As things were it was largely a waiting game. The androids would launch the occasional attack, none matching the ferocity of the first one. They machines didn’t want to sacrifice more of their soldiers than necessary. The humans sent the occasional drone to retrieve updated information. The ones who made it back showed an amassing of forces. Large, spider like machines crawled the streets of the machine city. Their carcasses were as black and shiny as an insect’s, but there were no obvious weapons hanging from their bodies. Android soldiers were being manufactured at an alarming rate. I now understood the utter, chilling fear that my father must have felt when he realized the sheer power Gabriel held. Now we were facing an army of Gabriels, every one with a murderous vendetta as their sole purpose in life. Fear had ruled my life for so many years. I couldn’t escape it in the shelter, so I moved our family into the virtual world. Faced with the prospect of certain death, I couldn’t outrun it there and I was ripped away again. I had been consumed by fear these past few weeks, between losing Dad, Eliza being shot, and the attacks on the shelter, fear was my new best friend.
No longer. We were situated in a fortified base with weaponry and defenses. There was no food crisis anymore. The modified potatoes were growing strong and ensured that we had a food supply well into the future. My wife had healed up and was back in her leadership duties, stronger than ever. Our people were safe. It was time to let myself breathe.
It was time to fight.
About the Author
When she's not playing pirate aboard tall ships or hunting down the best place to grab ramen in whichever country she's found herself in, Liz McLaughlin can be found at her keyboard, bringing to life science fiction stories to change the world. A lifelong avid reader and winner of her seventh grade Young Authors contest (thanks Mom and Dad!), Liz broke into writing in search of a way to bring diversity and representation to science fiction and beyond. Her stories seek to change the genre through normalizing people of color and LGBTQIA+ as participants in the futuristic epics we all know and love.
