The Knife Machine.

Unsecured

After this, my life went along similar to an ant..

I found myself obeying every command given by a voice in my head. It was like I was always dreaming. I could hardly control myself, I did things I didn't think I would and I would just forget the majority of the day. This went on for two years. I remembered the routine briefly, blurry in places.

After an hour of spare time, the first message would come. This ordered me to patrol the large factory building. At first, I thought it would be simple walking around but my mind was soon changed. I had to go from my room around "the blade" to the back of the building then check the fans were still working then I'd go back round the machine and to the stairs on the far corner of the building that led to the cat walks. This is where most of the hundred androids worked, although a few strayed and others were just doing their patrols. The metal grated bridges were teaming with other robots, moving in perfectly coordinated lines, they rarely bumped into each other and even when one did, they just kept moving. It took a while to memorize what robot used which cat walks and how to not disturb the well organised lines. After checking all the machinery connected to the bridges, I would loop back round and take the highest catwalk to the cages. At the time, what was in them was completely cut from mind, all I remember was that the electronics connected to them were the most complicated in the building, though I was soon taught how to fix damage to them. Even the bottom line of cages were incredibly high up and the paths next to them were as thin as a large tree trunk and perfectly remember how scared I used to be crossing them to the control panels. And it didn't help that the electronics were always breaking so there were crowds of other purple eyed wolf androids on the narrow pathways, tending to the snapped wires, bust circuit boxes and fallen bits and bobs. One wrong move and you had a fifty meter drop to look forward to. But all in all, this wasn't the worst job you could be given.

On rare occasions, you would be chosen to run the blade. Since there were hundreds of androids and any of them could be chosen to run it, you had to very unlucky to get chosen to run it but when it did happen, you would be dreading it. The job consisted of operating the main control panel which controls the blade and the electrics attached to cages. The controls were simple. You had to press a series of buttons in a specific order and the arms, conveyor belts and wires would do their job. It doesn't sound so bad when you put it like that. I don't remember the exact details, I tried so hard to push the memories out of my head that the only thing I can remember is the noises it made. The cages shreaked indescribably, it pierced into your mind and haunted you for days after, replaying in your head. Maybe it was the shocking volume or how.. alive the screams sounded but it was something you could never get used to, no matter how many times you were put in charge if it. After you had activated the cages the screaming would stop and the largest hydraulic hand would grab up to five pitch black shapes and drop them through a hatch in the glass roof of the dome and out would come the strange red shapes. I never quite figured out anything about the factory until one day, everything changed..

The entire cage electrical systems fuses had blown and not a single one was working. Every purple eye had been called to fix them so that the blade could get back to work and it was almost impossible to move along some of the lower down paths so, trying to avoid other androids, I took the highest one up. It was amazing how burnt up the top wires were, they looked like they'd been on fire, it looked like the job of pulling out the broken ones, cleaning all the remains and then replacing them. Without hesitation, I went to work. I was there for only ten minutes before it happened, tearing out burnt wires. Then a swift white pad hit my paw, it was too violent for me to be able to regain balance and I fell. For two seconds everything was in slow motion, the bright lights above me like eyes staring, the floor below was a grave. It was waiting.

Suddenly, everything sped up, what was happening had only just dawned upon me. I fell past the middle section of cages, winds surrounding me. It felt like my miserable life was over until, by some miracle. Some sharp object on the last section of cages caught my ring wire and stopped me mid air and saved me from my almost definite death. I hung suspended for a few seconds before there was a snap! I was laying on the floor with a loud static in my head, so loud I could barely think. I stumbled to my feet and looked around. Above my were about a hundred concerned faces who, after seeing I was still alive, turned back around.