RONAN The machine's black faceplate locked onto me. In that second, I knew it was over. It threw the prisoner aside. The body landed like a sack. Then the machine took one heavy step toward me. Its head snapped to the side with a sharp crack. The dark visor splintered. I could see the broken optics underneath, a mess of fractured glass and wire. Victor fired his pistol. The shots were loud and close. He had shaken off his shock. He was standing his ground. The drone forgot me. It spun toward the soldier and lunged. I did not stay to see what happened next. I ran for the tent's exit flap.Victor's screams followed me out into the open air. They were raw sounds of pain. I was ten feet away when the screams cut off. I stopped. It was only for a fraction of a second. I needed to know which way to go. Then the thought hit me. I might have been better off back in the tent with the wounded drone. A man in full body armor flew through the air. He crashed into the roof of the tent beside me. A young woman was kneeling nearby. She was firing her rifle at a drone coming straight for her. The rifle bucked against her shoulder. She looked so young. I did not wait to see if she hit it. I ran. I ran with everything I had. I followed the edge of the Interlink Highway, our camp stretched out beside it. I slipped between tents and storage containers.Brave soldiers were trying to fight back. It was a determined defense, but it was hopeless. The machines were already inside the camp. They were too close. The big guns and artillery were useless here. At least, that is what I believed. I came around the corner of a prefabricated container building. The sound hit me first. It was a ripping, tearing noise that filled the world. I dropped to my knees. My hands slapped over my ears. My mouth opened in a scream. I felt it tear from my chest, but I heard nothing over the gun. An armored vehicle's chain gun was firing. It was mere yards away. I was behind it. The pressure wave from the hypervelocity rounds stunned me. It pushed the air from my lungs.I pressed myself flat against the ground for shelter. Just a minute before, dozens of machines had been moving through a cluster of tents. I watched through squinted eyes. The turret on the vehicle traversed quickly. Where the barrel pointed, machines simply shattered. The darts' accuracy was unimportant. The force of their impact shattered the robots. Two seconds. That was all it took. A wave of pure destruction had swept over everything in front of the vehicle. The vehicle began to roll forward. I felt strength coming back into my arms and legs. But a deep, intense vibration was left in my bones. It left me shaking. I convinced myself it was nothing more than an urgent need to find a restroom. That was all it felt like.I sprinted away from the vehicle, heading in the opposite direction, hoping the path it had taken was free of machines. The section of the temporary complex that housed the command building came into sight. That was where Major Davis would be. If I could get there, I would find the most protection. I would find people coordinating a response to this attack. A sharp grinding sound made me look back. Metal on metal. The armored vehicle was stationary now. Its close-in defense system was firing in short, sharp bursts. Drones were getting near it. I skidded to a stop. My chest heaved as I tried to pull in enough air. I watched. Dozens of the machines ran for the vehicle. The defensive guns blasted them into scrap metal and broken parts.My eyes caught on one. A backpack was secured to it. It gripped the detached torso of another drone. The torso was held out front as a makeshift shield. It shifted behind other drones to stay covered. Step by step, it got closer. It reached the back door of the vehicle. The guns couldn't hit it from that angle. It hurled the body of its fellow away. It dropped down onto the ground. It flattened its body as much as it could. Then it slipped under the vehicle. The explosion picked me up. It was a solid wall of force. It threw me backward dozens of yards. I tumbled across gravel and torn grass. When I finally stopped rolling, I looked up.The armored vehicle was a flaming wreck. Pieces of it were scattered everywhere. I stood up. My skin felt hot and tight. It was red and blistered from the explosion's heat. I did not understand how I was standing. All the energy was sucked from my body. My legs felt like they might collapse under me. I turned. I began to shamble toward the command area. Every time I put pressure on my right foot, a flash of pain shot from my ankle into my brain.