"Dad!" I yelled running over to him.
The Watchers howled with anger, throwing themselves at the Strikers. "Traitors! How could you attack the one who gave us this power?" Orca snarled.
"Easily, he had the program prevent me from harming Cynthia, but he never thought that his own creation would turn on him. It is his own fault for being foolish. Do not just stand there, he's going to try and deactivate all of us!" Alpha growled. "Fight for your lives!"
More Watchers poured into the room. My father weakly reached for a usb, his arm shaking. "He's the only one who can stop them, we need to get out of here."
Alpha charged into my father, sending him flying away from the table. The usb landed at my feet, I picked it up.
Bella and Zena helped support my father. The Saint Bernard looked at me. "Orca will lead you to the bunker, I will join you in a few moments. Don't let them get hold of the usb."
Cairo helped me haul my father to a back hallway. A Striker came running at us. I was ready to fend it off with my pole. Orca slammed it against the wall, I could hear metal dent as he did so. The Watcher bit behind his neck and tossed him into two other Strikers approaching us. "Keep going."
The hallway started to slope down. There was another steel door at the end. Rags looked at me, "Only the little one and the creator can open this door. Place your palm against the scanner, it will only open to the programming inside of you."
I touched the cool sheet of metal. The door cracked open. Cairo swung it open and I dragged my father inside. Loki handed me Obsidian, we walked to the back of the concrete bunker. Rags and Loki stood guard in front of the door, waiting for the Watchers to catch up.
"Dad?" I whispered. "Don't die, we still have to turn off Alpha."
His hazy blue eyes focused on me. He reached up and weakly grabbed my shoulder. "I'm sorry for what I've done. I know you won't be able to forgive me, but I need you to do one more thing. The usb I gave you contains all of the programs you will need to shut them down. You can deactivate them, but it only allows you to deactivate one group, not single Pronines. You can also free them all from the killer program, but it does not ensure that they will stop."
I pulled the usb out of my pocket and stared at it.
He pulled something out of his lab coat. "In the future, us this. It's the cable that allows you to change their programming if you connect it to them."
I examined to wire. At one end there was a usb plug and at the other it matched the shape of the plug in Loki's head.
"I've made lots of mistakes in my life, but I know you were never one of them," he gasped weakly. Every breath he took looked like he was breathing with an anvil on his chest. Eventually, he stopped breathing.
My eyes watered with tears. Cairo grabbed a blanket from one of the kits and laid it over him. He knelt down and wrapped an arm around me.
Bella, Orca, and Zena rushed into the bunker. The Watchers closed the steel door behind them. The sound of Strikers crashing into it sounded like thunder.
Loki walked over to me, rubbing his head against mine to wipe my tears away. "He died doing what was right, just like Zeta, Slate, and Dakota."
"I can't forgive him for what he's done," I whispered.
"You don't have to," Cairo said gently. "You only need to accept his change of heart at the end. With the usb, we can finally end what he started."
I wiped the remaining tears out of my eyes and looked at the battered Watchers. "What did you do?"
"We had to put the compound on lock-down," Bella said. "If we didn't the Strikers would get into the children's facility and harm them."
"So we're locked in here?" Cairo asked.
"I'm afraid so," Bella sighed. "I've sent a distress call to other Watchers to help take care of the problem.
The Strikers continued to slam against the door.
"How long will the bunker keep them out?" I asked.
"It will last for a few days. My guess is that Alpha is contacting the Miners right now," she paused looking at my father. "Did he..."
"He's dead," I said shaking my head. "Idiot, why would he create something he couldn't control?"
"He was grieved and his thoughts were unclear," Rags told me. "He became so obsessed over this project that he barely even slept or ate."
I stared at the blanket that covered my father. I stood up and walked away towards the opposite corner of the bunker. I just sat there, hugging my knees. Loki, Rags, and Cairo sat near me while the Watchers guarded the door.
"The Jealous One will call more. The Watchers have strength, but a pride of lions can kill an elephant if they work together," Rags warned. "The Jealous One's numbers are greater than our own. "
"I blocked the entrance from allowing any more Strikers in. The remaining Watchers are with the children, getting them to safe places throughout the compound," Bella said. "We will be able to fight our way out after that."
"Alpha's entire pack is here," Zena said frowning. "It won't be easy."
I was starting to tune out of the conversation. I just started at Loki. He was the first version of me. We were the same in a sense. I looked down at my shaking arms, were they even my arms? They're just prosthetic pieces of plastic, I was just a shell of metal. An empty, soulless, shell.
