Heartbeat (9)

Khan bursted into his office and ran to his desk. The worker drone's hands fidgeted under the desk until he felt a keypad.

"21 26 9"

A small compartment within the wall opened. 

Khan reached into the compartment and typed in another code.

"14 15 18 9"

The majority of the wall behind Khan's desk began to shift as a small arsenal of weapons came into view. The wall was lined with everything from small hand-held pistols to large rifles. 

Todd clenched his fist and walked up to Khan.

"What did I tell you, Khan? We CAN'T go back to this. Do you know what will happen if we pick up these weapons?"

Khan looked at his friend, the man who'd been with him since the beginning, and showed a look of disgust.

"I'll tell you exactly what's gonna happen. I'm going to protect my people. We should have never gotten rid of our old ways. My wife might have still been alive if we didn't run. If we had just stayed and fought like we did before."

Khan pressed his pointer finger against Todd's chest.

"HE would still be alive if we didn't put these ways behind us. I'm only doing what's best for us, Todd. This is what's best for ALL OF US."

Khan cleared his throat, stood on his chair, and looked around at the dozen or so WDF members in his office.

"THESE THREATS HAVE PERSISTED FOR YEARS! WHO WILL TAKE UP THE FIGHT WITH ME ONCE AGAIN AND PROTECT OUR HOME, THE HOME THOUSANDS DIED FOR, ONE AGAIN?"

The members of the WDF erupted in agreement as Khan raised his fist to the sky. All of them except Todd raised their hands in the air, mimicking Khan.

Khan laughed with triumph before turning and grabbing multiple different weapons from the wall. He threw a wide array of ranged weapons to the WDF members. Even Todd took a small modified pistol while sighing.

The leader of the WDF grabbed a large rifle and strung it across his back in a similar fashion to his daughter. He turned to face his coworkers once more.

"The tides of this one-sided onslaught shift today my friends. Today marks the start of a new day, a new era, and most importantly, A NEW LIFE FOR ALL WORKER KIND!"

The WDF members erupted in courage once more, this time they proudly raised their weapons.

"Follow me everyone. It's time we right the wrongs of the disassembly drones. Today we clean our home, tomorrow we clean OUR WORLD!!!"

Todd gritted his teeth and turned his head away while crossing his arm with the pistol still in his hand.

-

The group of WDF members quickly rushed down the halls of the Southern sector. Their footsteps rang out as they rounded corner after corner. 

"KEEP GOING!"

Khan led the pack of worker drones. His rifle was firmly gripped within his hands while the rest of his coworkers had their weapons drawn as well. 

The hallways began to shake as the group ran further into the sector. The sound of the colony walls being slammed into and slashed made Khan tighten his grip on the rifle. 

He mumbled under his breath.

"What the hell is going on…?"

The drone didn't know if he even wanted an answer.

"LEAVE… ME… ALONE!"

Khan's eyes went wide in horror as his daughter, Uzi, screamed in the distance.

"EVERYONE HURRY! THAT'S MY DAUGHTER!"

Khan forced himself to move faster towards his daughter's voice. He began to put more and more distance between himself and the other WDF members.

"UZI!!!"

He rounded one final corner and saw his daughter collapse to the floor on her knees. 

Her body jolted slightly before sprawling out on the floor. 

Khan narrowed his eyes at the two disassembly drones standing a few yards away. He also noticed Thad, one of Uzi's classmates, sitting against a wall with oil leaking onto his shirt.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?"

He aimed his rifle towards the two disassembly drones as a burning hatred raged within him. 

The female disassembly drone reached out a hand weakly infront of her while holding the male over her shoulder.

"S-stop, it wasn't us!"

Khan kept his sights locked directly on the drones.

"Explain."

The female drone stumbled closer and fell to the floor. The male disassembly drone collapsed on top of her. She weakly pointed farther down the hallway.

"That…"

Khan looked up and squinted as the rest of the WDF caught up to him and halted at the sight of the 4 battered and damaged drones.

Their bodies trembled with unease as they followed Khan's lead and aimed down the hallway.

"What is it Khan? What are you aiming at?"

"I don't know…"

Todd sounded confused, but he still knelt down and steadied his pistol towards the darkness.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

All of the WDF members held their positions in the hallway. Some trembled in fear, others shivered at the anticipation, but Khan and Todd stood firm and unyielding towards the dark.

The end of the dark hall began to light up as a small yellow light beamed down at the group.

Khan reached down and shook his daughter with his right hand while keeping his eyes locked on the light. His voice was hoarse and filled with worry.

"Uzi, wake up! Please, it's me! Answer me!"

His daughter didn't respond. Khan could feel her twitching weakly.

The light at the end of the hallway seemed to multiply as five small yellow lights eyed the group of WDF drones.

Khan readjusted his position as both of his hands gripped the rifle.

The lights began to slowly creep closer. They looked to be about fifty yards out from the group.

Todd leaned into Khan's left side.

"What the hell is that thing?"

"No clue."

The lights drew closer as multiple tendrils flew from the shadows and gripped the wall. 

Khan blinked a few times as a small mass of wires pulled itself forward as five camera-like eyes extended out of the mass. It looked at the group of worker drones for a moment as a small head covered with white hair and a ponytail sticking out in the back appeared in between the cameras.

"What in God's name…"

Without warning, the mass launched itself at the group of WDF members. 

Khan was the first to react. His finger instinctively pulled the trigger as a small blue beam shot out of the rifle. Multiple more shot out as the monster recoiled slightly.

