This could only end badly if I didn't act out. The medical automaton came at me. With the hilt of the instrument in hand, I dashed out of the way when it swung. Sparks flew off the Blood Drive mechanism from the spinning blade grinding against its metal. I rolled onto the floor and stumbled my way back up. I watched in fear as the automaton turned around to readjust itself and come at me again. I ran, jumping over one of the tables before it swung once again but tripped over some miscellaneous scattered surgical tools left on the floor and fell. That hurt. I rubbed my head and was about to get back up when the automaton reached down and wrapped its cold, steel fingers around my neck. It lifted me up effortlessly and brought me over to the nearest table, slamming me down on top. It lowered the saw and began tearing up the flesh on my chest. I brought the blade of the instrument out and smacked it up against the arm of the automaton, pushing it back to stop the cutting. It was eager to operate on me. All of my remaining strength was keeping that arm at bay from continuing to chew me up. My chest was bleeding profusely. Thankfully it didn't get too deep and close to any crucial arteries or organs. The amount of pain I was enduring was staggering. At the joint where the blade held I could see a crack forming. The aging steel on the automaton was showing signs of degradation. I kept pushing and pushing that blade into the joint until in the blink of an eye... The arm severed.

No more was the buzzing of the saw blade. The appendage flailed over me and onto the floor, leaving a trail of blood behind spattering over my torso. My own arm was frozen in the air, metal shavings staining the blood-soaked blade of the instrument. The medical automaton released it's grip on my throat just in time as I was beginning to lose consciousness. It's eyes turned to yellow and it conformed to a static pose before shutting down completely. Huh? Must be some kind of fail-safe state in the event of a malfunction... Such as losing a limb. I sat up. Looking down at my bleeding chest was not a pretty sight. A good chunk of my flesh had been torn up from the saw. I hate this place. Containing my disdain for this establishment, I once again approached the Blood Drive, stuck the needled tube into my stomach and pulled the switch. The red fluid inside the glass contained slowly drained as the blood entered my system. I felt my wounds closing up but the scars left by the automaton were forever etched onto my skin. Whatever. I was just relieved that my form's biological regenerative system was functioning properly.

Now I was curious about the room that automaton had emerged from. So I took a peek inside. In there I saw a second medical automaton hooked up to a machine with a couple gauges and some bellows pumping air into the machines internal system. A table with a set of monitors displaying vital signs and garbles of unrecognizable text wired to the machine. Come to think of it, I had never really properly examined one of these specific automatons up close. I was either in a hurry and distracted or fighting for my own damn life. A tray containing various mechanical tools sat beside the machine. On the torso of the automaton were a set of four consecutive bolts. Grabbing the driver, I knelt down and unscrewed the bolts. Then I pulled on the steel plate, being met with a hiss of steam erupting from inside the machine. The plate came off. Two fleshy organs interconnected with a geared mechanism were pumping blood into what looked like a constructed heart of some kind that pulsated. This automaton... Was not all machine. Inside its outer robotic husk was flesh and blood mended with machinery. What the hell am I looking at? Is that why blood spurted from the mechanical arm I had severed before? To get a further grasp, I took a wrench and the driver to detach one of the arms. The stub was white like bone. Wires installed into a mass of skin were all I saw from the area where I had detached the limb. I dropped it and stood up in shock. I then backed away slowly, glaring at the dissected automaton. Shivers ran down my spine. I didn't want to be here anymore...

