Chapter Text
. . . . . . I am running away from him, this ‘Serial Designation N’ at least that's what he calls himself. I actually do not know if he realized what I am and has started to chase me. I decide to take a chance and take a quick glance behind myself. As I do my eyes hollow out, my suspicions are confirmed, I see two neon yellow ‘X’s, the trademark hunting symbol of a Murder Drone. Wait, TWO!!! I could have sworn that N would be the only one following me, I peek behind myself again and see two fast approaching figures, one I recognize as N the other I can tell is a female model from her pointed peg legs, I spot her twin tails and immediately remember N telling me about her, ‘I’ was it? I can not remember but she is the leader of his squad and not as kind as N. I snap myself from my thoughts as the bunker, my ‘home’ comes into my sight. I hate how all the other cowardly drones in there just want to stay in the bunker, play cards all the time, and hide from the reigning Murder Drones! Sure they may have killed a few hundred of us, but hiding behind three stupid doors makes it seem like they are waiting for an inciting incident! I am the only person to even think of going outside of the ‘precious doors’ as my father would call them, I honestly find it strange that I can be related to the biggest coward in the colony, yet still be as rebellious as I am.
. . . . . . I am ejected from my train of thought as I slam into Door One, the first of the three doors protecting all the cowardly drones inside. Rubbing my face, I reach for the card I ‘borrowed’ from my dad, but it’s not in my pocket. I search my pockets trying to find it, but it is missing. Robo-god I must have dropped it when I was running. I glance behind myself and see that N and ‘L’ (I think that’s it) have landed and now are prowling towards me, their claws out threateningly. I start to knock on the door hoping to be let in by one of my dads co-workers. The door cracks open while I am knocking, causing my fist to hit the air instead and slip. I look up to see the person who opened the door for me, and I see my dad, “Pretty nice hydraulics, huh?” he asks with a chuckle, seeing it was me who was knocking, I was hoping that he would not be the one to answer, if he notices who is chasing me… It would not end well for me, “Dad! Let me in quick!” I shout, wanting him to let me in before he notices my pursuers, “Okay, okay… Wait, is that?” he asks, he must have noticed them, I tense for what he is going to say next, “Uzi, why would you try to get in when you have murder drones chasing you!” He exclaims, backing away from the door with hollowed eyes, I start to think of an excuse, if I can make a believable excuse he might let me in. “My beautiful doors!” Of course he would be worried about his doors, I hold back an eye-roll. “I- um-” I start to say, having formed an excuse, but my dad interrupts me and says in a cold stern voice, “No, Uzi I will not be letting you in or I risk letting the murder drones in as well.” Our eyes meet for only a second, before he walks back a few steps and closes the door.
. . . . . . When my father, no Khan, closes the door, the impact sends the snow past me, gently floating past my feet. I just stand there staring at the door, I can feel my core drop into the pits of my stomach, I know my eyes are hollow, and I can feel the tears welling up, I know that Khan is way too overprotective of his doors but I didn't think he would leave me to die, he left me for dead… I’ve been left for dead, I’ve been Left For Dead and this time it’s not even an edgy teen hyperbole like when I said it last week when he sent me to someone’s house so we could ‘hang out’ and then left! The tears are threatening to spill, I wipe them away with the sleeve of my hoodie and I clutch my head, but as I hear the strides of the approaching, slinking, drones draw near I turn and run, I don’t know where, all I know is that I need to get away, I need to get away from the murder drones, and away from Khan who left me for them, don’t look back, don’t cry, just run away, get away, GET AWAY! I shake my head, trying to clear my head and shake the thought and think logically about my situation. I should first find somewhere to hide, a shelter of some sort, hopefully the Murder Drones won’t find me if I can. I start to look for a mostly intact building, which is difficult considering that most of them are a wreck from wear and weather, and that I am being chased by blood thirsty Murder Drones and don’t have a chance to look closely. After looking at a million buildings, I finally find one that’s mostly intact, I change direction immediately and head towards the building. As I race towards the building I decide to look and see how close the murder drones are, and what I see is frightening, they are right on my non-existent tail.
