Staring into the single front optic of the Automaton, she observes how it focuses on her face. The Doll tilts her head to the right to have a better look at it from another angle and the Automata similarly tilted its head to right. She then tilts her head to the left and again, it also tilted its head to the left. Now finding it curious how it was almost like it was copying her movements, she tilted her head to the right and the Automata mirrored her. She straightened her sitting position on the bed, the soft cotton sheets rubbing against her bare thighs.

Currently. The Doll is now back at her house just outside of town and is currently resting when she decided to inspect what her new found friend could do. After leaving the store, she have decided to end the scouting/expedition for the day as the sun was setting soon and she was more than happy with her haul for today. The large plastic case that was formerly used as the container for the now active Automaton, is currently being used to carry her heaps of treasure.

She looks up while simultaneously tilting her head and looks down with her eye only at the Automaton to see if it would still copy her, and it did. Seeing that, she stops and picks up the robot. She raised it to her eye level and stares at its face. The head which has a shape similar to that of a iguana and a tortoise combined, cutely tilted it's head like a real dog would, stared back at her in curiosity.

She smiles a bit as she remembers about it's measurements and capabilities in the users' manual. SPOT, which stands for Search, Protect, Observe, and Track, is a somewhat downgraded version of a Dinergate. But in exchange for the redundant military specs of the Dinergate, this one has a wide range of flexibility when it comes to personal configurations. From physical labor like hauling cargo or humans, to a more mundane yet requires some amount of dexterity like gardening. It could do all that, just not as good as a doll would.

Although its less popular due to it's manufacturer being a relatively new company, it was still a hit according to some journalists along with some video with a youthful old man praising it's ability to cater to hobbyists. And those praises were true since a slue of videos about people customizing theirs from soda launchers to a synchronized "high altitude" dive bombers exploded throughout several social media platforms. She shakes her head upon remembering the desire of her partner wanting to turn one into some sort of super sonic high altitude spy plane. Pushing the memory into the back of her head, she returns to her focus about readjusting her future plans.

Now that she has obtained a robot she could both use as a forward scout and as a scavenger. It reduces her time spent on just exploring the stores alone by half and she could hit the road sooner. Although, it also gives her more time to prepare for the road up ahead. She knows that there is going to be a lot dangerous things she would encounter in the future and she wants to be prepared for that scenario, like encountering SF forces.

She sighs while putting the robot down and lets herself fall on the bed. The bed creaked lightly as the soft cushion sunk under her weight, enveloping the girl in comfort. With a hand on her forehead, she blankly stares at the ceiling while letting her mind wander.

'So much to do... So much distance between us.... So much time without me...beside you has passed...'

She covers her eyes with her arm while the other grabs onto the sheets, clenched in frustration and worry.

'After 4 years... Is she still even waiting for me?... She should be be... She has to be...'

Yet, she couldn't help but think that she wasn't. She removes her arm to return to staring at the ceiling before shifting to the side and curling into herself, her blank gaze landing on the robot sitting quietly as it stares at her, waiting upon her like an ever loyal dog. She looks at the Automaton and couldn't help but feel as though it was giving her a worried look. She closes her eye and sighs once again, slightly mocking herself from thinking something stupid and this anxious when its only her second day being separated from her partner.

She knows that while its one of her bad habits, she needs to stay strong for both herself and her partner. After all, if 4 years of waiting was enough to demoralize her partner and she gives up on her, then she would've died in a ditch long ago. Without the will to live and hope for the future. The yearning for happiness. The struggles they went through together combined was much more harder, and waiting for several years is a relatively easy task for her and she is willing to wait for her partner no matter how long if they roles are reversed. That's right. The two made a promise. And 'She' isn't that weak when she have gone through all sorts of hell.

The Doll now reinvigorated quickly sat up from her bed and access the robot through their link. Once connected, she turns on her left eye and quickly changes its visual feedback to the connection. Suddenly, she felt a little off balance as her depth perception was split into two and immediately closes her right eye in order to single out her focus on what she's seeing in her left eye. Thankfully this is her second time doing this so she was a little more prepared unlike last time.

