A State Trooper, In An Eternal Winter, Surrounded By Drones

Chapter 9 - Moving In

Micheal POV

I heard an earsplitting explosion, and suddenly the door to my immediate right blew open, a cloud of dust and debris blowing out into me. I was knocked off my feet, a desk chair narrowly missing my head. I sat up, tears forming in my eyes to counteract the dust already settling on my eyelashes. I took my canteen off my pack, dumping a bit into my hand and splashing it into my face, wiping the gritty bits off. I peeled open my eyes, seeing a drone wearing a black hoodie and brain with purple eyes clutching its visor, standing inside the room that had just blown up, roaring laughter erupting from inside. "Hey! You ok?" I called out, and the drone peered at me, its expression turning from mild shock to disgust, as the way one would look at something rather unpleasant found sticking to the underside of their boot. "A human?! Disgusting!" "On the contrary-" I felt a hand clamp around my arm, and found myself being dragged away by Weill. "Don't converse with her, she's a bucketload of trouble." I peered back, seeing her walk out into the hall and, while still clutching her visor with one hand, flipping me off with the other.

I scowled and turned around, following Weill out of the school. "Well she seems rude." "She's like that, since humans are the reason that her mother is dead." "Her mother is dead? Man, I lost mine too, long before this happened." Weill shrugged. "Guess that's something you have in common then." I suddenly remembered, quickly digging the orange prescription bottle out of my pocket. I twisted the cap off, picking a singular pill out and popping it into my mouth. "What was that?" "Just my medication for my bipolar disorder, nothing serious." "Mm, okay." He led me into a large metal building, and I began to see room numbers on doors. I peered down one of the hallways, seeing it stretch for a long while. "Where are we" "This is the Workers' Quarters. It might've been...problematic, to have a human in the residential area. Given that some of the drones here have had bad experiences with humans. Before the incident I mean." I nodded respectively.

I understood the drones might be a little apprehensive towards me given the past treatment of drones. Abuse, torture, subjecting them to dangerous, uncomfortable situations and environments without a second thought, no doubt some might feel a little inclined to not see me. "I noticed your arm earlier, is that normal for humans?" I looked down, seeing the gray discoloration had spread, now mostly covering my entire skin, small spots of tan still visible, but just barely. "I don't think so, I might have to see a doctor. Do you have a doctor here? One trained in human biology I mean." He thought for a moment, taking his time to get a keycard out of his pocket and open a door, which slid up into the ceiling. "We do have a medical drone who used to be a human operator in an emergency room. She mostly does drone care now, but she might be able to help you out." I nodded. "This keycard is your room key, and it doubles as a debit card of sorts. There's currently...eighty-two dollars in American currency, which is forty-one dollars in our currency." I looked around my new home.

"This is nice, give Khan my gratitude." Weill nodded, tossing me the keycard, which I quickly grabbed. "Feel free to make yourself at home and explore the place a bit." He departed, the door sliding back down behind him. I turned back, seeing my pack on the floor, its contents begging for release from the tight compound. "Welp, time to get to work."

??? POV

Stupid human, asking if I was alright. Why is he even here?! I thought they were all dead! I scowled and pressed the cold bag of glass cleaner to my head. "Ewwww, it didn't kill her!" I peered up, seeing Litzy and Doll snickering while running off. 'Assholes.' I ran 'eyeroll.gif' and groaned, suddenly hearing more chatter coming down the hall, seeing Thad come into view. "Classic masculinity Todd! That's never gonna end well..Woah, Uzi? What're you doing here?" "Oh you know, turns out being a rebellious teen isn't as seamless as it appears." "Nice bandages, look good on you." I blushed and looked away. "Ew, shut up." Suddenly, I heard a throat clearing, and looked up to see my dad standing in the doorway, running 'disappointment.jpg.' "Uzi, I heard you brought a scientifically-modified photon-converter to school." I rolled my eyes and slung my railgun over my back. "Oh bite me dad, not like it's your problem." "It becomes my problem when you blow up half a classroom!" I yawned, unfazed.

"What's the deal with the human Mr. Doorman? I heard him ask Uzi if she was alright, then got flipped off." "Uzi...and for your information, the human was picked up by one of our patrols after we got a distress signal. Long story short, he's living here now." "He's living here?!" I yelled out, running 'infuriated.jpg'. "And you young lady-" "I'm a grown-ass teenager! I can take care of myself!" "Language!" I stormed out of the clinic, stopping and peering back inside. "And I'm not mad at you Thad! Just generally hormonal!" I stamped down the hall.

AN: That will never get old 'Just generally hormonal' Hahaaaaaaaaaa XD

Micheal POV

I hopped into my patrol uniform, popping on my dark-blue campaign hat and heading out. I strolled down the hall, passing by two young-looking worker drones in some kind of cheerleader outfits, one with a whitish-blue visor, the other with a deep red. "Howdy." They peered after me, stunned into shock. I turned the corner, suddenly bumping into a worker drone with light blue eyes and some kind of football jacket. "Sorry, I wasn't looking-Hey! You're that new human right?" I nodded. "Yep, seems that people have been talking." "Well, Uzi's dad is gonna do a formal announcement later, oh yeah! Is it tue that Uzi flipped you off? I heard it from some other kids, but didn't know if it was true or not." I chuckled in slight amusement. 'Uzi, so that's her name then.' "Yep, right as rain." "What's rain?" "It's uh...nevermind. What's her deal anyway?" Thad looked at me solemnly. "Well, she kinda blames you for the loss of her mother, and some other things that I don't really understand."

"Try me." "Well, she also thinks it was stupid that humans invented watermelons." I blinked. "We didn't invent them, they grow naturally." "That's the part I never really understood." "I'd like to try to be friends with her, do you think that'd be possible?" Thad looked at me. "Do you really want to?"