Geir knew that human women of childbearing age was scarce. It was the robots back up plan when the first wave failed to wipe out the human race. If they couldn’t destroy them one way they would take out the means of their reproduction. Geir had seen the robots shooting women and leaving the men wounded or untouched in the second wave. It left a bitter taste in the back of his throat. It was exactly what he would do if the roles were reversed, hit the enemy where it counted and let nature take its course. After that, they reverted back to their prime directive when the humans were not curling up and dying liked the robots had predicted. 

The robots were not as easily controlled, they didn’t have genders or relied on such reproduction to add to their numbers. They needed metal, plastic, wires and power. Which was in abundance in any town, city or car sitting on the side of the road. He had never thought in a million years humans would be fighting the very devices they created and surrounded themselves with to ease their lives. The newest gadget with all the bells and whistles could now pull a trigger and blow out brains. Just flipping great. Geir shut his eyes for a moment when the android spoke, she wasn’t going to make this easy. If that wasn’t part of her trick to get unbound, he felt a spark of hope flare inside him for Kenji’s sake. The poor man had been through the ringer a few times and somehow managed to keep on ticking. Like that watch, Timex, that was Kenji in a nutshell.

Kenji’s gaze snapped to the android fear rolling over his facial features like a thunderstorm, he scooted closer. “Wrench, help her.” He grabbed Castille and pulled her close to his chest, his motors in his arms ground a little harder at the action and the weight of her and the cords pulled painfully on the half metal half bone joints of his shoulders. He could feel her soft hair against his chest where his shirt was open, his heart raced and his mind scattered into a thousand different thoughts.

Wrench peered at her scanning device and shook her head. “Everything is in working order,” she stated, her eyes latching on the scrolling read out for the chip in the androids brain. She wanted that with the craving of most would when peering at gold or a vault full of money. The only way to get it was to carve a hole in the androids head and start cutting until she reached it. If she had the delicate medical devices the robots had that put the thing in there she wouldn’t have to be so brutal. That chip was important to her research, she had two people with head wounds that could benefit from the reprogramming and installation.

Ning scratched his clean shaven chin, when Geir peered at the youth, clearly torn as hard as he was. Geir had thought Ning would have just sort of melted into the background of the community when he was welcomed in, the kid had a way of continually popping up and randomly destroying Geir’s carefully ordered life. It seemed to be a sick game with him and Geir had reached his breaking point a while back. The bruise around the youth’s eye was nearly gone where he had punched Ning. The blue eyed male had toned down his antics for a while when he was around Geir. Now, he felt Ning and himself were the only ones in this room that was actually worried about the community’s safety. He elbowed Ning, he gestured with his head toward the exit and the two moved out of the communal area. The older male stepped into his sleeping room to pick up his rifle and coat before they disappeared.

“It’s okay,” Kenji whispered mostly to himself, he was locked in the horror of the moment when he lost her at the hospital. “I am here. I am not going to let you go again.” Now she was here and wasn’t at the same time, it was like looking at a ghost and having it disappear every time almost had her. He couldn’t let her go, he would die first. Death would be a welcome comfort from the continual hell he had to wade in every second of every day.