"FIRE!"

The rest of the WDF members began unleashing a volley of small blue lasers at the creature. Its body was quickly ripped to shreds as the blue light dissipated on contact. The monster let out a roar, much smaller than the one Khan assumed it had let out prior which caused him to come, and began to retreat.

"KEEP SHOOTING!"

An onslaught of blue beams sprayed passed Khan as he dragged Uzi's body behind him and motioned for the disassembly drones to come closer to the WDF group.

"Get behind us! Todd! Help me!"

The female disassembly drone crawled forward with the male still on her back.

More roars of agony filled Khan's sensors as the mechanical beast began to back away from the constant firing of the WDF's weapons. 

Todd inched closer and grabbed S by the wrist while Khan gripped her lower arm. The two drones began to haul the disassembly drones back as the remainder of the WDF pushed forward slowly. Their gunfire remained constant as they took a few steps forward.

"SOMEONE GRAB THE BOY!"

The monster let out one final growl before attaching itself to the ceiling of the hallway and scurrying along it back into the darkness. 

Two WDF members grabbed Thad and pulled him behind their front line as the two fatigued disassembly drones soon joined him.

"T-thanks Mr. D…"

Khan knelt beside Thad and examined his shoulder.

"Are you alright son?"

Thad chuckled lightly and gave a weak smile followed by a thumbs up.

"Yeah y-yeah, I'm all good."

"What happened Thad?"

Multiple WDF members stepped farther into the darkness with their backs to one another. Others examined Thad and Uzi for any serious injuries.

"I'm not really sure."

He coughed.

"U-Uzi and those two were looking for the spiders."

"WHaT!? Who the hell told her about that?"

"Not s-sure, I just wanted to come along. That-That THING came out of nowhere and grabbed me, if Uzi and those disassembly drones weren't here I w-would've been toast."

Khan looked towards his daughter. She was passed out on the floor barely moving at all. He then turned towards the pair of disassembly drones. 

The female was weakly looking around at the worker drones. Her body had dozens of small cuts and oil was leaking heavily from her body.

The male disassembly drone was completely unresponsive. His body was emitting a small amount of smoke while hundreds of small cuts lined his body.

Khan sighed and stood. He closed his eyes in thought for a moment. Once he opened them he noticed one of the WDF members pointing a gun to the tip of the female drone's head.

"STOP!"

The male WDF member stared at him confused.

"What are you saying, Khan!? We can take out two of them RIGHT NOW! Why the HELL would I stop?"

Khan gripped the barrel of the small rifle and aimed it away from the female disassembly drone.

"Thad said they saved his life. That also means they saved my DAUGHTER'S life…"

The male drone looked at Khan with disgust.

"Why the hell would I care about that? They're safe now right? Why does it matter anymore? They've killed thousands of us, Khan. Wake up, we NEED to kill them."

Khan gripped the gun harder and leaned in a mere few inches away from the drone's face.

"Stop this, or I'll make you."

The drone glared at Khan and snatched the gun back. He put it at his side and turned away.

Khan looked down at the female disassembly drone and extended a hand to her.

"What's your name?"

"Serial D-Designation S…"

He wiggled his hand slightly

"C'mon."

"C-Can't move yet. Gimme a minute…"

He leaned down and heaved the drone up onto his shoulder. The weight was almost too much for Khan to bear. 

Bits of oil fell onto the floor beside Uzi as Khan dragged S to the wall and leaned her against it.

"Christ you guys are heavy…"

S rolled her eyes and glitched slightly after attempting to give Khan the finger.

"T-thanks asshole…"

Khan wiped his brow with his forearm before turning towards the male disassembly drone.

"Can someone help me with this guy?"

No one replied. The WDF members stared at him in confusion.

"Or not… What's this one's name, S?"

"N."

"So that's your theme… Great."

Khan leaned down and heaved N onto his shoulder. He was heavier than S, but N's weight was still light enough for Khan to carry along slowly.

"What are you doing…?"

Khan's body stumbled as he dropped N and whipped his head around.

"UZI!"

Khan ran forward and attempted to grab his daughter. 

She ducked under his arms and stumbled to the side.

"Don't do that…"

"W-What?"

"So you think I'm weak?"

The man stared at his daughter.

"What are you talking about, Uzi?"

Uzi pointed to Todd while gripping her visor.

"You told him I was too weak to help? How could you say that about me! I did more than you EVER C-COULD!"

She stumbled slightly while speaking.

"Uzi, I have no idea what you're talking about…"

"DON'T ACT DUMB! I'M NOT A KID ANYMORE. YOU THINK I'M W-WEAK HUH!?"

Khan reached out to comfort his daughter.

"GET THE HELL AWAY! I HATE YOU! I'VE ALWAYS HATED YOU! IT'S YOUR FAULT MOM IS DEAD, AND IT'S YOUR FAULT I ENDED UP LIKE THIS!"

He couldn't say anything. What the hell was his daughter talking about? Khan had no words to refute his daughter's false claims.

"Your silence tells me everything… Let's go S…"

Khan turned toward S and saw her now fully standing on her own. She grabbed N and heaved him over her shoulder with one arm and started to walk off. 

Some of the WDF members drew their weapons and aimed them at the trio.

"Let them go…"

Khan clenched his fists and fought back the tsunami of emotions about to overflow within him.

He looked back towards Todd. Khan's face was erupting with sadness, anger, and confusion at his friend's betrayal.

"What did I do to deserve this…?"