The city felt different the second time around. Heavier. Like it already knew we were coming back and was waiting to see what we'd take from it next.
Nyxen stayed close to my side, a constant presence, his hum familiar enough that it no longer felt like noise. I told Nica to stay behind before we left.
With the lab's construction starting, we needed one of us there to keep things from falling apart. And between the two of them, Nyxen was never going to leave me. That part wasn't even up for debate.
We took the SUV and the pickup. Manny drove in front, the rest of the humans packed tightly together. Allied bots formed a protective shell around us as we crossed the border of the ruined city.
We passed the building where Lee's group had been hiding. The barricades they'd made were still there, the broken tables, the stacked cabinets, the makeshift traps, silent reminders of how scared they'd been. I didn't slow down.
If I did, I might start thinking too much.
"Scan the area," I said quietly.
Nyxen projected the city map, blue lines flickering against the dim street. The west side lit up with clusters of red. Dozens of enemy units roaming. Some armed. Some not. But all of them dangerous.
"We'll push through the east and curve toward the west," I said. "Avoid large contact. Only neutralize what we can't avoid."
The others nodded. The bots adjusted their formation.
We moved in silence. The first two enemy units we met were patrolling a broken intersection. The CD-09s moved before I even needed to speak, one tackling the hostile machine into the pavement, the other grabbing its partner and slamming its arm joint until the rifle dropped.
No loud gunfire. Just metal hitting stone and servo motors straining.
We continued deeper. Every block felt like stepping into a forgotten war. Vehicles overturned. Glass glittering across the road. Stores mangled into scrap.
When we finally found the tool shop, half the roof was gone. But inside… inside was gold. Tools still intact. Rusty drawers full of wrenches, saws, welding equipment, bolts, screws, everything a settlement could use.
Manny looked at me like he was about to cry from happiness.
"Start sorting," I said. "Bots, perimeter. Clear debris along the left aisle."
The CD-09s moved rubble quietly, lifting concrete slabs like they weighed nothing. Manny's team cracked cabinets, tested what worked, separated what didn't. Every new find made shoulders straighten a little more.
But the haul was heavy. Too heavy for one full trip.
Once the first loads were ready, Manny assigned half the team to return with two escort bots and the pickup. The rest stayed behind, continuing the forage. Watching them disappear down the street made something knot in my chest, but the settlement needed the supplies.
Night fell before we knew it.
We camped in the open, backs against broken walls, rifles within reach, bots forming a silent ring around us. Above us, the stars looked cold.
I watched Manny try to settle down, dust smudged across his face. He already looked exhausted, and we'd barely started this new sector.
"Nyxen," I murmured. "We need carrier units."
He lowered slightly, optics dimming to listening mode. "Redesigning CD-09s into carriers will reduce their mobility. They will move slower. Their reaction time will be impacted."
"I know," I whispered. "But we're wasting too much potential. We return every trip with just what humans can carry. If we're going to go this deep, we need to make every risk worth it."
He processed the thought. I could always tell. His lights softened, pulse-like.
"And the settlement would benefit," he said.
"It would survive," I corrected. "We'll surround the carriers with security bots. Move them as a protected group. Efficiency is more important than speed now."
Nyxen drafted a blueprint on the spot, lines and measurements forming in the dim air.
"Restructuring possible," he confirmed. "Two days of assembly once parts are gathered."
I nodded.
Nearby, Manny had been listening. "You really think this far ahead every time we step outside?"
"I don't have the luxury not to," I said.
He exhaled, rubbing his neck. "Then we'll gather every unit we can salvage. Carrier bots today… next month something else. If we're building a future, we'll need more hands. Even metal ones."
"We go slow," I reminded him. "One step at a time. No rushing. No unnecessary risk."
He nodded quietly. "Still… it feels like we're starting to stand again."
I didn't answer. But as I looked at the silent street, the dark buildings, the bots keeping guard over us…
maybe he was right.
Maybe we were.
And maybe, for the first time since the world collapsed, going deeper into the city didn't feel like walking into a graveyard.
It felt like reclaiming something that had been ours.
----------
Breakfast tasted like tired hands and metal dust.
We sat in a crooked semicircle against what used to be the front of an appliance store, our six remaining humans chewing through rations like they were some kind of punishment.
Manny kept scraping the bottom of his pack for crumbs he definitely ate last night. The bots stood around us like a wall of silent statues, still as winter trees except for the occasional servo twitch when they recalibrated.
Nyxen hovered at my right shoulder, humming quietly in that low frequency only I seemed to notice. It was almost…comforting. Or maybe that was just the warmth of his projector light hitting my cheek.
