1 hour and 20 minutes remaining.

The more polished and luxurious floors of 507 and 508 were reversed as the grand residential spaces for the wealthy elite of the towering archology. These were the places where the overpaid managers and entitled board members resided and could lord themselves above the rest of humanity.

As such the grand central atrium was just as overpriced and overdone as ZM-11833 had been expecting, the floors, ceilings and walls were all inlaid with white marble. The streaks and cracks in the white polished stone had been ostentatiously filled with gold giving the appearance of golden veins criss-crossing the room.

Hanging crystal chandeliers lit up the room below and revealed a haunting sight.

What had once been a professional collection of well trained men and women who served as the elite bodyguards of the upper society had been corrupted into a force of warped and mutated creatures that only barely resembled the humans they once were.

The alien virus or pathogen had swelled their limbs with cancerous inhuman growths. Eyes bugged out of sockets as they bulged, arms twisted and coiled as tentacles and other grotesque appendices sprouted up like weeds. Some had been forced to limp along on more legs than a human should have.

All of them held expressions of twisted horror and pain but they moved unbidden like puppets under the control of an uncaring master pulling at their strings.

These tormented souls of the hubris of man patrolled the atrium and hallways in an unending shuffle, weaving through clusters of twitching flesh and swaying stalks of tentacles that waved like fields of malformed grain.

A peaceful path forwards had been closed to them before they even had a chance to traverse it, now only violence was the solution to this particular lock.

ZM-11833 wondered whether the exhausted girl laying weakly in their arms could make the perilous journey.

“Can you walk?” ZM-11833 asked cautiously.

Anaya gave an aggrieved look upwards towards the object of her newfound affections before setting her brows in determination. Her steps were like a newborn deer as she descended from the safety of ZM-11833’s embrace but she persevered through the pain and found her footing.

“I can.” Her words held more conviction than reality allowed but they had no other choice as a desperate and bloody fight lay ahead that would be insurmountable if ZM-11833 had to bear the weight of both of their lives on their lonesome.

Taking the brief respite before the ensuing conflict the pair loaded up on the dwindling supplies, fresh magazines and clips were stuffed into whatever space allowed before the now empty duffel-bag was cast aside.

Armed and armored they were now ready to charge into the horrors before them, to fight to the death with hope still blooming rather than sit and wait to die in sullen dejection.

ZM-11833 took a pause before cresting the steps.

Anaya nodded to ZM-11833 after checking her rifle one final time, giving the go to the awaiting machine of breathtaking violence and attraction.

The determined pair thundered up the steps and into the horrific macabre atrium.

The once human but now mutated guards swung towards them, and leveled what weapons they had towards the onrushing pair. Rounds of superheated metal and beams of light splashed through the air, heating it to a boiling rush.

While in life these bodyguards may have been the best with their added appendages and deformed limbs and eyes their marksmanship had suffered greatly.

ZM-11833 ignored the wayward projectiles that bounced and skipped around the space, predicting that they’d never hit their intended targets. The first horror was given a thunderous greeting from the devastating rail-shotgun, carving its deformed face apart and christening the firefight with unholy blood.

Anaya was no less effective than she was before, beams of light burned holes through the foul tarnished enemies that dared to block their path towards freedom and safety.

The impassioned song of discordant violence followed the rapturous pair as they carved a bloody path through the warped and twisted hallways formed of alien bile and putridness.

Eventually the duo reached the end of the befouled floor and stopped for a brief respite in the relative safety of the clear stairwell.

Anaya half collapsed upon the wall of the stairwell and released a groan of pain and exhaustion, her long lashes fluttering as she attempted to stay awake only succeeding thanks to the residual chemicals roaming her veins and arteries.

“Stay awake, we only have a few floors to go then it’ll be all over.” ZM-11833 spoke softly to Anaya in the deafening silence.

It took a moment for the words to register in Anaya's muddled mind, her emerald eyes seeking out ZM-11833’s gray sensors.

“Yeah. Just a few more floors,” Anaya glanced upwards in despair as her legs shook with the thought, “when we get out of here I’m gonna sleep for a week, no make that two weeks.”

Anaya laughed a dry laugh into the echoing stairwell.

“Would it have killed them to have installed a backup generator for the elevators?” Anaya grumbled as she leaned on ZM-11833 as they climbed.

“Spend more money on something that might not be needed?” ZM-11833 mused “It might have actually caused a few strokes.”

Anaya barked a small laugh in response.

ZM-11833 enjoyed the ethereal sound and the comfortable silence that followed. Despite the pressing time and their failing system they found themself at peace in the tranquil moment of quiet contemplation and hopeful vigor.

