The brief relief from escaping the Maelstrom pursuit vanished without a trace, replaced by an intense unease of being locked on by unknown technology.
They'd just escaped from a pack of wolves' fangs, only to suddenly find themselves having stumbled into a highly automated domain, becoming observation subjects under some surveillance system.
This abandoned town wasn't some simple refuge at all—it was a special zone with powerful mechanical guardians.
And they were precisely the targets that had triggered the alarm and needed to be dealt with.
The unknown future developments hung over their heads like a sword of Damocles, making them afraid to move rashly.
Time passed second by agonizing second in extreme quiet.
That silent watcher on the rooftop made no movement, no sound came, but the pressure of that silence nearly made Pilar break down.
He neurotically checked the nearly empty ammo crate, then futilely rummaged through his toolbox, hoping to find something that could serve as a weapon.
Rebecca leaned against the wall, her brain racing.
Escape? They'd just witnessed that thing's speed and precision outside—rushing out the door would be suicide.
Hide? It had clearly discovered them—why wasn't it attacking? Was it waiting for instructions? Or evaluating?
An absurd, almost instinctive thought suddenly drilled into her mind—communication.
Maybe... maybe it could understand?
After all, it looked so advanced, unlike those low-level automated robots that could only execute simple commands.
This idea was so crazy even she was stunned for a moment.
But right now, there didn't seem to be any better option. They couldn't just sit and wait for death, right?
Taking a deep breath, suppressing her dry throat and wildly pounding heart, Rebecca cautiously moved to the broken hole again.
That pale skull was indeed still there, as if welded to the rooftop edge, crimson points of light still steadily aimed in this direction.
She mustered the greatest courage of her life, slowly and as non-threateningly as possible raising one hand, extending it a bit through the broken hole, clumsily waving.
"Hey... hey! Over there... Mr. Skull?" Her voice warped slightly from tension, coming out dry and awkward in this dead silence, sounding particularly abrupt and ridiculous: "Uh... hello?"
Beside her, Pilar nearly jumped up in fright, yanking her pant leg, eyes nearly bulging out from behind his goggles, hissing in a whisper: "Rebecca! What the fuck are you doing?! Are you insane?!"
But Rebecca paid no attention, all her focus concentrated on that skull.
The instant she waved and made sound, she clearly saw the crimson glow in the skull's eye sockets seem to flicker ever so slightly, adjusting focus?
Its absolutely still state was broken—though only the most minuscule change, it clearly indicated it had received her signal.
This made her even more nervous, but she steeled herself to continue.
"We... we mean no harm!" She continued shouting, trying to make her voice sound friendly and harmless, though scared to death inside: "Really! We're just unlucky bastards being chased by those assholes, accidentally hid in here!
We'll leave right now! Immediately! Absolutely won't touch anything here! I swear!"
Her words echoed on the empty street permeated with faint strange odors, sounding exceptionally lonely and foolish.
Explaining to a mechanical device that had just efficiently eliminated an entire squad of thugs that she meant no harm—the scene was so absurd she wanted to laugh at herself, but more than that was ice-cold fear.
That servo-skull gave no further response.
No attack, but no departure either, nor any signal indicating understanding.
It simply continued "watching" her with its cold red optical sensors, that steady red light seemingly able to penetrate the broken hole, landing directly on her face, analyzing her expression, micro-movements, and voice fluctuations.
Rebecca's hand remained frozen in mid-air, the waving motion becoming slower and slower, finally stopping completely, awkwardly suspended there.
The muscles on her face stiffened from forcing a smile. Inside, her thoughts were in turmoil:
(Oh god, what am I doing? Saying hello to a hunk of metal? It didn't bat an eye dealing with those people earlier—if it even has eyelids! It's probably calculating which method to use to eliminate us too! Laser to the head? Or slice the neck? Oh damn, did that emitter on its side just move? Is it aiming at me? We're done for done for done for... Pilar, I'm sorry, I think I just got us both killed...)
Her internal monologue was filled with desperate complaints and imagined tragic endings, but on the surface, she still maintained that stiff, awkward expression trying to convey goodwill, slowly pulling her arm back.
Time seemed to freeze again. Each second felt like waiting for judgment.
Then, just as Rebecca was about to suffocate, the servo-skull made a completely unexpected movement.
Its metal jaw moved extremely slightly, almost imperceptibly, opening and closing once.
No sound emerged, but the motion was clearly visible.
Immediately after, the crimson glow in its eye sockets underwent an extremely subtle frequency change, rapidly flickering several times, then returning to stable red light.
Then, the entire skull slowly, smoothly moved backward about half a meter, still maintaining its monitoring posture, but that subtle backward motion, along with the jaw and light's subtle changes, seemed... like some kind of response?
A non-verbal, mechanical, but definitely existent response, as if saying: "Information received. Maintain current position. Await further instructions."
Rebecca was completely stunned, mouth hanging open, unable to close for a long time.
What... what did this mean?
She jerked her head back, looking at the equally dumbfounded Pilar.
"It... did it just move?" Pilar stammered. "It didn't attack you?"
"It... it seems like it... 'answered'?" Rebecca's voice was filled with incredulous confusion, her earlier fear replaced by enormous bewilderment: "It backed up a bit... and moved its jaw... the light also flashed a few times..."
The siblings stared at each other, completely unable to comprehend this mechanical behavior beyond all their understanding.
But at least, for now, the proactive and awkward communication seemingly hadn't immediately invited destructive retaliation.
They were still trapped, still being monitored. But that taut string in the air foretelling immediate death seemed to have loosened just a tiny bit.
Now, their only hope rested on the person returning—the owner of this mechanical skull.
What awaited them would be... what?