Sarah7
Chapter 6

The elevator continued to fall, faster now. The two drones stumbled across the surface of the elevator, clamoring for some kind of purchase on the debris-ridden metal. Sarah grabbed the large cable attached to the elevator and held on for dear life.

A moment later she was thrown to the floor as the elevator halted, but did not quite crash. ‘Am I still alive?’ She asked herself, but knew the answer since just about every part of her body hurt. The drones had been also dashed to the top of the elevator as it stopped. One had toppled over into a pile of debris, and the other was now missing two of its spider-like legs.

“Sarah! Are you alright? It appears that the elevator travelled all the way to the floor it was originally set to stop at. I had not anticipated the electrical systems would still be functioning enough to enable it to do that.”

“Well, I might live,” she said, rubbing her head gingerly, “except for the fact that there are two more drones down here with us now!” She glanced over at the location of the fallen spider-like robots, her headlight casting eerie shadows across the elevator shaft walls. She could hear metal on metal screeching as the two attack drones slowly recovered from the fall.

“I’m free now.” Max said quietly through her headset.

“What? What did you say?” Sarah called.

“There is a hatch about two meters from you. It is a service entrance to allow maintenance crews access to the top of the elevator. Can you reach it?” Max replied, seemingly ignoring her question.

Sarah scanned the nearby area with increasing worry. Her cut leg throbbed, and she felt like her head was about to crack open in pain. Finally, she spotted the hatch and she bolted for the handle.

A small explosion marked where she had just stood. The drones were recovering and orienting on her movement. Two sets of lights clicked on - one from each drone - and began scanning the wreckage methodically.

“Halt. Intruder. Or be destroyed.” The drones said, almost in unison.

Sarah pulled desperately at the hatch. “It’s jammed!” she hissed.

“Step away for a moment. I will free the hatch.” Max said calmly.

“What? Oh!” She had only a moment to take one step back when the hatch blew upwards with explosive force.

Immediately, the drones began firing in the direction of the hatch.

“You’ll have to jump! Hurry Sarah!” Max called in her ear.

Again, an eerie calmness overtook her. It was almost as if time slowed down for her. She watched the blasts and somehow calculated when the next gap would be between shots, and without thinking, she dove for the hatch. Twin blasts lit up the air behind her and she found herself falling, but she used her eyepiece to gauge the distance to the floor and she tucked herself into a roll. Instead of landing hard, she rolled forward at the last moment and found herself standing in a large cargo elevator. There were boxes and machinery tossed everywhere. On one side, it looked like a large metal cage was mounted to the floor. It was empty.

“Max! Max! Where are you?” Sarah was nervous, frightened, and more than a little curious about this mysterious person that she now owed her life to several times over.

The drones were now advancing on the hatch up above. Sarah could hear the clinking on the roof of the elevator, and she dove for a dark corner of the elevator, behind some hopelessly damaged and dusty boxes.

The drones dropped down to the floor of the elevator, and began scanning the walls. Their spider-like bodies sent shivers up Sarah’s spine. She didn’t have a weapon this time. She glanced around frantically for something, anything to use, but she knew she’d be dead before she could get close enough to even hit them.

“Max!” she cried again.

Ka-thunk! Ka-thunk! KA-THUNK! The floor shook with the sound of something very, very heavy walking into the elevator. The drones immediately spun about and trained their lights behind them.

Sarah’s jaw dropped.

KA-THUNK! KA-THUNK!

Something colossal was standing before them. Suddenly, more floodlights clicked on - mounted to the top of the giant figure. Temporarily blinded, Sarah blinked and shielded her eyes. The drones opened fire.

The room was lit up with blaster fire, and revealed to Sarah’s astonishment another mechanical creature. It was easily 10 feet tall. It’s powerful legs were thicker than Sarah’s body, and inverted backwards like a bird, ending in wicked looking mechanical claws. Those were the source of the “Ka-thunk”. The body was compact and blocky, with what appeared to be many layers of hard shielding across the torso.

The arms were also thick and powerful-looking, ending in large pincers. The head was featureless and teardrop shaped, swooping back to a flat taper. The blasts were having no effect on this monstrosity and it moved with a speed Sarah could not believe for something so large.

In one motion it grabbed one drone in a huge claw, spun around 360 degrees at its hips and crashed the now crushed drone into the other. The second drone promptly exploded on impact, showering Sarah with debris.

A second later it was upon her. At 10 feet tall it towered over her.

“Oh my god! It must have killed Max! ” Sarah threw her arms up over her face in a desperate motion, she knew she wouldn’t survive a face off with this machine.

The flood lights dimmed. The giant mech lowered its arms slowly. Sarah could hear the whirring of the powerful servos.

“Hello Sarah. It’s good to finally see you in person. It’s me, Max.”

Sarah lowered her arms in astonishment.

“Max?” She managed to say before exhaustion completely overtook her and she collapsed to the floor.

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