#Guess What? I'm Not a Robot RC Ch8

[theshapeshifter100]

Guess What? I’m Not a Robot RC Ch8

Chapter Warnings: blood, mutilated androids

Word Count:2,073

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5.00PM Wednesday 10th November 2038

“DON’T LET THEM GET AWAY!” Alex yelled, and the androids complied, blocking the tunnel exit by their bodies alone. The shout made Megan’s head ring, and Paul dropped the gun and crouched by her.

“Hey, Megan, you with me?” he asked. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

“...one.”

Paul half laughed in relief, and yanked Megan into a hug. One hand gripped her hair and he buried his face in the top of her shoulder.

Megan responded, wrapping her arms around his torso and pressing her face against him. She felt her throat burning, and let the tears come.

“You’re okay,” she muttered. “You’re here.”

“I’m here, right here,” he assured, “And you’re here. By god you’re here. Why the fuck are you here?”

“Why do you think?” Megan half laughed.

The radio at her belt crackled.

“Nervousness Incarnate, come in Nervousness Incarnate. Over.”

Paul wanted to hold on a little longer, but relinquished his grip as Megan went to answer.

“What Tudor? Over.”

“As adorable as you two are, we still have things to do. Ringo needs some help with the floodlights and goons are closing in on Coubertin and Captain Hardass. Over.”

“What about Poison Oak and Rainbow? Over.”

“Not great there either, but nothing lethal. Over.”

“What’s the plan?” Paul asked, standing up straight. Megan followed suit, idly wiping blood from the side of her head. She could deal with that later.

“Ringo’s on the outskirts, dealing with the floodlights. He has a taser but he might be getting overwhelmed. Coubertin and Captain H are in that surveillance thing,” she pointed to the closed cherry picker, which was currently bobbing up and down as controls on the ground and in the cab conflicted. “Poison Oak and Rainbow are outside the fence, they were distractions but sounds like things have gotten out of hand. No idea where Biker Chick and AAA are.”

On cue, the radio crackled again.

“Biker Chick and I are going to help Ringo. Over.”

“That answers that,” Paul noted, he started to say something, but was interrupted.

“We’ll help.”

A group of about ten androids had formed around them. Different models, different heights, but all of their LEDs blazed red. Whether it was fear or determination was another matter.

“Alright,” Megan swallowed, suddenly feeling a lot of pressure. She knew they were looking to her because she knew the locations, but surely they wouldn’t be that hard to find.

Hey, shut up. Breathe. Get on with it.

Tapping her finger against her thigh in a rhythm, Megan began to talk.

“We’ll need a couple at the floodlights, I would guess he’s by the third one now,” Megan roughly pointed. “Need more to deal with the picker or whatever it is. The two on the outside will be fine for now.”

“We still have the guards to deal with,” Paul reminded.

“We should kill them,” suggested one of the androids, which got a worrying level of agreement.

“There’s been enough death already,” Paul had his best ‘dad’ look as he glared at the other androids. “The machines are off, we can clear them out and put them in there.”

“Hate to interrupt your meeting NI and Beep Boop,” Lucas came in again. “But the others need backup now!”

Without a, verbal, word the androids split up, leaving Megan a little lost as three headed for Nathan and seven headed for the picker.

“They’re going to pick up more deviants on the way,” Paul informed, still unsure how to feel about this telepathy thing. “You’ve got a head injury and frankly,” Paul had a shaky smile, “I don’t really want to split up right now.”

Megan met his shaky smile with one of her own. “Let’s clear out the machines then, if you’re up for it?”

“Let’s do it,” Paul felt a bit sick at the thought, but held it together. “Tell me if you start to feel dizzy. I mean it.”

“Yes sir,” Megan smirked, walking over to the machine. It took Paul’s strength to open it up, pulling one slat down and pushing one up far as he could.

Once they could both see inside, they both had to pause to process what they were seeing.

The machine had clearly been switched halfway through disassembling. Half of the limbs had been ripped off, androids were dangling loose in the grip of the mechanical arms and worse, some of the limbs weren’t completely off.

Horrifying, some of the androids were still alert, LED’s burning red as they tried to deal with what was happening.

“Oh Christ,” Megan breathed, feeling like she might be sick.

Paul stared, feeling his Stress Levels rising. This could have been him...

In one turn he looked back at the lines of androids, who had barely moved.

“Help us get them out!” he cried, and the front line listened. It was creepy, and he wished they’d just deviate already, but it did help.

The mechanical arms had to be yanked out of limbs, and it wasn’t always easy to tell which part belonged to whom. However, with the help, all the android were out and put together with what they hoped was the right collection of parts.

Paul doubled over once they were done, hand clapped over his mouth like he was going to be sick.

“Paul?”

“Give me a minute,” he assured. “I’ll be fine. Let’s just move on.”

Megan’s first bout of dizziness hit as they tried to move into the right section. She made to lift herself up and go through the gaps in the fence feet first, but almost fell over once through.

“Megan!” Paul scrambled through the fence as Megan put a hand to her head. It was throbbing.

“I’m fine,” the response was automatic, and Paul’s face was thunderous.

“What did I say earlier?”

“That I would tell you if I was dizzy.”

“And?”

“...I’m a little dizzy, but I’m fine!”

Paul wasn’t impressed. “Sit down by the fence, try to stem the bleeding. I’ll handle it here.”

“I’m fine!” Megan protested, but Paul grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her into a sitting position.

“I am not losing you to a damn head injury. Stay here, man the radio, stop the bleeding.”

There was no room for arguing, so Megan cleared the snow beneath her, pressed the sleeve of one of her sweaters against her temple and pulled out the radio. She hissed in pain as the material touched the tender injury, but focused on the radio.