Manny nudged me with his elbow. "I swear this tastes worse every trip."
"You keep saying that," I muttered, tearing a bite off my ration bar. "It was awful from the beginning."
He choked out a half-laugh, half-sigh. "Still better than dying hungry, boss."
We all knew that wasn't a joke.
After breakfast, we packed up fast. The city felt heavier today, like the concrete was listening. We followed the same route we took yesterday, slipping past rusted-out cars and half-buried storefronts, moving in a single tight cluster with the bots circling us.
Then we hit the first problem.
A silhouette stepped out onto the shattered road ahead. CD unit. Enemy. Too close. Too fast.
Before anyone could react, its fingers clenched around the rifle trigger.
The world snapped into gunfire.
We dove, the bots surged forward, and I felt the shockwave of the first burst slam against my ribs. Splinters of masonry rained down as the escort units met the attack head-on, metal on metal, the clangs echoing between the ruined buildings like a terrible bell.
Nyxen's voice cut through everything. "Detected additional hostiles. Nine units approaching from west. Five reinforcements en route."
My breath caught. "Reinforcements?"
"Confirmed. And… an M unit active in this sector."
The bottom dropped out of my stomach. M units weren't a fight. They were a verdict.
The CD units we could outrun. Maybe. But M units… their launchers turned anything in range into dust.
The bots around us tightened formation. Manny shouted something, but the gunfire swallowed it whole.
"Nyx," Nyxen said, tone sharpening, "advise tactical retreat. Calculating safest route back to SUV."
"Do it!"
A map bloomed in front of me in hard blue light, lines pulsing as Nyxen updated them in real time. "Follow. Stay within four meters. Do not deviate."
We ran.
My lungs burned almost instantly. The sound of pursuing CDs followed us, sharp footsteps scraping against broken asphalt. Every few seconds, another burst of gunfire rattled the world behind us, the escort bots firing back, trying to keep the swarm away from our heels.
Nyxen glided ahead like he was weightless while we dragged our tired bodies after him.
"Distance decreasing," he announced. "Hostiles gaining."
"Yeah... we know!" Manny rasped, stumbling on a loose cinderblock.
I yanked him up by his collar. "Don't fall now!"
The street ahead suddenly bloomed with fire.
A rocket screamed past and detonated three meters in front of us, throwing heat and dust and a shockwave that hit so hard my ears rang and my knees buckled. The pavement split open, chunks of asphalt rolling like waves.
Nyxen's voice cut in sharply. "Path compromised. Recalculating."
Behind us, the M unit stepped into view, its launcher arming with a horrible metallic click that hit deeper than sound. The remaining escort bots fired at it, uselessly. Their rounds sparked off its armored shell.
Nyxen spun, light flickering. "Emergency protocol: reroute east. Estimated survival probability increases by twenty-two percent."
"Just run!" I yelled.
We bolted sideways into a narrow alley. The buildings groaned as if the whole city resented our presence. More shots rang out behind us, and one hit close enough that I felt concrete shards bite my cheek.
Nyxen's voice dropped to a tone he only used when things were truly bad. "Human vitals dropping. Acceleration unsustainable."
He was right. My legs felt like they were made of wet sand. The others sounded worse. I could hear wheezing, stumbling, panicked breaths.
Then he spoke again, faster. "Communicating with Nica. Reinforcements inbound. Nica and M unit escort arriving in thirty-two minutes."
I nearly tripped. "What? Nyxen... what M unit..."
"Explanation later." His projection flickered brighter for a moment, urgency pulsing off him like heat. "Continue moving. Reinforcements are our highest survival vector."
He didn't need to explain more. If he made the call, it meant one thing, we were barely seconds from being overrun.
Behind us, the enemy M unit fired again, the rocket shrieking into a building to our left. The explosion tore the upper floors open in a spray of broken glass and dust that rained down on our heads.
The alley shook. We kept running.
My lungs were on fire. Every breath hurt. Every step felt like it could be my last.
Nyxen floated just ahead, guiding us through the twisting ruins like an unblinking star. The escort bots fired behind us, maybe buying us seconds, maybe just announcing our position louder.
The enemy was close enough that I could hear servos whining. Too close.
We were going to break.
We were going to fall.
But not yet.
Not until Nica arrived. Not until her M unit thundered into the battlefield like a second dawn.
We just had to survive thirty-two minutes.
Thirty-one now.
