Lambs to the slaughter

Kevin stood at the threshold, his legs trembling and his eyes widened in horror. He looked at his hands and felt his throat dry up. 'Did I do that?' he thought to himself. Though he hated the principal and had cursed him in a moment of frustration, he didn't actually want him to die. Seeing the principal's dead body lying on the floor made his blood run cold.

"I killed him just....just by wishing he was dead!" he exclaimed, stumbling backward. He was under the notion that he had some bizarre supernatural power that could kill the people he hated. All he had to do was curse them. This made him think of himself as a villainous anime MC who had been touched by a higher power.

His delusion was soon shattered by a buzzing noise, followed by a hail of bullets that shattered the glass windowpanes inside the principal's office. He quickly moved out of the doorway and took cover behind a wall.

"Kevin! We need to run!" a black-haired girl wearing thick-rimmed glasses shouted at him.

Kevin looked behind and saw his best friend Suzy Wang running towards him with a few more of his classmates trailing behind. Ms. Parker was also among them. He didn't have to wait too long to find out what was going on, as a loud explosion tore through the school building, reducing his classroom to rubble.

"Move Kevin move!" Suzy shouted again.

Kevin joined the rest of his class as they ran past him. Trying to keep pace with Suzy, he called after her. "What the hell is going on?"

"What do you think?" she yelled back. "We are under attack. The rest of our class is dead!"

"What the hell!"

They kept running across the corridor as more explosions lit up the rooms behind them on either side. When they reached the first bend in the hallway, a couple of security drones popped up from the corners.

**Targets acquired!

Priming weapons...

Commencing fire**

"Take this, you bastards!" Ms. Parker pulled out a steely metallic cylinder glowing blue at the top and tossed it at the drones. It triggered an EMP blast which knocked both the machines out of the air and disabled their targeting sensors.

"These are Tracker Drones. Why the hell are they attacking us?" Kevin asked, trying to keep up with his classmates.

Ms. Parker took a sharp turn on the left and replied, "The machines have gone rogue. Even our school's AI Mira is malfunctioning." She dashed towards the auditorium door and pressed her palm on the fingerprint scanner. The door opened after the scan verified her identity and all the students rushed inside. She entered a special keycode and shut the door from the inside, reinforcing it with another barred metal door.

"Ohh God, we're all gonna die in here!" a small red-haired boy shouted.

"Stop acting like such a wimp, Billy!" a tall, blonde-haired boy reprimanded. He was a star athlete and captain of the school's basketball team. Even in this horrific situation, he just couldn't stop trying to act tough.

"Both of you shut up!" Ms. Parker shouted, turning around. "Suzy, turn off all lights in this room and switch on the artificial ventilation."

Suzy scampered across the auditorium and accessed the maintenance panel attached to the wall on the other end. She flipped a couple of breakers to turn off all the circular LED lights overhead and then pressed a green button to switch on the artificial ventilation.

Ms. Parker rotated her communication bracelet, making it glow neon green, and turned away from the students. "Please keep quiet now. I need to make a call to the principal. Hopefully, he's—"

"Mr. Haughton's dead," Kevin announced. "Someone shot him in the chest."

"What?" she turned around and let go of her bracelet. "This can't be happening. How could they break so many protocols? No, this can't be a system glitch."

Taking her spectacles off, she wiped them clean before replacing them on the bridge of her nose. She counted the students once more.

Out of the 30 students in her classroom, only 4 remained now. There was Greg, Billy, Kevin, and Suzy. The rest of the students had been shot dead right in front of her eyes.

"It's going to be okay. We just need to wait it out. I've notified the cops. They'll save us," Suzy said reassuringly, but her words didn't have any effect on their teacher.

"What exactly is going on here? Why did those security drones try to attack us?" Kevin asked.

"It's not just the security drones. Our school building has been surrounded by XL11 infantry class robots. They are just shooting at everyone indiscriminately," Suzy replied. "It seems like their controls have been hacked."

Kevin couldn't believe what was happening. Never in his wildest nightmares had he ever imagined his school getting attacked by killer robots!

The XL11 infantry robots were part of the army's latest acquisitions. They were designed specifically for urban combat. These machines were supposed to protect the people, not massacre a school full of students. It didn't make any sense to him.

"Why would they target our school? Is this some kind of terrorist attack?" Kevin asked.

"I have no idea, Kev. I've heard of isolated incidents of robots malfunctioning due to bugs, but this looks like a planned attack. There are at least a dozen robots out there," Suzy replied.

"This is bad, and I mean really bad." Ms. Parker switched on the holo-display for her Zen watch, and it displayed live aerial feed from a news chopper.

The whole city was under attack. There were infantry class XL11 robots, Tracker Drones, and Electroshark Tanks killing everyone in sight. It wasn't just the civilians either. The machines were also targeting the police stations and military bases.

All eyes were glued to the holo-projection when suddenly it started distorting. The news chopper had been hit with an EMP pulse. It started losing altitude and then something blew it straight out of the sky. The holo-display shut down completely.

"I told you, we are all gonna die! No one's coming to help us!" Billy cried out.

"Shut the hell up or I will punch you in the face, you stupid nerd!" Greg snapped, making the little guy simmer down.

