiring sticking out at odd angles. Rale made an interested noise when he received the images. She found another packet of notes and tucked it in her pockets without glancing at them.

She stood directly below the hole — well over a meter above her in the ceiling — and shone the light upwards. It was swallowed by the darkness. Behind her, the sound of machine whirring reached her ears. She stiffened.

Her eyes flew across the room. Broken shelves and tables. Piles of broken-down plastic. Rubble crunched. A stout figure loomed into the only doorway out of the chamber. Nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run.

She touched the battery necklace. She still had about seventy percent charge left. Not enough to take down a whole team of Peacekeepers, but perhaps stun them enough to run past them. She killed her light, drowning herself in black. Squinting, she could make out the tiniest trace of light from cracks in the far walls.

The dark shape moved further into the room, its outline barely visible in the darkness.

If she was caught now, there was no way she could wriggle her way out of it. Shon couldn't save her. Rale would sell her so far down the river she'd end up in the last generator of Area Eleven.

A red light swept across the room, followed by a beep.

Her heart stopped.

It wasn't a Peacekeeper.

Ari flicked her phone on. The white light landed on a steel head, its surface dented and scratched. It was a Central Administration cyborg, but a damaged one. Its face cover was removed, revealing wires and a circuit board. The infrared light followed the initial sweep of red. Ari's skin tingled from the energy, although she couldn't see it. The machine beeped again, scrutinising her. She'd only ever seen these from afar, searching through rubble scouting decrepit buildings. But they were damn good at finding students. She was in deep trouble.

She took one step backwards. The loose pebbles beneath her foot shifted and she stumbled. Turning, she sprinted.

The machine emitted jumbled noises as it gave chase. Ari almost dropped her phone. Fumbling, she gripped it again before crashing into a fallen bookcase. The wood collapsed, bringing up a rain of dust. Her phone jerked away from her and spun away. The cyborg fired a jerky limb, grasping hands opened wide — it was missing two fingers — striking Ari in the arm. It left a jagged cut. She yelped, scrambling to the side.

Why was it attacking her? These were for search and rescue!

The pain swept away all rational thought in a flurry. Ari reached in a panic for her phone and scooped the light source to her chest. Legs slammed onto the loose ground. Her ankles threatened to give way. Her heart rammed against her chest. Air ripped in and out of her lungs in tandem with the adrenaline searing her veins. The chilling sounds of whirring machinery trailed closely behind.

Movement caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. She skidded to a halt. Another red light scanned her from her right and a new cyborg lurched into view. She twisted and dashed in the other direction. The corridor stretched on forever. The bouncing light gave her little to see by; shadows leapt in and out of her way. There was no sense of time or direction. The path was neverending. Tears sprang to her eyes. She should never have come here. The machines pursued with relentless tenacity. The raised ground caught Ari's foot, sending her crashing to the ground and knocking the wind out of her. The light flickered. She gasped, the world spinning. She tasted the metallic tang of blood on her tongue.

Approaching beeps counted the time to her demise. With trembling hands, she took out her phone and shone it directly at the cyborgs, exposing their rusted features with exposed innards. They approached with a disturbing, twitching movement, hands raised before them like claws, ready to tear into her again. She touched her necklace and discharged a bolt of electricity, striking one squarely in the chest. She expected the circuit to overload, causing it to collapse.