• David stopped suddenly and stuck out his arm to stop Alice behind him. “What’s that noise?” he asked. They had only been walking a few hours and were still in a heavily wooded forest.
    Alice looked confusedly around. “What noise?” she asked.
    “Listen…Do you hear a grinding noise?”
    Alice listened hard. At first there was nothing. Then she heard it. “You’re right.. What is that?”
    They didn’t have long to wait. Striding into to view through the trees was a six-foot tall mechanical creature. It was made of overlapping strips of red metal, with a bipedal body, and appeared much like a person encased in armor. Engraved on its shoulder was a pawn from a chess set. It made that horrible grinding noise when it moved, as if it was driven by some clockwork mechanism
    “What the hell is that?” asked David. Alice just shook her head.
    The mechanical thing pointed its metal hand at the two of them. “Identify yourselves,” it said in a synthesized voice.
    David and Alice traded glances. “I’m Alice,” she replied, “and this is David.”
    “Alice?” the machine repeated. Suddenly, it drew a pistol from its belt and pointed it at Alice. “You will come with me!” it said suddenly.
    “Wh-what?” Alice cried. “David, what do I do?”
    David pushed her behind him. “Leave her alone!” David shouted. He seemed not to care that the robot had a gun.
    “Stand aside” the robot commanded. “Make me!” David shouted back. “Very well.” Suddenly, it lunged at David and pistol-whipped him aside. He went stumbling into the trees to the side. Alice gazed up at the mechanical person in fear. It roughly grabbed her shoulder and put the gun to her head. “You are coming with me. The Red King will be pleased that we’ve found you, Alice.” He shoved her forward. “Now walk!”
    Alice stumbled forward, too afraid to refuse. Thoughts bounced around her head. What was going to happen to her? What about David? As if it was cued by her thoughts, there was a sudden ring of metal on metal. The robot stumbled forward. Alice spun around. There was David, sporting a bloody lip and holding an old looking shovel. He leaped on top of the robot, wedged the shovel between its head and it’s body, and pulled on the handle as hard as he could. There was a sound of screeching metal, and suddenly it’s head popped off. It sparked a few times, then stopped moving all together.
    The silence seemed to press in around them.
    “Wow…” Alice said, “Where did you find the shovel?”
    David grinned. “I found it lying back there in the woods. Figured it be better than my fist.” He extended his hand “Need a hand?” She grasped his hand, and he pulled her up.
    “You ok?” he asked. Alice nodded. David went over to the body of the robot, and took the gun from his hand. “What are you going to do with that?” asked Alice.
    “Well, what if they’re more of them?” David replied. “Good point.”
    “Do you know how to fire a gun?” Alice said. “Yeah,” said David. “My dad took me to ranges all the time.”
    David examined the gun. It was a semi-automatic. He quickly located the eject lever, and check the clip. Ten round clip. He noticed that there was a black engraving of a pawn on the pistol’s grip. He took a test fire of the pistol at a tree. It fired just fine, leaving a splintery hole in the wood. “Awesome…” remarked David, tucking the gun into his waste band. He checked the robot’s remains and discovered two extra clips. He tucked those in a pocket in his backpack. “C’mon, let’s get moving. There might be more of them.”