Loading Times - Part 3 of 3

We arrived at the factory twenty minutes later. Away from the constant pulse of activity in the city, things were quiet here without a soul around. The factory was quite large, seven stories high. It was a wreck of a place, with graffitied walls and broken windows, covered in dirt and grime. Turtry Robotics had shut down a couple of years ago due to some legal trouble, leaving many of their factories abandoned and empty, just hollow remains of yet another failed business. Blaycon, the nation’s leading robotics company, swiftly bought out all of Turtry’s assets and tech, adding even more automatons to its growing catalogue, including these latest malfunctioning loaderbots.

Mark didn’t seem to be here yet, so Lloyd and I suited up and headed inside. We had no idea what we’d be facing, so we grabbed every tool we could. As we walked, I rubbed my arm subconsciously. It was still a little sore from the fight at the mall, but Lloyd had fixed it up as best as he could, so I would be fine for now until we could get to a hospital.

Inside was just as eerily quiet as the outside. The machines that built the robots were still here, though not currently operating. Oddly enough they did seem to have been used recently, as half-finished loaderbots were lined up on the conveyor belts. They weren’t as well built or pristine as the one we had fought before.

“These look like they’re made of scrap,” I said, closely examining one. “Could the people behind this be manufacturing them?”

“It’s possible,” Lloyd replied. “If so, then I doubt they plan on stopping these attacks any time soon.”

I took out my phone which was tracking the signal that had been sent to the mall’s loaderbot. “Looks like the signal is coming from the top floor. Think the elevator still works?”

It didn’t.

We arrived on the seventh floor exhausted and out of breath. Our gear weighed us down, and frankly I’m not in perfect shape; so to put it lightly my heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest. As I struggled to catch my breath, I surveyed my surroundings.

The seventh floor lacked the conveyor belts and equipment of the floors below and was covered wall to wall with large computers. It was dark and hot as a furnace, but still no one around. Wait… there at the very far end of the room… a chair? Indeed, there was a chair, and I could barely make out a hunched-over figure sitting, facing away from us.

Suddenly the chair whirled around to face us. The figure reached upwards, yanking several wires out of its head then standing up. A ragged elderly voice erupted and reverberated throughout the room. “Who are you? How did you get in here?”

Lloyd shined his flashlight towards the figure, revealing a man no younger than seventy with pale, sickly skin and ragged, unkempt, white hair. He was alarmingly thin, and his clothes were dirty and well-worn with oil stains blemishing his cream colored shirt and black pants. He seemed to have some device attached to the side of his head.

“Are you the one behind the loaderbot attacks?” Lloyd called over to him.

The old man’s shoulders slumped as he grumbled swears and sat back in the chair annoyed. Without delay, he grabbed nearby wires and plugged them effortlessly into the device in his head. Immediately we heard the elevator behind us start to move.

“Oh now it works!” I exclaimed, readying my EMP Rod. The EMPR was kind of like a cattle prod, except lethally overcharged and made for dealing with unruly machines. Lloyd and I stepped backwards away from the elevator as it slowly ascended to our floor, fearing what awaited us. Seconds later, it stopped, a bell dinged, and the doors slid open.

Before the elevator even finished opening, metal limbs came pouring out. Dozens of rusted loaderbots swiftly elated from the box and began charging mercilessly towards us. I caught the closest one in the neck with the EMPR, sending bolts of electricity surging through its circuits, exploding out its eyes. It fell to the ground in a slump, but was immediately replaced with another of its kind. Lloyd was doing his best to fend them off with his EMPR, but their numbers were staggering. We backpedaled as we fought, quickly losing ground. As we slowly but surely thinned the herd of loaderbots, the elevator meanwhile had headed back down, most likely to bring reinforcements.

“We gotta stop the old guy!” I shouted, turning around to rush towards the chair, but as I did a metal hand gripped my ankle, clutching so tightly it sent rivers of pain up my leg. I fell to the ground with a frankly pathetic whimper. I looked down at my captor, and the loaderbot’s rusty silver skull with glowing yellow eyes struck me with cold fear.

Suddenly, an explosion of sparks as a sharp metal spike ripped through the android’s cranium. The elevator had arrived, and inside it a pale teenage boy with jet black hair and black clothes stood awkwardly, holding what seemed to be a modified harpoon gun.

“Mark!” I shouted. “… Why are you wearing a cape?”

“Never mind that now, mortal!” he shouted back. “I’m here to save you fools. Attack RoBats!” He flung out his arms dramatically and a previously unseen cloud of mechanical bats flew out of the elevator. Most of them bounced stupidly against them off the walls and ceiling, but the ones that hit their mark sliced entire limbs off the loaderbots with razor sharp wings.

With the combined effort of the three of us, we were able to dispatch the group of loaderbots with only minimal casualties. Lloyd reached the old man’s chair first, ripping the wires out of the elder’s skull without hesitation. The man screamed in pain as he was wretched back into reality.

“Explain. Now.” Lloyd commanded.

“You don’t realize what you’re meddling with.” Spat the old man spitefully. “What I have created here can change the world. After all these advances in technology, the human brain is still the most powerful computer in existence. This device allows the user to use the entirety of their brain to control multiple machines. One could control an entire android army with this, like an ant queen leading its colony!”

The machine had clearly drained the man mentally and physically. A hint of insanity dwell within his eyes, and his body was deteriorating.

Lloyd took out a pair of handcuffs. “Gotta be honest, I don’t really care about your gizmo. You’re hurting people, and that’s why you’re coming with us.”

An uneasy feeling subtly came over me, as if we were being watched. I slowly turned around, and the sight before me nearly gave me a heart attack. Six shadowy figures stood silently behind us. I had never seen them before, but I knew immediately what they were: military assassin bots. Their black metal armor seemed to absorb light, and for some reason I found myself unable to look directly at them, only able to spot them in my peripheral vision.

One of the assassins spoke in a low mechanical voice. “This man has been deemed a threat to national security and must be apprehended. Please move aside or you will be dismantled.”

Lloyd, Mark, and I stepped quickly away from the crazed old man without hesitation. Immediately two of the assassin androids stepped forward and grabbed him, and the six left quickly without a sound leaving us three alone in the building.

“We… should probably leave,” I said quietly. The others nodded in agreement as we began stepping gingerly over the numerous loaderbot and RoBat corpses that littered the ground.

“You guys want burgers?” Lloyd asked. “I’m starvin’.”

“That sounds fantastic.”

“Muahaha, a feast fit for a lord such as I!”

“Shut up, Mark.”