Nemesis

"They're coming!" – I whispered to Ben. He was sitting behind another car a few steps away. He was holding a brand new ACR in his hands, ready to shoot.

I remember how proud he was when he first showed me the weapon. His eyes were sparkling. He said that one day, when the apocalypse happens, and the world will be occupied by zombies or the aliens, we'll be the only survivors, because we'll have that shiny ACR. Well, here we are and there are still no zombies. The aliens haven't found us either. But our destiny, our own invention did find out how to eliminate the humanity from Earth. Robots... how sneaky they are...

It's too late to run... They're about 100 steps away. They would definitely notice, and we wouldn't have any chance against their lasers. I only had a Glock 17 pistol on me. When I finished my service in the army after a few years, my friends bought it for me as a remembrance gift. It's a common weapon, yet it's outstanding on the handgun market.

"Shit, what do we do now?" Ben asked.

"Come on, Chloe, think..."

"How many of 'em are there?" I looked at Ben, who started to count them quickly.

"I don't know exactly... " – he began – "at least ten... maybe fifteen"

"That's too many, we can't deal with them"

I looked around hoping that I'd find something useful. We were in a bigger tunnel, I could see the buildings and the sunlight on the other side. Skyscrapers, offices, shops were laying abandoned. The centre of the city was terribly quiet, there were no cars or people on the streets. The place pretty much seemed like a car accident scene in an action movie. Around us five totally crashed vehicles. And a road junction in the middle of the tunnel. Yeah, we could use it for our trap...

The droids were getting closer and closer.

"Chloe, you better make up something, we're running out of time"

"I know! You don't make the situation easier with this..."

"Okay, just hurry up, alright?"

I took a look at the car. It was a massive truck, with big metal doors. Around us there was a mix of debris and rubbish laying on the ground. I spotted an empty coke can. Eww, it was full of dirt... and who knows what kind of diseases it was carrying. But did I have another choice? No.

"Hey, I think I got an idea" – I said.

"Thank God! Let's not waste any more time then!" – Ben replied.

I grabbed the trash, and filled it with some heavy stuff trying to make as little noise as I just could. Luckily we had a bunch of pebbles nearby and the robots' steps were so loud that they couldn't hear me. When I finished, I turned to Ben.

"Ready?"

"Yeah"

"Okay, three... two... one..."

I turned around and threw the can as far as possible across the tunnel, straight to the junction. We were waiting for the right moment patiently, in dead silence. I was hoping that this could decieve the robots, and they would follow the source of the noise letting us escape.

After a few scary moment the metal hit the ground clacking, loudly echoing in the whole area.

The robots finally stopped, turned their heads there and started to run in the direction of the sound immediately. Yess! Our plan seemed to be successful. However, only a few seconds later I noticed that only half of the group left the place. The remaining were still moving towards us.

"Shit!"

"Soo, I'm assuming you have a plan B, right?"

I looked at the car door in front of me. It was enough for me, but definitely not enough for two. If we use it together, there's no doubt one of us is gonna get shot. Or maybe both of us. Ben's car got no doors at all. Perfect! Absolutely!

"You got something you can use to cover yourself?"

"What?"

"Like a shield..."

"Oh, yeah I have the top of a garbage can, if that's good."

"Great, I'm gonna count to three... again... then we run and hide at the end of the tunnel."

"Amazing plan B."

"Try to make it out alive!" – I said ignoring his opinion. – "Do not get shot, alright? The last thing I need is an injury right now!"

"Okay, boss, do I get to breath at least?"

"Very funny" – I said. In spite of the situation I still managed to force a little smile onto my face.

Ben was the person who never knew the right time for his bad jokes and sarcasm. And that made his life – and also mine – so much awkward. I've known him since kindergarten. We grew up together, having each others back, making trouble and solving problems... When he went and joined the army, – his father wanted him so much to experience soldier life – I went with him out of pure empathy. These years were definitely not the best of our life... However we would've never thought that one day this experience could be our advantage and safe us. Yet here we are...

"No offense, but you know that we got guns right?"

"Forget the guns! Save your bullets for later, they're already too close!"

My blood pressure was insanely raising. I felt every single heartbeat in my head.

I grabbed the car door and looked up. The droids were already only a few steps away.

"You ready?"

"That's a strong word..."

"Three... two... one... RUN!!!"

I squeeze the handle and rip off the door with a sudden move.

I could hear the muffled shots behind me. They're aiming our shields. It's very challenging to hold it right. It feels heavy, and it only gets worse...

It's really hard to concentrate when you run for your life... even if there's only one way to go. You have to watch your step... every step... You can't collapse.

The end of the tunnel was only like fourty metres away. We could escape in a minute. However this was the longest minute of my entire life.

When we finally reached the exit amd got out, I turned right and shouted to Ben

"Hurry, this way!"

He caught up and we continued to run to the nearest building. It was a restaurant. As soon as we got to the place, we tore up the door and laid down on the ground and waited nervously.

After some time we could saw the robots breaking out of the tunnel, running straight on the road. I began to count them. One, two..., two more, five, six... There's no way that we could have killed all of them.

"Okay, they're gone." – I whispered to Ben.

"I probably got a heart attack..." he said while strongly panting.

"Alright, soldier, let's look around. I'm starving"

"Yeah, me too"

We went straight to the kitchen. The whole place was empty... not a single person anywhere... and not even food...

"Damn, it's full clean"

"Check the fridge!" – Ben said and across the kitchen. I followed him and opened the big white door. It was filled with food! Fruits and vegetables, meat and rice and everything we dreamed of.

I looked at Ben and smiled.

"Jackpot!"

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You can read the original verson (the poem) HERE.

Written for Randy Baker's Prompted #4: