Oliver P.O.V.

I swear, I was just trying to get out of the house and away from my mother for a few hours… How could I have known that the random pile of boxes on the side of the road would be picked up soon! I will admit, it wasn't the brightest idea to go inside one to get away from the chill, but what the bloody hell is going on!?

I got picked up somehow, and brought into a truck. I was already panicking by that time, but when I realized that I was being driven off I started scrambling out of the box I was inside and I found myself locked in the back of a truck. Then an hour of being thrown all over the place against the walls and the boxes later, the truck stopped and the doors were flung open. I pushed myself out of the truck, sending the other boxes tumbling out of the truck. Then I realized that I was locked inside a garage or a loading bay. I was already panicking by that time, thinking about how I would explain why I tossed out the plastics and stuff in the box, but then I saw the people I thought were mannequins start moving around the loading bay and towards me.

I lost it and just started screaming my head off as I scrambled my way in the opposite direction to the things and eventually against the loading bay door with the costumed men coming closer all around me.

Then I faintly heard a hard man's voice cursing and shouting something I couldn't quite hear, but I was more scared then I had ever been and my mind had gone blank.

Then I heard a thud, and I looked up with wide eyes at the sight of a man standing straight behind the people that were coming towards me and I was really confused at the sight. He looked like a homeless man, wearing what looked like hand washed and beaten clothes, the beginnings of a dirty beard and holding a stone spear. He would look funny if his expression was so panicked and hard, his face fully serious.

“OI! YOU HUNKS OF PLASTIC! OVER HERE!” I heard the man shout, and then with a grunt thrusting his spear into the back of one of the men’s heads. I saw the other people all around me react instantly as I recoiled, turning slowly to face the man. I felt myself grow quiet at the scene, looking on with horror. My eyes widened further though when I saw that the man who was just speared in the head, didn't even flinch and kept trying to turn towards the man with the spear while the man wrestled against it. Was this some kind of… movie set? A prank? No way, this was as real as it could get and there was no camera anywhere.

I heard a slight snap as I saw the man wiggle his spear around inside the thing's head, and I watched as the figure went limp instantly, the man retracting his spear and letting the thing fall to the ground lifelessly. It looked dead…

The man turned and backed away from the other approaching things as they reached out with their arms, but the man leaped over the railing to the mezzanine stairs and away from the reaching arms. He turned back to me with a concerned look in his eyes and carefully kept his spear pointed at the other things that were following him onto the mezzanine, up the stairs. “You need to get out of here! But don't go out on the first floor!” I heard him shout warningly, looking mildly panicked as I started to get on my knees. “There are more of them all over this place! If you can't get out through the loading bay door, just hide! I will be back as soon as I deal with these!” He shouted instructions as he backed away a bit.

‘There are more of them? Who are they? What are they?!’ I thought in panic, but I found myself steeling my nerves as I looked in the man's eyes, his age and experience reassuring me a bit. I gave a nod and I started running the man's words and what I just saw in my mind. These things, whatever they are, were trying to kill me and the man distracted them and is leading them away from me. He is trying to save me by leading them away… he is in danger…

I found myself starting to wrestle with myself about what I needed to do as the man made a fighting retreat with his primitive spear, killing two more before he ran out the door. I looked after the retreating figures with wide eyes, still not moving. I heard the man shout out “Shit! Why do I have to be right!?” and I saw the man fling himself back and out of sight. I scrambled to my feet as I heard two loud cracks, then a loud bang! I flinched and ducked down behind the truck out of instinct as I heard the gunshot, then covered my ears as several more rang out.

I shakily got to my knees after the shock started to wear off as soon as I found myself alone, peering around the van to see nothing. I was alone with a few body’s of the things that were trying to kill me and whoever the other guy with the spear was.

I started to walk quickly over to the body’s to take a look at them, before I recoiled in confusion as I saw a large hole in each of their heads. A hollow hole, like a layer of plastic was pierced. These things… were made of plastic? How… How was that-

I shut down the thought and I felt myself rise to my feet and looking around carefully for any more of these things. It didn't matter what they were, not really. I felt my face harden as I examined my surroundings with adrenaline rushing through my veins.

----------------------------------------

Killiad P.O.V.

I fell to the ground with a thump, just barely keeping my grip on my spear as I tried to scramble away from the black Auton as his leg came crashing down just where my legs were and creating a small crater in the school building's tile floor.

Thank the Gods that this thing isn't as fast as a human… Just this bit slower than me makes a huge difference in combat. Though if any more of these things attack me at the same time, I would die no question. If I had tried to go through with my plan to draw away groups of the workers at the production line I would have more than a few of these things on me, even if they didn't try to search for me… I would have most likely died.

As I tried to plan how to kill the other upgraded Autons, I was interrupted by the spike of adrenaline that was caused by the black plastic model raising its arm and the finger portion falling away on a hinge. Revealing a gun barrel that was now pointing at me.

I rolled to the side and dodged the first shot as it blasted away a chunk of tile from the floor, the bang of the gun loud and making me flinch but it wasn't as loud as I have heard from other guns. Either this thing was silenced or this wasn't designed like a modern gun. I was getting distracted again. I blinked away my shock and I pushed myself to my feet, throwing myself up and away from the Auton's second shot.

Then I was off down the hallway and praying for luck as I tried to keep my running in a unpredictable zigzag down the hallway away from the plastic man as I heard it fire another bullet at me one at a time, one of which actually nicked my shoulder the second I raced around the corner, causing a sharp sting but it was just a small cut thankfully. I never thought I was lucky, but that was some luck. Admittedly I am pretty sure the Auton didn't have the best aim, but I am lucky I am alive.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I crouched down a bit and I held my spear at the ready just around the corner of the hallway, ready to spear the black mannequin that I could now hear running down the hallway after me, its footfalls loud and exactly like the loud thumps I heard when I was hiding inside the closet yesterday. I did not realize until just now that the normal mannequin foot soldiers didn't actually make all that noise when they walked, so the loud footfalls are either a lot of normal mannequins or an Elite Auton.

The Elite Auton Soldier whipped around the corner in an instant, my reprieve not as long as I had hoped. I thrust my spear upwards towards its featureless face the second it came into my sight, but it was deflected by a quick and unexpected deflection by the soldier’s hand and just barely causing my spear to graze the side of its head before I pulled back quickly.

The Auton clearly wasn't expecting for me to be waiting for it to come around the corner, but it reacted quickly and sent its open hand to chop at my head, which I dodged by leaning to the side while retracting my spear. My brain could barely keep up with the fight, but I found myself rising up straight with a leap backwards as the Autons karate chop was followed up by a kick that just barely passed in front of me. Taking advantage of the Autons slight loss of balance that happened from the missed kick, I pushed myself forward again and thrust my spear towards his chest. It was pretty clumsy and the extension nearly caused me to lose balance, but I managed to hit the things head solidly and pierced through the plastic face.

It just kept going, raising its hands to try and grab my spear that was protruding from its face. I pulled away quickly, cursing under my breath. I didn't hit the control orb. It was definitely close though…

The black Auton seemed to grow faster and more wild from my failed strike, moving in towards me with a quick lunge with its arms stretching out to my neck. That threw me off a bit, and from my off balance position my body was angled towards the mannequin so there was only one thing I could do, so I abandoned my my spear by dropping it to the ground and rolled underneath the soldiers outstretched arms with a speed and grace I didn't know I had. I stood up quickly behind the mannequin and threw my entire body at it, making it stagger and allowing my arms to go around its neck and head, pulling at it from behind.

Then all I could really think of was yanking off the mannequin's head, so I pulled with all my strength as I hung onto the Auton's back against its flailing arms and legs as it tried and failed to either hit me or get me off. Then I heard a pop, and I found myself falling while the mannequin's body faltered and my arms shot up with the head in my arms.

I kicked myself away backwards, stumbling a bit as I held onto the damaged plastic head. I looked at it while the body tried to recover, the hole created by my spear was pretty big and I could even see the control orb through the hole. My hands started moving quickly as I reached down for my knife while holding the head firmly under my arm. The body started moving towards me again, its hands reaching out, but it was too late to save itself. My hunting knife slid easily from its sheath and I swung my arm with all my might into the head, causing a crack as the control orb was pierced and the body fell limply to the ground.