With the only visual information coming from the Automaton, she feels a weird sensation of being in a different place while being aware that she isn't at the same time. While finding it a little interesting, she orders the robot to go to outside to patrol the perimeter of the house. Upon receiving the command, the Automaton quickly turns around and gently opens the door with the crane like arm mounted on its back before closing it in the same manner. The sound of its footfalls echoing in the short hallway as it leaves.

A short while later, it was already in the front door and is walking up to the front gate. While watching it search around in the darkness with its miniature spotlight from its point of view, she notes that it seems to have a rather lively gait while it's way of scanning around the place with its light was monotone, sweeping from left to right and return. But she suppose it's only logical to do it this way as to not miss anything rather than having it look around erratically and create a lot of unsearched areas, yet she couldn't help but dislike the fact that it was too predictable and relatively simple to avoid its search light.

She continued watching as it slowly explored the front yard before it starts patrolling the rather expansive back yard. Knowing that exploring the entirety of the space is going to take some time, she slowly open her right eye to try to get used to having two completely point of view. She knows that it might not bring any merit in learning this, but being able to operate a drone while staying mobile is going to have some use in the future.

She grabs her cane by the bedside table and carefully got up to then walk towards the window before sitting on the window sill and watches the Automaton roaming around in the darkness. While looking at the spotlight constantly sweeping about, she could hear the trees rustle from the cold gentle breeze of the night. The cold wind somehow reminding her that she is alone, the person that was always there to keep her warm is not there. Turning her gaze up to the sky, she caught a brief sight of the moon before it hid itself behind the dark clouds, as if saying that her future is shrouded in darkness.

 

3 Days Later...

 

Putting the item back to the shelf, she promptly left the store with a bored look. The repetitive cycle of entering and leaving the store empty handed has quickly gotten old during her second day and instead, she just wants to go home and finish cleaning the house. Now, while it's true she isn't entirely coming out empty handed, the amount of time wasted just by traveling to each individual store is getting more time consuming more time than the items worth. However, there are times when she would find something incredibly useful like a solar panel, hidden in one of the warehouses she broke into.

While glancing through the café as she passes by, she turns on her left eye to check on how her scout is fairing. Her vision suddenly splits, with her left eye showing a feed from the robot while her right has stayed the same. Putting some focus on her left eye, she found that it was currently grabbing a bunch of bandages from a shelf. While giving it a small hum of approval, she notices something and her gait slows down to a halt.

She commands it to look at the box beside the bandages. The box was covered in a thick layer of dust so she could barely read the print, but she was still able to make out to the words thanks to its rather bright cartoonish letters. She unconsciously put her hand over her left eye, the bandage wrapping around her head just to cover her sunken eye. Looking at herself on the glass window, the pitiful figure of a silver haired girl was reflected on the glass.

She strokes her crushed eye before she continues walking and orders it to return most of the bandages in favor for the box of eye patches. During her walk towards her next objective, she checked the vehicles along the way trying to find the ones that are still in good shape and in operational conditions. She tried some that looked to be in fairly good condition, connecting those to a battery only for it to fail to start its engine. With all the cars she was encountering to be either peppered with bullet holes or crashed into another car, she decided to give up on them entirely and just headed for the next store.

When she turned the corner and saw the inside of the store, she couldn't help herself from staring at the scene dumbfounded. The store which looks to be in great condition from the front, has a big gaping hole and an armored jeep that has crashed into a wall inside. After seeing the veiled ruins of the interior, she quickly turned the other way around and heads for the next objective as if she hadn't seen anything. Her exasperation was written all over her face as she left. Whilst making her way to the next store she checks on the robot to see if it was still browsing the pharmacy, and once she confirmed that it wasn't she orders it to go to the hardware shop. While she doesn't think she would need anything from that place but in case that everything doesn't go as planned, she has a plan B.

The Doll arrived to her destination after 15 minutes of walking, her face was one of excitement as she looks at the gigantic building in front of her before making her way inside, completely ignoring the car with a Vespid pinned between its hood and a wall. Upon entering the building through the large hole in the glass wall, the girl quickly wandered around the showroom which only has a few but expensive cars on display. With this being in a relatively small town, the amount of cars that could be out on display are few with the rest being hidden away in a secured space and she knows this for a fact. She puts that off for later and just enjoy roaming around the showroom.