"Billy's right. I don't think anyone's coming to get us. You saw the machines killing the cops and the soldiers," Suzy said, stepping forward. "We can't just stay here and wait for them to break in. We have to find a safer place to hide. My dad's got a secret underground research facility not far from here. We should all head there."

"Have you gone crazy? If we try to get out of this room, the machines are gonna kill us! " Kevin objected. "We should all stay here and wait for the situation to tide over."

"You don't understand Kev! This place isn't safe. They'll find us at any moment!"

"I agree with Kevin," Ms. Parker intervened. "Going out there is suicide."

"But we can use the express elevator. That'll take us to the underground tunnels."

"How do you know there are no robots waiting inside that tunnel? It's too risky!" Ms. Parker shook her head.

"Fine, I'll go alone. If the coast is clear, I'll send you a text." Suzy didn't wait for Ms. Parker's approval. She ran up to the capsule housing the express elevator and climbed inside.

"Suzy! No! Get back here!" Kevin called after her, but it was too late. The elevator was gone now. "Damn it, Suzy! Why don't you ever—"

Suddenly, the door of the auditorium was blown open by an explosion that ripped through the wall. Standing on the other side was a steely gray machine with the skeletal framework of a human. Its body was made of reinforced steel and it was equipped with a grenade launcher in its left hand and an automatic assault rifle in its right.

This was the XL11 infantry class robot which had recently been added to the army's arsenal.

"On the ground, students!" Ms. Parker yelled, taking out another of those metal cylinders. She clicked something on its bottom, turning on the blue light at the other end, and chucked it into the doorway.

There was a delayed EMP burst, but it didn't disable the robot. The XL11 came equipped with an EMP shielding system.

A hail of bullets tore through the auditorium, shattering the glass panels all around and punching holes in the elevator capsule. Kevin and his friends ducked behind the chairs, shivering in horror.

"We should have taken the elevator. Suzy was right!" Kevin cried in panic. They were now trapped in this auditorium with all escape routes cut off.

This had to be the worst day in Kevin's life. Earlier his device had been confiscated, followed by a humiliating visit to the principal's office and now he was about to be gunned down by a machine. His heart started pounding rapidly inside his chest as he tried to fold his hands in prayer.

He had been an atheist all his life, but now when he was on the verge of being killed, he desperately hoped for a miracle.

If there was a God or any divine power, he/she wouldn't just let him die like this. He was only 18, and a virgin. He had never even kissed a girl in his life. All these years had been spent in worthless pursuits, and he hadn't been able to achieve anything.

"Please God...Goddess...Great Divine Being...anyone, please save me this one time. I promise I'll make good use of my life. I'm sorry I never believed in you...Please if you're real—"

His prayer stuck in his throat as he heard the robot's heavy footsteps approaching the doorway. It entered through the breach and immediately started scanning the auditorium.

**Activating heat sensors...

Scanning for enemy presence....

Multiple heat sources detected!

4 targets acquired!

Commencing assault....**

"No, you don't!" Ms. Parker jumped up and shot the machine in its core with her laser pistol.

While Kevin and the others were cowering behind their chairs, she had taken the time to assemble her 2 concealed weapons. She knew teachers weren't allowed to carry weapons inside the academy's premises, but she never felt safe without her trusty sidearms. So she carried all the parts inside her purse, just in case anything ever went wrong.

"This place isn't safe anymore," Ms. Parker said, taking a peek over the chairs. "There's a service elevator at the back of the cafeteria. If we can sneak past the robots, we can make it to the kitchen and use the elevator to reach the tunnels below."

"But there are so many of those things outside!" Billy protested.

"Just stay behind me. I will clear a path. As long as I'm with you, I won't let anything happen to you."

Hesitant and nervous, the students filed out of the auditorium with Ms. Parker in lead. Kevin felt like his prayers had been heard. They still had a shot at making it out of there alive. He kept close to his classmates, following Ms. Parker's lead.

They carefully crossed the intersecting hallway, sneaking past the 3 Tracking Drones. As they finally took the last turn they were spotted by 2 XL11 robots guarding the cafeteria. They split into two groups and took cover behind the walls on either side.

**Enemies spotted!

Alerting all nearby sentries...

Moving in to eliminate targets**

"Fuck! They are everywhere!" Kevin grunted. "We have to go around."

"There's no time for that. The robots have alerted the others. We'll be surrounded if we try to run back." Ms. Parker reloaded her weapon with a charged laser cell and fished out another identical one from inside her stockings. She handed this one to Kevin. "I'm gonna need your help to clear the way. All you have to do is aim for the one on the right. I'll take the one on the left. Each pistol only holds one laser cell, so please don't miss. Aim for the robot's core."

Trembling in excitement, Kevin took the gun from her. This was his moment to shine, to prove once and for all that he wasn't just a useless gamer. He was gonna be the hero every kid dreamed of. He was gonna save his classmates and be hailed as a legend!

It all became clear to him now. He was destined to become a savior and save his friends from the robot apocalypse!

"Where's your head! Kevin!" Ms. Parker shook him by his shoulder, calling him back to the world of reality. "This is not the time to daydream. If you miss the shot, we're all gonna die!"