Robots Versus Humans (The Robot Planet Series Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

sharp turn at Lincoln street and lost control of her vehicle. The buggy tipped upside down and slid into the Methodist church lot. A red stain trailed the buggy as it ground to a halt in the dirt and dust.
    The mob spared her a glance and kept running in long strides. Some of the voices coalesced from nonsense into words. I heard them yelling to each other to find shelter and to hide. My father pushed me back around the corner of the store just as the swarm arrived. I glimpsed the horror of it. I wish I hadn’t.
    The people in the exoskeletons ran from a horde of flying drones, most no bigger than a bat. When I squinted, I saw more. I thought it was a cloud of wasps at first. Then I heard their high whine. Insectile drones.
    The people at the rear of the mob fell to those drones, picked off one by one. As the relentless bots struck, their victims clawed at their hair, their faces and their eyes to try to swat the small machines away.
    As blood ran down the faces of the fallen, people ran past us in a panic. My father kept pushing me down the side of the building. I should have been moving faster but I guess the shock of it all locked me up and froze my brain. With his rig on, Dad was an irresistible force. He pressed me until I could no longer see the attack in the street. My brain thawed a little and I ran for the loading dock.
    As I pulled the big door open, it moved stiffly. Meanwhile, at the front of the store, someone had fallen prey to the drones. They slammed into the metal screen, kicking and screaming. Their blows echoed through the little grocery. I felt like I was being tortured in a drum.
    I heard the screams of a man and a woman. It was the shrieking of a young child that turned my stomach.
    Someone started up Marfa’s civil defense siren. Beneath the siren’s howl, the screams of terror spread like fire. The town was under siege and falling fast.

5
    I almost ran to the front of the store. I stood still and covered my ears, instead. It was too late to save anyone from the carnage in the street.
    There was someone to help at the back of the store, however. My father pulled someone into the store behind him. With one heave he rolled the big door shut and threw the bolt. The woman he saved wore exo-stilts. She collapsed, panting on the cool concrete floor. She shuddered and ran her fingers through the long tangles of her jet black hair. She winced and pulled hard. A small clump of hair came free in her gloved fist and she slammed her palm against the floor. When she withdrew her hand, a small metal drone in the form of a large bumblebee lay still. But not for long.
    The metal insect’s wings fluttered and, with a buzz, it took flight. I swatted at it with my bare hand.
    “Don’t!” the woman yelled.
    Too late. A long stinger that had been retracted into the drone’s body extended like a telescope and snapped rigid. The stinger’s sharp point drove through my hand. Once the blade was through, I watched in fascinated horror as a barb extended from the tip with a sharp click.
    I was dazed with pain. My father was fast. He reached out, grabbed my wrist and used his metal hand to crush the insect.
    “Careful!” the woman warned. “Don’t pull out the stinger the way it went in! The stinger — ”
    “Acidic venom,” my father said. “I’ve seen these before.”
    He looked at me, steadying me and staring into my eyes. “It’ll hurt but not for long if we do it the right way. When I say so, take a deep breath, Dante. Okay? On three. One…two — ”
    He yanked out the stinger on two. I should have seen that coming. He did the same when I stepped on a spike when I was nine and he had to yank the board off of my foot to get the long nail out.
    I shrieked.
    “Take a deep breath, son.”
    I winced and gave that a try but all I could manage were shallow gulps of air.
    The woman, still panting, stood and stumbled into the store.
    “Where are you going?” my father asked. He didn’t sound angry. He sounded