--Point of View: Crim--

I understood what was happening before they even said it. More of those accursed machines were loose and wreaking havoc. One was enough to put me out of commission. Maybe if I got the jump on a few of them I may manage but an army was out of the question. The look on both of their faces told me they had come to the same conclusion.

“What are our options?” I asked, walking to stand beside the two of them.

“Well, we have a few choices but most of them involve a very high probability of death so it would be best to avoid those.” Answered Tom, adjusting his glasses nervously.

“Right. I figure we probably have at least a few hours before we are discovered so we better make the most of it.” Added Katie, taking a seat in a nearby chair. It was easy to tell she was lost in thought.

I started to pace back and forth within the room, my mind racing for ideas but my brain lacked any for the time being. Sighing and turning to first Katie, and them Tom, waiting for them to start spitting out ideas.

“Well?” I asked, growing a little impatient. “How are we going to get out of here in one piece?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” Replied Tom who had taken a seat beside Katie. His brows furrowed. “The first idea was to simply fight our way out if there was only one droid but that is no longer a viable option. You are strong Crim, very strong and I don’t doubt you could take quite a few of these metal monstrasities with you but, we can’t ensure you would survive.”

“Exactly. There is no way we are going to do something that potentially gets you killed, or worse, captured. Death is one thing, but a life of imprisonment is another.” Added Katie, looking up from the floor to face me as she spoke. She looked tired.

“As much as I hate to admit it, you are right about fighting off those machines. I still don’t fully understand how I survived the first one. Even just two may be too much for me to handle. A distraction maybe but that would leave me in a very disadvantageous situation while you two tried to escape.” I commented, trying to find some way to get these two, as well as myself out of here alive. The options were slim.

“A distraction wouldn’t work anyway. The main door is probably sealed shut by now. Plus, there is no way in hell we are going to let you risk your life to save ours. We are all getting out of here together or none of us will.” Said Katie, placing a hand over her heart. She was a good friend.

“Well that only leaves a few other options then.” Remarked Tom, moving to his feet and joining me as I paced. “Assuming we cannot face the threat of the droids, that means our chances of leaving through the main door are slim to none. We will either have to disable the droids somehow or venture further into this base and hope we find either an exit or something else to aid us.”

Katie and I both looked at him, realizing he was right. If we could turn off the droids that would be the easiest way but both of us quickly remember that even to do that, you would have to venture out to access the terminal.

“I don’t think you or I are going to be able to get anywhere near that droid control console without being blasted to pieces.” Katie commented, some disappointment in her voice.

“That was my thinking as well. The droids are surely patrolling the area outside and I reckon they are smart enough to know to guard the one thing that may disable them. Especially the one we saw upstairs. It seemed a bit smarter than the first one.” Added Tom, stopping in place to speak.

“Agreed. That droid really threw a wrench into our plans. Its hard telling what its capable of. The first one was happy just killing everyone down here, but it seemed to move with a purpose and made it all the way to the front door.” Said Katie, her face full of dread. “It killed them all.”

I strolled over and planted my head onto Katie’s lap, much like a normal dog would. Comfort was all I wished to bring for the time being. She was so young. Even if they trained her to be a solider, there were still things in this world that nobody should have to witness. Your friends and family being slaughtered like animals was very much one of them. I knew it well. I watched it happen.

She smiled and buried her face into my fur, her hands taking hold and clenching tight. Fear was starting to overwhelm us all, but we must not lose hope. If we are alive, we could do something. Until this body took its final breath, I would use it to protect these two. It was the least I could do for them. I had nothing else to live for. After centuries of aimless wandering, they had given me purpose. I would repay it.

“Fear not. It will be okay.” I said simply.

Katie did not say a word for a few minutes. Nor did Tom. Everyone was silent. We needed time to compose ourselves. Much had happened in such a short period of time.

“Thank you, Crim, I appreciate it, but can you move. You’re heavy.” Said Katie with a sniffle, a small smile on her face. “Not to mention we are short on time.”

“Of course. You’re right” I replied, matching her smile with one of my own. It was good to see her resembling her old self again.

“Right, back to the plan.” said Tom, moving back over to take his seat once again, leaning forward in the chair. “Okay, so I have an idea but its stupid, dangerous and probably a one-way ticket. Want to hear it?”

“As long as it doesn’t involve me being charred to death by those robots, I’m all ears.” I said, my ears giving a small wiggle.

