The three security drones moved slowly closer. Their red sensor strips glowed through the dark corridor like glowing eyes.
“These are no longer normal SECURITRON-X,” whispered Keks. “These are hunting models.”
Pix swallowed audibly. “Okay… this is bad.”
“How bad?” asked Lio.
Pix thought for a moment. “Well… normally with drones like these you don’t say ‘run away’ anymore, but rather ‘last words’.”
“Great,” muttered Lio. “That’s really encouraging.”
The middle drone slowly raised its right arm. A long metal barrel slid out of the casing there.
“WARNING,” said the machine. “AI UNIT MC-9000 MUST BE IMMEDIATELY HANDED OVER.”
The refrigerator rolled slowly back a bit. Its displays blinked frantically.
REJECTION RECOMMENDED.
“I agree,” said Lio.
Pix suddenly turned around and pointed to a rusty metal door at the end of the corridor.
“That way! Quickly!”
“And what’s behind it?”
“Either our rescue or a very unpleasant death.”
“You motivate about as well as Keks.”
They ran off.
Behind them, the hunting drones suddenly hummed loudly. Seconds later, blue energy lines shot through the corridor and sparked as they hit the walls.
“THEY REALLY SHOOT!” shouted Lio in panic.
“I mentioned that,” said Keks.
Pix was the first to reach the metal door. With two of his small arms, he frantically pulled cables from a wall and plugged them directly into his own head.
The door immediately began to crackle.
“Please work… please work…”
Another energy blast raced just past Lio’s head and made the wall next to him explode.
“PIX!”
“I’M WORKING ON IT!”
Then the door finally sprang open.
Behind it lay an old platform.
Lio stopped surprised.
“A subway station?”
The refrigerator immediately rolled inside. STATION 17 REACHED.
The hall was huge and almost completely dark. Old advertising signs from the 2070s hung everywhere. One still blinked faintly:
“NEW! Toothpaste with AI flavor recognition!”
“That sounds disgusting,” muttered Lio.
The tracks were rusty and full of dust. Apparently, this station had been abandoned for years.
Behind them, the metal door crashed open.
The hunting drones had reached the corridor.
“FURTHER!” shouted Pix. “They must not find us down here!”
They ran along the platform. Keks suddenly tripped over an old soda can and somersaulted twice.
“I’ll just pretend that was on purpose.”
Lio helped him up again.
Then he noticed something strange.
At the other end of the station, there was light.
Not flickering or broken.
Normal light.
“There’s someone up ahead.”
Pix suddenly slowed down. “Oh.”
“What does ‘Oh’ mean?”
Pix cautiously pointed forward.
Between old benches and rusty machines stood a group of people.
Or at least they looked like people at first glance.
All wore long dark coats. Some had glowing eye implants, others mechanical arms or metallic facial parts.
One of them even sat on a modified vacuum robot like on a rolling chair.
The group had long noticed them.
A tall man with a silver neck implant stepped forward slowly.
“Interesting,” he said calmly. “MC-9000 really is still alive.”
The refrigerator stopped.
Its display flickered briefly.
Then only one word appeared:
PROBLEM.
At the same moment, the first hunting drones reached the platform.