The Kingdom: Becoming The Enemy

Chapter Eight: A Cog in The War Machine

Unfamiliar metal feet tapped as Patrious paced in the small cell.

I've got to get out of here.

"We need to get out of here." Liken seemed to read Patrious' mind.

"I was just thinking that." Patrious' metallic voice surprised him yet again.

"But how? You weren't even able to escape when you had your body."

"I have something I didn't have last time, you." Liken smiled on the inside at the compliment. "We are going to escape together, Liken. When they come through that door we're going to fight our way through them and get the fuck out of here."

Liken nodded, I'll probably die today, but it's better than being in here.

So they waited. Preparing to lay their lives on the line for their freedom. It's something Patrious has done many times.

"Patrious, I heard you enjoyed that show last night." Mordecai's voice echoed through the doorway, a few minute's after the two started waiting.

The eye slot let Patrious see his captor before he spoke, "I'm going to kill everyone in this cursed city." The tinny voice growled.

"Well, before you do that I've got to show you something." Mordecai said while failing to hide his smirk.

Patrious' core got hotter. His eyes grew bright at the thought of seeing another town butchered before his eyes.

He centred his thoughts, focused, "You guys know I'll always love a good show." Devious thoughts danced through Patrious' head as he imagined beating every person's head in on the other side of that door with his new fists. Time to test them out.

Mordecai paused, expecting the opposite, "Maybe your brain isn't doing so hot in there after all."

He fell for it.

"Alright come on Patrious." Two sentrybots, larger models, taller and stockier than the regular guardbots, awaited Patrious as he stepped out.

Fooled by what they thought was a degraded Patrious the sentrybots slowly advanced to put handcuffs on the dummy. Just before the handcuffs were tightened, Patrious slipped his hands free and jammed the dummy's slim fingers into a space in the armour plating of the sentrybot. Patrious now no longer had to fight through the pain of hand-to-hand combat with robots.

"Hey!" Mordecai screamed before Patrious swung around the left side of the sentry, still holding onto the lubricant filled veins under the sentry's armour. Mordecai was kicked to the ground by the dummy as it's metal foot collided with his chest. At the same time, a hand, full of loose wire and tubes filled the dummy's hand when it was pulled free from under the top of the sentrybot's leg armour.

Mordecai and the sentry made two quick thuds on the ground.

The second sentry finally reacted and advanced through it's two allies towards their enemy. Patrious saw a punch coming and it soared past him while he dodged to his right. The sentrybot stumbled clumsily and Patrious used the opportunity to grab his taser.

The taser slipped from it's holster and sparked to life.

Liken took the other, still recovering, sentry's taser and jammed the pronged end into the sentrybot's neck. The taser twisted and ripped a few vital connections free. The sentry's eyes went grey and it hit the floor as Liken ran past it. The dummy was already in full stride, a few meters ahead when Liken jammed the end of the live taser into Mordecai's left eye.

Mordecai wailed while he was disarmed by Liken. Liken decided to let the man live, not wanting to waste any ammo. He'd just be replaced by some other drone programmed for battle.