She spent some time caressing the curves of every car, admiring its aesthetic designs and she even rode on some of the very expensive sports bikes made from the early 21st Century until she was satisfied. With her mood uplifted from being able to experience what it feels like on one of those relics, she then makes her way up to the second floor offices by hopping up the stairs. When she reached the landing, she immediately saw 3 doors with two being made of glass leading to an office and a waiting room while the last was a somewhat crude and robust looking steel door.

Suspecting the last one to lead to a Maintenance Room, she tried opening that first and found out that it was locked. Knocking on the steel produced a resounding echo, indicating it that it was a hollow construction. She could probably shoot the lock off, as it was only a simple mechanical lock and not an electronic one, but she wasn't sure if what's installed has a self sealing mechanism and could possibly take several shotgun shells just to open it. She ponders on it for a while before opting to look for the keys instead as her options as it has only a few locations it could possibly be in.

Heading for the office first proved to a good choice as she was quickly able to find the key with the same manufacturer's name as the lock. Besides the key to the Maintenance Room, she also found the row of lockers containing keys the for the vehicles still in their original cardboard boxes and an empty double drum Glock magazine on the floor surrounded by spent 9mm cartridges. Curiously though, besides the shattered glass window that provides a clear view of the entire showroom, there is no blood stains that could be found on both the 1st and second floors or even a trace of the shooter in question. She could only suspect the manager or the owner to be the one responsible and fought back once they realize that the town is being attacked. However, since there are no clues to help solve this little mystery, she sets her curiosity aside and returns to the steel door with the key at hand.

Getting the door open has proved to be more troublesome than expected as the key she tried to insert had some trouble getting in. And once that was unlocked, the door was also giving her a hard time. It creaked with each pull and was refusing to give way, as if its hinges has been rusted together even though there is no signs of corrosion anywhere. The only explanation she could think in her mind as she pries the door open with brute strength, is that it has been this way even before the attack. She curses the manager in her mind if that was the case.

With one last pull, she stopped as she got it to the point where it was wide enough for her to slip through. She got inside after some wiggling and stayed at the entrance to let her eye adjust to the darkness. Even though she could see the irregular light strobes of the servers and power generator from where she was, she still waited until she could clearly see and her patients award by the sight of thick electrical cables messily strewn across the floor. 

She frowns at the haphazard workspace while once again cursing the managers for such tardiness. While sticking to the wall for extra support, she carefully made her way over to the switch near the generator and flips it on, bringing light into the rectangular room shrouded in darkness.

With the room now brightly lit up, she turns to the small screen mounted on the wall and takes out some cables from her small backpack, preparing to connect herself to the AI managing the establishment. She took off her coat and slides the cable under her clothes with some difficulty before finally connecting the cable to the port at the side of the screen. Her digimind was instantly filled with prompts and alerts the moment she plugged it in. She ignores those for now and sat on the bundle of thick power cables and leans on the wall as she slowly put more focus into the connection.

The time she spent on hacking took a while as the system was rather complicated, but eventually got into the system without the alarms going off. With the connection now fully established, she didn't have to use a cable to stay connected with the AI so she pulled out the cable on her back and stows it away. After putting her coat back on, she requested the blueprints for the building itself and begins to study the entire buildings layout.

The entire lot is about 62 meters long and 20 feet wide, it has 2 floors at the front while it has 3 floors for the parking lot. It's size is just right for a dealer ship in such a small town yet she still couldn't help feel that it's still large considering how many cars one could fit inside as only a fourth of it is the showroom with the office being located on the second floor. Interestingly, there is a small portion of the 2nd floor that's labeled as "Safe House".

She raised a brow at the rather unnatural naming of the room and decided to check it out first since it really piqued her interest. She tried access the room from where she is and found that there were none. She quickly guessed that it was separated from the AI for security reason and thought that she has no choice but to go there herself. After dusting herself off, the girl heads for the parking lot and almost fell down due to the lack hand rails that led to another bout of cursing the manager.

When she got to the front of the parking lot gate, she watches as the heavily reinforced slab of metal slowly sliding up to make way for the exiting vehicles, and noticed that the reinforcements on the door are way over the top. While it's not uncommon for establishments like these to have reinforcements installed on their doors for added protection, the amount added on this one however, is comparable to the ones found in some smaller banks. 

