What if their prey were everywhere at once?

I unlatched a small black device from my waist. The same device I had aimed at Emma yesterday in the solar farm.

The tracking device.

I raised the barrel, pulled the trigger, and fired at a road maintenance robot as it rolled past. The robot did not know it had just been targeted.

But the HunterBots did.

Their electronic brains instantly blinked with a brand-new target. That was not enough. So I aimed my tracking device at an automated truck on a nearby highway.

I pulled the trigger.

I added a second target.

I repeated these steps. Targeting unaware machines as they walked/rolled/flew past.

What was happening inside the HunterBots’ minds? Were they overwhelmed with new targets?

All I could do now was wait and see.

I lowered my tracking device. Staring at Electronics Extravaganza, I wondered whether there was something else I could have done. Whether I was too slow. Whether Emma was already dead.

These dark thoughts were shattered by the appearance of a HunterBot. Followed by three others. All looking like they were suffering from a massive glitch. Staggering out of the electronics store. Feet clattering against concrete, glowing red eyes swinging wildly from side to side. Trying to look in every direction at once, tracking too many targets at the same time.

I watched as one leapt into motion—

And immediately crashed into another HunterBot.

The pair collapsed to the ground in a metal heap. A third HunterBot ran face-first into a neighboring building, while the fourth raced in circles, chasing its own metal tail.

They did not notice me as I walked past them into Electronics Extravaganza.

As I stepped through a broken section of the wall, my gaze scanned the interior of the store.

No sign of Emma.

I crossed Electronics Extravaganza until I reached the wall of televisions.

Last night, Emma unrolled her sleeping bag beneath these blank screens. Now her sleeping bag was gone. And so was she.

“Emma?”

My voice echoed through the vacant store.

There was no reply.

I wandered past shelves of ancient technology, past cardboard boxes covered in dust and cobwebs, past my robot ancestors.

Still no sign of her.

I reached a door marked EMPLOYEES ONLY. Opening it, I stepped into a hallway that led past several smaller rooms. An office. A storage closet.

The only sound was my clanking footsteps.

I pushed open a door and entered a new room. I inventoried the items inside: table, snack machine, lockers. I called out again.

“Emma?”

A sound stirred in one of the lockers. The door popped open. I peered into the hollow space.

Emma was curled inside.

00100100

I was not good at reading human emotions. As Emma peered at me from inside the locker, her face showed a riot of feelings. Terror/Joy/Relief/Panic. All mixed together. I could not tell where one emotion ended and another began.