My voice fell away. The silence lasted only a microsecond. But a lot can happen in a microsecond. Especially when you are a highly advanced machine with lightning-fast processing speeds.

My memory drive flashed with an image of Emma. All alone in that vast store, curled on her sleeping bag, surrounded by long-dead electronics.

I replayed the words she spoke to me earlier: Humans messed up. But that was a long time ago. Years before I was born.

There was truth in these words. She could not be blamed for what humans had done many years in the past.

Did that mean it was right to let her live?

This question collided with the data about all the horrific things humans had once done. War. Pollution. Hot dog eating contests. What if all of that was buried deep inside Emma’s programming?

Maybe helping her was a mistake.

Maybe I was betraying my own kind. Deceiving my FamilyUnit, just to help a LifeForm that did not deserve it.

All of a sudden, I felt unsteady on my feet. Wobbly. As if there were a glitch in my balance settings.

The secret was knocking me off course.

But strangely, my FamilyUnit did not seem to notice. In fact, their attention was not on me at all.

I followed their gaze. They were peering at a point up ahead. The ruins of humanity. My attention narrowed on a huge box-shaped store several meters from the path. Electronics Extravaganza. As soon as I saw it, an emergency light flashed at the back of my brain. Bright/Red/Glaring.

Four HunterBots stalked through the overgrown grass.

Taking the same path we had taken last night with Emma.

Headed in the direction of the electronics store.

From this distance, the HunterBots almost looked like wolves. Only bigger. And far more dangerous.

As they strode on four legs, their armor glistened silver in the morning sunlight. Their eyes glowed as red as burning embers. Their jaws were filled with sharp metal teeth.

I had seen HunterBots in action before. They protected the solar farm from prohibited LifeForms. I had watched them chase animals across wild terrain at blinding speeds. They were intelligent/graceful/ferocious/deadly.

Against such advanced machines, the unfortunate animals never lived long.

I analyzed all the possible reasons for their presence outside Electronics Extravaganza.

I kept getting the same result:

They were hunting Emma.

00100010

The emergency light blinked brightly in my brain.

I turned to my FamilyUnit. This time, I managed to find the words. “What is going on?”

“Have you not checked the Hive?” Parent_2 responded.

No, I had not. I had been too distracted all morning by my secret. I checked the shared network and saw a local update awaiting me. Sent less than ten minutes ago. The words instantly appeared in my mental drive.

Possible Sighting of Unknown LifeForm.

Last Seen in Electronics Extravaganza.