My head was spinning and my vision began to get blurry for but a few seconds. I'm fine now I think. Still halted from my current destination, I found myself wandering elsewhere in this barren city. Searching. For what though? Someplace that could hold significance. I needed some way to get past those automaton guarding the central tower. A distraction. A weapon. Protection. Anything at this point. My instrument would be useless against bulky machines with cannons. Rest is maybe what I could really use as my head was pounding and the remnants of pain left from my wounds still stung. Heading to a lower street level where a lone abandoned trolley sat nearby, I soon spotted a three-story structure. The front doors were left open. How inviting. Several stacks lined the roof. A round emblem with a rectangular emblem plastered in the center of the third story.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Entering the structure its walls were adorned with a white and black striped pattern. The atrium was fairly small. There were two hallways with elevators at the ends, a front desk and a half-open door to another room behind said desk. A shelf with cubes concealed keys encased behind glass doors. These were all clearly locked up. What about these rooms then? None of them were open. I got into the elevator to head up a floor. Only one room had the door left open. I went to check inside. There was a window, a single bed and a commode. Then I saw the two corpses on the bed embracing each other. I... Was petrified. These were the first two corpses I had seen since coming to this district. Nothing was found inside, but I'll remember that pair.

The elevator took me to the third floor. Another room where the door was open. Four corpses were huddled together in a corner. On the commode were empty glass bottles. Looks like they were a group. I left the room, finding but one other room accessible. A corpse lay on the bed clutching something in it's hand. I pried the object from it's hands then got a closer look at it. Embroidered onto it's forehead was a circlet bearing that same symbol I saw on the shack near the tower with the courtyard. And what it was holding onto was this thin, rectangular card also bearing that symbol. Tiny spines decorated the sides and edges. I shoved the corpse off of the bed so that I could lay down. I was needing the rest anyway. Thanks for this.

Some time passed by. The ominous spindly creature I had seen before did not visit me in my unconscious state. Only a black void gave me comfort while my body and mind rested. When I awoke, my head was throbbing with a sharp pain and my vision was blurry. I shook it off and got back up. With this object in my hand, I kept it clutched tightly while I made my way back downstairs and out of this place. I approached the trolley and tapped it. The humanoid figure woke up, pressing a hand to its head and shaking it. Then it looked at me with its singular eye. I pointed in the direction of the tallest tower. The figure nodded and directed me to the seats. It pulled down on its lever and the trolley took off.

I found myself back at the courtyard not long after I had hopped off of the trolley. It was only able to take me so far since it was on the surface street level. I still felt the resonant pain from the wound but ignored it. Back at the building before the towering staircase, I took the object and slotted it into the device near the door. Two tiny mechanical arms erected from the device and pushed the object inside before retracting. The red light on it turned to green. With a loud creaking, the door opened up. When I stepped inside I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. Monitors lined the walls. Various keys and buttons dotted the desk below. Two chairs were left empty. At the back was a Blood Drive and a tall metal container connected to a device on the wall. I walked to the container and flipped the latches to open it up. Inside was a foreign piece of equipment with a long barrel, trigger at the base and a stock. I disconnected it from the cord it was hooked up to and picked it up to examine it closely. This was like a miniature variant of the cannon those automaton had built into their arms. It was mostly made of a dark brown iron material with strands of sinew wrapped around the barrel connected to the receiver. I pulled the little handle back to unlock the muscular bolt from the receiver. Checking inside the hole revealed a peek into the inner workings of this equipment. A single cartridge of lead was loaded into the fleshy cavern of the barrel chamber. I then rotated the handle down for the bolt head to re-lock on the receiver, emanating a wet and squishy yet mechanical sound as it was loaded. This was no cannon though... I had acquired a firearm of my own now.

With this newly acquired piece of engineering marvel, I took a moment to figure out how its meant to be held. I had to aim it in front of me and keep a firm grip on the base with my finger near the trigger. The device connected to this container had opened up to reveal a set of clips loaded with the lead shells. I took a few and snugly stuffed them behind my belt. Now that I was armed with equipment that seemed more suited for distance, I left the shack and began ascending the staircase once again. I hid behind the wall and glanced around the corner. The automatons were once again in stasis. I know that if I were to cross into the courtyard, they would awaken again. I took aim at one of them with the firearm. Before I could even take a shot, my head began pounding again and my vision was blurring. Clearly I needed a moment to regain my composure. The pain from the wound was aching. Just what the hell was happening to me...?