I heard it first. That all too familiar sound a of a couple of weed whackers tied together. I glanced out of the racing bronco whining. Arlene noticed my whining.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
I kept nosing around the partially open windows till I finally I saw it. A little black spec, getting bigger well above the dust cloud behind us.
Crap!
It had to be Stinger.
I dove under the blanket and tried to cover myself. Arlene helped cover me but was still asking me. "What is it?" I nosed towards the sky. She peered out the windows but didn't see the drone.
Natalie heard it next, "You hear that? That buzzing sound?" She glanced out the window and the drone was getting louder. "You bastards and your creepy freakin' machines." She reached over to the glove box and took out a pistol. She cocked it and sighted down the barrel.
As she did she stopped watching the road and Arlene squealed with fear and grabbed the wheel or tried to... Her seatbelt locked and held her body back when she jerked forward so it was just her fingertips on the wheel trying to turn it fast enough to make the coming corner.
Pop, pop, pop. Arlene screamed in fear. Natalie fired three times and one of the weed whackers was gone for good... it spun out of earshot. She threw the gun back into the glove box and grabbed the wheel with a laugh. "The deputy ain't the only one with a dead eye.
Arlene let go of the wheel and shut the glove box. "I... I don't like guns." She stammered. "They kill people."
I popped up and peeked around. I didn't hear any other drones but I wanted to be sure.
Natalie looked at Arlene, "'fraid you got that backwards. Guns are just tools, like a knife or a spear or even a bathtub."
"A bathtub?!? Is a weapon?" Arlene was laughing.
"Well bathtubs kill hundreds of times more people every year than guns do... and we let children get in them. We put 'em in every house. And bathtubs have never stopped a criminal, or a robbery, scared away a bear or fed a family." Natalie smiled.
"I still don't like them. They make me itch. And they always feel cold to the touch and far too heavy." Arlene finished.
Just then I caught sight of an ATV racing down a hillock we had just past. It bounced as it dropped the last few feet to the road. I recognized the "Mazikin" soldiers from Natalie's description, flat black body covered in curved armor from head to toe. But the black color wasn't really a color, rather the absence of color, and light. It looked menacing somehow with the oddly placed spherical protrusions from the limbs and back, like it was some sort of metal praying mantis that seemed to absorb all the light around it. It was death, I howled. I knew it in my core that these things were death bringers, and they had come for me. Arlene looked back and Natalie looked in the mirror. I ducked down again.
"Ah so the flying lawnmower brought his widdle friends." Natalie reached for the glove compartment. Arlene stopped her hand.
"Think about what you are doing. What if you shoot that soldier, they could charge you with attempted murder or assault at the very least. Can't we just settle this without resorting to gun violence?" Arlene pleaded.
Natalie didn't sound convinced, but she said "Okay."
The ATV rider came up along side. The ATV was completely quiet except for a high pitched whining sound, but the tires crackling and crunching were what gave it away. I peeked from under the blanket.
I saw him come up next to her window. He waved his arms silently. I saw Natalie pretending that she couldn't hear him, but I didn't think he was speaking. Then I heard another ATV catch up to us.
