Written by Isaac

A man walked up to the tavern. A small group of men sat outside around a fire holding their heads in their hands. He lit a cigarette.
“What can you tell me?”
The owner looked up at him. “Well it’s hard to say.” Pointing over at Bob, he said, “He was the one what saw it.” Bob shook with fright. 
“Go on Bob, tell him what you saw.”
Bob looked up, “You’re not going to believe me… but it was some sort of mechanical killing machine…” He looked down, tears dripping from his eyes. “It took my son…”
The man stepped past the group, pulling out his gun.
The owner called after him, “Be careful, we’re not sure where it is, or what it can do…”
The man tipped his hat. “Thank you, but I don’t think this should take long.” 
He stepped into the dark tavern. Tables were overturned, glass was shattered across the floor. Corpses lay here and there

He stepped farther into the tavern. A girl sat on the ground next to her mother’s corpse, crying.
He knelt down beside her. “Are you—” 
A bullet whizzed by his ear. He jumped back and spun around. A figure stood in the shadow. The man fired; the figure didn’t move. He jumped behind a table just as another shot was fired toward him. It ripped past him, grazing his shoulder. He grabbed his shoulder, the blood oozing between his fingers. He looked up past the table. The figure stood there, motionless. He turned back toward the child. He found himself looking straight down the barrel of a gun. The girl’s eyes oozed black sludge. He rolled over, whacking the gun out of her hands. A burst of gunfire exploded forth from the shadow, ripping into his right arm, causing it to hang limp. He switched his gun over to his left hand, and shot the figure. It fell forward into the light. It was just another man. Blood puddled out onto the floor. He turned back to the girl, who now had her face in her hands and was sobbing. A cord snaked across the room and grabbed his leg, flipping him over and throwing him across the room. He barely had enough time to catch his breath, when a table came whirling across the room, and smashed through the wall inches away from his face. He looked around. The girl appeared over a table with a gun in her hands. She fired a couple shots, before disappearing behind the table. He stood thinking for a moment. He hadn’t seen any machine, or any robot of any sort. But a man and a girl were firing guns at him… he had killed the man… something didn’t seem right. Then again, there was also the cord that had thrown him against the wall. He looked up. The girl reappeared. He raised his gun, aimed… his shot whizzed right to the side of her. A hissing sound shot forth. The girl dropped the gun and began crying out. He heard a clunk and whirring gears as a giant robot stepped out from the shadow.

One of its cords hung limp. The robot began forming itself into a large gun. He ran forward and grabbed the girl, jumping through the door right as heavy gun fire blew down the walls, and the tavern collapsed. The man set the girl down and jumped back through the rubble. After a while there was a small burst of gun fire, then all went quiet. The man reappeared limping over the rubble.
“Your problems are dealt with.” he said, crouching down to check on the girl. Then standing, he turned
to the group of men sitting in shocked silence. “I’ll be seeing y’all later.” And turning, he left.

The end