I ran with everything I had.

  I hadn’t waited for Poppy. I hadn’t waited for Willis.

  I just ran with every fibre in my body, chasing down the man who had ruined my life since the first day he had entered it. He had taken everything from me, my wife, my family, but most of all he had taken my time. Time I would never get back. Time that would haunt me for the rest of my life.

  I took another sharp turn and saw his sweating back in the distance. I pushed down on my heels and pointed the shotgun up and fired. As the barrel of the gun swung wildly in my hands and hit a couple of metres to the left of Gregory, I learned something valuable in that moment. I learnt that it is far harder to shoot and run than it is to just shoot standing still. He looked over his shoulder at the sound of gunfire and bared his teeth my way before he turned back around and continued at a faster clip.

  I smiled.

  It was the first sign of genuine emotion I had gotten from him since I had known him.

  I chased after him and entered a corridor, to see him standing at the end of it with his hands pressed against a device that stuck out from the wall. He gave me a small smile as I ran his way, which caused me to pull up short.

  Something wasn’t right. He was far too confident. Far too sure of himself.

  “You know the one difference between me and you?” he asked me, voice bouncing off the walls.

  “You’re a thundercunt and I’m not?”

  “No, no, Quinton. The difference between me and you is, there is none.”

  I stared at him looking for some smirk, some look of smugness, but I didn’t find any.

  “I’m being a hundred percent honest with you. There is no difference between me and you. We were both raised in a middle-class household. We both got the same grades in college—I checked, we got roughly the same grades in university, and I only started a year before you did at Xcorp. But the reason I’m here and you’re not, the reason your marriage fell apart, the reason you never made it past middle management, is because of one thing.

  “Desire.”

  I took a step back, mouth screwed up as if I had tasted something sour.

  “You never desired more. You never desired a nicer house, a better life, a better job. I know you think you did, but I would watch you while you worked, always drawing on your notepads, always staring out the window, always doing something other than what you were supposed to be doing. If life doesn’t give you what you want, then you take it. It’s as simple as that.”

  “You hate your life! Don’t give me that shit!”

  “You think this is the end goal?” Gregory laughed as he gave me a look that said I was a simpleton’ “This is just a means to an end. I am being paid more than I could dream of to take care of this problem, and after I’m done with you, a few more years in servitude to the company and I get to retire before I hit middle age.

  “Then I relax and kick back on a beach and enjoy life for what it is.”

  I glanced down at my blood-splattered shoes and swallowed. Was I really like him? Were we really that similar? No…

  “No, I’m nothing like you. I would never betray people like you. I would never do the things you did just to get ahead. I... I would never sell my soul for some stupid retirement dream of lying on a beach, when that dream may never come true. Don’t you see, you’re trapped. There will never be enough.”

  “Please spare me the fucking sermon!”

  Gregory looked at me in pity as he pulled at the sleeves of his suit. “You just don’t get it, do you, Quinton? In this existence, you do what you need to do to get to the top. Plain and simple. This isn’t a Disney movie, this is real life and in real life, the haves take from the have-nots. First it was the leader in the tribe, then it was the king of a kingdom, then it was a dictator of a nation, now it’s the board of directors of a company. That’s just how life is—”

  “It’s not,” I said, finally finding my voice. “Life may be many things but I’ve come to see it can be what you choose it to be, as corny as that sounds. I’ve done things these last few days I would never dream of, things that will haunt me for the rest of my life, but things nevertheless I chose to do; they weren’t chosen for me. So in light of all of that, I will have to ask you to come with me.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “Hey, dickface, I’m the one with the gun,” I said, lifting the shotgun up.

  The shock on his face passed quickly but it was still a pleasure to behold.

  “Look who’s finally got some balls,” he said, blank expression returning. “As lovely as that offer sounds, I must kindly decline it.”

  “Ha, I wasn’t giving you a choice.”

  “Like I told you, Quinton, life is about the haves and have-nots, and I have already decided who I want to be,” he said, taking his hand off the panel that it was placed in front of and stepping back.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  I heard metal on metal before anything else.

  They appeared from behind Gregory like something out of a horror movie, nothing but a skeleton frame made of metal. Their eyes blazed red like the heart of a forge, their movements were mechanical in nature, with an efficiency that no living creature would ever have. The two machines stood in front of Gregory and set their feet apart.

  “I apologise. They are an unfinished product the boys in the lab have been knocking about with. They are the Model T, compared to what robotic AIs once were. They haven’t got any AI mapping in them, so at the moment they are just machines I guess, but they will be more than capable of dealing with you.”

  I didn’t intend to, but my feet took a couple of steps back as the machines’ eyes focused on me.

  “Goodbye, Quinton. On behalf of Xcorp, I am terminating your contract with us. If you would like a reference from us all you have to do is ask, but I’m afraid where you’re going I doubt you’ll need one,” he said, turning away and leaving me to my fate.

  I saw his back slowly leave my field of vision and I took a step forward but stopped as the machines took a step towards me. My mouth grew dry as they took another. For every step they took, I took another one back. Their gaze never wavered. Their movements were smooth. I didn’t see any weapons on them, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have any to hand.