I set my back down in front of me and pulled out a hunting knife. I made a slow, deep cut on my arm. I gritted my teeth at the pain, I could feel it. But no blood came out. I wasn't really feeling pain, it was just my brain simulating it.
"What are you doing!?" Cairo snapped grabbing my wrists. He pulled the dagger out of my arm. His brown eyes stared at me, full of worry. "Don't go all cutter on me. Are you ok? Do you need some water?"
I looked down at my arm and chuckled. Cairo and Loki looked at each other. I started shaking my head. "I'm just a piece of plastic and scrap metal, it doesn't really matter. It will heal itself in a few seconds."
Rags picked up the dagger from Cairo. His head jerked a little as he set it down a few feet away. He returned to me. "Do not cause yourself harm. You are the one thing I cannot protect you from. Is there really a large difference between bone marrow and metal? Your brain is where your soul resides, your instincts. Start using them."
I started at my bag. The emergency cellphone Vincent gave me was sticking out from my blanket. I picked it up and stared at it for a while.
"Are you going to call them?" Cairo asked. "We won't have another chance at escaping the cave."
I didn't have much of a choice. It would take me a while to figure out the programming, by the time I did it, the Strikers would already be in here. Not to mention the choice I had to make. "I could shut down all of the Strikers," I looked over at Loki and shook my head, "but there needs to be another way."
Loki's yellow eyes widened. He and his son would be affected by whatever choice I made. If I deactivated Alpha, he would be too.
"I can't shut you down after all we've been through together," I said shaking my head. "First I'm going to find out how to get all of the Cynoids off of kill."
"Alpha's pack still fears him," Orca barked. "Their fear runs beyond the programming."
"There is another option," Bella said looking at me. "For the sake of humanities future, you could shut off all of the Couriers. If they can't multiply they will eventually fall."
I looked over at Loki. The black Cynoid dipped his head. "Yes, I think that should work. None of my mates are around anymore so..."
I ruffled his ears. "I know you miss her. We will avenge her by making Alpha lose the war on humans."
Grasping the phone, I looked at Cairo. He nodded to me and I opened it and started dialing.
The phone stop ringing, "Hello? Ivy?"
"I was wondering when you were going to call."
I looked over at Cairo who was listening in. I stuttered as I asked, "V-Vincent?"
"Lovely idea of keeping contact to watch over your friends. And I thought keeping Rose here would eventually draw you back," he said.
I shook my head. "Where is Ivy?"
"Why don't you come here and find out?" Vincent challenged.
"I... I can't," I whispered. "I'm surrounded by Robarks."
I could hear him curse softly away from the phone. "Why didn't you just listen to me? I told you the cave was safe!"
"Look Vincent, I found something. I found where they were being created, I found who was creating them. I know how to stop them from creating more of themselves. One of the Robarks went rogue and killed its creator. I will explain everything later, right now I just need your help," I said hoarsely.
There was a long pause over the phone. Vincen'ts voice eventually returned, "Keep your phone on, it will help us track your location. How far away are you?"
"About a five hours drive by jeep," I replied.
"Have you been running this entire time?" he asked.
"Look, I really need you to get here as soon as possible," I said desperately. The Strikers could be heard outside the steel door, trying to charge it open.
"I'll be there as soon as I can," Vincent said before hanging up.
I shut the phone but I didn't power it off. I put it back inside my bag.
"What's your plan?" Zena asked.
"When the Remnants arrive, we fight our ways out of here. Depending on how cooperative Vincent is, which is unlikely, we either go back to the cave or me and Cairo bee-line for Maine," I explained. "From either area, I will work on the program to shut off the Couriers and disable the killing function for the Cynoids."
"Right, we can try to cover you in your escape," Bella barked dipping her head. "You are now the highest chain of command."
"Good, we're going to need all of the time we can get. I'm sure that they will be able to outrun the jeeps eventually. Try to take out as many as you can, we will two when we escape," I said nodding in approval.
Obsidian began squirming in Loki's paws. Loki's yellow eyes blinked and he nudged his pup. "I think they're finally turning on!"
The Cynoid pup's eyes flashed open. But oddly, they were husky blue instead of yellow. Loki seemed as surprised as I was. "I'm checking his profile right now, it says Obsidian is male! He can't be a Courier, can he?"
Rags stared at the pup with his black eyes. "No, he is male. He is a Striker, but his eyes aren't the typical color of yellow. He must have malfunctioned due to his high-stress birth."
I reached out to touch the pup with a smile. "An abnormality, like me and Loki."
"He's rebelling against the code, just like us," Cairo chuckled.
"Just like his mothers," Loki said gently nuzzling Obsidian.