She walks into the parking lot and commands the AI to turn on all the lights. The lights simultaneously turned on, lighting up the once dark space and revealing the vehicles hidden by the darkness. Ignoring all the vehicles in front of her, she turns to the right where a large elevator was located, large enough to fit a car with a wide body with plenty of room to spare. She got inside and commands the AI to send her up to the second floor, not bothering to take the stairs as she had enough struggle with it. 

The gates slowly closed shut with a shake, followed by the mechanical sound of the lift operating as it slowly made its way up. Due to the slow yet robust construction of lifts catered for vehicles, the trip took a couple seconds to finish. It also gave her plenty of time to make sure that her shotgun is fully loaded and is ready to go loud if necessary.

The lift vibrated when it came to a stop and gave her a funny feeling in her stomach. While waiting for the gates to fully retract, she couldn't help feeling like the place is a little eerie with all the sound she could hear is the noise coming from the elevator. She carefully got out and looked around, making sure that she's alone before heading towards the mysterious room.

Walking along the wall to lessen the angles she could get attacked from, she looks at the rows upon rows of motorcycles parked in a neat and orderly fashion. With every manufacturer having its own lane and each model having its own little spot, starting from the low cheaper end of the spectrum to the expensive high performance motorcycles the deeper she goes. Just seeing this sort of neat arrangements gave her a sense of satisfaction similar to whenever she finishes cleaning. 

While stealing some glances at the beautiful rows of sports bikes, an alert from the Automaton popped up. She slows down her pace and turns on her left eye and almost immediately, she was shown the sight of a large bear entering the dealership through the same hole she used. Clicking her tongue in annoyance, she quickly turns around and made her way back to the first floor while ordering the Automaton to follow it inside. She switches her camera view to the security camera in the showroom to keep tabs on the bear and saw that it was heading into an area outside of its field of view. She hurriedly orders the AI to unlock the front door, giving access for the Automaton to enter the building as climbing a meter tall wall is impossible for the little fellow.

But the moment it opened the opaque glass door, it came face to face with the bear who was sniffing around the floor. The bear who noticed the oddly shaped quadrupedal creature entering the premises, looked at the robot with extreme caution. The fact that it was slowly taking on an aggressive stance while its eyes was trained on the mechanical claw mounted on the robot's back, shows just how intimidating it is for a wild animal who has never encountered anything like it. Even with the size disparity between the two, with one dwarfing the other.

Thankfully, it simply kept observing the Automaton with caution, wary for any attacks that may come upon itself. Seeing the ensuing staring contest between the two, she switches to her rifle and flips the safety off while hoping that this will just end in a brief altercation as she got inside the lift and pressed the button.

The sound of the elevators electric motors echoed throughout the silent parking lot. The noise attracted the animals attention, its head quickly turning towards the direction of the noise. As the lift was slowing down when it closer to the floor, she commands to go around the bear since it was stuck in a corner, giving passage for when the bear exits. However, the moment it turns to walk around it, the bear snapped back towards the robot. It was alerted by the sudden movement from the previously unmoving creature and growled even with the wide berth between the two.

The robot continued walking around unperturbed by the large snarling bear when suddenly, the bear charged and bared its fangs. The Automaton automatically reacted by putting its claw between them in a menacing manner and strobes its light to make it think twice. But it did very little to stop its advance as it swiped the claw aside with a paw, making it tumble a bit, and sunk its powerful jaws into the thin aluminum frame. With its fangs finding purchase into its victim, the bear started shaking its head. 

Upon seeing nothing but blur from the feed, the Doll who was going as fast as her cane could hopefully provide decided to just ditch it and starts prancing her way towards the exit, the speed at she was hopping made the otherwise several second sprint into 2. And just as she turned the corner, the robot was suddenly thrown into the lot and landed several feet in front of her. She took a brief glance at the Automaton and was only able to see its claw was ripped into two pieces before the loud growl brought her attention back to its owner. 

She turns to the bear and saw that its eyes was locked onto something else, looking at it with great hostility. This confused her a bit and following its gaze quickly gave her the answer. Because in her left hand was her rifle. 

The bear, upon recognizing the rifle was enraged at the mere sight of it and charged at its wielder. Its eyes were full of madness that one wouldn't expect to see from a bear just seeing a rifle. Its anger was seething out of its entire body, adding in to it already intimidating form as it charged at her in full sprint. Even then, it didn't stop her from firing her rifle.