Tom looked to Katie who only nodded for him to continue. “Okay, so while I was here alone the first time, I took it upon myself to explore a little. I mean, why not. I thought I was going to die. Towards the back of this room is what looks like an elevator. Where it goes or how far is travels is a mystery to me but I think it’s a good starting point.”

“An elevator? Why didn’t you mention that sooner?” piped up Katie in surprise. “Maybe it could take us to the surface.”

“Well, sorry to burst your bubble but this is the top floor of the elevator shaft. It only has one button and its down. How far down I haven’t a clue. The other problem is the fact its not working. Unlike the rest of the base, it doesn’t have any power.” Explained Tom as he watched the excitement fade from her face.

“Ah, that would explain why. Please continue.” Said Katie quietly.

“Real quick you two. What on earth is an elevator?” I asked, perplexed. I could normally figure stuff out given enough context clues, but time was not something we had right now. I figured it would be best to ask.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Oh, right. Sorry Crim. I keep forgetting that most of this stuff is wildly new to you. An elevator is what we use instead of stairs most of the time. Its kind of like a small room that travels up and down within a building.” Explained Tom, motioning with his hands to try and demonstrate how it worked.

“That does sound pretty convenient. Sounds better than stairs anyway.” I said quickly before motioning for Tom to continue.

“Right, well you see. I figured Crim would be able to easily rip open the elevator doors so we could look down the shaft. We won’t be able to do much without power but given how…” Tom paused to look at me, eyeing me up and down. “Downright massive you are, we maybe be able to ride on your back as you slowly lower yourself down.”

I tilted my head as I rolled around what he just said in his head, a single brow arched as I stared at him. He started to fidget in his chair. While I was not opposed to carrying these two, the idea of jumping down what they described to me as a giant hole, did not sit well. The longer I thought about it though, the more it seemed to make sense. What other choice did we have. We could sit here and wait to be found and take a risk.

“I’m willing to risk it if you two are.” I said simply, waiting for the response.

Katie looked at Tom like he had two heads. “You want us to dive down an elevator shaft and hope we survive the fall. Is that what you are suggesting Tom? Really?” she sneered, very dubious of his plan.

“No, not fall. Descend. If Crim can wedge himself into the shaft he can probably use those claws of his to slide down with some sort of control. Do you think you could pull that off Crim?” answered Tom, looking to me for backup.

“Well, I don’t see why not. I’ve slid down plenty of buildings above ground in the ruins. It should be about the same I figure” I said with a shrug. It did not sound so hard when he phrased it like that.

“Well, I suppose it’s a better option than being fired upon by the droids. They will kill us. A long fall down an elevator shaft? If we are lucky, we will crawl away. I’ll take those odds.” Said Katie with a half-hearted laugh.

Tom and I both knew she was trying to hide just how scared she was. I could not blame her. I was scared too but not of death. Life had given me a chance to live again so the thought of death was almost welcoming at this point. What I feared most was losing these two.

Our plans though were quickly interrupted by the all too familiar sound of gunfire. The droids must have found another group of surviving soldiers and mowed them down with little to no mercy. What was more concerning though was the fact it sounded like it came from the same hallway. They were drawing closer. Our time was up.

“Quick, we need to get out of here and fast.” Chimed in Katie just as a large crash echoed against the door.

“Door inaccessible. Access code not retrievable from central database. Commencing forced entry.” Declared a muffled voice from outside the door followed by more explosions. The door, even as heavy as it was, began to shake on its hinges.

Everyone was to their feet and inching away from the door slowly, not wanting to alert anyone to their presence. They were not exactly making slow work of the door but we did not want to give them an excuse to go faster.

“The elevator Tom, where is it?” whispered Katie, her head twisting and turning to find it.

“This way, quickly!” responded Tom, leading us both towards the back of the room. It was dimly lit compared to the rest of the room and had very little of anything to look at but situated on the furthest wall was a set of iron doors.

I did not wait for them to give me the order. Placing my claws in the center groove, I tore open the door like the many others I had done previously. Inside, just like Tom had described earlier, was a small room. This did not sit well with Tom who immediately started to curse under his breath.

“Shit, we can’t drop down if the elevator car is here.” He exclaimed with some very colorful words.

Katie dashed inside in a panic, frantically looking around the elevator until they spotted what they were looking for.