Their moment of safety and peace only lasted for but a fleeting moment as they once again reached a new floor and new horrors within. Accompanying their arrival was a flash of an alert within ZM-11833’s powerful electric mind.

WARNING! Core integrity at 50%

ZM-11833 stumbled slightly as several non-vital processes halted in response to the diminishing power, they caught themselves on the wall beside them startling Anaya in doing so.

“Zee?” Anaya asked with a voice willed with surprise and an undercurrent of fear.

“It’s nothing, I just tripped on a loose stone.”

Anaya looked at ZM-11833 in disbelief as the fashionable and elegant machine had no issues before on worse footing. In a moment of wavering hope she decided to ignore the burgeoning concern inside, she had enough stress placed upon her.

She’d just have to escape first with the wonderful and amazing fashion-bot then ask again.

The next floor was no less horrible to look at than the last, more mutated humans crawled through the hallways and floors. This time there was a more severe obstacle before them, taking up the entirety of the space was a massive wall of flesh and slime creating an impenetrable barrier between them and the exit.

“No!” Anaya cried out upon seeing the obstruction.

ZM-11833 didn’t panic however as they still had access to the floor plan and the hallway cameras, with a few quick calculations they were able to plot out a suitable path through the various hallways and a few rooms to get to the other side.

The time would be tight however so they couldn’t afford any detours.

“This way, beautiful.”

With a swiftness ZM-11833 guided the dazed and teary Anaya through the chaotic halls, barely stopping to put the former humans out of their misery.

What would have been once a leisurely stroll from the winding hallways had turned into a firefight of devastating effect, explosions and projectiles tore out and through the concrete walls lining the paths.

Due to ZM-11833’s dwindling power they had less processing power to funnel into their predictive algorithms, they were already diverting a large proportion into it already, as such wounds began to accumulate on the pair as lines of agony ripping into them.

Where possible ZM-11833 used their body to shield the more vulnerable human girl from harm.

ZM-11833 crashed through an unlocked door and into an empty apartment. It was vast and filled with expensive furniture and appliances but they ignored that and rushed to the back wall. A series of blasts opened up a hole in the concrete and into the next apartment over.

Outside the apartment they entered a long hallway, to the right was the way forwards and towards the exit but they couldn’t help but stop and stare at the apartment opposite for it belonged to Carlson Deloque the Corpo-Director who had murdered ZM-11833’s former self.

ZM-11833 had promised themselves to return the favor.

Unfortunately the door opposite was much more heavily reinforced; neither was ZM-11833 able to open it electronically or through a liberal use of force by rail-gun or powerful boot.

The booms of an angry machine of death and destruction reverberated in the halls and rooms.

“Zee! What are you doing?! We got to go, we're running out of time.” Anaya pleaded with the irate murder machine.

As if to provoke their ire further a reedy male voice erupted from a speaker beside the door.

“Who is it?! Who’s banging on my door! Don’t you ingrates know who I am!”

Beside the locked door a fogged window began to clear to reveal the owner of the piercing and obnoxious voice. ZM-11833 could just barely recognise him as the man from their memories, the one who had signed that peace treaty and managed the corpo-war.

What had once been a rather lanky but handsome man had been transformed into a stick bug like figure, long limbs of only sickly pallid skin stretched taut over bone, thinning hair curled over bugged out eyes and blackened sockets. A stained suit strained to cover his protruding stomach which bulged out incongruent with the man’s severe emancipation.

ZM-11833 had been expecting fear or anger when he gazed upon them, based upon the violence the war-machine had perpetrated upon him once before but all they received was a blank look of ignorance.

He had no idea who they were and it enraged the machine’s spirit.

A mighty fist of polymer and metal impacted the glass where his face peered out leaving a small crack.

A yelp and a crash emanated from the apartment as the skeletal man scampered away in fright.

Blow after heavy blows of vengeful anger rained down on the glass spreading the corruption of violence skittering across its surface, ZM-11833 was too angry to think of anything besides tearing through with their fists.

With enough time ZM-11833 could carve their way through the thick glass and use the last of their life to strangle the instigator of their newfound rage.

“ZEE!” Anaya cried out as the glass continued to crack, “Please Zee.”

ZM-11833 turned at the heartbreaking noise and saw the sparkling tears rolling down from frightened eyes and onto her pale cheeks as she tugged futility on their worn clothing.

Those few radiant dew drops managed to cool the rage for a moment, enough time for the suddenly lost and emotional machine to make a choice.

With one final glare at the covering excuse for a human they turned away and stomped forwards to the next floor.

A warm hand slipped into theirs as they moved away.