I let the head fall to the ground with a thud as I turned around, all the bumps and hits I got from throwing myself around catching up with me as I exhaled with my knife held loosely at my side. Then my breath hitched as the second I turned around, I was suddenly face to face with a white mannequin soldier and I flinched backwards out of instinct. Luckily, the normal mannequins weren't as fast as the Elite ones, so with my split second reaction the karate chop that was aiming for my head passed just an inch in front of my face with a whoosh of air as it hit nothing.

There was another just behind it as well, walking steadily to me across the short stretch hallway.

I shoulder checked the lump of plastic hard, sending it stumbling back and making my shoulder hurt a bit from the hard plastic impact. My adrenaline high was fading fast if I could feel the pain of such a small impact… I pushed through the pain that was suddenly biting at seemingly every part of me and following through, slashing my hunting knife at the dummy's head and causing a long but shallow cut in the mannequin's face.

I didn't let up however, and I pushed myself forwards even more, stabbing downwards at its head, puncturing the top and causing a sharp crack as it fell dead.

But while I was focused on this Auton, the other one had come up beside me and swung its hand at my right shoulder, connecting with a solid thunk and making me feel like my entire arms were on fire from the pain and making me drop my knife. I cried out in pain, but I got control over myself and I found myself using that pain to fuel a loud angry roar, the pain clouding my mind.

I leaped forwards and punched it in the face with my hurt arm, causing it to take half a step backwards and causing me to howl in pain again as my arm felt like falling off. I stumbled backwards, clutching my arm to my chest as I felt myself fall to the ground.

But I just wouldn't let myself and I found my arms and legs start to move without any thought on my mind, the pain seeming to block any thoughts and making me feel numb as I prepared to run towards the spear behind me that I had dropped a few seconds ago. But as I looked, I could see the mannequin fall to the ground with a kid standing behind it, holding a knife.

I could feel my mind clear a bit as I saw the kid, the pain starting to fade just a bit. “Thanks for that…” I mumbled a bit to the kid, tired beyond belief. “No problem.” The kid said quickly, brushing it off before he turned serious. “What the bloody hell is going on!” He whisper-shouted quickly, looking into my eyes with some panic but a lot of determination.

“No time…” I said quickly as my mind started clearing again, whirring into gear. I was still in a lot of pain, but I pushed through it and moved quickly, picking up and sheathing my knife that was lying on the floor by me before jogging heavily down the hallway past the black Autons body and grabbing my spear before I turned back to the kid and started jogging unsteadily down the hallway.

“Come with me! I need to get back to the loading bay!” I called out as I ran, hurrying past him back down the hallway and towards the loading bay without hesitation. The kid seemed to understand my urgency and he quickly started jogging along beside me. “You are in pretty rough shape, your arm got hit?” He asked as he looked me over with a frown. “Yes. It's fine.” I responded tiredly, already out of breath from the fight.

The kid seemed to disagree judging by his face, but he kept silent as we entered the main hallway again and together we walked onto the metal platform in the loading bay. “Try to open the door!” I called out to the blond kid beside me before holding my spear firmly and quickly ran down the stairs. I made it to the bottom in no time, rushing over to the van and stabbing my spear into one of the front tires and popping it with a hiss, already pulling my spear out and moving onto the next tire ready to pop it too. This van wouldn't be going anywhere without tires, and I don't see how the factory can work without the materials from the van’s deliveries.

The loading bay door started opening once I had popped the last tire, and I walked around to see the British kid running down to me from the metal stairway, looking at me with concern. “Ok, you get yourself out of here. Just run. I don't think they will follow you.” I said seriously and quickly as I started to faintly hear footsteps coming from outside, though his expression shifted to confusion as I said it. “You aren't coming with me?” He asked, worried for some reason. “I cant.” I told him, then cut him off as he was about to ask more. “Listen! They are coming, you need to run quickly!” I said firmly, leaning on my spear.

“No!” He told me, his face twisting. “I am going with you!” He asserted quickly, and I started shaking my head, pointing towards the open garage door before he cut me off. “I am going with you.” He said firmly, and the growing volume of the footsteps marching on the first floor coming closer made me realize I was out of time. “Fine, come with me! We need to hide!” I said quickly, running towards the stairs to the second floor and letting the kid follow behind me, being careful not to hit him with the butt of my spear as we ran together upstairs and away from the soldiers.