Champion of the Bots ✔️

Chapter 6 ~ RENA

Rena did not forget about Sid.

After the Bot crashed, the nurses sprinted toward Sid, made a tent from one of their medical kits, and tended to the injured. Nobody died, but many were shaken.

How did the Bot reach the Savior? How could it fly? Are there more coming?

Rena refused to think about those questions as she went to see Sid. The nurses had already tittered around him, wrapping bandages around his arms and putting their heads a little too closely to his broad chest to hear his heartbeat.

"ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"

"Calm down," he said. "You don't need to shout. I'm fine."

She nodded, unsure of what to say without shouting with worry.

Sid broke the silence first. "So, what was all the ruckus out there?"

Rena cringed.

After she suddenly suggested saving the Bot who almost killed everyone's hero, an array of shouts and curses volleyed at her. She ducked into the medical tent to shield herself.

"Oh, you know, the Bot and how to deal with him—uh, it."

"Yes, I suppose we should discuss that." He jumped off the table, rustling protests from the nurses on his chest.

"Woah, woah, where do you think you're going?"

Sid didn't reply. Instead, he headed outside and initiated a meeting.

"Oi!" He greeted. "Let's start our meeting, shall we?"

People cheered. People cried in happiness that he was still alive. People yelled and cursed at the immobile Bot tied around an ancient tree trunk.

"Let's mush his brain!"

"Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill!"

Everyone was a survivor, Rena knew that; but she could hardly believe that this was her family shouting for murder.

She tried to search for a friendly face, free of any pain or revenge. She found one—Nina. Nina stood there, blocking her ears, covering her face. Rena's heart cracked. Nina didn't deserve to hear this, to see this, to be a part of this!

Before Sid could properly begin the meeting, Rena snapped.

"Stop!" She yelled. The grassy hills grew silent. "Listen to yourselves! You sound like... the people of Eden!"

Gasps. Tears. Hurt.

Rena knew she should not have said that, but it was true.

"Listen... I know we should just leave him—it—here.I know! But I can't." She turned to the towering figure beside her. "We all heard the rumors of these Bots Lord Elyon made with dead corpses, supposedly saving them by using "advanced technology" to replace their features and rewiring their brains to carry out his evil plans. All our lives, we had running away from these machines, knowing they had killed thousands, perhaps millions, of people. But what if...they didn't have a choice?"

The air trickled with animosity.

"They killed my family!"

"I want to rip its eyes out!"

"Enough!"

Sid's voice thundered across the field. "Enough! Let us talk civilly." He gave everyone a hard stare. "We have no home and not much provisions. We have no idea where this place is, so we have to keep moving. Take anything and everything that you can find, and we will head out at dawn. As for this Bot...this thing could give us the answers we've been looking for. So, we will take it with us—"

"No way!"

"I ain't going to be ten feet near it!"

"I don't want to die!"

"Silence!"

Everyone closed their mouths. Sid hardly ever raises his voice in anger; he was always so kind and charming. Even with bandages over his arm and red handprints over his neck, he still looked evermore strong.

"We will take the Bot with us. As soon as it wakes up, we will interrogate it, discover the plans of Eden, and then decide what to do with it. You are all dismissed."

No one dared interrupt anymore and left to rummage through the wreckage of their previous home, everyone's only home.

Rena left to untie the Bot. Its head hung heavily down its neck, seemingly peaceful, seemingly normal. She could still see the pain in its glossy eyes, still hear the humanness of its words before it collapsed: Save me.

But Rena couldn't let her guard down.

Her mind raced back to the moment when the Bot's grey eyes pierced right through her, its iron hands gripped around her shoulders.

"What are you?" She whispered to the machine, not expecting an answer.

None came.

She sighed, giving up on undoing the rope, and stood to see the wreckage of her home.

"I am Bot278."

She turned, looking at the once immobile robot, and bent on her knees to look into its eyes. She tried to find the human inside it, but she couldn't before the Bot pounced on her.

1. Have you heard about Taman Negara?

2. What do you think about the tale in the email?

3. Is it weird they use email?

4. Do you know what orang utans are, and do you like them? >.<