Franklin O'Meilli

I ran as fast as I could through the shredded landscape of Houston, Texas. I couldn’t help but awe at the beautiful contrast of blue and orange that the magnificent sunrise cast over the city. The gray rubble and the gray, broken people rushed by me as I sprinted down the corroded streets and into a dark, dismal alleyway. Purplish Red bolts of plasma illuminated my path as the heated matter left scorched cement and melted metal.

I glanced back at my tall, three-legged pursuer, who offered a collection of recorded commands to compliment the blazing plasma. “You have entered the territory of New Europe. Termination of your vital readings must be achieved before further patrol protocols can be reestablished. You have entered the territory or New Europe. Termination of…”

I whipped around and unloaded several shells of my side arm, but it couldn’t puncture through the armored capsule where the vital hardware was enclosed, so I turned and continued to run. My Explorer unit was close, but I wasn’t sure that I was going to be able to out run the Terror Drone much longer.

I saw an open doorway to an intact hotel building and sprinted inside. The Drone stopped at the doorway and lowered its plasma weapon to fit into the opening. I was nearly decapitated by a thick plasma beam that tore through the entire first level, but luckily the Drone aimed too high. I shot through the emergency exit just seconds before the building lost stability and collapsed.

I saw my explorer unit sitting on Interstate 610 and I raced for it. I glanced briefly behind to see what had happened to the Terror Drone and to my great terror (Ha Ha) the Drone was galloping at full speed in my direction.

When the drone was fifty yards from me I could see that the plasma chamber on its weapon was steaming. It was probably from that plasma beam back at the hotel. Most plasma weapons can conduct a constant stream, but there is no faster way to fry a chamber.

My observation was confirmed when the drone’s microphone went active again. “Plasma Chamber in need of replacement. Terminating hostile through other means. Plasma Chamber in need of replacement. Terminating hostile through other means.”

I really didn’t want to experience those other means. I unclipped my remote explorer controls from my belt and tried to punch in instructions, but running and clicking in my override password, which is a sixteen-letter code, is a difficult feat.

I leapt down onto the interstate and was just about to my explorer unit when one of the terror drone’s legs came crashing down inches in front of me. I smashed my face into the leg and fell to the ground, dropping my remote. I rolled to the side as another leg came down where my head had been. I reached for the remote and grabbed it by the harness strap. I then jumped up and stumbled to the side as the whole body of the Terror Drone smashed the ground where I had lain. I punched in the last two override codes and moved toward my explorer. I activated turret controls and adjusted them to attack anything with a NE transponder signal.

The Terror Drone rose again to its full height and charged back after me as I ran into my Explorer unit through the bottom entry ramp. I hit the interior door controls, causing the open doorway to slam shut. The Drone started to beat against the explorer causing some unfortunate damage. I could hear the exterior plasma turrets click on and begin to unload on the Drone. The clanging on the explorer’s hull moved to the top of the vehicle, then stopped. Everything was quiet for a moment then the recorded voice of the Terror Drone went active again. “Severe external damage. Internal hardware corruption detected. Self-destruct activated.”

I stood for a moment in disbelief and then jumped into the Explorer’s port side lab. The roof of the command deck vanished as the whole Explorer blasted apart.