Ba-Zi-Ha watched the robot fall, feeling the weight lift from her shoulders, a growing sense of relief. But when she looked at the body of the larger robot, she noticed something strange.
It seemed bulkier than the others, with extra parts, gadgets, and structures that didn't match the patterns she had seen so far. Maybe a sub-boss or a more advanced model, she thought, though the idea that it could be a leader or commander was confusing.
They all moved so disorderly, without any organization. She already knew this was the effect of the Corroder Beetles' enzymes and not a trick or some system malfunction.
Wasting no time, she knelt down and began examining the fallen robot. Its visor glowed faintly, circuits exposed, but there was absolute silence.
She was fully focused on the task until something made her stop: a small movement ahead. She stood up immediately, heart pounding, and saw what she feared most. The robot that had captured her minutes earlier was back.
It was the robot she had almost mistaken for her friend Taratha Thag — the one with the strange appearance and clumsy movements.
The robot seemed to be standing again, somehow. Ba-Zi-Ha, without hesitation, grabbed the red laser gun and fired at it.
The sound of the laser cutting through the air was deafening, but to her surprise, the robot didn't move. It just stood there, motionless, unresponsive. She fired again, and then something unexpected happened.
It made a sound — a kind of metallic laugh, low and eerie — as if mocking her.
A chill ran down Ba-Zi-Ha's spine, but instead of advancing, the robot took a step back, slowly walking into the darkness.
The behavior was beyond any pattern she knew. Was it... playing with her?
She stood still, watching, until the robot disappeared into the corridor's darkness.
But when the sound of its steps ceased, Ba-Zi-Ha heard something: a metallic clink.
She looked down and saw that one of the weapons it had taken from her was lying there, dropped as if on purpose.
She smiled. A short smile, but filled with something much more dangerous: determination. Now she knew this robot wasn't just challenging her; it was exposing itself.
It won't get away with this. Ba-Zi-Ha knew it would no longer be a simple matter of disabling the robot. It had something more... and she was determined to understand everything. But this time, she wouldn't let it escape so easily.
It wouldn't just be disabling, she thought, gripping the gun in her hands. It would be permanent.
Ba-Zi-Ha began analyzing the pistol in her hands. The weapon, although it seemed technologically advanced, was simple at its core: an ordinary pistol, but with something special — the bullet. It had only one.
The idea of a single chance made her even more tense, but given the situation, what else could she do? The fear of failure almost paralyzed her.
Cautiously, she moved a bit further from the pile of fallen robots. The smell of burnt oil still hung in the air, while the environment around her seemed to narrow, as if the very structure was preparing for something grand, something dangerous.
Ba-Zi-Ha took a deep breath, determined. She aimed, the gun in her hands, her vision blurred by the weak light from the flashlight. The distance was considerable, but she knew the bullet was special. Without hesitation, she fired.
Ba-Zi-Ha felt pain as she fell, her face scraping against a sharp piece of metal. She quickly got up, dazed and heart racing. What had happened?
Those robots... How were they prepared to explode like that? They weren't just machines. They were loaded. Explosives? It was a possibility. But she couldn't be sure without investigating.
When the shot echoed, there was immediately a massive explosion. It wasn't small or controlled, as she had imagined, but an explosion that shook the air.
She had missed the target she had so carefully aimed at. However, she hit one of the fallen zomboids — stacked atop each other — that she had shot a few minutes earlier.
It was colossal. A deafening boom threw her backward. She had to dive between the pillars for cover. Flames spread through the place, lighting up the darkness.
It wasn't ordinary fire. The flames danced, fed by the robots themselves, as if the metal bodies contained something inside that fueled the destruction.
The flames climbed over the zomboids' bodies, but it wasn't just fire; it was as if the zomboids themselves had become sources of combustion.
Ba-Zi-Ha felt pain as she fell, her face scraping against a sharp piece of metal. The heat from the explosion instantly surrounded her as she tried to shield her face with her hands as best as possible, curling behind whatever structure could offer any kind of cover.
The explosion was violent and unexpected — more than she had imagined — and she was momentarily disoriented.
But as the smoke began to dissipate and the sound of the fire calmed, she stood up, her face marked, still breathing heavily. What had just happened?
Those zomboids didn't seem to be just combat machines, like the ones she had faced before.
It was as if they had something inside... something that made them more than mere pieces of metal.
She quickly got up, dazed and heart racing. What had happened? Those robots... How were they prepared to explode like that? They weren't just machines. They were loaded. Explosives? It was a possibility. But she couldn't be sure without investigating.
Whatever it was, she couldn't act impulsively like before, or she might suffer fatal damage.
She needed to act carefully. Luckily, laser rifles didn't cause penetration damage to zomboids, but special ammunition did.
Returning to where the robots still lay, she saw, to her surprise, that despite the other zomboids existing only in small pieces, the sixth robot was almost intact.
Heat radiated from it, and she cautiously approached, examining the structure. The pistol, now dead weight in her hands, seemed useless beside the robot, but she didn't give up.
When she poked it with the gun's barrel, a small piece detached. Curiosity drove her, and that's when she noticed something interesting.
Inside the larger robot, among circuits and metal parts, there was a digital port — like a command interface.
She had never imagined she could reprogram a robot, but the possibility of using this system was something she couldn't pass up.
With a small screen appearing before her eyes, she found a quick-access mode on the panel that required a right thumb fingerprint to access the commands.
Of course, she never expected her fingerprint to be accepted. Driven by curiosity — after all, what did she have to lose? — she removed one glove and pressed her thumb on the indicated spot.
And to her surprise, small blue LEDs lit up, indicating that the robot's system could be operated by her without further complications.
The interface was rudimentary but functional. She knew she had to be quick. She tried adjusting the robot's programming, and surprisingly, it began to respond.
The robot's eyes lit up with a green tone, as if awaiting orders from its new master.
She blinked, not believing what she was seeing. The robot began to move, obeying her commands. Incredibly, she had succeeded.
That robot, which once seemed an enemy, was now under her control. Now, she had a powerful ally — and all in the most unexpected way.
Luckily, it hadn't fallen victim to the corrosive beetles. She quickly concluded that, for some reason, this robot hadn't turned into a zomboid—probably because it was considered a sentinel robot of that base.
After all, it seemed to control the other infected robots. And, ironically, it was now being controlled by Ba-Zi-Ha. She smiled to herself but was quickly reminded of what had happened to the others.
There was no time to celebrate this victory. The wreckage of the destroyed robots was a clear warning: she couldn't use that weapon anymore—not in an enclosed environment.
Otherwise, the consequences could be fatal, not just for the zomboids but for her as well. She had learned that the hard way.
She had no idea which zomboid might be loaded with explosives, so from that moment on, reckless actions were no longer an option.
She glanced at the newly recruited robot, now fully operational, and a smile—small, but genuine—appeared on her face. She had done it. Something so improbable, yet a feat that could be the key to her survival.