“Tudor, any updates? Over,” she kept an eye on Paul as he gathered some help to empty the machines here. The deviants had already been busy here and had crowded around disarmed guards.

The feeling of nausea didn’t leave Paul as he led the androids in removing, the mutilated, he guessed he could call it. Anger burned and for a few scary seconds he wanted nothing more than go over to the group of downed soldiers and shoot them.

It passed, and Paul made his way back over to Megan.

“Any news?” he was glad to see that she was indeed trying to stem the blood, even though the crimson liquid had already made it past her chin.

“The floodlight crew are good, and they’ve gotten some more androids to help them. They’re herding the guards back here for ‘storing’ I guess while Nathan turns the floodlights back on. It’s getting dark soon so we’ll need to see what we’re doing. It’s still a bit hairy by the security cherry picker, but it’s better. Now it’s just Ivy and Maggie.”

“How are they holding up?”

“They’re being frog marched in here,” Megan smirked. “This should be interesting.”

“You’re staying here.”

“I never said that I was going to move!”  

“No, but you were thinking it,” Paul smirked, and Megan rolled her eyes.

“Alright alright. I won’t move,” Megan shrugged. “Reckon you can handle it?”

“I’ll organise the troops,” Paul’s smirk hadn’t died, and he climbed through the fence again to get to the far left side.

Megan huffed, but leaned back against the cold metal fence. Now that she wasn’t moving, and she was calming down, she was freezing.

Her eyes flicked around at the androids, who she guessed were freshly deviant moved around slowly, uncertain, while the non deviants stayed where they were.

On the other side of the section Alex dropped down. They walked between the androids with their usual calm ease, smiling kindly all the way. They spotted Megan and jogged over.

“You okay down there?”

“Got clocked on the head,” Megan admitted. “Paul’s being paranoid, but I think I’m okay.”

Alex crouched down and squatted on the balls of their feet. “Let’s see.”

Megan sighed, knowing the reaction, but moved her hand away. She winced as dried blood stuck to and came off with the sweater, and Alex’s eyes widened.

“What did they clock you with, a two by four?!”

“Butt of an assault rifle,” Megan corrected, watching as Alex took off their bag and rummaged through it. “Alex?”

“Hold still,” Alex brought out the first aid kit they’d packed and opened it up. They grabbed some alcohol wipes and tore one open. “This will probably sting.”

“I could do this myself,” Megan protested as Alex began to dab at the injury. “It’s just a scrape!” she added with a wince.

“As a general rule, you don’t do first aid on yourself,” Alex commented. “Besides, you can’t see your injury, so it’ll be easier if someone else does it.”

“Why do you have to be logical?”

“Because you’re letting your pride get the better of you,” Alex responded matter of factly. “There’s no shame in asking for help.”

“You sound like Paul.”

“Speaking of whom,” Alex was sticking a bandage to Megan’s temple. “Where is he?”

“In the far compound,” Megan jerked her thumb over her shoulder in the rough direction. “He was going to help out Oscar and Julia.”

“So soon after all of this?” Alex smiled ruefully. “What did we do to deserve him?”

“Do you have any idea how many times I’ve asked myself that?” Megan also smiled as Alex packed up. “Speaking of androids we probably don’t deserve, have you found Ella?”

Alex deflated at the question, and at any other time it would almost be comical, but now they just looked, defeated.

“No. She’s, she’s not with the ones I’ve talked to. I haven’t, haven’t checked the other compounds yet.”

“You should,” Megan advised. “She knows you’re here from Callum.”

Alex took a deep breath. “Let’s deal with Ivy and Maggie’s situation first. You want in?”

“You know I’ll be useless right?”

“In that case; watch, co-ordinate. Don’t get spotted.”

Nerves were already building, but Megan forced a smile. “I think I can do that.”

“Good,” Alex stood up and turned to face the androids in this section, cupping their hands to their mouth.

“Anyone who’s free, listen up!” they yelled.  “There’s a squad of guards that’ll be coming through the tunnel soon with a couple of our friends hostage. Anyone want to help out?”

Most of the experienced deviants were busy, since guards wouldn’t make it inside the machines on their own after all. The new deviants and the rest of androids all came over however, taking Alex by surprise.

“R-right. Okay, we’ve already got some guys blocking the tunnel, so if we get them to move and take the soldiers by surprise, we should be able to handle it. Any thoughts?”

“Do, do we have weapons?” asked one of the androids. “Can we have weapons?”

“We don’t have any personally,” Alex admitted. “If you want to grab a gun, by all means, but I’d prefer we didn’t use them. These guys are arseholes, but they’re following orders, and wearing body armour.”

The non deviant androids didn’t move, and the new deviants looked at each other.

“Well, I’m getting a gun. I don’t know about you guys,” one announced, and Alex nodded.

“You do you, but we need to get to the edge of the tunnel sharpish.”

The group of what must have been around thirty odd either climbed through the fence or went out from the back to the tunnel, and Megan turned her attention to the radio.

“AAA Battery is leading a group to deal with the tunnel, how’s everyone else doing? Over.”

On cue the last floodlight came back on.

Urgh, not the best place to leave it, but I needed to split it somewhere! And, Paul swore, which I don't recall if that happened in the Protest Path, but here we are!

Other Options Flowchart

(Paul) Talk to the androids instead of Megan

(Paul) Agree to the killing the soldiers (lead to fewer to deal with later)

(Paul) Don't ask for help getting the androids out of the disassembling machines. Refuse to go near them (He would go do something else, maybe Megan would go with him)

(Megan) Admit to dizziness immediately

(Megan) Let Alex patch her up. Protest further.

Tags @nightmarejim @septicart-appreciation

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