The Seventh Bowl: Chapter Seven

As Robert pulled himself out of the river, of a neighboring city he watched as the fire and destruction spread. It followed him, off in the distance like giant falling dominos. He hurried into town, where the people were already evacuating. Men, women and children all running off towards the hills, in groups. The worried looks of fear covered all of their faces like a social mask. Robert ran with the crowd, trying to find some kind of information.
"Where are we all running to?" He called out inside of the stampede of frightened townspeople.
"We're heading to the mountains. The government has giant bomb shelter there!" A voice called out.
"Yeah, that'll keep us all safe from the robots!" Another voice called out. They all ran as one huge mass, blending together the way drops of water form a stream.
They made it a few blocks when a building to Robert's right fell down, showering chunks of brick and stone and glass onto the huge mass of people. They people tried to scatter, but they were too many people. Chunks fell and crushed people, while others were killed by the stampede of feet. There was mass chaos now, and Robert was in the center of it. People were screaming and trampling over each other. But that wasn't even the bad part, Robert glanced up for a split second and saw an army of Robotic soldiers marching into the large, chaotic mass of humans.
They were all carrying broad swords half the size of their bodies, and were slicing through the rows of disoriented humans. This excited the group to an even more destructive level, they now became violent towards each other as a means to escape their impending doom.
Robert tried staying in one place, to avoid crashing into too many others and therefore, possibly causing himself any unnecessary harm. So he kind of flowed with the group, like a leaf blowing in the wind. But the unstoppable path of the death machines held consistent and soon Robert was only feet away from his own death. As they sliced through the family just next to him, he bent down and curled into a ball. Fear taking hold of his panicking heart.
He felt they standing just above him, he felt the solder pause for a moment and lift his blade. As the robot swung it down on top of Robert, he clenched his teeth. Robert felt a sharp pain rise up from his shoulder blades and then he heard the ripping of clothe and the clashing sound of metal against metal.
Robert opened his eyes and saw the robot's blade being held by another. He searched for the person who so selflessly protected him, but found no one there. What the did see, was a pair of arms coming out of his shoulder blades, holding a sword. The arms kept the robot at bay, until two other robots came to aid the first. Robert took this as his chance to flee.
He sprinted forward, jumping over slain bodies, and ducking under the slashes of oncoming robots. He heard the clanging of metal against metal as he ran, he could feel the extra arms defending him, although he couldn't control them. Robert felt another sharp pain come from his back. He screamed and heard a voice.
"Where the fuck am I?" It said, the voice coming from his back. Robert kept running, he was out of the crowd now, and running alongside other frantic humans. Three robots jumped down in front of him, from where he didn't know, but he was stopped in his tracks.
"What? Why'd we stop?" The voice asked.
"Robots, three of them." Robert said.
"Let me at 'em." The voice said.
"What should I do?" Robert said.
"Don't get us killed." The voice said.
Robert ran towards the robots and spun around, his back facing them. The three spread out to circle Robert. He looked back and forth between the three. The one to his left sprang first so Robert moved his back towards it. He heard a few slashes, some grunting, and the sound of metal crashing onto the floor, accompanied by the sound of wires popping. The two others sprang and Robert spun around in a circle. By the time he finished spinning, the two were in pieces, falling onto the road.
"Who else wants some!?" The voice called out. Another extraordinary pain emerged from Robert's back. He screamed again. His back felt heavy.
"Dude! I'm stuck!" The voice called, Robert could feel hands pushing against his lower back and the back of his head. "Maybe if I--" Then the body fell from his back, landing with a thud on the ground beside Robert, who fell to his knees. "Well, that worked." The voice said. Robert looked and saw a naked Asian man sitting on the ground, his legs spread open like it was no big deal.
"Excuse me, you're ummm." Robert motioned to the Asian man's under area.
"Oh, shit!" The voice said covering himself. "Sorry, dude. Didn't mean to show the world Cazad, but as long as it's there...World: Cazad. Cazad: World."
"You named your penis?" Robert asked getting to his feet, his torn shirt falling off of his arms.
"Of course, doesn't yours have a name?" The Asian man asked.
"No." Robert said offering a hand. The Asian man took it. "But my name is Robert."
"The name's Mark, pleasure." He said.
"Well, Mark. As much as I'd love to continue to sit here and talk about naming body parts, we're kind of in the middle of a war." Robert said. Mark looked around.
"Oh, shit... That explains a lot." He says. "Where're we headed?"
"The mountains." Robert points, and starts walking fast. "There's supposed to be a fallout shelter there."
"Humans, so unimaginative." Mark says. Robert looks at him.
"Humans? Why do you say that?"
"Oh, because you're all so funny." Mark says keeping pace.
"You all? Wait, are you a robot or something?" Robert asks, stopping.
"Nah, dude." Mark says with a laugh, still walking. Robert starts again. "I guess you could call me an angel."

-Sir Jestro