  “Gun, idiot!” I said, berating myself as I lifted the weapon and fired at them. I nicked one in the shoulder, but they moved in a fluid motion out of the way that was part hypnotic, part terrifying. I fired again and again but missed. My unsteady hands and their movements made taking a bead on them next to impossible.

  Foot-long knives erupted from their hands, answering my question of if they were armed or not.

  They began picking up speed and moving towards me and I did the only thing I thought was smart, I turned tail and ran.

  Apart from my ragged breathing, their metallic footsteps were the only thing I could hear. It spurred me on as I took corner after corner praying they wouldn’t catch up, but knowing they would eventually—they were made out of steel and oil, while I was nothing more than muscle and bone.

  Muscle and bone I hadn’t kept in shape since I left University. Muscle and bone already beginning to tire with each step I took, with each sharp intake of breath that filled my lungs.

  I didn’t want to look behind me. I didn’t want to see my death in their eyes.

  I took another corner and stumbled forward, nearly falling on my hands and knees. I heard one of their knives scrape the wall I was just in front of; the stumble had saved me more by luck than anything. I righted myself and kept on moving.

  I loaded shells into my shotgun, dropping more shells than I put in. Another lie from the movies: it’s harder to load a gun while running than it is standing still.

  Was the sound of their feet getting louder?

  Shit!

  I dropped and turned, feeling the wind of a blade skim the top of my head as my back hit the floor.

  I saw nothing but metal in front of me.

  It filled my vision. There was nowhere I could go. I pulled the trigger of the Peacemaker and was deafened as a roar escaped the end of the barrel and pushed me backwards.

  I skidded along my ass as if I was being pulled along by an invisible piece of string and came to a slow stop as I looked where I had once been. The machine that had attacked me stood where it had launched the attack at me, its arm still raised in a killing blow. It stared at me with those red orb-like eyes.

  It moved its gaze from me and lowered its head towards its torso.

  I did the same and saw a dustbin-lid-size hole in its torso. Sparks flew and oil leaked as it swayed back and forth on its feet. It took a step forward but slipped on the oil on the floor and came crashing down on one knee. It looked up at me, the red glare from its eyes dimming by the second.

  Getting back up to my feet, I slowly backed away as it swung one lazy arm my way. With a sad whine, its movements slowed down till it stopped moving and the light from behind its eyes went out.

  In my haste I must have loaded an explosive shell without realising it.

  Grin breaking out on my face, I was about to congratulate myself when I realised there had been two machines. I scanned the corridor but could only see the one I had destroyed.

  Where did it go?

  I walked backwards slowly at first, then faster and faster, and that’s when I heard it.

  The tell tale metal on metal.

  The sound was above me and I lifted my head in time to see the thing making its way towards me by crawling along the ceiling. The knives on both its hands sunk into the ceiling, giving it a grip as the claws on its feet kept it in place while it moved.

  I fired again but this time it was a normal shell. It dodged the attack by dropping to the floor and rushing towards me. I wanted to take another shot but all I could see were the knives attached to its arms and I knew I wasn’t a good enough shot to make it count.

  That’s what I told myself anyway as I turned tail and ran for my life.

  My legs didn’t have the same pep they once did. They burned with each step I took. It was getting harder and harder to breathe and I could see dark spots in the corner of my vision. I wasn’t a doctor, but I sure as hell knew it wasn’t a good sign.

  “Help, he—” I tried to call for help, but the words stuck in my sandpaper-like throat.

  Fuck, I was out of shape!

  Where the hell were the other two? It felt like I had run for the best part of ten minutes without seeing hide or hair of them. I tried to remember the route I had taken to get to where I was but it was a pointless exercise; my brain was starved of oxygen and I just wasn’t thinking right, I bounced into a wall and winced as I felt something pop in my shoulder and kept on going.

  The metal-on-metal tapping drove me crazy. It frayed at my nerves. It was the siren call to my death—the closer it got the sooner death’s hands would fall upon me.

  I saw a flash on the wall to my right and gulped as the machine ran along the wall beside me. I dived forward as it swiped a blade towards me.

  Coming back up to my feet, I twirled around and fired a shot before turning back around and continuing to run.

  I didn’t wait and see if I had hit it. I didn’t have time.

  I just kept running and waited.

  Waited till I heard it again.

  Waited with bated breath to see if that sound would echo behind me.

  After a handful of seconds I grew hopeful and smiled, then I heard the dreaded tap, tap, tap and I knew I had failed.

  I looked behind me and knew I shouldn’t have but I wanted to see if I had hit it. That was my mistake.

  Eyes glowing red it slashed my way and forced me to dodge out of the way while my body was still half turned, I tripped over my own feet and came crashing down face first on the floor, sliding along my stomach.

  I came to a stop and turned on my back to see the machine leap in the air and descend towards me. The point of its blade flashed in the light as it came my way. Everything happened in slow motion.

  I saw it approach me and I knew I couldn’t do anything to stop it. Couldn’t do anything to change the fact I was going to die.

  I thought back to everything I still wanted to live for and smiled as I closed my eyes and waited for my death to come.