THUNG!!

The shot resounded throughout the entire building and out to the streets. The bear who received a .300 Winchester Magnum to its right front leg tumbled and cried out in pain. The bullet easily pierced through the limb and burrowed itself into the  And despite that, it still stood up and continued its charge with the same momentum. The Doll's eye widened a bit in surprise since she was aiming for center mass and the bear dodged the last second. She quickly chambered another round and shot at the bear who was now 15 yards away. 

THUNG!!

Again, the shot rang out along with another pained cry. The bear tried to dodge the bullet and hit it in the left shoulder. Its wound wasn't fatal, but with both front legs injured and unable to fully support the massive weight of its body, made it crash onto the floor. Amazingly, now that it was unable to run on all fours, it shakily stood on its two hind legs and started to make its way towards her as it roared. While meeting its strong determined eyes that promised bloody murder, she aimed at its head and slowly puts some pressure on the trigger.

THUNG!!!

The enraged roar echoed together the crack of its ender for one last time. Its lifeless body collapses onto the tiled floor along with a spray of blood. Blood and brain matter splattering across the showroom like a light rain shower, painting the dusty white floor in crimson. 

While staring at the growing pool of blood, she releases a breath she was unconsciously holding as tension left her body and slowly lowered her rifle. 

"Mother fucker..." 

She muttered to the deceased animal while looking down at the Automaton still lying on it side. The sight of wires hanging out from destroyed mechanical claw made her let out a frustrated sigh, thinking that she now has to find a replacement part for the damn thing as repairing it is impossible for her. While miffed at having her helper being damaged by a chance encounter with a very angry bear, she commands it to get up and follow her. 

The Automaton got up like usual. It's movement were smooth and fluid for a robot, showing no signs of damage to its range of motion. But when it started to walk towards her, she could now perfectly hear the once inaudible sound of its electric motors, whirring in each step. She frowns and sat down to be in the same level and lifts it up to give it a closer inspection. 

She turns it around, staring at each part with scrutiny to find any damages but found nothing of the sort no matter what angle she looks from, excluding the minor scratches on its paint of course. She puts it down and looks at what's still remaining mounted on its back. The mechanical claw has three main joints just like a regular arm. One on the disk mount itself, one in the middle, and one behind the claw. The only part that's currently still intact are the elbow joint down to the disk mount, while everything above is just gone. 

Ignoring the wires hanging out from the missing portion, she stares at the aluminum frame where it broke off and saw how it was twisted in a way similar to how sheet metal is forcefully ripped in half. The sharp jagged edges tells her that it simply couldn't handle the stress from being flailed around like a rag doll. She sighs once again and does one last check around its frame before deciding to put off its thorough inspection for now and continue her investigation on the mystery room.

After getting up and dusting herself, she once again makes her way towards the second level while picking up her discarded cane along the way. And this time, she didn't get distracted by the motorcycles since she had already seen most of them, although a few still manages to steal her gaze when she passed by them. After a minute of walking, she finally got to the corner of the lot where the mystery room is located and upon noticing it, she briefly thought that she was mistaken at first but found that she wasn't. She looks at the unassuming wall in front of her with doubtful eyes.

In front of her is a simple reinforced security door painted in a muddy brown color. A color commonly found on all cheap, off the shelf, and out dated security doors. Its performance is subpar compared to todays standards if looking at it from a major security firm's stand point, and the only ones who are going to buy cheap and readily available doors like these are small stores who aren't expecting for intruders with breaching equipment. 

She stares at it for a few minutes, trying to find the reason as for why they have gone for such a cheap option, but she shook her head and returns her focus to the current task at hand. She walks closer to the door whilst drawing the long bayonet out of its sheath, the metal lightly singing from the action, and twirls the blade around to switch her hold to a reverse grip. Lightly raising her hand, she focuses on her hold of the short sword before swinging it down at the small key panel jutting out from the steel door, the blade accurately striking the seam in between the thin steel plates. With the blade wedged between the two, she produces a flathead screw driver from her waist bag and uses that to pry the panel open instead as she didn't want to risk breaking or bending the blade.