. . . . . . There is one chance for me to make it out alive, I take out my railgun and check the recharge time, 10 seconds, great, I aim the railgun at ‘J’ (yeah, that’s it), 9, 8, the electronic displays turn on, helping me aim, 7, 6, I lock on to J, 5, 4, I turn off the safety latch on my railgun, 3, I see the X on J’s visor flicker to hollow eyes before changing back, 2, I move my hand to the trigger ready to shoot when the timer hits zero, 1, 0, I fire but J dodged at the last second. My blast, instead of hitting the intended target, hits N and makes a hole in his wing, rendering it unusable, and as he was flying, he falls down, landing in the snow making the snow that settled fly into the air and settle back down. J’s eyes go to normal eyes, although there are digital brows that are furrowed, she lands on the ground and rushes over to N, she helps him up, they walk over to me, I brace myself for my end, but it never comes, and I hear, faintly, “...no she could be useful…”
. . . . . . J then walks over to me, and picks me up from the box I was hiding in. She then ties me up in a rope and gives me to N. He grabs me and they both deploy their wings. I am absolutely terrified, I am flying in the grasp of a murder drone, I feel like I could fall any second. I decide to calm down, and start to think logically, why have they not killed me yet, and what did J mean by me being “useful” to them, sure I did build that sick as hell railgun, witch now I realize I left out laying, who knows where, actually I do but it is a hard to find place, but I am still a worker and what use would I be of to a murder drone? I think about it hard until I realize where they are taking me, the corpse spire, they are taking me back there, that twisted building of dead bodies, what they call home. I shutter thinking of that, the possibility of becoming one of the bodies, then I start to freak out again, remembering who’s grip I am in. I start to squirm trying to get out of N’s grip, but he is not letting go, his grip is iron.
. . . . . . As we land the snow floats up into the air and then floats back down, as we enter I hear a voice, “J, why did you leave like that?” J replies, “V, I was following the idiot to make sure he did not cause any trouble.” The newly identified, ‘V’ replies, “Well I’m glad you came back, I was just about to come looking for you. Ooooohhh, did you bring me a snack?” V giggles. J replies, “No, V, she is not for eating, she was able to build something that took N down.” V replies surprised, “Really? Are you going to do what I think you are?” “Yes, she is the only worker I have found with the capabilities she has.” J replies flatly, “Okay, hey toaster, you’re in for quite a ride.” V says with a giggle. V leaves and J says, “N, bring her to the pod.” N nods and says, “Yes J.” He picks me up again and brings me into the landing pod. He then places me on a chair and chains me to the ground, he then unties me, which is great because my limbs were getting sore from being in that position for that long.
. . . . . . N then quietly says to me, “Sorry for everything that will happen to you.” before leaving me, and my thoughts, alone. Sitting alone is when I think the best, and I really need to think, especially with all that has happened in the last hour or so, I spoke with a murder drone without getting ripped to shreds, I then got chased by two murder drones and survived, though I did get captured, why did they not kill me when they had the chance, well I guess they still have the chance to but if what N said to me is true then they need my oil to stay alive, that is a terrible design flaw why were they made like that? What if they are just keeping me alive so they have a snack for later, that is a terrible thought but is the most likely reason that they are keeping me alive. There are other possibilities but they are all unlikely, some of the possibilities are, they are all rebelling against the company, that is very unlikely because a I only told N about getting off the planet and b J seems like a company lapdog, another possibility is that they got orders to take a worker hostage to learn all our secrets, that is unlikely because a how would they know that workers are keeping secrets and b V seems like she is excited about what will happen to me.
. . . . . . I am still thinking about the different possibilities like, what if they were ordered to capture me because I had a dangerous weapon and I was a danger to them, or maybe they wanted to capture me to learn how to make the weapon but that is unlikely because a how would they have known about my sick as hell railgun, I only brought it out today and b they already have so many weapons at their dispense, for instance the have claws, and laser shooters from what I have seen, and that is not including their tails, that are used to inject nanite acid, and their bladed wings that can not only be used to fly but also can likely be used to impale people. The most unlikely option is that they want to recruit me and use me to help them in their mission to kill all worker drones which is very unlikely because a why would they need me they already have three killing machines, no pun intended, b how would I be of any use to them I am just a worker and c how on Copper-9 do they think they could convince me to do the task, I mean how do they think they could make me kill workers, they are crazier than I thought they were if they think they can convince me to do the deed, unless they can make it so the only way for me to survive is to kill workers, by turning me into one of them, but that would be impossible to do, I mean how would they turn me, one of the most angsty, rebellious teens to ever set foot on Copper-9, into a blood-thirsty killer that follows orders willingly, that has to be impossible. I don’t even know how they could turn me, a worker drone, into a murder drone, I mean our anatomy is totally different, and I am not just talking about the visible differences but our insides are probably different as well, they have the ability to self repair, without even thinking about it! Don’t even get me started on the wings or the weapons that somehow are able to all fit in one arm! So how would someone turn me into a murder drone, even with all our technology we have today, I would have to change drastically for that to happen, not to mention that it would probably be very painful, I am talking about having your anatomy entirely changed, and growing a tail and I don’t even know how that would be possible, that is why it is so unlikely, the tech it would need is out of my reach even now, but then again they do have nanites and the ability to repair themselves without thinking about it, what I am saying is, why would they want to do that?