Explosions became Althea world. Though the actual time through the minefield only took twenty-nine minutes, she felt like it lasted hours. Unable to distract herself with a decent inner monologue, Althea watched and jumped every time one of Erie’s drones found a mine. She preferred watching those explosions to watching the look of despair that came over Erie’s face during every blast.

  “I lost count of how…”

  Althea regretted her words as Erie mechanically said,

  “Thirty-seven. Thirty-seven drones. I am down to the barest resources.”

  Erie walked forward through divots in the earth. Althea lead the way, seeing Erie’s mood shift as a bad sign. Their goal lay ahead of them at the edge of a barren section of ruins. A low arcing building between massive mounds of debris blocked their progress. Unlike the rest of the wastelands, this place had modern steel and plascrete facades.

  Pontikos corrected that assessment with her own analysis.

  “Those facades are military-grade impact material. They’re even plasma resistant.”

  “How can you tell from here?”

  Pontikos put her hands on her hips and cocked her head at Althea.

  “I don’t think you have the background in materials science needed to explain the matter Mistress. Would like me to upload a professional-level course?”

  Althea felt her cheeks blush as she spoke to her AI,

  “No. I’m good. Impact material. Why would they have that?”

  “Probably because they wish to avoid being burnt alive by plasma attacks. I admit, I am only guessing.”

  Althea rolled her eyes. She felt an urge to ponder Pontikos’s response. But something staved off her navel gazing.

  Out loud she said,

  “How do we get in there?”

  Erie said,

  “Hopefully this is the place I think it is and they’ll just let us in.”

  “If they don’t?”

  Erie shrugged.

  “We know the way back through the minefield now.”

  Althea’s senses shifted to full alert as she felt eyes on her. Pontikos circled seven people holding weapons arrayed through the low building. Most of them pointed their guns at Althea or Erie. One of them held a long-range modern gauss-rifle and sighted out of the building far beyond Erie or Althea.

  Erie raised her arms and shouted,

  “I need to speak with Aloysius Harnter. Tell him Sissy says she’s real sorry about that pomegranate.”

  Althea looked back at the woman and the people holding weapons on them.

  Instead of an answer, the one holding the gauss-rifle shouted and pointed to the west, along the route Erie and Althea had taken.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Erie spun and shouted,

  “Well, that is neat! Maybe today won’t be the worst after all!”

  Althea froze when a pair of explosions went off in the distance, separated by a few seconds and far from the swath Erie had cut through the field.

  Clapping and running in place, Erie threw her arms up and said,

  “Fly my pretties! Fly!”

  There liquid metal drones rose from the dust near them. One of them shuddered and trotted back to Erie rather than jump away. But the other two leapt into the air, shifting their metal forms into gyrocopters.

  They buzzed off behind a small wall of piecemeal drones. Erie’s eyes twinkled as she waved at the people behind her.

  “Sorry about messing up your minefield. I’ll try to make up for it!”

  She ran off back through the field, arms wide and laughing. Althea followed her, catching up quickly, gun at the ready. The silver drone seemed to raise a lump at Althea and shake it at her, but all three continued running.

  “What’s happening?”

  “They sent me prezzies! I just need to keep them from exploding. And catch one with my little precious twins. You’ll see.”

  Althea heard a tone come from Erie’s back then. It rattled her teeth and made the metal connections in her skin itch. Pontikos identified it as a ultrasonic countermeasure, though Althea did not know what that meant.

  Thirteen medium sized drones rose ahead of them, almost drawn by Erie’s loud humming. Her small flock of dilapidated drones neared the first few and the front hostile opened fire. Erie shouted encouragements to her troops as they blazed and fell. Half of the force dropped as a silver figure emerged from the dirt around the head drone.

  It fired three times, the weapon on its mount point lowering each time it fired, but missed Erie’s drone all three times. When it stopped moving the others did as well.

  Althea opened her mouth, but Erie held up a finger to keep her from talking. Thirty seconds, a minute passed and Althea started to feel useless and exposed out in the minefield. She could not take more than two steps north or south and she did not want to retreat back to the arched building to the east.

  When the silver amoeba-like drone detached from the hostile and sank into the ground, Althea raised her gun. Erie put her hand on the barrel and shook her head,

  “Come on, my great protector. Let’s bring these beauties in before they break my overrides.”

  Erie lagged behind and patted the man-sized hunter-kill drone on the head and said,

  “Someone needs a bit of preventative maintenance or someone might try to kill us in our sleep. Won’t they. Yes they will. Yes they will.”

  She giggled as she crawled on top of the drone and rode it back to the reinforced base.

  Now eight people held guns on them, four per. A large central door sat open and a group of six people stepped out along with a small flock of armed drones.

  Erie perked up at the sight of still more drones to take over, but she addressed the newcomers.

  “Is one of you the guy that calls himself Boris?”

  In the middle of the six people stood a tall man with broad shoulders. The gray cloth wound around his head and torso hiding his face.

  “What if I am?”

  “Is that you, Aly?”

  “I don’t know who that is, girlie. You and your friend need to take off.”

  “Did any of you deliver my message? I am looking for Aloysius. When he knew me, I was called Sissy. Tell him I really want to apologize!”

  All five of the other guards wore similar face concealing wraps. The man in the middle gave a tiny nod as if in response to something Althea could not see. He said,

  “Do it. And let’s get out of the open.”

  A man approached the two of them. Althea’s implanted combat protocols had already spiked far into the red. But for some reason, the man moved like a fish through the water of violence. Not only did Althea have trouble identifying him as a threat, by the time she noticed the small object in his hand and the other five men running, her body had already reacted too slowly.

  She shouted,

  “Bomb!”

  As she raced between the two of them, trying to tackle the man and absorb the blast. Since gaining her enhanced strength and speed from her implants, most humans had become pushovers. This one made her feel like the novice she was. He ducked by centimeters and shifted his stance in a way Althea could not see. Then she tumbled over him, losing her balance as her arms tried to catch him. He rolled out of her grasp, slipping through her fingers like he had scales. She felt him kick her backside as she finished her attempt at saving Erie on her face, chewing the surely toxic dirt of the wasteland.

  Behind her the man stopped in front of Erie with his hand held out and an item Pontikos identified as an anti-bunker weapon as it beeped and emitted a blinding flash.