“There's a service hatch! If I can manage to get this car to drop down, the path should be clear for us.” She yelled as she reached up to pull down a hatch in the ceiling. “I just don’t know how long it will take. I’ve never worked on one of these before.”

“Couldn’t we just ride it down in that case?” I asked.

“Only if you want to be inside of a giant metal box when it crashes into the bottom.” She answered rather quickly, not taking her eyes off the task at hand.

“Good point. You keep at it. I’m going to buy us some time.” I said before turning around and making towards the door.

Katie jerked back and reached out to stop me, but Tom silenced her with a hand. “It’s the only shot we have at this. Don’t let it be in vain”

I moved towards the entrance and readied myself. Last time I was not prepared and had no idea what I was up against. I may be outnumbered but these narrow hallways made it relatively easy to barrel through everything in my path. If I could just distract them long enough for Katie to finish her work, we could get out of here.

The door was slowly starting buckle and glow hot from repeated blasts from the droids weapons. It would happen soon. I turned and looked back at Katie and Tom once more.

“It’ll be any moment now. I’ll do my best to hold them off. Yell when you are ready. I’ll hear you.” I shouted back just as the door finally gave away and toppled over onto the floor.

Four droids, just like the first one, stood on the other side of the door, weapons raised and ready. This time though, I did not even give them a chance to speak. I leapt through the doorway as soon as the way was clear and sunk my teeth into one of their skulls, crunching it with ease. One more twist and it was freed. Three droids remained but the element of surprise had come and gone. They started firing on me immediately and I only managed to dodge two of the three blasts. The third connected and sent me rocketing back into the room. I could hear Katie and Tom gasp behind me but I was back on my feet before the droids could take a single step through the door.

Lowering my head, I plowed into their hard, heavy bodies, sending them flying in all directions. The clanging echoed down the halls and I’m sure it alerted even more of them. I would not have much time. Taking no chances, I kept on the attack. Before they could all recover, I was on top of one of them, attempting to pry its head of just like the first. I was less successful this time. One of the other droids fired its weapon. By sheer luck, I pulled my head back, dragging the droid along with it like an impromptu shield. The light beam struck the droid and rendered it useless. Two down.

As I got to my feet to face off against the remaining two, the sound of heavy metal footsteps echoed down the halls. There were the reinforcements I feared. They were quick. But the droids in front of me were quicker. In the time it took for me to tilt my head and listen, they had already fired at me. I was struck clean in the chest and along my back leg. I gasped; the pain was intense. Looking down, more of my own blood was splashed across the slick tile floor and I wondered just how much I had lost. It mattered not though and now was not the time.

Jerking my head back up, I locked eyes with one of the droids and bounded forward. A few more shots were fired but I ignored them. The pain was nulled by my desire to save everyone. Not just Katie and Tom, but anybody these droids had ever killed. They needed to be taken care of. Raising his weapon again, the droid nearest me prepared to fire another round but found it could not. Its arm dangled from my jaw, ripped violently from the rest of its body. It seemed puzzled for a moment before simply striking at me with its only available hand. Suffice to say, it did very little.

Completely ignoring the mostly defeated droid, I turned to the last threat. Whether by fear or programming, it started to fire madly in my direction. These were far easier to dodge then the previous attempts and made closing the gap easier. I thrashed and tossed it across the corridors like a piece of scrap metal. Crushing it, tearing it and smashing it everyway I could conceive. It was during this made frenzy that I heard Katie call out from inside the room.

“Crim! Its done! Hurry!” she shouted, her voice echoing down the hall and melding with the sound of heavy footsteps.

I turned just in time to see a dozen more droids round the corner, their weapons primed and ready. I dived into the room just as an array of blasts exploded against the wall where I stood just a moment before.

Thinking quickly, I bent down and clamped the heavy door in my jaws and tossed it towards the entrance. It landed with a crash and embedded itself in the doorway. Even if it only blocked them for a minute, any time would help. Katie and Tom were by the elevator waiting for me. They both looked pale and sweaty. The small room that once laid inside the shaft was gone.

“Quick, hop on!” I shouted, closing the gap between us with one leap and bending down to allow them to climb on. “They will be upon us any second now!”

With the utmost haste, Katie and Tom clamored onto my back and held on for dear life. A loud crash signaled that the droids had already broken into the room. Without turning to look, I jumped forward into the elevator shaft and darkness enveloped all of us as the sound of blasters ran overhead.