The metal creaks under the forces applied by the Doll, complaining as it slowly gives away and revealing the complicated looking circuitry underneath. She keeps leveraging the tool around until the panel finally gives away. Some parts of the lock that was forcefully ripped apart fell onto the floor and made a tinkling noise that rang throughout the entire floor.

With the internals out in full display for her to access, she stows both her bayonet and the now bent screw driver and grabs a few wires and adaptors from her backpack. One of those is the thick power cable she used earlier. She starts connecting the cables together until it ended with the smallest one and connects it to the correspondingly small port on the security panel. She sat down and leans on the wall before plugging the other end of the cable into her back.

Now that she is connected, she quickly starts working on giving herself free access to essentially bypass the requirements of a security code. With her experience and the opponent that has a quality that reflects its price tag, it didn't take long for the security software to crumble under her assault. The door beeped and the internal mechanism could be heard moving around to unlock itself. 

With the door unlocked, she packs up her stuff and prepares herself to clear the room. She turns on her left eye once again and switches its feed back to the Automaton, the view changing from the showroom to a much lower point, before positioning herself at the same side as the door handle. She lightly pushes the door open and quickly retracts her hand, afraid that there might be an auto turret inside ready to blast her hand off through the small gap. So from there, she uses the robot to take a peek inside as it's a much safer option. 

The Automaton flared its searchlights into the dark room, searching for anything dangerous as it slowly pushes it wide open using what's left of its arm. When the door stopped opening, since this model could only go so far as 90 degrees, she orders it to clear the left side of the room whilst slowly pushing up behind it with her shotgun held at the low ready position.

But just as she leaned out of cover to take a peek inside, through her scout's view, she could see the silhouette of a person laying on the green sofa hidden under a red blanket. She instantly backs up and returns to hugging the wall while also ordering the robot to do a quick sweep of the entire room, incase someone jumps on it while it was distracted. 

The robot hurriedly looks around and found a set of stairs just beside the sofa, hidden behind a gray curtain that matches the color of the unpainted wall. She clicks her tongue at this as she isn't sure where that would lead up to while watching it sweep the room. She thinks about it for a few seconds and quickly came to a decision.

"Damn it! Whatever." 

She curses before storming the room with a torch held in her mouth and closes the door behind her before immediately blasting the silhouette on the head. Whilst pumping the shotgun to chamber the next shell, she orders the robot to rush the stairs and clear the room. 

The robot ran up the stairs and begins to clear the second floor. After passing through another gray curtain, it entered to what seems to be a bedroom and an armory combined as there was a weapons rack beside a large green crate on the far left corner while a small bed and closet occupied the space in the middle, and finally a plastic door. It quickly starts scanning the room for any signs of life.

Going back in time a bit. While hearing the 12 Gauge shell bounce on the floor, she approaches the person on the sofa still pointing her shotgun at them and slowly leaning forward, her left hand reaching out to pinch the edge of the blanket and sharply tugs at it. She lets the red blanket fall to the floor and reveal the figure underneath. What was unveiled was a skeleton dressed in a finely made suit. She took a brief glance at it and saw the face portion of the skull has caved and shattered into pieces after receiving a shotgun blast from 4 meters away.

Now that she has confirmed that the room is clear, she quickly follows after her scout to help open the next door upstairs. While the Automaton was scanning around the room, she was having some trouble with the stairs due to the lack of hand rails that slowed her ascent. By the time she went through the curtain, the robot was just monitoring the plastic door with a fixed stare.

She moves into position and commands the robot to move up before twisting the door knob and swings the door wide open. From the Automaton's point of view, she could see that the walls are tiled and it was reflecting the light from the searchlight. Lowering the brightness of its searchlight by half, she could now see everything without getting blinded so she made it enter and saw nothing but a showerhead, a sink, and a toilet all in the small room. With nothing else to at, she orders it to join her in doing one final sweep in both floors.

After taking her time to look at every nook and cranny, she declares the "Safe House" to be completely safe and secure. She plopped herself down to the bed, a little worn from the tension after not experiencing it for a long time. Despite that, she has a smile on her face. She turns to the left to look at the military crate and the guns mounted on the weapon rack. 

"The Gods must be smiling upon me..."

She mutters while thinking that she is going to be a very busy girl when she gets back to base.