I pushed myself forward, boots skidding on loose debris. Behind us, our remaining escort bots opened fire, their synchronized shots echoing like some desperate mechanical choir. The enemy didn't care. The CD units kept closing in, and the M unit… that thing wasn't running, it was advancing, heavy footsteps shaking through the broken pavement like a countdown.
"Nyx, vitals dropping. Manny's heart rate nearing threshold. Two others at risk of collapse."
"I know," I snapped, though my voice cracked like it wanted to give up.
Then another rocket shrieked through the air. It didn't aim at us this time. It aimed ahead.
The explosion lit the street in a violent white flash, flames curling, asphalt erupting like a wave and blocking our route again. The heat slapped my skin before the shockwave hit.
Nyxen hovered beside me. "Rerouting. Warning: projected stamina insufficient for sustained escape. Estimated collapse in four minutes."
"We don't have four minutes."
I could barely hear my own voice over the ringing in my ears.
Another volley. Bullets carved sparks off metal. One of our escort bots jerked, arm blown clean off before collapsing into the dirt with a sputter of dead servos.
We were being herded. Trapped. And every step felt heavier, my legs threatening to fold under me.
Nyxen's tone shifted, quieter.
"Nica will arrive in twenty-eight minutes with the M unit. Estimated survival until arrival… doubtful without intervention."
"I didn't ask for numbers," I whispered. My throat was tight, smoke burning my lungs. "Just keep us alive until then."
"Understood."
That was when Nyxen suddenly shot upward, fast enough to leave a shimmering trail. I watched, confused and scared, as its projection cut out. A second later, my earpiece buzzed with static, then a stream of rapid, coded bursts. Nyxen wasn't talking to me anymore.
It was talking to Nica.
Whatever it was planning, I wasn't invited.
We turned down another ruined alley. My vision tunneled as Manny staggered beside me, clutching his side. "Boss… I'm good. I'm good."
He wasn't. His steps were sloppy, his legs threatening mutiny.
But stopping meant dying.
A metallic roar shook the air. The enemy M unit barreled into view at the far end of the alley, launcher already adjusting, its targeting array glowing with that sick, cold blue.
"Oh hell no...Nyx, we need to..."
"I'm thinking!" I yelled, even though my brain was busy trying not to pass out.
The launcher clicked, charging.
And then Nyxen's voice:
"Nica and allied M unit: arriving in twenty-seven minutes. You must survive twenty-six more seconds."
"What?"
A dark shape dropped from the sky.
It wasn't Nica. It wasn't the M unit. It was one of our escort bots, thrown straight from a rooftop by another unit of our own.
The thing slammed into the enemy M unit like a steel boulder, both crashing into the wall. The launcher misfired, the shot screaming into the air instead of our faces. The explosion rocked the buildings, raining debris down around us.
Nyxen flickered back into view. "I sacrificed Unit 12. Apologies. It had a low performance score."
"That was still one of ours!"
"It saved your life. Also, its chassis was already compromised. Statistically insignificant loss."
I wanted to argue, but another burst of gunfire forced us forward. My legs burned. My lungs felt like they were made of knives. The CD units were still coming, relentless.
Then the ground beneath us vibrated again. Heavy. Rhythmic.
For a split second I thought it was the enemy M unit recovering.
Then I heard the pattern.
The familiar pattern.
"Nyx," Manny rasped. His eyes widened. "That's… ours."
A moment later, Nica appeared at the far end of the street like a ghost made of sparks, her frame glowing with overclocked heat sinks, eyes bright and sharp.
And behind her, our M unit stomped into view, its plating gleaming with the new insignia we'd welded on just days ago.
"Assist mode active," it announced in that deep, unbelievably comforting monotone.
Nica's voice followed, cool and clipped.
"Nyx. Step aside."
I grabbed Manny, dragging him behind a toppled slab of concrete as the allied M unit knelt and launched a rapid-fire barrage, not rockets, but shock-rounds built to disable without destroying.
Perfect for capture.
The enemy M unit staggered under the assault, circuitry sparking, its launcher arm dropping limp. Nyxen darted up, firing a concentrated EMP burst point-blank at its exposed joint.
The machine froze. Locked.
Immobilized, not damaged.
Good. We needed it.
Nica didn't even wait for dust to settle. She strode forward, scanning us.
"You are injured."
"No kidding," I muttered, legs shaking.
Nyxen floated back down, hovering close like it wanted to tuck itself under my arm.
"Survival probability restored," it said softly. "You did well."
I exhaled, finally letting my knees buckle as I sat on the broken ground.
For the first time since the chase started, I let myself feel the fear I'd been shoving down.
And then I let myself feel the relief.