Cynophobia

☠₃☠

Rose swung back and forth with the binoculars, keeping lookout. Me, Leader, and Ray surrounded the Cynoid, weapons in hand.

"Why are you here? Why did your pack try to kill you?" I asked. "And how are you talking?"

His ears flattened and he hung his head. "I made Alpha angry, he sent his two sons Beta and Delta to kill me. You must have triggered something when you were ripping me apart, it allowed my emergency regeneration to start up. And we've always been able to talk, but the others don't try to strike conversations before they kill things."

"The tar? So you can regenerate...." I looked at Cairo and Ray, horrified.

"One of the wires sends electric glue to any breaks to prevent short circuits in an accident. You must have touched the two ends together, enough time to translate a message to the glue compartment," the Cynoid explained.

"Can you repair a Cynoid once we cut the back wires? Have we been fighting for nothing?"

His head tilted to the side as he thought. "Normally the broken wires create a short circuit. It fries the brain if its strong enough and we can't function. Usually, they find us and use our body for parts if that happens."

"You're being awfully helpful for a machine that tries to kill humans," Cairo accused. "Are you trying to stall us or is this all just false information to protect your brain?"

The Cynoid looked genuinely shocked. "I just told you that I was almost killed by my own kind! I don't want to protect them in any way. I actually hope you kill as many as you can."

I thought back on its words, "You said 'they' usually find our bodies. You mean the aliens, your creators?"

"Aliens? No of course not. The Miners, they're the ones who get our bodies. None of us, no 'Cynoid', has ever met the creator, except for Alpha and The Ancient."

Ray looked like his head was going to melt from all of the new information. He never was the brightest guy. "Miners?"

"You guys really don't know anything, do you? Whats it been, two months?" it sighed.

"Answer the question," Cairo ordered stepping closer with his axe.

It flinched and nodded quickly. "Y-Yes yes, the Miners. There are four different kinds of 'Cynoid'. Couriers, Miners, Cutters, and my kind, the Strikers. Strikers are the ones that uh- well kill people. Couriers, Miners, and Cutters are our females, technically. They need a Striker to pass on their programming, but those three create the pups."

"You can reproduce?!" I exclaimed.

Cairo's expression froze and he mouthed, "Mother of God."

"It takes about four months to gather all of the materials and form the pup. Its not quick, but it gets the job done," it said.

"Uh guys, I think I see some incoming Cynoids on the opposite side of the valley we originally traveled on," Rose said with panic in her voice.

The Cynoid's yellow eyes widened. "O-Ok I'll cut you four a deal. I can send those brutes away if you take me with you. And I want you to sew my fur back on," he glared at me at the last statement.

Cairo snorted in amusement. "So you really are afraid of them. This is probably part of some elaborate plan to kill us."

"Leader, maybe we could see what he can do. He is a Cynoid, we could learn so much more about them," I whispered.